Dear Sir,

Downing May 5^th 1795.

Permit me to say that few gentlemen merit more fr^m y^r country than yourself & M^r Cloughs,¹ & I do most sincerely congratulate you on having brought it ^unlucky business to so good a conclusion.² I should rather have thought that the bench of Justices would have voted the three Gentlemen who bore the burden of their business their due thanks, instead of suffering so many gross & seditious aspersions to be uttered against their conduct. I am certain you never w^d have been the instrument of oppression. You acted under an act constitutionally sanctified by the three estates of the kingdom, & proposed most cogently for the salvation of the whole. enough of this.

Now let me request you to lend to me as soon as possible M^rs Piozzi's Synonyms. I wish much to see them for the sake of some pedegree [sic] remarks on the Mostyn family. Be so good as to convey them here. I w^d send for them; but a Gent: of y^r volatility may be be [sic] 20 miles distant.

You are called the Philosopher. I really think I may be y^r second. Pray think whether a man condemned to 9 weeks recumbency & bein [sic] it with spirit & the full persuit [sic] of literary amusements does not deserve to share the title.³ come over for an hour & see if I speak too boastingly. Adeu [sic]

Y^r faithful Serv^t

Tho. Pennant.

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Editorial notes

1. This is a reference to the brothers Thomas and Roger Clough.
2. Pennant refers to anti-militia and navy-impressment riots which took place in Denbigh on 1 April 1795. See W. Lloyd Davies, ‘The Riot at Denbigh, 1795’, BBCS, IV, part I (1927), 61–73.
3. Pennant had broken his kneepan on 6 April 1795 according to his letter of 13 April 1795 to Richard Bull (1184).
4. The mark is written by hand.