Downing Nov^r. 6^th 1778

Dear Sir

I truely lament the melancholly account you give of the health of my respected friend D^r Ramsay my earliest & worthy acquaintance. I shall dread of y^r future account. If a message is not improper, I beg the favor of you to make enquiry in my name as a token of my constant regard.

The state of affairs in general is truly deplorable. all Litterary Luxuries must cease; but no people will so severely feel the badness of the times as the artists who will be driven into great distress. As to myself an author I shall go on writing. if the days mend I may publish. if not I shall add no bad addition to my heir’s effect. What I hinted to you is an affair of honor & shall be carried on. In a little time I shall explain it to you in a full manner.

I shall at present say nothing more of my complaints however justly founded.

It is not the little naiad but a celt i.e. a hatchet like brass weapon. querie if gilt?¹

I thank you kindly for the Environs of y^r capital² which reached me only a fortnight past.

I am Dear Sir
with true esteem
y^rs

T. Pennant

I never heard whether M^r Lautie had his Welsh Tour.

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Editorial notes

1. See Pennant, Tour in Scotland 1772 Part II (London: 1776), p.241, and Pennant's letter to Paton on 10 September 1772.
2. Possibly John Laurie, A plan of Edinburgh and places adjacent (Edinburgh: 1766) or an unpublished draft of Alexander Kincaid's posthumous A Plan of the city and suburbs of Edinburgh (Edinburgh: 1784).