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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.
Tho' I very well know the bland emollient saponaceous qualities both of Sack & Silver, yet if
any great Man would say to me, 'I make you Rat-Catcher to his Majesty with a salary of 300£ a-year & two
Butts of the best Malaga; and tho' it has been usual to catch a mouse or two (for form's sake) in publick once a year, yet to You, Sr,
we shall not stand upon these things'. I can not say, I should jump at it. nay, if they would drop the very name of the Office, &
call me Sinecure to the Kg's majesty I should still feel a little awkward, & think every body, I saw, smelt
a Rat about me: but I do not pretend to blame any one else, that has not the same sensations. for my part I would rather be
Serjeant-Trumpeter, or Pin-Maker to the Palace. nevertheless I interest myself a little in the History of it, & rather wish
somebody may accept it, that will retrieve the credit of the thing, if it be retrievable, or ever had
any credit. Rowe was, I think, the last Man of character that had it. as to Settle, whom you mention, he belong'd to my Ld Mayor, not to the King. Eusden was a
Person of great hopes in his youth, tho' at last he turned out a drunken Parson. Dryden was as
disgraceful to the Office from his character, as the poorest Scribler could have been from his verses.
[In sh]ort the office itself has always humbled the Pos[sess]or
hitherto (even in an age, when Kings were somebody) if he were a poor Writer by making him more conspicuous, and if he were a good one,
by setting him at war with the little fry of his own profession, for there are poets little enough to envy even a Poet-Laureat.
I am obliged to you for your news, pray send me some more, & better of the sort. I can tell you nothing in return, so your
generosity will be the greater. only Dick is going to give up his rooms, & live at Ashwell. Mr Treasurer sets Sr M:w Lambe at naught,
& says, he has sent him reasons half a sheet at a time; & Mr Brown attests his veracity, as an eye-witness. I have had nine
pages of criticism on the Bard sent me in an anonymous letter, directed to the Revd Mr G: at Strawberry-Hill,
& if I have a mind to hear as much more on the other Ode, I am told, where I may direct. he seems
a good sensible Man, & I dare say, a Clergyman. he is very frank, & indeed much ruder, than he means to be.