GRAY, David (1838-1861), Scottish poet, was the son of a hand-loom weaver, and was born at Merkland, a small village on the banks of the Luggie, about 8 miles from Glasgow, January 29, 1838. His parents, observing his fondness for study and his exceptional cleverness, resolved to educate him for the church, and through their self-denial and his own exertions as a pupil teacher and private tutor, he was able, after receiving the rudiments of education at the parish school of Kirkintilloch, to complete a course of four sessions at the university of Glasgow. It soon, however, became evident that the vision of poetry and world fame had begun to lure him away from the path which his parents’ desires had marked out for him. His most intimate companion at this time was Robert Buchanan, the now well-known poet; and in May 1860 the two agreed to proceed to London, with the indefinite purpose of finding some kind of employment in connexion with literature. Shortly after his arrival in London Gray introduced himself to Mr Monckton Milnes, now Lord Houghton, with whom he had previously corresponded, who, though unsuccessful in his application for a place for Gray’s poem, “The Luggie,” in the Cornhill Magazine, gave him some light literary work. He also showed him great attention when a cold which had seized him assumed the serious form of consumption, and procured him the means of staying for a time in the south of England; but as the disease made rapid progress, an irresistible longing seized Gray to return to Merkland, where he arrived in January 1861, and died on the 3d December following, having the day before had the gratification of seeing a printed specimen copy of his poem The Luggie. He was buried in the Auld Aisle Churchyard, Kirkintilloch, where in 1865 a monument was erected by “friends far and near” to his memory.

The Luggie, the principal poem of Gray, is a kind of reverie in which the scenes and events of his childhood and his early aspirations are mingled with the music of the stream which he celebrates. The series of sonnets In the Shadows, composed during the latter part of his illnese, possess, without the smallest taint of morbidness, a touching and solemn beauty in keeping with the circumstances in which they were written. Most of his poems necessarily bear traces of immaturity, and lines' may frequently be found in them which are mere echoes from Thomson, Wordsworth, or Tennyson, but they possess, nevertheless, the distinct individuality of true genius. They nearly all have a direet or indirect reference to phases of outward nature, and they give evidence of an underlying wealth of imagination and sentiment, of a true and vigorous power of conception, and of a gift of clear and strong, yet subtle and tender, musical utterance, which apparently only required to have been mellowed by time and experience in order to have fashioned a poetry which would have given him an enduring name in English literature.

The Luggie and other Poems, with an introduction by R. Monckton Milnes, and a brief memoir by James Hedderwick, was published in 1862, and a new and enlarged edition of Gray’s Poetical Works, edited by the late Sheriff Glassford Bell, appeared in 1874. See also the “Essay on David Gray,” published originally in Cornhill Magazine, and reprinted in David Gray and other Essays, by Robert Buchanan, 1868, and the poem on David Gray, reprinted therefrom Idyls and Legends of Inverburn.

