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This letter is part of the correspondence calendar of the complete correspondence of Thomas Gray. The calendar contains detailed bibliographic records for all known original, copied, or published letters written by or to the poet as well as the full-text, where available. Each record is accompanied by digitised images of the manuscript, where available, or digitised images of the first printed edition.
I received from Mr Williamson that very obliging mark you were pleased to give me of your
remembrance. had I not entertain'd some slight hopes of revisiting Scotland this summer, & consequently of seeing you at Aberdeen,
I had sooner acknowledged by letter the favor you have done me. those hopes are now at an end: but I do not therefore despair of seeing
again a country, that has given me so much pleasure; nor of telling you in person how much I esteem you, & (as you chuse to call
them) your
amusements. the specimen of them, wch you were so good to send me, I
think excellent. the sentiments are such as a melancholy imagination naturally suggests in solitude & silence, & that (tho'
light & business may suspend or banish them at times) return with but so much the greater force upon a feeling heart. the diction
is elegant & unconstrain'd, not loaded with epithets & figures, nor flagging into prose. the versification is easy &
harmonious. my only objection is to the first part of this line
where the consonants are harsh & frequent, tho' the image is good & the words in all other respects well chosen. a
Friend of mine, to whom I shew'd these verses, rather blames the choice of your measure, as
appropriated to comic, or at most to pastoral subjects: but I do not think his criticism of much weight. you see, Sr, I take the
liberty you indulged me in, when I first saw you, & therefore I make no excuses for it, but desire you would take your revenge on
me in kind. Perfumed with fresh fragrance &c:
I have read over (but too hastily) Mr Ferguson's book. there are uncommon strains of eloquence in it, & I was surprised to find not one single idiom of his country (I think) in the whole work. he has not the fault you mention: his application to the heart is frequent, & often successful. his love of Montesquiou & Tacitus has led him into a manner of writing too short-winded & sententious, wch those great Men had they lived in better times & under a better government would have avoided.
I know no pretence, that I have, to the honor Lord Gray is pleased to do me: but if his Ldp chuses to own me, it certainly is not my business to deny it. I say not this merely on account of his quality: but because he is a very worthy & accomplish'd Person. I am truly sorry for the great loss he has had, since I left Scotland. if you should chance to see him, I will beg you to present my respectful humble service to his Lordship.
I gave Mr Williamson all the information I was able in the short time he stay'd with me. he seem'd to answer well the character you gave me of him: but what I chiefly envied in him was his ability of walking all the way from Aberdeen to Cambridge, & back again, wch if I possess'd, you would soon see