This was not so unaccountable a proceeding then as appears to-day, for we know from Gibbon's "Memoirs" that "our most respectable families have not disdained the counting-house, or even the shop;...

and in England, as well as in the Italian commonwealths, heralds have been compelled to declare that gentility is not degraded by the exercise of trade": for example, the historian's great grandfather, son of a country gentleman, became a linen-draper in Leadenhall Street.
Gay had no taste for trade, and did not long remain in this employment.
According to one authority, "he grew so fond of reading and study that he frequently neglected to exert himself in putting oft silks and velvets to the ladies";[8] while his nephew, the Rev.Joseph Bailer, says: "Young Gay, not being able to bear the confinement of a shop, soon felt a remarkable depression of spirits, and consequent decline of health; he was, therefore, obliged to quit that situation, and retire to Barnstaple, in the hope of receiving benefit from his native air."[9] No doubt the mercer was willing enough to cancel the indentures of an apprentice so unsatisfactory as Gay probably was.

Anyhow, Gay returned to Barnstaple, and stayed awhile with his maternal uncle, the Rev.John Hanmer.
It has been said that it was during this visit to Barnstaple that Gay began to write verses; and as most men who take to poetry began to dabble in ink in their youth, this statement may well be accepted.
Only, so far no bibliographer has traced any of these early writings.
Some poems, said to have been written by him in these days have been printed in the volume to which reference has already been made, "Gay's Chair: Poems never before printed, written by John Gay....

With a Sketch of his Life from the MSS.

of the Rev.Joseph Bailer, his nephew.