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Thomas Gray to Horace Walpole, [17 March 1754]

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To
The Honble Horace Walpole Esq
in Arlington Street London
 SAFFRON WALDEN 18 MR

Dear Sr

I do not at all wonder at you for being more curious about an interesting point of modern history, than a matter that happen'd 300 years ago. but why should you look upon me as so buried in the dust of an old Chronicle, that I do not care what happens in George, 2d's, reign? I am still alive (I'd have you to know) & tho' these events are indeed only subjects of speculation to me, feel some difference still between the present & the past. you are desired therefore to look in the annals of Strawberry, March ... 1754. & when you can find time, please to transcribe me a little paragraph or two; that when I come, like the rest of my brethren here, to ask for some little thing, I may know at least, what door to knock at.

Adieu, I am ever
Yours
T G:
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Letter ID: letters.0217 (Source: TEI/XML)

Correspondents

Writer: Gray, Thomas, 1716-1771
Writer's age: 37
Addressee: Walpole, Horace, 1717-1797
Addressee's age: 36

Dates

Date of composition: [17 March 1754]
Date (on letter): [Mar 18]
Calendar: Gregorian

Places

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

Physical description

Addressed: To / The Honble Horace Walpole Esq / in Arlington Street London (postmark: SAFFRON WALDEN 18 MR)

Content

Language: English
Incipit: I do not at all wonder at you for being more curious about an interesting...
Mentioned: Strawberry-Hill

Holding Institution

Location:
(confirmed)
GBR/1058/GRA/3/4/61, 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. 187, vol. ii, 146-147
  • 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, 80-81
  • 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. 187, vol. i, 400-401