Dear Sir

Stratton Street. January 1. 17978
multos & felices.¹

.

I am very much oblig’d by your two last letters, and the parcell, which you need not have paid the carriage of, more especially as it was my affair, and not yours. of the eight drawings taken in the Bay of Fundy, and its neighborhood, which your goodness meant to have furnish’d me with, I find I have five of them already, but I shall not appropriate the remaining three, till I see you, or till I hear from you again, least I should spoil yours, or the set of somebody else. You have set me completely at ease, respecting my apprehensions about the Arctic Zoology, and the Whitford; the latter I find now perfect, and that my Alarm had arisen merely from a blunder of the man who set the press. The title page, and the subsequent leaves, which your kind care recover’d, of the introduction to the Artic Zoology, make that work also complete; and your printer,² who has taken the trouble to call upon me here, has received, and understands, the directions you sent, to reprint a couple of large paper title pages, with the Elk’s head for Volume 1^st. of the Arctic Zoology, and also a couple of large paper title pages, with the pied Duck, for the second Volume of the same book. this done, my cares in regard to this Valuable book, and a very Valuable one I do assure you, I think it, will be over. Q. shall I keep your new printed titles, till I have an opportunity of sending them, or would you rather have them left at the printers? perhaps they will be safer chez moi, and more readily found, when you want them. I was in some hopes of receiving them to day, and I would have sent them by the same conveyance, as I am now availing myself of, to remit this letter, and the two prints mention’d in your last, which I was very glad to find remaining unwanted in my port folio. If you can make out a list of what prints you have a more immediate call for, I won’t promise you to find them amongst the few duplicates I have still left, but I will search for them in all the petty Print shops, where I doubt, our wants are more likely to be supplied. Ingleby need not now hurry himself about my trifling commissions, because I have many things just now in hand, which will take up a good deal of my leisure time.

My daughter, as well as her father, is sorry to hear of the little hitch in your usual family happiness, but we hope and trust, that altho’ the connection may not be, in all respects, exactly the thing you wish, that there is nothing materially wrong in your Girls conduct; it has ever been my opinion, and confirm’d by twenty instances, that it is as easy to keep a cat in a wheelbarrow, as a Girl after 15, out of the arms of what She calls her first Love. opposition only makes the inclination stronger.

I don’t hear any public news worth your trouble of reading. the new tax seems to occupy the thoughts of every class of people, but the Bill will certainly pass, and my Relation John Bull will continue to grumble, but he will pay notwithstanding.³ it is a heavy, but necessary requisition, and I think the man deserves well of his country, whose head has conceiv’d and whose perseverance prompts him to carry into execution, a measure, the only one perhaps, that can save the nation from the evils at this moment hanging over our heads. The visits to S^t. Pauls, was conducted in the best manner possible, nor could it be otherwise, for there were that day, in London and Westminster 29,000 men under arms, and more than that number, within an hours march of the Capital.⁴ I am only afraid the wronghead[...]edness of some of our countrymen, will reduce us to an absolute military Government. from what I saw, and what I heard from others, the royal Carriage was receiv’d without any tokens of disaffection, but without any shouts of applause. The king did not go in his state Coach, but in a private carriage built for the occasion, and, (as is generally believ’d), with the sides made Bullet proof, to prevent such an attempt as was made, not long ago, as he went to the house of Lords. The Glasses were kept up, and both their Majesties⁵ set very back in the Coach, as not wishing, or not daring to shew themselves to the people, at which John Bull was much offended.

I have nothing to add, but the best good wishes of my daughter, and myself to you, and your house. I am very well, but I have little good to say of Miss Bull's health, and less of her Spirits.

Yours always.

R. B. -

since I wrote this, I have examind my Arctic Zoology drawings more exactly, and find I have all the eight which you so kindly sent in your last packet, and I shall therefore put them by, to wait your orders, that you may have the opportunity of obliging somebody else, with them. –

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Editorial notes

1. 'many and happy'.
2. '[Y]our [Pennant's] printer' in this case appears to have referred to Henry Hughs. See 1211 and ibid. n. 1.
3. On a bill relating to taxes passed on 12 January 1798, see 1210 n. 3.
4. For a contemporary account of George III's visit to St Paul's for a 'General Thanksgiving' on 19 December 1797, see Hampshire Chronicle, 23 December 1797.
5. George III and his wife, Charlotte.