| Title: | William Drennan, Prestonpans, to [Mrs Matty McTier, Belfast?] |
|---|---|
| ID | 881 |
| Collection | Irish Emigration Database |
| File | Drennan, William/78 |
| Year | 1779 |
| Sender | Drennan, William |
| Sender Gender | male |
| Sender Occupation | medical student |
| Sender Religion | unknown |
| Origin | Prestonpans, Scotland |
| Destination | unknown |
| Recipient | unknown |
| Recipient Gender | unknown |
| Relationship | unknown |
| Source | T 765/1/9{a}: Obtained From Mrs. Duffin, Summerhill, Mount Pleasant, Belfast. #TYPE LET The Drennan Letters, 1776 - 1819: Extract of Letter From Wm.[William?] Drennan [Preston Pans?] to [Mrs. Matty McTier, Belfast?] 14 November, 1777. |
| Archive | Public Record Office Northern Ireland. |
| Doc. No. | 9002022 |
| Date | 14/11/1779 |
| Partial Date | |
| Doc. Type | LET |
| Log | 22:02:1990 JM created 19:08:1991 SQ input 19:08:19 |
| Word Count | 306 |
| Genre | |
| Note | |
| Transcript | ... I battled with the dry Doctor and the August Advocate McCormick in the american subject like another Orlando, and was a good match both for the law and the Gospel. I called on the Drysdales and the remaining Miss Camp-tells [Campbells?] one of them having gone to lead apes in the Edenswigh below-- I drank tea with Mrs. and Miss Kennedy who were extremely full of verbal civilty [civility?], and the little lady the prisoner of politeness--- I have taken a room at the same price but much better than the good Mrs. McKnight had engaged for me the last winter I spent here - 2/6 per week and a shilling for coals--- It is at the extremity of Nicholsons Street and very light and hartsome [heartsome?] and not so much troubled with wind and that of not the best favour, as this Edinburgh gen.y [generally?] is --- One might conceive it as a great unwieldy beast troubled and distressed every night with a periodical colic, and discharging at short intervals, its thick and thin its wind and water, unrestrained by decency and uninfluenced by admonitions or by punishments. Let it f--- and s--- away on a poor Irish American -- I care not. I shall return tomorrow and enter on my medical campaign with the caution of a Washington, and I shall be as independent in Physic as I am and ever will be in Politics- I will fall down and bow before no golden calf. No Caesar in medicine shall lead me captive at the wheels of his chariot- Like a lighthouse on a small and stable rock unconnected with the world and seated in the expanded ocean I shall guide the distressed by my native splendour and the waves of fashion and the winds of authority shall beat against it in vain.... |
