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Thomas Gray to Horace Walpole, 12 September 1770

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To The Honble Horace Walpole in Arlington Street London
ROYSTON 13 SE

I am ashamed to excuse myself to you, tho it was not negligence, but forgetfulness. the other day going into the publick Library I first recollected your commission, & consulted the chronicle of Croyland. the only edition I find of it, has certainly these words–sed quo genere violenti interitûs, ignoratur. either you have made use of some edition, where that essential word is omitted, or cited after Buck without suspecting his fidelity.

I am ever
Yours
THO: GRAY.
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Letter ID: letters.0611 (Source: TEI/XML)

Correspondents

Writer: Gray, Thomas, 1716-1771
Writer's age: 53
Addressee: Walpole, Horace, 1717-1797
Addressee's age: 53

Dates

Date of composition: 12 September 1770
Date (on letter): 12 Sept: 1770
Calendar: Gregorian

Places

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

Physical description

Addressed: To The Honble Horace Walpole in Arlington Street London (postmark: ROYSTON 13 SE)

Content

Language: English
Incipit: I am ashamed to excuse myself to you, tho it was not negligence, but...
Mentioned: Croyland Abbey, Chronicle of
Buck, Sir George

Holding Institution

Location:
(confirmed)
GBR/1058/GRA/3/4/103, 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. 246, vol. ii, 293
  • 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, 185-186
  • 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. 532, vol. iii, 1145