Thomas Gray to Horace Walpole, [19 September 1763]
To the Honble Horace Walpole in Arlington Street London
ROYSTON 20 SE
Positively I can make nothing of St Islee, & thought myself sure, it was Chantilly; & even believe so still, not having the book before me.
To be sure I look'd in Grotius' Epistles the first thing I did: he writes to no body with a name at all similar. but in the little book of this Ld Herberts Verses, publish'd by the Divine Herbert after his death, is a thing addressed, to Tilenus after the fatal defluxion upon my arm. Now Daniel Tilenus was a great theological Writer of that time: he wrote about Antichrist, & Animadversions on the Synod of Dort, &c: & some of his works were publish'd (I see) at Paris. he was however a Silesian, & his true name might well be Tieleners; & as Grotius was also a deep Divine, he might well be acquainted with him, as well as Ld Herbert.
Do not lay your learning upon me, for I no more desire the title of Clarissimus & Celeberrimus, than you do. a Collecter of Antiquities, whose work (yet unpublish'd) I have before me, cites you under the name of the lively Editor of the Cat: of Noble Authors. will that satisfy you better?
I give you many thanks for your political riddles: before I print them, I shall send you a List of my doubts & difficulties, for I don't understand a word of the matter. I wonder, you should think folly less entertaining than wisdom. you, who live next door to the Theatre, may be as fastidious as you please, & disdain to cast an eye on Garrick above once in a year. I, who live in the country, am excusable, if I go every night to see a troop of Strollers in a barn, as long as they stay.
Yours.
Correspondents
Dates
Places
Physical description
Content
Herbert of Cherbury, 1st Baron
Herbert, George
Tilenus, Daniel
Walpole, Horace
Holding Institution
(confirmed)
Class No. LC II, 90, College Library, Pembroke College, Cambridge , Cambridge, UK <http://www.pem.cam.ac.uk/>
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. 223, vol. ii, 219-221
- 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, 129-130
- 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. 377, vol. ii, 818-819