Note 24 — PARAPHRASE OF GRAY’s ALCAICK ODE, WRITTEN IN THE ALBUM OF THE GRAND CHARTREUSE, ON HIS WAY BACK TO ENGLAND, AFTER HAVING VISITED THE ITALIAN CITIES WITH MR WALPOLE.[23]

l. 6. Endless day—In his edition of his friend’s works Mason observes, that this latin poem is “marked with some of the finest touches of Gray’s melancholy muse. The extreme gloom and disgust to the world, breathed through its stanzas, probably resulted from his disagreement with Mr Walpole, which occasioned his premature return to England.” Gray’s letters thus describe the situation of the grand Chartreuse:—“We proceeded on horses which are used to the way, up the mountain of the Chartreuse. It is six miles to the top; the road winds up it, generally not six feet broad. On one hand, rocks, with woods of pine-trees hanging over their heads; on the other, a monstrous precipice, almost perpendicular, at the bottom of which rolls a torrent, that sometimes tumbling amongst the fragments of stone, which have fallen from above, and sometimes precipitating itself down vast descents, with noise like thunder, which is still increased by the echoes from the mountains on each side, concurs to form one of the most awful, the most romantic, the most astonishing scenes I ever beheld. Add to this, the strange views made by the cliffs and craggs on the other hand, which in many places throw themselves from the summit down to the vale, and the river below, and you will conclude we had no occasion to repent our pains.”