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X PKEFATORT NOTICE.

there may be readers who will be glad to know
how the ' Long Story' was received by those who
were most concerned in it. If either of these
letters from the only lady for whom Gray is
supposed to have entertained any penchant have
ever seen the light until now, the fact has escaped
my notice.

I have never had the time completely to
master the contents of these MS. volumes. I
had to search them rapidly, in order to copy
that which I thought would be most interesting;
and this I hope I have succeeded in achieving.
They contain MS. notes on Sophocles by Gray,
and a sketch in Latin of an Inaugural Lecture
on History, neither of which have been published.
Mitford was working for himself, and therefore
does not always indicate very clearly the sources
or even the authorship of what he has transcribed.
There are for example some slight French songs,
which do not seem to me to be more than jottings
by Gray of what he had read or heard, but which
might, for all I know, be imitations either by
himself or West. Other instances of a like per-
. plexity, will be found in my notes. The ' Mason
Papers' from which Mitford drew most of these
materials are I believe those of which he speaks
in the Preface to the .' Correspondence of Gray



	X PKEFATORT NOTICE. there may be readers who will be glad to know how the ' Long Story' was received by those who were most concerned in it. If either of these letters from the only lady for whom Gray is supposed to have entertained any penchant have ever seen the light until now, the fact has escaped my notice. I have never had the time completely to master the contents of these MS. volumes. I had to search them rapidly, in order to copy that which I thought would be most interesting; and this I hope I have succeeded in achieving. They contain MS. notes on Sophocles by Gray, and a sketch in Latin of an Inaugural Lecture on History, neither of which have been published. Mitford was working for himself, and therefore does not always indicate very clearly the sources or even the authorship of what he has transcribed. There are for example some slight French songs, which do not seem to me to be more than jottings by Gray of what he had read or heard, but which might, for all I know, be imitations either by himself or West. Other instances of a like per- . plexity, will be found in my notes. The ' Mason Papers' from which Mitford drew most of these materials are I believe those of which he speaks in the Preface to the .' Correspondence of Gray