"The Rev. Christopher Alderson [...] became Mason's curate at
Aston in 1763. In
1771 he entered Pembroke College,
Cambridge, and in 1782 graduated B.D. as
a `ten year man' (without examination or regular residence). After holding
other preferment, on the death of Mason in 1797 he succeeded him as
Rector of Aston. He was Mason's sole executor, and many of Gray's and Mason's papers and books
remained in his possession, and in that of his son William Alderson, who
succeeded him in the rectory and whom Mitford visited in 1850." In:[T/W_1971]Correspondence of Thomas Gray. Ed. by the late Paget Toynbee and
Leonard Whibley, in 3 vols., with corrections and additions by H. W.
Starr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [1st ed. 1935], vol. iii, p. 977.
Algarotti, Francesco, Conte, 1712-1764
"Francesco Algarotti, the son of a wealthy merchant, was born at
Venice in Dec. 1712. After studying at
Rome and Bologna in 1732 he went
to
Paris, where he wrote his Newtonianismo per le dame, a work on
optics, which was published in 1737 (see Letter 382 [TGA letter id.
435], n. 9), and translated into English by Elizabeth Carter as `Sir
Isaac Newton's Philosophy Explain'd for the use of the Ladies' (Lond.
1739). He paid three visits to
London, the first in 1736, when he became
intimate with
Lord Hervey and Lord Baltimore. On his way back from a journey to St.
Petersburg with Lord Baltimore he visited Berlin, where he was welcomed
by Frederick the Great (as yet Crown Prince), who on the occasion of his
accession ceremony at Königsberg (July 1740), at which Algarotti was
present, created him a Count of Prussia, and subsequently (1747)
appointed him Court Chamberlain. After visiting England again in 1740
Algarotti returned to Italy. In 1762 he went to reside at
Pisa, where
he died on 3 May 1764. His works, of which an edition in seventeen
volumes was published, under the editorship of Francis Aglietti, in
1791-4, include letters, poetical epistles, and essays on the fine arts
(architecture, painting, music, &c.)." In:[T/W_1971]Correspondence of Thomas Gray. Ed. by the late Paget Toynbee and
Leonard Whibley, in 3 vols., with corrections and additions by H. W.
Starr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [1st ed. 1935], vol. ii, p. 794.
Anstey, Christopher, 1724-1805
"Christopher Anstey (1724-1805), Scholar of Eton and King's, Fellow
of King's, 1746-54. He graduated B.A. in 1746/7, but was refused his M.A.
owing to differences with the College and University authorities. He is
best known as the author of the New Bath Guide (1766) (see Letter
422 [TGA letter id.
477], n. 8). His translation of the Elegy into Latin
hexameters was
made in conjunction with his friend, William Hayward Roberts (1734-91),
Scholar of Eton and King's, Fellow of King's, and of Eton, appointed
Provost of Eton in 1781. The translation Elegia Scripta in Caemeterio
Rustico Latinè Reddita was published anonymously in Feb. 1762
(it was advertised in Lloyd's Evening Post for 19-22 Feb.). John
Anstey described it as the first translation, and its publication was a
few weeks earlier than that made by Robert Lloyd (see Letter 357 [TGA letter id.
410])." In:[T/W_1971]Correspondence of Thomas Gray. Ed. by the late Paget Toynbee and
Leonard Whibley, in 3 vols., with corrections and additions by H. W.
Starr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [1st ed. 1935], vol. ii, pp. 748-49.
Antrobus, Mrs. (Elizabeth), 1709-1773
"William Antrobus (1688-1742), Mary's
father, a Fellow of King's College,
Cambridge (1713-27), was for a time
Assistant at Eton. From 1726 to 22 May 1742 (when he died) he was Rector
of Everdon, Northants (an Eton living), where he was buried. On 5 Feb.
1727 he married at Hildersham, Cambridge, Elizabeth, eldest daughter of
Thomas Nutting, Alderman of Cambridge (see Letter 293 [TGA letter id.
338], n. 8), by whom he had four children, a son Robert (see n. 7)
and the three daughters above
mentioned (see Genealogical Table). He died intestate, and letters of
administration were granted on 19 June 1742, at Northampton Registry, to
his widow, who, at some time after his death, returned to Cambridge,
where in 1755 she became Postmistress on the resignation of her father
(see Letter 293, n. 8). She died in June 1773." In:[T/W_1971]Correspondence of Thomas Gray. Ed. by the late Paget Toynbee and
Leonard Whibley, in 3 vols., with corrections and additions by H. W.
Starr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [1st ed. 1935], vol. ii, pp. 594-595.
Antrobus, Mary, b. 1732
"Mary Antrobus (born 1732) was one of three daughters of William Antrobus,
younger brother of Mrs.
Gray. She was consequently Gray's
first cousin; though, for some unexplained reason, in his will he
describes her and her younger sister Dorothy (see Letter 293 [TGA letter id.
338], n. 3) as `my second cousins by
the mother's side'. Another sister, the only mention of whom occurs in
Mrs. Rogers's will (see letter 281 [TGA letter id.
324], n. 1), Elizabeth, probably died before Gray. It is possible
that she was the `relation of mine, a poor girl, who is exceedingly ill',
to whom Gray refers in his letter of 4 June 1762 (Letter 358 [TGA letter id.
411])." In:[T/W_1971]Correspondence of Thomas Gray. Ed. by the late Paget Toynbee and
Leonard Whibley, in 3 vols., with corrections and additions by H. W.
Starr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [1st ed. 1935], vol. ii, p. 594.
Ashby, George, 1724-1808
"[...] Rev. George Ashby (1724-1808); admitted to St. John's 1740; B.A.
1744; M.A. and Fellow, 1748; President of the College, 1767-75.
Subsequently Rector of Barrow in Suffolk. He was an antiquarian of varied
learning. There is evidence of his interest in natural history and
of his receiving help on the subject from Gray in a note-book now at Harvard
University (bought by Mitford at the sale of Ashby's books in
1808). This contains notes based on the tenth edition of Linnaeus, which
are, at least in great part, in Ashby's hand. There are references to
Gray in some passages. (Mitford was probably mistaken in attributing
entries to Gray; and a confused note in his Works of Gray
(1835-43), vol. i, p. lxxiii, is also open to question.)" In:[T/W_1971]Correspondence of Thomas Gray. Ed. by the late Paget Toynbee and
Leonard Whibley, in 3 vols., with corrections and additions by H. W.
Starr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [1st ed. 1935], vol. iii, p. 1163.
"Thomas Ashton, who is almost certainly to be identified with `Almanzor'
of the `Quadruple Alliance' (see Letter 2 [TGA letter id. 2],
n. 8) - the `long, ungainly mortal of King's' of Gray's letter to
Walpole of 27 Jan. 1735 (Letter
12 [TGA letter id.
13]) - was the son of a school-master at
Lancaster. He was born in
1716, the same year as Gray and West,
and entered Eton about the same
time, but was apparently somewhat their senior. From Eton he was elected
to King's College,
Cambridge, in 1733, and was admitted Scholar in 1734.
