John Jones to Thomas Pennant

2 August 1777

ID: 1424 [see the .xml file]
Identifier: WCRO TP4, items 9–10
Previous letter: 1430
Next letter: 1477
Cite: 'John Jones to Thomas Pennant 2 August 1777' in Curious Travellers Digital Editions [editions.curioustravellers.ac.uk/doc/1424]

Sir

Oxford Aug: 2 1777

I take this Opportunity to acknowledge the recipt of both your Letters, and to give you Mr Price's Thanks and mine for your obliging Invitation. Mr Price has just put into my Hands a M.S. of his with the following [...]

The Number of the Hundreds [...] Parish Churches and Fairs together with the Names of all chief Lordships, Market Towns Forests and great W[...] Deer Parks Ports Havens chief Mountains and Hills, notable [...] Monasteries Priories, Frieries, and Nunneries in all [?the counties] of Wales And also the [...] of divers of [...] of every of the said Shires, and the names of [...] and Dwelling Places – with brief notes of the nature of the Soil Quality of the People [?and] Government in every [...], and the present State of the [...]est Towns in the [...] the length and Breadth, and a near Guess of [...] or Bigness of every Shi[?re] reduced into Square Miles according to the Scale of Master Saxton's Mapps – first [...]ted by George Owen Henllys [?Pembrokeshire] [...] Anno Domini 1602 –

MrPrice desires his best Complim[?ts] [...] that you are wellcome to make what use you pl[?ease] [...] MS If you are [?desirous] of a Copy of the [...] play, I beg you will let me know, and I will [...] as possible, as I have now [...] to the Bodl[?eian] at [?Mr] Price having appo[?int]ed me to succeed [...]. I hope therefore for [?the] future you will[...] commands without any apologies or [...] [...] Be assured the [...] of them will [...] greatest [...]

Sir,
your most obedient humble Servt.

Jno Jones

P.S.
Please to add the Initial of my Christian Name to your Directions to me here: [...]to prevent Mistakes

Stamp: (postmark) [handwritten:] + Post

To Thomas Pennant
Downing near Northop
Flintshire

To Thomas Pennant
Downing near Northop
Flintshire

Stamp: (postmark) [handwritten:] + Post
Marginalia

Noyei
Wyfe come in whie stands thou [?there]
Thou arte ever froward that sure I [?swe]are
Come in on Gods half tyme it [?were]
For Feare lest that wee d[?rowne,]
Noes Wief
You Sir sett up your Sayle
And rowe forth with evill Hayle
For withouten Land fayle
I will not out of this grove
But I have my Gossopes [?evry] ech one
One fote further I will no[?t] [?gone]
They shall [?not] drown, by Saint J[?ohn]
And I maye save th[?er] lyves
They loved me full well by C[?hrist]
But thou wilt lett them into thie chest,
Ellis row forth may when thou list[?e]
And get thee another wief
Noye
Sem ^Sonne nowe thie mother is wa[?r] [?o woe]
By god faith another I doe not kno[?we]
Se[?m]
Father, I shall fetch her in, I trow
Withouten anie faile
Mother my [?father] after thee sen[?ds]
And biddes thee into younder Ship we[?nds]
Looke upe and [?see] the Winds
For we bene [?rea]die to sayle
Noye's Wief
Sonne go agayne to him and s[?aye]
I will not come therein to daye
Noye
Come in wief in twentie Devill waye
Or allis stand there without
Cham
Shall we all fetch her in
Noye
Yea Sonnes in [?Chri]sts Blessing and mine
I would ye hied yea betyme
For of this flood I stand [?in] doubt
The good [?g]ossopes.
The [?flood] [?com]es fleeting [?in] apace
One every side [?it] spredeth [?full] fare
For feare of [?dro]wning I am agast
Good [?gossopes] [?let] us draw neare
And let us [?drink] are we [?de]part
For [?ofte] tymes we have done so
For at a dra[?ught] thou Drinks a qu[?ar]t
And so will [?I doe or] I goe.
Here is a [?pottell] full of Malmesay good & strong
It will rejoyce both hart and tong
Though Noy think us never so long
Yet we will drink a tyte
Japhet
Mother we p[?ray] [?you] altogether
[?For] we are [?here your owne] Children
Come into the [?ship] for feare of the wedd[?er]
For [?his love that] you bought
Noye's wief
That [?I] [?w]ill not far all your Call
But I [?have my] [?gosso]pes all
Se[?m]
In Faith Moth[?er] [?yet you] shall
Whether yo[?u] [?w]ill or mongst
Noe
Well me Wief into this Boate
Noe's wyfe
Have you that for thie noteii
Noe
A ha Mary this is whote
It is good to be still
[?A] Children methink my Boat remeves
Our tarrying here heughly me greves
[?On] the Land the water spreads
[?G]od doe [?as] he will



i. The following text from the Chester Water leaders and drawers' play on the 'History of the Deluge', 'copied from the MS. in the Bodleian Library', is included in A tour in Wales 1770 [1773], I, pp. 140–3. The printed text is used to supply the deficiencies of the manuscript, which is damaged by water marks. For a useful recent discussion, see Sheila Christie, 'Speculum Urbis: The Chester Cycle as a Tool of Social Cohesion and Transformation', The Yearbook of English Studies, Vol. 43, Early English Drama (Modern Humanities Research Association, 2013), pp. 140–55.
ii. The printed version gives stage directions here: '[Gives Noah a box in the ear.]'. See A tour in Wales 1770 [1773], I, p. 142.