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Bodleian Library, MS Eng. Lett. c. 22. . Not previously published.
These letters were edited with the assistance of Carol Bolton, Tim Fulford and Ian Packer
For permission to publish the text of MSS in their possession, the editor wishes to thank the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript Library, Yale University; Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations; the Bodleian Library Oxford University; the British Library; Boston Public Library; the Syndics of Cambridge University Library; the Syndics of the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge; Haverford College, Connecticut; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; the Hornby Library, Liverpool Libraries and Information Services; the Houghton Library, Harvard University; the John Rylands Library, Manchester; the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas; Luton Museum (Bedfordshire County Council); Massachusetts Historical Society; McGill University Library; the National Library of Scotland; the Newberry Library, Chicago; the New York Public Library (Pforzheimer Collections); the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; the Public Record Offices of Bedford, Suffolk (Bury St Edmunds) and Northumberland, the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge; the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne; the Trustees of the William Salt Library, Stafford, the Wisbech and Fenland Museum; the University of Virginia Library.
A research grant from the British Academy made much of the archival work possible, as did support from the English Department of Nottingham Trent University.
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This is a damnd world & the sooner I quit it the better. God gave me the happiest disposition ever mortal was blessd with had he not I must have sunk long ago — but all will not do I am tired of life I am disgusted with three parts of mankind — one half are knaves those I detest I despise the fools & where am I to seek the residue! reflection Bedford will not do for me so I fly from it — I roam the fields while my strength lasts & return to my pen or my book — what will conversation do where the only subject is damnable.
not one reproach have I heard concerning Westminster. it does not hurt me for I have not acted improperly — Dr V is a fool & a knave both. forgive me for my hurrying home. to take leave of friends is terrible — particularly so when it is doubtful whether you may ever see them again. if I could get an appointment to the East Indies I should like it. the church is a hypocritical line of life — the law as dishonest one — my friends the Doctors have no interest at Calcutta —
I am at No 9 Duke Street Bath — write to me if you can forgive my neglect — but I am not composed enough to write decently since I left Rye the moment I mounted the coach I smelt London & it sickend me. when I left London I smelt a charnel house & when I got home old Nicks brimstone.
I have been looking for wild flowers & found a beautiful one of an unknown species to me — such employments pass the time. I have begun “an improbable tale”tolerant sentiment is unnatural therefore improbable — I will copy some verses which I have just wrote for it
your brother I hear has tyed his hair — there is a plot to crop & dock him.
if you have heard of the fox without a tail — did you ever hear of the Ass in the same situation —