Esteemed Sir,

Master Panton was at Beaumares the morning I receiv’d the favour of your letter, to whom I deliver’d the inclosed. –¹ [...] I send the Inscriptions on each side theof the Alter at Beaumares, and that which you desired at Penmon.² – The Fish, I mention’d that I intended a visit to, was a trick put upon me by a waggish acquaintance, who deem’d it the most effectual method of enticing me so far from home to partake of a drinking match. –

Another Specimen of the Gadus,³ which I sent, was brought me lately, which I thought it unnecessary to preserve, as M: Griffiths Drawing is a good [sic], it was smaller than the former.

The Haddock, a fish so little known on this Coast for many years past, as to be term’d by the common people y Pyscod dieithr (the Strange fishes) has visited the northern part of this Island, this and the last Summer, in such great abundance as considerably to reduce the market-rates for some weeks, the poorer people cure quantities of them.

I wish you all pleasure & Satisfaction on your intended Tour,⁴ and am, Dear Sir,

your most obliged & Humble Servant

Hugh Davies.

Beaumares July the 29th. – 73.

P.S. A Catalogue of the Birds & Plants of Priestholm Isle is on your return. –

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Editorial notes

1. A reference to Paul Panton, junior, who would have been around fifteen years old at this time.
2. The inscription at Penmon does not appear to have been reproduced by Pennant in A tour in Wales. The Beaumaris inscriptions may be those on a stone on the south side of the altar of the church, which are given in A tour in Wales 1770 [1773] (1778), II, p. 247.
3. A type of cod (Gadus morrhua), found in the North Atlantic and connected seas. OED. Pennant mentions several fish whose Latin names include the word 'Gadus' in his British zoology. The 'Poor' is the only one illustrated by Moses Griffith. See British zoology (2nd edn., 1768–70), III, Plate IX, facing p. 150.
4. Davies refers to Pennant's forthcoming tour of north Wales, the basis for much of his published A tour in Wales 1770 [1773] (1778).