This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
The original letter is extant and usually available for academic research purposes
Gregorian
This letter is part of the Primary Texts section of the Thomas Gray Archive.
XML created for the Thomas Gray Archive.
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.
Stonhewer has this post recd yours but you tifft at him so much in a former Letter that you are not
to wonder he is so backward in answering it. however he means to write to you if he survives the next subscription Masquerade for the
superb Garniture of wch the Adelphi are now exerting all their powers. Lovatini cant sing for them to morrow. & it is thought Mrs Cornelys will be
happy if they allow her a third underground floor in Durham yard to hide her diminishd head in. Well!
& so the great State secret is out, that I and the King knew so well two Months ago. But it may
be well to inform you & such rusticated folks as you, that it is not my friend the Surveyor Jackson of Hornby Castle who is sub
præceptor But a Jackson of Christ Church. My Unkle Powel may bless
his stars that he is removd to Court. For he read such wonderfull Mathematical Lectures there; that
if he had gone on a few years longer it is thought St Johns would have been eclipsd by the glories of Peckwater. that Peckwater wch, in the days of Roger Parne was fain to bow even to
Trinity. Then what say you of Mr. Smelt –is it not a proof that patient
Merit will buoy up at last? In a word did you ever see an arrangement
formd upon a more liberal & unministerial ground. To say nothing of the Governor himself, what think you of
the Præceptor? could any thing be more to yours & Lord Mansfields mind? Pray let me know if the
New married Stephen chuses to be seller of mild & stale to his royal highness because I would put his name on the List of the Expectants I am to apply for, if agreable. I have a Baker a
Locksmith a Drawing Master a Laundress an Archbishops cast-off groom of the Chamber already upon my hands. You must speak in time if
you would have any thing. not that I beleive there will [be] a household these several years, even if
we were rich enough to pay for one. Lord J blabbd to Jack Dixon
that Dr Hurd refusd, & he blabbd it to Gould, who will blab it
to all the University & we shall be quite shent. Tell Gould if he Says a Word That Oddyngton may
again become vacant & I shall certainly serve him as I servd him before. Now I thought that Jack Dixon would have been at
Petersburg before he could tell it to any body & I did not much mind whether the Czarina knew it or no. for I know shell get out
all Jacks secrets in some of their amorous moments. But here am I writing nonsence when I should be thanking you seriously for Your
£100 & sending you your security. Voila Donc! here it is. tear [it off and put it in your] strong
box.
You say nothing of coming up, & Palgrave affects not to come up till the beginning of May I will press neither of you. I know you
both too well. As to myself I mean to fly northward by the way of Northamptonshire & poor Hoyland
cum Zephyris & Hirundine prima
but as it snows at present you will think perhaps to find me here in June. & perhaps you may–well do your pleasure
& beleive me
Congratulate me on the cessation of all my fears about Kitchen garden Walls, &c. tis an ill wind that blows no body profit.