Showing 3 results

Archival description
Thomas and David Pennant manuscripts Jones, Thomas, secretary to Thomas Pennant
Print preview View:

A tour from Alston Moor to Harrowgate, and other tours,

A folio volume lettered on the spine 'Pennant's Tour to Harrowgate', and inscribed on the title-page 'Tours in Durham, Yorkshire, Hampshire, Dorsetshire, and Buckinghamshire, by Tho[mas] Pennant'. The contents consist of accounts of three tours, (a) From Alston Moor to Harrowgate (128 pp. followed by itinerary and index), (b) From Cowes to Lyme Regis (59 pp.), and (c) Tour in Buckinghamshire (15 pp. followed by an incomplete itinerary to (b) and (c)). The first sentence of the text, which reads 'I now resume the tour which I had left unfinished at Alston Moor, p. 234 of vol. XXII of the Outlines of the Globe', appears to connect the present volume with the twenty-two manuscript volumes of Pennant's work entitled Outlines of the Globe, now in the possession of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. The account of the first tour is substantially the same as that given in the version edited and published [by David Pennant], under the title A Tour from Alston-Moor to Harrowgate and Brimham Crags; by Thomas Pennant, Esq. (London, 1804). There are occasional variations in wording and phrasing, and some variation in content, such as the omission in the published work of the manuscript account (pp. 87-93) of the visit to Newby Hall, and the list given of the paintings and sculpture to be found in that residence. The break which occurs in the narrative in the printed version (p. 111), occurs also in the manuscript account (p. 112). The first part of the tour, undertaken in 1773, was brought to an end when the traveller reached Knaresborough, and the second part of the journey, consisting of a visit to Harrowgate, and thence to Ripley Hall and Brimham Crags, in the parish of Halifax, was not undertaken until 1777. The manuscript account lists, without describing, places in Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Staffordshire, and Cheshire, visited, or passed through, by the traveller on the return to Downing in 1773. This is not done in the published version. The account of tour (a) is profusely illustrated with some seventy-seven illustrations. Of these, twenty-one are original drawings, and include wash or water-colour drawings of Bradley Hall, Raby Castle (2), Rippon Minster, Fountain's Abbey (2), [one of the standing stones called the Devil's Arrows, situated west of Borough Bridge], and St. Robert's chapel [Knaresborough], all signed by Moses Griffith; wash or water-colour drawings of Brance speth Castle (Durham), Raby Castle, [two more of the Devil's Arrows previously mentioned], and [Brimham Crags], all unsigned, but probably by Moses Griffith; a water- colour drawing of Winston Bridge, signed S. Wilkinson; a sketch of an effigy of Sir William Slingsby, signed by Moses Griffith; and sketches of an effigy of William de Whitworth in Whitworth churchyard, Danish camps on Thornborough Heath, an entrenchment on Gateshill, near Knaresborough (inserted), and an inscribed pig of lead found on Kayshaw Moor (inserted). The remaining illustrations are mostly engravings, chiefly in line, and include portraits of John Egerton, bishop of Durham, Thomas [Percy], earl of Northumberland, John Hacket, bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, John Cosin, bishop of Durham, Sir Henry Vane, the elder, Sir Henry Vane, the younger, John Pym, R. Hutchinson, Ralph [Hopton], lord Hopton, [Isabel], duchess of Grafton, Louis XIV, George Villiers [4th] duke of Buckingham, Basil Fielding [sic] [2nd] earl of Denbigh, Charles V, Ludovicus Requesentius, Eugene Aram (convicted at York, 1759, for the murder of Daniel Clark of Knaresborough), and Ann Allan of Blackwell Grange; and topographical illustrations of Witton Castle, the tower of Witton Castle, Bradley Hall, Brance-speth Castle, Staindrop Church, Athelstan Abbey, Eggleston Abbey, Winch Bridge over the Tees, Iron Bridge near Chooka, Caldron Snout on the Tees, Tees Force, Wycliffe Hall, Ravensworth Castle, Hack Fall (2), the Moon Pond and the Temple of Piety with part of Studley Park, Fountain's Abbey, Knaresborough Castle (2), the entrance to St. Robert's Chapel, near Knaresborough, the inside of the said chapel, Harrogate, and Brimham Crags (2). Inset are a copy of a letter from Tho[ma]s Robinson of Pickering, to Roger Gale of Scruton, 1724 (archaeological remains in part of Yorkshire), and a holograph letter from W[illia]m Burgh, from York, to Thomas Pennant, at Downing, near Holywell, 1774 (notifying recipient that he was sending him a sketch of the south- east aspect of Fountain's Abbey, suggestions as to making an engraving from the sketch) (the sketch itself is inset with the letter). The accounts of tours (b) and (c) do not appear to have been published, and neither is illustrated. As in the case of the two preceding manuscripts, NLW MSS 12706-12707E, the scribe was again possibly Thomas Jones.

