William Mason to Thomas Gray, [c. 13 December 1757]

Letter ID: letters.0295

Writer: Mason, William, 1724-1797

Writer's age: 33

Addressee: Gray, Thomas, 1716-1771

Addressee's age: 41

Date of composition: [c. 13 December 1757]

Calendar: Gregorian

Place of composition: [London, United Kingdom]

Language: [unknown]

Incipit: [not extant]

Contents: "[It is evident that letters, which have not been preserved, must have passed between Mason and Gray with regard to the Laureateship before Gray wrote his letter of 19 Dec. 1757 (Letter 259 [letters.0298]). On 12 Dec. Colley Cibber, the Poet Laureate, died. Mason (Memoirs, p. 258) writes: 'this place the late Duke of Devonshire (then Lord Chamberlain) desired his brother (Lord John Cavendish) to offer to M^r Gray; and his Lordship had commissioned me (then in town) to write to him concerning it'. The letter that Mason wrote may be dated conjecturally c. Dec. 13; and Gray's letter containing his refusal c. Dec. 15. William Whitehead was appointed to the post on 19 Dec.]"
Correspondence of Thomas Gray, 3 vols. Ed. by the late Paget Toynbee and Leonard Whibley, with corrections and additions by H. W. Starr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [1st ed. 1935], vol. ii, 543.

Availability: The original letter is not extant, no copy, transcription, or published version survives