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Houghton Library, bMS Eng 265.1 (35). 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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En verite mon cher mais mon negligent aimee c’est un trop long
tems since I heard from you. helas — ecrire François est tres difficile pour me
ecrire & pour vous entendre — allons a la mode Anglaist Cookunconsecrated it from the Ladies to make room for her
majesty. presently comes a Gothic temple. & a Grecian bridge — some new
ruins & cascades murmuring & rolling in uniformity when the
Magician who grouped these contradicities together touches the talisman or more
literally turns the cock. our trouble however was well recompensed. the gardens
are well worth seeing & the buildings though very ridiculously situated
are beautiful when abstractedly considered. as pieces of architecture they are
very fine & could we imagine ourselves in the days of Greece or Rome,
could we fancy Ld Cobham
Bedford is by no means a pretty town yet the church is handsome
& there is a free school with a very good statue of the founder over the
door. the bridge is very remarkable for its antiquity & strength.
formerly there were two forts upon it which stood a long siege during the reign
(I think) of K John.
on our return we dined at Royston & proceeded thro Baldock to Hitchin where we passed the night. the next day thro Dunstable & Tring to Aylesbury & the third — thro Thame we reachd Balliol to tea.
after travelling over a tract of two hundred miles I have found this country infinitely more agreable than any on the road & yet this country is very far from pleasant. the hills here (mountains in comparison of all we have seen) are but as mole hills.
our Installation begins the third of July — I expect to see you then. Bedford will be with me & the Doctor with C Collins. you will then in person consult about your entering at Ch. Ch & (perhaps) determine. I promise you the best accommodations the time will afford — the croud [MS torn] immense & ten guineas are given for a very paltry room almost [MS torn] to Balliol.
has Combe told you
how we served young Wynn in the
woods? leaving him to sport fresco like a young satyr with the game keeper at
the cool evening hour? it was the best thing ever done to Wynn & that you know is
saying a good deal. Bedford was so delighted with hearing of it that he requests a
repitition of the amusement. the Satyr is at present gone to see his
brother
I should not omit to tell you that we heard Friends defence in
the senate house at Cambridge & a most capital piece of oratory it was.
he is tried for publishing a scandalous pamphlet entitled Peace &
Unionr Wardr Wingfield! “O we have met” — so turn to the British
Album & there read the Interview: only substitute me for Della
Cruscar Wingfield
for Anna Matilda
this letter has been long in hand & I have no room to relate the
adventure of Ely cathedral as how my neck was like to be broke & as how
I was lost in a dark passage — with many more as how’s equally terrific. this
however you shall have at large either by letter or at our meeting which I hope
will be soon. be kind enough to make my respects to all friends at Rye. & thank your father for his very kind
letter. during the long his Majesty certainly would send his
compliments were he here — but as he is not I act as his minister &
transmit them officially.
th.