?Thomas Jones.

The Literary Life of Thomas Pennant, etc.,

A folio volume lettered on the spine 'Pennant's Literary Life', and containing transcripts or printed copies of miscellaneous compositions mainly by, or relating to, Thomas Pennant. The first and main item is a variant manuscript version (62 pp.) of The Literary Life of the Late Thomas Pennant, Esq., by himself (London, 1793), with printed title-page and advertisement inlaid. The text of this manuscript version is substantially the same as that of the published edition, with certain variations in wording and phrasing, and minor omissions or additions. Occasionally, however, the manuscript text contains passages which do not occur in the printed work, e.g., (a) the additional information (p. 41) relating to the author's pamphlet entitled American Annals . . ., viz., that some one hundred copies had been printed, and sent by post to members of parliament, and that 'the friends of the Howes endeavored all they could to suppress them, by borrowing them . . ., and never returning them again', (b) the comments (pp. 42-3) relating to the trial [1783-1784] of the Reverend- William [Davies] Shipley, dean of St. Asaph, for seditious libel, (c) references (pp. 46-7) to the critical review of the author's book on London [Of London (London, 1790)], which appeared in The Gentleman's Magazine [vol. 60, part 1, 1790], 'a paper too subservient to the malice of its principal manager, Mr. Richard Gough', and to the Dublin 'pirated edition', and the German translation of the said book, (d) the comments (pp. 49-50) on the financial difficulties of John Reinhold Forster [naturalist], during his stay in England, his lack of gratitude towards his benefactors, and his ultimate return to the continent, (e) the information (p. 56) that Thomas Roden of Denbigh, 'a most admirable binder, and so extremely elegant in his trade', had been responsible for binding the [manuscript] volumes of the author's Outlines of the Globe, which had already been written, etc. Other manuscript items, in the order in which they occur, intermixed with printed material, include a copy of a letter addressed by ? Thomas Pennant, under the pseudonym 'Laicus', to the editor of an unspecified newspaper, undated (comments on the acceptance into Holy Orders of persons totally unsuited to such a calling, occasioned by seeing a satirical print entitled 'The Church Militant', a copy of which is reproduced); an unsigned, draft copy of a letter, in the hand of Thomas Pennant [and possibly from Thomas Pennant, to Sir Roger Mostyn, 5th bart., of Mostyn, co. Flint, and Leighton, co. Chester], April 1784 (political differences between the writer and recipient) (inlaid); an incomplete, draft copy, in the hand of Thomas Pennant, of a request to the sheriff of co. Flint, to summon a meeting of the gentlemen, clergy, and freeholders of the county, to meet at Mold, ? 1780, with a view to petitioning Parliament to make a scrutiny of 'useless places, sinecures and pensions', etc. (mounted); a draft copy of a petition to be presented by the gentlemen, clergy, and freeholders of co. Flint, to the House of Commons [1780], calling for the elimination of wasteful expenditure, and the application of the money saved to a more vigorous prosecution of the war against the Bourbons (mounted); an autograph letter from R. Kenyon, from Cefn, to ? Thomas Pennant, February 1780 (suggested alterations in the aforementioned draft petition) (inlaid); a copy of the oration delivered by Samuel Forster, in Convocation at Oxford [University], 11 May 1771, when presenting Thomas Pennant for the honorary degree of LL.D. (Latin); a ? holograph letter from J. P. Andrews, from Brompton, [co.] Midd[lese]x, to T[homas] Pennant, 1791 (the recipient's book on the 'history of the Capital' [Of London (London, 1790)], observations on opinions expressed by recipient in connection with mail coaches) (mounted); a copy of a memorial inscription to John Norman, attorney at law, in Newmarket church; a note of the death at Bychton, parish of Whiteford, ?13 November 1796, of Mr. Williams, tidewaiter; and occasional marginal and other annotations in the hand of Thomas Pennant. The remaining items in the volume, apart from the illustrations, consist entirely of inlaid or mounted printed material. Under a running title Miscellanies, and paginated [1]-25, though intermixed with other items, are found copies of two poems [composed by Thomas Pennant] entitled 'Ode occasioned by a lady professing an attachment to Indifference' (Chester, 1769), and 'On a lady chosen on the same day patroness of a book society and hunting meeting' (Chester, 