Dear Sir

Downing June 1[...]7^th. 1797.

You have been a true prophet of good thin[...]gs. It is singular that the very next morning to the receit of y^r cordial should bring the news of the return to Loyalty of of [sic] the four first ships:¹ as this brings that of the conclusion of a business so nearly subversive of the british empire. Providence interfered & saved us by instilling a similar spirit into the dutch sailors, & defurnishing the french fleets from the means of annoyance in a crisis the most opportune to us that could ever have been. Let us devoutly return Thanks: & in future strive to suppress that spirit of insolence & pride which has so long characterized the english & which heaven in its mercy has laid on its rod by way of cure.

I truely rejoice that Doctor Turton pronounces so favourably on y^r disorder. and long may that be the case. The effect of the Fox-glove on me was most happy four ofr five doses have effected my cure & I am now as well as ever. The effects of the medicin² are [...]sometimes most tremendous: patients have been known to be brought to nearly deaths door by the very remedy.

The letter press of the Whiteford was strangely forgotten. I detain it [...] now till I hear whether you wish for more drawings: & took the liberty of ordering one more in the interim. viz. the interior of the old hall at Mostyn.

I cannot live idle. I let loose a secret. The conduct of my countrymen which ended so much to my poor nephew's disgrace, and so with so much infamy to his constituents, has provoked me to draw up an account of their proceedings, [...] partly ludicrously, partly with the knowt³ at the end of my pen:⁴ not the moderate one I assure you

This has been a twelmonth of much calamity to me. the death of Sir R. M. with all the misery brought on the county in consequence. The death of a faithful humble companion a most singular humorist in the Pancha⁵ way. – I better c^d have spared a better man – well may I say. [...]⁶ a faithful servant of 55 years service with my two wives, & the masterof the first.⁷ - my Sister. & my good friend Paul Panton. These are to be expected by us whom heaven has spared to a later period than our neighbors.

every blessing attend you & miss Bull. Adieu Dear Sir,
Y^r ever obliged &
affect friend

Tho. Pennant

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Editorial notes

1. On the mutiny at the Nore, see 1201 n. 2.
2. The final 'e' may be obscured by the binding of the manuscript.
3. knout, knowt: A kind of whip or scourge, very severe and often fatal in its effects, formerly used in Russia as an instrument of punishment. Examples are dated 1716–1855. OED.
4. This work by Pennant, castigating the supporters of Thomas Mostyn during the Parliamentary election of 1796, has not been identified.
5. Pennant compares his deceased servant to Sancho Panza, the witty and humorous squire of the eponymous hero in Cervantes's Don Quixote.
6. Pennant leaves an empty gap here, perhaps not choosing to provide the name of the servant in question.
7. Pennant refers to his two wives, Elizabeth (née Falconer) and Ann (née Mostyn), and to the 'master', in this case the father, of Elizabeth, his first wife.