In 1737, through the good offices of Walpole, he was appointed tutor to
the youthful Earl of Plymouth. In 1738 he was elected to a Fellowship at
King's, and having been ordained in 1740, he was in 1742, again by
Walpole's influence, nominated to the Crown living of Aldingham, in
Lancashire. In 1745 he was elected Fellow of Eton, which also, according
to Cole, he owed to Walpole. In
1749 he was presented to the rectory of
Sturminster Marshall, in Dorsetshire, which in 1752 he exchanged for that
of St. Botolph, Bishopsgate. In 1759 he took the degree of D.D. at
Cambridge, and in 1760 married a Miss Amyand. In 1761 he was elected to
the preachership at Lincoln's Inn, which he held for two years. He died
at Bath in 1775. His portrait by Eckhardt hung in Walpole's bed-chamber
at
Strawberry Hill, and he was also painted by Reynolds and Gainsborough.
For the part played by Ashton in the quarrel between Gray and Walpole,
see Letter 116 [TGA
letter id. 134], n. 8." In:[T/W_1971]Correspondence of Thomas Gray. Ed. by the late Paget Toynbee and
Leonard Whibley, in 3 vols., with corrections and additions by H. W.
Starr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [1st ed. 1935], vol. i, pp. 25-26.
Beattie, James, 1735-1803
"James Beattie (1735-1803), Professor of Moral Philosophy and Logic,
1760-97, in the Marischal College,
Aberdeen. He had published a volume
of verse in 1761, and in 1771 published his Essay on Truth. The
first book of The Minstrel appeared anonymously in 1771 (for
Gray's criticisms see
Letter 544 [TGA
letter id. 624]). In the same year he visited
London and made the
acquaintance of Dr. Johnson. In 1773 he visited London again: he was
made an honorary D.C.L. of
Oxford, and was granted a pension of £200
a year by the King." In:[T/W_1971]Correspondence of Thomas Gray. Ed. by the late Paget Toynbee and
Leonard Whibley, in 3 vols., with corrections and additions by H. W.
Starr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [1st ed. 1935], vol. ii, p. 885.
Bedingfield, Edward, b. 1730
"Edward Bedingfield (or Bedingfeld, as the name is now spelt) was the
youngest son of Sir Henry Arundell Bedingfield, third Baronet of Oxburgh,
Norfolk, and of Lady Elizabeth Boyle, eldest daughter of Charles Boyle,
second Earl of Burlington; he was born at Oxburgh 2 Feb. 1730, and
married, 21 March 1754, Mary Swinburne (born at Capheaton 13 May 1729),
third daughter of Sir John Swinburne, third Baronet of Capheaton,
Northumberland, and of Mary Bedingfield, only daughter of Edward
Bedingfield, youngest son of the first Baronet (see Letter 183 [TGA letter id.
212], n. 6); he
had ten children, of whom the second son, Thomas (1760-89), a conveyancer,
was the author of poems, which were published after his death. (See
Genealogical Table.) Edward Bedingfield himself had a poetical gift, one
of his poems, written in March 1753, being `On receiving from the
Countess of Burlington Mr Gray's Poems with Designs by
Mr Bentley'. (From
information kindly supplied by Mrs. Paston-Bedingfeld, and from Edward
Bedingfield's Journal, kindly lent by Sir Henry
Paston-Bedingfeld.)
From a series of 18 letters written by Mason to Edward Bedingfield between
29 Sept. 1769 and 19 July 1775, now in the Henry E. Huntington Library,
it appears that Mason was largely indebted to Bedingfield not only for
correcting the proofs of his own poems and of his Memoirs
of the Life and Writings of Mr. Gray, but also for the revision
of the latter, and for not a few of the notes." In:[T/W_1971]Correspondence of Thomas Gray. Ed. by the late Paget Toynbee and
Leonard Whibley, in 3 vols., with corrections and additions by H. W.
Starr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [1st ed. 1935], vol. i, p. 446.
Bentham, James, 1708-1794
"James Bentham (1708-94), of Trinity College,
Cambridge; M.A. 1738;
Minor Canon of Ely, 1737. Bentham began work on his History and
Antiquities of the Conventual and Cathedral Church of Ely in 1756,
began printing in 1764, and eventually delivered the work to the
subscribers in 1771. It was printed at Cambridge in a 4to volume by the
printer to the
University, Joseph Bentham, a brother of the author. Among the
subscribers were `Rev. Mr. Cole of
Milton, near Cambridge; Thomas
Gray, Esq.: Professor of Modern History in the University of
Cambridge; and The Hon. Horace
Walpole, of
Strawberry Hill'. In his preface Bentham says:
`My grateful acknowledgments are due to the Rev. Mr Cole ... and to
Thomas Gray, Esq., of Pembroke Hall, for their kind assistance in several
points of curious Antiquities.'" In:[T/W_1971]Correspondence of Thomas Gray. Ed. by the late Paget Toynbee and
Leonard Whibley, in 3 vols., with corrections and additions by H. W.
Starr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [1st ed. 1935], vol. ii, p. 862.
"Richard Bentley (1708-82), son of the famous scholar [and Master of Trinity]
of the same name, for many years a friend and correspondent of Horace Walpole, to whom his wit and
artistic talents specially recommended him. [...] Walpole had arranged for the
Six
Poems to be printed with illustrations by Richard Bentley." In:[T/W_1971]Correspondence of Thomas Gray. Ed. by the late Paget Toynbee and
Leonard Whibley, in 3 vols., with corrections and additions by H. W.
Starr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [1st ed. 1935], vol. i, p. 350, 83, 348.
Birkett, George, 1690-1745
"George Birkett (1690-1745), of Peterhouse, Scholar, 1711; B.A., 1711;
M.A., 1714; Fellow, 1714-41; Moderator, 1718; Tutor, 1719; Proctor,
1726-7; D.D., 1730; Minister of Little St. Mary's,
Cambridge, 1729-40;
Rector of Stathern, Leicestershire, 1740-5. He was Gray's Tutor in College." In:[T/W_1971]Correspondence of Thomas Gray. Ed. by the late Paget Toynbee and
Leonard Whibley, in 3 vols., with corrections and additions by H. W.
Starr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [1st ed. 1935], vol. i, p. 52.
Bonstetten, Charles Victor de, 1745-1832
| see gallery
"Charles Victor de Bonstetten (1745-1832), whose birth and early history
Nicholls relates, came to
England in Aug. 1767, and after a brief stay in
London went to live in the family of a clergyman, whom he called
`Mr Schmidith', at South Moreton in Berkshire, that he might
learn English. Early in Nov. 1769 he went to
Bath, where he made the
acquaintance of Nicholls (see n. 2), with the result described in this
letter. From Bath, armed with letters of introduction, he went to London,
where he was presented to the King, and lived in the fashionable world.
(For an account of his stay at South Moreton, at Bath, and in London see
de Bonstetten's letter of 30 Dec. 1827 to Heinrich Zchokke in
Prometheus, Zweiter Theil, pp. 173 ff., Aarau, 1832.) Early in
December, soon after he received the letter from Nicholls, Gray went to London, and made
a stay there of two or three weeks, during which he introduced himself to
Bonstetten, whom he took back with him to
Cambridge before the end of the
month. It was probably on this occasion that, as is related by Sir
Egerton Brydges in his Autobiography (vol. ii, p. 111), Gray
pointed out Dr. Johnson to Bonstetten, with the exclamation, `Look! look!
