Thomas Gray to Thomas Wharton, 12 November 1756
To
Dr Thomas Wharton M:D: in
King's Arms Yard Coleman-Street
London
13 NO
I grow impatient to be in Town, & hope for the pleasure of seeing you on Tuesday next. I must confess, the present revolution of affairs, wch are settling so slowly, is some spur to my curiosity, tho' my own interests have no more concern in it, than those of any Cottager in the nation. I flatter myself, that necessity will at last throw the management of affairs into more capable, if not more honest hands, than usual. my Gazette says, that Mr. P: will be Sec: of State, & has accepted it (tho' ill of the Gout in the Country) that the D: of Devonshire has consented (wch was one of the conditions of acceptance) to be at the head of the Treasury. Ld Temple of the Admiralty. G: Grenville, Paymaster. Mr Legge Chanc:r of the Exchequer. Sr G: Lee Sec: at War. Mr. F: nothing. how far all this is fact, you know by this time. I do not forget your letter, when I say this, & to whom it was wrote; but I much doubt, whether you would have received more benefit from his good-offices, while he continued in, than now he is in effect out. I am concerned too for another person, who surely can never continue, where he is (if he should, it is a wonderful proof of the force of insignificancy) & if he does not, a good Friend of ours must feel it a little in a part very tender to most people, his hopes; but he very wisely has been arming it for some time, I believe, with a reasonable insensibility, & taking, by way of precaution a dose of my sovereign anodyne Fastidium.
Don't fancy to yourself, that I have been doing any thing here. I am as stupid as a Post, & have not added a syllable, but in plain prose am still
Correspondents
Dates
Places
Physical description
Content
Holding Institution
(confirmed)
Egerton MS 2400, ff. 86-87, Manuscripts collection, British Library , London, UK <http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/bldept/manuscr/>
Print Versions
- The Works of Thomas Gray, 2 vols. Ed. by John Mitford. London: J. Mawman, 1816, section IV, letter LV, vol. ii, 278-279
- The Works of Thomas Gray, 5 vols. Ed. by John Mitford. London: W. Pickering, 1835-1843, section IV, letter LXIII, vol. iii, 156-157
- 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. CXXXV, vol. i, 310-311
- 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. 229, vol. ii, 485-486