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Thomas Gray to Richard West, [15 January 1740]

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I think I have not yet told you how we left that charming place Genoa: How we crossed a mountain, all of green marble, called Buchetto: How we came to Tortona, and waded through the mud to come to Castel St. Giovanni, and there eat mustard and sugar with a dish of crows' gizzards: Secondly, how we passed the famous plains

Quà Trebie glaucas salices intersecat undâ,
Arvaque Romanis nobilitata malis.
Visus adhuc amnis veteri de clade rubere
Et suspirantes ducere mæstus aquas;
Maurorumque ala, & nigræ increbrescere turmæ,
Et pulsa Ausonidum ripa sonare fugâ.

Nor, thirdly, how we passed through Piacenza, Parma, Modena, entered the territories of the Pope; stayed twelve days at Bologna; crossed the Apennines, and afterwards arrived at Florence. None of these things have I told you, nor do I intend to tell you, till you ask me some questions concerning them. No not even of Florence itself, except that it is as fine as possible, and has every thing in it that can bless the eyes. But, before I enter into particulars, you must make your peace both with me and the Venus de Medicis, who, let me tell you, is highly and justly offended at you for not inquiring, long before this, concerning her symmetry and proportions. [...]

Letter ID: letters.0088 (Source: TEI/XML)

Correspondents

Writer: Gray, Thomas, 1716-1771
Writer's age: 23
Addressee: West, Richard, 1716-1742
Addressee's age: 24[?]

Dates

Date of composition: [15 January 1740]
Date (on letter): [Jan. 15, 1740]
Calendar: Gregorian

Places

Place of composition: [Florence, Italy]
Address (on letter): [Florence]

Content

Languages: English, Latin
Incipit: I think I have not yet told you how we left that charming place Genoa:...
Mentioned: Walpole, Horace, 1717-1797
[Elegiac Verses]

Holding Institution

Availability: The original letter is unlocated, a copy, transcription, or published version survives

Print Versions

  • The Poems of Mr. Gray. To which are prefixed Memoirs of his Life and Writings by W[illiam]. Mason. York: printed by A. Ward; and sold by J. Dodsley, London; and J. Todd, York, 1775, letter xv, section ii, 75
  • The Works of Thomas Gray, 2 vols. Ed. by Thomas James Mathias. London: William Bulmer, 1814, section II, letter XV, vol. i, 200
  • The Works of Thomas Gray, 2 vols. Ed. by John Mitford. London: J. Mawman, 1816, section II, letter XV, vol. ii, 68-69
  • The Letters of Thomas Gray, 2 vols. in one. London: J. Sharpe, 1819, letter XXXIII, vol. i, 70
  • The Works of Thomas Gray, 5 vols. Ed. by John Mitford. London: W. Pickering, 1835-1843, section II, letter XV, vol. ii, 81
  • Gray and his Friends: Letters and Relics, in great part hitherto unpublished. Ed. by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1890, section II, letter fragment, 140
  • The Letters of Thomas Gray, including the correspondence of Gray and Mason, 3 vols. Ed. by Duncan C. Tovey. London: George Bell and Sons, 1900-12, letter no. XXXI, vol. i, 51-52
  • The Correspondence of Gray, Walpole, West and Ashton (1734-1771), 2 vols. Chronologically arranged and edited with introduction, notes, and index by Paget Toynbee. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1915, letter no. 109, vol. i, 270-271
  • 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. 78, vol. i, 136-137