The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21). Volume X. The Age of Johnson. VI. Gray. § 4. Their quarrel. On 24 April, 1741, the pair set out from Florence, intending to go together to Venice, there to see the doge wed the Adriatic on ascension day. At Reggio, they quarrelled. It would seem that the discrepancy in their tastes became more and more a trial to both; and they were alike open in their comments on one another to their common friend Ashton, who disclosed Gray’s to Walpole. Ashton did not display any particular displeasure with Gray at the time, but was put up by Walpole, in the interview at which a reconciliation was at last brought about, to affect that Gray’s letter had roused his anger. Walpole was left at Reggio, and would have died there of quinsy but for the kind aid of Spence, the friend of Pope. Gray went with two new friends, made at Florence, to Venice, and thence took his homeward way. He paid a second visit to the Grande Chartreuse, and it was probably on this occasion that he left in the album of the fathers the beautiful alcaic ode O tu severi Religio loci, of which a fine English version has been composed by R. E. E. Warburton. 5    9 Note 5. The later story of Gray’s alcaics is curious. Mitford sought the original in vain at the monastery. He says that collectors who followed in the wake of the French revolutionary armies made away with it. But we find that a certain Mrs. Bigg, when resident in France, was arrested in the reign of terror, and a copy of Gray was found in her possession. The opening line, O tu severi Religio loci, suggested to the Jacobin investigators the comment: Apparemment ce livre est quelque chose de fanatique. [ back ]