GRAY, John Edward (1800-1875), a distinguished English naturalist, born at Walsall, Staffordshire, in 1800, was the eldest of the three sons of Mr S. F. Gray, of that town, druggist and writer on botany, author of the Supplement to the Pharmacopoeia, <fcc., and grandson of Mr S. Gray, who translated for Lee the Philosophia Botanica of Linnaeus, and assisted in the composition of the Introduction to Botany. Gray studied at St Bartholomew’s and other hospitals for the medical profession, but was attracted to the more enlivening pursuit of botany, on which he wrote and lectured. At an early age he assisted his father by collecting notes on botany and comparative anatomy and zoology in Sir Joseph Banks’s library at the British Museum, aided by Dr W. E. Leach, assistant-keeper. The systematic synopsis of the Natural Arrangement of British Plants, 2 vols., 1821, was prepared by him, his father writing the preface and introduction only. This work, which introduced the natural system of plants on Jussieu’s plan to the student of English botany, gave offence to the Linnean Society, who rejected Gray’s application for a fellowship in 1822. Chafed at this unmerited rebuff, he turned to the study of zoology, writing on zoophytes, shells, Mollusca, and Papilionidoe, still aided by Dr Leach at the British Museum. In December 1824 Gray obtained the post of assistant in that institution; and from that date to December 1839, when Mr J. G. Children retired from the keepership, he had so zealously applied himself to the study, classification, and improvement of the national collection of zoology that he was selected as the fittest person to be entrusted with its charge. Immediately on his appointment as keeper, Gray took in hand the revision of the systematic arrangement of the collections; scientific catalogues followed in rapid succession; the department was raised in importance; its poverty as well as its wealth became known, and whilst increased grants, donations, and exchanges made good many deficiencies, great numbers of students, foreign as well as English, availed themselves of its resources to enlarge the knowledge of zoology in all its branches. Gray found the representatives of the animal kingdom confusedly huddled together in old Montagu House; and the science of zoology was just then emerging from infancy, with little public support to foster it. But, in spite of numerous obstacles, he worked up the department, within a few years of his appointment as keeper, to such a state of excellence as to make it the rival of the cabinets of Leyden, Paris, and Berlin; and later on it was raised under his management to the dignity of the largest and most complete zoological collection in the world. The extensive acquaintance which he had obtained with practical zoology, his love of the subject, close application, and original views, his skill and accuracy of observation, his readiness to impart the information he had acquired to any one who sought it, and above all his marvellous industry, place Gray in the foremost rank of naturalists. It has been said that he tried to accomplish too much, that he wrote hurriedly and paid little attention to anatomy; but it must be remembered that he laboured for the past generation, not among the one-subject men of the present age. He did his work nobly, though somewhat roughly; and it will ever be appreciated by generous men of science. His eagerness for controversy, and the outspoken plainness with which he asserted his views, sometimes brought him into unpleasant relations with those he had to do with. Of this the catalogue dispute with Panizzi, and the gorilla dispute with Du Chaillu, Owen, and others, are well-known instances. Although seized with paralysis in 1870, Gray continued to discharge the functions of keeper of zoology, and to contribute papers to the Annals of Natural History, his favourite journal, and to the transactions of a few of the learned societies. At Christmas 1874, having completed half a century of official work, he resigned office; and on the 7th of March 1875 this indefatigable naturalist expired.

Gray was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1832; in 1852 the honorary degree of doctor of philosophy of the university of Munich was conferred upon him, in recognition of his formation of the largest zoological collection in Europe; and in 1860 the king of Wiirtemberg, desiring to mark the estimation in which he held Gray, who had declined an offer of knighthood, bestowed upon him the gold medal of merit. He was a president of the Entomological Society, vice-president of the Zoological and Microscopical Societies, fellow of the Geographical and Palaeontological Society, in the formation of which he took part; he was president of the Botanical Society, and also a fellow of the Linnean and Geological Societies; he founded the Greenwich Society of Useful Knowledge; and he was an honorary or corresponding member of numerous foreign societies and academies. He was deputy-chairman of the section of the animal and vegetable substances of the Exhibition of 1851, and a juror of the educational section of the Exhibition of 1862. He took an active part in questions of public importance of his day, sueh as slave emancipation, prison discipline, abolition of imprisonment for debt, sanitary and municipal organizations, the decimal system, public education, extension of the opening of public institutions, &c.

