GIFT OF 
 D rof Charles A. Kofold 
 
-^C^7 
 
LETTERS 
 
LETTERS FROM PORTUGAL, 
 
 SPAIN, SICILY, AND 
 
 MALTA, 
 
 IN l8l2, 1813, AND 1814. 
 
 BY G. A. F. H. B 
 
 LONDON: 
 PRIVATELY PRINTED AT THE CHISWICK PRESS. 
 

 <C,fi-ofi 
 
 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 HE following letters were written by the 
 Hon. George A. F. H. Bridgeman, after- 
 wards Earl of Bradford, during a tour 
 on the continent, made in company with Lord John 
 Russell and the Hon. Robert H. Clive, in the years 
 1812-14. 
 
 It is thought that the notices of events during the 
 Peninsular War give them a somewhat wider interest 
 than is possessed by ordinary private letters, and a 
 few copies have therefore been printed. 
 
 f B. 
 
 Weston, 
 
 May, 1875. 
 
 : 
 
LETTERS. 
 
 OPORTO, Thursday Evening, 
 
 August 27th, 1812. 
 
 MY DEAREST MOTHER, 
 
 OU will certainly be rather surprised to 
 find my first letter after disembarkation 
 dated from this place. Never to be sure 
 were people so wonderfully fortunate as 
 we have been to land here just at this moment. The 
 circumstances which determined our present plans are 
 these : I told you before I left England, I think, that 
 we had heard a report of Lord Wellington's having 
 defeated Marmont with immense loss. This story 
 was corroborated from time to time on our voyage, 
 and from four different vessels we heard that the 
 French had lost upwards of 20,000 men, and that 5 
 
 B 
 
2 Oporto, August 27 'th, 1812. 
 
 Lord Wellington was at Madrid ; the last vessel which 
 gave us this information was an Englishman, which 
 we had chased for many leagues on Sunday last, 
 thinking it was an American ; from this source we 
 thought the report worthy of credit, as corroborating 
 the stories we had had from Spanish and Portuguese 
 vessels ; and John 1 and I determined (if Clive 2 should 
 come into our wishes) to avail ourselves of the oppor- 
 tunity of one of the three or four merchantmen going 
 to Oporto to carry us there, and if we found the news 
 as good as we expected, to proceed in a short time 
 to Madrid. On Monday morning, the 24th, we ac- 
 cordingly spoke the "Buzzard," and found Clive quite 
 of our mind ; our next object was to communicate 
 with Sir Robert Kennedy, Commissary-General of 
 our army, who was going out to Lisbon with his wife, 
 having been for a short time in England for his health, 
 we thought he might perhaps be inclined to be of our 
 party, Oporto being the nearest road to the army; 
 but before I proceed farther I am bound in common 
 gratitude to express how much we were indebted to 
 
 1 Lord John Russell, now Earl Russell, K.G. 
 
 2 The Honourable Robert Henry Clive. 
 
Oporto, August 27/4 1812. 3 
 
 Captain Maitland for his great kindness to us on this, 
 as on all other occasions. He had made us most com- 
 fortable throughout the voyage, and was indefatigable 
 in forwarding our new schemes ; it would be impossible 
 to say too much in praise of his kindness and good 
 nature. Sir Robert Kennedy seemed to think that 
 he had better go on to Lisbon, as was his original 
 intention, but he thought the news bore great marks 
 of truth, and encouraged our plans ; moreover, he was 
 good enough (although he knew nothing of any of us) 
 to give us a letter to Mr. McKenzie, Assistant-Com- 
 missary-General at Oporto, begging him to do all in 
 his power to forward us. It was now mid-day, and 
 we were abreast of the mouth of the Minho (which 
 divides Portugal and Spain), with a fine breeze from 
 the N.N.E. ; the ships bound for Oporto were three 
 brigs and a schooner ; we found, on looking out for 
 them, that the brigs had left the convoy in the morn- 
 ing without leave of the commodore, this was a blow ; 
 however, fortunately the schooner remained, and on 
 hailing her, the master was very civil, said his accom- 
 modations were very bad, but that he would willingly 
 take us. He was very anxious to part company ; we 
 therefore got a little cold meat as quick as possible, 
 
4 Oporto, A ugust 2 ;//;, 1812. 
 
 and having sorted our baggage, and left all the things 
 we thought we could do without on board the " Pique " 
 (which things, together with Clive's in the "Buzzard," 
 Captain Maitland promised to deposit safely at Com- 
 missioner Eraser's at Gibraltar), we proceeded on 
 board the "Alert "schooner with the remainder, and at 
 three o'clock p.m. made sail straight for Oporto, leav- 
 ing the convoy to our right. We found on board the 
 schooner a tidy little cabin just big enough to creep 
 into, and two berths in it ; we opened our cantines in 
 the evening, and with the help of some brown sugar 
 and biscuit of the master's, and our own tea, we made 
 a supper and a breakfast with much satisfaction. As 
 usual, nothing would tempt Clive to take one of the 
 beds, and he laid himself down on the seat in his 
 cloak. John went regularly to bed, and I laid down 
 on the other for a few hours, finding it much too hot 
 to follow John's example. We had beautiful weather, 
 and our breeze kept up till after midnight, when it 
 became nearly calm for the rest of our voyage, and a 
 very thick fog came on ; before daylight we were 
 waked by a boat full of Portuguese pilots, who came 
 on board and made the greatest noise I ever heard, 
 seeming to be in the greatest passion, but, I believe, 
 
Oporto, Aiigust 2 ftk, 1812. 5 
 
 not being so at all, they only wanted us to give them 
 some rum ; all went away in about a quarter of an 
 hour, excepting one. Clive and I ran on deck to see 
 the squabble. The fog was so thick we could not see 
 anything of the coast ; the pilot was a great treat, 
 and could not understand or be understood except a 
 little by John and Clive ; but I must not enter too 
 much into particulars, or I shall never have done. 
 After breakfast the fog cleared away a little, and we 
 saw the shore, which was very pretty, and the low 
 mountains which backed it were beautifully shaped. 
 The first town we saw was Villa de Conde, three 
 leagues north of Oporto. The only very striking 
 thing was a very large convent of nuns towards the 
 sea, but the view was yet very indistinct from the fog ; 
 at eleven we came opposite Oporto Bar, the day was 
 then beautiful, and the view of the mouth of the 
 Douro very striking and pretty. We fancied we were 
 arrived, but, to our disappointment, we found we 
 must wait for a visit from the master pilot, and 
 that the water would not be high enough to cross 
 the Bar till two o'clock. After wasting a long 
 time, the master pilot arrived, and told us we could 
 not land till the following morning ; however, by 
 
6 Oporto, Atigust 27^, 1812. 
 
 bribing the wretch with four dollars, and giving him 
 to understand we were people of consequence, in a 
 hurry to join the army, he soon changed his note, and 
 took us, our servants, and luggage, in his boat to 
 Oporto, a league above the Bar we of course paid 
 well for this, but we gained our point. The river up 
 to Oporto is quite beautiful, but of this you have 
 heard. We came to an inn kept by an Englishman, 
 who has been here twenty-five years, and _we have got 
 good rooms. This inn would not quite please you, 
 but it is a palace for this country. We got a good 
 dinner, and in the evening went with our letters to 
 Mr. McKenzie. We found him at supper with several 
 officers ; he was very civil, and told us that the news 
 we had heard was true, but recommended our staying 
 a short time to hear more before we proceeded to 
 Madrid. This was exactly what we liked. He said 
 he was going the next morning before day to La- 
 mego by land, and would return down the Douro in 
 boats ; he was going on duty, and if he could get us 
 mules in time, would be glad of our company. He 
 immediately sent to the corregidor for mules ; we 
 stayed late, but no answer, we went home between 
 eleven and twelve o'clock, and he promised to send 
 
Oporto, August zjth, 1812. 7 
 
 the mules if they came in time. Late the next morn- 
 ing an under-commissary came to say they could not 
 get them, Mr. McKenzie was gone and would return 
 in four days, and he recommended our taking a tour 
 into the north in the meantime. We next determined 
 to visit General Trant, governor of Oporto. He lives 
 at present at St. Juan, a league off, at the river's 
 mouth. We walked there, our host for our guide, and 
 on sending up our names nothing could exceed the 
 civility, the kindness of General Trant ; he gave us 
 the whole account of the state of military affairs, and 
 pointed out the places on the map. Good God ! how 
 glorious is the news. He told us that the French had 
 lost 20,000 men ; that Marmont and Bonnet were 
 desperately wounded and believed to be dead ; that 
 Lord Wellington had entered Madrid on the I2th, 
 leaving two divisions near Valladolid to watch the 
 wreck of the French army, which had retreated towards 
 the Ebro, 10,000 strong, but so completely cut up, 
 as to be considered hors de combat ; that Joseph l had 
 advanced, previous to this great battle, to join Mar- 
 mont with 14,000 men, but that he had only reached 
 
 1 Joseph Bonaparte, King of Spain. 
 
8 Oporto, August ijth, 1812. 
 
 Alba de Tormes when he heard of Marmont's defeat ; 
 that he had retreated precipitately to Madrid, and 
 thence, after leaving 17,000 men in the fortress of 
 Buen Retiro, all picked Frenchmen, he had continued 
 his retreat to join Suchet at Valencia ; that he had 
 himself very narrowly escaped, our advanced dragoons 
 having taken some of his own guard. The Buen 
 Retiro is an excessively strong place, and was ex- 
 pected to hold out a long time, and to have cost us a 
 great many lives ; however, Lord Wellington contrived 
 to take it by surprise on the I4th, two days after 
 entering Madrid. He found an immense quantity 
 of ordnance, stores, arms, &c. What makes all this 
 so very glorious and satisfactory is, that Lord Wel- 
 lington was certainly, in full retreat, thinking that the 
 enemy would be too strong for him, but suddenly 
 seeing the French in some confusion, he ordered an 
 attack just before Salamanca ; the French right en- 
 deavoured to turn our left, we refused it, and made a 
 most vigorous attack with our right on their left, and 
 totally destroyed that and their centre. They were 
 thunderstruck, and retreated in the utmost confusion, 
 followed by our victorious army, who continued to 
 take prisoners for many days. Our left wing was not 
 
Oporto, August 2?th, 1812. 9 
 
 engaged. Thus by the success of a quarter of an hour 
 (which decided the victory) has half Spain been freed 
 from those accursed tyrants of the world. The sort of 
 enthusiasm which prevails now, both in Spain and 
 Portugal, is not to be conceived Lord Wellington is 
 considered almost a god. They wrote that at Madrid 
 he can hardly pass through the streets from the crowds 
 of men, women, and children who follow him, staring 
 and loading him with vivas. It is singular that ac- 
 counts state Soult to have been still before Cadiz on 
 the 1 4th, although he must have known of our victory. 
 The longer he remains there the better, as he must 
 then be cut off. It is imagined he is staying there 
 purposely, wishing to come over to the Spanish cause. 
 Probably, my dearest mother, you will have heard 
 everything long ago, but it is possible I may have 
 mentioned something you have not heard. Give my 
 duty to my grandfather, 1 and tell him I hope he will 
 give me credit for obeying him in this respect. General 
 Trant is a very pleasing, gentlemanly, sensible man, 
 and, I believe, an excellent officer. His account to us 
 was the clearest I ever heard ; he likewise showed us 
 
 1 George, Fourth Viscount Torrington, 
 C 
 
io Oporto, August 2?th, 1812. 
 
 a plan of the battle, which had been sent to him. 
 Marmont's army being considered totally destroyed, 
 and the two divisions being left at Valladolid to watch 
 the remaining stragglers, it is thought that Lord 
 Wellington will advance into Catalonia, and join the 
 army which has landed at Villa Nova, to the south of 
 Barcelona, under General Maitland, and then march 
 to Valencia against Joseph and Suchet. If Sou It 
 breaks up from Andalusia, and endeavours to form a 
 junction with Suchet (to which the intermediate Spanish 
 armies will oppose great difficulties), Hill will cross 
 the Tagus and join Lord Wellington. The Spaniards 
 are advancing from Gallicia and Asturias, and when 
 they reach Valladolid, will leave our two divisions at 
 liberty to join the Grand Army likewise. Oh ! what 
 a bright prospect we have before us. To return to 
 ourselves, we were at General Trant's yesterday, and 
 after giving us these accounts, he offered to assist us 
 in any way we liked. He got several tours made out 
 for us, and we determined on a plan I will detail pre- 
 sently. He asked us to dinner ; we walked down to 
 the river, and went thence to Oporto in a boat, and 
 having dressed, returned in the same way. We dined 
 at half-past four, and there were many officers, British 
 
Oporto, August 2?th, 1812. n 
 
 and Portuguese. We had an excellent dinner, wine 
 and dessert in the evening. He asked several Portu- 
 guese families from San Juan to meet us there were 
 some pretty girls amongst them. The society is 
 formal enough among strangers ; some danced a little, 
 but we who were just come from England found it 
 much too hot to join that party. During dinner (as is 
 the Portuguese custom) several people came in, among 
 others the prior of a large convent on the south of 
 the Douro, opposite the town, most romantically and 
 beautifully situated on a rock, with hanging gardens 
 and pine woods. This prior is a pleasing young man ; 
 he asked the Governor and his staff, and us, to dine 
 at the convent on Friday (to-morrow), and we shall 
 all go. 
 
 We set out on Saturday next on a tour, previous 
 to starting finally for Madrid ; we should have gone 
 to-morrow had it not been for the invitation to the 
 convent ; we are going to Aveiro, Coimbra, Busaco, 
 Vizeu, San Pedro do Sul, Arouca, Lamego, and thence 
 down the Douro in a boat to Oporto ; this tour will 
 take us about a week, we shall then stay two or three 
 days here again, and after that go to Villa de Conde, 
 Braga, Chaves, Braganga, Zamora, Toro, Valladolid, 
 
12 Oporto, August 2 jth, 1812. 
 
 and thence to Madrid ; but you shall hear more of 
 this before we leave Oporto for good. General Trant 
 sent us three of his horses, and his town-major to ac- 
 company us this morning, and he took us a beautiful 
 ride, and afterwards to a convent of nuns in the 
 town, we saw none of the nuns, but only two Miss 
 Russells, who consider themselves related distantly 
 to the Duke of Bedford ; they were delighted to see 
 John ; the eklest is very pretty, the second promises 
 to be so, but is very young, they are daughters of a 
 Portuguese gentleman who married an English Miss 
 Russell ; why they are called Russell I know not, 
 they say in Portugal people take any name they like 
 best ; they have lost their father and mother, their aunt 
 is in the Brazils, and their brother in the army, and 
 they are put into the convent by the regency, as a 
 safe asylum, but are not going to take the veil. Some 
 time ago Major Wilde, an English officer, was a few 
 days in Oporto, and visited the convent, where he 
 saw and conversed with Miss Russell through the 
 grate, and the next morning he proposed to her, and 
 it is thought they would have been married had not 
 Major Wilde been obliged suddenly to quit Oporto 
 with the army, and he was killed, poor fellow, after- 
 wards, at Badajoz. You would imagine the Miss 
 
Oporto, August 2?tk y 1812. 13 
 
 Russells spoke English, but they do not know a word 
 of anything but Portuguese. 
 
 The English post sets off from hence every Friday 
 evening to Lisbon, and I shall take this letter to 
 General Trant to-morrow morning, who is so good as 
 to send it to Mr. Stuart to forward to England. It 
 strikes twelve, my dearest mother, and my eyes draw 
 very long straws, my pen is worn out, and my hand 
 tired. I hope you will have received my letters 
 which I sent from Yarmouth, Lymmgton, by a Torbay 
 boat from off Falmouth, and by the " Hope," from off 
 Finisterre, all since we. were embarked. General 
 Trant asked us to dinner again to-day, but we ex- 
 cused ourselves, having so much to write and settle. 
 God bless you, my dear mother, give my affectionate 
 duty to my father, and love to Henry, 1 and all my re- 
 lations and friends, you are with 
 Your ever affectionate 
 
 And dutiful son, 
 
 G. A. F. H. BRIDGEMAN. 
 
 P.S. We heard by the "Niobe" that Admiral 
 
 1 His brother, the Honourable Henry E. Bridgeman, after- 
 wards rector of Blymhill. 
 
14 Oporto, August 27^, 1812. 
 
 Legge was coming home immediately, and Captain 
 Cockburn appointed to succeed him. I should 
 therefore have missed Charles, 1 and if Soult leaves 
 Cadiz, Orlando 2 would probably follow. I am not, 
 therefore, very sorry at not going there first, and I 
 have seen what I wished of all things to see viz., 
 the north of Portugal. Clive and John desire to be 
 very kindly remembered to you. This evening as John 
 Cobb 3 was walking in the street, a funeral passed, and 
 a man came up to him and offered him a lighted 
 torch ; he was much astonished, and hurried away ; on 
 his return home he learnt that they only wanted him 
 to accompany the funeral. 
 
 1 His brother (afterwards Admiral) the Honourable C. O. 
 Bridgeman. 
 
 a His brother, the Honourable Orlando Bridgeman, Grenadier 
 Guards, and afterwards aide-de-camp to Lord Hill at Waterloo. 
 
 3 John Cobb, personal servant to Mr. Bridgeman, afterwards 
 a messenger in the House of Commons. 
 
OPORTO, 
 Friday, September nth, 1812. 
 
 MY DEAREST MOTHER, 
 
 E returned last night from a tour which 
 has afforded us all much pleasure, and 
 has on the whole been most prosperous ; 
 we followed the track I mentioned in my 
 
 last written from hence about a fortnight ago, which 
 General Trant was so good as to send through Mr. 
 Stuart. I hope you have received it safe, as it was a 
 long letter. Our only deviation from the above said 
 route was, that we went from Busaco to San Pedro do 
 Sul by a curious mountain road over the Serra de 
 Alcoba, and through that of Cara Mula, instead of 
 going by Vizeu, an ugly, uninteresting city ; we saved 
 very little in distance, and none in time, but we passed 
 
1 6 Oporto, September nth, 1812. 
 
 through an interesting and in parts a most beautiful 
 country. We saw the whole of our grand position 
 at Busaco, where we lodged one night at the Convent 
 of Carmelites De'chausse's, a small poor-looking build- 
 ing situated at the top of the high Serra de Busaco, in 
 the midst of a Quinta, which is one entire wood of 
 oaks, chestnuts, beautiful Portuguese cypresses, and 
 several sorts of evergreens. In this warm climate it 
 is only on the high hills or mountain valleys that 
 you see oaks or, indeed, anything like fine verdure ; 
 the lower hills are only able to grow the pines (of 
 which you meet with immense forests) and the Indian 
 corn ; indeed, we have seen but few stubbles of our 
 corn, even on the high hills, and the harvest was all 
 in before we landed. I will say nothing of our journey 
 to Coimbra, which was principally through pine woods, 
 except that once for a few miles we passed between 
 beautiful hedges of myrtle in full blossom. This sight 
 struck me wonderfully, and the perfume of them was 
 delicious. 
 
 Coimbra is finely situated on a steep declivity of the 
 hills which form the north bank of the Mondego, a 
 river which is nearly dry in summer, leaving large 
 banks of sand and gravel, but in the winter is a large 
 
Oporto, September 1 1 th, 1 8 1 2. 17 
 
 river. The valley of the Mondego is very fertile. 
 The country about Coimbra, where the hills are high 
 and finely shaped, would be beautiful were it not that 
 the plantations are entirely of olive, which is an ugly 
 tree. Opposite to the city are two fine convents, and 
 also the Quinta das Lagrimas, or Garden of Tears, 
 famous for being the residence of poor Inez de Castro, 
 who was there murdered by order of her father-in- 
 law, the King of Portugal. This Quinta we visited, 
 as also the University, where we saw a fine library, 
 church, and museum, and a noble collection of in- 
 struments mathematical, &c. Hence we came to 
 Busaco, and thence to San Pedro do Sul, where we 
 saw the baths and springs ; they are of very great 
 heat, and contain a quantity of sulphur. In the 
 springs women were boiling chickens. There are 
 said to be some Roman remains in the baths, but we 
 could find nothing of the kind. From San Pedro we 
 went to the Bernardine Convent of San Christoval, 
 most romantically situated in the midst of the beautiful 
 rocky Serra de Gralieira, overhanging a rocky knoll 
 covered with cork trees and various beautiful ever- 
 greens, and crowned with a little chapel. This 
 convent is very rich. There are only nine monks, 
 
 D 
 
1 8 Oporto, September \\th, 1812. 
 
 who received us most graciously and showed us the 
 greatest civility and attentions. They were much 
 better bred than the other monks we had seen in 
 Portugal, especially the prior. We breakfasted and 
 dined there, and departed much against their inclina- 
 tion, for they pressed us much to stay some days for 
 the shooting, as there are plenty of boars, wolves, 
 hares, and partridges. They at last allowed us to 
 depart, with the promise of passing some days with 
 them if we should return through Portugal. We went 
 that night to Arouca, a village where there is the 
 largest and richest convent of nuns in Portugal. There 
 are seven monks belonging to it, and seventy-nine 
 nuns. We drank tea with the nuns, and supped with 
 the monks, who gave us rooms and beds. The next 
 morning we breakfasted with the nuns, and we dined 
 with the monks. We saw the church, which is quite 
 magnificent These people are also Bernardines. 
 The nuns were all well bred, but the monks vulgar, 
 eating dogs, though very civil and attentive to 
 us. We proceeded two leagues this evening, as we 
 could not reach Lamego in a day, and slept at such 
 a place as never was imagined in England ; here 
 we could literally get nothing! fortunately we had 
 
Oporto, September 1 1 th, 1 8 1 2. 19 
 
 brought a little bread with us, of which, with cold 
 water, we made our supper and breakfast. Lamego 
 is a dirty, old, shabby city, a league to the south of 
 the Douro. We went hence in the morning to Regoa, 
 the place of embarkation for Oporto, here is an 
 English commissary ; we applied to him for a boat, 
 but we were obliged to wait at Regoa two days, and 
 on the third (last Wednesday, the Qth,) we set off at 
 seven, and came four leagues, which we were eight 
 hours about, and nothing would persuade our boat- 
 men to go any farther till yesterday morning ; we 
 had some cold meat and some wine with us, on which 
 we dined in the boat, and slept on our mattrasses ; it 
 was an open one, but the night was very fine. Yester- 
 day we were off at five, and at nine we reached Vimeiro, 
 four leagues farther, and half-way between Oporto 
 and Regoa ; here we changed boats, and arrived at 
 Oporto at nine last night. We have been at a set of 
 curious pigsties by way of inns, and such places as 
 we have slept in you cannot even imagine ; our beds 
 and clothes are full of fleas, which will be our de- 
 lightful companions till we return to England ; I 
 have thousands of bites about me. We have done 
 very well in the eating way we have generally 
 
2O Oporto, September \\th> 1812. 
 
 managed to get starved fowls, or chickens, and eggs ; 
 in the towns we have had chocolate for breakfast, at 
 the ventas or inns we used our own tea and sugar ; 
 milk and butter are things one does not even ask for ; 
 in cities the wine is generally sour, but has been 
 drinkable, except in one or two places, when we used 
 our brandy, and infamous it was ; we got it here, and 
 it resembles whisky more than anything else; at 
 Regoa we got some good wine, here it is that the 
 port wine is made, but the Vin du Pays, throughout 
 the provinces we have been in, is a sort of port. The 
 Douro is a beautiful river on the whole; we came 
 1 6 leagues (or 64 miles) down it ; about Regoa and 
 for two leagues down, the banks, which are very 
 high, are entirely covered with vines, which is very 
 ugly, hence, the scenery was very beautiful ! the 
 banks were variously covered with rocks, chestnuts, 
 oranges, heath, pines, olives, cork trees, convents, 
 houses of hidalgos, and villages ; the last two leagues 
 to Oporto we were most unluckily in the dark, I 
 believe they are very beautiful. We intend staying 
 here till Monday, when we shall go by Braga to the 
 banks of the Minho, then by the Serra de Gerez to 
 Chaves, Braganga, Miranda de Douro, Salamanca, 
 
Oporto, September \\th, 1812. 21 
 
 and Valladolid to Madrid. I hope to find several 
 letters when we reach Cadiz, which will not be for 
 a long time ; before Cadiz I see no probability of 
 receiving a letter. We find from the difficulty of 
 procuring horses and mules, that we must make an- 
 other considerable diminution of our baggage, and we 
 intend to send George (John's servant) with these 
 things to Cadiz ; J. Cobb and Gabriel will remain 
 with us, for we found there was too much for one ser- 
 vant to do. Our beds and one cantine are absolutely 
 necessary, but we shall take as few clothes as pos- 
 sible. I hope I shall be able to send you a letter 
 from Madrid, but I am not sure. I should imagine, 
 however, that through Sir C. Stuart it might be done. 
 I wish I knew him, cannot you get Lady Stuart to 
 write to him about me ? I have neither time nor the 
 means of writing to Orlando ; I hope you will have 
 told him of the change of our plans, on receiving my 
 last letter, and I hope we shall meet at Cadiz some 
 time or other. I have been quite well since I left 
 you, and I think the climate will do me no harm. 
 Adieu, my dearest parents. Love to all. 
 
 Your ever affectionate 
 
 And dutiful son. 
 
