Thomas Gray the poet was born in London in 1716 and died in 1771. He was one of 12 children, and incredibly he was the only one who survived infancy. He was educated at Eton and then at Cambridge where he later became a Professor.

Quite a number of common English phrases have their origin in Gray’s poetry:-
“Ignorance is bliss” comes from his “Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College,” and “kindred spirit,” “celestial fire,” “paths of glory” and “far from the madding crowd” can be found in “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.”

Here are the first three verses of the Elegy -

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd wind slowly o’er the lea,
The ploughman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.

Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight,
And all the air a solemn stillness holds,
Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight,
And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds;

Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tower
The moping owl does to the moon complain
Of such as, wandering near her secret bower,
Molest her ancient solitary reign.

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A few years ago, when visiting Painswick in Gloucestershire, I took this photograph of part of the churchyard.

St. Mary’s church was built during the 15th and 16th centuries, with the spire being added in 1632.

The 99 yew trees in the churchyard are the great attraction for visitors. They were planted in 1792 and it’s said that there can be no more than 99, for if a hundredth tree were to grow the devil would pull it up.

However, I understand that some time ago a count was made and the total came to 103.

If that‘s the case, then that’s not good news for the young men of the district, for an old rhyme says -

“Painswick maidens shall be true
Till there grows the hundredth yew.”

Yew trees were sacred in pre-Christian times. They were associated with the three stages of a woman's life - maiden, mother and crone, and also with death and rebirth. The wood of the yew was used for making all sorts of tools and utensils, and the magical properties of the tree was important in the making of lutes.

So to finish, I’ve found some magical lute music from Venice -



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