Dear Sir

5 December 1789

I now inclose Moses receit: there is some addition to the bill by work done since, which shall be accounted for. I have paid him *20^£ which you will please to put into the hands of Mesr^s Gosling. Be so good as to let me know if you would have the drawings entered at the coach office to their full value which may be a security to them. Now I most sensibly feel my loss; being engaged in the toilsome task of new writing my journey from the Temple stairs to Dover. ¹ my imaginary continuation of it along the coast of France is now under the hands of an excellent copiest [sic]: who writes (But perhaps you will not credit it) [...] a better hand than myself.

I am sorry for the occasion which brings you so early to town: But it will give my son an opportunity of seeing you. He is in town brought there to convoy his sister down & pick up his little little Brother on the road. He has brought y^r maps on Indian paper with him. A short Part of my summer was passed under excruciating pains in one of the seats of the gravel: they racked me for a fortnight & then left me. I trust y^r ails are also removed, that I may have a little enjoyment of you in march: So I hope you will oil y^r hinges against that time. I have not the honor of knowing Lady Clarges: I write so much & think so much that I lose the habit of talking: so shun all conversations & dread the meeting of a wit. not but I met with m^rs Piozzi this summer: & she called here & was very agreable: for I will allow that wits may be so, in their lucid intervals. as to London the sighs of my munificent sister & the desire of being with my son as long as possible before he embarks for the continent will bring me to town next spring. the following, I shall pass at home. I have myany inducements. my son takes to the place: & our, or rather his improvements go on rapidly.² I dare resign to him the direction: & heartily wish the hour was come in which like Charles V I could resign the whole. As to London friends die so fast, that it begins to grow very thin to me. Heaven preserve you & the few I have left. My best complim^ts attend Sir W. Burr the young ladies:³ & better health. Pray do not forget my remembrances to sir W. Burel & M^r Storer.

I am
Dear Sir
Yours with the truest regard

Tho. Pennant

Downing Dec^r 5^th - 89

Pray teize Carter to take off some of his lesser work on fine paper for our copies of our my London.

^in Richard Bull's hand: *p^d. him by draft on Hoare

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Editorial notes

1. The loss of a manuscript copy of 'From London to Dover' may be connected with Pennant's legal action against the Chester coach mentioned in 1086.
2. David Pennant's involvement in the improvement of the Downing estate extended to a keen interest in horticulture and meteorology (he kept a diary of weather readings made at Downing between 1793 and 1835), and led to alterations to the estate during the first half of the nineteenth century when he became the owner. R. Paul Evans, 'Thomas Pennant and the influences behind the landscaping of the Downing estate', Flintshire Historical Society Journal, 35 (1999), 57–84, esp. 70, 80–1. See also his manuscript notes to Thomas Pennant's extra-illustrated copy of HPWaH at FRO.
3. Elizabeth and Catherine Bull. A reference to Levinia Luther may also have been intended.