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10 INTRODUCTOBY ESSAY.

trouble to manifest any strong resentment against
Ashton. But for the evidences of dislike we have
only to take some mentions of Ashton's name which
we find in Gray's letters to Wharton¹. As in the
dream which he communicates to him, from which
w;e gather an exacter notion than adjectives will
supply:

" I thought I was in t'other world and confined in
a little apartment much like a cellar, enlightened by
one rush candle that burned blue. On each side
of me sate (for my sins) M^r Davie and my friend
M^r A(skton); they bowed continually and smiled in
my face and while one filled me out very bitter tea,
the other sweetened it with a vast deal of brown
sugar: altogether it much resembled Syrup of Buck-
thorn. In the corner sat Tuthill very melancholy in
expectation of the tea-leaves/'

If Walpole's offence was as grievous as the tale
above given would imply, we might well believe, with
Mr Isaac Heed, that there was "little cordiality after-
wards between them". But how does this tally with
these words, written by Gray to Walpole (when

¹ See also &upm and Gray's Works (ed. Gosse), ii. 144, iii.
86, 87. In the Index to this edition Thomas Asheton and Dr
Ashton are treated as different persons, and this misconception
may perhaps explain Mr Gosse's statement (Life of Gray,
p. 11) that' Ashton, taking orders very early, dropped out of
the circle of friends/



	10 INTRODUCTOBY ESSAY. trouble to manifest any strong resentment against Ashton. But for the evidences of dislike we have only to take some mentions of Ashton's name which we find in Gray's letters to Wharton¹. As in the dream which he communicates to him, from which w;e gather an exacter notion than adjectives will supply: " I thought I was in t'other world and confined in a little apartment much like a cellar, enlightened by one rush candle that burned blue. On each side of me sate (for my sins) M^r Davie and my friend M^r A(skton); they bowed continually and smiled in my face and while one filled me out very bitter tea, the other sweetened it with a vast deal of brown sugar: altogether it much resembled Syrup of Buck- thorn. In the corner sat Tuthill very melancholy in expectation of the tea-leaves/' If Walpole's offence was as grievous as the tale above given would imply, we might well believe, with Mr Isaac Heed, that there was "little cordiality after- wards between them". But how does this tally with these words, written by Gray to Walpole (when ¹ See also &upm and Gray's Works (ed. Gosse), ii. 144, iii. 86, 87. In the Index to this edition Thomas Asheton and Dr Ashton are treated as different persons, and this misconception may perhaps explain Mr Gosse's statement (Life of Gray, p. 11) that' Ashton, taking orders very early, dropped out of the circle of friends/