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Thomas Gray to Thomas Wharton, 16 September 1758

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To
Dr Thomas Wharton M:D: in
Southampton-Row, Bloomsbury
London
18 SE

Dear Doctor

Having been for a considerable time without any news of you, I have taken it into my head, that you are ill, or that Mrs Wharton is so. you will not wonder, if I grow a little superstitious, when you know, that I have not been a step out of the house for this fortnight or more past, for Mrs Rogers has been at the point of death with a disorder in her stomach accompanied with continual & laborious reachings, & a total loss of appetite, that has reduced her to the weakness of an infant, I mean, her body, tho' her senses are still perfect, & (what I think remarkable) she has recover'd the use of her speech (wch for several years had been hardly intelligible) & pronounces almost as plain, as ever she did. she is now for three days past, such is the strength of her constitution, in a way of recovery: medecine has had nothing to do in it, for she will take nothing prescribed her. when I say recovery, I do not mean, that she will ever recover her strength again, but, I think, she may live a good while in this helpless state; however it is very precarious, & Dr Hayes believes her quite worn out. I certainly do not put on (to you) more tenderness, than I really feel on this occasion, but the approaches of death are always a melancholy object, & common humanity must suffer something from such a spectacle

It is an age, since I heard any thing from Mason. if I do not mistake, this should be his month of waiting, unless he has exchanged his turn with some body: if he be in Town, you must probably have heard of him, & can give me some intelligence. my old new acquaintance Lady Denbigh is here at Stokehouse; but I do not believe, I shall be able to get out, or have any opportunity of seeing her, while she stays.

If my fancies (wch I hope in God are mere fancies) should prove true, I hope you will let somebody tell me, how you do. if not, I shall beg you to tell me yourself, as soon as possible, & set my understanding to rights.

Adieu, Dear Sr, I am ever
Most sincerely Yours
TG:
Letter ID: letters.0323 (Source: TEI/XML)

Correspondents

Writer: Gray, Thomas, 1716-1771
Writer's age: 41
Addressee: Wharton, Thomas, 1717-1794
Addressee's age: 41[?]

Dates

Date of composition: 16 September 1758
Date (on letter): Sept: 16. 1758
Calendar: Gregorian

Places

Place of composition: [Stoke Poges, United Kingdom]
Place of addressee: [London, United Kingdom]

Physical description

Form/Extent: A.L.S.; 1 page, 205 mm x 161 mm
Addressed: To / Dr Thomas Wharton M:D: in / Southampton-Row, Bloomsbury / London (postmark: 18 SE)

Content

Language: English
Incipit: Having been for a considerable time without any news of you, I have taken...
Mentioned: Stoke Manor House

Holding Institution

Location:
(confirmed)
Egerton MS 2400, ff. 116-117, 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, 2 vols. Ed. by John Mitford. London: J. Mawman, 1816, section IV, letter LXXVIII, vol. ii, 322-323
  • The Works of Thomas Gray, 5 vols. Ed. by John Mitford. London: W. Pickering, 1835-1843, section IV, letter LXXXVI, vol. iii, 206-208
  • 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. CLXXV, vol. ii, 55-56
  • 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. 280, vol. ii, 589-590