1771) (for a reference to both see Literary Life, p. 32); two letters written by [Thomas Pennant, under the pseudonym] 'Camber', from Hawd y lam [sic] and Old Bond Street, 1781 (the first, published in the Chester Courant, dealing with the fashion amongst ladies of wearing riding apparel, even when not intending to ride, and the second with the possible dangers resulting from flirtatious behaviour on the part of married women. See Literary Life, p. 32); and two pamphlets [by Thomas Pennant] entitled American Annals or Hints and Queries for Parlement Men, and Flintshire Petition. Other printed items, in the order in which they occur, include copies of pamphlets, etc., by Thomas Pennant called Of the Patagonians. Formed from the relation of Father. Falkener, a Jesuit, who had resided among them thirty eight years. And from the different voyagers, who had met with this tall race (Darlington, 1788), A Letter from a Welsh Freeholder to his Representative (Chester, 1784), Free Thoughts on the Militia Laws . . . addressed to the Poor Inhabitants of North Wales (London, 1781), To the Poor concerned in Mineral Counties (1773), A Letter to a Member of Parliament on Mail-Coaches (London, 1792) (some pages misplaced), Flintshire Association, and Catalogue of My Works (1786); a Navy Office certificate of exemption from the attentions of the press gang, with personal details filled in by Thomas Pennant, 1755; copies of two Latin poems, 1786 and undated, by Richard Williams, in praise of Thomas Pennant; an English translation of the second of the aforesaid poems, by the author; newspaper cuttings containing poems headed 'Verses to Mr. Pennant on the writer's being apprized of his intention to make a visit into Cornwall', and 'To the memory of Thomas Pennant, Esq., ob. 1798'; a copy of the advertisement or preface contributed by David Pennant, son of Thomas Pennant, to vols. III and IV (two in one) of his father's work Outlines of the Globe, published posthumously, 1800; and a copy of a short biography of Thomas Pennant, with a bibliography of some of his works, listing the plates in each work. The volume has some sixty-seven illustrations (some duplicated). A few of these consist of miscellaneous original drawings, chiefly in water-colour, but the majority are engravings, mostly portraits in line. To the former group belong two self-portraits (the second, 1811), by Moses Griffith. The first of these faces p. 12, at the foot of which page is a short, biographical note relating to the birth, baptism, and early schooling of the painter. This, according to an additional, pencilled note, in another hand, is in 'M. G's own hand'. To this first group also belong a water-colour sketch of the 'Approach to Pont St. Maurice' [Switzerland], and sketches for, or copies of, satirical prints relating to the trial of Dean William Davies Shipley (see above). To the second category belong the prints called 'The Church Militant' (see above), and 'The Triumph of Turbulence, or Mother Cambria possessed' (the Shipley trial), and the portraits (in the order in which they appear in the text) of Thomas Pennant, Mrs. [Hester Lynch] Piozzi [authoress], Sir Cha[rles] Linneus [botanist], G[eorge] Edwards [naturalist], John Ray [naturalist], [Francois Marie Arouet] de Voltaire, Solomon Gessner [Swiss poet and engraver], Conrad Gesner [naturalist], Christoph Jac[ob] Trew [German naturalist], Albrecht v[on] Haller [Swiss physiologist], Christoph Gottlieb von Murr [German scholar], [Daniel Charles] Solander [botanist], Sir Joseph Banks, George Allan [antiquary and topographer], and William Hutchinson [topographer] (together), Francis Grose [antiquary and draughtsman ], Benfamin] Stillingfleet [naturalist and dilettante] (with ? autograph), the Rev[erend] John Lloyd [ rector of Caerwys, and Thomas Pennant's companion], [the Honourable] Daines Barrington [lawyer and antiquary], the Reverend W[illiam] D[avies] Shipley, dean of St. Asaph, Charles I, William Seward [biographer], [the Reverend] W[illia]m Coxe [archdeacon of Wilts.], Sir Roger Mostyn [5th bart., of Mostyn, co. Flint], Richard [Howe, 1st viscount Howe of Langar, and] earl Howe, Charles [Cornwallis, 2nd] earl Cornwallis [and 1st marquess Cornwallis], General [George] Washington, and General [Horatio] Gates. The text of the 'Literary Life', and of certain other manuscript sections of the volume, such as the Oxford doctorate oration, was possibly transcribed by Thomas Jones, son of Roger Jones, parish clerk of the parish [of Whitford, co. Flint], who had been engaged by Thomas Pennant in 1791 as his secretary, 'to copy my several manuscripts' (see Literary Life, p. 39).

