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 19^th 1794.

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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.