22 Oporto, September \\th, 1812. 
 
 P.S. General Trant's letters of recommendation 
 were of the greatest possible use to us. The Car- 
 melites of Busaco never eating meat, we fared most 
 miserably there, having nothing but filthy messes of 
 garden stuff and stinking oil ; our position there seems 
 impregnable ; we followed the road thence as far as 
 Massena's head-quarters, and saw the road by which 
 he retreated to Sardao, or as it is called, Sardaon. 
 The Falls of the Douro, of which you may have 
 heard much, are not rapid ; of all those we came down, 
 only one was as strong as that of London Bridge. 
 
OPORTO, 
 Tuesday, September i$t%, 1812. 
 
 M UST write you a few lines, my beloved 
 mother, to send by Friday's post, in 
 order to give you the latest news of us 
 from this place ; we intended to have 
 set out yesterday, but there never was anything like 
 the difficulty of getting horses and mules. We have 
 bought three horses and two mules for ourselves and 
 our servants, being unable to hire them. They are 
 but sorry animals, but they cost us 94, or 330 dollars. 
 General Wilson, governor of the province of Minho, 
 whose head-quarters are at Vianna, a place on the sea- 
 coast, 1 8 leagues north of Oporto, which we intend 
 taking on our way to Madrid, is at present here, and 
 promises to get us three baggage mules there. The 
 
24 Oporto, September i$th y 1812. 
 
 mules at this place are most of them under embargo, 
 for a great number of the medical staff; though I 
 believe there are some in the town, yet the people 
 deny it, thinking that if they were to let us take them 
 to Madrid they would be taken for the army. We 
 are going to-day to try every possible means of getting 
 three to go as far as Vianna, and if we succeed we 
 shall start to-morrow. We intend going to Gui- 
 maraens and Braga, Ponte de Lima, Vianna, and Ca- 
 minha, at the mouth of the Minho, thence up the river 
 to Valenga, and back to Ponte de Lima and Braga ; 
 from Braga we shall go to Montalegre, seeing the 
 bridge of Salamonde (over which Soult made his 
 famous retreat after his defeat at Oporto), and the 
 Serra de Gerez, that lofty range which separates the 
 province of Minho from Galicia ; then to Chaves, 
 Braganga, Miranda de Douro, and Salamanca ; here 
 we shall have the pleasure of viewing the field of 
 battle where our army covered themselves with eternal 
 glory, and we shall pursue the retreat of the French 
 by Alba de Tormes and Tordesillas, to Valladolid ; 
 thence taking the great road through Arevalo and 
 the Pass of Guadarrama to Madrid. This journey will 
 probably take us six weeks to perform, which will 
 
Oporto, September 1 5 th, 1 8 1 2 . 25 
 
 bring us to the end of October. I suppose we shall 
 reach Cadiz towards the close of the year. By the 
 bye, after writing my last letter to you on the nth, 
 we heard of Soult having broken up from Seville and 
 Cadiz. I hope if the Guards quit the latter place in 
 consequence of this, that I shall be fortunate enough 
 to meet with Orlando somewhere. I think, my dear 
 mother, that through Sir C. Stuart you might con- 
 trive to send me one letter to Madrid, as we shall 
 certainly be there as late as two months from this 
 time. There never was anything equal to the civility 
 we have met with from everybody here. Marshal 
 Beresford and his staff arrived on Friday from Sala- 
 manca, where he has been since he received his 
 wounds ; he embarked yesterday for Lisbon ; he is 
 wonderfully well considering the severity of his 
 wounds. His arrival here made the place very gay : 
 the first night all the rank and fashion (as we say in 
 England), attended him at the play, where there were 
 several flowery eulogia addressed to him from the 
 stage. It is a very pretty little theatre, but not suf- 
 ficiently lighted. The performance was a tragic 
 comedy, and a ballet ; the former I was not a judge 
 of, but I believe it was bad ; the ballet was intolerable. 
 
 E 
 
26 Oporto, September \$th, 1812. 
 
 The boxes are nearly all private, and the style of 
 thing resembles our opera, the men going about from 
 box to box. Saturday we had a ball, given by the 
 Senhor Susa Mollo ; Sunday, another by Senhora 
 Pamplona ; and yesterday a third at the English 
 Factory House, where the rooms are very handsome. 
 At the first I was made to dance with a lady who 
 could only speak Portuguese ; yesterday and the day 
 before I got partners who could talk English. I am 
 the only gay one of our trio ; Clive and John have 
 danced from necessity, but very little. Friday we 
 dined at home ; Saturday with Marshal Beresford ; 
 Sunday with Mr. Croft to meet the Marshal ; and 
 yesterday at General Trant's, who is now living in the 
 city, but will return soon to San Juan. A man has 
 just been here from the governor, who gives us great 
 hopes of procuring mules ; we shall know in two or 
 three hours' time. We find money go very fast here : 
 we have made acquaintance with an English wine 
 merchant, Mr. Hinde, who has changed 200 English 
 notes which I had, and has advanced 300 to Clive, 
 which I hope will see us to Madrid ; but this horse 
 buying and feeding is expensive work, and we English 
 always get well cheated by foreigners. It is lucky we 
 
Oporto, September 15^, 1812. 27 
 
 met with Mr. Hinde, for our letters of credit do not 
 avail us here ; we are told they will be accepted at 
 Madrid. I wanted to learn a little Spanish, but would 
 you believe it, there is not a Spanish grammar or 
 Spanish book of any description to be bought in this 
 great Cidada do Porto, the second of the kingdom. 
 Clive has lent me a Spanish dictionary, and I shall 
 purchase a grammar and some easy books at Sala- 
 manca. I shall very soon be able to read it but the 
 pronunciation is the Devil. Adieu for the present, 
 My dearest Mother. 
 
Wednesday Morning, 
 September \bth. 
 
 HAVE only five minutes, my dear 
 mother, to tell you that we bought three 
 mules yesterday. Two of them are very 
 fine ones, the third moderate ; we were 
 obliged to pay $510, which is 153, for them. We 
 are now going to pay our farewell visit to General 
 Trant, and we shall then proceed to a village four 
 leagues off, half-way between this place and Gui- 
 maraens. Clive desires to be kindly remembered to 
 you, and that I will say he intends writing to you 
 from Madrid. George (John's servant) does not go 
 with us, he stays here to get some of our things 
 washed, and then proceeds with all our extra luggage 
 in a transport, or a merchant vessel, to Lisbon, and 
 thence to Cadiz. Clive will not let me add another 
 word. God bless my dear parents and friends. 
 
 Your ever affectionate, &c., &c. 
 
SALAMANCA, 
 October qth, 1812. 
 
 MY DEAREST MOTHER, 
 
 OHN Russell and Clive are gone to the 
 Marquesa de Ceralvo's, and I am come 
 home to write to you. I had enjoyed 
 the thoughts of giving you all the 
 
 correct information I have collected touching our 
 army, sick, &c., but my companions tell me that were 
 I to specify numbers, my letter would probably be 
 stopped before it reached you. Now, this is so extra- 
 ordinary to me, and so unlike anything British, that 
 I cannot believe it ; nevertheless, as they tell me so 
 who from experience ought to know, I shall follow 
 their advice, as I would rather that you should hear 
 little than nothing from me. I just added my duty 
 to a few lines John sent to you from Bragan$a, which 
 
3O Salamanca, October 9^, 1812. 
 
 I hope you will get ; we then thought to arrive here 
 in four days, but found the distance was twenty-five 
 instead of nineteen leagues, which took us five days. 
 We had quitted the beautiful country on coming into 
 the province of Traz os Montes from that of Minho, 
 which latter is extremely fine. Traz os Montes is a 
 track of rugged, barren mountains ; the cities of 
 Chaves and of Bragan^a are wretched places. Braga, 
 Guimaraes, and the other towns of the Minho, are 
 handsome, rich, and beautifully situated ; and the 
 Serra de Gerez, through a great part of which we 
 passed, between Braga and Chaves, is very grand. 
 On entering Spain at Villarifio, a large village at the 
 mouth of the River Tormes, I was much struck with 
 the difference of dress, which is, in Spain, exceedingly 
 ornamental, especially the women's, who wear a great 
 variety of colours and embroidery, with their hair 
 tied in a knot behind with different coloured ribbons. 
 I have not had much time yet to judge of the people 
 of Spain, but they appear, if civilly treated (for they 
 require the greatest civility to be paid to them), to be 
 amiable and obliging, and their manners very grace- 
 ful and captivating. From Villarifto we came by 
 Ledesma to this place. We have had beautiful 
 
Salamanca^ October gtti, 1812. 31 
 
 weather ever since we landed, until the 6th (the day 
 of our arrival here), during which it rained torrents ; 
 the succeeding days have been much colder than 
 is usual at this season in England, and, to-day ex- 
 cepted, with long heavy showers. We had letters to 
 Dr Curtis and the Marques de Ceralvo here the 
 former rector of the Irish College, and an agreeable, 
 intelligent man, who has been of great use to our 
 army ; the other is a young grandee ; they have both 
 been very civil to us, as well as everybody else we 
 have met. Yesterday we dined with the Marques, 
 and to-day with the Purveyor-General Dixon. We 
 have seen most of the remains of the beautiful build- 
 ings here ; it is enough to drive one distracted to see 
 the devastation committed by the French barbarity 
 cursed vipers ! who destroy but for the sake of de- 
 struction. The cathedral, as to building, remains 
 entire, and is altogether a grand and beautiful fabric, 
 but the architecture is very far from pure. There 
 were here twenty-five colleges, and as many convents : 
 seventeen of the former, and about eleven of the 
 latter, are totally destroyed, and the rest turned into 
 barracks or hospitals. The sort of hatred which a 
 spectator must feel towards the destroyers is not to 
 
32 Salamanca, October qth, 1812. 
 
 be conceived. The College del Rey and the Convent 
 of San Vicente are the two which the French em- 
 ployed so much labour to make into fortresses ; these 
 were thought but little of in England, and people 
 imagined they were to be taken in an instant. We 
 went over the remains of them, and their strength 
 must have been immense ; the French employed 
 1,000 workmen at them for near three years. We 
 went to-day to the immortal field of Arapiles, it is a 
 sad sight, however, for the ground is still covered 
 with unburied carcasses of men and horses, on which 
 flocks of vultures were feeding ; the stench even at 
 this distant period of above eleven weeks, is very 
 great; and those who were there some time ago 
 during the hot weather, described it zsTdreadful. We 
 followed the enemy so fast that we had not time to 
 bury half the dead, and the Spaniards are much too 
 idle and slothful to stir themselves for their noble 
 and generous allies ; they are a strange mixture of 
 nobleness, sloth, and want of feeling. We have not 
 heard of the taking of the Castle of Burgos yet, but 
 it has probably fallen ere this, and the news is ex- 
 pected to arrive here to-morrow. We start in the 
 morning for Valladolid, and talk of going thence to 
 
Salamanca, October <$th, 1812. 33 
 
 Burgos, and afterwards by Segovia to Madrid, where 
 it is supposed Lord Wellington will go as soon as 
 Burgos falls. 
 
 El Rey Jose is said to be at Saragossa ; Suchet and 
 Soult united in Valencia ; Marmont and Bonnet are 
 gone to France, the former will not allow his arm to 
 be amputated, they are both said to be for ever hors 
 de combat. Hill is at Madrid. God bless you my 
 dear parents, &c. Soult is said to have 75,000 men, 
 Clausel 30,000, but very much scattered for provisions. 
 Hill 4,000 at Madrid, Lord Wellington I know not. 
 We have a great many sick here, and this sudden 
 cold has carried off several. 
 
VALLADOLID, 
 October ibth, 1812. 
 
 MY DEAREST MOTHER, 
 
 HAVE only time to write you a very 
 few lines to say that we got here on the 
 1 4th, saw this curious and large old town 
 yesterday, and are just on the point of 
 setting out for Burgos ; the castle there makes an 
 obstinate resistance, and has already cost us many 
 lives, it is uncommonly strong, and the garrison 2,000 
 men. On the i$th the French attacked our advanced 
 posts beyond Burgos, and Colonel Ponsonby was 
 wounded severely in the thigh by a musket-ball ; 
 however, the ball was immediately extracted, and 
 has not injured the bone, so that he is likely, I am 
 happy to say, to do well. We go to Burgos with 
 only J. Cobb, and two or three changes of linen 
 
Valladolid, October i6//fc, 1812. 35 
 
 and our blankets, and we shall return here on our 
 way to Madrid, for we can get no information as to 
 the direct road from Burgos by the Pass of Somo- 
 sierra. 
 
 One of our finest mules has been lamed in shoeing, 
 and we were forced to leave him with our second 
 muleteer at a village between Salamanca and this 
 place, and hire one to come on. God knows when 
 our own will be well. We have a report from head- 
 quarters of the total defeat of the Russians, with the 
 loss of 40,000 men, and the entry of the French into 
 Moscow. I trust this is untrue, or I fear all will be 
 over. We have had rainy weather for the last ten 
 days, an unfortunate thing for our poor fellows at 
 Burgos ! As we approach nearer to the seat of war 
 melancholy sights present themselves. Yesterday 
 we saw several bullock-carts with wounded men 
 coming in, and it is shocking to see the torture they 
 suffer by being jolted over the stones. If the slothful 
 Spaniards had one grain of humanity or generosity, 
 they would meet these poor fellows at the entrance of 
 the towns and carry them over the stones ; but no ! 
 they hate the French, and receive us everywhere with 
 loud acclamations, and then forsooth return to their 
 
36 Valladolid, October 1 6M, 1812. 
 
 former indolent habits, hoping and expecting every- 
 thing must go on as they wish, but preferring to be 
 conquered to making the slightest exertion in their 
 own defence. I have only time to offer you my most 
 affectionate duty, and to send my kind love to all 
 those who care for me. 
 
 Your ever dutiful son, &c. &c. 
 I hear the third battalion of the First Guards are 
 coming or come to Madrid, where I hope I shall meet 
 Orlando. 
 
SALAMANCA, 
 November 6th, 1812. 
 
 MY DEAREST FATHER, 
 
 E left this place a month ago in order to 
 enjoy the consequences of the glorious 
 battle of Arapiles, and we have returned 
 here in haste after having been witnesses 
 to two precipitate retreats. Never surely was there a 
 greater disappointment to us English and Spaniards ! 
 Nor is it at all impossible that the army may very 
 soon return to Portugal ; perhaps before this letter 
 reaches you. 
 
 Our whole army is now united near Arevalo, the 
 head-quarters at Buedo ; and there are several Spanish 
 armies with us under Castafios, perhaps 30,000. Our 
 army, British and Portuguese, may be about 40,000 
 effectives. The bridges over the Douro are all blown 
 
38 Salamanca, November 6th, 1812. 
 
 up, excepting at Toro, which the French have got 
 possession of, and they have crossed over three regi- 
 ments of infantry to form a t$te du pont, and some 
 cavalry, who a day or two back, advanced to Alaijos, 
 about three or four leagues towards the south-east. 
 Marmont's old army, now under General Souham, are 
 stretched along the north bank of the Douro, and 
 are supposed to amount to 40,0(30, some say to 48,000 ! 
 but this I don't believe. Soult has advanced from 
 the south with all the men he could collect of his own, 
 Suchet's, and Joseph's armies, having evacuated Va- 
 lencia entirely, and he is supposed to have at least 
 60,000 men. But he has left in his rear our army 
 under Mackenzie (formerly Maitland's) and three 
 Spanish armies, under Ballesteros, O'Donnell, and 
 Roche, but where they are, or what they are about, 
 we have not even a guess. Such, my dear father, are 
 the reports of this place, as we have been able to 
 collect them, and I have given them to you, although 
 you probably know in England a thousand times 
 better than we do here, but I think you may like to 
 know the reports from all quarters. Lord Wellington 
 having been appointed Generalissimo of the Spanish 
 armies is a great thing, but it is melancholy to see 
 
Salamanca, November 6th, 181 2. 39 
 
 the slow progress with which the new levies proceed ; 
 there have, as yet, only been 150 recruits raised in the 
 immense province of Castille, although the whole 
 country swarms with men ready to enter the army at 
 a moment's notice. The Spaniards are a fine people 
 and deserve to be free, but their government and the 
 higher orders are despicable ; their hatred for the 
 French exceeds anything I could have imagined, and 
 their minds can never be conquered by them. Some 
 time or other their cause must succeed, but I fear 
 years have yet to roll away ere that glorious end can 
 be accomplished ; but if it pleases God that I should 
 live to a moderate age, I do not despair of seeing the 
 overbearing Corsican crushed to atoms by the united 
 and persevering efforts of England and Spain. 
 
 I will now give you a short account of our last 
 month's tour, or rather three weeks', for I fancy it is 
 about that time since I wrote from Valladolid. We 
 got as far as head-quarters at Villatoro, near Burgos, 
 and stayed there one day. We rode to see our posi- 
 tion in front, and saw the French descend in large 
 columns, apparently to attack us. We gave way a 
 little, when Lord Wellington brought down the First 
 Division, upon which the French immediately retired 
 
40 Salamanca, November 6tk, 1812. 
 
 without engaging. This was considered a recon- 
 noitring, and everyone was prepared for a battle the 
 next day, and the head-quarters were removed farther 
 in front. In the morning we sent our baggage and J. 
 Cobb into Burgos, meaning to sleep there that night 
 (for although the town is immediately under the castle, 
 the inhabitants could not be hurt without their de- 
 stroying the town, and this they would not do), and 
 we rode again to the front. We remained there some 
 hours, but the French did not show any disposition to 
 attack, and all idea of a battle that day being given 
 up, we were returning to Burgos when we heard that 
 news had arrived from the south which determined 
 Lord Wellington immediately to retire over the Douro. 
 This was a blow to us ! We entered Burgos, found 
 our baggage, dined, and proceeded three leagues on 
 our return to a small village, where all we could get 
 was an uninhabited roof and a little straw. The next 
 morning the French entered Burgos. We stopped 
 one day in Valladolid, and proceeded by Arivalo to 
 Segovia. But I have forgot Burgos. It is a fine town, 
 and the cathedral quite beautiful; the castle is im- 
 mense, and strength itself. It contained a garrison of 
 two thousand men, and cost us at least that number in 
 
Salamanca, November 6tk, 1812. 41 
 
 the siege. We arrived at Segovia on the soth ult. It 
 is a fine old city, and the situation of it magnificent. 
 The castle stands beautifully, and is a venerable old 
 pile, especially the old Torre, famous as the prison of 
 Gil Bias. The cathedral is very handsome, and con- 
 tains a great deal of fine painted glass the Spanish 
 cathedrals have been famous for fine pictures, but the 
 French have got them all. The next day we went to 
 San Ildefonso, a magnificent and beautifully situated 
 palace at the foot of the Guadalaxara ; the gardens 
 are very fine, and laid out in the old taste, with mag- 
 nificent water-works, which do not now play ; we were 
 lodged in the palace, which is very comfortable, and 
 beautifully furnished. There is an extensive collec- 
 tion of pictures, and it appeared to us to contain num- 
 bers of fine ones, but we wanted light to see them ; 
 there are also some fine statues and marbles. While 
 looking over these a peasant arrived, and told us the 
 French were in Madrid, and the allies in full retreat. 
 We got off early the next morning, and entered the 
 great road to Corunna, by which our army retreated 
 by San Rafael. Here we found ourselves in the 
 midst of our retreating army, which confirmed the 
 peasant's report, and left us nothing but to make the 
 
 G 
 
42 Salamanca, November 6tk, 1812. 
 
 best of our way to Salamanca, cruelly disappointed at 
 having been cut off from seeing Madrid and the Es- 
 curial. Here we had some more hardships, for Clive 
 having stayed behind for our baggage while John and I 
 went on to procure a night's lodging, we missed each 
 other, and did not join again for four and twenty 
 hours, during which John and I got neither beds nor 
 a single mouthful to eat ; however, we were in high 
 luck to join again the next morning. One thing that 
 I lament among many others is, that I know not now 
 when I shall be able to learn the Spanish language, 
 which it is impossible to do while in constant motion, 
 and I had intended to have had a master at Madrid. 
 Henry Williams was here yesterday, on his way from 
 Cadiz to England, and he brought me letters from 
 Charles and Orlando. Alas ! poor Orlando is cruelly 
 disappointed at being kept at Isla ; I hope he will 
 soon remove, poor fellow ! but I fear he is very unwell. 
 Charles will probably be in England ere this reaches 
 you. Pray give him my kind love, and a thousand 
 thanks for his letter. I wish he had stayed a little 
 longer at Cadiz, and we should then have met there ; 
 possibly something may bring him into this part of 
 the world before I leave it, but the chance is small, I 
 
Salamanca, November 6tk, 1812. 43 
 
 fear. Their letters were dated the 4th and 5th of 
 October. Orlando says he is to be moved to Lisbon 
 when he is better ; if I could be certain of finding 
 him there, I would contrive to take it in my way to 
 Cadiz ; but as it is so uncertain, and that nothing will 
 persuade John and Clive to go there, I believe I had 
 better give up all thoughts of it. I had fancied my- 
 self very near Orlando when in the midst of Hill's 
 army, until I got his letter yesterday. We intend to 
 go from hence to Cadiz, taking in our way Ciudad 
 Rodrigo, Alcantara, Badajoz, Merida, and Seville, and 
 if it is safe, also Cordova, Andujar, Jaen, Granada, 
 Malaga, and Gibraltar. I begged of my mother, in a 
 letter from Oporto, to write to me at Madrid ; if she 
 was so good as to do so, I fear the letter must be lost, 
 but who would have imagined it at the time I wrote ! 
 We have had generally fine weather lately, and for 
 two or three hours in the afternoon the sun has been 
 scorching, but the rest of the twenty-four hours the 
 cold has been astonishing, far exceeding that of Eng- 
 land, and the want of fire-places in this country is 
 most severely felt by us. We are liable in this town 
 to a surprise from the French crossing at Toro ; but 
 we have 1,500 convalescents as a garrison, and there 
 
44 Salamanca, November 6th, 1812. 
 
 is a Moorish wall round the town, at all the gates of 
 which we have sentries, and two cavalry piquets are 
 posted on different roads, two leagues off, to give the 
 alarm, so that if they send any small detachments I 
 think they will get the worst of it. We intend re- 
 maining here a few days unless Lord Wellington 
 should retire further we arrived the day before yes- 
 terday. We have never got our mule that we left be- 
 hind us lame ; we have heard of its following us to 
 Segovia, but I fear either the French, English, or 
 Spaniards have got possession of her ; she is a beauti- 
 ful creature, and a great loss. We have bought 
 another at Valladolid, but he does not turn out very 
 well. Accept, my dear parents, my kind relations 
 and friends, my united and sincere love, affection, and 
 duty, 
 
 And believe me, &c. &c. 
 
BADAJOZ, 
 November 2$rd, 1812. 
 
 MY DEAR MOTHER, 
 
 INCE my last we have travelled over a 
 large tract of country, most of it devoid 
 of interest, and very ugly. Spain is in- 
 deed, I believe, altogether as ugly a 
 country as the globe contains; however, there are 
 some fine scenes in passing through the Sierra de 
 Gata, which divides Leon and Estremadura. Ciudad 
 Rodrigo is a nasty old town, and half of it a heap of 
 ruins. Its situation is naturally strong, but the walls 
 old and crazy; the breach which was made in the 
 last siege, and which the Spaniards had rebuilt, has 
 fallen down again, and they are once more employed 
 in slowly replacing it. Alcantara possesses a work 
 well worth travelling many leagues to see. I mean 
 
46 Badajoz, November 2$rd, 1812. 
 
 its magnificent Roman bridge over the Tagus, which 
 here runs in a deep and narrow bed of bare and 
 almost perpendicular rocks. The parapet of the 
 bridge when we were there was 115 feet above the 
 water, and in summer is more. The span of the 
 centre arch is 107 feet, and of the other two principal 
 ones (of which one is blown up) 90 feet. It has three 
 other smaller arches, built on the rocky banks. The 
 road over it is a perfect flat. I know not if I men- 
 tioned the Roman aqueduct we saw at Segovia ; 
 that is, without any exception, the most beautiful 
 and grandest edifice I ever beheld. The parapet is 
 1 02 feet high ; but it would be in vain for me to 
 attempt a description of it I only wish you could 
 see it. Elvas is very prettily situated, and surrounded 
 by very finely shaped hills covered with olives. Fort 
 la Lippe crowns the highest of them, and it is as 
 beautiful an object as it is a strong fort. Badajoz is 
 in a frightful country, of which itself is no great orna- 
 ment. The garrison consists of near 5,000 Spaniards, 
 and the governor's name is Rodriguez. The Marques 
 de Palacios (Governor-General of Estremadura) is 
 resident here, but they say is on the point of being 
 removed, why, I do not hear. Ballesteros, they say, 
 
Badajoz, November 2$rd, 1812. 47 
 
 is a prisoner at Gibraltar, having kicked at Lord 
 Wellington's appointment as Generalissimo, and he 
 has written several violent letters to the Regency ; 
 where his army is, or by whom commanded, we 
 cannot learn. We have heard reports of our army, 
 which are bad ; but we know nothing for certain. 
 They say Suchet remains very strong in Valencia ; 
 that Lord William Bentinck has taken the command 
 of our army at Alicante, bringing 5,000 fresh troops, 
 but is not able to cope with him. Lord Wellington, 
 they say, has retired to Rodrigo with much loss, 
 particularly in cavalry; that the French have 11,000 
 cavalry in the field; that we have totally lost the i6th 
 Light Dragoons and a regiment of Dragoon Guards ; 
 besides which, that a German regiment of cavalry has 
 been dreadfully cut up. The whole of this may be 
 false, and the greatest part probably is. I tell you 
 the reports we get at each place as I think they may 
 amuse you, but they are not to be depended upon. 
 At some town on our road (I think Albuquerque) this 
 affair of cavalry was made out to be a great victory on 
 our side, and a total overthrow of the French cavalry. 
 The sanguine disposition and absurd credulity of the 
 lower class of Spaniards are beyond conception. 
 
