Details
WEST, Richard (1716-42). Autograph letter signed with initials ('R.W.'), to Dr [Thomas] Ashton, n.p., 13 April n.y. [?1742], one page, 157 x 160mm (upper left-hand corner torn away, browned, weak and torn at folds, tear beneath signature, traces of mount) armorial seal on verso.
West asks Ashton to send him 'the burlesque imitation I left with you of Popes verses on his Grotto' and sends his compliments to Walpole, commenting, 'I wish he would write, & comfort the Sick: t'is a Christian Duty.'
West and Ashton formed, with the poet Thomas Gray and Horace Walpole, a 'quadruple alliance' based on their friendship at Eton. West's early death, on 1 June 1742, prompted Gray's 'On the Death of [Richard] West' and an elegy by Walpole. For a letter from Gary to Ashton, see lot 72.
West asks Ashton to send him 'the burlesque imitation I left with you of Popes verses on his Grotto' and sends his compliments to Walpole, commenting, 'I wish he would write, & comfort the Sick: t'is a Christian Duty.'
West and Ashton formed, with the poet Thomas Gray and Horace Walpole, a 'quadruple alliance' based on their friendship at Eton. West's early death, on 1 June 1742, prompted Gray's 'On the Death of [Richard] West' and an elegy by Walpole. For a letter from Gary to Ashton, see lot 72.
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