Bonstetten! the great bear - there goes Ursa Major!' (For
Bonstetten's stay at Cambridge see Letter 512 [TGA letter id.
574].)" In:[T/W_1971]Correspondence of Thomas Gray. Ed. by the late Paget Toynbee and
Leonard Whibley, in 3 vols., with corrections and additions by H. W.
Starr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [1st ed. 1935], vol. iii, p. 1085.
Brockett, Lawrence, 1725-1768
"Lawrence Brockett, of Trinity, Scholar, 1744; B.A. 1747; Fellow, 1749;
M.A. 1750; Tutor, 1751-3; B.D. 1761; Professor of Modern History, 1762-8
(see Letter 364 [TGA
letter id. 417] ad fin.), to which chair he was nominated by
Lord Bute, to whose
son-in-law, Sir James Lowther (1736-1806), afterwards (1784) first Earl of
Lonsdale (see Letter 475 [TGA letter id.
531], n. 7), he had been private tutor. He was a candidate for the
Mastership of Trinity in 1768 (see Letter 467 [TGA letter id.
523]). He was killed by a fall from his horse, 24 July 1768 (see
Letters 480 [TGA
letter id. 537], 481 [TGA letter id.
538]). It was in succession to Brockett that Gray was appointed Professor by
the Duke of
Grafton. Gray's anticipation that the Visitor (the Bishop of Ely)
{see Letter 149 (TGA
letter id. 169)} would make Brockett a Fellow of Peterhouse was not
fulfilled." In:[T/W_1971]Correspondence of Thomas Gray. Ed. by the late Paget Toynbee and
Leonard Whibley, in 3 vols., with corrections and additions by H. W.
Starr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [1st ed. 1935], vol. i, pp. 318-319.
Brown, James, 1709-1784
"James Brown (1709-84), son of James Brown, citizen and goldsmith of
London, a Grecian from Christ's Hospital, was admitted as a Sizar at
Pembroke College,
Cambridge, in 1726; B.A., 1730; M.A., 1733; Fellow,
1735; ordained Priest 1735; Vicar of Shepreth, Cambs., 1737; President
(i.e. Vice-Master) of Pembroke, 15 May 1749; Proctor, 1750-1; Master, 21
Dec. 1770-84; D.D., 1771; Vice-Chancellor, 1771-2; Vicar of Stretham in
Isle of Ely, 1771 (see Letter 540 [TGA letter id.
619]). He was a small man, precise in manner, and of a resolute
courage. Gray writes in Letter 120:
He `wants nothing, but a Foot in
height and his own Hair, to make him a little old Roman' [TGA letter id.
138], and there are many other playful allusions to his diminutive
stature. Cole describes him as `a
very worthy man, a good scholar, small and short-sighted'. He probably
made Gray's
acquaintance when an undergraduate (see Appendix B), and he was his
sponsor when Gray was admitted as a Fellow-commoner at Pembroke (see
Appendix E, n. 7). He was a loyal friend and admirer of Gray throughout
his life. He was joint-executor with Mason of Gray's will, and was
present at his burial at
Stoke-Poges. He was with him to the last during
his brief illness (see his letters to Wharton and Nicholls in Appendix
W)." In:[T/W_1971]Correspondence of Thomas Gray. Ed. by the late Paget Toynbee and
Leonard Whibley, in 3 vols., with corrections and additions by H. W.
Starr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [1st ed. 1935], vol. i, pp. 222-223.
Butler, J., Mr
"[...] `Mr Butler', the anonymous correspondent, who addressed
a letter `to the Revd Mr Gray at
Strawberry Hill',
consisting of `above nine pages, all about the Bard', and who intimated
that if Gray wished to hear as much
more about the other ode he was to direct to the Post-house at
Andover (see Gray to Wharton, 8
Dec. 1757 (Letter 257 [TGA letter id.
293]); to Mason, 19 Dec.
1757 (Letter 259 [TGA letter id.
298]); and to Walpole, 17
Jan. 1758 (Letter 264 [TGA letter id.
304])). Gray took him at his word, and in January (see Letter 266* [TGA letter id.
308]) received a second letter from him, containing a lengthy
criticism of the Progress of
Poesy (Letter 265* [TGA letter id.
306]). In this same letter he furnished Gray, who had guessed him
to be `some reading clergyman', with a few personal details about
himself, which Gray retailed to Mason: 'He is, he says, of the number of
those, who live less contented than they ought, in an independent
indolence, can just afford himself a horse for airings about
Harewood-Forest ... half-a-score new books in a season, and good part of
half an acre of garden-ground for honeysuckles and roses.'" In:[T/W_1971]Correspondence of Thomas Gray. Ed. by the late Paget Toynbee and
Leonard Whibley, in 3 vols., with corrections and additions by H. W.
Starr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [1st ed. 1935], vol. ii, p. 540.
"John Chute (1701-76), the last descendant in the male line of Chaloner
Chute, Speaker of the House of Commons (1659), was the tenth and
youngest child of Edward Chute (1658-1722), of
the Vyne, in Hampshire,
his mother being Katherine Keck, widow of Ferdinand Tracy. He was
educated at Eton, and after his father's death lived chiefly abroad until
1746, when he returned to England. On the death of his brother Anthony
in 1754 he succeeded to the family estates, and thenceforth resided at
the Vyne until his death. Walpole
and Gray made his acquaintance at
Florence in 1740, while they were staying with Mann.
After Gray parted from Walpole at Reggio in 1741 he spent two months with
Chute at Venice.
On his return to England Chute became very intimate with Walpole, and
renewed his friendship with Gray, who on more than one occasion was his
guest at the Vyne. It seems probable that there was a breach in their
friendship in 1758 (see Letter 228 [TGA letter id.
259], n. i)." In:[T/W_1971]Correspondence of Thomas Gray. Ed. by the late Paget Toynbee and
Leonard Whibley, in 3 vols., with corrections and additions by H. W.
Starr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [1st ed. 1935], vol. i, p. 184.
Clerke, John, 1717-1790
"[...] John Clerke, son of Thomas Clerke, Rector of Beckenham, Kent (born
in 1717), who was admitted Pensioner of St. Catharine's in April 1734 and
migrated to Peterhouse in Nov. 1735; he was (like Gray) Cosin and Hale
Scholar; B.A., 1738; Fellow, 1740; M.A., 1742; M.D., 1753; d. 1790. He
practised for many years as a physician at
Epsom. A letter to him from
Gray, dated 12 Aug. 1760, was printed by Mason (see Letter 318 [TGA letter id.
366]). On the death of his wife (27 April 1757) Gray wrote the epitaph
beginning, `Lo!
where this silent Marble weeps', which is inscribed on the tablet to
her memory in the Church of Beckenham, Kent (see Letter 266). Gray
visited him at Epsom in 1763 (see Letter 373 [TGA letter id.
426], n. 2)." In:[T/W_1971]Correspondence of Thomas Gray. Ed. by the late Paget Toynbee and
Leonard Whibley, in 3 vols., with corrections and additions by H. W.
Starr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [1st ed. 1935], vol. i, p. 143.
