The poet Thomas Gray toured the Lake District in 1769 and subsequently sent transcriptions
of his journal to his friend Thomas Wharton. Though not intended for publication,
this journal was printed posthumously in William Mason’s edition of The Poems of Mr. Gray (1775). Five years later the text was incorporated in the second edition of Thomas
West’s Guide, thus becoming a permanent part of the tourist literature. Wordsworth owned Mason’s
1776 edition of Gray as well as West’s guidebook.