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Thomas Gray to Horace Walpole, 12 September 1763

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Sr

W: Herbert's Book I can learn nothing about.
Milium Solis (with a single l) is the Plant we call Gromwell, or Gray-mill, in Italian Miglio del sole.
Antidotaries usually make a part of the old Dispensatories: for when Poisons were in fashion, Antidotes were equally so.
Joseph: Quercetanus publish'd a Pharmacopœia Dogmaticorum restituta, 1607. 4to. Paris:
Bricius Bauderonus. Pharmacopœia, & Praxis Medica. 1620. Paris.
Joannes Renadæus. Dispensatorium Medicum, & Antidotarium. 1609. 4to. Paris.
Valerius Cordus. Dispensatorium. Antw: 1568.
Joannes Fernelius (Physician to Henry 2d of France, I think) Opera Medicinalia, & Universa Medicina. 1564. 4to, & 1577. Fol:
Ludov: Mercatus (Physician to Philip 2d & 3d of Spain) Opera Medica & Chirurgica. Fol: Francof: 1620.
Daniel Sennertus. Institutiones Medicinæ. 1620.
Joannes Heurnius. (same title) 1597. Lugduni.

The word wanting is Disease (I imagine). least it (the making the body proof to any one distemper) should be thought to have made it (the body) no less than a prison to the soul, wch would thereby have one way the less to escape from its confinement. this, you will say, is nonsense: that is not our fault, but my Ld Herberts, who had learnt from the Platonists.

Galeteus is Il Galateo, a famous little work of Monsignor Giov: della Casa on the rules of Good-manners, that is, Good-breeding & Behaviour.

What St Islée should be, I know not; & you do not tell, in what part of France it seems to lie. Alet belong'd (I believe) to the Montmorencies; but it runs in my head, that they had an estate at St Hilaire: perhaps you may find in Sully's Memoirs. after all I guess, it is Chantilly, wch was theirs.

Rees lies in the Dutchy of Cleve very near Emerick.

Do I know any more Spanish than you? Nó ay is what I doubt about: the rest should be fuerça por las Reynas.

The other bit of Spanish seems right, for cada uno (so written separate) is chacun, haga is fasse, & Amo is Maitre.

I can not find Tieleners or any name like it in the list of Grotius' Friends or Correspondents. if any where, you will find it in Burigny's Life of him not long since publish'd, & wch I conclude, you have.

If you are well & good-humour'd, you will tell me a little news. how comes Ld Sh: to resign? is the tragical speech, that concluded a late conference, any thing like truth? the present times are so little like any thing I remember, that you may excuse my curiosity: besides I really interest myself in these transactions, & can not persuade myself, that Quæ supra nos, nihil ad nos. I shall be in Town the middle of October, I believe.

I am
Yours ever
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Letter ID: letters.0429 (Source: TEI/XML)

Correspondents

Writer: Gray, Thomas, 1716-1771
Writer's age: 46
Addressee: Walpole, Horace, 1717-1797
Addressee's age: 46

Dates

Date of composition: 12 September 1763
Date (on letter): Sept: 12. 1763
Calendar: Gregorian

Places

Place of composition: Cambridge, United Kingdom
Address (on letter): Pemb: Hall

Content

Language: English
Incipit: W: Herbert's Book I can learn nothing about....
Mentioned: Grotius, Hugo
Herbert of Cherbury, 1st Baron
Tilenus, Daniel
Walpole, Horace, 1717-1797

Holding Institution

Location:
(confirmed)
GBR/1058/GRA/3/4/88, 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. 222, vol. ii, 215-219
  • 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, 125-129
  • 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. 376, vol. ii, 815-817