Dear Sir

It is with no small chagrin that I find you persevere in your silence: the only consolation I had was a letter some time ago from M^r Burel which informed me of y^r welfare & that the invalid of y^r family was on the recovery: but let me have the satisfaction of having it confirmed from yourself.

At length Moses has begun on the journey to London: He works for you & me alternately: nor shall he labor for any one else till it is completed. for a fortnight past we have been clad in snow attended with severe frost. the snow began singularly: it fell without a breath of wind, & by its weighty abundance has done infinite damage to our woods. My pleasure grounds have suffered greatly for the evergreens unable to bear the burden, are dreadfully shattered. Polilitics [sic] warm us with a vengeance: & we are all by the ears about a man who a very short time ago was the detestation of the country & with good cause: but old Cambria is grown frantic, & plays all the pranks of the wildest times, burns her sons in Effigy &c &c. There is more at the bottom of this than is thought, & depend on it the Dean is but an Instrument as many more have been.¹ as to myself; I find myself in the minority at home: but as before, in the majority above. Pray write soon & treat us with the news of the town. I hear that the amorous begin to pair as if it was the warm month of may: & married men quit their nuptial bed to run away with smock faced boys. I hope things will mend before march, or I had best keep in my bottle.

When you see M^r Burel & M^r Storer I request my best compli^mts. I had a dismal political Letter from the last: but as I had no comfort to give him, have been rude enough not to answer.

I am Dear Sir most faithfully y^rs

T Pennant

Downing Dec^r 21. 1784.

every good wish of the season attend you & y^rs.

I shall be very glad to be favored with the receipt for the making paste, having lost it

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Editorial notes

1. For Pennant's visual expression of his response to the acquittal of William Davies Shipley for seditious libel, see Peter Lord, Words with Pictures: Welsh images and images of Wales in the popular press, 1640–1860 (Aberystwyth: Planet, 1995), pp. 75–80.