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Thomas Gray to Thomas Wharton, [8 October 1746]

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To
Thomas Wharton Esq, Fellow of
Pembroke Hall
Cambridge
8 O[...]

My Dear Wharton,

This is only to entreat you would order mes Gens to clean out the Appartments, spread the Carpets, air the Beds, put up the Tapestry, unpaper the Frames, &c: fit to receive a great Potentate, that comes down in the Flying Coach drawn by Green Dragons on Friday the 10th Instant. as the Ways are bad, & the Dragons a little out of Repair (for they don't actually fly; but only go, like a lame Ostrich, something between a Hop & a Trot) it will probably be late when he lands, so he would not chuse to be known, & desires there may be no Bells, nor Bonfires: but as Persons incog: love to be seen, he will slip into the Coffee House. is Mr Trollope among you? good lack! he will pull off my Head for never writeing to him. oh Conscience! Conscience!

Letter ID: letters.0141 (Source: TEI/XML)

Correspondents

Writer: Gray, Thomas, 1716-1771
Writer's age: 29
Addressee: Wharton, Thomas, 1717-1794
Addressee's age: 29[?]

Dates

Date of composition: [8 October 1746]
Calendar: Julian

Places

Place of composition: [London, United Kingdom]
Place of addressee: Cambridge, United Kingdom

Physical description

Form/Extent: A.L.; 1 page, 228 mm x 184 mm
Addressed: To / Thomas Wharton Esq, Fellow of / Pembroke Hall / Cambridge (postmark: 8 O[...])

Content

Language: English
Incipit: This is only to entreat you would order mes Gens to clean out...

Holding Institution

Location:
(confirmed)
Egerton MS 2400, ff. 5-6, 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 Poems of Mr. Gray. To which are prefixed Memoirs of his Life and Writings by W[illiam]. Mason. York: printed by A. Ward; and sold by J. Dodsley, London; and J. Todd, York, 1775, letter i, section iv, 173-175
  • The Works of Thomas Gray, 2 vols. Ed. by John Mitford. London: J. Mawman, 1816, section IV, letter II, vol. ii, 143-144
  • The Works of Thomas Gray, 5 vols. Ed. by John Mitford. London: W. Pickering, 1835-1843, section IV, letter II, vol. ii, 172-173
  • 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. LXI, vol. i, 121
  • 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. 123, vol. i, 247-248