48 Badajoz y November 2$rd, 1812. 
 
 Since we left Leon and Castille and entered Estrema- 
 dura we have found a great difference in the people. 
 The former are amiable, of pleasing manners, obliging, 
 and speak the purest Castillian ; the Estremefios are 
 sulky, of rough manners, disobliging, and their lan- 
 guage scarcely intelligible. However, they all seem 
 equally to detest the French, but they are by no 
 means as grateful to us ! In this town it is not sur- 
 prising, for I fear it is a melancholy truth, that the 
 horrid and unnatural enormities committed by our 
 soldiery after the assault, were before almost unheard 
 of. We have, on the whole, been fortunate in our 
 weather, having had few thorough rainy days. We 
 arrived here on Saturday, and are staying to get 
 our linen washed. We hope to get away about 
 Thursday, for this is a nasty place, and we have got a 
 miserable billet. Clive has been writing to you this 
 morning. We are all (masters and servants) very 
 prosperous. The latter detest this country, and will 
 have fine stories to tell in the servants' hall about it. 
 We go from hence to Merida, thence to Seville. I 
 have written to Colonel Capel to beg of him to send 
 me a line to Seville to inform me whether Orlando is 
 still at Isla, or gone to Lisbon ; if the former we shall 
 
Badajoz, November 2$rd y 1812. 49 
 
 proceed immediately to Cadiz, if the latter we shall 
 first visit Cordova and Granada ; in the former case 
 we shall be at Cadiz in eighteen or nineteen days, 
 and I hope there to have a little news from England, 
 after an ignorance of between four and five months. 
 We went round the ramparts yesterday, and it quite 
 staggers me to see the walls our men climbed to take 
 the castle ; the ladders were not high enough, and 
 when they were full of men others below lifted them 
 up, ladders and all. This end of the town and that 
 washed by the Guadiana excepted, the walls are by 
 no means strong, and the great strength consists in 
 the three outworks : San Christoval, Pardaleras, and 
 Picurifia. We are going to see them to-day. 
 
 God bless you, &c. &c. 
 
 H 
 
CADIZ, 
 December I8M, 1812. 
 
 MY DEAREST MOTHER, 
 
 TAKE up my pen with particular 
 pleasure here, as this letter will give 
 you information of several things which 
 will be agreeable to you, I am sure. I 
 
 have to acknowledge several letters from England, 
 which have given me more comfort than I can ex- 
 press, although the pleasure I have had in reading 
 them was damped by the very indifferent accounts 
 they contain of my much valued grandfather ; but I 
 will no longer delay to tell you that I found Orlando 
 still here, a great piece of good fortune. I cannot 
 say he is quite recovered, but I trust in a few days 
 more he will be so ; he intends to write to you by the 
 next packet, and will tell you our mutual proceedings 
 
Cadiz, December \%th, 1812. 51 
 
 here. I will therefore confine myself to what we 
 have done since I last wrote, and our future plans, as 
 far as I can, but these are unsettled. We were pleased 
 with Merida, which is a nice old town, and contains 
 most extensive remains of the Romans, two aque- 
 ducts, an amphitheatre, and a naumachia, with 
 temples, and houses in ruins ; a fine triumphal arch, 
 and a bridge without an end, I really never could 
 count the arches of it ; it is partly Roman, repaired 
 successively by the Moors and Spaniards ; hence to 
 Seville the road was uninteresting. Seville is a most 
 magnificent and a most delightful town, and one can 
 never see enough of the cathedral ; there are a vast 
 number of public buildings, many of which are very 
 handsome palaces. The climate, the moment we came 
 to the south of the Sierra Morena, was most extra- 
 ordinary ; all to the north is very little warmer than 
 England, but the four days we were at Seville were 
 actually like the month of August with us ; the 
 thermometer was 71 in the shade, and the evenings 
 and nights quite sultry. Seville is very remarkable 
 for the beauty of its women, but I fear they bestow 
 all their charms on the French, and sigh for their 
 return ; they dress quite beautifully, and the Paseo 
 
52 Cadiz, December i8M, 1812. 
 
 (walk) or Alame'da was crowded with them on Sunday 
 evening, and the gayest, prettiest scene I ever beheld. 
 Seville is a most curious town for any one to see who 
 never was before in Andalucia, of which it is the 
 radiant queen ; its streets are almost all extremely 
 narrow, but the houses are very large, and quite de- 
 lightful ; they have one or two large courts, to which 
 the rooms or corridors open. These courts are paved 
 with different coloured tiles, and ornamented by foun- 
 tains and orange trees, and several have small marble 
 pillars. The staircases, and around the doors, are also 
 marble ; the floors are generally of coloured tiles, and 
 floors of wood are scarcely ever seen in Spain never 
 in the south they are commonly of bricks. This 
 description of a house is nearly applicable to all this 
 southern country, but in the greatest perfection at 
 Seville. I saw the Fusion in the cathedral there on 
 the Fiesta de la Concepcion, and I cannot say how 
 disappointed I was, having heard so much of the 
 magnificence of such fiestas in Spain, and especially 
 in Seville Cathedral, which is one of the richest 
 churches in Spain. The exterior of it is an unfinished 
 pile of mixed architecture, but is immense, and, 
 altogether, has a grand appearance. There is a very 
 
Cadiz, December i8M, 1812. 53 
 
 high tower, the greatest part Moorish, which you 
 ascend without steps it is called the Giralda (in 
 Spanish pronunciation Hiralda), and from the top of 
 it there is a magnificent view of the city and its 
 environs. The country is not pretty, but the hills are 
 covered with olives planted in rows, and present a 
 lively and cultivated appearance ; and the gardens of 
 vegetables round the town are well cultivated. The 
 orange gardens belonging to the palace, and the con- 
 vents with myrtle hedges, are delightful. At Xeres, 
 on our way here, we called on M. Gordon, a sherry 
 merchant, whom John knew, and he gave us some of 
 the best sherry I ever tasted. I wish there was a butt 
 of it at Weston. Xeres is a very pretty town, and 
 Puerto de Santa Maria, and Cadiz, are beautiful. Isla 
 is a large, good town ; but poor Puerto Real is entirely 
 destroyed by the French. John and Clive came 
 straight here ; I stayed at Isla for a day with Orlando, 
 and we then came here together ; we and John have 
 got a good lodging upon the Bay, and close to the 
 Alameda ; Clive is at Sir H. Wellesley's we came 
 here on the i.?th. I am going to work hard at 
 Spanish, and hope to have a master to-morrow. I 
 have picked up a good deal of the language from my 
 
54 Cadiz, December i8//*, 1812. 
 
 grammar, and talking with the peasants, and I can 
 read it tolerably with occasional assistance from the 
 dictionary ; but I want a master, and some good 
 society, very much. Lord Wellington has been ex- 
 pected for the last two days, and Sir Henry is at 
 Santa Maria waiting for him. I hope his coming will 
 make this place very gay. We have altered our plans 
 in consequence of hearing that the fever is over in 
 Murcia; we now intend to stay here three weeks 
 longer, and then we shall go to Gibraltar, Malaga, 
 and Granada, thence to Cordova, and back to Gra- 
 nada, whence we shall proceed to Murcia, Cartagena, 
 and Alicante, and there embark for Port Mahon, from 
 whence we are sure of a passage to Malta or to Sicily. 
 It is singular that we shall have been through so very 
 large a part of the Peninsula without seeing either of 
 the capitals ; we were cruelly out of luck about 
 Madrid. I have laid out about 60 in books here ; I 
 hope they will get safe to England. Clive says I may 
 send them to Sir H. Wellesley's, to go with some of 
 his from thence. I have got a large folio of the maps 
 of Spain, by Lopez, the best there are, and I shall 
 endeavour wherever I go to procure the best maps I 
 can of each country, for they are delightful things to 
 
Cadiz, December \Wi, 1812. 55 
 
 have. Our mules and horses are all well, and have 
 served us most famously. Things in the Peninsula 
 have not a very bright face at present ; they report 
 that the French are advancing through Estremadura 
 towards Seville, and Lord Wellington's delay seems 
 to strengthen it, as he might be forced to take a cir- 
 cuitous route, and come by Agramonte. They talk 
 much of an insurrection ; these Andaluses are a bad 
 people; the Sevillians want to change the govern- 
 ment, and set up the old Seville Junta again ; Cordova 
 and Jaen are said to have joined them, and they 
 offered Castaftos the Regency. He has discovered 
 the plan, and the heads are taken up and brought 
 here. They say the people here are discontented, but 
 I don't think anything will come from this. The 
 Andaluses are a poor, paltry set ; you would have 
 been astonished to have seen the peasants at Arapiles 
 ploughing their lands in the midst of the putrid car- 
 casses ; but you can have no idea of the inertness of 
 these people, without seeing it. They were employed 
 in their fields with the greatest sang froid in this 
 pestilential air. They have no notion of doing one 
 iota more than appears to them absolutely necessary 
 for the moment. There is a good play-house here, 
 
56 Cadiz, December 2$rd, 1812. 
 
 and some good actors and Bolero dancers. I have 
 seen all the Spanish and gipsy dances, and most 
 curious and singular they are the Fandango is pretty; 
 the Spanish Contra Dansa is very pretty too ; the 
 time is the same as the waltz, and there is a great deal 
 of waltzing in them, which, introduced in figures, is 
 beautiful. I long to dance them, but I cannot speak 
 Spanish well enough to be at my ease. We have 
 had terribly rainy weather ever since we were at 
 Seville until yesterday, since when it has been fine, 
 but rather sharp ; we feel the want of fires. Sir Henry 
 Wellesley has famous ones, and his house is very 
 comfortable. 
 
 December 2$rd. Still no intelligence of Lord 
 Wellington. There is a debate this morning in the 
 Cortes on the subject of these Seville delinquents ; 
 Clive and John are going to hear it, but I am not 
 forward enough in the language to understand it it 
 is expected to be very animated. There is no order 
 yet for the packet's sailing, and I suppose she will be 
 detained till the Duque's arrival I mean Lord Wel- 
 lington. I shall keep my letter open till the last 
 moment, though I shall probably have little to say. 
 I have seen Charles's friends, the Villa Vicencias and 
 
Cadiz y December 2 8///, 1 8 1 2 . 57 
 
 Boronis, but the nicest girl I have seen is the daughter 
 of the Duquesa de Goa ; she is very young, but has 
 a pretty face and figure, dances beautifully, and has 
 pretty manners, which is more than can be said of 
 all the Spanish girls, who are terribly vulgar and 
 forward. 
 
 December 2%th. I have nothing, my dear mother, 
 to say to-day. Orlando has mentioned Lord Wel- 
 lington's arrival, he is gone to-day to see the Spanish 
 and British troops at the Isla. It is a most wretched 
 day violent storms of wind and rain. Two balls 
 are to be given to Lord Wellington, one by Sir 
 Henry Wellesley, which they say is to be the day 
 after to-morrow ; and the other by the grandees who 
 are here, the day for which is not yet fixed. We shall 
 dine at home, as Sir Henry has a very large party of 
 merchants and officers. Lord Wellington dined with 
 the Regency on Saturday, and afterwards went to the 
 theatre, where he was well received ; the house was 
 illuminated, and patriotic songs were sung. They 
 have put Spanish words to our " God save the King," 
 introducing George the Third and Ferdinando the 
 Seventh together. " George " in Spanish is a frightful 
 word, it is spelt " Jorge " and pronounced " Horky." 
 
 I 
 
58 Cadiz, December 2%th, 1812. 
 
 There are a swarm of English travellers expected here 
 from Lisbon, they are on the road, and may arrive 
 any day, to the number of twenty. I fancy Sir 
 Henry is a little annoyed at the idea, as it has always 
 been his custom to give general invitations to all 
 English travellers. We had a pleasant dinner enough 
 yesterday at Costello's. There was a dance at the 
 theatre the other night that I had not seen before the 
 Seguidillas Manchegas (a la Mancha Danse), which is 
 excessively pretty. The number of different national 
 Spanish dances is very great, almost every province 
 has one peculiar to itself, they are all danced with 
 castanets, and in the most beautiful dresses. There 
 are several good dancers of these dances at the 
 theatre, but sometimes they attempt short French 
 ballets, and they make sad work of them ; we go 
 every night to the play. I wish you could know the 
 language, it is as beautiful as the Italian, and 
 grandeur itself. On Monday the performance was 
 entirely by women, a singular, but, of course, a tire- 
 some thing ; there was a comedy, a short musical 
 piece, boleros, a little French ballet, and a farce, and 
 all the parts were played by women ; even the 
 prompter was a woman ! and they managed the 
 
Cadiz, December 28^, 1812. 59 
 
 scenery, trimmed the lamps, in short, did everything, 
 and would not allow a man to approach behind the 
 scenes ; they really got through it wonderfully well, 
 though they were a little tedious. Yesterday Orlando 
 dined with General Cooke, and John and I with Sir 
 Henry, who gave a grand dinner to the Regency and 
 big-wigs ; there were above forty persons, and the 
 table was very handsome. We went aftenvards to 
 some theatricals at la Sefiora Orgullo's ; she has made 
 a pretty little theatre of one of her rooms, and they 
 performed a comedy, an opera, and boleros ; there 
 was a cousin of the lady's (a girl only fourteen years 
 old) who acted excessively well in the comedy, and 
 Sefiora Orgullo and two gentlemen sung very well 
 in the opera. To-day Lord Wellington went to the 
 Cortes, where he made them a speech of thanks, and 
 had an answer from the President as empty of essence 
 as it was full of flummery and vanity ; they both 
 read their speeches. Lord Wellington was much 
 applauded from the gallery; but there is a large 
 French party here, who take great pains to insinuate 
 that we are going to betray Spain, take the govern- 
 ment into our own hands, and declare Lord Welling- 
 ton regent ; this is generally supposed the cause of 
 
60 Cadiz, Jamiary \st, 1813. 
 
 his not having been received on landing with any 
 applause, and of the little that he has since met with ; 
 he dines to-day with Mr. Duff, the British Consul, as 
 do the embassy and the general and his staff, we 
 again, therefore, dine at home. The ambassador's ball 
 takes place to-night. We had torrents of rain all 
 yesterday, to-day it is dry but cloudy. 
 
 January 1st, 1813. A merry Christmas and a 
 happy New Year to you all, my dear parents and 
 friends ; the packet sails to-day, and I shall take my 
 letters after breakfast to Clive. Sir Henry's ball was 
 very handsome, and there were crowds of people ; six 
 hundred were invited, but not near that number 
 came. Our departure is not fixed, but it will pro- 
 bably be in about ten days. Lord Wellington is 
 expected to go in three or four. Lord Herbert, 1 
 with a crowd of travellers, is at Seville, waiting, I under- 
 stand, for a bull feast which is appointed for the 6th, 
 but probably will not take place so soon. I get on 
 a little with my Spanish, and I venture to talk some- 
 times to the ladies. God bless you, &c., &c. 
 
 1 The late Earl of Pembroke. 
 
CADIZ, 
 January 22nd, 1813. 
 
 MY DEAREST MOTHER, 
 
 EDNESDAY morning two packets came 
 in from England, bringing me your 
 letters 13, 14, and 15, which I have been 
 long anxiously expecting. We had been 
 without a packet from England ever since the I7th of 
 December ; I had learnt the death of my poor grand- 
 father l from Clive, who saw it in the " Courier " of 
 the 1 7th ult, which had come overland from Lisbon 
 about a fortnight ago ; it did not surprise me at all, 
 as I had been expecting the event some time from 
 the melancholy accounts I had previously received 
 of him from you, but you will easily conceive how 
 anxious I have ever since been to learn the melan- 
 
 Viscount Torrington. 
 
62 Cadiz, January 22nd, 1813. 
 
 choly particulars of his last days and those that suc- 
 ceeded his death ; that it was easy and without any 
 pain is a comfortable reflection, and as, alas ! all en- 
 joyment of this life seemed for some time to have 
 left him, an easy relief from its cares and infirmities 
 was a thing rather to be desired than lamented. Yet, 
 my dear mother, that he should have been deprived 
 in his last moments, dear amiable old man, of the 
 power of expressing all his wishes, must, I fear, have 
 caused him considerable mental suffering, and the 
 account of this distressed me greatly. However, I 
 am much to blame in writing thus to you, my dearest 
 mother, who, Heaven knows, will have sufficient grief 
 of your own without being worried with other people's 
 feelings on this melancholy subject. You know how 
 much I loved my dear kind grandfather, who always 
 behaved with such true affection to me ; and although 
 when I took leave of him I felt convinced it was for 
 the last time, yet the certainty that one never is again 
 to behold in this world a beloved and highly-valued 
 parent and friend cannot be heard unmoved. 
 
 Pardon me, my dear mother, the pain this may give 
 you ; I am sure you would have been hurt had I been 
 quite silent on the subject which once entered upon, 
 
Cadiz, January 22nd, 1813. 63 
 
 the pen will sometimes follow the feelings further 
 than it should. You will probably have heard from 
 Orlando from Lisbon ; he sailed from hence on the 
 evening of the 8th instant, with Captain Bateman in 
 the " Stately," for that port. I have not heard of his 
 arrival, and I fear he must have had a bad voyage, 
 for the wind has been very adverse ; he was fortunate 
 to get so good a passage ; we have been waiting here 
 some time longer than we intended for the arrival of 
 the packet ; we shall now start on Monday next, the 
 25th, sleep that night at Isla, and get to Gibraltar on 
 the Thursday ; we intend to go over from thence to 
 Ceuta and Tetuan, and to stay a few days at the 
 latter place for shooting. We shall not remain many 
 days at Gibraltar, but proceed, as I mentioned in my 
 last letter, to Alicante, there to embark for Malta. I 
 am much disappointed at the fall of a plan that was 
 in agitation for a short time ; when Lord Wellington 
 was here he was constantly talking of being early in 
 the summer at Madrid, and several times advised 
 John to stay for the opening of the next campaign ; 
 John and Clive in consequence proposed this to me, 
 which I came into with delight; I intended to have 
 gone from hence after seeing Gibraltar and Granada, 
 
64 Cadiz, January 22nd, 1813. 
 
 to Lisbon, and we were all to have followed the army 
 to Madrid, if open. Why or wherefore I know not (for 
 they give no reason), the two originators of the plan 
 are now obstinately and immoveably against it, and I 
 foresee now that I shall never see Lisbon or Madrid. 
 
 It is probable that we shall return to England by 
 Russia or France (for I think by that time we are 
 likely to be at peace). Herbert arrived here some 
 time ago with several Englishmen from Lisbon ; he 
 brought me a letter from old Bromley, 1 which was 
 very gratifying. Herbert will join us in Sicily, and 
 accompany us in our eastern tour. Upon second 
 thoughts I determined to purchase a pipe of sherry 
 for my father while I was on the spot ; I have got it 
 from M. Costello, from whom Clive has purchased 
 four for different persons, of the same sort ; it appears 
 to us to be excellent wine, and I hope it will prove 
 so ; I have paid for the wine and freightage, and no- 
 thing remains to be paid but the disembarkation 
 and duty. Tell Lucy, 2 with my love, that I have 
 
 1 One of the Harrow masters, and tutor to Mr. Bridgeman. 
 3 His sister, afterwards Lady Lucy Whitmore, wife, of W. 
 Wolryche Whitmore, Esq., M.P. 
 
Cadiz, Jamiary 22nd, 1813. 65 
 
 taken the greatest pains to procure her some Spanish 
 music, but hitherto without success. Music is not 
 printed in this country, and the only means of having 
 it is to get it copied ; this my friend Ysnardi pro- 
 mised to do for me ; he spoke to a music-master, and 
 if it is not finished before I go he promises to send it 
 to you. There is to be the Fandango, the Seguidillas 
 Manchegas, some Boleros, Cachuchas, and Oles, and 
 the Zapateado all dances, the last, of the Gypsies ; 
 there are also some songs and a march : the Spanish 
 music is pretty, very peculiar and characteristic. 
 I fear Lucy will find it difficult to catch the style 
 and time unless she meets with somebody who 
 has been in Spain. I have been unlucky about 
 my Spanish master. He is in the Commissariat 
 Office, and this made him so irregular in coming to 
 me that I gave him up. I only got fourteen lessons 
 of an hour each. My books, with dive's and John's, 
 we intend sending to Gibraltar, and there we hope 
 Commissioner Fraser will get some King's ship to 
 take them to England. We have seen all the fortifi- 
 cations and defences of this island; they are immensely 
 strong and extensive. I believe it is the strongest 
 place by nature and art in the world. They say it is 
 
 K 
 
66 Cadiz, January 22nd, 1813. 
 
 much stronger than Gibraltar. Its great strength 
 consists in the marshy lands and salt ditches with 
 which it is surrounded on the land side, rendering it 
 impossible for troops to approach it in large bodies. 
 They are cutting a canal across the Trocadero to the 
 river San Pedro, which will insulate the part nearest 
 to Cadiz. This is an immense work, and though a 
 thousand workmen are employed upon it, it will not 
 be completed for many months. I certainly was 
 guilty of a great error if I did not mention having 
 seen Lord Wellington at Burgos. We dined with 
 him at 9 o'clock the day we passed at head-quarters, 
 after having seen the advance of the French surely I 
 must have mentioned our misfortune in not seeing 
 them driven back that evening. This it was which 
 made Lord Wellington so late back at head-quarters. 
 He had very few of his aides-de-camp there with 
 him. I liked much what I saw of the Prince of 
 Orange; he seems a fine, manly, young fellow, and 
 bears an excellent character. When we proceeded 
 from Burgos to Madrid we were aware that it was 
 likely soon to be given up, but we determined to try 
 if we could not get there just in time to see it we 
 knew it depended on the celerity of Soult. Surely I 
 
Cadiz, January 2$rd, 1813. 67 
 
 mentioned that Clive and the baggage passed us while 
 we were looking out for them, on the road close to 
 the village where John and I passed the night. They 
 proceeded to Villa Castin the town we had originally 
 determined to stop at. The night being very dark 
 caused us to miss seeing them among the crowds of 
 baggage, mules, carts, troops, &c. &c., and the ex- 
 cessive confusion of the scene. They passed us about 
 eight o'clock, and John and I continued keeping 
 watch alternately on the road till ten. The night was 
 pitch dark and piercing cold, with a damp fog falling, 
 and we were nearly in a torpid state. We started 
 from our hovel very early, and reached Villa Castin 
 at daybreak, where, in the market-place, we were 
 inexpressibly delighted to find Clive and J. Cobb 
 looking out for us. The reason we had stopped at 
 the other village was that we knew great numbers of 
 troops were to put up at Villa Castin, and we thought 
 every roof would be occupied. As it was, in neither 
 place could we be said to have found shelter, either 
 for man or beast. 
 
 January 2$rd. There are accounts from Alicante 
 which mention indications of general movements in 
 the French armies of Valencia, &c., &c. It is here 
 
68 Cadiz y January 2$rd, 1813. 
 
 confidently believed that they intend making an attack 
 on Alicante or retiring over the Ebro; the latter 
 opinion is the most prevalent. The ball given by the 
 grandees to Lord Wellington on the 4th was very 
 magnificent, but the crowds were so immense that 
 people could not stir; nothing that I ever saw in 
 London can be compared to it. They say it cost 
 near 20,000 dollars. The supper tables and other 
 decorations were handsome and in good taste, but so 
 little good order was preserved that people of all 
 descriptions got in, and the tables were filled four or 
 five different times. There were covers only for 300, 
 and it is calculated that near 3,000 were present at 
 the same time. There were several good devices both 
 in Latin and Spanish, and the united flags of Great 
 Britain, Russia, and Portugal in all directions. The 
 heat was precisely that of a hot-house, but of course 
 of a more disagreeable nature ; nevertheless the 
 Spanish women were not deterred from dancing, or 
 rather jostling in the crowd. I left about thirty or 
 forty couples dancing at half-past seven, and it con- 
 tinued till nine. There was a great display of beauty 
 and of magnificent dresses. The grand supper-table 
 was a beautiful sight when first filled. It contained 
 
Cadiz, January 2$rd, 1813. 69 
 
 1 20 covers, which were all occupied by ladies, ex- 
 cepting Lord Wellington, his brother, and three or 
 four other men. There was a malicious report that 
 Lord Wellington was to be poisoned, and the ladies 
 would not allow him, poor hungry man, to touch 
 anything. The Duchess of Osuna sent for some 
 dishes from her own house for him. Sir Henry 
 Wellesley gave a second ball on the Qth, which I was 
 not at, having just heard the news of my poor grand- 
 father's death. Lord Wellington went the following 
 day through Badajoz to Lisbon. John's servant (who, 
 by the way, is an excellent one) came here from 
 Oporto, via Lisbon. Fortunately a transport is going 
 hence to Gibraltar on Tuesday, in which he will go 
 with our heavy luggage ; thence we intend to send 
 him on to Malta. You need not think about our want 
 of comforts, for I know not why, but travellers do not 
 feel those things as might be expected, and they are 
 much greater in imagination than in fact. A great 
 friend of mine is now here, Lord Bayning. He will 
 go to the Isla with us on Monday and proceed as far 
 as the field of Barrosa, whence he will return here. 
 God bless you, my dearest mother, &c., &c. 
 
