Skip main navigation

Thomas Gray to Horace Walpole, [22 July 1755]

Back to Letters page

To
The Honble Horace Walpole Esq
in Arlington Street London
 BASINGSTOKE

The Vine. Tuesday. July 22.
Dear Sr

I shall be very sorry, if I have been the occasiō of interrupting any party or design of yours. when Mr C: thought to carry me to the Vine, I was hardly recover'd from a fit of the Gout, & was obliged to delay my journey thither till the week afterwards; and the uncertainty of my own motions has made me defer answering your message without reflecting, that it might be troublesome to you. my intention is to wait upon you tomorrow se'nnight at Strawberry: if you go to Col. Conway's, or have any other design, that makes mine inconvenient to you at present, be so good to let me know, at this place, where I shall stay till the end of this week. we return'd yesterday night from Portsmouth, Southampton, & Winchester. I leave to Mr Ch: (who will write next post) to display to you all the beauties of Netley-Abbey. the two Views of this House go on apace, & grow every day under our eyes.

Adieu, I am ever
Yours
T G:
[Use arrow keys to navigate]
Letter ID: letters.0229 (Source: TEI/XML)

Correspondents

Writer: Gray, Thomas, 1716-1771
Writer's age: 38
Addressee: Walpole, Horace, 1717-1797
Addressee's age: 37

Dates

Date of composition: [22 July 1755]
Date (on letter): July 22
Calendar: Gregorian

Places

Place of composition: Vyne, The, United Kingdom
Address (on letter): The Vine
Place of addressee: [London, United Kingdom]

Physical description

Addressed: To / The Honble Horace Walpole Esq / in Arlington Street London (postmark: BASINGSTOKE)

Content

Language: English
Incipit: I shall be very sorry, if I have been the occasio[n] of interrupting any party...
Mentioned: Chute, John, 1701-1776
Conway, Henry Seymour, 1721-1795
Netley Abbey
Portsmouth
Southampton
Strawberry-Hill
Vyne, The
Winchester

Holding Institution

Location:
(confirmed)
GBR/1058/GRA/3/4/64, 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. 190, vol. ii, 149-150
  • 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, 83
  • 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. 198, vol. i, 426