Dear Sir

NorthCourt. Isle of Wight. August 30. 1795

I know not how it happens, but you always find somebody to frank your letters to me, but a black Swan or a White Lion, is not a greater rarity, than a member of Parliament on our side the water, and upon that account, I have been unwilling to trouble you with a letter merely to say how d'ye do, tho I should be sorry indeed to lose such a pleasant correspondent as you are, from a motive perhaps, of false delicacy. I hope, and my daughter's¹ hope, that you have perfectly recover'd from every bad effect of that unfortunate slip you made in the Spring, and that your knee has regain'd its lost Strength.² I left London towards the end of May, very lame with a broken shin, occasion'd by an awkward fall over a packing box, and after a confinement of more than six weeks, it became only a secondary complaint, for a violent humor spread it self all over the lower part of my face and made me unfit to associate even with my own family; It was perhaps an effort of nature, to prevent some thing worse, for I was quite otherwise than well, when it came upon me.

It gave me pleasure to hear that your usual Ardor for literary Amusements still continues, and I hope you will ^give it proper encouragement, for your own happiness, and for the pleasure, and the instruction of mankind. I have begun to buy prints again, and am making up more Books, not quite in my dotage I trust, tho' in the 74^th year of my Reign; And if your Enfant gaté³ would furnish me with a few more drawings I would finish the Arctic Zoology as it should be; but M^r. Griffyth (no longer Moses) has married a wife and I understand has not always leisure even to do business even for his great benefactor, much less for your friends. perhaps his Cara Sposa⁴ thinks her business is sufficient for all his leisure, but that is kicking against the Pricks and He should admonish her of it. You had once the goodness to say you would procure somebody to make me a copy of your outline of the World, as far as it respected the little Isle of wight,⁵ about which I take much Interest, and [...] in common with all others, [...]fied with the catch penny accounts which have appear'd this year and the last, upon our Island subject.

We have found full employment here, for a score of workmen for near three years, and, like all other Simpletons, have expended three times the sum we proposed to have laid out, but the place is a new Creation, both within and without, and if it is not become too large for such a mènage [sic] as mine, the poor laborers in my Vinyard are heartily welcome to the Wages they have earned. Having seen what it was, I wish for an opportunity of shewing you what it is.

What a disastrous Crusade the poor Emigrants made upon the Coasts of France! And I fear it will not be long, before we shall have a second Edition of the same tragedy with English notes, as A fleet of three, three deckers, two seventy fours, and four frigates, with above an hundred transports full of English and french troops, are said to have sail'd upon a secret Expedition against some part of Britany.⁶ Compte D'Artois went in the Queen Charlotte, and 'tis supposed, they have receivd some important informations, from the Royalists, since the death of the Boy king.

My daughters⁷ desire their best good wishes to all of the house of Pennant, and if you have thought my silence has arisen from indolence, or from want of attention, unthink it again [?as] fast as you can, I beseech you,

and believe me, as ever, sincerely yours.

Rich^d: Bull

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Editorial notes

1. Elizabeth and Catherine Bull.
3. 'spoilt child'. Bull presumably refers to Moses Griffith.
4. 'beloved wife'.
5. See 'Outlines of the Globe', vol. XXI.
6. The expedition to the island of Yeu (l'île d'Yeu), 26 August – 21 November 1795.
7. Elizabeth and Catherine Bull.