GIBRALTAR, 
 February 2nd, 1813. 
 
 MY DEAR MOTHER, 
 
 HE packet is to sail for England to- 
 morrow, therefore I will write to you the 
 little I have to say since leaving Cadiz. 
 John and I went to the Isla on Monday 
 the 25th, but Clive could not get our passports till 
 Wednesday, on which day he joined us with them 
 early in the morning, and we proceeded over the 
 Barrosa field of battle, still strewed with carcases, to 
 Vejer, a curious old town, situated at the summit of 
 a steep, rocky hill, six leagues from Isla. John, who 
 had bought a gun at Cadiz, dawdled behind on the 
 Barrosa hills in search of game, while Clive and I 
 regularly proceeded on. Four leagues from Isla we 
 came to the small town of Conil, on the sea cliffs. 
 
Gibraltar, February 2nd, 1813. 71 
 
 From hence the road to Vejer, two leagues, is quite 
 shocking road, indeed, it could not be called, it was 
 merely the tracks of footsteps over fields. The soil is 
 a tenacious clay, in which the animals sunk each step 
 nearly knee deep ; we were obliged to walk, and were 
 one plaster of clay to the knees. We passed a river, 
 and it soon after became pitch dark. Thus we pro- 
 ceeded for some time, and at last came up to our ser- 
 vants and mules, the latter having, three of them, 
 fallen, from being quite unable to keep their feet in 
 the clay. We passed them, and soon after lost our 
 way, and got into boggy rivers. Fortunately, in the 
 silence of the night we heard the muleteers speaking 
 to the mules, halloed to them, and soon joined them. 
 Once more all together, we pursued our way to Vejer, 
 where we arrived at nine o'clock ; at twelve we quite 
 gave up poor John, and went to bed. The following 
 day at twelve he appeared, and told us that he had 
 proceeded half a league beyond Conil the preceding 
 night, when losing his way he determined to return to 
 Conil. He passed the river prosperously, but on the 
 other side, just as he was going to rise the hill (being 
 most fortunately himself on foot), his pony sunk up to 
 its neck in a quicksand. He in vain endeavoured to help 
 
72 Gibraltar, February 2nd, 1813. 
 
 him out, and went to the town for assistance. Having 
 procured two men and two boys, they with difficulty 
 got the poor helpless animal out. John got a little 
 bread [and a bed, and joined us, as I have already 
 stated, the following day. We found that Tarifa was 
 seven leagues from Vejer, and that there was no place 
 whatever between, and they told us the roads were 
 still worse than those we had come. We therefore 
 remained Thursday at Vejer, and replaced the shoes 
 our poor beasts had lost in the clay. Friday, as soon 
 as it was light, we started, and fortunately arrived at 
 Tarifa at half-past six, an hour after dark. We found 
 the road horrible in places, but not all the way ; on 
 the whole I reckon this one of the most extraordinary 
 day's journeys we have performed. Tarifa is a poor 
 place, and nothing but the abominable rainy weather 
 could have saved it from the French. It is nearly six 
 leagues from hence, and the road dreadful ; we there- 
 fore only came half-way (to Algeciras) the next day, 
 and reached this place on Sunday, the 3ist, at one 
 o'clock, being the seventh day since we left Cadiz. 
 The country from Vejer to Gibraltar is beautiful. The 
 rocky mountains, covered with magnificent cork trees, 
 and abounding in streams, have a very grand effect. 
 
Gibraltar, February 2nd, 1813. 73 
 
 I believe I forgot to tell you that Commissioner Eraser 
 had invited us to be with them when we came to 
 Gibraltar. Here, then, John and I are comfortably 
 established in one of the prettiest country houses you 
 ever saw, and enjoying all the luxuries of England 
 with the southern climate. Clive is at the Lieutenant- 
 Governor's, where we all dine to-day. This house is 
 situated a mile south of the town, high up on the 
 Rock, and in the midst of a delightful garden full of 
 violets and geraniums ; the trees are already all bud- 
 ding, and will soon afford shade. I am as much 
 pleased with Gibraltar Bay as I was disappointed with 
 that of Cadiz. This is surrounded with fine moun- 
 tains, and the African coast is very bold. The Rock 
 itself is most beautiful and curious it is 1,000 feet 
 high. I have seen the Galleries and some other things, 
 but I have yet much to see. We are going over, in a 
 day or two, to Ceuta and Tetuan. Captain Godby, 
 General Campbell's aide-de-camp, who has dogs, and 
 knows the country at Tetuan, will go with us, and, 
 perhaps, the Commissioner, in whose yacht we are to 
 go. I will write again before we leave this place for 
 the last of Spain. 
 
 God bless you, &c. &c. 
 
 L 
 
GIBRALTAR, 
 February gt/ij 1813. 
 
 E have remained here thus long in hopes 
 of the easterly wind changing, and en- 
 abling us to go to Tetuan, but it is 
 obstinate. The Commissioner and Cap- 
 tain Godby were going with us, but it is not possible 
 to land at Tetuan with an easterly wind, on account 
 of the surf upon the Bar ; we now have determined, 
 John, Clive, and I, to go over to Ceuta to-morrow in 
 the Commissioner's yacht, and he and Captain Godby 
 will take us up there on Friday, should the wind be 
 favourable, if not, he will send his yacht to bring us 
 back, I shall be very sorry to miss Tetuan, both on 
 account of the shooting and of seeing a Moorish 
 town ; the Moors do not allow anybody to enter their 
 territories from Ceuta, which prevents our going from 
 
 
Gibraltar, February 9^/2, 1813. 75 
 
 thence by land. There never was anything so de- 
 lightful as the weather ; the first blossoms are beau- 
 tiful, and everything has the appearance of spring 
 this is the finest season here in summer the heat 
 is insufferable, it is now as hot as the greater part of 
 our summer, and the nights are delightful ; I hope 
 the rainy season is almost over. We saw a great deal 
 of Sir Montague and Lady Burgoyne here, and I like 
 them very much ; he is rather fussy, but very good- 
 humoured. Still fine news from Russia ! We have 
 received the "Gazettes" of the i/th and 2Oth Janu- 
 ary ; but this letter of Lord Wellington's to the com- 
 manding officers of regiments is rather unpleasant. I 
 grieve that the army has shown such a total want of 
 discipline. Poor Tyrconnell ! how truly grieved I am 
 to hear of his death he was a fine fellow ! We in- 
 tend going by Ronda to Malaga, it is three or four 
 leagues round, but it is worth seeing it is a large 
 town, situated on a high mountain. The Sierra de 
 Ronda is one of the finest ranges of mountains in 
 Spain, and is said to contain some magnificent sce- 
 nery. The highest and finest mountains of all are 
 those of the Sierra Nevada, or Snowy Mountains, to 
 the south-east of Granada they are higher than the 
 
76 Gibraltar, February io//z, 1813. 
 
 Pyrenees. What a curious scene this place presents 
 from the number of different nations one sees in the 
 streets ! There are English, Spaniards, Moors, Portu- 
 guese, Italians, Genoese, Algerians, Greeks, and 
 Jews ; I hear that Malta is much more extraordinary 
 in this respect. 
 
 Wednesday, the loth. The wind is still east, my 
 dearest mother, and we are just embarking for Ceuta, 
 where we shall probably be landed in three hours' 
 time. I am writing this from the Commissioner's 
 Office in the dock yard, while waiting for Clive he 
 is just arrived. 
 
 God bless you, &c., &c. 
 
GIBRALTAR, 
 February 26M, 1813. 
 
 MY DEAREST MOTHER, 
 
 HE three inclosed sheets are addressed 
 to William Childe, 1 but as I think parts 
 of them may be interesting to you, es- 
 pecially that which relates to our Bar- 
 bary excursion, I have sent them open that you may 
 read them, after which pray forward them to him. 
 We found Wrottesley in the " Sabine," lying in Ceuta 
 Bay ; we slept while at Ceuta at a tolerable inn, and 
 lived with General Fraser, who commands the troops 
 there. Ceuta is a most singular peninsula, with a 
 delightful bay, and excellent anchorage for boats and 
 shipping ; if ever we are at war with Spain again, it 
 
 1 The present W. Lacon Childe, Esq., of Kinlet, Shropshire. 
 
78 Gibraltar, February 26th, 1813. 
 
 will be a very desirable thing for us to take, as it 
 is far preferable to Gibraltar, and the two together 
 would completely command the Straits. We re- 
 mained two nights at Ceuta, and the wind not chang- 
 ing we returned to Gibraltar with Wrottesley. The 
 next day, Saturday, the 1 3th, the wind came round to 
 the westward, and the Commissioner, Captain Godby, 
 and ourselves, went over to Tetuan in the " Sabine." 
 Wrottesley remained on shore with us, and we had a 
 very jolly party, but not good sport. We got a miser- 
 able room in the Custom House, two miles up the river 
 and four from the town. The mountains here are 
 very magnificent ; they are part of Mount Atlas, 
 which extends hundreds of miles up the country ; we 
 lived very well, Captain Godby's sergeant being a 
 good cook ; we got meat, bread, &c., from the town, 
 and drinkables we took with us. We had one room 
 only for ourselves and another for our servants ; we 
 had just space in ours to sling three cots and to put 
 our three beds under them ; they were all obliged to 
 be taken down before we could put a table for our 
 breakfast. Wrottesley brought the Commissioner and 
 me home on Friday, and we landed on Saturday 
 morning ; the other three were obliged to wait for a 
 
Gibraltar, February 26t/i, 1813. 79 
 
 passport till Sunday ; the two naval officers did not 
 require one, and I (being rather unwell and not able 
 to shoot again) contrived to smuggle myself on 
 board. We go from hence to-morrow. 
 
 God bless you, &c., &c. 
 
 Inclosed in the above. 
 
 Here we are, nearly seven months after leaving Eng- 
 land, although when we sailed, on the 4th of August, we 
 imagined we were coming immediately to this place. 
 You will have heard from my mother of our having 
 quitted the fleet off the coast of Portugal, and gone 
 in a merchant schooner to Oporto, where we dis- 
 embarked on the 25th of August, after a tiresome 
 long passage of three weeks ; since this we have 
 travelled a great number of leagues in the Peninsula, 
 and seen a great deal of the people in all situations. 
 The Spanish peasantry and the minor gentry, who are 
 not placemen, are a very fine people ; the former 
 (were it not for a lamentable indolence which reigns 
 throughout Spain to a most incredible degree) would 
 in my opinion be the finest people in the universe ; 
 
8o Gibraltar, February 26 tk, 1813. 
 
 the grandees are not near so bad as by many they 
 have been represented ; five-sixths of them have 
 followed the patriotic party, and have borne their 
 poverty and deprivations with wonderful patience and 
 fortitude. Of those few who have followed El Rey 
 Pepe (as they mockingly call Joseph here) most of 
 them have been compelled by force, and would be de- 
 lighted to escape the first opportunity ; many did 
 escape to Cadiz on the late hasty evacuation of the 
 capital by Joseph. They have all for generations been 
 kept in a state of ignorance and want of common 
 education almost incredible, by the cursed government 
 which this poor country has so long suffered under ; 
 this will naturally cause all their actions to be weak, 
 and weakness appears to me their greatest fault. 
 Now I come to the worst class of Spaniards the 
 placemen these are to the last degree despicable. 
 From the lowest wretches in the municipalities to the 
 heads of the government almost, there is scarcely a 
 mean act under the sun that they will not perform to 
 put a dollar into their pockets. The Portuguese are 
 a kind hospitable people, but most despicably servile, 
 and the greatest cheats and thieves in the world, and 
 will do anything for a bribe ; their peasantry have 
 
Gibraltar, February 26th, 1813. 81 
 
 not one grain of that beautiful nobleness of character 
 and strict honour which is so striking in that of 
 Spain ; nor are the manners of the upper orders in 
 Portugal to be mentioned with those of Spain. The 
 dress of the Spanish ladies is characteristic and 
 beautiful, that of the Portuguese frightful, being bad 
 imitations of the most vulgar English dresses ; there 
 are vast numbers of rather pretty women in Spain, 
 but I don't think I have seen above two or three very 
 pretty, and certainly not one beautiful ; they have 
 excessively pretty figures, beautiful feet, and a most 
 graceful carriage, they are good - humoured, great 
 coquettes, quick, and lively, but without a grain of 
 modesty or of fine feeling ; they are pleasant com- 
 panions to a passing traveller, but I never saw one for 
 whom I could feel the slightest interest. The dress 
 of the peasantry in many parts of Spain is peculiar, 
 ornamental, gay, and pretty ; in Portugal the women 
 are generally ugly, and the dress of all classes fright- 
 ful ; the manners, too, of the ladies are very vulgar 
 and disagreeable they have not the liveliness, quick- 
 ness, nor grace of the Spanish. The Portuguese 
 language, owing to their pronunciation, is frightful ; 
 the Spanish, beautiful. The Spanish men are some- 
 
 M 
 
82 Gibraltar, February 26th, 1813. 
 
 times agreeable, but they have not the liveliness 
 or good -nature of the ladies. The greater part 
 of the time we have been in the Peninsula we 
 have been moving about, but we were ten days in 
 Oporto, and six weeks at Cadiz, where we saw all 
 the society there is ; indeed, we were very fortu- 
 nate, for while we were at the former place, Mare- 
 chal Beresford arrived there, the greatest man in 
 Portugal ; and while at Cadiz we had Lord Wel- 
 lington, one of the greatest in Spain ; there is very 
 little society, and that little is dull. There is a pretty 
 theatre at Cadiz, and a tolerable set of actors ; I went 
 every night to the play, and I was delighted with the 
 national dances, of which they have several ; they say 
 that in good times there is excellent society in Madrid, 
 and a great deal of gaiety and magnificence. Alas ! 
 poor people, the latter is now totally out of their 
 reach, and for the former they have but little inclina- 
 tion. The army and navy abuse the poor Spaniards 
 without mercy, and would give up the cause ; but I 
 can faithfully say that from the observations I have 
 been able to make (and I have travelled over a great 
 deal of Spain, and lived among all classes of people), 
 I am fully persuaded they are inveterate enemies to 
 
Gibraltar, February 26th, 1813. 83 
 
 the French, to whom they will never tamely bow, and 
 that they are as grateful and attached to us as their 
 native pride and jealousy will allow them ; moreover, 
 that if ever they are fortunate enough to fall under a 
 good government, they will make all the exertions we 
 can wish. The hearts of the people are firm and immut- 
 able ; they have borne severe and most trying hard- 
 ships without complaint, and will continue to do so, 
 and they are ready to serve their country in any way 
 they may be ordered ; but a great machine cannot 
 move without wheels, and they have no government 
 that can or will organize them. You probably know 
 of our ill-luck in not being able to reach Madrid. We 
 met Hill's army on its retreat when within nine leagues 
 (thirty-six miles) of that place ; with this exception 
 we have been fortunate, and have seen a great deal. 
 We are just returned from Africa, where we have been 
 on a shooting party at Tetuan. The country is ex- 
 cessively wild, and the walking very severe, and a 
 great part of it up to the knees in marshes. I got 
 rather too much of it, and was a little unwell for two 
 or three days, but I am quite well again. There are a 
 great many partridges there ; they are red-legged, but 
 larger and more beautiful than the French. We were 
 
84 Gibraltar, February 26t/i, 1813. 
 
 too late in the season, and had not very good sport ; 
 the weather is much like our fine September weather, 
 but the sun more scorching. The Moors are a strange 
 set of savages; they have both a contempt and a 
 hatred for Christians which is surprising ; but they 
 like the English much better than any others some 
 few of them are really fond of us : they abhor the 
 French and Spaniards. You cannot stir without a 
 Moorish soldier, for they shoot at you through their 
 rush hedges. Tetuan is a large town, and capital of a 
 province, but a mean, dirty place, and totally without 
 regularity. There are seven hundred Jews there, who 
 live in a separate quarter of the town. The manner 
 in which the Moors treat these poor exiles is perfectly 
 shocking the meanest Moorish boy may murder them 
 with impunity ; and a Jew dare not even frown at one 
 of them. The Moorish women may not be seen if 
 they walk out ; their faces, all but their eyes, are 
 covered. The Jewesses are, some of them, very 
 pretty ; their dress is much ornamented, but unbe- 
 coming. The dress of the Moors of both sexes is very 
 simple, generally a single garment of white linen, 
 which covers the head and all in the men, and comes 
 nearly to the knees ; they have short drawers of the 
 
Gibraltar, February 2bth, 1813. 85 
 
 same, yellow or red slippers, and no stockings. The 
 women's garments come rather below the knee, and 
 they wear a frightful flapping straw hat. The situa- 
 tion of this place, i. e. Gibraltar, is very beautiful the 
 Bay, the Rock, and opposite mountains of Barbary, 
 far exceed my expectations. The town of Gibraltar 
 is bad and ugly; the fortifications, particularly the 
 galleries in the Rock, are beautiful, but the latter 
 appear most absurd and useless ; it is impossible the 
 soldiers should ever bear the smoke and noise of 
 firing them. We have seen some beautiful scenery in 
 the north of Portugal. It is a very romantic, moun- 
 tainous country, and the Spanish chestnuts there are 
 quite magnificent they exceed even our finest oak 
 woods in size and beauty. It abounds also in arbutus, 
 the finest heath, ten feet high, and some fine oaks, a 
 great deal of rocky scenery, and the finest, clearest 
 mountain rivers. The valleys are uncommonly rich 
 in the province of Minho, covered with Indian corn. 
 The number of streams preserve a constant coolness 
 and verdure. South of the Douro the country is 
 much more arid, and the mountain scenery is some- 
 times excessively grand. I have not seen Lisbon and 
 its environs, which I lament very much, but my com- 
 
86 Gibraltar, February 26tk, 1813. 
 
 panions willed otherwise. The greater part of what I 
 have seen of Spain is an ugly, uninteresting country, 
 and most tiresome to travel over there are immense 
 parched plains, without a single bush to break the 
 view. We appear now to have got into a prettier 
 country, but there is no freshness the finest trees they 
 have are the corks, and they are very sombre. Seville 
 is a fine city, full of handsome public buildings, but 
 the French have destroyed numbers of them ; the 
 cathedral, supposed to be the finest in the world, is 
 uninjured. I never saw anything so beautiful as the 
 interior it is immensely large ; I could spend half 
 my life in admiring it. There are some beautiful pic- 
 tures, but the finest in Seville were in a convent, 
 painted by Murillo these the French have robbed it 
 of. Salamanca is one of the most melancholy exam- 
 ples of French barbarity you can well imagine. The 
 French have never injured any of the cathedrals fur- 
 ther than taking away the fine pictures ; that of 
 Salamanca is therefore unhurt, and is a fine building ; 
 but of twenty-four colleges and the same number of 
 convents, seventeen colleges and about a dozen con- 
 vents are levelled, and the remainder bare walls with- 
 out roofs, excepting two or three convents of nuns. 
 
 
Gibraltar, February 26th, 1813. 87 
 
 These buildings were all of stone, and of very fine or- 
 namented architecture. Salamanca must have been 
 one of the most beautiful towns in the world it is 
 now a melancholy heap of ruins. Burgos is a fine 
 town. The cathedral is very beautiful ; it is the 
 second finest in Spain. It is infinitely smaller than 
 that at Seville, but the exterior is much more beautiful. 
 There are many interesting Roman remains in this 
 country. The aqueduct at Segovia, which is still per- 
 fect, and supplies the city, is the most beautiful work 
 I ever beheld ; that, and the bridge of Alcantara, ex- 
 ceed all I could have imagined ; the latter is built over 
 the Tagus, where it rolls its full waters over rocks in 
 a deep, narrow bed ; the banks are bare rocks, and 
 nearly perpendicular to an astonishing height. We 
 are just going to resume our journey. We go to 
 Malaga and Granada, thence to Cordova, and after- 
 wards through Murcia to Cartagena and Alicante ; 
 there (unless Lord Wellington will open some more of 
 Spain to us) we shall embark for Sicily. 
 
GRANADA, 
 April I4/^, 1813. 
 
 MY DEAREST MOTHER, 
 
 LIVE intends sending a letter home from 
 hence, through the embassy at Cadiz, 
 and this will go with his. John, I believe, 
 wrote a few lines from hence last month. 
 
 He has now left us, and we two have returned here 
 without him. But I will go regularly through our 
 proceedings since we left Malaga, where I wrote you 
 a letter through Commissioner Fraser, which I hope 
 you will have received. 1 We left Malaga on the 7th 
 of March, and came straight here by Velez, Malaga, 
 and Alhama. We remained here about a week, 
 during which we were much surprised at the weather ; 
 
 1 This letter has not yet reached me. L. E. B. 
 
Granada, April 14^, 1813. 89 
 
 for the day after our arrival we had a great deal of snow, 
 and the cold continued excessive for the whole week. 
 All the smaller streams were stopped and completely 
 frozen up, and as we had no fireplaces or glass 
 windows, I never suffered from cold so much in my 
 life. This weather, you may imagine, astonished us 
 not a little in this southern latitude, but it proceeds 
 from the vicinity of Granada to the Sierra Nevada (or 
 Snowy Sierra) mountains, so very high that they are 
 covered with perpetual snow. The winters here are, 
 in consequence, very severe, but the months of May 
 and June quite heavenly the country is beautiful, 
 especially in those months. The town is very large, 
 and situated on the sides of low hills at the north-west 
 foot of the Sierra, and to the west there is a fine plain, 
 watered by the river Genal, and irrigated, so that it is 
 a perfect garden of riches. It is called the Vega (or 
 large field) of Granada, and is encompassed on all 
 sides with mountains of different heights and shapes. 
 The Alhambra (the famous Moorish palace here) is 
 quite beautiful. The exterior of this palace is 
 miserable, but the moment you enter the gate the 
 workmanship of the pillars, arches, floors, walls, and 
 ceilings of the courts and apartments exceeds in 
 
 N 
 
9O Granada, April 14^, 1813. 
 
 minuteness and delicacy all that I could have 
 imagined. It is the prettiest enchanting sight I ever 
 saw, but has no pretensions to magnificence ; it is 
 much too finical and minute for that. The court 
 which is so famous and so much admired, called the 
 Court of the Lions, is quite small, but contains nearly 
 one hundred and fifty marble pillars. A stream of 
 water, with fountains, runs the length of it, and in the 
 centre is a large basin of white marble, of one single 
 piece, supported by twelve strange animals intended 
 for lions. The style of this palace and its singular 
 beauties are by me quite indescribable, being unlike 
 anything else I know ; but the incalculable time and 
 labour they must have taken is wonderful. Charles 
 the Fifth did a great deal to this palace to preserve it, 
 and he also began one in the Grecian architecture 
 close to it, which would, if finished, have been quite 
 beautiful ; but he did not even complete the masonry 
 of it entirely. It is by far the prettiest Grecian archi- 
 tecture I ever saw. The exterior is square and the 
 court circular, having a cloister supported by a regular 
 colonnade of thirty-two marble pillars of the Ionic 
 order, and a corridor above with the same number 
 in the Composite order. The doorways and other 
 
 
Granada, April \\th, 1813. 91 
 
 parts of the building are of different marbles, and 
 the rest of fine stone, beautifully worked. There 
 are also many basso-relievos of battles on marble. 
 There is a convent, a priory, and several other build- 
 ings on the same hill with the palace, covering alto- 
 gether a considerable extent, and the whole sur- 
 rounded with a regular Moorish wall. The whole 
 enclosure is called the Alhambra, and is a very 
 striking feature from the town and its environs. 
 The cathedral of Granada is a very fine Grecian 
 building, and though much ill-treated with the gilding 
 and daubing of the good Catholics of this bigoted 
 country, yet it has many specimens of marbles, and 
 some tolerable sculptures and pictures, to boast of, 
 and altogether has a grand and venerable appearance : 
 connected with it, and of much older date, is the 
 Royal Chapel, a fine old Gothic building, erected by 
 King Ferdinand the Catholic, on taking this city from 
 the Moors. It contains two magnificent tombs, of the 
 most beautiful sculpture I ever beheld, and entirely 
 of white marble ; one is the tomb of Ferdinand and 
 Isabella, the Catholics, and the other of Philip the 
 First and Joanna. We were treated in Granada with 
 very great civility, and one of the ladies to whom we 
 
