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William Cole to Thomas Gray, [22 December 1770]

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Letter ID: letters.0617

Correspondents

Writer: Cole, William, 1714-1782
Writer's age: 56
Addressee: Gray, Thomas, 1716-1771
Addressee's age: 54

Dates

Date of composition: [22 December 1770]
Calendar: Gregorian

Places

Place of composition: [Milton, United Kingdom]

Content

Language: [unknown]
Incipit: [not extant]
Contents: "[It appears from Cole's MS. Athenae Cantabrigienses (Brit. Mus. Add. MSS. 5875) that on 22 Dec. 1770 he wrote a letter to Gray commenting on the funeral of Dr. Roger Long, Master of Pembroke, who died on 16 Dec. 1770, and was buried on 21 Dec. in a vault of the College Chapel. Cole writes: 'That very Day I received a L.r on my getting Home from Mr Horace Walpole, to desire me to call on Mr Gray, Fellow Commoner of Pembroke & who was at the Funeral, but being in the Combination I would not call him from his Company, tho' had been at his Chambers: I wrote the next Day a Note to him, of the unceremonious & indecent Manner of the Funeral, & concluded by saying, that after what passed in the Chapel to compleat all, they had taken the poor M.r from a warm Hall & a noble Fire & flung him into a Well or Ditch half full of Water. Mr Gray's Answer to my Servant was: .. ' (Here Cole quoted Gray's letter.)]"
Correspondence of Thomas Gray, 3 vols. Ed. by the late Paget Toynbee and Leonard Whibley, with corrections and additions by H. W. Starr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [1st ed. 1935], vol. iii, 1154-1155.

Holding Institution

Availability: The original letter is not extant, no copy, transcription, or published version survives

Print Versions

  • Correspondence of Thomas Gray, 3 vols. Ed. by the late Paget Toynbee and Leonard Whibley, with corrections and additions by H. W. Starr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [1st ed. 1935], letter no. 538, vol. iii, 1154-1155