| Description | Respected Sir,
In reply to the honor of your letter of the 8th instant, I have endeavoured, without effect, to collate from the list in Cary’s Book Map all the considerable Towns in England; but the enumeration extending in in that work to all the principal Villages in the Kingdom, you will admit the difficulty of making a judicious selection from more than twenty thousand names, all of which, except the Boroughs, are in the same character and without any marks of discrimination.
I have therefore had recourse to Patterson’s Book of Roads, but still without accomplishing the object to the desired extent; however, to avoid procrastination I have thought it best to send you the list herewith in its imperfect state, having discovered too late to remedy the defect in time for this opportunity, that many considerable places which are not in the direct roads from London have not be noticed.
I have also taken the liberty to set down the number of Casks sent to each place, in order to relieve myself of a difficulty springing from my not having sufficient local knowledge of the respective places to enable me to determine whether the quantity sent might be considered as considerable or inconsiderable; this abstract question necessarily involving itself in that of the degree of population, trade, &c.; for instance, had Dudley lain remote from hence, and had it received no great a supply than a score of Casks, I shou’d most probably have [not] set it down as having had a considerable quantity, whereas it has actually taken (though so small a place) 241 Casks.
From the foregoing considerations, I trust you will have the goodness to excuse my not having prepared a list better adapted to the object in view, and if you shou’d not find it of my any use, I beg to be favored with your instructions for my government in making out another, which will be respectfully attended to.
Inclosed you have a letter received this day from Messrs. G. C. Fox & Sons, the latter part of which I must beg to submit to your consideration and instructions.
We have this day sent a further supply of 60 Casks for London* [Footnote: *Which leaves about a day’s work on hand.], of which, if time will permit, I shall advise Mr. Woodward by this Evening’s Box.
I remain, Respected Sir, your oblig’d and obedient Servant,
Wm. Cheshire
Mint Office, Soho, March 12th, 1807.
M. Robinson Boulton, Esqr.
[Edited transcript.] |