Dear Sir

Downing May 19^th. 1789.

I received y^r late favor with the novelty of regret. I hope you wrote in one respect in the vapours; & that by this time they are quite dispersed. drive them away by redoubled application to our elegant amusements. as to lameness, there can b [sic] no fancy in that. I doubt not but you will be soon restored by the most skilful hand Britain can boast.

I would not importune you so much about the New river, if an account was not essential to me:¹ Neither have I any other friend to trouble you on the subject. If not improper I wish you would be so good as to favor me so far as to give a line to the person who is possessed of the knowlege of that concern. I ask no secrets.

I thank you for the hint about the mysterious mother. & shall think myself uncommonly obliged to you for getting a copy for me. Let me add another. Granger says you have a print of Sir Wolstan Dixie from the the painting in Christ church hospital. Be so good as to get y^r cheap artist to copy the print;² & it shall be allowed in our acc^t.

my suit is ended with the chester coach. the defendant offered to pay in court the 5^£ he gave a receit for, & also costs. my attorney advised me to accept it which I have done.³ You have therefore in my hands 2^£. 10^s. 0^d. being equal to half the loss & that I shall account to you for. I have a very trifle to do about London & hope m^r Hughs will by this time have begun to print it.⁴ This has been a work of vast labor. I smile to see that the magazines have taken the hint & pour out their monthly engravings. In the last Gent's is a very good one of an old Chapel.⁵ The scots did the same by my travels;⁶ for all their Prints histories, fisheries &c &c are in consequence of them.

I admire at miss Bulls's temperance⁷ [...] go to bed at 2 & rise at ten. Incredible!!! Blooming cheeks & unwrinkl'd, will be their reward to extreme old age.

Adieu
Y^rs most truely

Tho. Pennant

Moses will most punctually obey y^r orders.

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Editorial notes

1. See 1083, n. 1.
2. Bull's 'cheap artist' has not been identified.
3. This appears to be a reference to a court case instigated by Pennant against the Chester coach, presumably for a loss of property in transit between Chester and London.
4. When Pennant's Of London appeared in 1790, its printer was Robert Faulder, not Henry Hughs.
5. Three engravings of churches were printed in The Gentleman's Magazine in April and May 1789. See The Gentleman's Magazine, LIX, Part I, no. 4 (April 1789), 292+, 'The Chapel of St. Michael at Aldgate'; 300+, East End of St. Peter le Poor; and ibid., no. 5 (May 1789), 410+, 'West End of St. Peter le Poor'.
6. Pennant refers to his Scottish tours: A Tour in Scotland 1769 (1771), A Tour in Scotland 1772, part I (1774) and A Tour in Scotland 1772, part II (1776).
7. Elizabeth and Catherine Bull.

i. Cf. 1089: 'Such sudden, and rough Reformations, shock one’s feeling[s.] when so much is done in so little time, a great part certainly must be done wrong, ’tho’ when the hour of violence is over...'.
ii. This aide-mémoire on the subject of the 'new River company' is in response to a query by Pennant in 1085, to which Bull gave his attention in 1087 and 1089.
iii. For members of the Luttrell family see Henry Luttrell, Henry Lawes Luttrell and Anne Luttrell.
iv. This may be a reference to Walter Goodall, An introduction to the history and antiquities of Scotland. Containing many useful and curious particulars relating to the Antiquities of Scotland, either little known, or entirely overlooked by other Writers (Edinburgh: printed for P. Anderson, MDCCLXXXII [1782]).