about £28 due to him in their hands, the rest (to hinder him from going to the castle, for he could not raise a shilling) Brown, May, and Peele, lent him upon his note. Upon this he remained confined to his room, lest his creditors here should snap him; and the fellows went round to make out a list of his debts, which amount in Cambridge to above £350; that they might come the readier to some composition, he was advised to go off in the night, and lie hid somewhere or other. He has done so, and this has made the creditors agree to an assignment of £50 per annum out of his income, which is above £ 140, if he lives at Cambridge, not else.) But I am apprehensive, if this come to the ears of Mr. Vane, he may take away the £40 hitherto allowed him by the Duke of Cleveland; for before all this (last summer) I know they talked of doing so, as Mr. Smart (they said) was now settled in the world. If you found an opportunity, possibly you might hinder this (which would totally ruin him now) by representing his absurdity in the best light it will bear: but at the same time they should make this a condition of its continuance; that he live in the College, soberly, and within bounds, for that upon any information to the contrary it shall be undoubtedly stopped. This would be doing a real service, though against the grain: yet I must own if you heard all his lies, impertinence, and ingratitude in this affair, it would perhaps quite set you against him, as it has his only friend (Mr. Addison) totally, and yet one would try to save him, for drunkenness is one great source of all this, and he may change it. I would not tell this matter in the north, were I you, till I found it was known by other means. We have had an opinion from the Attorney General in a manner directly contrary to the former. He does not seem to have been clear then; so that he may possibly not be so now. The King's Bench (he says) can take no cog nizance of it; the visitor must do all, and he is the Vice Chancellor by King James's Charter, which is good. This is sad indeed, and the fellows, before they acquiesce in it, seem desirous of consulting Dr. Lee, who is well acquainted with College matters. Have you seen Lyttleton's Monody on his wife's death? there are parts of it, too stiff and poetical; but others truly tender and elegiac, as one would wish. Dodsley is publishing three miscellaneous volumes; some new, many that have been already printed. Lyttleton, Nugent, and G. West have given him several things of theirs. Mr. Walpole has given him three odes of mine (which you have seen before) and one of Mr. West's (my friend who is dead) which in spite of the subject is excellent: it is on the late queen's death. There is a Mr. Archibald Bower*, a Scotchman bred in Italy, Professor in three Universities there, and of the Inquisition, he was employed by the Court of Rome to write a history of the Popes. As he searched into the materials, his eyes were opened: he came to England, has changed his religion, and continues his work in our language under the patronage of Mr. Pitt, the Yorks, &c. The preface is come out with the proposals, and promises exceeding well, doubtless there is no part of history more curious, if it be well performed. My best wishes wait upon Mrs. Wharton, and My * A full account of Mr. Archibald Bower, and his history of the Popes, may be seen in the Biographical Dictionary. To the detection of his forgeries and mistakes by Dr. Douglas, the late Bishop of Salisbury, Goldsmith alludes in the Retaliation. VOL. II. "New Lawders and Bowers the Tweed shall cross over, 2 B compliments to Miss Wharton, and to King Harry the 8th. Brown will write; he's the ** little man and always * Novr. 30, Cambridge, [1747.] Adieu, I am ever yours, T. G. P. S. I said something to Stonhewer, who (I believe) will do what he can. He is now in London. LETTER XVI. MR. GRAY TO MR. WHARTON. MY DEAR WHARTON, Though I have been silent so long, do not imagine I am at all less sensible to your kindness, (which, to say the truth,) is of a sort, that however obvious and natural it may seem, has never once occurred to any of my good friends in town, where I have been these seven weeks. Their methods of consolation were indeed very extraordinary; they were all so sorry for my loss that I could not chuse but laugh: one offered me opera tickets, insisted upon carrying me to the grand masquerade, desired me to sit for my picture; others asked me to their concerts, or dinners and suppers at their houses; or hoped I would * The destruction of his house, in Cornhill, by fire. drink chocolate with them while I stayed in town. All my gratitude, (or, if you please, my revenge,) was to accept of every thing they offered me if it had been but a shilling I would have taken it; thank Heaven, I was in good spirits, else I could not have done it. I profited all I was able of their civilities, and am returned into the country loaded with their Bontés and Politesses, but richer still in my own reflections, which I owe in great measure to them too. Suffer a great master to tell them you, for me, in a better manner. Aux sentimens de la Nature, Aux plaisirs de la Verité Preférant le goût frelaté Des plaisirs, qu'a fait l'Imposture Ou qu'inventa la Vanité, Entre les jeux de la Folie, Et l'ennui de l'Oisiveté, Et trouver la Melancolie, Dans le sein de la Volupté? &c. * Your friendship has interested itself in my affairs so naturally, that I cannot help troubling you with a little detail of them. The house I lost was insured for £500, and with the deduction of three per cent. they paid me £485, with which I bought, when Stocks were lower, £525. The rebuilding will cost £590, and the other expences, that necessarily attend it, will mount that sum to £650. I have an aunt that gives me £100; and another that I hope will lend me what I shall want: but if (contrary to my expectation) I should be forced to have recourse to your assistance, it can not be for above £50; and that about Christmas next, when the thing is to be finished : *These verses are extracted from the Poem called "La Chartreuse," by Gresset. London Edition. Vol. I. p. 66.-Ed. and now, my dear Wharton, why must I tell you a thing so contrary to my own wishes, and to yours, I believe? It is impossible for me to see you in the north, or to enjoy any of those agreeable hours I had flattered myself with. I must be in town several times during the Summer, 'in August par ticularly, when half the money is to be paid: the relation that used to do things for me is, from illness, now quite incapable; and the good people here would think me the most careless and ruinous of mortals, if I should think of such a journey at this time. The only satisfaction I can pretend to, is that of hearing from you; and particularly about this time I was bid to expect good news. Your opinion of Diodorus is doubtless right; but there are things in him very curious, got out of better authors, now lost. Do you remember the Egyptian History, and particularly the account of the gold-mines? * My own readings have been cruelly interrupted: what I have been highly pleased with, is the new comedy from Paris, by Gresset; le Méchant, one of the very best dramas I ever met with: if you have it not, buy his works altogether, in two little volumes. They are collected by the Dutch booksellers, and consequently there is some trash; but then there are the Ver-vert, the epistle to P. Bougeant, the Chartreuse, that to his sister, an ode on his country, and another on Mediocrity, and the Sidnei, another comedy, which have great beauties; there is a poem by Thomson, the Castle of Indolence, with some good stanzas. Mr. Mason is my acquaintance: I liked that ode + very much, but This curious passage of Diodorus, to which Gray alludes, may be found in Vol. I. Lib. iii. Cap. 12. p. 181. Ed. Wesseling.-Ed. † Ode to a Water Nymph, published about this time in Dodsley's Miscellany. On reading what follows, many readers, I suspect, will think me as simple as |