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Thomas Gray to William Mason, [7 September 1770]

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Dear Mason

I am very well at present, the usual effect of my summer-expeditions, & much obliged t'ye Gentlemēn, for your kind enquiry after me. I have seen Worcestershire, Gloucest:re, Monmouthsh:re, Herefordshire, Shropshire, five of the best counties this kingdom has to produce. the chief grace & ornament of my journey was the river Wye, wch I descended in a boat from Ross to Chepstow (near 40 miles) surrounded with ever-new delights, among wch were the New-Weir (see Whateley) Tinterne-Abbey, & Persfield. I say nothing of the vale of Abergavenny, Ragland-Castle, Ludlow, Malvern-hills, the Leasowes, & Hagley, &c: nor how I past two days at Oxford very agreeably. the weather was very hot, & generally serene. I envy not your Greffiers, nor your Wensle-dale & Aisgarth-forces, but did you see Winander-mere, & Grassmere, did you get to Keswick? & what do you think of the matter? I stay'd a fortnight stewing in London, & now am in the midst of this dead quiet with no body but Mr President near me, & he is not dead, but sleepeth.

The politicks of the place are that Bp Warburton will chouse Bp Keene out of Ely by the help of Ld Mansfield, who can be refused nothing at present. every one is frighted, except Tom Neville.

Palgrave, I suppose, is at Mr Weddel's, & has told you the strange casualties of his household.

Adieu! I am ever
Yours
T G:

The letter in question was duely received.

Letter ID: letters.0610 (Source: TEI/XML)

Correspondents

Writer: Gray, Thomas, 1716-1771
Writer's age: 53
Addressee: Mason, William, 1724-1797
Addressee's age: 46

Dates

Date of composition: [7 September 1770]
Calendar: Gregorian

Places

Place of composition: [Cambridge, United Kingdom]

Content

Language: English
Incipit: I am very well at present, the usual effect of my summer-expeditions,...
Mentioned: Abergavenny
Aysgarth
Cambridge
Chepstow
Gloucestershire
Grasmere
Hagley
Herefordshire
Keswick
Leasowes
Ludlow
Malvern Hills
Mansfield
Monmouthshire
New Weir
Oxford
Palgrave, William, 1735-1799
Piercefield
Ragian Castle
Ross-on-Wye
Shropshire
Tintern Abbey
Warburton, William
Wensleydale
Whateley, Thomas
Windermere
Worcestershire
Wye, River

Holding Institution

Location:
(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>
Availability: The original letter is extant and usually available for academic research purposes

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 CXXX, 437-438
  • 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. CCCLXXI, vol. iii, 292-293
  • 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. 531, vol. iii, 1143-1145