Letter – Nicholas Walton to Peter Mulcaster – 1 Jan 1788

Messrs. Mulcaster 							Farnacres 1st Jan: 1788



       We have rec[eive]d your Letter of the 30 Ult and are particularly obliged by your sending us the Operation to the 29 Ult. Your Punctuality we have always had very great satisfaction in and we have no doubt that when we have required your Exertions in drawing out the Accounts which we have requested from you, that you will do everything in your power to let us have them as soon as possible. When we say so, we do not by any means wish to hurry you , but to give us as cool and dispassionate Considerations of what you may consider to be proper upon the occasion, we shall by no means look upon you as tied to anything but mere matter of opinion of what may be the probable result of your Operation at the Lead Mill taking on not only smelting, refining, reducing, but every other charge that you can of to compleat the whole work including every Article now at the Mill – Lead Ore, Grey Slags, Black Slags, Hearth Ends, Ore Tails, for <expences> &c – send not only that you should consider what will be the expences of converting the Stock remaining at the Lead Mill upon the 29 of December into Lead etc but that you should compute as nearly as you can what may be the probable charge of Contingencies of <several> kinds including Labourage, Repairs of Furnaces etc. 

       The whole of what we have written is previous to our having rec[eive]d your Letter of the 30th and now having read the same, we cannot help thinking what you propose respecting Lough Vein Ore to be very proper, and the same as to Rampgill Ore. With respect to the judgement that you are to <favour> upon the Operation, you are desired to do the best you can, and we are satisfied that what has been already said will relieve you from every difficulty, because tho’ we know you cannot  come to a certainty you will give us the best Opinion in your Power and we will give every Allowance which you can possibly wish for. With regard to what you mention as to the making out of the Pay Bill, you must also do that as well as you can, and in this too we do not doubt your Attention so as that the expence if <some had> required a Pay to the 29th of December could not materially differ from what the real charge to Greenwich Hospital ought to have been in  case such pay had been made. The Lead & Litharge Carriage Account we are desirous to receive as well as the rest, but we are no way desirous that you should hurry yourselves either as to this or any other Matter, our desire being that of a cool consideration & determination of the business, and if you should think that you can finish the Smelting by the end of January it will save much Calculation if you could contrive to send us an account such as we have required after that time rather than to the 29th Dec. As to the Slags of whatever Denomination, or Lead produced therefrom and other Articles we have not a doubt that you will be enabled to do every thing that is necessary without materially erring. 

       We most heartily wish you & your Connexions many happy years, and are

       Your Humble Servants

       Walton & Turner



PS  You may send your Letters after this time directed to Messrs Walton & Turner at Mr John Holmes’s, Watchmaker, Strand, London.

       Mr Fishwick having wished for a further Quantity of Litharge which we before mentioned to you, we expect that your Answer will be that the added Quantity should be small. For the first time your last Cake of Bullion was ½ an ounce short of Weight, being only 902 ounces.