Penrhyn
Aug. 14 1832
Dear Mr Talbot
I found your letter <1> on returning to Penrhyn last week I have to assure you that both Mr Pennant<2> & myself shall have much pleasure in shewing you the advanced state of the building.<3> & hope that we may have an apartment vacant to offer you. The fact is that our accommodations are still not very numerous, & as several of our friends have mentioned their intentions of touring into this part of the world we have promised to put them up as far as we should be able. Should they all make their appearances at once. I fear we must turn some of them amongst the rocks. There is a spot about five miles off, where tradition tells us that a person sleeping in the open air, will wake either mad or a poet – but as your genius does not require such a stimulus we certainly need not send you thither I should think that the author of the Mss of the 15h century would not want subjects for his Pen at the same time I should have had great pleasure in furnishing them had I possessed any treasures in the way of legend –.
With the united Compt of this famy
I remain Dear Mr Talbot
Yr tly
Eliz Dawkins Pennant
Henry Fox Talbot Esqr
West Cowes
Isle of Wight
Notes:
1. Letter not located.
2. George Hay Dawkins Pennant (d. 1840).
1. Between 1820-1845, the London architect, Thomas Hopper (1776–1856), greatly modified Penryn Castle, a 18th c country house in North Wales. The elaborate changes were enabled by the Dawkins-Pennant fortune, made from Welsh slate and Jamaican sugar. The house is now a National Trust Property.