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Thomas Gray to Horace Walpole, [c. 18 March 1764]

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March . . Sunday

You had received an answer to your last letter sooner, had I been able to write: but I have been very ill for near a month, & this is the first day, that I have breath'd the open air. I do not believe, I can give you any satisfaction as to the Provençal poetry. Italy & France abound in such Manuscripts, but we (I believe) have little of the kind among us left: at least I remember no such article in our Libraries. as to Eglisham's Pamphlet I have formerly read it here, & think, I know, where it is: Baker's Extract is only a part of it relating to K: James's death, but there is more of it (as I remember) about the Marq:ss Hamilton worth transcribing. if the facts are true, it is curious; & you shall have it soon.

I received your books & former letter unrifled, & thank you much for them. the Anti-Twitcherites are numerous & sanguine, & make themselves sure of throwing him out, whatever becomes of their own Candidate: but as they are nearly equal, I doubt his Lp has some trick left to turn the scale.

You are very perverse & mysterious about your discoveries: but I hope to be satisfied next month. you never said a word about Mr B:y's Patriotism: I hope no body found out, how good some of it is. has he made his market by it?

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Letter ID: letters.0439 (Source: TEI/XML)

Correspondents

Writer: Gray, Thomas, 1716-1771
Writer's age: 47
Addressee: Walpole, Horace, 1717-1797
Addressee's age: 46

Dates

Date of composition: [c. 18 March 1764]
Date (on letter): March .. Sunday
Calendar: Gregorian

Places

Place of composition: [Cambridge, United Kingdom]

Content

Language: English
Incipit: You had received an answer to your last letter sooner, had I been able to...
Mentioned: Bentley, Richard
Eglisham, George
The Candidate

Holding Institution

Location:
(confirmed)
GBR/1058/GRA/3/4/92, 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. 226, vol. ii, 225-228
  • 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, 132-134
  • 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. 386, vol. ii, 834-835