Skip main navigation

Thomas Gray to Horace Walpole, [12 November 1749]

Back to Letters page

To
The Honble Horace Walpole Esq
in Arlington Street
London
CAMBRIDGE 13 NO

Dear Sr,

I hope in God it is your Uncle, or his Son (for News-Papers are apt to confound ye) but from the Circumstances I fear it must be you, that have had so very narrow an Escape from Death. excuse me, if I am sollicitous to know how you are after such a Surprise; & whether you have really met with no considerable Hurt from this Accident. or was it an Accident, & did they only mean to rob you?

I sincerely rejoice at your Deliverance, & hope soon to tell you so in Town; but in the mean time should be glad to know from yourself how it happen'd; & how it feels, when one returns back from the very Brink of Destruction. believe me, my dear Sr, ever

Yours,
T GRAY.
[Use arrow keys to navigate]
Letter ID: letters.0172 (Source: TEI/XML)

Correspondents

Writer: Gray, Thomas, 1716-1771
Writer's age: 32
Addressee: Walpole, Horace, 1717-1797
Addressee's age: 32

Dates

Date of composition: [12 November 1749]
Date (on letter): Sunday, Nov: 12
Calendar: Julian

Places

Place of composition: Cambridge, United Kingdom
Address (on letter): Cambridge
Place of addressee: [London, United Kingdom]

Physical description

Addressed: To / The Honble Horace Walpole Esq / in Arlington Street / London (postmark: CAMBRIDGE 13 NO)

Content

Language: English
Incipit: I hope in God it is your Uncle, or his Son (for News-Papers are apt...

Holding Institution

Location:
(confirmed)
GBR/1058/GRA/3/4/48, College Library, Pembroke College, Cambridge , Cambridge, UK <http://www.pem.cam.ac.uk/>
Availability: The original letter is extant and usually available for academic research purposes

Print Versions

  • 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. 169, vol. ii, 100-101
  • The Yale Edition of Horace Walpole's Correspondence. Ed. by W. S. Lewis. New Haven, Conn.: Yale UP; London: Oxford UP, 1937-83, vols. 13/14: Horace Walpole's Correspondence with Thomas Gray, Richard West and Thomas Ashton i, 1734-42, Horace Walpole's Correspondence with Thomas Gray ii, 1745-71, ed. by W. S. Lewis, George L. Lam and Charles H. Bennett, 1948, vol. ii, 42
  • 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. 152, vol. i, 325-326