Dear Sir

Downing march 8^th. 1797

You lay various obligations on me in y^r favor of [...].¹ I lament the situation you wrote in & hope the attention to the various subjects of y^r letter has not been too severe an exertion. Pray let me hear how you find yourself: I hope for the best of accounts. I must rej[...]oice at the account you give of Miss Bull: She would be wrong did she not mix with the world; solitude would only feed anguish, which reasonable amusements must assist to disperse.

The important news² you was so kind as to send was so unexpected, as almost to take away for some time the powers of speech. It was a most seasonable cordial; & I hope we shall have addition to it by the account of the capture of the Trinidada.³ which seems very probable. I am was sorry to hear of the account of the late about Hastings
a Tale which blends his glory with his ^shame⁴
I had a high opinion of him: but find it impossible for a man to resid[?e] long in India & escape corruption.

I shall take care of y^rWhiteford which is now in the hands of Ingleby

The earl of oxford⁵ is happily released & happily with a fair character, that of a friendly man & one of uncommon ingenuity in the line he took.

Pray what do ye[...] residents in London do about money. The poorer sort here will suffer much for a little time till we can get the dollars & copper which is promised from above.⁶ I shall order a large quantity of both for the easing the embarassments of the poor.

M^rs Pennant requests me to add to mine her best wishes & respects to you & miss Bull

I am with truest regard, Dear Sir
Y^r ever affect. friend

Tho. Pennant

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Editorial notes

1. Pennant has left an empty gap in the text here.
2. A reference to the battle of Cape St Vincent, 14 February 1797, to which Bull refers in his letter of 3 March 1797, 1199.
3. The Chester Chronicle, 31 March 1797, reports on the capture of the Santa Trinidada, the ship of the Spanish admiral badly damaged during the battle of Cape St Vincent on 14 February 1797. It suggests that she was towed into Gibraltar by British frigates.
4. Pennant quotes from Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man: in four epistles, to H. St. John, Lord Bolingbroke, epistle IV, line 308 ('A tale, that blends their glory with their shame!').
5. An error for the 'earl of orford'.
6. A reference to the currency crisis in the wake of the Fishguard scare.