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Houghton Library, bMS Eng 265.1 (34). 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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By this post I write to Bedford & beg house room for my unfortunate books till I go to Oxford — will you be kind enough to direct them to old Donkey & send them all there.
in your tour you must take the western parts of England & if you will contrive it whilst I am either at Bath or Bristol you know I shall be very happy to see you. I do not go to Oxford till October & at Christmas I shall be again at Bath but come when you will I shall hope to see you before you leave England.
I shall always be glad to hear from you & the oftener the better — how I am to write to you when you are travelling? you must inform me at what town you intend to be upon a fixed day & I will direct to be left at the post office till called for — if you can fix upon a better method pray inform me.
I am ready to run mad over the mathematics! which I have just begun & wish I had just concluded — all your drudgery is over. I have five years more to look <forwards> & at the expiration of that time look forward to nothing more agreeable.
when does Combe leave school? I wish to write to him before he goes. this day week I was within seven miles of the palace at Earns hill & had not time to visit it & see the Lions!
our western country may well claim your attention — we have in Somersetshire three cities (which no other county in England has & of which you have only seen Bath. I saw Wells & Wokey hole Monday last but will not anticipate by a description the pleasure you will find in visiting one of the finest Gothic buildings in England. the cavern & Glastonbury Abbey & Tor will please you but we saw Battle Abbey together & after that what ruins in England are to be mentioned as worthy of comparison?
you must be busy in preparation & though really I am disposed to lengthen my letter I consider your time as well disposed of — all I shall further say is that I hope Dr V will give you a better character than your sincere friend
remember me to all friends. & ask Collins where I am to direct to him in the holydays.
you know the lines of Shenstone