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Julian
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This letter is part of the correspondence calendar of the complete correspondence of Thomas Gray. The calendar contains detailed bibliographic records for all known original, copied, or published letters written by or to the poet as well as the full-text, where available. Each record is accompanied by digitised images of the manuscript, where available, or digitised images of the first printed edition.
I have received your Bill, & am in Confusion to hear, you have got in Debt yourself in Order to bring me out of it: I did not
think to be obliged to you so much, nor on such Terms: but imagined you would be here, & might easily spare it. the Money shall be repaid as soon as ever it is wanted, & sooner if the Stocks rise a little higher. my
Note you will find at the End of my Letter, wch you ought to have, ἐάν
τι
κατὰ
τὸ
ἀνθρώπινον
συμβαίνῃ: the rest of my Acknowledgements are upon Record, where they ought to
be, with the rest of your Kindnesses. the Bill was paid me here; I suppose there is no Likelihood of its being stop'd in Town.
It surprises me to hear you talk of so much Business, & the Uncertainty of your Return; & what not? sure you will find Time
to give me an Account of your Transactions, & your Intentions. for your Ears, don't let 'em think of marrying you! for I know if
you marry at all, you will be married. I mean, passively. & then (besides repenting of what you were not
guilty of) you will never go abroad, never read any thing more, but Farriery-Books, and Justice-Books, & so either die of a
Consumption; or live on, & grow fat, wch is worse. for me & my Retirement (for you are in the Right to despise my Dissipation
de quinze Jours) we are in the midst of Diog: Laertius & his Philosophers, as a Proœmium to the
Series of their Works, & those of all the Poets & Orators, that lived before Philip of Macedon's Death: & we have made a
great Chronological Table with our own Hands, the Wonder & Amazement of Mr Brown; not so much for
Publick Events, tho' these too have a Column assign'd them, but rather in a literary Way, to compare the Times of all great Men, their
Writeings & Transactions. it begins at the 30th Olympiad, & is already brought down to the 113th; that is, 332 Years. our only
Modern Assistants, are Marsham, Dodwell, & Bentley. [Tuthill] continues quiet in his Læta Paupertas, & by this Time (were
not his Friends of it) would have forgot there was any such Place as Pembroke in the World. All Things there are just in Statu quo;
only the Fellows, as I told you, are grown pretty rudish to their Sovereign in general, for Francis
is now departed. poor dear Mr Delaval indeed has had a little Misfortune. Intelligence was brought,
that he had with him a certain Gentlewoman properly call'd Nell Burnet, (but whose Nom de Guerre was Capt:n Hargraves) in an Officer's
Habit, whom he had carried all about to see Chappels & Libraries, & make Visits in the Face of Day. the Master raised his
Posse-Comitatus in Order to search his Chambers, & after long Feeling & Snuffleing about the Bed, he declared they had
certainly been there. wch was very true, & the Captain was then locked up in a Cupboard there, while his Lover stood below in Order
to convey him out at Window, when all was over. however they took Care not to discover her, tho' the Master affirm'd; had he but caught
her, he would soon have known, whether it was a Man, or a Woman. upon this Mr Del: was desired to cut out his Name, & did so: next
Day Dr L: repented, & wrote a Paper to testify he never knew any Hurt of him, wch he brought to Dr Whaley, who would have directly admitted him here, if Stuart had not absolutely
refused. he was offer'd about at several Colleges, but in vain. then Dr L: call[ed] two Meetings to
get him re-admitted there, but every one was inexorable & so he has lost his Pupil, who is gone,
I suppose, to lie with his Aunt Price. Trollope continues in Dev'reux-Court: all our Hopes are now in the Commencement.
Have you seen the Works of two young Authors, a Mr Warton & a Mr Collins, both Writers of Odes? it is odd enough, but each is the half of a considerable Man, & one the Counter-Part of the other. the first has but little Invention, very poetical choice of Expression, & a good Ear. the second, a fine Fancy, model'd upon the Antique, a bad Ear, great Variety of Words, & Images with no Choice at all. they both deserve to last some Years, but will not.