Anne Percy, née Gutterridge (d. 1806), was from Desborough, Northamptonshire. She married Thomas Percy in 1758. She was appointed wet-nurse to Queen Charlotte's baby son Edward (the future father of Queen Victoria) in 1767, a post she held for eighteenth months. She knew Goldsmith through her husband; he had met Goldsmith in 1759 and became a close friend.

Goldsmith asks Anne Percy for tickets for two ladies so they can attend a forthcoming masquerade ball. Although these two ladies cannot be identified categorically, we can be almost certain that he is referring to Catherine and Mary Horneck, daughters of the widowed Hannah Horneck and wards of Joshua Reynolds. Goldsmith was very fond of the girls. He accompanied them to Paris in 1770 (see Letters 32 and 33 below). We might also note here that Goldsmith was strongly associated with the London masquerade scene: his frequent attendance drew the satiric ire of William Kenrick (P, II: 350–3).

The date of this letter is conjectural. Balderston suggests early January 1768 but on thin circumstantial evidence. There are a number of factors which suggest our later proposed date: Anne Percy's connection to Queen Charlotte and to her lady of the bedchamber Elizabeth Percy (1716–76); the reference to meeting Percy in winter; the cultural context of masquerades in 1768; and the date of the two possibilities for the event referred to in the letter. A full discussion is in the Introduction, xlv–xlvii.

The copy-text is the manuscript in the British Library. It was first published by Alice C. C. Gaussen in Percy, Prelate and Poet (London: Smith, Elder, & Co., 1908). It is addressed ‘For | Mrs. Percy | at the Queen's Palace’.