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Thomas Gray to Augustus Henry Fitzroy Grafton, [27 or 28 July 1768]

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Cambridge, July, 1768.
My Lord,

Your Grace has dealt nobly with me; and the same delicacy of mind that induced you to confer this favour on me, unsolicited and unexpected, may perhaps make you averse to receive my sincerest thanks and grateful acknowledgments. Yet your Grace must excuse me, they will have their way: they are indeed but words; yet I know and feel they come from my heart, and therefore are not wholly unworthy of your Grace's acceptance. I even flatter myself (such is my pride) that you have some little satisfaction in your own work. If I did not deceive myself in this, it would compleat the happiness of,

My Lord,
Your Grace's
Most obliged and devoted servant.
Letter ID: letters.0535 (Source: TEI/XML)

Correspondents

Writer: Gray, Thomas, 1716-1771
Writer's age: 51
Addressee: Grafton, Augustus Henry Fitzroy, Duke of, 1735-1811
Addressee's age: 32

Dates

Date of composition: [27 or 28 July 1768]
Date (on letter): [July, 1768]
Calendar: Gregorian

Places

Place of composition: [London, United Kingdom]
Address (on letter): [Cambridge]

Content

Language: English
Incipit: Your Grace has dealt nobly with me; and the same delicacy of mind...
Mentioned: Cambridge
Stonhewer, Richard, 1728-1809

Holding Institution

Availability: The original letter is unlocated, a copy, transcription, or published version survives

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 lviii, section iv, 331
  • The Works of Thomas Gray, 2 vols. Ed. by Thomas James Mathias. London: William Bulmer, 1814, section IV, letter LVIII, vol. i, 430
  • The Works of Thomas Gray, 2 vols. Ed. by John Mitford. London: J. Mawman, 1816, section IV, letter CXXXVIII, vol. ii, 502
  • The Letters of Thomas Gray, 2 vols. in one. London: J. Sharpe, 1819, letter CXXXVIII, vol. ii, 126
  • The Works of Thomas Gray, 5 vols. Ed. by John Mitford. London: W. Pickering, 1835-1843, section IV, letter CLII, vol. iv, 120
  • 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. CCCXXIX, vol. iii, 198
  • 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. 478, vol. iii, 1034