Thomas Pennant to Richard Bull

19 June 1794

ID: 1178 [see the .xml file] [download the xml file]
Identifier: NLW 5500C, no. 118
Editors: Transcribed by Ffion Mair Jones; edited by Ffion Mair Jones; encoded by Vivien Williams. (2019)
Cite: 'Thomas Pennant to Richard Bull 19 June 1794' 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/1178]

Dear Sir

Possibly the heavy calamity which I experienced within about ten days after I saw you in town may have reached your ears.1 This will account for my long silence. I Mrs Pennant & I submit with resignation to the will of Providence, yet it is impossible to suppress parental feelings. we are both far from well: I resume every duty & every amusement in order to alleviate sorrow: but alas Hæret lethalis arundo! 2 & I fear will remain during life. may heaven ever preserve you from such a misfortune for it is a most dreaded thought that of surviving ones children.

You are in the midst of Joy & triumph.3 The victory is all-saving as well as glorious had it been otherwise the barbarians might have invaded by millions: & hecatombs of heads would have been the sacrifices.

Nothing can make me forget my promise to you: but my secretary & now my agent has inevitably been put back in my work, which will oblige me to defer yours.

I am with truest regard
Dear Sir
Your very affect. friend

Tho. Pennant

Downing june 19th 1794.

Editorial notes
1. Sarah Pennant died on 16 April 1794 and was buried at Whitford Parish church on 1 May. Evans, 'The life and work of Thomas Pennant', p. 74.
2. ‘The deadly arrow sticks’. A quotation from Virgil, Aeneid, book IV, v. 73. In full the line reads ' Haeret lateri lethalis arundo' (‘the deadly arrow sticks in its side’), and is a description of a doe trying to escape from its hunter, as Dido tries to escape her passion for Aeneas.
3. A reference to the battle which became known as the Glorious First of June 1794, claimed by the British as a victory against the French.