FROM CHATTERTON 25 MARCH 1769 101

From CHATTERTON,1 Saturday 25 March 1769

Printed from photostat of Add. MS 5766B, foi. 44-5. Previously printed, Wil­ liam Barrett, The History and Antiquities of the City of , Bristol, 1789, PP- 639-42; Chatterton's Works iii. 377-83. Meyerstein, Chatterton 254, prints the letter and part of the 'Rowley' enclosure, together with a partial facsimile of the MS. HW returned this letter to Chatterton along with the other letters and MSS Chatterton sent him (see post p. 117 and Works iv. 224). This and 30 March, with the two unsent drafts of 14 April, passed to William Barrett after Chatterton's death (1770), and on Barrett's death (1789) to Dr Robert Glynn, who bequeathed them (1800) to the BM. Address: For Esq^ to be left with MT Bathoe Bookseller, near Exeter Change Strand London. Postmark: 27 MR. On the cover appear eight lines in the hand of William Barrett (1733-89), anti­ quarian and historian of Bristol, who played an important part in the life and later history of Chatterton. They are lines 3-10 of the first set of verses in Chatter­ ton's second letter to HW, 30 March 1769: 'Whanne flying Cloudes . . . raptured Joies ytell.' Siria BEING versed a little in antiquitys, I have met with several Curious Manuscripts among which the following may be of Service to you in any future Edition of your truly entertaining Anecdotes of Painting —In correcting the mistakes (if any) in the Notes—you will greatly oblige Your most humble Servant Bristol March 25 th Corn Street—

The Ryse of Peyncteynge yn Englade, wroten bie 1T. Rowleie. 1469 for Mastre 2Canynge. L T. Rowleie was a Secular Priest of S- John's in this City. His Merit as a Biographer, Historiographer is great, as a Poet still greater: some of his Pieces would do honor to Pope; and the Person under whose Patronage they may appear to the World, will lay the Englishman, the Antiquary, and the Poet under an eternal Obligation. 2. The Founder of that noble Gothic Pile, Saint Mary Redclift Church

1. Thomas Chatterton (1752-70), poet; don; author of poems supposed to have posthumous son of a Bristol writing-mas­ been written by Thomas Rowley, a monk ter; attended Colston's Hospital, a charity of the fifteenth century, and satirical and school, 1760-7; apprenticed to a Bristol miscellaneous prose and verse. attorney 1767-9; committed suicide in Lon­ ia. In printing the four letters from