Walpole's friendship with Thomas Gray which had its roots at Eton and Cambridge, was briefly interrupted by a quarrel on the Grand Tour. However, before long they were exchanging visits at Cambridge and Strawberry Hill, where Gray advised Walpole concerning his antiquarian projects. Walpole's admiration for Gray's poetry resulted in Odes by Mr. Gray . . ., the first book printed at Strawberry Hill in 1757. At the painting's lower left is the church at Stoke Poges where Gray composed An Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard and where he is buried