"William Cole (1714-82), the Cambridge antiquary; he was at Eton
(1726-32) with Gray and Walpole, with the latter of whom
he contracted a friendship which lasted till his death. In Jan. 1733 he
was admitted as a Sizar at Clare Hall; Scholar, 1735; migrated to King's,
1735; B.A., 1737; M.A., 1740; ordained Deacon, 1744; Priest, 1745;
Rector of Hornsey, 1749-51; of Bletchley, 1753-67; Vicar (non-resident)
of Burnham, Bucks, 1774-82. After leaving Bletchley he resided
at Waterbeach, near Cambridge, till 1770, when he removed to
Milton.
He was for twenty years (1762-82) a regular correspondent of Walpole's,
nearly 200 of whose letters to him have been preserved. He made
extensive MS. collections amounting to about 100 folio volumes, which he
bequeathed to the British Museum. Included with these were his
Athenae Cantabrigienses, which contain biographical details, not
always to be relied upon, of many of his contemporaries, Gray among them.
Cole may perhaps be identified with the individual who was nicknamed
`Plato' by his Etonian friends (see Letter 6 [TGA letter id. 6],
n. 7)." In:[T/W_1971]Correspondence of Thomas Gray. Ed. by the late Paget Toynbee and
Leonard Whibley, in 3 vols., with corrections and additions by H. W.
Starr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [1st ed. 1935], vol. i, p. 49.
Conway, Henry Seymour, 1721-1795
"Hon. Henry Seymour Conway (1721-95), second son of first Baron Conway by
his third wife, Charlotte Shorter, sister of Lady Walpole, and thus first
cousin of Horace Walpole. He
entered the army in 1741. He and his elder brother, Lord Conway
(afterwards Earl and Marquis of Hertford), were among Walpole's
school-fellows at Eton." In:[T/W_1971]Correspondence of Thomas Gray. Ed. by the late Paget Toynbee and
Leonard Whibley, in 3 vols., with corrections and additions by H. W.
Starr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [1st ed. 1935], vol. i, p. 72.
Dodsley, James, 1724-1797
"James Dodsley (1724-97), younger brother of Robert Dodsley (see Letter
144 [TGA letter id.
163], n. 2), after being employed in his brother's business was, about
1755, taken into partnership, the firm trading as `R. and J. Dodsley'.
In 1759, after Robert Dodsley's retirement, James carried on the business
alone." In:[T/W_1971]Correspondence of Thomas Gray. Ed. by the late Paget Toynbee and
Leonard Whibley, in 3 vols., with corrections and additions by H. W.
Starr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [1st ed. 1935], vol. iii, p. 999.
Dodsley, Robert, 1703-1764
"Robert Dodsley (1703-64), author and bookseller, originally a footman,
started as a bookseller at the Tully's Head in Pall Mall in 1735, when he
published, among others, for Pope, Akenside, Young, Johnson, and
Goldsmith. About 1755 he took his younger brother, James, into
partnership, in whose favour he retired in 1759. He died while on a
visit to Joseph Spence at Durham in 1764." In:[T/W_1971]Correspondence of Thomas Gray. Ed. by the late Paget Toynbee and
Leonard Whibley, in 3 vols., with corrections and additions by H. W.
Starr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [1st ed. 1935], vol. i, p. 294.
Farmer, Richard, 1735-1797
"Richard Farmer (1735-97), B.A. 1757; M.A. 1760; D.D. 1775; Fellow and
Tutor of Emmanuel College, of which he subsequently became Master (1775),
author of an Essay on the Learning of Shakespeare (his only
published work). He was a friend and correspondent of Thomas Percy, who
in the Preface to his Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765)
paid a tribute to Farmer's `extensive knowledge of ancient English
Literature' (see Letter 340 [TGA letter id.
391], n. 3). Cole, in his note of 31 Oct. 1780
mentioned above, adds the following account of the relations between
Gray
and Farmer: `it must have been about the Year 1770; as the first Time they
ever met to be acquainted together, was about that Time, I met them at
Mr
Oldham's Chambers in Peter House to Dinner. Before, they had been shy of
each other: and tho' Mr Farmer was then esteemed one of the
most ingenious men in the University, yet Mr Gray's singular
Niceness in the Choice of his Acquaintance made him appear fastidious to
a great Degree to all who was not acquainted with his Manner. Indeed there
did not seem to be any Probability of any great Intimacy, from the Style
& Manner of each of them: the one a chearful, companionable, hearty,
open, downright Man, of no great Regard to Dress or common Forms of
Behaviour: the other, of a most fastidious & recluse Distance of
Carriage, rather averse to all Sociability, but of the graver Turn: nice
& elegant in his Person, Dress & Behaviour, even to a Degree of
Finicalness & Effeminacy. So that Nothing but their extensive Learning
& Abilities could ever have coalesced two such different Men: &
both of great Value in their own Line & Walk. They were ever after
great Friends, & Dr Farmer & all of his Acquaintance
had soon after too much Reason to lament his Loss, & the Shortness of
their Acquaintance.'
Cole's statement that it must have been about the Year 1770 that
Dr
Farmer and Mr Gray ever met to be acquainted together needs
examination.
It would have been scarcely possible for Gray and Farmer to have lived for
so many years in
Cambridge without being known to one another, and in
Percy's letters to Farmer there are references which can only be
explained on the assumption that Farmer could consult Gray about
questions raised by Percy and ask for his help (see Appendix N). It seems
reasonable to conclude that Cole's meaning is that, while Gray and Farmer
had known each other before, it was not until they dined together at Mr.
Oldham's chambers that they became on friendly terms." In:[T/W_1971]Correspondence of Thomas Gray. Ed. by the late Paget Toynbee and
Leonard Whibley, in 3 vols., with corrections and additions by H. W.
Starr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [1st ed. 1935], vol. iii, pp.
1119-1120.
Grafton, Augustus Henry Fitzroy, Duke of, 1735-1811
"Augustus Henry Fitzroy (1735-1811), third Duke of Grafton (1757), styled
Earl of Euston 1747-57. In 1751 he entered Peterhouse, where
Stonhewer was his private
tutor: he graduated M.A. in 1753. After holding various offices in the
Government, he became Prime Minister in 1768, and in the same year was
elected Chancellor of the University." In:[T/W_1971]Correspondence of Thomas Gray. Ed. by the late Paget Toynbee and
Leonard Whibley, in 3 vols., with corrections and additions by H. W.
Starr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [1st ed. 1935], vol. iii, p. 1034.
"William Taylor How had entered Pembroke under the name of William Taylor
in 1751. In 1752 he assumed the name of How, presumably on succeeding
to an inheritance. In Nov. 1753 he left
Cambridge, and was admitted to
Lincoln's Inn, but in 1758 he was readmitted to his College as a
Fellow-commoner. He graduated B.A. in 1760 and was elected Smart Fellow
(to a bye-fellowship of small emolument). In the autumn of that year he
went abroad for the sake of his health, and after staying in Italy
travelled home in 1763 by Germany to
Spa and
Brussels (see Letter 370 [TGA letter id.
423], and for his correspondence while abroad, see Appendix O). Gray uses `cousin'
jocularly, as elsewhere he uses `uncle', to denote a familiar
acquaintance. How died in 1777." In:[T/W_1971]Correspondence of Thomas Gray. Ed. by the late Paget Toynbee and
Leonard Whibley, in 3 vols., with corrections and additions by H. W.