92 Granada, April 14^, 1813. 
 
 brought letters gave us a ball. We went from hence 
 on the I /th, and reached Cordova on the 2oth ; it is 
 a large but ill-built town, in a beautifully rich country. 
 We were fortunate enough to stay there on a Sun- 
 day, and we went to the Paseo (public walk), which is 
 the prettiest I ever saw. The weather was heavenly 
 (for as soon as we had got a few leagues from Gra- 
 nada we left the cold behind us), and this walk being 
 situated between the town and the foot of the Sierra 
 Morena, and crowded with beautiful women most 
 beautifully dressed, and the surrounding country being 
 a perfect garden, I hardly ever witnessed so gay a 
 scene. The cathedral at Cordova is exceedingly 
 curious, being an immense Moorish mosque, contain- 
 ing nearly six hundred pillars, mostly of marble. This 
 is the only mosque left in Spain, and they have built 
 a choir and altar in the centre of bad Gothic, which, 
 being high, and the rest of the building very 
 low and square, added to the multitude of tawdry 
 gilded chapels peeping under the Moorish horse-shoe 
 arches, altogether has the most singular appearance 
 imaginable ; this mosque is very large, but not hand- 
 some. From Cordova we went on the great Madrid 
 road by Andujar, Baylen, Carolina, and Santa Cruz, 
 
Granada, April 14^, 1813. 93 
 
 as far as Valdepenas in La Mancha. We had then 
 great hopes of reaching Madrid, but the French in 
 small parties still continued to watch the Tagus, and 
 we determined to go to Almaden (about seventy or 
 eighty miles to our westward), in order to pass a little 
 time. Almaden is situated near the north of the 
 Sierra Morena, immediately above Cordova, and is 
 famous for its quicksilver mines except one in Ger- 
 many and one in South America, I fancy these of the 
 Sierra Morena are the only known ones in the world, 
 and that of Almaden is much the largest and richest of 
 any. We descended nearly three hundred yards into 
 it by perpendicular ladders, and with lamps, and a 
 most curious sight it was. There are four other mines 
 in different parts of this Sierra, but this of Almaden 
 is the only one at present worked. It was known in 
 the time of the Romans, and is mentioned slightly by 
 Pliny. It used to send annually to Cadiz (to be 
 shipped for America, to work the silver mines there), 
 from twenty to twenty-four thousand quintals (or 
 hundredweights) of pure quicksilver. The mine is 
 calculated to be worth 80,000,000 of reals an- 
 nually, which, reckoning four dollars to the pound, 
 equals 1,000,000 sterling ; the annual expenses to be 
 
94 Granada, April \^th y 1813. 
 
 subtracted were 1,500,000 reals. Spain has also a 
 contract for the produce of the Hungary mine, which 
 produces 12,000 quintals annually. This is shipped in 
 Trieste, and likewise sent to America. Only think of 
 the indolence of this nation preferring to purchase 
 quicksilver from Austria to working their other, or 
 rather one or two of their other smaller mines. The 
 ore contains sulphur and quicksilver, and the richest 
 (of which they have a great quantity) contains three 
 parts out of four of the latter. It is a beautiful vermilion 
 colour, and the paint is made by a very simple process 
 the pure quicksilver is reimpregnated with sulphur, 
 which reduces it to a hard stone, this is ground to a 
 fine powder, which is the vermilion paint. The quick- 
 silver itself is extracted from the ore very simply in 
 ovens, and with a very inconsiderable heat the sulphur 
 evaporates, and the quicksilver fuses and rises to the 
 top of the oven and runs off into large clay tubes, 
 where it is retained till it cools ; for were it to be 
 exposed to the air while warm, such is its volatility, 
 that much would escape and be lost. I know not if 
 this account will be at all interesting to you, my dear 
 mother, but I have written it as it may be so to some- 
 
Granada, April 14^, 1813. 95 
 
 body, my kind friend Mr. Chap., 1 for instance, to whom 
 I always would be most kindly remembered. The ore 
 is not found in veins, but in what they term bancos, 
 or banks. These are irregular veins, not running 
 straight, and the same bank varying in width from 
 two to fifteen yards. They almost always lie ob- 
 liquely, ascending to the east and descending to the 
 west. The ore is likewise found in immense solid, un- 
 connected blocks of fifteen or twenty yards' diameter. 
 I have said more about this quicksilver mine on 
 account of the rarity of them. This is Government 
 property ; and although, as you may imagine, it is 
 destruction in a very short time to the constitutions 
 of these poor miners, yet they are miserably paid. 
 Nevertheless they never have a want of workmen. 
 Mineralogy brings into my head good Mr. Dickenson. 2 
 I hope he enjoys the same health and even spirits 
 which his regular habits and benevolent mind so 
 justly merit ; give him my kindest remembrance when 
 you see him. After seeing the mine of Almaden, and 
 
 1 The Rev. Mr. Chappelow, private chaplain to Lord Bradford. 
 5 The Rev. Mr. Dickenson, author of a work on the " Natural 
 History of Staffordshire." 
 
96 Granada, April 14^, 1813. 
 
 finding the French did not continue their retreat, 
 John Russell, my strange cousin, and your ladyship's 
 mad nephew, determined to execute a plan which he 
 had often threatened, but it appeared to Clive and 
 me so very injudicious a one that we never had an 
 idea of his putting it into execution. However, the 
 evening previous to our leaving Almaden, he said, 
 " Well, I shall go to the army to see William, 1 and I 
 will meet you either at Madrid or Alicante." We 
 found he was quite serious, and he then informed us 
 of his intentions. He said he should stay the next 
 day at Almaden to sell his pony and buy something 
 bigger. He would not take his servant, but ordered 
 him to leave out half-a-dozen changes of linen, and 
 his gun loaded. He was dressed in a blue great-coat, 
 overalls and boots, a cocked hat, and sword ; and 
 literally took nothing else except his dressing-case, a 
 pair of pantaloons and shoes, a journal and an account- 
 book, pens and ink, and a bag of money. He would 
 not carry anything to reload his gun, which he said 
 his principal reason for taking was to sell, should he 
 
 1 Lord George William Russell, aide-de-camp to the Duke of 
 Wellington. 
 
Granada, April 1 4^, 1813. 97 
 
 be short of money (for we had too little to spare him 
 any). The next morning he sold his pony, bought a 
 young horse, and rode the first league with us. Here 
 we parted with each other with real regret, and poor 
 John seemed to feel rather forlorn. God grant he 
 may have reached head-quarters in safety and health, 
 for he had been far from well the last few days he was 
 with us. He returned to Almaden, there to purchase 
 some leathern bags to carry his clothes, and he was 
 to start the following morning. Clive and I feel fully 
 persuaded that we shall see him no more till we re- 
 turn to England. We came back to this place by 
 Cordova; our road from Almaden to Cordova was 
 about seventy miles, and entirely through the Sierra 
 Morena. This Sierra is a most singular range of 
 mountains. It is not high in any part, nor ever re- 
 tains snow upon it ; but it is of immense extent, being 
 one perfectly unbroken range from the borders of the 
 kingdom of Murcia to those of Portugal on the Gua- 
 diana, and great part of it one hundred miles in breadth. 
 Our road through it, from Almaden, was nothing but 
 the track of beasts of burthen, and for thirty or forty 
 miles it lay through the wildest mountains you can 
 imagine, and a constant ascent or descent in this dis- 
 
 O 
 
98 Granada, April \^th y 1813. 
 
 tance. We passed one poor village, where we slept, 
 and, except this, it was a perfect desert, where here 
 and there we met a few donkeys laden. Some parts 
 were covered only with low shrubs, so common in this 
 country, the rest was a pine forest ; but when we 
 arrived on the southern ridge of the Sierra, I never 
 beheld so magnificent, so enchanting a scene. Our- 
 selves still in this forest of pines, we beheld Cordova 
 in its golden valley immediately below us, and sur- 
 rounded by kitchen gardens, olive grounds, convents, 
 and country houses. Beyond the river, hills covered 
 with green corn, and in the distance, to the south- 
 west, the mountains towards Granada and Jaen topped 
 with snow ; had but these corn-hills had our hedge- 
 rows, nothing would have been wanting. We de- 
 scended from the Sierra by rugged winding paths in 
 this pine forest, the ground covered with shrubs, the 
 laurustinus in profusion and in full bloom, and the 
 whole extent enamelled with cistus there were four 
 sorts in bloom, three white, and the fourth a beautiful 
 purple. Notwithstanding the great length of time it 
 took us to descend, I never felt more regret in my life 
 than on reaching the bottom, and leaving behind me 
 this enchanting garden of nature. I think (and sin- 
 
Granada, April i4///, 1813. 99 
 
 cerely hope) the picture of ft will ever be before my 
 eyes in its liveliest colours. We reached this place 
 for the second time last Sunday, the nth, and we are 
 staying here to rest our animals and see the Easter 
 gaieties. About Wednesday we shall start for Car- 
 tagena, where we shall pass two or three days, and 
 then proceed by Murcia to Alicante, always providing 
 that the moment the French are good enough to 
 evacuate Madrid, we take the direct road there. If, 
 on reaching Alicante, Madrid is still occupied by the 
 enemy, we shall embark for Minorca and Sicily. 
 Some bad news arrived here yesterday from the east, 
 but they seem to know no particulars ; the wise news- 
 mongers are looking very black, and rather insinuate 
 against our Alicante army. All I can learn is, that 
 part of our army has been surprised and cut off by a 
 corps of 8,000 from Suchet's this General Murray 
 did not prevent ; whether he could have done so, or 
 could not, remains to be proved Elio should take care 
 of his own, and not Murray. On our return here we 
 found the air still sharp and keen, but since the change 
 of the moon on Thursday, it has been very hot ; the 
 summer is now setting in, and in the plains of Murcia 
 we shall be fried alive. 
 
ioo Granada, April 2Ot/i, 1813. 
 
 April 2Oth. Clive wished not to send his letter till 
 to-day, that he might write word to his friends at 
 Cadiz the event of the elections of deputies for this 
 kingdom to the new Cortes, which is appointed to 
 meet in October next ; the kingdom of Granada sends 
 ten. I cannot inform you whether the event has been 
 satisfactory or no to the patriots in this particular 
 instance, but I grieve to say that, speaking generally 
 of Spain, the clergy are making immense efforts, and 
 have gained great power again over the minds of the 
 weak and beatos (or devotees), and there is much 
 reason to fear that if they can obtain many votes, they 
 will re-establish that dreadful tribunal of the Inquisi- 
 tion. If they should succeed, this poor unhappy 
 country, after all it has already suffered, must un- 
 avoidably experience the scenes of a bloody revolu- 
 tion ; for the body of the nation abhor the Inquisition, 
 and as it has once been abolished, they will never 
 tamely submit to its re-establishment. We leave this 
 place to-morrow for Cartagena. 
 
 &c. &c. 
 
ALICANTE, 
 May I2//&, 1813. 
 
 MY DEAREST MOTHER, 
 
 HAVE several letters to thank you for, 
 and to acknowledge. ....... 
 
 Since I wrote to you from Granada we 
 have seen little that has been interesting ; 
 the country thence to the entrance of the kingdom of 
 Murcia is dreary and miserable. Lorca and Carta- 
 gena have fine olive and corn plains the latter has 
 a nice little bay, and the naval arsenal is very hand- 
 some, compact, and commodious ; at present it is quite 
 deserted. Murcia itself is a fine town, and has a 
 cathedral altogether handsome, but very irregular in 
 architecture ; the huerta (or garden) of Murcia, as it 
 is called, which is an irrigated valley of from twenty 
 to thirty miles long from west to east, and perhaps 
 
102 Alicante, May i2///, 1813. 
 
 ten broad, sheltered to the north and south by two 
 rows of low mountains, is the richest spot of ground, 
 perhaps, in the universe, certainly in the Peninsula ; 
 the greater part is corn, the crops of which exceeded 
 in luxuriance anything I ever beheld. Amongst the 
 corn, mulberry trees are thickly planted, beneath 
 whose shade the corn was quite as fine as where ex- 
 posed to the sun ; the rest is planted with orange trees, 
 whence all this part of Spain is supplied with the fruit. 
 The fragrance of their flowers scented the whole 
 atmosphere ; the barley was ripe, and some of it cut, 
 and the wheat nearly ripe. Lucern grows here in the 
 greatest profusion, and yields a crop nearly every 
 month of the year. Grass of all sorts grows here most 
 luxuriantly, which seems very strange in this burning 
 climate, but it must be owing to the irrigation and to 
 the shade afforded by the mulberry trees. Immense 
 quantities of silk is made here, and in the town there 
 is a royal manufactory. This valley continues with 
 the same luxuriance of production eastward towards 
 the sea, and there it is called the Huerta de Orihuela, 
 but how far that extends I know not. Alicante is a 
 vile, detestable place ; the people of the kingdom of 
 Valencia are the worst in Spain they are an ill- 
 
Alicante, May \2th, 1813. 103 
 
 affected, selfish, grumbling race ; their language is an 
 ugly mixture of French and old Spanish, though they 
 understand the Castilian ; they are very sulky, and 
 unaccommodating to the English, by whom, in return, 
 they are detested. Our army here seems to be full of 
 misunderstandings and party, but I cannot dive into 
 the truth ; one party blames General Murray violently 
 for not having followed up the repulse of the French 
 at Castalla, whom they say we might have destroyed. 
 The hot weather seems to have set in, and exercise 
 begins to be rather oppressive, except in the mornings 
 and evenings. The mosquitos begin to swarm, and 
 the first night I arrived, sleeping without a mos- 
 quito net, I was so bit round the eyes, that the 
 swelling made me half blind ; but the net com- 
 pletely keeps them off ; by the bye, I fancied 
 mosquitos a great deal larger than our gnat, but I 
 find they are the identical same, only that there are 
 more of them, and the bite is sharper in these 
 hot climates ; that of the common fly here is dread- 
 fully sharp, and as they crawl (which the mosquitos 
 do not) no net can keep them off. I think I men- 
 tioned in Oporto how much the flies worried us there. 
 I don't think I have yet mentioned the day of our 
 
IO4 Alicante, May \2th, 1813. 
 
 arrival here, which was the /th ; our animals all 
 lasted out the journey; though of the horses my 
 little tough mountaineer alone remains uninjured, the 
 other three are all quite done for ; the mules are all 
 sound but one, which has a splint and swelkd leg 
 from work ; however, from the excessive low price of 
 animals here, through fear of embargo, we are only to 
 get $250 for these four mules, which cost us $630. I 
 get $15 for my pony, which cost me $60. Clive has 
 given his away ; and the servants' horses may fetch 
 $20 together. I wish you could see my pony, he is a 
 bay, about 12 hands high, 5^ feet long, with a mane 
 reaching half way to the ground, his tail is docked 
 by the Portigooses (otherwise Portuguese) in supposed 
 imitation of the English. The numbers of people 
 now in this wretched town (owing to numbers having 
 entered for safety from the French, and others from a 
 large suburb which was pulled down for the sake of 
 defence), in addition to the army, is something as- 
 tonishing, and there is no getting a room anywhere ; 
 I am in a miserable one at the house of our Consul, 
 Mr. Attey, the dirt of which, and of his family 
 (Spanish) exceeds all I ever beheld, but he is very 
 kind and civil, and thinks it all perfection. Clive has 
 
A licante, May 1 2 th> 1 8 1 3 . 105 
 
 a room in the house of M. Roselt, a merchant, where 
 I come and sit. They say the Duque del Parque's 
 army (formerly Ballesteros's) is on its march to join 
 Elio's in Murcia and Valencia, and that Murray's is 
 to go to Catalufia ; ours has a great deal of sickness, 
 especially agues, and the hospitals here are full. 
 Several officers of the Sicilian troops (Austrians they 
 say) have resigned, and are returning disgusted with 
 the inactivity of this army ; in short, from its harle- 
 quin composition, parties, and misunderstandings, I 
 fear little can ever be expected from it. Parque, too, 
 is an old woman, and no soul, Spanish or English, 
 places a grain of confidence in him. Report says, 
 Ballesteros through the medium of Lord Wellington 
 is returning to take the command of that army, a 
 complete penitent ; he is excessively popular with the 
 soldiers and peasantry, but though he has undoubted 
 courage, loves his country, and never spares himself, 
 yet from being entirely without education, he is unfit 
 for an independent command ; with a brigade, and 
 even a division, and under the orders of a good general, 
 I believe he would acquit himself well, but ambi- 
 tion in his uneducated mind destroys his judg- 
 ment, and, of course, all his little merits. Elio is 
 
 p 
 
io6 Alicante, May iitk, 1813. 
 
 well spoken of, and I believe a fair general, but 
 he is tinprovisioned, and unassisted by his Govern- 
 ment, and when he endeavours to draw provisions 
 forcibly from the country he occupies, to which 
 he is compelled by necessity and the neglect of 
 his Government, these same idle fellows severely re- 
 primand him for breaking the constitution. The 
 Spanish battalions lost previous to the battle of 
 Castalla, were obliged to surrender in their garrisons 
 of Villena and Yecla, from not having literally a day's 
 provisions. Henry O'Donnell, who commands the 
 Army of Reserve in Seville, is a fine fellow and a 
 good soldier. That army is well clothed, and they 
 are a fine body of men, I think 12,000. Castanos is 
 a good sort of old fellow, and amazingly popular 
 among the Spaniards, but his merits as an officer are 
 imaginary, and his fame entirely acquired by a series 
 of extraordinary good fortune. He deserves just as 
 much merit from the battle of Baylen as I do ; and it 
 is the same in all other instances ; he himself, per- 
 sonally commanding, never did anything. Mina, in 
 the north, is a fine fellow, the only clever man who 
 has shown himself by the Revolution ; he was, they 
 say, a blacksmith, and certainly was very low in life, 
 then a guerilla, and now a Mariscal de Campo (Major 
 
Alicante, May \2th, 1813. 107 
 
 General), and second in command of Mendizabel's 
 army. If he ever rises to the independent command 
 of an army, probably he may lose himself, like Balle- 
 steros. Lacy, who is gone to command the army of 
 Galicia, is well spoken of. He was in the French 
 service, and being ill-treated, came over to the 
 Spaniards, his countrymen. All these Spanish armies, 
 as they are called, amount together to a small num- 
 ber : they are generally ill-clothed, worse appointed, 
 and still worse officered. The only effective corps 
 are, I believe, Whittingham's and Roche's perhaps 
 10,000 ; O'Donnell's reserve of 12,000 ; and one or two 
 regiments raised and drilled by Doyle these last are 
 extremely good. This is what I have been enabled 
 to collect during my tour through Spain, and as far 
 as I can judge, it is the truth, but I may be deceived. 
 The Catalans are a noble people the perseverance of 
 their guerilla parties has been truly surprising. I 
 enclose a plan of the bridge of Alcantara ; it is a bad 
 one, and will give you very little idea of the grandeur 
 of its appearance, being simply an elevation intended 
 for scientific persons ; however, you may like to see it. 
 I have translated the explanations. I don't know yet 
 when we shall go from hence. 
 
 &c., &c. 
 
ALICANTE, 
 June Tth> 1813. 
 
 WROTE you a letter from hence, my 
 dearest mother, begun soon after our 
 arrival, and continued for several days. I 
 filled several sheets of paper to you, and 
 sent a good many letters through my father to other 
 people ; but as I know these letters were on board 
 the " Malta" when she sailed a week ago with the ex- 
 pedition to Tarragona, probably this letter will reach 
 you first. We had given up all hopes of Madrid, and 
 had made up our minds to take the first opportunity 
 that might occur to Mahon. None, however, offering 
 for a long time, Madrid again haunted us as the time 
 of Lord Wellington's advance drew nearer. Vague 
 reports came here a few days ago that the capital was 
 
Alicante, Jiine ///&, 1813. 109 
 
 evacuated on the night of the 27 th ult, and entered 
 the following day by Empecinado and his Spaniards, 
 which was all confirmed yesterday ; and we shall start 
 on Saturday for our long wished-for goal. We intend 
 to go with very little baggage. We shall hire two 
 calesas, and buy two horses. We shall take our two 
 servants, which, with the Spaniards who drive the 
 calesas, make six persons. In Madrid we shall 
 once more join John, who I hope we shall keep 
 steady in future. We shall leave his servant here 
 with our luggage, and get the consul, Mr. Attey, 
 to send him with it to Mahon in a merchant vessel 
 or transport. We shall stay at Madrid about a 
 fortnight, then go to see the Escurial, Toledo, and 
 Aranjuez, and return to the east coast to embark. 
 We hope that Valencia will then be open. We have 
 no news from the expedition yet ; they sailed on the 
 3 ist ult. Immediately on our troops quitting Cas- 
 talla, and coming here to embark, Suchet began his 
 march northward with great part of his troops to meet 
 us wherever we may go, leaving 10,000 to watch the 
 Spaniards under Parque 4,000 of which are since 
 gone; but Parque with his 25,000 has not dared to 
 attack them : however, they say he has been waiting 
 
no Alicante, June jth, 1813. 
 
 for provisions, and is now about to advance; if the 
 French resist him, I dare say they will thrash him ; 
 moreover they have behind them a very strong pass, 
 between Albaida (their advanced post) and San 
 Felipe ; thence they can only be driven by being 
 turned at Fuente de Higuera ; however, with Parque's 
 immense superiority of numbers, he must indeed be 
 an old woman if he cannot turn them. Never were 
 poor mortals so dead sick of a place, as Clive and I 
 are of this insufferable, stupid, filthy town ; and our 
 spirits are quite enlivened at the thoughts of our trip 
 to Madrid. John Cobb has had a slight attack of 
 fever. I find he had a similar one last year in Lon- 
 don, which I never knew of, and a very trifling one at 
 Badajoz ; this last attack was more considerable, and 
 he was unwell for three or four days, but is now quite 
 set up again ; just as he was recovering I had a little 
 attack of cholera morbus, but I have had no return of 
 it since the first day, and I am also well again ; how- 
 ever, I look to leaving this oven, and to change of 
 air and exercise, as necessary to re-establish us com- 
 pletely. Clive, even, does not prosper here entirely, 
 although he has had no real complaint. Our letters 
 from Madrid will be written in a very different tone ; 
 
Alicante, June ?tk, 1813. 
 
 in 
 
 we shall be eight days on our journey, and hope to 
 reach that place on the i/th or i8th. I have received 
 three letters from you. 
 
 &c., &c. 
 
MADRID, 
 June y>th t 1813. 
 
 ERE, at last, we are all three arrived. 
 Clive and I reached it on the iQth, and 
 found John had anticipated us by some 
 days nearly a fortnight. There is but 
 one other Englishman, whose name is Bonar no great 
 shakes, but of course we live a good deal together. 
 He was the first Englishman that entered the place, 
 being here five or six days before John. Our journey 
 from Alicante was without incident, and we performed 
 it according to the agreement I mentioned in my last 
 letter from thence, in eight days. We soon perceived 
 we had left that suffocating climate, were delighted 
 more than I can describe to find ourselves again 
 amongst the dear Castilians, and to hear once more 
 their pure and beautiful language. We had a fine re- 
 
Madrid, June 3O//z, 1813. 113 
 
 freshing air the last six days, and arrived here with 
 our strength and spirits perfectly recruited. I was 
 rather disappointed in the beauty of this town, having 
 heard it so extravagantly extolled ; but all I have 
 ever heard of the patriotism, good feeling, and enchant- 
 ing manners of its inhabitants, fell far short of what 
 I found them to be I firmly believe them to be the 
 first set of people on the face of the earth. The popu- 
 larity of the English exceeds anything I could have 
 conceived. We cannot stir without the blessings of 
 the people ; everywhere our ears are saluted with 
 " Viva Inglaterra ! " " Vivan los Ingleses ! " &c, &c. 
 Even the ladies, whose superior situation in life prevents 
 their expressing themselves thus, make their children 
 repeat these sentences. Oh ! how proud does all this 
 make me feel of my country ! the champion of the 
 world against the insatiable ambition and brutal tyranny 
 of Napoleon and his host of slaves ! A very few days 
 after our arrival the news came of the battle of Vittoria. 
 For three days the town was illuminated, the TeDeum 
 was sung in all the churches, the regiment of Don 
 Juan Martin, the Empecinado, quartered here, fired 
 feux dejoie, and the happiness of the people was ex- 
 cessive ; the whole population passed the greater part 
 
 Q 
 
1 1 4 Madrid, June ysth, 1813. 
 
 of the three nights in the streets, the lower orders 
 dancing, and singing patriotic songs ; the women 
 almost devoured us in the streets. The poverty and 
 misery here exceeds, I think, all I have before seen ; 
 but the poorest beggars seemed to forget their misery 
 and their hunger, in the recovery of their freedom, and 
 the successes of their country indeed, their joy 
 seemed almost to exceed that of the other classes. I 
 am all admiration, on seeing this defenceless town, 
 which has not a wall so good as the poorest garden 
 wall in England, to recollect that these rashly 
 patriotic people could defend themselves for a single 
 instant against Bonaparte, and his immense army ; it 
 seems to me that a Holkham shooting party with 
 their fourteen double-barrelled guns, would be able to 
 level this wall to the ground. Two bull-fights have 
 been allowed in consequence of our late victory the 
 first took place last Sunday, and I suppose the other 
 will be next Sunday. On account of the want of 
 cavalry horses, they were not permitted to use any, as 
 horses sometimes lose their lives in these fights ; of 
 course, therefore, we had it not in perfection ; more- 
 over, notwithstanding the mad passion of the 
 Spaniards for this amusement, such is the poverty 
 
Madrid, June $otk, 1813. 115 
 
 of Madrid, that few persons were able to pay for a 
 seat, the amphitheatre was therefore not half filled ; 
 however, the scene was very gay and pretty. One 
 bull only out of the ten was allowed to be killed, on 
 account of the scarcity of meat : this was most unskil- 
 fully performed, so that the poor animal suffered a 
 good deal ; but if well done by a skilful Matador (as 
 the man is called) the death is instantaneous ; and as 
 the person seldom fails, I do not think these much 
 talked of bull-fights are so cruel as they seem to be to 
 those who have not seen them, although they cannot 
 fail of being cruel ; but there is something very fine 
 and noble in the sport, which induces one to look 
 over the cruelty of it. 
 
