And oh! if ought thy poet can pretend Beyond his favourite wish, to _call thee friend_: Be it that here his tuneful toil has dress'd The muse of _Fresnoy_ in a modern vest; And, with what skill his fancy could bestow, Taught the close folds to take an easier flow; Be it that here, thy partial smile approv'd The pains he lavish'd on the art he lov'd. Mr. Mason's attachment to painting was an early one, is conspicuous in many of his writings, and in his English Garden, is visible throughout: ----feel ye there What _Reynolds_ felt, when first the Vatican Unbarr'd her gates, and to his raptur'd eye Gave all the god-like energy that flow'd From _Michael's_ pencil; feel what _Garrick_ felt, When first he breath'd the soul of _Shakspeare's_ page. Sir Joshua, in his will, bequeaths his then supposed portrait of Milton to Mr. Mason. Mr. Gray thus observes of Mason, when at Cambridge:--"So ignorant of the world and its ways, that this does not hurt him in one's opinion; so sincere and so undisguised, that no mind with a spark of generosity would ever think of hurting him, he lies so open to injury; but so indolent, that if he cannot overcome this habit, all his good qualities will signify nothing at all." Mr. Mason, in 1754, found a patron in the Earl of Holderness, who presented him with the living of _Aston_, in Yorkshire. This sequestred village was favourable to his love of poetry and picturesque scenery; which displayed itself at large in his English Garden, and was the foundation of his lasting friendship with Mr. Gilpin, who to testify his esteem, dedicated to him his _Observations on the Wye_. A biographer of the late Mr. Shore, of Norton Hall, (the friend of Priestley), thus mentions _Aston_:--"That truly conscientious, and truly learned and excellent man, Mr. Lindsey, spent a whole week in this neighbourhood. He was during that time the guest of his friend Mr. Mason, who was residing on his rectory at _Aston_, the biographer of Gray, and one whose taste, gave beauty, and poetry, celebrity, to that cheerful village." His friendship for Mr. Gray, terminated only with the life of the latter. In 1770 Mr. Mason was visited at Aston, for the last time, by him. His last letter to Mr. Mason was from Pembroke-hall, in May, 1771, and on the 31st of the next month, and at that place, this sublime genius paid the debt of nature. The following epitaph was written by Mr. Mason, and inscribed on the monument in Westminster Abbey: No more the Grecian muse unrivall'd reigns; To Britain let the nations homage pay: She felt a Homer's fire in Milton's strains, A Pindar's rapture in the lyre of Gray.