Thomas Pennant to William Owen [Pughe]

16 April 1789

ID: 1415 [see the .xml file]
Identifier: NLW 13222C, pp. 127–30
Notes:

Condition: a small rectangular section of p. 128, containing Pennant's signature, has been deliberately cut out. This also affects the reverse, p. 127.
Previous letter: 1414
Next letter: 1416
Cite: 'Thomas Pennant to William Owen [Pughe] 16 April 1789' in Curious Travellers Digital Editions [editions.curioustravellers.ac.uk/doc/1415]

Mr Owens

To mr Fauld[...] [...] ^– are Inclosed1 are some corrections or additions to my M.S. of London2 which Mr Faulder will assist in putting in their proper place. Pray do it as nicely as you can.

Please to copy

Pray transcribe & send to me what I have said of Henry V. when Prince of wales, & Sir John Elliot p. 53.3 about a dozen lines will do. I will return it corrected with that page respecting Elis 1.4

If you could have leisure to go as far as st Saviours Dock behind Bermondsey I wish for a general account of its size & what barges or vessels frequent it. also if there is not a new prison building near Battle Bridge.5 Mr Faulder will get yr letters franked.

I am
yr friend

Th. Pennant

6 Downing April 16th 1789.

If you cd conveniently cross the river I wish you cd learn the uses of the canal from Bromley near Bow which ends in the Thames [...]west of Lime house dock.7 What commodities are brought down:? & whetherhas not this new canal annihilated the use of the River Lea from its mouth near Blackwall, to Bromley?8

also in yr return to observe whether the old navy office is pulled down & new buildings erected for the purpose of a i east india [...]warehouse.9

To
Mr William Owen
at Messrs Owen & [...]ockley’s
No. 73.
new Bondstreet.

To
Mr William Owen
at Messrs Owen & [...]ockley’s
No. 73.
new Bondstreet.

Marginalia


on address side: St, Savr, ab Lth. 400y... [...]bt. 30 ft. b. Coal Copperas from Writtlsea Essex
[...] Clay from pool [...] Lime House New cut begn. abt- 20 Y. ago
Trade Coal. Corn flour ^Malt &c. [...]s towds. Bow. Bow-lock - ^on River Lea joins it up the [...] Bason [sic] is to be cut at Blackwall

E: India Warehouse
Inside court 20 by 50 ydsi Extreme breadth 54 yds.
60

3
50

34
3
102
150
2502

54
3
162

Editorial notes

1. The words added above the line appear to be in a different hand.
2. Pennant writes of his draft work on London, the first edition of which was published by Robert Faulder in 1790 under the title Of London.
3. This refers to Pennant's account of the imprisonment at the King's bench prison of Henry V whilst prince of Wales on the order of the 'honest judge Gascoigne, for striking or insulting him on the bench'. The incident was reported by Sir Thomas Elyot (rather than John, as given here), Pennant notes. Of London (1790), pp. 38–9. The reference to 'p. 53' in the text of the letter may be in the hand of William Owen [Pughe].
4. This may be a reference to Elizabeth I, who makes numerous appearances in Pennant's Of London (1790).
5. Battle-bridge, named after the abbot of Battle, is noted in Of London (1790), p. 55, but no mention is made of a prison being built nearby.
6. The original signature has been torn out, and replaced by Pennant's name in another hand.
7. See Of London (1790), p. 283, and 1416.
8. The canal in question, about a mile and a quarter in length, is named as 'the New Cut, or Poplar canal' in Of London (1790) and was observed by Pennant '[i]n our walk through Limehouse'. For Pennant's account of it see ibid., pp. 283–4.
9. Upon the removal of the Navy Office to Somerset house, the old building was replaced by 'a most magnificent warehouse' by the 'India company'. Of London (1790), p. 252.

i. The measurements of the inside court given here correspond to those published in Of London (1790), p. 252.