 Tho' I have said I was disappointed in the beauty 
 of Madrid, I mean only to compare that beauty to 
 the expectations I was taught to raise ; it is certainly 
 a beautiful town, but very unequally so ; the public 
 walks, called the Prado, are most delightful avenues, 
 and adorned with numerous magnificent fountains 
 this on the festival days used to be crowded with 
 carriages, like Hyde Park ; now if a shabby solitary 
 coach jogs slowly by, it causes a remark. The greater 
 part of the nobility and gentry fled from Madrid in 
 
u6 Madrid, June $$>th, 1813. 
 
 1808, all the remainder that were not entirely devoted 
 to the French left it before the latter entered it last 
 November, and the French party fled with Joseph, 
 the other day ; society, therefore, is not to be 
 found here. A few gentlemen's families of little 
 note remain, but they are scarcely to be found in 
 the great void. You can form no idea of the rob- 
 beries and destruction the French have committed, 
 chiefly on their going away this last time the deso- 
 late state of the great houses, the ruins which meet 
 your eye on all sides, of the Retiro, the convents, 
 magnificent barracks, &c., &c., added to the numbers 
 of starving wretches who crowd the streets and walks, 
 make at one moment one's heart ache ; while (sin- 
 gular contrast) the air rings with joyful shouts and 
 expressions of almost universal delight at the bright 
 prospect which now opens upon them. The new 
 palace is a beautiful building, as far as it goes, but 
 it has never been nor ever will be finished. An- 
 other beautiful building on the Prado, intended for 
 the Museum of Natural History and Arts, is likewise 
 quite unfinished, and has been terribly injured by the 
 French ; indeed, the new palace seems to be the only 
 thing they have at all respected. From thence they 
 
Madrid, June $otk, 1813. 117 
 
 have contented themselves with carrying off the very 
 superior pictures, leaving still a very large and a very 
 fine collection. The houses of the grandees have 
 disappointed me. The only two handsome ones are 
 that formerly the Duchess of Alva's, and afterwards 
 belonged to the brother of Godoy, Prince of Peace, 
 and that of the Duke of Berwick, Alva, and Liria. 
 These two excepted, the rest, though many of them 
 very large, are neither handsome externally nor inter- 
 nally; the rooms are not fine, and the communica- 
 tions, staircases, and whole style, abominable. The 
 convents of monks are destroyed ; some are pulled 
 down, but of most of them the walls are standing. 
 One only appears to have been handsome. Most of 
 the nuns' convents are uninjured ; two or three have 
 been pulled down, but near thirty still remain and 
 retain their prisoners. Some of these are good build- 
 ings, but that is all that can be said. Of the public 
 buildings the handsomest are the Custom House and 
 Post Office, which are both very fine. The General 
 Hospital is not half built, and looks like a ruin. Had 
 the plan for it been completed it would have been a 
 little town in size, and handsome. The new museum, 
 two immense barracks, and other buildings ruined by 
 
n8 Madrid, June 30^, 1813. 
 
 the French, are easily reparable ; but probably will 
 remain years in this ruined state. There is no such 
 thing as a handsome square in Madrid. Two of the 
 gates are beautiful, and two others very neat. Most 
 of the roads for some distance are planted with 
 avenues, but otherwise the environs are open and bare 
 of trees. The mountains to the north and north-west 
 are a fine object. 
 
 July \vth. Poor Bonar received Tuesday last the 
 account of the horrid murder of his father and mother, 
 and immediately set off by Lisbon for England ; we 
 know not the particulars of it. We got the dispatches 
 of the battle of Vittoria yesterday in the " Cadiz 
 Gazette," but no names of killed and wounded ; but 
 Fitzroy Somerset writes John word that William is 
 well, and an officer (Captain Hay), who is lately ar- 
 rived here from the army, says the Guards were not 
 engaged. No letter has come either from Orlando or 
 William. We went the other day to the Escurial, twenty- 
 eight miles from hence ; it is a frightful building, but of 
 immense size ; it had the finest collection of original 
 pictures in Spain, but the French have not left a thing 
 of any description in the building. It is absurd to 
 call it a palace, for there is nothing of the kind, only 
 
Madrid, July lo/A, 1813. 119 
 
 a few miserable rooms for the King and Queen when 
 they come there. All the rest is a Gtronine Convent, 
 two hundred friars, all driven out by the French, 
 which one cannot regret, as the riches of these fellows 
 were abominable. We have already exceeded the 
 time we proposed staying at Madrid, having been 
 here three weeks to-day ; but the heat makes us idle, 
 and some of the sights are not to be seen without 
 trouble ; however, we shall certainly be gone before 
 another week expires. We now know for certain that 
 the French are out of Valencia, where we shall be in 
 the course of three weeks. I could write you whole 
 volumes on Spanish affairs, but you cannot feel about 
 them as we do ; you have English politics to employ 
 you, we hear nothing of them. Lord Fitzroy, in his 
 letter to John, mentions the Catholic question being 
 thrown out ; things go on rather ill, I fear, in Ger- 
 many. Suchet and Clausel have joined at, or near, 
 Zaragoza, making a force of 30,000, but Lord Welling- 
 ton despises them. Pamplona is strong, its garrison 
 is 3,000, besides 2,000 wounded left behind. I suppose 
 Joseph will collect guns in France, and return to the 
 field. He and Jourdan are two fools ; the other French 
 generals are quite mad at being under their command. 
 
I2O Madrid, July io/>, 1813. 
 
 The Cortes have voted Lord Wellington an estate, 
 and the Regency are to choose it for him. The 
 Spaniards have fought well in this battle, which is 
 pleasant. Sir John Murray has played the devil ; 
 was there ever anything equal to his conduct ? I hope 
 Lord William Bentinck will retrieve our fame. I have 
 got some Spanish music here, which I will send the 
 first opportunity. I hope you will receive my two 
 letters from Alicante. We are to have a better bull- 
 fight to-morrow, with horses, and all that is right. I 
 shall send this letter to Corunna I fear it will cost 
 
 immensely, but S 1 would see me and you at the 
 
 D 1 before tie would forward it, (I have heard 
 
 enough of his character,) and Cadiz is such a round. 
 I was walking in the streets this morning, and among 
 a string of prints on a wall for sale, I recognized the 
 picture over the hall chimney-piece at Weston, sup- 
 posed to be the portrait of a Lord Arundel and his 
 son ; it proves to be a copy of a Vandyck, and the 
 subject is Don Alfonso de Guzman the Good, first 
 Lord of San Lucar de Barrameda, and founder of the 
 House of Medina Sidonia ; as the print was engraved 
 in 1789, by Manuel Salvador Carmona, the original 
 is probably now in Spain in possession of the Duke of 
 
Madrid, July \$th, 1813. 121 
 
 Medina Sidonia. I will send this print with the music 
 from Mahon or Malta. 
 
 July i3//z. I yesterday saw the original picture ; it 
 is in the palace of the Marques de Villa Franca, heir 
 to the titles and estates of Medina Sidonia. It is very 
 beautiful, but has been damaged, and is in a very in- 
 ferior state of preservation to yours. I could collect 
 from the steward that the family set great value upon 
 it. King Joseph had marked it to be carried away, 
 and they know not by what good luck it has been left. 
 We leave this place for Toledo on Saturday next. 
 Mr. Frederick North and four friends are arrived here, 
 they confirm the report we had heard that the plague 
 is at Malta; I trust, however, it will prove trifling. 
 They came from Sicily to Alicante. Sir J. Murray 
 is almost hooted, and Lord William Bentinck was re- 
 ceived with enthusiasm. We had a regular bull-fight 
 on Sunday, and my opinion of it is totally changed ; 
 such a horrid scene of bloodshed and brutality in 
 a country calling itself civilized I could not have 
 imagined possible ; but I won't attempt to describe 
 it, for it would make you shudder. 
 
 God bless you, &c., &c. 
 
VALENCIA, 
 August 23^, 1813. 
 
 H ! my beloved mother, what a large 
 share of the happiness of my life do I 
 see myself deprived of by the premature 
 death of my dear and ever-to-be-lamented 
 cousin. 1 Had it pleased God to let her remain in this 
 uncertain world until she had reached the natural age 
 allotted to us mortals, how many of the most peaceful 
 and happiest hours of my life should I have passed in 
 her society and that of her amiable husband ! but the 
 Almighty willed otherwise. She had suffered much 
 from weak health, which she had borne with angelic 
 patience and cheerfulness, and He has taken her away 
 
 1 Harriet, wife of the Honourable C. A. Pelham, afterwards 
 Earl of Yarborough. 
 
Valencia, August iyd, 1813. 123 
 
 to reward her virtues with everlasting bliss. The 
 death of my dear grandfather was a blow to me at 
 first, but that was an event to be expected in the 
 natural course of things ; he had lived to a good old 
 age, and when he was almost unable to enjoy any- 
 thing in this life, he was taken to a better. When I 
 last took leave of him it was with a strong presenti- 
 ment that I should not see him more. How different 
 is the case of my beloved cousin Harriet ! The last 
 hours I remained in my native land were passed in 
 her society ; she was in better health, and stronger, 
 than she had been since she married. I received from 
 her then, as ever, innumerable marks of her affection ; 
 she accompanied me in the boat to put me on board 
 the fleet as it passed Cowes, and afterwards came to 
 Yarmouth, where our fleet had put back, to take leave 
 of me once more. Here we parted for the last time ! 
 Gracious God ! how little did I then imagine that I 
 should see her no more. Nothing now seems pos- 
 sible to supply the loss to me, and I see myself, 
 before I have completed my twenty-fourth year, 
 deprived for ever of one of the chief sources of my 
 earthly happiness. And yet my loss is inferior to my 
 poor Lucy's, and, oh ! how they both sink almost to 
 
124 Valencia, August 2$rd y 1813. 
 
 nothing when I consider that of her doating and dis- 
 consolate husband ! May the all-merciful Father of 
 mankind support him through this trial, which, I fear, 
 will nearly overpower him. Clive received a few lines 
 the day before yesterday from my aunt Bath, through 
 Cadiz, in which at the end she just mentions that she 
 fears I shall be much affected to hear of poor Har- 
 riet's death this is all I have heard of it, for my 
 letters are gone, I fancy, either to Malta or Sicily; 
 but yet I was not quite unprepared for this melan- 
 choly blow, for at twelve o'clock on the night of the 
 1 6th of July, which was only five hours previous to our 
 leaving Madrid, Bayning 1 and Herbert arrived there, 
 and the former brought me a packet from Commis- 
 sioner Fraser containing your letters Nos. 24 and 25 
 of the 1 5th and iQth of May, in which you gave me 
 such melancholy accounts of my beloved cousin, that 
 I ought to have resigned from that moment all hopes 
 of her surviving but while there's life there's hope, 
 and I could not at once bring my mind to expect 
 that so great a calamity was so soon to befall me 
 and I vainly hoped that in so young a constitution, 
 
 1 Charles, second Lord Bayning. 
 
Valencia, Aiigust 2$rd, 1813. 125 
 
 the effects of this illness might not be fatal. Alas ! 
 alas ! how vain was the illusion ! I had intended not 
 to have written to you till I had got to Mahon, but 
 this melancholy news has determined me to get Clive 
 to send this through Cadiz, as I think you will get it 
 rather sooner, and the principal object of it is, that as 
 poor dear Pelham, 1 since the death of William Caven- 
 dish, 2 has considered me as his greatest friend, and 
 knowing his character as I do, I think it possible that 
 he might in his present affliction receive some comfort 
 from my society; in which case I would most wil- 
 lingly go home, and the greatest satisfaction I could 
 experience would be in feeling that I was in the 
 slightest degree able to lighten the weight of sorrow 
 with which God has been pleased to afflict him. I 
 cannot bear to think how long it will be ere I can 
 receive your answer to this, and at times I feel almost 
 determined to go home at once without waiting for 
 your opinion, and yet I don't like to do an absurd 
 thing ; perhaps I might be after all of no use, and for 
 
 1 The Honourable Charles Anderson Pelham, created Earl of 
 Yarborough. 
 
 2 Mr. William Cavendish, father of the present Duke of 
 Devonshire. 
 
126 Valencia^ August 2$rd> 1813. 
 
 myself I am infinitely better abroad for here I am 
 surrounded by no melancholy objects to bring my 
 misfortune to my recollection ; on the contrary, every- 
 thing I see or hear tends to make me forget England, 
 home, and all belonging to them, and it is only at 
 moments when my different senses are unemployed, 
 that my reflections overwhelm me ; generally I feel 
 myself bewildered by a sort of stupid melancholy, the 
 cause of which I seem hardly to be aware of, which 
 prevents me from enjoying surrounding objects ; 
 while they on the other hand draw me away from the 
 recollection of my loss. But why do I thus wound 
 you with my melancholy thoughts ? If poor Pelham 
 should ever express a wish for me, or from any hint, 
 or anything else, you should imagine that I could 
 be any comfort to him, write to me immediately, and 
 I will return by the first opportunity ; indeed I trust 
 you will do so should it occur, even without receiving 
 this letter ; and after all, if on further reflection I 
 should think it better not to wait for your answer, I 
 may go home from Mahon. 
 
 I will now shortly answer your last letters, my be- 
 loved mother, and mention our proceedings : we left 
 Madrid on the I7th of July, for Toledo, whence we 
 
Valencia, August i^rd, 1813. 127 
 
 came straight here ; this journey, owing to the badness 
 of the roads, took us a fortnight, and we arrived here 
 on the 3Oth. Since then we have been detained here, 
 owing to" a report of the plague having been brought 
 to Mahon from Malta it turns out to be only one 
 vessel in the lazaretto which has had a few sick, and 
 it has proceeded no farther. We are now waiting for 
 an English fish merchant-brig which is unloading 
 here, and will then proceed in ballast to Palma in 
 Majorca ; this vessel will take us all very well, and 
 she expects to go in about a week. Herbert has now 
 joined us, I have already mentioned his arrival at 
 Madrid with Bayning, they stayed there a fortnight, 
 and then Bayning went to England, and Herbert 
 came here. I believe you don't know Bayning, I wish 
 you would get acquainted with him, for I am sure 
 you would like him ; he is very lively, sensible, natural, 
 and agreeable, and one of the most honourable, con- 
 scientious young men I know. I have the greatest re- 
 gard for him, and I believe he has for me. He went to 
 Santander hoping to catch Mr. F. North and his 
 party there, and to embark with him for England 
 would to God that I had by inspiration determined to 
 have gone with him ; but I did not even read your 
 
128 Valencia, August i^rd, 1813. 
 
 letters mentioning dear Harriet's illness till on my 
 road to Toledo, for I had not time the night I received 
 them, and as it was, I only was in bed two hours. A 
 thousand thanks, my dear mother, for them both. . . 
 . . . . I trust you will have received at last 
 my letter from Malaga. I have not heard from 
 Orlando since I left Alicante ; I wrote him two letters 
 from Madrid, but I got no answer he probably 
 thought I should not stay there so long ; I shall be 
 most anxious till I hear something of him, though I 
 don't believe he could have been either in the battle 
 of Vittoria, or that of Pamplona. What a great man 
 is Lord Wellington, and how noble has been the con- 
 duct of all our troops ; but it is dreadful to think of 
 the loss in two such bloody battles. Once more Lord 
 William Bentinck has raised the blockade of Tarra- 
 gona, and they say the French had evacuated it and 
 blown up the works this seems strange ; our falling 
 back appears to be owing to the Spanish troops want- 
 ing provisions ; how abominable this is in those 
 whose business it is to supply them, with such a land 
 of milk and honey behind them as this province of 
 Valencia. John Russell goes with us to Sicily, and 
 intends to embark there for England in December. 
 
Valencia, Aiigust 2 yd, 1813. 129 
 
 I wrote you a long letter from Madrid by the post. 
 I do not yet know whether the books I sent from 
 Gibraltar, or the sherry I sent to my father from 
 Cadiz, have arrived. I must now close my letter 
 hastily, dear mother, 
 
 &c., &c. 
 
VALENCIA, 
 September Stk, 1813. 
 
 INCE I wrote last to you, my dearest 
 mother, I have heard by a captain of 
 the Navy, who came from Gibraltar, that 
 Fraser has been so unwell as to apply 
 for leave to go home. If this is true, in all probability 
 you will know it long before you receive this ; but on 
 the possibility of the reverse, I write these few lines to 
 beg of you not to send any more letters through him, 
 but to Sicily at once. I hope all those that have 
 been sent to Malta will not be destroyed in conse- 
 quence of the plague ; for old as most of them are, I 
 long to read them all. I remain in the same mind as 
 when I wrote last, about not going home until I re- 
 ceive your answer in Sicily. Oh ! my dear mother, 
 how I long to hear some account of poor Harriet's 
 
Valencia, September %tk y 1813. 131 
 
 last moments (I pray to God that they may have been 
 easy, and that her poor surviving, doating husband 
 may have been supported through his hard trial). As 
 is usual with everything relating to the sea, we have 
 been delayed here a long while, but at last we are 
 likely to go ; our merchant brig sails to-morrow 
 evening, we shall stay very few days in Majorca, and 
 proceed to Mahon, whence I will write to you again. 
 The unprovisioned state of the Spanish Army is quite 
 melancholy, it did oblige us again to retire from 
 Tarragona, and allowed the French to blow up the 
 works ; the poor soldiers are absolutely starving here 
 in the midst of plenty ; nobody but those on the spot, 
 and who know the Spanish character, could believe 
 their unnatural indolence and negligence possible. 
 The Constitution, unfortunately, is so strict, that 
 generals and commanding officers are absolutely for- 
 bidden to interfere in the provisioning of their corps, 
 they dare not lay their hands upon a crumb of 
 bread, and the civil authorities whose duty it is to 
 supply the armies, think no more of it, than the in- 
 habitants of the moon ; yet the Government never 
 thinks of punishing them, and the Cortes have been, 
 and continue to be, solely occupied in disputing, and 
 
132 Valencia, September %th> 1813. 
 
 making laws for that country which they take not a 
 single step to liberate, or secure, from their crafty 
 enemies ; it is enough to exhaust the patience of Job 
 himself, to see their absurd and lethargic policy. Our 
 troops are frequently put on half rations to save the 
 poor Spanish soldiers from starving, yet all does not 
 do to enable them to keep the field. How very 
 flattering the Prince Regent's letter to Lord Welling- 
 ton is ; numerous inveterate cabals are already at 
 work against him with all their venom, and I fear he 
 will individually rue the day he took the command of 
 the army of the haughtiest nation upon earth. The 
 estate they have given him of the "Soto de Roma," 
 is worth, they say, about $20,000 per annum ; they 
 first said 100,000, but that is an egregious exaggera- 
 tion. Adieu, my dear parents ; the wind, what there 
 is of it, is favourable to us, but I imagine we shall 
 have a slow passage. 
 
MAHON, 
 September 26?%, 1813. 
 
 OB SPENCER 1 has just arrived from 
 the fleet, my dearest mother, and has 
 brought me your letters from the 6th to 
 nth July, and of the i/th, with inclosures 
 from my dear father, Lucy, and poor Pelham. Lord 
 William Bentinck, who is on his return to Sicily in 
 consequence of some serious disturbance there, brought 
 them to the fleet from Tarragona. Bob Spencer's 
 brig has not entered the port, and he is going out to 
 her immediately to proceed to England, so that I am 
 quite bewildered how to answer the most important 
 parts of your letters. I grieve much that you don't 
 receive my long letter from Alicante, for besides con- 
 
 Captain the Honourable Sir Robert Spencer, R.N. 
 
134 Mahon, September 26tk, 1813. 
 
 taining so much of our travels, whole sheets were full 
 of interests which none but you and I and a very few 
 others should see. I was a fool to write so confiden- 
 tially from abroad. My letter from Malaga only 
 described some beautiful scenery and a few other 
 trifles ; but as Fraser positively wrote me he had 
 forwarded it, I am surprised it has not reached you. 
 It has been a great comfort to me to receive your 
 detailed account of poor Harriet's last moments, and 
 that Pelham has borne all so well ; but from his letter 
 I think it seems but too evident that a fixed de- 
 spair will prey upon him, and that is a thousand 
 times more cruel than all those violent feelings he 
 seems to have escaped. However, I am relieved from 
 all doubt as to the necessity of going home to him, 
 although I still request that should he at any time 
 seem to desire to have me, you will instantly inform 
 me. Poor Mrs. Eliot's death I chanced to see in an 
 " Observer" at Valencia. Clive knew nothing of it. 
 I cannot say how much it shocked me. Oh ! what 
 would I not give to have time to write comfortably. 
 I should fill a volume. Bob Spencer will take home 
 some Valencia shawls for me, and the Spanish music 
 so long promised. Poor Lucy's letter is very melan- 
 
Mahon, September 26tk y 1813. 135 
 
 choly; she will never cease to feel her loss. My 
 kindest love and duty to my father and her, and 
 thanks for their letters. We are to have forty days 
 quarantine at Palermo. It has almost made me for- 
 swear travelling, and I had half determined to go 
 home. John is going ; Spencer will disembark him 
 in Tarragona, whence he will proceed by land to 
 Corunna. A store-ship goes home in a few days, by 
 which I will write fully. We arrived at Mahon on 
 Thursday last, the 23rd ; how, you shall know in my 
 next. At present there is no opportunity to Sicily. 
 I find by your letter that Orlando did not go with 
 General Stopford to the army as he wrote me word 
 he was to do, which accounts for my not having heard 
 from him at Madrid. Pray send the enclosed scrap 
 to Pelham, and tell him how I am circumstanced. In 
 haste, adieu. 
 
MAHON, 
 September 28th, 1813. 
 
 WAS most cruelly hurried, my dearest 
 mother, when I wrote you those few 
 lines the day before yesterday by Bob 
 Spencer, who commands the " Espoir" 
 brig. I will now endeavour to reply quietly to your 
 
 letters They say we shall have forty 
 
 days quarantine at Palermo. I fancy we shall go in 
 a transport which will sail in a few days ; but as it is 
 sure to have convoy, one of us may have the luck to 
 go in the brig of war. Admiral Pickmore is very 
 civil and obliging about our passage, and will do his 
 best for us. We are living with the navy here, and 
 go to many Spanish houses in the evening. The 
 natives are stupid ; many cannot talk Spanish, and 
 the rest talk it very ill; but there are crowds of 
 
Mahon, September 2 th y 1 8 1 3 . 137 
 
 refugees, chiefly Catalans, and some of them are 
 pleasant. Spencer promised to get four Valencia 
 shawls over for me if he could, and will send them to 
 Grosvenor Street. Three of them, which resemble 
 feathers, are peculiar to Valencia, and highly valued 
 by some people ; the other I thought pretty. Every- 
 thing I send home, you will know, my dear mother, 
 you are welcome to ; and I must insist on your taking 
 one of the crimson shawls, and the common one 
 besides, and keep those you don't take for me till we 
 meet. I bought a very long gold chain at Cadiz, 
 which I intend for dear Lucy, but it has gone to 
 Palermo, and I must explain why, A report was 
 spread at Valencia, while we were there, that the 
 plague had broken out here. On this John sent off a 
 letter to his servant (who was here) to go to Palermo 
 by the first opportunity with all our things, and he 
 unfortunately went ten days before we arrived, so 
 that we are in great distress for clothes (that is, linen) 
 for the voyage. The report was false, and a malicious 
 one, attributed to our enemies, for the place has been 
 perfectly healthy ; and it is particularly unlucky for 
 John, to whom we are to send his servant and things, 
 on our arrival at Palermo. 
 
 T 
 
138 Mahon, September 29^, 1813. 
 
 Wednesday, the 2C)tk. I quitted you suddenly 
 yesterday, my dear Mother, for I found it was past 
 the dinner hour. I must conclude my letter to-day, 
 as they tell me the store-ship sails to-morrow. I 
 wrote yesterday to poor Pelham. Heaven grant my 
 letter may be some comfort to him ! I fear he suffers 
 more than he appears to do, and that his grief is of 
 that nature that rather stupefies than admits of out- 
 ward show of feeling, as we witnessed in him on poor 
 William Cavendish's death. Yours giving an account 
 of dear Harriet's, alludes to a severe illness Pelham 
 has had, the account of which, I suppose, is in one of 
 your letters that has not reached me ; thank God her 
 death was so easy and calm ! The want of feeling 
 she shewed on all occasions for some time previous to 
 it, is a melancholy subject for reflection that a heart 
 so sensible as hers was, could be reduced by suffering 
 to almost insensibility ! Oh ! my dear Mother, how 
 young I am to feel so out of conceit with this world 
 
 as I already do This d d place, 
 
 Sebastian, has cost us cruelly. I was very sorry in- 
 deed to hear of poor Cadogan's l death ; he is a great 
 
 ? Hon. Henry Cadogan, killed at the battle of Vittoria. 
 
