Dear S^r

I received the favor of your letter which tho it gave me information concerning Owen Glendower, was deficient in one thing, did not give me intelligence of your Marriage:¹ I hope before you receive this, you will be happy in securing an amiable Companion for life, & indeed I most sincerely wish you all imaginable happiness: [...] M^rs Nash & myself often talk with great pleasure of paying you & M^rs. Pennant a visit next Summer, for I conclude Matrimony will make you cease to be a traveller, tho' it may improve your taste for natural History.

Yesterday your Chairs were bespoke & will be sent to the bookseller at Chester by the first good Hop Waggon & A letter of Advice to him.

I have compared your Quotation from Monstrelet with my remembrance of the Spot where I suppose the Event hapned [sic] for at present I speak only by Memory.²– Perhaps then Glendower [...]with the French lay in the Camp above L^d. Foleys house Henry 4 had two Camps to the N. E. of him: One at a place called Wassal Hill, the other upon Kinver Edge, very little out of the road from Chester to Worcester: This last is not in Worcestershire, the other two Camps are, one in the parish of Kidderminster, the other in great Whitley, that upon Wobury Hill I have had measured & planned, but it is not at home. I will take the first opportunity of reading Monstrelet & Hall, when I shall be better able to judge. From whence did Henry come?³ Would he encamp to the N. E. of Glendower to prevent his marching to Staffordshire or Shropshire.? I forget, (for I write without any books) where the French landed & which way they marched after they joined Glendower in order to come to Worcester.⁴ Wobury Hill (Glendowers Camp) is about 9 miles or 3 French leagues from Worcester; The distance between the Camps may be eight or ten miles: I should suppose by the name & other Circumstances, that Wobury had been an old Encampment, & that Glendower found the Ditch &c ready made: Wales lyes open to this Camp, & indeed as he had enrag'd the Inhabitants of Worcester,⁵ who lay to the S. of him & the King to the N & E no other point was open but the West, & a[c]cordingly he retired to Wales: Observe the Severn lay to the East of him & ran between the two Camps. which circumstance might help the Rebel to escape.⁶

Very soon after you went I found the Breviary of Britain upon a Shelf where I almost suspect you put it yourself: If you have any use for it, it is much at your Service when & as long as you please. – Come & fetch it

M^rs. Nash & my Daughter desire their Compl^s. to M^rs. Pennant & yourself: You say I have little to do, that I write all this nonsense, & thank God my paper is not bigger.

Yours most sincrely [sic]

T. Nash

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Editorial notes

1. This probably refers to Pennant's second marriage, that to Ann Mostyn in January 1777.
2. Nash goes on to discuss an event described by the chronicler Enguerrand de Monstrelet relating to the arrival of Owain Glyndwr's army, allied with French forces who had landed at Milford Haven in August 1405, at Woodbury Hill, near Worcester. Here they reputedly stood for eight days, facing Henry IV's army across the valley, before both armies rescinded, choosing not to venture engagement in battle. See Davies, The Revolt of Owain Glyn Dŵr, pp. 193–4.
3. Henry IV had been assembling an army in Nottingham, in response to a revolt by the earl of Northumberland, the earl marshal, Thomas Mowbray, Lord Bardolf, and Archbishop Richard Scrope in northern England. By mid-August 1405, he had returned from the north via Leicester and Hereford, to resume a campaign in Wales. ODNB s.n. Henry IV [known as Henry Bolingbroke].
4. According to Monstrelet, the French landed at Haverford[west], but commentators prefer to follow the chronicle of the monk of Saint-Denys, in naming Milford Haven as the landing point. These two accounts differ on the question of the progress of the French from the coast, only Monstrelet suggesting that they arrived, via Pembrokeshire, Carmarthen, and a location in Glamorgan (probably Caerleon) to 'Vincestre', assumed to be Worcester. See Brough, The Rise and Fall of Owain Glyn Dŵr, pp. 126, 134, 136–7.
5. Monstrelet notes of the combined Welsh and French forces at Worcester: 'They burned the suburbs and the surrounding country'. Brough, The Rise and Fall of Owain Glyn Dŵr, pp. 134, 137.
6. Further on Nash's deliberations on the camps at Woodbury Hill and Wassal and his reference to visiting the former alongside Pennant, see Treadway Russell Nash, Collections for the History of Worcestershire (2 vols., London: John Nichols, 1781–2), II, pp. 465–6. Pennant, who also refers to his visit to Woodbury Hill alongside Nash, makes use of this material in A tour in Wales (2nd edn., 1784), pp. 375–6.