Starr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [1st ed. 1935], vol. ii, p. 795.
Hurd, Richard, 1720-1808
"Richard Hurd (1720-1808), of Emmanuel College, B.A. 1739; M.A. 1742;
Fellow, 1742; B.D. 1749; D.D. 1768; Preacher at Whitehall, 1750; Rector
of Thurcaston, Leics., 1757; Rector of Folkton, Yorks., 1762; Preacher at
Lincoln's Inn, 1765; Archdeacon of Gloucester, 1767; Bishop of Lichfield
and Coventry, 1774-81; Bishop of Worcester, 1781-1808.
Among other works he published editions of Horace's Ars Poetica
(1749), and Epistola ad Augustum (1751), which were highly
praised by Warburton, to whom he dedicated a second edition of the two
Epistles in 1753; a third edition was issued in 1757, and a
fourth in 1766; in 1759 he published a volume of Moral and Political
Dialogues; and in 1762 Letters on Chivalry and Romance.
His Warburton Lectures appeared in 1772. Hurd was a zealous supporter
of his friend and patron, Warburton, whose collected works he edited in
1788. Warburton's correspondence with him was published in 1808, under
the title of Letters from a late Eminent Prelate to one of his
Friends.
Hurd was a friend both of Gray (who
sent him a presentation copy of his Odes) and of Mason, the latter of whom submitted
his poetical compositions to him for criticism.
Norton Nicholls in his Reminiscences
of Gray records that when he asked Gray `what sort
of a man Dr. Hurd was', Gray answered, `The last person who left off
stiff-topped gloves', meaning presumably that he was an upholder of old
fashions." In:[T/W_1971]Correspondence of Thomas Gray. Ed. by the late Paget Toynbee and
Leonard Whibley, in 3 vols., with corrections and additions by H. W.
Starr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [1st ed. 1935], vol. ii, pp. 492-493.
Jennings, Mrs, 1703-1790
"[Mrs Jennings, a friend of Lady Cobham and Miss Speed, through whom
apparently Gray had become
acquainted with her ...] was the widow of
Henry Jennings (d. 1739), of Shiplake, Oxon., and had at this date two
children living, a daughter, Susannah, and a son, Henry Constantine
(1731-1819), the well-known eccentric virtuoso, known as `Dog Jennings'
(see Boswell's Johnson, under 3 Apr. 1778). Mrs. Jennings in
1753 gave her son possession of the family mansion, Shiplake Court, and
herself removed to Grovelands (subsequently known as Shiplake House),
where Gray and Miss Speed were her guests in July 1760 (see Letter
318 [TGA letter id.
366], n. 2). She died at the age of 87 in 1790 (see E. J.
Climenson's History of Shiplake)." In:[T/W_1971]Correspondence of Thomas Gray. Ed. by the late Paget Toynbee and
Leonard Whibley, in 3 vols., with corrections and additions by H. W.
Starr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [1st ed. 1935], vol. ii, p. 647.
Lort, Michael, 1725-1790
"Michael Lort (1725-90), the antiquary, of Trinity College,
Cambridge;
B.A. 1746; M.A. 1750; Fellow, 1750-81; B.D. 1761; D.D. 1780; Regius
Professor of Greek, 1759-71. He was a correspondent of Horace Walpole, and published a
vindication of Walpole's conduct with regard to Chatterton. See Letter
512* [TGA letter id.
575] for a letter of Gray to
him." In:[T/W_1971]Correspondence of Thomas Gray. Ed. by the late Paget Toynbee and
Leonard Whibley, in 3 vols., with corrections and additions by H. W.
Starr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [1st ed. 1935], vol. iii, p. 1036.
Macpherson, James, 1736-1796
"MACPHERSON, James (1736-96), born near Kingussie, the son of a
farmer, was educated at
Aberdeen
and Edinburgh Universities. In 1758 he
published The Highlander, a heroic poem in 6 cantos. In 1759 he
met John Home, for whom he produced his first `Ossianic' fragment `The
Death of Oscar'; encouraged by Home and Hugh Blair he then produced
Fragments of Ancient Poetry, Collected in the Highlands of Scotland,
and Translated from the Galic or Erse Language (1760).
Interest in Primitivism was at this period considerable, and rumours that
a Gaelic epic existed aroused much curiosity and enthusiasm; pressed on
by his admirers, Macpherson travelled round Scotland collecting the
materials for Fingal, an Ancient Epic Poem, in Six Books, which
appeared in 1762. It purported to be Macpherson's faithful translation of
an epic by Ossian, the son of Finn (or, in this version, Fingal), dating
from some vague but remote period of early Scottish history. [...]
Macpherson's other works include a prose translation of the Iliad
(1773) and a History of Great Britain (1775). He wrote in defence
of Lord North's ministry, was MP for Camelford from 1780, and was buried
in Westminster Abbey at his own expense." In:The Oxford Companion to English Literature. Fifth
edition. Ed. by Margaret Drabble. Oxford: OUP, 1985, repr. 1992 [1st ed.
1932], pp. 604-605.
Mann, Horace, Sir, 1701-1786
"Horace, afterwards Sir Horace, Mann (1701-86), second son of Robert
Mann, a London merchant. He was in 1737 appointed assistant to the
Minister at the Court of Tuscany, and in 1740 became Minister, and held
the post until his death. He was created a Baronet, 1755; died unmarried
at Florence, aged 85, Nov. 1786, having never revisited England since
taking up his appointment. Walpole
and Mann, whose families were connected, became intimate friends, and
when the former returned to England they began a correspondence, which
continued uninterruptedly for forty-five years (during which they never
met), until Mann's death. During their stay in
Florence (at least for
part of the time), Walpole and Gray
resided in Mann's house (see Letter 90 [TGA letter id.
102], n. 7)." In:[T/W_1971]Correspondence of Thomas Gray. Ed. by the late Paget Toynbee and
Leonard Whibley, in 3 vols., with corrections and additions by H. W.
Starr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [1st ed. 1935], vol. i, p. 135.
"William Mason (1724-97) (see Genealogical Table), the friend, literary
executor, and biographer of Gray,
whose acquaintance he had made in the previous year (1747), and by whom he
was familiarly called `Scroddles'. He had been admitted to St. John's
College,
Cambridge, in 1742, and graduated B.A. in 1745-6. In 1747,
largely through the recommendation of Gray, he was nominated to a
Fellowship in Pembroke College, but the Master prevented his election till
March 1749. He was ordained Deacon 17 Nov., and Priest 24 Nov. 1754,
and three days later was instituted Rector of
Aston, Yorkshire, on the
presentation of the Earl of Holdernesse, a distant connexion (see Letter
181 [TGA letter id.
210], n. 3), who appointed him domestic Chaplain, and whose private
secretary he appears to have been for a time at the beginning of that year
(see Letter 184 [TGA
letter id. 213], n. 4). He was subsequently Chaplain to the King,
1757-60, 1761-72; Canon Residentiary and Precentor of
York, 1762. He
became acquainted with Horace
Walpole in 1754 (see Letter 188 [TGA letter id. 218]
ad fin.), or perhaps earlier (see Letter 159 [TGA letter id.
