Thomas Gray to Norton Nicholls, 4 April 1770
To The Revd Mr Nicholls at Blundeston near Leostoff Suffolk By Yarmouth
CAMBRIDGE
At length, my dear Sr, we have lost our poor de B:n I pack'd him up with my own hands in the Dover-machine at 4 o'clock in the morning on Friday, 23 March, the next day at 7 he sail'd & reach'd Calais by noon, & Boulogne at night. the next night he reach'd Abbeville, where he had letters to Mad: Vanrobais, to whom belongs the famous manufacture of cloth there. from thence he wrote to me, & here am I again to pass my solitary evenings, wch hung much lighter on my hands, before I knew him. this is your fault! pray let the next you send me, be halt & blind, dull, unapprehensive & wrong-headed. for this (as Lady Constance says) Was never such a gracious Creature born! & yet–but no matter! burn my letter that I wrote you, for I am very much out of humour with myself & will not believe a word of it. you will think, I have caught madness from him (for he is certainly mad) & perhaps you will be right. oh! what things are Fathers & Mothers! I thought they were to be found only in England, but you see.
Where is Capt: Clarke's Translation? where is your journal? do you still haggle for me to save sixpence, you Niggard? why now I have been in Town & brought no franks with me yet. the translation of Gruner can not be had this month or six weeks, so I am destitute of all things. this place never appear'd so horrible to me, as it does now. could not you come for a week or fortnight? it would be sunshine to me in a dark night! even Dr Hallifax wishes, you would come. at least write to me out of hand, for I am truly & faithfully
'Vous ne voyez plus que de la misere & de la gayeté. les villages sont plus rares, plus petits: le silence dans ces deserts annonce par tout un Maitre. il me sembloit, que je devois demander a ces hommes en guenilles, qui leur avoit pris leurs habits, leurs maisons; quelle peste avoit ravagé la nation. mais ils ont le bonheur de ne penser point, & de jouer jusqu'au moment qu'on les egorge.
'Mais gardons notre indignation pour çeux qui sont si stupides, qu'ils prennent de pareilles mœurs pour modeles.'
Correspondents
Dates
Places
Physical description
Content
Bonstetten, Charles Victor de, 1745-1832
Boulogne
Calais
Cambridge
Clark, John
Gruner, Gottlieb Sigmund
Shakespeare, William
Holding Institution
(confirmed)
College Library, Eton College , Windsor, UK <http://www.etoncollege.com/collegelibrary.aspx>
Print Versions
- The Works of Thomas Gray, 5 vols. Ed. by John Mitford. London: W. Pickering, 1835-1843, letter XXVI, vol. v, 104-106
- 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. CCCLVIII, vol. iii, 269-270
- 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. 514, vol. iii, 1115-1116