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Thomas Gray to Thomas Wharton, [9 April 1752]

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10 AP

My dear Wharton

I should not have made this little Journey to Town, if I had not imagined the Situation of your Affairs (after the Loss you have lately had) would have prevented your Design of coming to Cambridge. the Pleasure I have here, is not sufficient, I am sure, to ballance a much slighter, than I shall have in seeing you again: my Stay therefore, will at farthest not be longer than Wednesday next, when [your] Business will be over, & we shall have time, I hope, to ma[ke up] in some Degree for so many Year's Separation.

My Thanks to Mr Brown for his Letter, and I wi[ll trou]ble you to tell him, I see no Reason why the Person he mentions should refuse the Proposal made him. he must necessarily & I think, in Prudence sooner or later enter into the Profession, that qualifies him for it. & this is perhaps as creditable a Way of doing it, as ever will offer, besides that it need not oblige him to any thing he dislikes, & may perhaps lead to great Advantages ... if he be return'd. I need not tell you that [I am]

Ever Yours,
T GRAY.
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Letter ID: letters.0188 (Source: TEI/XML)

Correspondents

Writer: Gray, Thomas, 1716-1771
Writer's age: 35
Addressee: Wharton, Thomas, 1717-1794
Addressee's age: 35[?]

Dates

Date of composition: [9 April 1752]
Date (on letter): [Apr 10]
Calendar: Julian

Places

Place of composition: [London, United Kingdom]

Physical description

Form/Extent: A.L.S.; 1 page, 173 mm x 153 mm
Addressed: (postmark: 10 AP)

Content

Language: English
Incipit: I should not have made this little Journey to Town, if I had not...
Mentioned: Mason, William, 1724-1797
Ode to Adversity

Holding Institution

Location:
(confirmed)
Egerton MS 2400, ff. 47-48, 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 XXXIV, vol. ii, 230
  • The Works of Thomas Gray, 5 vols. Ed. by John Mitford. London: W. Pickering, 1835-1843, section IV, letter XLI, vol. iii, 101-102
  • 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. XCIX, vol. i, 223
  • 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. 166, vol. i, 360-361