180]), and was on terms of intimacy with him until 1784, when a political
difference put an end to their friendship for some years. Mason was the
author of a number of plays, satires, and poems, many of which underwent
a minute revision at the hands of Gray before publication. His
Musaeus, a monody to the memory of Pope, written in 1744, had
been published in the
previous year (1747). At the beginning of Section
IV of his Memoirs Mason writes: `It was not till about the
year 1747 that I had the happiness of
being introduced to the acquaintance of Mr. Gray. Some very juvenile
imitations of Milton's juvenile poems, which I had written a year or two
before, and of which the Monody on Mr. Pope's death was the principal, he
then, at the request of one of my friends, was so obliging as to revise.
The same year, on account of a dispute which had happened between the
master and fellows of Pembroke Hall, I had the honour of being nominated
by the Fellows to fill one of the vacant Fellowships. I was at this time
scholar of St. John's College, and Batchelor of Arts, personally unknown
to the gentlemen who favoured me so highly; therefore that they gave me
this mark of distinction and preference was greatly owing to Mr. Gray,
who was well acquainted with several of that society, and to Dr. Heberden,
whose known partiality to every, even the smallest degree of merit, led
him warmly to second his recommendation.'" In:[T/W_1971]Correspondence of Thomas Gray. Ed. by the late Paget Toynbee and
Leonard Whibley, in 3 vols., with corrections and additions by H. W.
Starr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [1st ed. 1935], vol. i, pp. 298-299.
Nicholls, Norton, c. 1742-1809
"Norton Nicholls (c. 1742-1809) was the only son of Norton
Nicholls, a London merchant, who married in 1741 Jane, daughter of
Lt.-Col. Charles Floyer, of Richmond, Surrey. There is reason to believe
that the elder Nicholls deserted his wife soon after the marriage (see
Letter 432 [TGA
letter id. 488], n. 9). Nicholls entered Eton in 1756 under Dr.
Barnard; in 1760 he was admitted, as a Pensioner, to Trinity Hall,
graduated LL.B. in 1766, was ordained in 1767, and presented, in October
of that year, to the livings of Lound and Bradwell in Suffolk (see Letter
455 [TGA letter id.
511], n. 1). The beginning of his friendship with Gray, which can be dated on
Friday, 11 June 1762 (see his letter to Temple printed at the end of
Appendix Z), was described by Nicholls in his Reminiscences
of Gray: `My first acquaintance with Mr Gray was one
afternoon drinking tea at the rooms of Mr Lobb a fellow of
Peter-House. The conversation turned on the
use of bold metaphors in poetry; and that of Milton was quoted, ``The sun
was pale, and silent as the moon'' &c. [a misquotation for ``The Sun
to me is dark'', Samson Agonistes, l. 86] when I ventured to ask
if it might not possibly be imitated from Dante, ``mi ripingeva la, dove
il sol tace'' [Inferno, i. 60]. Mr Gray turned quickly
round to me and said, ``Sir, do you read Dante?'' and entered into
conversation with me.'
For the rest of Gray's life Nicholls was one of his closest friends.
`I enjoyed', he wrote in his Reminiscences, `the inestimable
advantage of living more in his society than any other person whom I
recollect, and on a footing of the greatest intimacy.' Mathias (A
Letter occasioned by the Death of the Rev. Norton Nicholls, p. 5)
relates that: `Mr Gray ... gave him instruction for the course
of his studies, which he directed entirely, ... which happily continued
till the time of Mr Gray's death.' After
Nicholls was settled in his vicarage, Gray stayed with him more than
once, and Nicholls paid visits to
Cambridge every year to enjoy Gray's
society. From 1764 at least an active correspondence was maintained
between them. Nicholls, according to Mathias, was passionately addicted to
music; Egerton Brydges (Autobiography, vol. ii, p. 88) describes
him as `a very clever man, with a great deal of erudition: but it must be
confessed a supreme coxcomb'. After Gray's death he was a friend of
Walpole, who mentions him in
many of his letters, often with the nickname of the `Abbé'." In:[T/W_1971]Correspondence of Thomas Gray. Ed. by the late Paget Toynbee and
Leonard Whibley, in 3 vols., with corrections and additions by H. W.
Starr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [1st ed. 1935], vol. ii, pp. 851-852.
Palgrave, William, 1735-1799
"William Palgrave came of a Norfolk family, many of whom had been at
Cambridge. His father, William Palgrave (d. 1742), had been a Fellow of
Caius and practised as a physician at Ipswich. The son, who had been at
Bury School, was admitted to Pembroke (aged 18) in July 1753, and
commenced residence on 2 Nov. in that year. He was elected Scholar, and
continued in partial residence until 1760. In 1757 he became a
Fellow-commoner, he was admitted Bachelor of Laws in 1759, and in Nov.
1764 he was elected Lany Fellow, and held this Bye-Fellowship until his
death in 1799. He was ordained Deacon at Norwich in June 1759 and Priest
soon after, and became Rector of Thrandeston, Suffolk; seven years later
he became Rector also of Palgrave in Suffolk, both of which livings he
held until he died.
As a Fellow-commoner he was brought into companionship with Gray and they became intimate friends.
Gray refers to him familiarly as `Pa' or `old Pa' (Letters 279 [TGA letter id.
322], 345 [TGA
letter id. 396] &c.), a nickname explained (see Tovey, vol. ii, p.
54) by the fact that Gray pronounced his name Pagrave:
another nickname given to him was `Proud Palgrave' (Letters 461 [TGA letter id.
517], 484 [TGA
letter id. 541]), and another, `The Abbé' (Letter 414 [TGA letter id.
468]). He was also a friend of Mason, but seems to have treated
Mason's poetry with flippancy. Gray wrote on the publication of
Caractacus: `Old Pa is outrageous about it' (Letter 294 [TGA letter id.
339]). [MiJ_1855] Mitford,
Gray-Mason Correspondence, p. 158 n., gives
an account derived from the Rev. William Alderson, `the last survivor of
those who personally remembered Mr. Palgrave'. He described him as `a
person of small stature, neat in his appearance, agreeable and clever in
conversation, and a very pleasant companion'.
Gray urged him to write notes on his travels (Letters 278 [TGA letter id.
321], 400 [TGA
letter id. 453]), and he sent Gray his note-books. He was a virtuoso,
and shared the tastes of
his particular friend William Weddell, of Newby Hall, Yorks. (see Letter
400, n. 13), who entered St. John's at the same time that Palgrave began
residence at Pembroke. With Weddell, in 1765, he travelled in France and
Italy (see Letter 400). Lord Sheffield, in a note to Gibbon's
Memoirs (ed. Birkbeck Hill, p. 169, n. 2), records that Palgrave
and Weddell were
members of the Roman Club, which Gibbon describes as `a weekly convivial
meeting established by myself and travellers'." In:[T/W_1971]Correspondence of Thomas Gray. Ed. by the late Paget Toynbee and
Leonard Whibley, in 3 vols., with corrections and additions by H. W.
Starr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [1st ed. 1935], vol. ii, p. 576.
