| Title: | William Drennan, Edinburgh, to Mrs McTier, Belfast, Ireland. |
|---|---|
| ID | 872 |
| Collection | Irish Emigration Database |
| File | Drennan, William/56 |
| Year | 1776 |
| Sender | Drennan, William |
| Sender Gender | male |
| Sender Occupation | doctor |
| Sender Religion | unknown |
| Origin | Edinburgh, Scotland |
| Destination | Belfast, N.Ireland |
| Recipient | McTier, Matty |
| Recipient Gender | female |
| Relationship | friends |
| Source | T.765/1/26: Obtained From Mrs Duffin, Summerhill, Mount Pleasant, Belfast, Ireland. #TYPE LET The Drennan Letters 1776 - 1819. Extract of Letter from William Drennan, Edinburgh, 1 March. To Mrs McTier, North Street, Belfast, Ireland. |
| Archive | Public Record Office Northern Ireland. |
| Doc. No. | 9002038 |
| Date | 01/03/1776 |
| Partial Date | |
| Doc. Type | LET |
| Log | 22:02:1990 GC created 05:07:1991 OT input 31:07:19 |
| Word Count | 366 |
| Genre | |
| Note | |
| Transcript | As to what you have said on America, it is ----mation. I shall not say much abt.[about?] it at present --- answer with the celebrated Parrot, I think the more. I must indeed acknowledge that my mind has a strange and perhaps unnatural propensity to consider the past rather than the future. I sit as it were with my back to the Horses, and fasten my Eyes on the country already travelled thro' [through?], ignorant of and inattentive to that which is to come - when it comes, if it be agreeable, its being unexpected will make it doubly so, and if it be barren, he who expecteth nothing cannot be disappointed. America is indeed the promised Land I would wish to view before I dyed [died?]; and tho' [though?] perhaps one pitying patriotic glance cast back on Great Britain as it is called might have the effect if not of wholly changing me to a Salt Pillar (tho' [though?] what better Metamorphosis for a Man of Taste) at least of drawing from me some Salt Tears, which I suppose was all that happened to Poor Mrs. Lot, grieved to the heart no doubt, that she had left her Monkey or her Lover to perish in the Flames. You remember Scot. He has passed his first examination, and as our Patients say he had an easy Passage. This is the first judgment - but there are many other judgments before the seal is set... No doubt you will be surprized [surprised?] at the Parliamentary news. I can consider Norths bills in no other light than as proceeding either from Malice of Cowardice either with a view of disuniting to the Colonies or from a Fear that a treaty is already entered into between them and France. I fear a General War. We spent a pleasant Evening on the Fast Day which the Scotch spent in humiliation and Prayer. We made every Science which we knew of Produce a Toast applicable to Politics and many of them were excellent. We concluded with unanimously wishing that all the Tyrants in Europe had but one neck, that Neck laid on the Block and one of us appointed executioner .... |