Works.—ι)τ Gray commenced to publish in 1820, and continued till the year of his death. He began with an Historical Sketch of thi Improvements in Comparative Anatomy and Zoology in 1819, and ended with a paper “On the Madagascar River-Hog {Ρotamochoerus ∖ and on the skulls of the three species of the genus,” Ann. N. H., xv., 1875. The titles of the books, memoirs, and miscellaneous papers written by him, accompanied by a few notes, fill a privately printed list of 56 octavo pages. The more important of the books, besides those already mentioned, are :— Synopsis of the species of the class Mammalia, 1827 (Griffith’s Cuvier, vol. v.); Illustrations of Indian Zoology, 2 vols., 1830-35; A Synopsis of the species of the class Reptilia, 1830 (Cuvier, ix.); Zoological Miscellany, 1831-45; Synopsis Reptilium, 1831; A Descriptive Catalogue of Recent and Fossil Shells, 1832; Turton’s Manual of the Land and Freshwater Shells of the British Islands (new ed.), 1840; List of the Specimens of Mammalia in the British Museum, 1843; Catalogue of Tortoises, &c., 1844; Systematic Catalogue of British Land and Freshwater Shells, 1844; Catalogue of Specimens of Lizards, 1845; Gleanings from the Menagerie and Aviary at Knowsley Hall (superintended at the request of the late earl of Derby), 1846-50; Zis·i of the genera of recent Mollusca, 1847; List of Csteological Specimens, 1847, of British Sponges, Radiated An imals (Centronics), of British Radiata, separate, 1848; Catalogue of Mollusca, 1849-50; Catalogue of Reptiles (Snakes), 1849; Catalogue of Fish (Chondropterygia), 1850; Catalogue of Mammalia (Cetacea, Seals, Hoofed Quadrupeds), 1850- 1852; Catalogue of Amphibia, 1850; Catalogue of Bivalve Mollusca, 1850-53; List of Fish (Cartilaginous), of British Fish, separate, 1851; List of British Mollusca and Shells, 1851; Catalogue of Echi-nidce or Sea-Eggs, 1851; Catalogue of Phaueropneumona (with L. Pfeiffer), 1852; Catalogue of Fish collected and described by L. T. Gronov, 1854; Catalogue of Shield Rep>tiles, 1855-72; Catalogue of the recent Echinida, 1855; Catalogue of Pulmonata (with L. Pfeiffer), 1855; Guide to the collection of Mollusca, 1856; Catalogue of Apodal Fish, by Dr J. J. Kaup, translated and edited by Gray, 1856; Catalogue of Auriculidce, 1857; Systematic arrangement of figures of Conchifera and Brachiopoda, 1857; List of Mollusca, 1858; Handbook of British Waterweeds, or Algae (with W. Carruthers), 1864; Salisbury’s Genera of Plants, edited by Gray, 1866; Catalogue of Seals and Whales, 1866-71; Synopsis of Species of Starfish, 1866; Synopsis of species of Whales ancl Dolphins, 1868; Catalogue of Carnivorous, Pachydermatous, and Edentate Mammalia, 1869; Catalogue of Monkeys, Lemurs, and Fruit-eating Bats, 1870; Tortoises, Terrapins, and Turtles, 1872 (re-edited); Handlist of Seals, Morses, Sea-Lions, and Sea-Bears, 1874.

The literary habits and personal peculiarities of Gray are familiar to us from the numerous representations and allusions of his friends. It is easy to fancy the recluse poet sitting in his college-chambers in the old quadrangle of Pembroke Hall. His windows are ornamented with mignonette and choice flowers in China vases, but outside may be discerned some iron-work intended to be serviceable as a fire-escape, for he has a horror of fire. His furniture is neat and select; his books, rather for use than show, are disposed around him. He has a harpsichord in the room. Ina corner of one of the apartments is a trunk containing his deceased mother’s dresses, carefully folded up and preserved. His fastidiousness, bordering upon effeminacy, is visible in his gait and manner,—in his handsome features and small well-dressed person, especially when he walks abroad and sinks the author and hard student in

“the gentleman who sometimes writes for his amusement.” He writes always with a crow quill, speaks slowly and sententiously, and shuns the crew of dissonant college revellers who call him “a prig,” and seek to annoy him. Long mornings of study, and nights feverish from ill-health, are spent in those chambers; he is often listless and in low spirits; yet his natural temper is not desponding, and he delights in employment. He has always something to learn or to communicate, some sally of humour or quiet stroke of satire for his friends and correspondents, some note on natural history to enter in his journal, some passage of Plato to unfold and illustrate, some golden thought of classic inspiration to inlay on his page, some bold image to tone down, some verse to retouch and harmonize. His life is on the whole innocent and happy, and a feeling of thankfulness to the Great Giver is breathed over alL

Various editions of the collected works of Gray have been published. The first, including memoirs of his life and his correspondence, edited by his friend, the Rev. W. Mason, appeared in 1775. It has been often reprinted, ana forms the groundwork of the editions by Mathias (1814) and Mitford (1816). Mr Mitford, in 1843, published Gray’s correspondence with the Rev. Norton Nicholls, and in 1854 his correspondence with Mason, from which Mason had made only a partial selection in bis memoirs of Gray. A second edition of the correspondence with additional notes was published in 1855.