Percy, Thomas, 1729-1811
"Thomas Percy (1729-1811), whose name was originally spelt Piercy, entered
Christ Church,
Oxford as an exhibitioner in 1746; B.A. 1750; M.A. 1753,
in which year he was appointed by the College to the Vicarage of Easton
Mauduit, Northants, which he held till 1782; in 1770 he proceeded D.D.
from Emmanuel College, Cambridge; in 1778 he was made Dean of Carlisle,
and in 1782 Bishop of Dromore. His celebrated Reliques of Ancient
English Poetry was first published in 3 vols. sm. 8vo in 1765." In:[T/W_1971]Correspondence of Thomas Gray. Ed. by the late Paget Toynbee and
Leonard Whibley, in 3 vols., with corrections and additions by H. W.
Starr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [1st ed. 1935], vol. ii, p. 747.
Robinson, William, Rev., c. 1726-1803
"William Robinson (c. 1726-1803) was the son of Matthew Robinson,
of West Leyton, Yorks.; his eldest brother Matthew Robinson-Morris was
the second Lord Rokeby, and Mrs. Elizabeth Montagu, the blue stocking,
was his sister. He graduated from St. John's College,
Cambridge as B.A.
in 1751, M. A. in 1754, and was a Fellow from 1752 to 1760. He was
ordained in 1754. Conyers Middleton was the second husband of Robinson's
grandmother, and Sir Egerton Brydges (who wrote an account of Robinson
(who was his father-in-law) in his Autobiography, vol. ii, pp.
9 ff.) thinks that it was at Middleton's house that he first met
Gray. He became Gray's intimate
friend, and here and elsewhere Gray alludes to him as `Billy Robinson'.
Mitford printed one letter to him from Gray (Letter 380 [TGA letter id.
433]). At the date of this letter he was curate at Kensington (Letter
317 [TGA letter id.
365]). (For his marriage see Letter 316 [TGA letter id.
364], and for Gray's visits to him at Denton, where he was Rector,
see Letters 421 [TGA
letter id. 476], 423 [TGA letter id. 478]
(1766), and 480 [TGA
letter id. 537], n. 1 (1768).)" In:[T/W_1971]Correspondence of Thomas Gray. Ed. by the late Paget Toynbee and
Leonard Whibley, in 3 vols., with corrections and additions by H. W.
Starr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [1st ed. 1935], vol. ii, p. 646.
Schaub, Lady, d. 1793
"Horace Walpole, in a MS. note
in his copy of Maty's Memoirs of the Earl of Chesterfield
(1777), says Lady Schaub `was a French widow of
Nismes, and a Protestant, and remarried to Sir Luke Schaub. She is one of
the heroines in Gray'sLong
Story' (see Letter 155 [TGA letter id.
176], n. 2). Sir Luke Schaub was a Swiss, a native of Basle. He had
been secretary to Lord Cobham (see Letter 155, n. 4) when he was
ambassador at Vienna in 1715, and was afterwards secretary to the first
Earl of Stanhope. He was knighted in 1720, and in the following year was
sent as ambassador to
Paris, in which capacity he remained till 1724. He
died in 1758.
Lady Schaub had the reputation of being `very gallant'. Horace Walpole, in
the account of Sir Thomas Robinson's ball in his letter
to Mann of 2 Nov. 1741,
mentions among the pretty women there `a Lady
Schaub, a foreigner, who, as Sir Luke says, would have him: as
the town says, Lord Chomley will have her'. She had apartments
for many years in Hampton Court Palace, where she died in 1793
(D.N.B.)." In:[T/W_1971]Correspondence of Thomas Gray. Ed. by the late Paget Toynbee and
Leonard Whibley, in 3 vols., with corrections and additions by H. W.
Starr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [1st ed. 1935], vol. i, p. 331.
"The daughter of Samuel Speed (1682-1731), Lieut.-Colonel in Gore's
Regiment of Dragoons, by his wife Cardonnel Jones, daughter of Richard
Jones, of Brentford, Middlesex; she was born and baptized at Holyrood, 8
Jan. 1728. After the death of her only surviving brother, Lieut.-Colonel
Samuel Speed (b. 1716), who was killed in action at Bergen-op-Zoom in
1747, she resided with Lady Cobham [...], whose niece she was,
according to Walpole (see his
notes on the PS. to his letter to Mann
of 18 Sept. 1777). She inherited a large fortune from Lady Cobham (see [...]
Letter 313 [TGA
letter id. 361]), and it was rumoured that she and Gray were going to
make a match (see Letters 313 and 321 [TGA letter id.
370]); but about the end of 1761 (see Letter 353 [TGA letter id.
406], n. 12) she married Joseph Marie de Viry, Baron de la
Perrière, afterwards Comte de Viry, Sardinian Minister at The
Hague, London and Paris (see Letters 353 and 420 [TGA letter id.
475]). She died in Savoy in 1783, as she was about to visit England
(see Walpole to Lady Ossory, 30 Jan. 1783)." In:[T/W_1971]Correspondence of Thomas Gray. Ed. by the late Paget Toynbee and
Leonard Whibley, in 3 vols., with corrections and additions by H. W.
Starr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [1st ed. 1935], vol. i, pp. 331-332.
"Richard Stonhewer (for so, and not Stonehewer, his name is spelt by
Stonhewer himself in letters and in his will, and by Gray) (c. 1728-1809),
son of Rev. Richard Stonehewer (d. 29 Oct. 1769), Rector of
Houghton-le-Spring,
Durham; he was educated at Kepyer in that parish, and
at Trinity College,
Cambridge (his father's College), where he was
admitted Pensioner on 4 Nov. 1745; he matriculated 1745-6, and graduated
B.A. in 1749-50, being eighth in the Tripos list; in Oct. 1751 he was
elected Fellow of Peterhouse, and proceeded M.A. in 1753, in the same year
as his pupil, the Earl of Euston, afterwards (1757) third Duke
of Grafton,
also a member of Peterhouse, whose intimate friend he subsequently became.
In 1755 he was appointed Historiographer to his Majesty (see Letter 196
[TGA letter id.
227], n. 3), and in 1756 Knight Harbinger (he is entered in the
Court and City Register for 1757, as holding this office). He
seems to have received some further preferment in 1759, possibly the post
of interpreter of Oriental Languages, which he is known to have held a
year or two later (see Letter 294 [TGA letter id.
339], n. 19). When Grafton in 1765 became Secretary of State for the
North he appointed Stonhewer under-secretary. On 15 Aug. 1766 he was
appointed private secretary to the Duke of Grafton, then First Lord of
the Treasury, and in January 1767 Commissioner of Excise. It was due to
his influence with Grafton, then Prime Minister, that Gray was appointed
in July 1768 to the Regius Professorship of Modern History at
Cambridge.
Gray must have become acquainted with Stonhewer sometime before this date,
probably soon after he came into residence at Trinity, through the
introduction of Wharton. Their
relations became intimate - in his letter
to Stonhewer on the death of his father (see Letter 507 [TGA letter id.
566]) Gray calls him `my best friend', and by his will he left him
£500 stock and one of his diamond rings, a similar bequest being
made to Wharton.
Stonhewer was also intimate with Mason (see Letter 144 [TGA letter id.