?Thomas Jones and others.

Tour on the continent,

A folio volume lettered on the spine 'Pennant's Tour on the Continent . . . 1764', and containing an account of a tour in France, Savoy, Switzerland, Germany, Holland, and the Netherlands, undertaken by Thomas Pennant, February - August 1765, followed by a table of the 'Itinerary' and an index. The title-page is inscribed 'Tour on the Continent by Thomas Pennant, Esqr.', and, like the spine, bears the date 1764, although the actual tour was undertaken in 1765. An engraved portrait (inlaid) of Thomas Pennant (published post 1793) serves as frontispiece. The volume, as in the case of the preceding and following manuscripts, NLW MSS 12706E and 12708E, may have been transcribed by Thomas Pennant's secretary - copyist, Thomas Jones. Subsequent to its acquisition by the National Library of Wales in 1938, the text of the present work was edited and published, with an introduction and foot-notes, as vol. 132 of the publications of the Ray Society [G[avin] R[ylands] de Beer (ed.): Tour on the Continent 1765, by Thomas Pennant, Esqr. (London, 1948)]. In his introduction the editor states, 'It is clear that the body of the text rests on daily notes made by Pennant during the actual course of his tour', and adds that 'Pennant went over his text afterwards, for many of the elaborations of his narrative refer to books published, or events which occurred, subsequently to 1765'. References, such as those to Voltaire in 1768 (p. 184), to the reported discontinuance of the custom of producing the album or visitors' book at the Carthusian monastery of La Grande Chartreuse 'a few years after the time I was there' (p. 127), and to 'the late subversion of all things, wrong as well as right, in the Kingdom of France', and its effects on the monastery of La Grande Chartreuse (pp. 128- 9), are obviously later insertions. So, too, would appear to be the references to works by M. Bourrit (pp. 175, 178) [probably Marc Théodore Bourrit: A Relation of a Journey to the Glaciers in the Dutchy of Savoy. Translated from the French by Charles and Frederick Davy (Norwich, 1775)], and by the Reverend Mr. Coxe (p. 193) [William Coxe, author of Sketches of the Natural, Civil, and Political State of Swisserland (London, 1779), and Travels in Switzerland (London, 1789)].

Thomas Pennant.