Thomas Gray to William Mason, 11 January 1762
It is a mercy, that Old Men are mortal, & that dignified Clergymen know how to keep their word. I heartily rejoice with you in your establishment, & with myself that I have lived to see it, to see your insatiable mouth stopt, & your anxious perriwig at rest & slumbering in a stall. the Bp of London (you see) is dead: there is a fine opening. is there nothing farther to tempt you? feel your own pulse & answer me seriously: it rains Precentorships, you have only to hold up your skirt, & catch them.
I long to embrace you in your way to Court: I am still here: so are the Glasses & their Master. the first still delight me; I wish I could say as much for the second. come however & see us, such as we are. Mr Brown is overjoy'd at the news, yet he is not at all well.
Correspondents
Dates
Places
Content
Holding Institution
(confirmed)
Henry W. And Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, Humanities and Social Sciences Library, New York Public Library , New York, NY, USA <https://www.nypl.org/about/divisions/berg-collection-english-and-american-literature>
Print Versions
- The Correspondence of Thomas Gray and William Mason, with Letters to the Rev. James Brown, D.D. Ed. by the Rev. John Mitford. London: Richard Bentley, 1853, letter LXXIV, 284-285
- 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. CCXXXVI, vol. ii, 247
- 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. 352, vol. ii, 768-769