"Volage frigate, at sea, June 25. 1811.
"Dear Mother,
"This letter, which will be forwarded on our arrival at Portsmouth,
probably about the 4th of July, is begun about twenty-three days after
our departure from Malta. I have just been two years (to a day, on the
2d of July) absent from England, and I return to it with much the same
feelings which prevailed on my departure, viz. indifference; but
within that apathy I certainly do not comprise yourself, as I will
prove by every means in my power. You will be good enough to get my
apartments ready at Newstead; but don't disturb yourself, on any
account, particularly mine, nor consider me in any other light than as
a visiter. I must only inform you that for a long time I have been
restricted to an entire vegetable diet, neither fish nor flesh coming
within my regimen; so I expect a powerful stock of potatoes, greens,
and biscuit: I drink no wine. I have two servants, middle-aged men,
and both Greeks. It is my intention to proceed first to town, to see
Mr. H----, and thence to Newstead, on my way to Rochdale. I have only
to beg you will not forget my diet, which it is very necessary for me
to observe. I am well in health, as I have generally been, with the
exception of two agues, both of which I quickly got over.
"My plans will so much depend on circumstances, that I shall not
venture to lay down an opinion on the subject. My prospects are not
very promising, but I suppose we shall wrestle through life like our
neighbours; indeed, by H.'s last advices, I have some apprehension of
finding Newstead dismantled by Messrs. Brothers, &c., and he seems
determined to force me into selling it, but he will be baffled. I
don't suppose I shall be much pestered with visiters; but if I am, you
must receive them, for I am determined to have nobody breaking in upon
my retirement: you know that I never was fond of society, and I am
less so than before. I have brought you a shawl, and a quantity of
attar of roses, but these I must smuggle, if possible. I trust to find
my library in tolerable order.
"Fletcher is no doubt arrived. I shall separate the mill from Mr.
B----'s farm, for his son is too gay a deceiver to inherit both, and
place Fletcher in it, who has served me faithfully, and whose wife is
a good woman; besides, it is necessary to sober young Mr. B----, or he
will people the parish with bastards. In a word, if he had seduced a
dairy-maid, he might have found something like an apology; but the
girl is his equal, and in high life or low life reparation is made in
such circumstances. But I shall not interfere further than (like
Buonaparte) by dismembering Mr. B.'s _kingdom_, and erecting part of
it into a principality for field-marshal Fletcher! I hope you govern
my little _empire_ and its sad load of national debt with a wary hand.
To drop my metaphor, I beg leave to subscribe myself yours, &c.
"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."