Goldsmith was working on An History of the Earth, and Animated Nature at his writer's retreat in Farmer Selby’s. Nonetheless, much as when he went to Paris with the Hornecks, the letter suggests that he was anxious to keep in touch with his social circles and the news from London.

The date of the letter can be determined from a number of circumstances. Goldsmith did not take up his residence at Edgeware until the summer of 1771 when Percy was at Alnwick, and Percy, for his part, did not return to London until October, after Goldsmith had returned to town. We can be confident then that the exchanges with Penneck occurred the following spring, after Goldsmith had returned to Edgeware. As Isaac Bickerstaff, whose invitation to dinner is mentioned in this letter, had fled London in mid-May, the dinner must have occurred before then. Finally, Sir Joshua Reynolds's pocket book for 1772 helpfully records an engagement with Goldsmith on Sunday 22 March.

The copy-text is the manuscript in the library of Haverford College, Philadelphia. It was first published in S. H. Harlowe, ‘Original Letters of Dr. Johnson and Oliver Goldsmith’, 101–2. It is addressed ‘To | the Revd. Mr. Pennick | at the | Museum’, and above, in a different hand, is written, ‘Doctor Goldsmith No. 49’. There are two postmarks, one of which has a ‘W’ (Wednesday?) visible but the rest is smudged; the other reads ‘Penny Post Paid WTU’.