Dear Sir.

Stratton Street. April 8. 1791.

I desire to thank you again, and again, for the new Edition of your London upon large paper, which I have got from Faulder, to whom I have sent my Copy of the first Edition^& appendix neat and clean, & hot press’d, with which he seems pleased. I directed him to sell it, and place it to your account, which I will beg you to keep in your remembrance, for I would by no means, in no manner, trespass upon generosity, where I have such an obvious way of avoiding it. The first Edition, with the Appendix, may be as saleable to a common reader, as the second, but not so to me, for reasons I have already told You.

You have furnish’d me so plentifully with the works of the Edinburgh barber, that I have no occasion for more, unless he has done any, never intended to be sold.

The Good B^sp of Mar:^lles was certainly buried, but is it as certain that he had an Epitaph to his memory? in addition to what you know of that place, you will find in the Burghley state papers; that “at Southwick was a house of Augustine Canons, founded by Henry 1^st. and granted at the dissolution to John White.¹Magna Britannia says "Henry 8 exchang’d it, with the Lord Chamberlain Sir Thomas Wrotheslay. utrum horum mavis, accipe;² I should suppose the former to be most accurate. It was never a Royal house, but was hired for the King, when (of the Norton Family,) when Charles 1^st. had a temporary residence there.³

I have got most of Hollarssea fights, but being without dates or inscriptions, am at loss to know the battle of 1636.⁴ Where the terrible Negro prints came from, I cannot tell, nor have I ever seen any others of that kind. – I don’t recollect I am in immediate want of any of D^r Nash's prints. ––– Where can people get mony to answer all their purposes, for every body purchases what they wish for, and at any expense? A Sale of Books brought from Paris by Edwards, produced at auction, last week, very near £7000, and the Catalogue, a very small one, only 636 articles. – A couple of 8^o. M.S.S sold for more than 200 £ – then – how are we ruind?

You think more about me, and my little pursuits, than I have any right to expect, and I ought not to omit thanking you, for what you flatter me with the hopes of receiving, when your young Lady comes to town. and here let me note my own, and my daughtersElizabeth and Catherine Bull. best acknowledgements, for wishing to to you, and your Sposa, for wishing to see us in wales, where we have long wish’d to see ourselves, and what you have said is an additional inducement to us all. The dies volvenda⁵ may bring it about, but not this year; tho’ you have a devoir, to visit the Isle of Wight, if you mean to say anything particular about it; believe me, Sir Rich^d. Worsley's Collection⁶ would well pay you for the trouble, and ’tis very seldom that all my beds are engag’d at the same time.– we go the [...]middle of June. - London is so full at present, that it takes me up sometimes half an hour, before I can cross piccadilly, for a walk in the Green Park, and I for one am pleasur’d to death. my head is turn’d but I hope not my heart. The prince ^of Wales has made it up with the King for the present. – When he has not a guinea left, He arises, and goes to his father, like a true prodigal Son – the Dutch loan⁷ to him cannot be negotiated, nobody will lend him half a crown, upon the Security he has offerd, and he has none other to give. – not long since there was an Execution in his Palace in Pall: Mall, but it seems, he is so little Harry V., that all his faults are lost in the Expectation of ^the future greatness of his character. – I have just heard that Lord Cholmondeley has declar’d himself to Lady Charlotte Bertie, I think he is the first Man in England, for sweetness of disposition, and elegance of manners, and She is most perfectly good humour’d, and, par bricole at least, will find the comforts of the beggars blessing, which the World gives him the credit for being so fully possess’d of. Lord Cardigan Æta: 65, has offerd to Lady Eliz: waldegrave æta: 25, and is accepted. this is all the news I know of, except that [...] the idea of a warr [sic] grows less and less every day. – This frank is large, and so I have enclos’d some trumpery prints, & if one of the whole, is of any use to You, my purpose will be Answer’d.

I am Dear Sir,
Always yours.

Rich^d: Bull

P.S. I hear the Duke of York is going Volunteer, to join the Prussian Army.⁸

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Editorial notes

1. This quotation from 'Burghley Papers, II, 797', appears in John Nichols, The progresses, and public processions, of Queen Elizabeth (London: printed by and for the editor, 1788), II, p. 3.
2. 'take whichever you prefer'.
3. Charles I stayed with Sir Daniel Norton at his home, Southwick Priory, Hampshire, in June 1627, awaiting the embarkation of a fleet for France from Portsmouth. Hist P s.n. Sir Daniel Norton.
4. For Hollar's depiction of the Battle of the Downs, 1639 (wrongly dated both here and there to 1636), see 1128 and the artwork 'De Spaanse, Engelse en Hollandse vloten voor Deal, 1639'.
5. 'passage of time'.
6. Worsley's collection is described in some detail in Bull's list 'A selection from the principal paintings, cultures, and drawings in the house at Appuldurcombe'.
7. The Kentish Gazette, 4 March 1791, reported on 'A loan for three hundred thousand pounds now said to be negotiating at Antwerp' whereby the revenues of a certain Dutch duchy and bishoprick were to be assigned in trust to six British noblemen.
8. Frederick, duke of York and Albany (1763–1827), spent time on the continent during 1791 serving as a volunteer with the Prussian army in case of an outbreak of war against Russia, which in the event did not take place. John Philippart, The royal military calendar: containing the services of every general officer in the British army, from the date of their first commision (2 vols., London: printed by A. J. Valpy, Tooke's Court, Chancery Lane, 1815), I, p. 2. A contemporary newspaper reported in mid-April 1791 that 'The Duke of York will depart in about a fortnight for Prussia'. Northampton Mercury, 16 April 1791.