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Thomas Gray to Thomas Wharton, [c. 10 April 1747]

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To
Dr Thomas Wharton of
Durham
By Caxton Bay
CAMBRIDGE

My dear Wharton

I highly approve of your travelling Nuptials, & only wonder you don't set forth on Easter-Day, rather than stay to be dish'd up there, & put to Bed by a whole Heap of prurient Relations. I don't conceive what one can do with such People, but run away from them. my very Letter blushes to think it must speak with you at a Time when there is but one Person you can properly have any Thing to say to.

However, tho' I have not the Pleasure of knowing Mr Wilkinson, my new Relation, much less of knowing how good a Charioteer he is: yet I will readily trust him with my Neck to carry to Stilton, or where he pleases. if I arrive there in a shatter'd Condition, I hope the Lady you belong to will receive me the more graciously, as a Person, that had an Ambition to break a Limb, or two in her Service. but you must desire him (as you say) to invite me.

You shall receive the Money, as soon as you get to Town. my Aunt has it in her Hands: when I see you, I shall learn your Direction, & she shall come & pay it. I won't trouble you with long Letters at present.

Adieu I am sincerely Yours
T G:

P:S: My Compliments!

Letter ID: letters.0155 (Source: TEI/XML)

Correspondents

Writer: Gray, Thomas, 1716-1771
Writer's age: 30
Addressee: Wharton, Thomas, 1717-1794
Addressee's age: 30[?]

Dates

Date of composition: [c. 10 April 1747]
Calendar: Julian

Places

Place of composition: [Cambridge, United Kingdom]
Place of addressee: Durham, United Kingdom

Physical description

Form/Extent: A.L.S.; 1 page, 235 mm x 182 mm
Addressed: To / Dr Thomas Wharton of / Durham / By Caxton Bay (postmark: CAMBRIDGE)

Content

Language: English
Incipit: I highly approve of your travelling Nuptials, & only wonder you...

Holding Institution

Location:
(confirmed)
Egerton MS 2400, ff. 23-24, Manuscripts collection, British Library , London, UK <http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/bldept/manuscr/>
Availability: The original letter is extant and usually available for academic research purposes

Print Versions

  • The Works of Thomas Gray, 5 vols. Ed. by John Mitford. London: W. Pickering, 1835-1843, section IV, letter XXI, vol. iii, 46
  • 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. LXXIX, vol. i, 168-169
  • 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. 137, vol. i, 280-281