163], n. 33), who left to Stonhewer Gray's manuscripts and books. The
three volumes of Gray's Commonplace-book, as well as portraits of Gray
and Mason, Stonhewer bequeathed to Pembroke College. Cole says of
Stonhewer: `He was one of the prettiest Figures of a Man I ever saw, &
was as pretty a scholar'." In:[T/W_1971]Correspondence of Thomas Gray. Ed. by the late Paget Toynbee and
Leonard Whibley, in 3 vols., with corrections and additions by H. W.
Starr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [1st ed. 1935], vol. i, pp. 237-238.
Talbot, William, d. 1811
"William Talbot, of Clare; B.A. 1743; M.A. 1746; Fellow, 1744-66; Rector
of Elmseth, Suffolk, 1766-1811; Prebendary of Salisbury, 1767-71; d.
1811. He married a Miss Kirke, a relative and coheiress of Dr. Newcome,
Master of St. John's (see Letter 399 [TGA letter id.
451], n. 15). In May 1761 the Duke of Newcastle (a member of Clare) as
Chancellor of the University, appointed William Talbot his `secretary for
the business of the University', in succession to Dr. Samuel Squire (see
Letter 248 [TGA
letter id. 283], n. 2) who had been made Bishop of St. Davids (see
Winstanley's The University of Cambridge in the Eighteenth
Century, pp. 146-7)." In:[T/W_1971]Correspondence of Thomas Gray. Ed. by the late Paget Toynbee and
Leonard Whibley, in 3 vols., with corrections and additions by H. W.
Starr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [1st ed. 1935], vol. ii, pp. 509-510.
"Horace Walpole (1717-97), third surviving son of Sir Robert Walpole,
entered Eton in 1727, where he became an intimate friend of Gray, West,
and Ashton. See Letter 2 [TGA letter id. 2],
n. 8." In:[T/W_1971]Correspondence of Thomas Gray. Ed. by the late Paget Toynbee and
Leonard Whibley, in 3 vols., with corrections and additions by H. W.
Starr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [1st ed. 1935], vol. i, p. 1.
Warton, Thomas, 1728-1790
"Thomas Warton (1728-90), younger son of Thomas Warton, the elder, and
brother of Dr. Joseph Warton, Head Master of
Winchester (see Letter 129
[TGA letter id.
147], n. 18), entered Trinity College,
Oxford, in 1744; B.A. 1747; M.A.
1750; Fellow, 1751; Professor of Poetry at Oxford, 1757-67; Camden
Professor of Ancient History at Oxford, 1785-90; Poet Laureate, 1785-90;
author of the History of English Poetry (1774-81)." In:[T/W_1971]Correspondence of Thomas Gray. Ed. by the late Paget Toynbee and
Leonard Whibley, in 3 vols., with corrections and additions by H. W.
Starr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [1st ed. 1935], vol. iii, p. 1092.
West, Richard, 1716-1742
"Richard West, known from his name as `Favonius' or `Zephyrus' in the
`Quadruple Alliance' (see Letter 2 [TGA letter id. 2],
n. 8), of which he was the only member to go to
Oxford, was the only
son of Richard West, an eminent lawyer, who became Lord Chancellor of
Ireland; on his mother's side he was a grandson of Bishop Burnet. He was
born in 1716, and went to Eton probably in 1726, the year of his father's
death. He was a delicate youth; Cole,
who had been intimate with him at Eton, describes him as `tall and slim,
of a pale and meagre look and
complexion, and promised not half what he performed'. He went from Eton to
Christ Church, Oxford, as a Commoner, in May 1735, and came away, after a
residence of three years, without taking a degree. He had early been
destined for his father's profession of the bar, and to this end had been
admitted at the Inner Temple in 1733. On leaving Oxford in 1738 he
settled in the Temple, where it was intended that Gray should join
him; but this arrangement was upset by Gray's continental tour with
Walpole. West, however, had no
ambition `to sit upon a bench', as he wrote to Gray in June 1740 (see
Letter 89 [TGA
letter id. 101]), and before the return of the
latter he had left the Temple, and turned his thoughts to the army.
Meanwhile the state of his health was becoming rapidly worse. Gray found
him weak and dispirited, and before long, in the spring of 1742, he began
to complain of a racking cough, which sapped his strength and robbed him
of his sleep (see Letter 102 [TGA letter id.
118]). He died shortly after (1 June 1742) in a country house near Hatfield,
so suddenly that both Gray (see Letter no 110* [TGA letter id.
128]) and Ashton (see [TyP_1915]Gray-Walpole Correspondence, no. 152) addressed letters to him
after he had been dead some days. Gray gave
expression to his own grief in the well-known sonnet On the Death of
Richard West, and in some lines in the fragmentary "fourth book" of
his Latin poem De
Principiis Cogitandi, which was dedicated to West (see
Letter 131 [TGA
letter id. 149])." In:[T/W_1971]Correspondence of Thomas Gray. Ed. by the late Paget Toynbee and
Leonard Whibley, in 3 vols., with corrections and additions by H. W.
Starr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [1st ed. 1935], vol. i, pp. 28-29.
Whalley, John, 1698 or 9-1748
"John Whalley, Fellow of Pembroke, 1721; Master of Peterhouse, 1733-48;
D.D., 1737; Regius Professor of Divinity, 1742." In:[T/W_1971]Correspondence of Thomas Gray. Ed. by the late Paget Toynbee and
Leonard Whibley, in 3 vols., with corrections and additions by H. W.
Starr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [1st ed. 1935], vol. i, p. 228.
Wharton, Thomas, 1717-1794
"Thomas Wharton (1717-94), physician, Gray's
most intimate friend, was the eldest of the three sons of Robert
(1690-1752), Mayor of Durham, second son of Thomas (1652-1714), physician,
eldest son of the celebrated physician and anatomist, Dr. Thomas Wharton
(1614-73), Fellow, and for many years Censor, of the Royal College of
Physicians, the friend of Isaac Walton and Elias Ashmole. Thomas, the
friend of Gray (who was his senior by a year or more, but of the same
standing in the University), was admitted as a Pensioner at Pembroke
College,
Cambridge (with which he had an hereditary connexion, his
great-grandfather and uncle having both been members of the College) in
1734; B.A., 1738; elected Fellow, 1739; M.A., 1741; M.D., 1752. He
vacated his Fellowship in 1747, on his marriage to Margaret Wilkinson, of
Cross Gate, Durham, by whom he had three sons and five daughters (see
Genealogical Tables). He succeeded to the estate of Old-Park[,
Durham]
(which had
been acquired by his great-great-grandfather in 1620) on the death of his
father in 1752. Gray, as the address of this letter shows, had become
intimate with him during his first period of residence at Peterhouse;
and the friendship was renewed after Gray's return to College in 1742,
when he found Wharton in residence at Pembroke. Wharton continued to
reside (at irregular intervals) until Oct. 1746, when he left Cambridge,
after which he and Gray were separated for five years (see Letter 166 [TGA letter id.
188], n. 7). They met again in Cambridge in April 1752, and
afterwards were often
together in
London, and at Wharton's home at Old-Park. Wharton, who
became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1754, and was
Censor in 1757, practised as a physician in London between 1754 and 1758,
when he went to reside at Old-Park." In:[T/W_1971]Correspondence of Thomas Gray. Ed. by the late Paget Toynbee and
Leonard Whibley, in 3 vols., with corrections and additions by H. W.
Starr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [1st ed. 1935], vol. i, p. 142.
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