“P.S.—­This letter was written to be sent from Portsmouth, but, on arriving there, the squadron was ordered to the Nore, from whence I shall forward it.  This I have not done before, supposing you might be alarmed by the interval mentioned in the letter being longer than expected between our arrival in port and my appearance at Newstead.”

LETTER 53.

TO MR. HENRY DRURY.

“Volage frigate, off Ushant, July 17. 1811.

“My dear Drury,

“After two years’ absence (on the 2d) and some odd days, I am approaching your country.  The day of our arrival you will see by the outside date of my letter.  At present, we are becalmed comfortably, close to Brest Harbour;—­I have never been so near it since I left Duck Puddle.  We left Malta thirty-four days ago, and have had a tedious passage of it.  You will either see or hear from or of me, soon after the receipt of this, as I pass through town to repair my irreparable affairs; and thence I want to go to Notts. and raise rents, and to Lanes. and sell collieries, and back to London and pay debts,—­for it seems I shall neither have coals nor comfort till I go down to Rochdale in person.

“I have brought home some marbles for Hobhouse;—­for myself, four ancient Athenian skulls,[141] dug out of sarcophagi—­a phial of Attic hemlock[142]—­four live tortoises—­a greyhound (died on the passage)—­two live Greek servants, one an Athenian, t’other a Yaniote, who can speak nothing but Romaic and Italian—­and myself, as Moses in the Vicar of Wakefield says, slily, and I may say it too, for I have as little cause to boast of my expedition as he had of his to the fair.

“I wrote to you from the Cyanean Rocks to tell you I had swam from Sestos to Abydos—­have you received my letter?  Hodgson I suppose is four deep by this time.  What would he have given to have seen, like me, the real Parnassus, where I robbed the Bishop of Chrissae of a book of geography!—­but this I only call plagiarism, as it was done within an hour’s ride of Delphi.”

END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

FOOTNOTES: 

[Footnote 1:  Published in two volumes, 4to.]

[Footnote 2:  It is almost unnecessary to apprise the reader that the paragraph at the bottom of p. 222. vol. iv. was written before the appearance of this extraordinary paper.]

[Footnote 3:  From p. 4. to 11. vol. v. inclusive.]

[Footnote 4:  In p. 232. vol. iv. however, the reader will find it alluded to, and in terms such as conduct so disinterested deserves.]

[Footnote 5:  June 12, 1828.]

[Footnote 6:  “In the park of Horseley,” says Thoroton, “there was a castle, some of the ruins whereof are yet visible, called Horestan Castle, which was the chief mansion of his (Ralph de Burun’s) successors.”]