Jan 2 .1780

Dear Sir

The best wishes of the season attend you, with many happy successions. I beg my compliments to M^r Smellie; & shall be very happy to receive his first volume & to have it left at M^r Longman’s bookseller Pater noster row.¹ I am very sorry that my time is so extremely taken up that I cannot enter into any new correspondencies. I shall tho’ from time to time send him any remarks on animals which may occur & likewise furnish him with referrences to my new edition of the synopsis of Quad^s. soon going to the press. I presume as he has printed but three vol^s he is not arrived at the animals. you shall have the paper in a few posts. I trust I shall not be denied the set of q^to prints.

had you not best send M^r Popes book (with his consent) to M^r Low.²

I shall be greatly indebted to M^r Clerk for any favors. I have wrote about the genera of birds: & hope you have had my letter respecting D^r Robertson.

I am D^r Sir
Your very faithful humble Serv^t

Th. Pennant.

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Editorial notes

1. A reference to William Smellie's translation of de Buffon's Natural History (Edinburgh: 1780).
2. A reference to Alexander Pope's translation of Thormodus Torfæus, Orcades seu rerum Orcadensium historiae (1697), parts of which would appear under the title 'Extracts from Torfæus' in an appendix to Cordiner's Antiquities and Scenery of the North of Scotland, in a Series of Letters to Thomas Pennant (London: 1780), pp.121-170.