"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.
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