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46 To John Fenn [1774

and overjoyed I am. I suppose you don't guess what I have
found ? Really, Mr. Mason, you great poets are so absent,
and so unlike the rest of the world ! Why what should
I have found, but the thing in the world that was most
worth finding? a hidden treasure — a hidden fig; no, Sir,
not the certificate of the Duchess of Kingston's first marriage,
nor the lost books of Livy, nor the longitude, nor the philo-
sopher's stone, nor all Charles Fox has lost. I tell you it is
what I have searched for a thousand times, and had rather
have found than the longitude, if it was a thousand times
longer. Oh, you do guess, do you? I thought I never
lost anything in my life. I was sure I had them, and so
I had ; and now am I not a good soul, to sit down and send
you a copy incontinently ? Don't be too much obliged to
me neither. I am in a panic till there are more copies than
mine, and as the post does not go till to-morrow, I am in
terror lest the house should be burnt to-night. I have
a mind to go and bury a transcript in the field j but then
if I should be burnt too ! nobody would know where to look
for it. Well, here it is! I think your decorum will not
hold it proper to be printed in the Life, nor would I have
it. We will preserve copies, and the devil is in it, if some
time or other it don't find its way to the press. My copy
is in his own handwriting; but who could doubt it; I know
but one man upon earth who could have written it but
Gray¹.

1560. To JOHN

Strawberry Hill, Sept. 17, 1774.

I AM much obliged to you. Sir, for your accurate drawing
and description of your picture, and wish I could say any-

1559. — i The original lines should be modified.

letter ends with, a copy of Gray's LBTTJBB 1660. — Not in O.j now first

verses, Jemmy Twitch&r; or, the Cam* printed front original in possession

"bridge Courtship^ and a suggestion of Mr, Arthur H. Frere.
that the coarseness of the last two



	46 To John Fenn [1774 and overjoyed I am. I suppose you don't guess what I have found ? Really, Mr. Mason, you great poets are so absent, and so unlike the rest of the world ! Why what should I have found, but the thing in the world that was most worth finding? a hidden treasure — a hidden fig; no, Sir, not the certificate of the Duchess of Kingston's first marriage, nor the lost books of Livy, nor the longitude, nor the philo- sopher's stone, nor all Charles Fox has lost. I tell you it is what I have searched for a thousand times, and had rather have found than the longitude, if it was a thousand times longer. Oh, you do guess, do you? I thought I never lost anything in my life. I was sure I had them, and so I had ; and now am I not a good soul, to sit down and send you a copy incontinently ? Don't be too much obliged to me neither. I am in a panic till there are more copies than mine, and as the post does not go till to-morrow, I am in terror lest the house should be burnt to-night. I have a mind to go and bury a transcript in the field j but then if I should be burnt too ! nobody would know where to look for it. Well, here it is! I think your decorum will not hold it proper to be printed in the Life, nor would I have it. We will preserve copies, and the devil is in it, if some time or other it don't find its way to the press. My copy is in his own handwriting; but who could doubt it; I know but one man upon earth who could have written it but Gray¹. 1560. To JOHN

	Strawberry Hill, Sept. 17, 1774. I AM much obliged to you. Sir, for your accurate drawing and description of your picture, and wish I could say any-

	1559. — i The original lines should be modified. letter ends with, a copy of Gray's LBTTJBB 1660. — Not in O.j now first verses, Jemmy Twitch&r; or, the Cam* printed front original in possession "bridge Courtship^ and a suggestion of Mr, Arthur H. Frere. that the coarseness of the last two