Mahon, September 29^, 1813. 139 
 
 loss; Fletcher's 1 is irreparable. I see by the papers 
 that Trant is gone to England. I wish it may be in 
 your power to show him some civility in return for 
 the very great kindness we received from him in 
 Oporto. I was greatly shocked to hear of Mrs. Eliot's 
 death. I read it in a paper at Valencia an hour or 
 two before we embarked, and I broke it to Clive at 
 Palma. We went on board our brig at Valencia on 
 the night of the 9th ; the wind was at first favourable, 
 but afterwards variable, with calms. The brig was a 
 clumsy, bad sailer, and the master a great blackguard. 
 We had a great deal of swell, and were all sick ; we 
 slept in pigeon-holes, like those in a packet, and 
 anchored at Palma at noon on the I2th. They gave 
 us a day's quarantine, and we went on shore the fol- 
 lowing evening. We had sent off our passport to the 
 Captain-General of the Province before, and they 
 treated us most magnificently. We lodged in the 
 Episcopal Palace, where they fed us very well. One 
 day we dined with the Captain-General (the Marquis 
 de Coupigny). Palma is a handsome old town ; we 
 
 1 Lieutenant- Colonel Sir Richard Fletcher, killed before San 
 Sebastian. 
 
140 Mahon, September 29^, 1813. 
 
 stayed four days there, and amused ourselves very 
 
 well. We then went across the island to Soller, and 
 
 thence by Pollenza to Alcudia. The environs of 
 
 Palma, and all the south of the island, is flat, but rich 
 
 in olives and other fruit trees. Soller is the most 
 
 beautiful orange garden, surrounded by the most 
 
 magnificent mountains imaginable, and the views 
 
 from thence to Pollenza are strikingly grand. Such 
 
 magnificent mountains in so small an island are very 
 
 remarkable, but it would be in vain to attempt the 
 
 description of these natural beauties ; I must defer 
 
 this till we meet. We embarked at Alcudia in the 
 
 morning of the 2ist in a small fishing boat, not the 
 
 size of a man-of-war's launch ; but the wind being 
 
 against us, we could do little, and towards evening 
 
 we put into a small creek, near the mouth of the bay. 
 
 Here we cooked our dinners, and laid down upon 
 
 the shingles till past midnight. We embarked again 
 
 at one, and put to sea with a favourable wind ; but 
 
 when we had got about half way to Minorca, these 
 
 poor fishermen were desperately frightened, and 
 
 lowered the sail, leaving us to be tossed about in a 
 
 high swell wherever the waves chose to carry us ; for 
 
 a terrible storm of thunder had been threatening us 
 
Mahon y September 29^, 1813. 141 
 
 all night from the north, and the wind freshened, and 
 was variable and unsettled, the lightning incessant ; 
 and they said they must wait to see which way the wind 
 would blow in the morning : in half an hour it was 
 twilight, and shortly after the storm went off in 
 another direction. After a little rain we got a fair 
 wind, and the weather gradually clearing, we saw the 
 low land of Minorca. Again the wind entirely failed 
 us, and we lay becalmed for some time, but at last a 
 light air slowly brought us into the Creek of Ciudadela 
 at about eleven o'clock. In truth we had not a very 
 agreeable passage, and were not sorry to change 
 our clothes, and get some breakfast. With a good 
 wind the passage from Alcudia to Ciudadela is made 
 in three or four hours, and we were twenty-six ! I 
 hope we shall have no more fishing-boat voyages. On 
 the 23rd we arrived here. Minorca is a flat, ugly 
 island, full of stones and empty of trees : Mahon is 
 an excellent town, cheerful and clean, and there is 
 some good quiet society, but no large parties. Clive 
 has just told me the transport we expected to go in 
 to Palermo has received orders to stay here, so that 
 when we shall go is very uncertain. Lady Oxford is 
 here, but as she lives a mile and a half off (at Villa 
 
142 Mahon, September igth, 1813. 
 
 Carlos, otherwise Charles's Town), and I have no great 
 predilection for her ladyship, I have not called upon 
 her. Clive dined with her yesterday. Lord Oxford 
 is gone to Cagliari, and she wants now to follow him, 
 but cannot get a passage ; nobody seems inclined to 
 assist her. You expect accounts of the fetes, &c., at 
 Madrid ; but although we went there, certainly at an 
 excellent moment to see the lower orders, it was quite 
 empty of rank and fortune consequently there were 
 no diversions : but I particularly enjoy seeing and 
 observing the people of a country, more especially in 
 Spain, where they are the only estimable part of the 
 population ; I don't mean only the very lowest. God 
 bless you, my dear parents ; give my love to all who 
 care for me. 
 
 &c., &c., &c. 
 
MAHON, 
 October nth, 1813. 
 
 E are still here, my dear mother, without 
 any prospect of getting on at present. 
 The " Redwing," Captain Sir John 
 Sinclair, sailed yesterday for Cagliari, 
 and took Lady Oxford and her family there, where 
 they will join Lord Oxford ; they took no convoy, or 
 we might have got a passage in one of them ; Sinclair 
 proceeds from Cagliari straight to Malta, to take 
 convoy to England. There are several merchant 
 vessels and transports laden here for Palermo and 
 Syracuse, but Admiral Pickmore has nothing to send 
 to convoy them. We had a pic-nic the other day, 
 some navy captains and we travellers, and enjoyed 
 ourselves tolerably well : it would have succeeded to 
 perfection, but the Consul's daughter (a young lady 
 
1 44 Mahon, October \\th, 1813. 
 
 of some consequence on such occasions) chose to be 
 huffed about something ; and when, at dusk, we ex- 
 pected to have had a dance she would go home, and 
 she carried her point We dine to- 
 day with Admiral Pickmore, where we shall have a 
 large naval party ; he lives in a country house about 
 two miles from Mahon. I begin to tire of this place, 
 and so do the others. The society don't improve upon 
 us ; it will have a great loss to-day in a lady of the 
 name of Taverne, who is going to Palma about a law- 
 suit : I like her and her family better than any 
 Spaniards I have seen ; she is a Catalan : her husband 
 is a Frenchman who has always been in the Spanish 
 service : he commands one of the Spanish line-of- 
 battle ships which are laying rotting in this port. They 
 have two daughters grown up, and several other 
 children, and have music every night. The mother 
 is a woman of education, and has brought up her 
 daughters very differently from any Spaniards I have 
 seen before, and they are capable of some other con- 
 versation than what you meet with in general in 
 Spain, which is immodest love-making and disgusting 
 flattery. The father stays here, as he cannot leave his 
 ship, and the daughters stay likewise ; but I fear we 
 
Mahon, October nth, 1813. 145 
 
 shall find the house very different without the mother. 
 There are many amiable points in the female Spanish 
 character they are affable to strangers, and very 
 good-humoured, and you can hardly expect conversa- 
 tion or good conduct from poor girls who literally 
 cannot be said to know how to read and write ; the 
 men are chiefly to blame here, and I hope the day 
 will come when a general education throughout the 
 country will render all more enlightened, and that 
 the female part will be enabled to profit of those 
 talents which they possess to a high degree ; they are 
 infinitely superior in this country to our sex. I don't 
 know whether the toasts a Vanglaise would astonish 
 the Oporto ladies, but I am sure they have not that 
 effect on those at Cadiz, where they are well used to 
 them, and enjoy the custom beyond measure ; you 
 would be shocked to see girls of fifteen, sixteen, and 
 seventeen, swilling down bumpers of champagne one 
 after another as they do. You mention how little 
 summer you have had this year in England ; it has 
 been the same here, and the rains and cold weather 
 lasted so long, the people were quite astonished ; now 
 it is oppressively hot, but at this season it is always 
 variable, and they expect a great deal of rain ; as yet 
 
 u 
 
1 46 Mahon, October nth, 1813. 
 
 there has been very little since we came. A few days 
 ago there was a dreadful storm, but it did not last 
 long the thunder shook every ship and every house ; 
 one of the transports was struck with lightning which 
 carried away the main-top mast, splitting it into a 
 thousand pieces, injured the mainmast, killed two 
 men, and injured nine ; the storms here are tremen- 
 dous, and accidents happen every year to our ship- 
 ping in the harbour. The "Revenge" came in a 
 short time ago, and I have got acquainted with St. 
 John, one of its lieutenants, a great friend of Charles's ; 
 I dined with him the other day in the wardroom, and 
 it was very gratifying to hear Charles so highly spoken 
 of as he was by those officers who were with him in 
 the ship there are few of them left, the greater part 
 quitted with Admiral Legge ; the " Revenge " is 
 now commanded by Sir J. Gore. St. John told me 
 he had seen the list of killed and wounded at the 
 taking of San Sebastian, and that Orlando was men- 
 tioned as slightly wounded ; I trust it is slightly, in 
 which case I shall rejoice at it, as there is nothing so 
 gratifying to a young officer interested in his profes- 
 sion as to have his name honourably mentioned. I 
 have seen the dispatch giving an account of this 
 
Mahon, October ijthy 1813. 147 
 
 affair, but not the list of killed and wounded ; it 
 seems to have been one of the severest things our 
 army have had. Poor dear Orlando ! God prosper him 
 in his profession. St. John tells me he has no doubt 
 Charles is acting commander before this time, as he 
 knows he was second for promotion on the list, and 
 we have heard some time ago of the first being pro- 
 moted ; I wish St. John may prove correct. I am 
 astonished I should not have mentioned Conway 
 Seymour in my second letter from Alicante. He dined 
 with us several times, he is a fine boy, very manly 
 and sensible, and seems to like his profession exceed- 
 ingly, he is rather forward, and plays the man, 
 perhaps, a little too much, but then his conversation 
 and remarks are beyond his years. I was very near 
 writing once to Lady George, but I was too lazy, for I 
 had written so much at Alicante that I was quite sick 
 of it. Henry Thynne 1 spoke well of Conway, but I 
 thought not with very great cordiality but Henry is 
 silent and quiet, and would not perhaps say all he 
 thought ; they seem good friends. 
 
 October 17 tk. I have now another letter to thank 
 
 1 Lord Henry Thynne, afterwards Marquess of Bath. 
 
148 Mahon, October 2O/^, 1813. 
 
 you for, my dear mother ; it is No. 29, of the 8th 
 of August ; it came several days ago in a bag 
 directed to Alicante, which, most fortunately for me, 
 the Admiral's Lieutenant opened just before it was 
 sent to its destination, thinking it was possible there 
 might be a letter for some one here. Fraser had sent 
 mine to the fleet, and directed it to Admiral Pick- 
 more ; but owing to some mistake, I had nearly lost 
 it a thousand thanks for it, and its inclosures. . . 
 
 Don't fear any danger for me at Malta ; 
 
 depend upon it, if they keep anything for me I may 
 safely receive it for they are so cautious, they destroy 
 everything about which there is the slightest suspicion. 
 I am glad you have received my long letter from 
 Alicante, you say nothing of that from Malaga, which 
 must certainly be lost. 
 
 October 2Oth. We are now likely to go to Palermo 
 in a day or two; the "Cossack," a twenty-gun ship, 
 is come in from Gibraltar, and is in quarantine, but 
 will convoy the transports I mentioned in my last 
 letter, without riding out here her quarantine. Captain 
 Napier is going to England, and will take this. He 
 goes to Gibraltar in the " Stromboli " bomb-ship, and 
 sails to-morrow or the next day ; at Gibraltar he meets 
 
Mahon, October 2 1 st, 1 8 1 3. 1 49 
 
 the " Invincible," going to England. My next letter will 
 be from Sicily, where I fear we shall have a terrible 
 quarantine, although this place is perfectly healthy. 
 Captain Noel, who is going to join his brig in the 
 Adriatic, Herbert, Clive, and myself, are to have the 
 cabin of a transport to ourselves ; the master is to 
 feed us for a certain sum. I enclose letters for Lucy, 
 Mrs. Cautley, and Lord George Quin. We have such 
 strange, contradictory reports here of German affairs, 
 that it is impossible even to guess at the truth. I 
 trust, however, that all goes on pretty satisfactorily. 
 If I know the day of our sailing before I am obliged 
 to seal this, I will add it, if not, adieu. I had intended 
 writing to Mr. Chap, but I have not time ; give him 
 my love, and also to all my other friends and relations 
 you may see or write to. God bless you, my dear 
 parents, 
 
 Your ever affectionate and dutiful son, 
 
 G. A. F. H. B. 
 
 October 2\st. Nothing new has occurred, and I must 
 close up my letter. I suppose we shall go to-morrow 
 or the next day. 
 
MAHON, 
 October 2$th, 1813. 
 
 INCE closing my long letter a few days 
 ago, my dearest father, our plans have 
 been all adrift again. The convoy I 
 said we were going in sailed yesterday, 
 but Herbert was very unwell, and unable to go with 
 it, and Clive and I do not like to leave him here ; it 
 is very unfortunate, for they have a delightful wind 
 and beautiful weather. I directed my last letter (of 
 which I consider this a P.S.) to Mr. Hamilton, at the 
 Foreign Office, and this I shall direct immediately to 
 you. I mention the circumstance in order that should 
 you receive the P.S. before the letter, you may not 
 think it is lost; they both go home by the same 
 means, namely, by Captain Napier. Heaven knows 
 when we shall go now ; we are most heartily sick of 
 
MaJwn, October 2$t/i, 1813. 151 
 
 Mahon. The fleet are not come in yet, but are ex- 
 pected on the 1st, but the weather is now so fine again 
 that possibly they may remain out longer. It will be 
 a fine sight to see them all here together ; there are 
 now seven line - of - battle ships, four frigates, and 
 several brigs here, but that is thought nothing ! A 
 squadron of five or six sail of the line are to cruise all 
 the winter off Cape Creux and the Bay of Rosas. 
 Sir J. Gore is to command as senior captain ; the 
 ships are to be the " Revenge," " Ocean," " Berwick," 
 " Fame," " Aboukir," and, I believe, another ; it will 
 knock them about terribly. We are in anxious ex- 
 pectation of more news from the north, for we have 
 heard nothing since Bonaparte entered Dresden. I 
 am glad to find there was no foundation for the report 
 of the yellow fever having shown itself at Cadiz ; at 
 Gibraltar it is quite dreadful. The last accounts we 
 have from Malta are much more favourable, and I 
 hope the plague is now decreasing fast. God bless 
 you, my dear parents, 
 
 &c., &c., &c. 
 
MAHON, 
 November tyh) 1813. 
 
 HE "Perseus" is come in to-day from 
 Algiers with M. A' Court, and sails again 
 to-morrow for England. I will there- 
 fore send you a few lines, my dear 
 parents, to say that at present all remains in statu quo ; 
 neither Herbert being well enough to go yet, nor a 
 means of conveyance offering, since the transports 
 went that I mentioned in my last letter. I believe 
 another opportunity for sending letters will offer in a 
 day or two, when I will write again. The fleet are 
 still out, but it is supposed they have left the blockade 
 of Toulon, and are either on the coast of Catalonia 
 or of Sardinia. We are most anxious for news that 
 may be depended upon, both from the Peninsula and 
 from Germany. It is an age since we have known 
 
Mahon, November qt/i, 1813. 153 
 
 anything certain, and in the interval have been in- 
 undated with contradictory reports. My spirits are 
 much better than they were. Clive would have 
 written if I had not ; this is some of his paper ; he 
 calls it letter paper, but I think it deserves the name 
 of blotting paper better. God bless you, my dear 
 parents, and preserve you, to watch over and guide 
 Your ever affectionate and dutiful son. 
 
MAHON, 
 November iQth, 1813. 
 
 WROTE you a few lines, my dear 
 mother, last night, and sent them by the 
 "Perseus." The "Repulse" sails to- 
 morrow for the coast of Catalonia, from 
 whence a ship is going home, and I take the oppor- 
 tunity of sending you a few more. I said last night 
 that my spirits were much better, and I attribute it to 
 two or three causes. Time is the principal one, I be- 
 lieve ; another is, that I heard from Captain Hamilton 
 that his friend Clifford l is married to Miss Townshend, 
 one of Lord John's daughters ; he could not tell me 
 which it is, but I hope it is Audrey. I hear Harting- 
 
 1 Admiral Sir Augustus Clifford, Bart., gentleman-usher of the 
 black rod. 
 
Mahon, November io//z, 1813. 155 
 
 ton has made a very handsome settlement upon him. 
 This circumstance, however, cannot have had much to 
 do with the improvement of my spirits with respect 
 to the loss of dear Harriet. I attribute this more to 
 a rather singular friendship I have formed, which has 
 lately interested me a good deal, and in which I have 
 had the satisfaction of being of essential use to that 
 friend, against whom it seemed the world (at least 
 Mahon) was conspired ; the gratitude of this person, 
 and the pleasure of feeling of use to a fellow-creature, 
 have afforded me comfort I have not experienced for 
 some time. This little circumstance seems to have 
 removed that gloom which had seized upon my spirits, 
 and although the immediate interest which had drove 
 it away, is itself passed by too, yet it has left a calm 
 behind, and I find my spirits wonderfully relieved ; 
 don't think me quite out of my senses for writing such 
 an unintelligible story the subject is such as I would 
 not trust to paper, though I would gladly tell it to 
 you ; is it self-love that has led me to say what I 
 have ? I hope not. I hope it is only the wish to give 
 you pleasure you who are so kind as always to press 
 me to communicate all my interests. I grieve that at 
 such a distance I dare not be entirely unreserved. I 
 
156 Mahon, November nth, 1813. 
 
 wonder what you will think of me I begin to think 
 myself a very odd fellow, and that I shall return to 
 England a very different character from what I was 
 two years ago. What I am most afraid of is, that I 
 shall imbibe too bad an opinion of the world in general 
 for my own happiness ; I hope, at least, that I shall 
 not become illiberal. 
 
 November \2th. Contrary winds have detained the 
 " Repulse," and yesterday the ." Rivoli " arrived from 
 England with papers to the i8th ult, bringing down 
 the German news to the iQth of September ; upon 
 the whole it is satisfactory, but we had raised our ex- 
 pectations higher. I see that poor Burrard, who I 
 believe was the next above Orlando in the Guards, 
 was killed at San Sebastian, at the same time that 
 Orlando was slightly wounded. The " Barfleur " came 
 in to-day from the fleet, and brings an account of the 
 partial brush we have had with the French fleet of ten 
 sail, as they were returning into Toulon. It is very 
 unlucky that we could not bring off one ship. The 
 Moniteur will make a flourishing story of it ; they 
 say Sir Edward Pellew is very sore about it. The 
 ship that is going home is the " Bombay ;" the 
 " Repulse " will probably sail to-morrow, as the wind 
 
Mahon, November \2th, 1813. 157 
 
 seems inclined to shift a little. The fleet is expected 
 in daily. Herbert is getting better, and should an 
 opportunity for Sicily offer in a week's time, I believe 
 we may avail ourselves of it. I have written by this 
 opportunity to my uncle Gunning. 1 Give my love to 
 all you know are dear to me. God bless you, my be- 
 loved parents, 
 
 &c., &c., &c. 
 
 1 Sir George Gunning, Bart. 
 
In quarantine, on board the transport " Diadem," 
 PALERMO BAY, December 7^, 1813. 
 
 MY DEAREST MOTHER, 
 
 N our arrival here, John's servant sent me 
 several letters from you. Thank you a 
 thousand times for them ; they have 
 afforded me very great pleasure, but yet 
 
 I am not satisfied, for many are still missing 
 
 Herbert being a great deal better, we embarked on 
 board * the " Prevoyant " store-ship, which was to sail 
 from Mahon on the 24th ult. for Malta, touching at 
 Palermo ; strong easterly winds, however, detained us 
 till the 2/th, on which afternoon we sailed with a fair 
 wind, taking under convoy four transports and a mer- 
 chant ship. We had an excellent passage with a 
 fresh easterly breeze, and anchored in this bay in the 
 
Palermo Bay, December 7//z, 1813. 159 
 
 afternoon of the ist inst, exactly four days from 
 Mahon. They put us into quarantine for twenty-six 
 melancholy days, making thirty from Mahon. We 
 were rather thunderstruck at this information, but 
 upon the whole we bear it with becoming fortitude 
 and resignation. The store-ship sailed on the 4th for 
 Malta, and we shifted on board this transport, one of 
 our convoy. Our party in the " Prevoyant " consisted 
 of Lieutenant-Colonel Travers, of the roth Foot, 
 coming on leave from Tarragona to see his wife here ; 
 Mr. Wilkinson, late secretary to Admiral Martin, going 
 to Malta, where he is appointed Agent Victualler ; a 
 Neapolitan gentleman, now resident in Sicily, who 
 spoke nothing but Italian ; Mr. Trounce, the master 
 of the ship ; and our three selves ; we were not there- 
 fore at all crowded, and formed a pleasant party 
 enough. The first half-day we were all, except Wil- 
 kinson, very ill ; but afterwards, quite well. J. Cobb 
 is in high feather, and desires me to say he does not 
 know how to thank you enough for all your kindness. 
 Clive is in perfect health, and thanks you for your 
 kind messages. I shall destroy your little note to 
 John, as I imagine it cannot be worth returning. 
 Herbert is nearly recovered : I find from him that his 
 
1 60 Palermo Bay, December ///&, 1813. 
 
 marriage with Ly. E. B. is certainly entirely broken 
 off. You cannot think how glad we were to leave 
 that abominable place, Mahon, after staying there 
 nine weeks ; I really thought it worse than Alicante, 
 which is saying a great deal. After the fleet came in, 
 we dined every day on board some ship, with Sir 
 Edward Pellew in the " Caledonia," Sir Sidney in the 
 "Hibernia," Sir R. King in the "San Josef," with 
 Captain Burlton in the " Boyne," and with Captain 
 Hammond in the " Rivoli." I told Captain Burlton 
 with what pleasure my father always talked of his 
 passage with him to Ireland, and his great hospitality. 
 He desired I would give his .kind remembrance : he 
 lives, they say, better than ever, and is the life and 
 soul of the Fleet. Mr. and Mrs. Dashwood are still 
 at Palermo ; he has kindly come out in a boat to 
 talk to us almost every day, and has given us news- 
 papers, &c., &c. John's servant has been extremely 
 ill here, and is not yet much better; I fear he has 
 had bad advice. I begged of Dashwood to send his 
 servant to him to see that he got the best. I find he 
 was kind enough to go himself, and George is now in 
 the English military hospital, where I hope he will 
 soon get well. We have got some books from shore, 
 
Palermo Bay, December %th, 1813. 161 
 
 and are beginning to learn Italian, though I fear we 
 shall not advance much by ourselves. Herbert learnt 
 it at Malta, but he wants brushing-up. Colonel 
 Travers is on board the " Iris " transport, where his 
 wife and children have joined him, we three, and the 
 Neapolitan, here. When Clive and I have gram- 
 mared it a little, we shall find him of use to talk to, 
 as Herbert already does. We are much delighted 
 with the town and bay of Palermo, as we see them 
 from our ship ; nothing can be finer than the island 
 appears ; the weather is delightful, but this prison is 
 not the place to enjoy it. Adieu till to-morrow, when 
 I will resume my pen. 
 
 December %th. A transport arrived the other day 
 from Ponza (the island near the Bay of Naples, taken 
 lately by Captain Napier), bringing a despatch to Lord 
 William Bentinck, and a Neapolitan gentleman, sup- 
 posed to be sent with some proposals from his Govern- 
 ment ; the despatch was sent instantly to Lord William, 
 and the transport returned yesterday to Ponza, with the 
 Neapolitan, after a long conference between him and 
 General McFarlane, now commanding here; the 
 quarantine from Ponza here being forty days, he could 
 not land. Yesterday brought us an account from 
 
 Y 
 
1 62 Palermo Bay, December 8t/i, 1813. 
 
