wards, where he treats of the Cornish rebellion. Guthrie, you see, has vented himself in the Critical Review. His History I never saw, nor is it here, nor do I know any one that ever saw it. He is a rascal, but rascals may chance to meet with curious records; and that commission to Sir I. Tyrrell (if it be not a lie) is such; so is the order for Henry the Sixth's funeral. I would by no means take notice of him, write what he would. I am glad you have seen the Manchester Roll.

It is not I that talk of Phil. de Comines. It was mentioned to me as a thing that looked like a voluntary omission, but I see you have taken notice of it, in the note to p. 71, though rather too slightly. You have not observed that the same writer says, c. 55, Richard tua de sa main ou fit tuer en sa presence, quelque lieu apart, ce bon homme le Roi Henry. Another oversight I think there is at p. 43, where you speak of the Roll of Parliament, and the contract with Lady Eleanor Boteler, as things newly come to light. Whereas Speed has given at large the same roll in his History. Adieu!—I am ever yours,

T. GRAY.

CXXXIV.1-MR. GRAY TO THE DUKE OF GRAFTON CAMBRIDGE, July 1768.

MY LORD,

Your grace has dealt nobly with me, and the same delicacy of mind that induced you to confer this favour on me, unsolicited and unexpected, may perhaps make you averse to receive my sincerest thanks and grateful acknowledgements. Yet your grace must excuse me, they will have their way. They are indeed but words, yet I know and feel they come from my heart, and therefore are not wholly unworthy of your grace's acceptance. I even flatter myself (such is my pride) that you have some little satisfaction in your own work. If I did not deceive myself in this, it would compleat the happiness of, my lord, your grace's most obliged and devoted servant.

1 The two following letters explain the occasion of this address, in a way so honourable to his grace, and are withal so authentic a testimony of Mr. Gray's gratitude, that they leave me nothing to add on the subject. -Mason.

CXXXV.-MR. GRAY TO DR. WHARTON

DEAR DOCTOR,

JERMYN STREET, Aug. I (AT MR. Roberts's), 1768.

I have been remiss in answering your last letter, which was sent me to Ramsgate from Cambridge, for I have passed a good part of the summer in different parts of Kent, much to my satisfaction. Could I have advised anything essential in poor Mrs. case, I had certainly replied immediately, but we seem of one mind in it. There was nothing left but to appeal to delegates (let the trouble and expense be what they will almost), and to punish, if it be practicable, that old villain who upon the bench of justice dared to set at nought all common-sense and humanity.

I write to you now chiefly to tell you (and I think you will be pleased, nay I expect the whole family will be pleased with it) that on Sunday se'nnight Brocket died by a fall from his horse, being (as I hear) drunk, and some say, returning from Hinchinbroke. That on the Wednesday following I received a letter from the D. of Grafton, saying he had the king's commands to offer me the vacant professorship, that, etc. (but I shall not write all he says), and he adds at the end, that from private as well as public considerations, he must take the warmest part in approving so well judged a measure, as he hopes I do not doubt of the real regard and esteem with which he has the honor to be, etc., there's for you, so on Thursday the king signed the warrant, and next day at his levee I kissed his hand. He made me several gracious speeches, which I shall not report, because everybody who goes to court does so. By the way, I desire you would say that all the cabinet council in words of great favour approved the nomination of your humble servant; and this I am bid to say, and was told to leave my name at their several doors. I have told you the outside of the matter, and all the manner. For the inside you know enough easily to guess it, and you will guess right. As to his grace I have not seen him before or since.

I shall continue here perhaps a fortnight longer, perishing with heat; I have no thermometer with me, but I feel it as I did at Naples. Next summer (if it be as much in my power as it is in my wishes) I meet you at the foot of Skiddaw. My respects to Mrs. Wharton and the young ladies great and small. Love to Robin and Richard. Adieu!-I am truly yours.

CXXXVI.-MR. GRAY TO MR. NICHOLLS.1

JERMYN STREET, Aug. 3, 1768.

THAT Mr. Brockett has broken his neck, by a fall from his horse you will have seen in the newspapers, and also that I, your humble servant, have kissed the King's hand for his succession. They are both true, but the manner how you know not; only I can assure you that I had no hand at all in his fall, and almost as little in the second event. He died on the Sunday; on Wednesday following his grace the Duke of Grafton wrote me a very polite letter to say that his majesty had commanded him to offer me the vacant professorship, not only as a reward of, etc., but as a credit to, etc., with much more too high for me to transcribe. So on Thursday the king signed the warrant, and next day, at his levee, I kissed his hand. He made me several gracious speeches, which I shall not repeat, because everybody that goes to court does so: besides, the day was so hot, and the ceremony so embarrassing to me, that I hardly knew what he said.

Adieu. I am to perish here with heat this fortnight yet, and then to Cambridge; to be sure my dignity is a little the worse for wear, but mended and washed, it will do for me.

