Sir,

I went to examine S^t. Saviour’s Dock¹ – It is the receptacle that receives several rivulets from the low grounds about Bermondsey & S^t. George’s Fields. The warehouses on it are all old erections – the inlet which forms it existed before it was made a regular dock – I could get no information as to the time when it was made, though I met with a person that belonged to it thirty years and upwards. Its length is about 400 yards, and its mean breadth about 30 feet. It is solely appropriated for barges; which land there various articles; as it is not for any particular branch of trade, though calls [sic] may be placed at the head, copperas from Writtlesea in Essex is landed here, Pipeclay from Poole in Dorsetshire, and Corn, &c &c.

Limehouse New Cut,
was begun about 20 years ago – runs by Bromley, and joins the river Lea near Bow, where barges enter from one to the other by means of a Lock, called Bow Lock. Both these navigations convey to the Thames the produce of the great Distilleries near Bow, and return with commodities for the use of those works; which is the principal traffick on those waters as far as Bow. The principal articles of general trade are coals, corn, malt and Flour. The new cut has not annihilated the navigation of the river Lea from its mouth, but barges go by either just as conveniency occurs in respect to the place the articles are to be conveyed to; or as the tides answer. But when they are not influenced by either of those events, the barges will enter the mouth of the river Lea to save the navigation charges that must be paid in going by the New cut.

A new Bason [sic] is intended to be made at Blackwall for the use of the East India Co’s ships.

On the site of the Old Navy-office the East India company has raised what one may venture to call a magnificent erection – It is a regular oblong square building of about 250 feet by 160 feet, enclosing a court of 150 feet by 60, entered by an arched gateway – It is a Tea-Warehouse.

Cold-Bath-fields
Is the spot where the Prison, you mentioned, is erecting.² Sir, if everyou ever walked by Bagnidge Wells you might have observed south of that spot, at the distance of near 200 Yards, a high hill, of factitious earth, probably formed by the rubbish brought from the ruins caused by the great fire. This hill is levelling; the work was begun about two years ago, and the foundation is partly laid; upwards of 40 feet below the summit of the hill. So far advanced it is a great work, by reason of an insecure foundation they have been obliged to sink piles, and lay frames, and prodigious brick-works. – The lease of Clerkenwell Bridewell will expire in about seven years, and the owners of the ground will want it at that time for their own purposes; in consequence of which the county of Middlesex erects this Prison to be ready against that period. It is to be a Penitentiary House as well as a Bridewell: the convicts lodged here will be doomed to solitude, as its plan is for a separate lodgement for each convict. The dimensions of the building will be 241 feet by 187 feet in a square area within a wall of 440 feet by 400 f^t, The west wall will have a little irregularity, as it follows the cours [sic] of the river Fleet.

Extract from p. 153 of MS. Lond.
“There is no mention of his striking the chief Justice, or of his commitment,” &c³

Care shall be taken in arranging the corrections you have transmitted.

The approaching Festival for the Recovery of his Majesty⁴ attracts the attention of the people to a degree that one not on the spot can hardly form an idea. – I wished that the principality of Wales should not pass unobserved in the Celebrity; and with that view took the liberty of hinting to a Nobleman, native of that country, that it were desireable [sic] that a characteristic Medal should be struck for the Principality.⁵ The obverse of which should be descriptive of the event; and the reverse might have the genius of Cambria in the attitude of Adoration to heaven; and a suitable inscription in ^the Welsh language, The expence would not have exceeded what some individual Welshmen will expend on the occasion in the blaze of a moment, and that would have shone to future ages.

I hope you and Family are in perfect health – And remain respectfully,

Sir,
Your most humble Servant

William Owen

April 22. 1789.

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Editorial notes

1. Much of the material in the opening four paragraphs of this letter appears, some of it verbatim, in Pennant's Of London (1790), pp. 55, 283, 252.
2. Pennant does not appear to have used the material in this paragraph in Of London (1790).
3. For the episode involving the striking of a judge by the young prince of Wales, later Henry V, see 1415, n. 3.
4. George III was severely ill during late 1788, but was convalescing by the middle of February 1789.
5. For a commemorative medal on the occasion of George III's recovery, dated 23 April 1789, see 'Medal commemorating George III's recovery of health, visit to St Pauls 1789' at the Royal Museums Greenwich, here [external link] [accessed 5 September 2019].