Title page and Dedication
TROS TYRIUSQUE mihi nullo diferimine agetur.
LONDON. 1800. TO OF DEAR SIR, A GENTLEMAN well known to the political world in the beginning of the present century made the tour of Europe
, and before he reached Abbeville
discovered that in order to see a country to best advantage it was infinitely preferable to travel by day than by night. I CANNOT help making this applicable to myself, who, after publishing three volumes of the Zoology
of Great Britain, found out that to be able to speak with more precision of the subjects I treated of, it was far more prudent to visit the whole than part of my country: struck therefore with the reflection of having never seen Scotland, I instantly ordered my baggage to be got ready, and in a reasonable time found myself on the banks of the Tweed
. As soon as I communicated to you my resolution, with your accustomed friendship you wished to hear from me: I could give but a partial performance of my promise, the attention of a traveller being so much taken up as to leave very little room for epistolary duties; and I flatter myself you will find this tardy execution of my engagement more satisfactory than the hasty accounts I could fend you on my road. But this is far from being the sole motive of this address. I have irresistible inducements of public and of a private nature: to you I owe a most free enjoyment of the little territories Providence had bestowed on me; for by a liberal and equal cession of fields, and meads and woods, you connected all the divided parts, and gave a full scope to all my improvements. Every view I take from my window reminds me of my debt, and forbids my silence, causing the pleasing glow of gratitude to diffuse itself over the whole frame, instead of forcing up the imbittering sigh of Oh! fi angulus ille!
Now every scene I enjoy receives new charms, for I mingle with the visible beauties, the more pleasing idea of owing them to you, the worthy neighbor and firm friend, who are happy in the calm and domestic paths of life with abilities superior to ostentation, and goodness content with its own reward; with a sound judgement and honest heart you worthily discharge the senatorial trust reposed in you, whose unprejudiced vote aids to still the madness of the People, or aims to check the presumption of the Minister. My happiness in being from your earliest life your neighbor, makes me confident in my observation; your increasing and discerning band of friends discovers and confirms the justice of it: may the reasons that attract and bind us to you ever remain, is the most grateful wish that can be thought of, by, Dear Sir; Your obliged,
and affectionate Friend,
Downing, [Plates lacking hyperlinks were not included in the set of scans from which the text in A Vision of Britain through Time
was created.]
A
TOUR
IN
SCOTLAND;
MDCCLXIX.
FOURTH EDITION.
Printed for Benj. White
MDCCLXXVI.
DEDICATION.
SIR ROGER MOSTYN, BART
.
MOSTYN, FLINTSHIRE.
THOMAS PENNANT.
October 20th, 1771.
Thomas Pennant, A Tour in Scotland 1769 (London: Benjamin White, 1776)