Dear Sir,

If I answer any part of your two last letters herein, it must be en abregé,¹ for this goes merely to desire you would send me a list of the particular prints, which you are just now in want of, many of which, I dare believe, I can furnish you with, myself. I have Andrea Doria, and some of the Spanish monarchs, but you don’t specifie those you want, nor which of the Sebastians of Portugal you have occasion for.² If you have taken a Catalogue of your present wants, send it me, and I warrant I will soon supply some of them, prints relative to London excepted, which you have render’d scarce, and I am afraid, without having first serv’d yourself. M^r Lysons is preparing for the press a Discription of the Country twelve miles round London, which M^r: Walpole seems to have a good opinion of, and I imagine that particular distance is mark’d out to him, in order to take in Strawberry Hill. I imagine the woody Country you saw from Port Down, if you mean on the north, and north East, must be the Forest of Waltham, belonging to the Bishoprick of Winchester, in which I believe there is little Ship timber. I was all over it last Summer, and observ’d old the old trees were stag headed, and past their Prime. M^r Minchin, a friend of mine, living in the neighborhood, will give me a better information than I now send you, and which I will ask him for the first time we meet. This the way to the late member for the county, and owner of Southwick House just under Port Down, has vast woods about him, and well timber’d, and I believe adjoining to the forest of Waltham. I hope you view’d Southwick house, famous for many things, in the last century, which you are better inform’d of than I am – tis a vast house, and so it needed to be for the entertainment of a whole Court. – I have sought in vain for a dutch Montfaucon, but Robson's foreman gives me hopes he can find a copy, tho’ possibly he will think no more about it – I shall continue to enquire for it. First Rates are built at Portsmouth, so I shall preserve my Ship prints for that place.For this discussion of prints of ships, see 1119, n. 1.

I feel myself extremely in your debt for the M.S. last sent me,³ which I have read over with much satisfaction, and shall ornament it as well as I am able. The Frontispiece by Moses, is beautiful, and I only lament he did ^not insert, on my account, some of the plants, birds, fishes, and Fossils, in which he is particularly excellent, and which are very pleasing, and interesting in a work of that sort. If I can’t get the M.S. clean ^which I am perswaded is easily done I will have it copied. the writing is as good as can be wish’d, and tho there are many little errors, I can easily correct them myself. one thing however I must enquire from you. were there two Virtuoso Earls of Arundel, or does your M.S. allude to Earl Thomas Howard the husband of Aletheia Talbot, if so, You and Granger differ in the time of his death, you give it, June 15. 1614. – Granger says Sep^r. 14. 1646.⁴ I am glad to hear the suite of the Dover journey is doing for me. I am straighten’d for time, and must defer answering the remaining parts of your letter, till two or three posts hence, and in the mean time I will enquire about Waltham forest ^& the Waltham blacks – but dont let me forget herein to thank you for your kind order upon Faulder, who has got your note, and will supply me with the additional pages. I have recover’d my health, but my hearing, and of course my Spirits are at a very low ebb indeed. – I see no body to tell me news, my daughters⁵ brought home a report last night, that the Duke of Orleans was kill’d at Paris. I doubt it is not true. A Coalition of parties is talk’d of, & that M^r Fox, and the Duke of Norfolk will act with M^r Pitt e’er long.

I am, in much haste, my Dear Sir
Always Yours

R. B. -

11^th Feb^y: 1791. -

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Editorial notes

1. 'in brief'.
2. Pennant enquires about 'Sebastian King of Portugal' and 'any of the Philips of spain' in 1118. The identity of the Portuguese Sebastian who interested him is clear from the evidence of 1121. For Spanish monarchs, see Philip of Spain.
3. The manuscript mentioned here has not been identified. It appears to relate to natural history, in view of Bull's description of his intentions for its extra-illustration.
4. Granger, A biographical history of England, II, p. 350, gives the date of the death of Thomas Howard, earl of Arundel, as 14 September 1646, as reported here by Bull. The location of Pennant's reference to Howard's death is uncertain and appears to have occurred in the manuscript discussed by Bull here.
5. Elizabeth and Catherine Bull.