John Buddle.
It may be collected from the following letter, that the Committee, in announcing to Sir H. Davy the intended present of plate, delicately sounded him as to the form in which it would be most agreeable to him.
TO N. CLAYTON, ESQ.
Grosvenor Street, March 23, 1817.
SIR,
On my return to town, after an absence of some days, I found the letter of March the 13th, with which you honoured me, at the Royal Institution. I shall not lose a moment in replying to it, and in expressing my grateful feelings for the very flattering communication it contains.
The gentlemen interested in the coal-mines of the two rivers Tyne and Wear, cannot offer me any testimony of their kindness, which I shall not receive with infinite pleasure.
I hardly know how to explain myself on the particular subject of your letter; but as the Committee express themselves satisfied as to the utility of the Safety-lamp, I can only desire that their present, as it is highly honourable to me, should be likewise useful to my friends, and a small social circle, which it would be as a dinner-service for ten or twelve persons.
I wish that even the plate from which I eat should awaken my remembrance of their liberality, and put me in mind of an event which marks one of the happiest periods of my life.