Skip main navigation

Thomas Gray to Horace Walpole, [12 September 1756]

Back to Letters page

To The Honble Horace Walpole at Strawberry-Hill near Twickenham Middlesex
BASINGSTOKE 13 SE

I have the pleasure to tell you that after repeating once again his infusion of Poppies, wch caused each time an entire cessation from pain, & an easy perspiration for near 24 hours, Mr Chute has had no return of his tortures, but for these four days has continued in a very tolerable state, chearful enough & in good spirits in the day-time, his appetite beginning to return, & all last night pass'd in quiet & natural sleep. but he is (as you may imagine) still nail'd to his bed, & much weaken'd. God knows, when he will be able to get up, or bear any motion, & the least cold, as Autumn is coming on, will certainly bring it all back again. I am quite of your opinion about going to Town, as soon as it is possible; & had of my own accord talk'd about it, but he seems rather set against it: however I hope to prevail. as to the Tracies, I think he told me just before this illness, that they were all coming, & he had wrote to hinder it on some pretence or other. what you say about Mrs P: is very true. I only mention'd her, because she was more within reach than any body else: but I have now no farther thought of danger.

We are much obliged to you for your News, & hope, when you have leisure, again to hear from you.

I am
Yours ever
TG:
[Use arrow keys to navigate]
Letter ID: letters.0256 (Source: TEI/XML)

Correspondents

Writer: Gray, Thomas, 1716-1771
Writer's age: 39
Addressee: Walpole, Horace, 1717-1797
Addressee's age: 39

Dates

Date of composition: [12 September 1756]
Date (on letter): Sept: 11. Sunday
Calendar: Gregorian

Places

Place of composition: Vyne, The, United Kingdom
Address (on letter): The Vine
Place of addressee: [Strawberry Hill, United Kingdom]

Physical description

Addressed: To The Honble Horace Walpole at Strawberry-Hill near Twickenham Middlesex (postmark: BASINGSTOKE 13 SE)

Content

Language: English
Incipit: I have the pleasure to tell you that after repeating once again his infusion...
Mentioned: Chute, John, 1701-1776
Stoke Poges

Holding Institution

Location:
(confirmed)
GBR/1058/GRA/3/4/73, 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. 200, vol. ii, 165-166
  • 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, 94-95
  • 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. 225, vol. ii, 480