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Thomas Gray to John Chute, [c. 1748]

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My Dear Sr

I was yesterday told, that Turner (the Professor of Modern History here) was dead in London. if it be true; I conclude, it is now too late to begin asking for it: but we had (if you remember) some Conversation on that Head at Twickenham; & as you have probably found some Opportunity to mention it to Mr W: since, I would gladly know his Thoughts about it. what he can do, he only can tell us: what he will do, if he can, is with me no Question. if he could find a proper Channel; I certainly might ask it with as much, or more Propriety, than any one in this Place. if any thing were done, it should be as private as possible; for if the People, who have any Sway here, could prevent it, I think they would most zealously. I am not sorry for writing you a little interested Letter: perhaps it is a Stratagem: the only one I had left, to provoke an Answer from you, & revive our – Correspondence, shall I call it? there are many particulars relating to you, that have long interested me more than twenty Matters of this Sort, but you have had no Regard for my Curiosity: and yet it is something, that deserves a better Name! I don't so much as know your Direction, or that of Mr Whithed.

Adieu! I am ever
Yours
T GRAY.
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Letter ID: letters.0167 (Source: TEI/XML)

Correspondents

Writer: Gray, Thomas, 1716-1771
Writer's age: 31[?]
Addressee: Chute, John, 1701-1776
Addressee's age: 46[?]

Dates

Date of composition: [c. 1748]
Calendar: Julian

Places

Place of composition: [Cambridge, United Kingdom]
Place of addressee: Vyne, The, United Kingdom

Content

Language: English
Incipit: I was yesterday told, that Turner (the Professor of Modern History there) was dead...

Holding Institution

Location:
(confirmed)
Chute of The Vyne, Sherborne St John, The Vyne , Sherborne St John, UK <http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/vyne/>
[See this record from the Hampshire Record Office]
Availability: The original letter is extant, but there is no further information about its availability

Print Versions

  • A History of the Vyne in Hampshire. By Chaloner William Chute. Winchester: Jacob & Johnson, 1888, 114-115
  • Gray and his Friends: Letters and Relics, in great part hitherto unpublished. Ed. by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1890, section III, letter no. 3, 184-185
  • 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. CCXLIV, vol. ii, 262-263
  • 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. 147*, vol. i, 312-313