Thomas Gray to Horace Walpole (<hi rend="it">c.</hi> April 1760) Alexander Huber Editor Thomas Gray Archive
info@thomasgray.org https://www.thomasgray.org/
Oxford

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 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. 310, vol. ii, 664-665 http://www.e-enlightenment.com/search/letters/print/?printref_sourceedition=graythOU0084&printref_docnumber=310 The Works of Horatio Walpole, Earl of Orford, 5 vols. London: G. G. and J. Robinson and J. Edwards, 1798, vol. v, 398 Essays and Criticisms by Thomas Gray. Ed. with Introduction and Notes by Clark Sutherland Northup. Boston and London: D. C. Heath & Co., 1911, letter excerpt, 229 https://www.thomasgray.org/texts/diglib/primary/NoC_1911/1/229 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. 212, vol. ii, 182-184 https://www.thomasgray.org/texts/diglib/primary/TyP_1915ii/1/182 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. CXCVIII, vol. ii, 127-128 https://www.thomasgray.org/texts/diglib/primary/ToD_1900ii/1/127 The Works of Thomas Gray, 2 vols. Ed. by John Mitford. London: J. Mawman, 1816, section IV, letter LX, vol. ii, 284-285 https://www.thomasgray.org/texts/diglib/primary/MiJ_1816ii/1/284 The Works of Thomas Gray, 5 vols. Ed. by John Mitford. London: W. Pickering, 1835-1843, section IV, letter LXVIII, vol. iii, 162-163 https://www.thomasgray.org/texts/diglib/primary/MiJ_1843iii/1/162 The Letters of Thomas Gray, 2 vols. in one. London: J. Sharpe, 1819, letter XCV, vol. ii, 16-17 https://www.thomasgray.org/texts/diglib/primary/1819/2/16 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, 105-106 https://libsvcs-1.its.yale.edu/hwcorrespondence/page.asp?vol=14&page=105 The Works of Thomas Gray, 2 vols. Ed. by Thomas James Mathias. London: William Bulmer, 1814, appendix, letter XI, vol. i, 553-554 https://www.thomasgray.org/texts/diglib/primary/MaW_1814i/1/553 Gray, Thomas, 1716-1771 London, United Kingdom Walpole, Horace, 1717-1797 London, United Kingdom

Gregorian

 English Macpherson, James, 1736-1796 Macpherson, James, 1736-1796 Hardicanute

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I am so charmed with the two specimens of Erse poetry, that I cannot help giving you the trouble to enquire a little farther about them, and should wish to see a few lines of the original, that I may form some slight idea of the language, the measures, and the rhythm.

Is there anything known of the author or authors, and of what antiquity are they supposed to be?

Is there any more to be had of equal beauty, or at all approaching to it?

I have been often told that the poem called Hardicanute (which I always admired, and still admire) was the work of somebody that lived a few years ago. This I do not at all believe, though it has evidently been retouched in places by some modern hand: but, however, I am authorised by this report to ask, whether the two poems in question are certainly antique and genuine. I make this enquiry in quality of an antiquary, and am not otherwise concerned about it: for, if I were sure that any one now living in Scotland had written them to divert himself and laugh at the credulity of the world, I would undertake a journey into the Highlands only for the pleasure of seeing him.