ID: | 1091 [see the .xml file] |
---|---|
Identifier: | WCRO CR2017/ TP 189, 17 |
Notes: |
Condition: there is a slight tear on the seal |
Editors: | Transcribed by Ffion Mair Jones; edited by Ffion Mair Jones; encoded by Vivien Williams. (2019) |
Cite: | 'Richard Bull to Thomas Pennant 17 November 1789' transcribed by Ffion Mair Jones; edited by Ffion Mair Jones; encoded by Vivien Williams. (2019) in Curious Travellers Digital Editions [editions.curioustravellers.ac.uk/doc/1091] |
Dear Sir.
Northcourt, Isle of Wight. Novr. 17. 1789
Having little excuse for troubling you till now, and having no member at hand to direct my letters, I have been unwilling to
burthen you with my thanks, and to tax you for your goodness in writing to me. We shall be going to
London shortly, sooner indeed than we wish’d, or intended, for my youngest daughters
health seems to make it necessary. She is very unwell, and we have not a single Physician in the Island; the air is so healthy, and patients so
few scarce, that no Doctor can either live, or die among us.
It is not my custom to make objections to any bill of Moses's, more especially as you take
the trouble of letting them pass through your hands to mine. Safe in his integrity, and under your inspection; I have only
to beg the favor of you to pay the whole demand, as I have no doubt the works deserve it all, and the day after I get to
town, it shall be certainly replac’d at your Bankers in fleetstreet,
unless I should: receive fresh instructions, and if you can find any safe, and satisfactory
conveyance for the box, I wish to have it sent to me in Stratton Street, as early as you
please after the third of December. – till it arrives I shall sit upon thorns. do you keep in your remembrance the two maps
belonging to the arctic Zoology,1 which you had the goodness to say
you would procure me, upon India paper, which lies smoother, in
less compass, and less liable to crack in the folding than common printing paper. and you told me also, that you would direct
Moses to do me the Lutteral Arms, with the Baron’s, and
the Royal Coronet &c. &c. - I shall like to see your illuminated
French Voyage, but I do not promise not to rob you of it, if I can do
it without being sent to Botany bay. in respect to hoarding Drawings of Moses,
I am industrious as a pismire
------ ------- Sicut Formica
ore trahit, quodcumq potest atque addit acervus,2 but
in respect to my avidity in collecting the hand writings of Mr Pennant,
this deponent says not, for I really can’t read the whole of the letter I am now answering.
As you say nothing to the contrary, I hope and trust, you, and yours, have spent your summer in plesure, and in health.
– For three months we liv’d in public, and for these last three weeks we have not seen the face of a human Being, except
our own Domesticks. Storer pass’d ten days here, and all
politics being disallow’d, was as
prleasant, and as intructive [sic], and as amusing, as you would wish a Guest to be, who was perfectly
au fait, to make himself so. the notorious Mr Erskine, and his family,
spent a fortnight with us, and seem’d as sorry to go, as we to part with them. I don’t know whether you are acquainted with
Lady Clarges, if you are, you know her to be first of agreeables, & the Queen of hearts,
and we were lucky enough to keep her for six weeks. Upon the whole, if the sun always shin’d, and I could always have young
people about me, (by the bye, old people recover youth by living with the young, as youth advances quicker to age by associating
with old folks) I should not care a fig, if I never went to London again; where one lives in a
croud without Society, and where Formality, and distance to every body out of their own set, stand in the place of urbanity,
and good breeding. We went the day, toafter a very heavy gale of wind, to a cottage we ha[?ve on]
the very edge of the Cliff, expecting a wreck, and we found it: [?a] french Sloop,
with seven men came bump ashore, and in two hours was so compleatly beat to pieces, that no two planks were left together. the men were
miraculously ^saved by the intrepidity of the Fishermen. almost at the same time, a Smugler
boat, not much larger than a wherry, came ashore also, with three men, and were sav’d in the same manner, but the boat
was stav’d in a minute. they told us, they were out a fishing ^near Guernsey
and the gale came so sudden, with the tide against them, they could not make any port, but had been all night beating in the
channel, without light, or the least hopes of being sav’d. I ask’d them how they spent their
time, and whether they went to prayers, they said, not much of that, for it could
do them no good, neither could it have done you any harm, says I, to which they only
answer’d, – a little brandy would have been of more service. one of them seem’d that kind of desperado, that Newgate
would have bar’d her condemn’d hole against. – don’t, I beseech you, suppose we ride in whirlwinds, and look upon wrecks as our amusement.
sunt lacrymæ rerum,3 and we only go to moralize, and assist the distress’d.
God keep You, and yours, & believe me, as always, yours sincerely
P..S. pray desire Moses to cast up the account he sent me, once again, in which there seems an error, as I have ^gone over it several times, and can’t make the sums other than thus. – vidt.
his casting up amounts | my casting makes it thus | ||
first bill ----- | £12.5.6 | first bill - - - - - | £12.7.6 |
second Do. – – – ––––– | 8.9.0. | second Do. – – – – | 7.9.6 |
£12 14. 6 | £19:17.0. |
Thomas Pennant Esqr. |
Downing. |
Flintshire
Thomas Pennant Esqr. |
Downing. |
Flintshire