CXXXVII.-MR. GRAY TO MR. BEATTIE

PEMBROKE HALL, Oct. 31, 1768.

It is some time since I received from Mr. Foulis two copies of my poems, one by the hands of Mr. T. Pitt, the other by Mr. Merrill, a bookseller of this town. It is indeed a most beautiful edition, and must certainly do credit both to him and to me; but I fear it will be of no other advantage to him, as Dodsley has contrived to glut the town already with two editions beforehand, one of 1500, and the other of 750, both indeed far inferior to that of Glasgow, but sold at half the price. I must repeat my thanks, sir, for the trouble you have been pleased to give yourself on my account; and through you I must desire leave to convey my acknowledgements to Mr. Foulis, for the pains and expense he has been at in this publication.

1 Rector of Lounde and Bradwell in Suffolk. His acquaintance with Mr. Gray commenced a few years before the date of this, when he was a student of Trinity Hall, Cambridge.-Mason.

We live at so great a distance, that, perhaps, you may not yet have learned, what, I flatter myself, you will not be displeased to hear. The middle of last summer his majesty was pleased to appoint me Regius Professor of Modern History in this University. It is the best thing the Crown has to bestow (on a layman) here; the salary is £400 per ann., but what enhances the value of it to me is, that it was bestowed without being asked. The person who held it before me died on the Sunday; and on Wednesday following the Duke of Grafton wrote me a letter to say, that the king offered me this office, with many additional expressions of kindness on his grace's part, to whom I am but little known, and whom I have not seen either before or since he did me this favour. Instances of a benefit so nobly conferred, I believe, are rare; and therefore I tell you of it as a thing that does honour, not only to me, but to the minister.

As I lived here before from choice, I shall now continue to do so from obligation: if business or curiosity should call you southwards, you will find few friends that will see you with more cordial satisfaction, than, dear sir, etc.

CXXXVIII.-MR. GRAY TO DR. WHARTON

DEAR DOCTOR,

LONDON, April 20, 1769.

You have reason to call me negligent, nor have I anything to allege in my own defence, but two successive fits of the gout, which though weakly and not severe, were at least dispiriting, and lasted a long time. I rejoiced to hear your alarms for Robin and Kitty ended so happily, and with them (I hope) are fled a great part of your future inquietudes on this account. In the summer, I flatter myself, we may all meet in health once more at Old Park, and a part of us, perhaps, at the foot of Skiddaw. I am to call on Mason in my way, and bring him with me to visit his own works. Mr. Brown admitted your nephew according to your orders, and will provide him with a room against October.

I do not guess what intelligence Stonehewer gave you about my employments, but the worst employment I have had, has been to write something for musick against the Duke of Grafton comes to Cambridge. I must comfort myself with the intention,

I

for I know it will bring abuse enough on me; 11 however it is done, and given to the vice-chancellor, and there is an end. am come to town for a fortnight and find everything in extreme confusion, as you may guess from your newspapers. Nothing but force threatened on both sides, and the law (as usual) watching the event, and ready to side with the strongest. The only good thing I hear is that France is on the brink of a general bankruptcy, and their fleet (the only thing they have laid out money on of late) in no condition of service.

The spring is come in all its beauty, and for two or three days I am going to meet it at Windsor. Adieu! and let us pray it may continue till July. Remember me to Mrs. Wharton, and all the family.

I am ever yours,

Mason has left us, and is gone to Aston.

T. G.

CXXXIX.-MR. GRAY TO MR. NICHOLLS

I WAS absent from college, and did not receive your melancholy letter till my return hither yesterday, so you must not attribute this delay to me but to accident. To sympathise with you in such a loss 2 is an easy task for me, but to comfort you not so easy; can I wish to see you unaffected with the sad scene now before your eyes, or with the loss of a person that, through a great part of your life, has proved himself so kind a friend to you? He who best knows our nature (for He made us what we are) by such afflictions recalls us from our wandering thoughts and idle merriment; from the insolence of youth and prosperity, to serious reflection, to our duty, and to Himself; nor need we

1 When the late Duke of Grafton (says Mr. Mathias, in his Observations on Gray, p. 53) was elected Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, it is known that Mr. Gray, from an impulse of what he looked on as a species of duty, spontaneously offered to write the ode for his grace's installation. He considered it nevertheless as a sort of task, as a set composition; and a considerable time passed before he could prevail upon himself, or rather before he actually felt the power to begin it. But one morning after breakfast, Mr. Nicholls called on him, and knocking at his chamber door, Mr. Gray got up hastily and threw it open himself, and running up to him in a hurried voice and tone, exclaimed, Hence, avaunt! 'tis holy ground!" Mr. Nicholls was so astonished that he thought his senses were deranged, but Mr. Gray in a moment after resumed his usual pleasant manner, and repeating several verses at the beginning of that inimitable composition, said, "Well, I have begun the ode, and now I shall finish it."—Mitford. 'The death of his uncle, Governor Floyer.