Dear Sir
I seize the first opportunity of sending you & my fellow travellers a sketch of my journey please to communicate it to them
with my best compliments. if you take the same route down, please to add yr remarks & sketch
the arms, especially those above & below the Religious in Luton Church.1 In respect to the tomb at acton it is of a
Sir Wm de Manwaring, the date defaced, but you may recover it by consulting
Holme's collections abt. cheshire in the museum.
Let me beg you wd search for what is said abt Luton Ch.
also. should you or my friends be able to give me any anecdotes relating to any of the places I now inform you of, I shall be happy to receive
them. you will oblige me by sending one of Buck's lists & inclose it in a frank: when Sir Roger
arrives I shall take care to get some for you; but I hope you will not be long before you give us yr company.
Bel Davy & Mrs Falconer
present best complimts. the two first very thankfull for yr kind remembrance. I am Dear Sir
Most affectly yrs
Tho Pennant
Chester april 27th 1773
I go to Downing this week.
Turn over.
Be so good as to desire Mr Gough to leave
my m[...]y drawings at
Mr Whites, for they
must be soon engraven. I mean those that are with the Antiquaries.2
Stamp: (postmark) 30 AP
Stamp: (postmark) 30 AP
Marginalia
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- The Font, & antient Tombs.
- Portraits good & curious.
- old & modern monumts of the Earls &c of Kent
- strange one of a css of Elgin in her shroud
- Two beautifull [sic] fronts.
- Pretty situation.
- Fine Portraits
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- Fine old house & situation.
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Horton
- Fine tomb of wm Lord Parre
- Queens cross on the road side.
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- St Peters ch. old & curious
- St Sepulchres do
- Castle Ashby. fine old house
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- fine antient tombs
- Fine gothic Hall. (near Daventry)
- antient tombs.
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- St Michael's Church steeple.
- Painted Glass in the Town Hall
- the Ladies spoon. ibid.
- Grey Friers steeple,
- Do Gate.
- an almost complete Cloister
- very elegant.
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- a fine seat of Sir R. Newdigate. but I did not see it.
- ruins near it of a nunnery.
- Roman station
- Fine view
- Ruins. very fine Tomb; & painted Glass in the Ch.
- octagon steeple.
- Castle & Church.
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- Cathedral
- Fine situation. Hall, Gallery.
- Hall, Pictures; & tombs in the Ch.
- Fine.
- Its elegant buildings, fine statues, improvements
- the fine junction of two canals.
- Its fine Gateway.
- a good old house.
- in the great Church 2 curious tombs.ii
- a Fine piece of water: & woods.
- Etruria, Mr Wedgewoods Pottery
- Hare castle. the canal now working beneath.
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- a fine old house between Lunton & Nantwich.
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Editorial notes
1.
This refers to the tomb at Luton church described by Pennant as being in the form of an altar, with 'various arms' on top, and the
'effigies of William Wenlock, in the habit of a shaven priest', lying on it. The arms, 'a small shield of a chevron, between three
croslet gules' enclosing a Latin imprecation addressed to the virgin Mary and Jesus ('Salve Regina Mater miserecordie | Jesu
fili Dei miser[er]e mei'; Hail Queen, Mother of mercy, Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me), placed 'on a label from his mouth'.
The journey from Chester to London (1782), pp. 397–8.
2.
A reference to
the Society of Antiquaries of London and its members.
i. The two fine
tombs referred to here are to Sir William Manwaring (d. 1399) and Sir Thomas Wilbraham (d. 1660) and
his wife Elizabeth, described in
The journey from Chester to London, pp. 21–3.
ii. Pennant appears here to be referring to the church of St. Mary, which included the tombs of Sir Edward Aston (d. 1567) and his wife Joan.
The journey from Chester to London (1782), p. 73.