 Messina of another similar communication from the 
 opposite coast of Calabria, where a Neapolitan officer 
 had arrived from Naples ; of course we shall know no 
 more particulars, but this is enough to raise favour- 
 able conjectures. Our plans are to pass five weeks 
 at Palermo, and then to travel round the island, be- 
 ginning at the west end of it, and thence by the south, 
 and east to Messina ; but as we wish to be at the 
 capital during the greatest gaiety, which will natu- 
 rally be in thd carnival, we cannot determine finally 
 till we know when this falls ; perhaps, therefore, we 
 may start soon from Palermo, make a short tour, and 
 return to it afterwards for a month ; we probably shall 
 be near four months in the island, and then go to 
 Malta, from whence we shall go to Zante, and thence 
 to Greece. In consequence of the time we have un- 
 expectedly spent in the Peninsula, I have persuaded 
 Clive to give up Egypt, though very reluctantly, for 
 he would fain see all the world, but I tell him I can- 
 not remain so many years out of England. He and 
 Herbert are still determined on going from Constanti- 
 nople to Russia but I hope we shall have a Peace 
 by that time, when I should infinitely prefer visiting 
 Italy, Switzerland, and France. All these are castles 
 
Palermo JBay y December 8//, 1813. 163 
 
 in the air, but it is amusing to form plans for different 
 circumstances. They say the English are not near so 
 popular here as they were ; Lord William Bentinck is 
 much less so, since Sir J. M. was here, who seems to 
 have conducted himself strangely, and to have shown 
 great civilities to the French party, in short, to those 
 who are Lord William B.'s chief enemies. The English 
 are outrageous with him for this ; but he contrived to 
 gain much popularity among the Sicilian nobility, 
 and several of the authorities (those probably whom 
 Lord Wiliiam kept under rather more than they 
 liked), but I know yet too little of Sicilian politics to 
 speak with any confidence. I will now answer some 
 questions in a very old letter of yours, although too 
 late, I fear, to be of interest : a Portuguese league 
 ought to contain three miles and five-sixths, but I 
 usually calculated them at four miles ; however, they 
 are not measured, consequently you meet with no 
 regularity ; they often exceed five, and sometimes are 
 scarcely three ! A Spanish Legua del Rey (or King's 
 league) is exactly four miles, but on the generality of 
 roads they are not measured, and on an average do 
 not exceed three and a half! A Quinta is the Portu- 
 guese name for a country house or villa, with a wood, 
 
164 Palermo Bay, December 8t/i, 1813. 
 
 shrubbery, or garden enclosed by a wall; in Spain 
 they are less common, and are called Casas de Campo 
 (or country houses). At the Convent of Arouca the 
 nuns who appeared at tea and breakfast were only 
 the Abbess and five or six old ones : it was in a large 
 parlour, divided by an iron grate, where they always 
 receive company of an evening ; the eatables and 
 drinkables were passed to us by those turning shelves 
 common in all convents I forget their name. It was 
 at the grate of the church the next morning that we 
 saw the pretty young nun who smote Clive ; her 
 sister, who is many years older than her, obtained 
 leave for her to come. The Bernardine order is very 
 rich, and far from a strict one these, and the Augus- 
 tines, fare sumptuously. While I think of it, I will 
 say a few words about my letter of credit ; it is dated 
 I Qth of June, 1812, to continue for two years; it will 
 expire, therefore, on the I Qth of next June ; the credit 
 is for 3,000, of which I have drawn, up to this day, 
 500 only, and I am about 400 in debt to Clive ; 
 after paying him, I shall have above 2,000 left suffi- 
 cient to last me a very long time. I should imagine 
 that, without placing any new sum in Herries's hands, 
 I can have this letter renewed for two years longer. 
 
Palermo Bay, December 8//fc, 1813. 165 
 
 As the packet calls at Palermo on its way to Malta, 
 you may send any letters you write to me before 
 the second week in March under cover to Lord 
 William B., as we shall certainly remain in Sicily 
 till late in April. Direct afterwards straight to Malta. 
 
 Gordon, of Xeres, is, as a politician, a great 
 
 rogue, as Charles told you ; he was under arrest 
 when we saw him there, but he has contrived to get 
 enlarged since, I suppose by paying a sum of money 
 to the Spanish Government a common method there 
 of wiping off the stain of treason. Oh ! what corrup- 
 tion still poisons that unhappy country ! I am now 
 come to that part of your letter in which you ask my 
 opinion of the Roman Catholic churches and ser- 
 vices. There are certainly several things that inspire 
 more awe than ours, but the heavy, gaudy, tasteless 
 ornaments of them, together with the absurd monkey- 
 like actions and motions of their priests, chanting or 
 reciting like parrots, while their thoughts are -em- 
 ployed in anything but devotion, never excite in me 
 any feelings but those of derision or disgust. They 
 consider the organ a paltry instrument, fit only for 
 common days (and even then it is but little played), 
 and they seldom introduce its really religious tones 
 
1 66 Palermo Bay, December 8//&, 1813. 
 
 amidst the numberless violins, violoncellos, &c., &c., 
 on which they so furiously scrape. Their grand days 
 of music in Spain are called Funciones, one of which 
 I saw at Seville, perhaps at the finest cathedral in 
 the world but any great fete in Spanish is called 
 Funcion a ball, fireworks, a night of illumination in 
 a theatre, &c., &c. You touch upon a tender string 
 when you say how delighted I must have been with 
 Seville. I cannot forgive John and Clive for having 
 deprived me of seeing Lisbon, and they bullied me 
 again at Seville, for they would only stay there three 
 rainy days, and ten, at least, are necessary to see all 
 its fine buildings. The Duquesa de Goa's daughter 
 did not improve on acquaintance ; she is an affected 
 little puss, and her mother a great admirer of Soult 
 and his countrymen I wish they would make a few 
 examples in Spain of such characters. I have seen 
 two vintages, but as they did not strike me as being 
 either pretty or interesting, it never occurred to me 
 to mention them. I have never seen the Inquisition 
 anywhere idle enough of us ! The mule we left lame 
 between Salamanca and Valladolid, recovered and 
 joined us while we were at Salamanca the second 
 time ; after various adventures, and just before both our 
 
Palermo Bay, December %th, 1813. 167 
 
 muleteers decamped with a great many dollars a 
 strange mixture of honesty and roguery ! John's 
 servant remained at Oporto with most of our heavy 
 baggage, and went by sea from thence to Cadiz. I 
 remarked most of the things you cite from "Jacob's 
 Travels :" the geraniums were in flower in the hedges 
 of Chiclana when we passed them in January; but 
 the beauty of that little town is almost destroyed by 
 the French. I do not know the Oleander. Rice is 
 not grown now in Malaga, but they continue the 
 growth of the sugar-cane : I think I mentioned this in 
 my letter from thence, but this letter you say has 
 never reached you. I am glad my account of the 
 Grandees' ball amused you. I don't believe Charles 
 is quite right about the Duchess of Osuna ; she was 
 formerly very fond of the French, and of French 
 manners, but ever since the Revolution of 1808 she 
 and her family have proved themselves very steady 
 patriots ; she is a great intrigante, and far from an 
 amiable woman, but clever, and a good Spaniard. 
 God bless you my, dear parents. 
 
 &c., &c, &c. 
 
 Finished the loth of December. 
 December \$th. I have just learnt that the packet 
 
1 68 Palermo Bay, December \$th, 1813. 
 
 for England is not yet gone, having waited for Lord 
 William Bentinck's letters. I should have written to 
 Lucy had I not thought it had sailed several days 
 ago. I enclose letters for Orlando, and Gaily Knight. 1 
 Lord William Bentinck is not yet returned, and I have 
 nothing to add. How glorious is the news from all 
 parts ! There is a report here that Admiral Young 
 has taken the Scheldt Fleet twelve sail of the line ; 
 I hope it may prove true. The fall of Pampluna is a 
 great point gained. I hope we shall soon have a good 
 account of Suchet. If my box of books should ever 
 arrive in England, you had better open it, as it contains 
 my early journals, which may amuse you, and I am 
 not aware that they mention anything to shock female 
 delicacy; if they do, pray pardon me. You must 
 consider this sheet a P.S. to my last long letter. God 
 bless you once more, my dear parents. 
 
 1 The late Henry Gaily Knight, Esq., M.P. 
 
 -xassg^^ 
 
PALERMO, 
 January ist, 1814. 
 
 MUST begin, my dear father and 
 mother, by wishing you a happy New 
 Year ; this is the second New Year's 
 day that we have not passed together, 
 and one more remains yet, but the fourth I trust we 
 shall all be united again at Weston. You, my dear 
 mother, I conceive to be now at Longleat, where I 
 trust you are enjoying yourself; my father, I suppose, 
 is in Ireland, and will, I guess, pass this day at Mount 
 Shannon. I am passing mine quietly enough at this 
 moment, but we are going to dine with Lord William 
 at four o'clock, as there is to be a drawing room at 
 six, at which we are to be presented. But I must go 
 back a little and write regularly, or I shall forget 
 many things. The packet sailed at last I think on the 
 
 z 
 
170 Palermo, January \st, 1814. 
 
 22nd, by which I sent three envelopes, two of which 
 only I numbered ; Lord William had not then returned, 
 but he arrived on the night of the 24th. I have got 
 three of your letters from him, Nos. 31, 32, and 33, for 
 which I trust I am as grateful as I ought to be for 
 your very great kindness in writing so fully and so 
 regularly. I begin to despair of the eight letters of 
 yours which I mentioned were missing in my last ; 
 the three directed to Stuart I have no idea of ever 
 getting, but I cannot help thinking the other five are 
 in some drawer of Lord William's, particularly as the 
 three I have got from him have been given to me at 
 different times. I am sure if Graham (his secretary) 
 would give himself the trouble of looking, he would 
 find more. No. 32 I received the first day after their 
 return ; No. 33 a day or two after, and I wondered 
 what had befallen No. 31, when last night at the 
 Opera he gave it to me. I asked if a packet had come 
 in, he said, " No." I asked, " How then did this letter 
 come ? " He replied, " I don't know." On opening it 
 I found it to be No. 31. This almost convinces me 
 he might find more by looking back for them ; it is 
 possible the packet from Malta may bring me some. 
 How tired you must be with this never-ceasing theme ! 
 
Palermo, January i,tf, 1814. 171 
 
 but you will conceive what an interesting one it is to 
 me, and you will be interested yourself in the fate of 
 your letters. 
 
 They excused us three days of our quarantine, and 
 we trod on terra firma with considerable glee the 
 24th. I imagine Christmas-day was the cause of the 
 indulgence we experienced. We were very fortunate 
 to get on shore that day, for through the kindness of 
 our friends Douglas and Dashwood (the former is 
 Secretary of Legation, the latter, as you know, Pel- 
 ham's brother-in-law), we were invited to a grand fete 
 given by the Principe Butera, the First Baron (or 
 Duke of Norfolk) of Sicily ; he is rich, but immensely 
 in debt, keeps open house, chiefly for the English, and 
 seems very good-humoured and hospitable. His 
 palace is very large, and the suite of rooms magnifi- 
 cent, and furnished in a very costly manner ; we were 
 about fifty at dinner, more than half English, and above 
 one-third ladies. Many of the Sicilian nobles have 
 adopted English hours, and the hour of dinner was 
 nominally six ; we sat down about seven ! The dining 
 room is immense, I think it must exceed 100 feet in 
 length, and 50 in breadth and height ; it was lit by 
 364 candles upon the tables and in the chandeliers ; 
 
172 Palermo, January \st, 1814. 
 
 there were two tables laid out, one for the dinner, and 
 the other for the dessert this has a grand effect, 
 and I believe is almost peculiar to that house ; we 
 had even fresh napkins at the second table. We had 
 not a service of plate, but yet the decorations of the 
 tables were handsome. The dinner abounded in 
 " quelque-choses," but there was nothing to satisfy 
 an Englishman's stomach ; the only substantial things 
 were two turkeys, and I succeeded in getting part of 
 the leg of one of them ; the soup, and some of the 
 dishes I tasted were not bad, but quite cold. There 
 was hock, claret, and several Sicilian wines some of 
 which I thought pretty good ; there were some excel- 
 lent ices. We did not sit long after dinner ; a great 
 many people now came, who did not dine there, and 
 after coffee we went into the concert-room, where we 
 heard some good music ; after which there were some 
 English country dances, and waltzing. There was no 
 regular supper, but cold meats, ices, &c. &c., in the 
 refreshment room. We had not less than ten rooms 
 open, and as brilliantly lighted in proportion to their 
 sizes as the dining room. Prince Butera is a man of 
 sixty at least, but the princess (who is a Neapolitan, 
 and his second wife) is young, and by many thought 
 
Palermo, January ist, 1814. 173 
 
 very pretty I do not admire her. This place is very 
 scarce in female beauty, and I have not seen one 
 really pretty woman yet ; the party did not last very 
 late. I will not attempt to give any opinion of the 
 Sicilians at present, I will defer it for a future letter 
 when I shall have seen more of them. We have dined 
 with the Dashwoods, Orby Hunters, Douglas, Lord 
 William Bentinck, General McFarlane (second in 
 command here), and with a Chevalier Sauvaire, as he 
 calls himself he is a Portuguese, and his estates are 
 in the Madeiras ; he is younger than me, was edu- 
 cated at Oxford, and was for a short time in the loth 
 dragoons ; he has left the English service, and is 
 travelling, as he calls it but, in fact, residing in 
 different towns ; he is good-natured, foolish, and ex- 
 travagant, fond of dress, and a servile imitator of 
 the English libertines of the day ; his friends find his 
 dinners and his opera box very convenient ; from his 
 
 name he must be of French extraction. H 1 
 
 having found a nature so congenial to his own, has 
 
 struck up an intimacy with him. H 1 has another 
 
 friend here the Prince of Lardaria (who, by the bye, 
 has a younger brother in England, who, it is said, is 
 to marry Miss Johnston, of Hanover Square). Prince 
 
174 Palermo, January ist, 1814. 
 
 L. is a youngish man, good looking, well dressed, and 
 a great imitator of the English ; he has gentlemanly 
 manners ; but if one-fourth they say of him be true, 
 he is the most unprincipled libertine that ever existed. 
 He has been many years married but they under- 
 stand each other perfectly ; indeed, this sort of agree- 
 ment is pretty general here ; he talks of going to 
 England very soon, where I dare say he will take 
 
 amazingly. H 1 likes his horses and carriages, 
 
 and they suit each other exactly. 
 
 We went to an inn on landing, where we remained 
 a few days ; we got very tolerable bed-rooms, but we 
 were starved with cold for there was no fire-place, 
 and the wind came in on all sides ; we only dined 
 there once. The day before yesterday we removed to 
 a very good lodging ; it is the second floor of a house 
 in the principal street, called the Via Toledo, or Cas- 
 saro, which, with another the Via Macqueda cros- 
 sing it at right angles, divide the town into four 
 distinct parts. We were obliged to engage this 
 lodging for two months, for 125 dollars. Its furni- 
 ture consists only of some tables and chairs, and 
 three bedsteads for the servants ; one of the rooms 
 has a fire-place, which is a great comfort, for 
 
Palermo, January \st, 1814. 175 
 
 the weather is very cold, though not quite equal to 
 England. We dine to-morrow with Prince Butera ; 
 Monday with General Spencer; Tuesday with 
 Commissary Vaughan, whose wife is niece to Mrs. 
 Orby Hunter, and daughter to Mrs. Musters ; Wednes- 
 day we dine with Major Kenah, D. A. General, by 
 which time I hope we shall have some more invitations. 
 John Cobb is quite well. I enclose a letter from him 
 to his son Jack, 1 from whom you sent him one that has 
 pleased him very much he showed it to me, it is very 
 well written, and most of the words rightly spelt. 
 The Dashwoods have been very civil and kind to me, 
 I like him very much, she has quite lost her shyness 
 since she married, which is astonishing. I think she 
 was one of the shyest girls I ever knew. She has a 
 slow, odd way of speaking, but seems clever and plea- 
 sant; she is very fond of music, and I have heard 
 same very good at her house ; she is still very thin, 
 but seems in tolerable health though not stout ; they 
 have made the tour of the island, and she likes travel- 
 ling. They hope soon to be able to go to Italy, and 
 afterwards to Germany, Switzerland, and France, and 
 
 1 Now (1875) a gardener at Weston. 
 
176 Palermo, January \st, 1814. 
 
 propose to return to England in the autumn of 1816. 
 There is plenty of Sicilian scandal, but the only 
 English I hear, is of Mrs. O. H. and a younger son 
 
 of Lord S n. The Archbishop died suddenly 
 
 yesterday, which caused a great sensation among the 
 superstitious Sicilians; they say he was a bad one, 
 and an inveterate enemy to England. Palermo is a 
 dirty town, and most of the streets are crooked and 
 narrow this and the Via Macqueda are wider, straight, 
 and handsome, and several houses looking over the 
 Marina to the Bay are particularly so ; and there are 
 some very pretty ones to the south just outside the 
 town ; here most of the English live, and the view 
 from their windows is beautiful. The Palace is an 
 ugly old building ; the cathedral a large pile of patch- 
 work, it has some handsome marble pillars. Lord 
 William Bentinck's house is not a good one, but it 
 looks to the bay. General McFarlane's is a capital 
 one, but it is in a street. The palace of the Prince of 
 Belmonte is handsome, his and Prince Butera's are 
 the only ones I have yet seen ; their rooms are much 
 finer and more comfortable than those in Spain. 
 There is a pretty little opera house here, but the 
 opera is very moderate ; there are two other theatres 
 
Palermo, January $rd, 1814. 177 
 
 which I hear are abominable. We went to Prince 
 Butera's again last Friday evening ; he has music and 
 dancing every Friday ; his are the only Sicilian parties 
 I hear of. There are public rooms over the Opera, 
 where there are always conversazioni ; the Sicilians 
 subscribe, but the English are admitted gratis. Mrs. 
 Dashwood has little music parties every Monday. 
 Books are so very dear here that I shall buy none but 
 what I absolutely want ; I cannot hear of a good map 
 of Sicily. We have got an Italian master, an Abate 
 recommended by Dashwood he seems a good little 
 man ; there is no Tuscan or Roman here, so that 
 you cannot meet with the pure pronunciation. 
 
 January $rd. I have this morning received your 
 other letter of the loth Oct., my dear mother; it was 
 negligent of Gibbs's people not to send it to me sooner 
 as it happened, you see, I got that which you sent 
 through Fraser much the soonest. It could not cause 
 any delay to send it through him, as the packets re- 
 main long enough at Gibraltar to admit of letters 
 being opened and forwarded ; don't send any 
 more through Lord William, 1 as I believe he will 
 
 1 Lord William Bentinck. 
 A A 
 
178 Palermo, January $rd, 1814. 
 
 soon quit Sicily on an expedition ; send them after 
 the receipt of this to Mr. Hamilton, directing to me 
 to the care of the consul here, Mr. Fagan, and after 
 the middle of March to the care of the consul at 
 Malta. 
 
 We went to court on Saturday, and I never saw 
 anything so poor or so stupid ; you do not kiss hands 
 on being presented, only bow. The Prince Regent 
 was in boots and regimentals ; he is a little, fat, silly- 
 looking man. There were besides of the royal family, 
 the Princess Regent, who is also a little fatty, but has a 
 pleasing countenance, and when very young must have 
 been pretty she is his second wife, and an Infanta 
 of Spain ; the Duke and Duchess, and Mademoiselle 
 d'Orleans, and the Prince Regent's eldest daughter, 
 who is a child ; the Duchesse d'Orleans is very plain, 
 and daughter to the King of Sicily; we had previously 
 been introduced to the duke, who had some days 
 before desired Douglas to bring us to him he is a 
 very pleasing-mannered man ; I never heard anything 
 more perfect than the English he speaks how very 
 uncommon in a Frenchman! There were two or 
 three ladies-in-waiting, but no others came to the 
 drawing-room ; the Princess and the other ladies were 
 
Palermo, January $th, 1814. 179 
 
 dressed as at a common evening-party, some of them, 
 indeed, had hats on. There were a few men at court, 
 those in uniform had boots, and were without powder; 
 a few old courtiers were in full-dress coats. The I2th 
 of this month is the king's birthday, and I fancy the 
 drawing-room will be better attended. Prince Butera 
 gave us a very good dinner yesterday, and quite a 
 substantial one, we were about thirty persons; his 
 way of living, and hospitality, are quite magnificent. 
 
 You were very lucky in hearing of Orlando through 
 William Russell what an excellent letter O.'s is, 
 and how good you were to take the trouble of copy- 
 ing it for me. I am surprised and sorry that Wol- 
 ryche and Lucy have given up their idea of travel- 
 ling ; I am rejoiced, however, that the cause of it is 
 her improved spirits her last letter to me was by no 
 means written in spirits but I trust that was only a 
 momentary melancholy. William Childe gives me a 
 long account of Madocks's affair. 
 
 January $th. We were driven yesterday four-in- 
 hand by Prince Lardaria to see Bagheria, a village nine 
 miles off, where many of the nobility have country 
 houses ; they cover the gentle rise of the promontory 
 which divides the Bays of Palermo and Termini, and 
 
i So Palermo, January 5///, 1814. 
 
 command very pretty views most of the Lipari 
 Islands are seen, too, from thence. The houses them- 
 selves are in bad taste, and destitute of trees, the 
 gardens are laid out in parterres, and full of busts and 
 statues ; one house belonging to the Prince of Pala- 
 gonia, is justly styled, I think by Swinburne, the 
 Palace of Folly ; the walls are covered in all directions 
 with monsters, the most extraordinary that man could 
 imagine, carved in stone ; Swinburne saw it in the late 
 Prince's time this man has pulled down three-fourths 
 of them, but he has left enough to commemorate his 
 father's folly. We are going to dine on Monday with 
 the Due d'Orleans. 
 
 There is an agreeable Frenchman here, of the name 
 of Montrond, whom you may have known at Paris ; he 
 was banished by Bonaparte, and went to Falmouth ; 
 our Government would not permit him to remain in 
 England, and after a short stay at Falmouth he came 
 here, where he arrived eight months ago, bringing 
 letters of recommendation from several Englishmen 
 who knew him at Paris, among the rest, I think, Lord 
 Grey and Lord Holland ; there is also a pleasant 
 Frenchwoman here a Madame Monjoie, who is 
 attendant upon Mdlle. d'Orleans she is unmarried, 
 
Palermo, January ^th, 1814. 181 
 
 but a Chanoinesse, they both live much with the 
 English. Madame Monjoie sings very well, and is 
 exceedingly good-humoured, and clever. Montrond 
 is a well-informed man, but a true Frenchman, and 
 terribly fond of ridicule; it is amusing to hear him 
 abuse Bonaparte, whom he abhors and despises as 
 much as he doats upon France. He says, " Est-il pos- 
 sible qu'il y ait encore un seul homme en Angle- 
 terre, qui pense que Bonaparte est un grand homme ? 
 c'est le plus grand fou qu'il y a dans le monde," &c. &c. 
 We dine to-day with the Dashwoods, and to-morrow 
 with Sir John Dalrymple, inspector of the Italian 
 Levey, who has a pretty little wife, an Isle of Wight 
 woman. Lord William's secretary, Graham, 1 went off 
 suddenly a few days ago in the " Furieuse " frigate ; 
 he got a commission in the Italian Levey became 
 Lord William's aide-de-camp, and disappeared all 
 in a minute ; it is imagined he is gone on a military 
 mission to Naples. Secret expeditions are on foot ; 
 General Montresor goes with the first division ; but 
 it is expected Lord William himself will go with the 
 second. Every mouth is full of conjectures as to the 
 
 1 The late Right Honourable Sir James Graham, Bart., M.P. 
 
1 82 Palermo, January $th, 1814. 
 
 destination ; I hope it may come to some good. 
 Every day I hear Sir J. M.'s conduct more and more 
 abused how could ministers send such a man either 
 here or to Spain ? 
 
 Adieu, my dear parents, 
 
 &c., &c. 
 
PALERMO, 
 February tfh, 1814. 
 
 Y some ill luck, my dearest mother, the 
 packet that arrived here on the loth 
 January, thirty days from Falmouth, 
 brought me no letters from you or any 
 one else, thus the latest date I have received from 
 you is the 3ist of October an age ago. Another 
 packet came in three days back, but as Lord Wm. 
 Bentinck sailed the preceding evening for Naples (to 
 whom I conceive my letters are under cover), I must 
 wait either his return or that of some vessel ere I can 
 have the satisfaction of hearing from you. I must, 
 however, now tell you that the two first letters you 
 wrote me in August and September, 1812 (Nos. i and 
 2) have at last found me how, Heaven only knows ! 
 
184 Palermo, February ^th y 1814. 
 
 Captain Mowbray, of the " Repulse," who arrived the 
 other day from Mahon, received them from Lieutenant 
 St. John, of the " Revenge " (Charles's friend, who, by 
 the way, I am happy to hear, is appointed to Admiral 
 Legge's ship), and this is all I know of these long-lost 
 letters. Would to Heaven that all the others may 
 some time or other reach me thus ! I assure you 
 they gave me great satisfaction, notwithstanding 
 their old dates. Some persons to whom they alluded 
 of course called up my feelings a good deal, and made 
 me shed tears. Some amiable traits of dear Harriet 
 brought back her loss to my heart with all its bitter- 
 ness. Dear angelic cousin ! where shall I ever find 
 so amiable a friend again ! but I will not proceed. 
 
 But indeed 
 
 I am much happier now, and have lately gone on 
 in society quite comfortably. I have found great 
 pleasure in the quiet society of the Dashwoods, whom 
 I like better every day; she is an amiable little 
 creature. I am so angry with myself for having 
 weakly suffered you to think me so unhappy. I 
 would fain now persuade you to be comfortable about 
 me ; indeed, indeed, I am quite another person from 
 what I was a week or two back. I really now enjoy 
 
Palermo, February ^th, 1814. 185 
 
 myself very tolerably, and I trust that the tour of this 
 island will amuse me and quite restore my happiness. 
 Herbert is plaguing poor Clive a great deal, which 
 keeps us here at present, and may yet detain us some 
 weeks. It grieves us to remain here wasting so much 
 time, but this evil is not without its good, for the 
 weather has been miserable, and is likely to continue 
 so all this month and part of March, and the roads 
 are nearly, if not quite, impassable from the heavy 
 rains, so that our journey at present would be quite a 
 penance ; yet I confess I grudge the time I lose at 
 this stupid place instead of spending it at home, where 
 I know your affection wishes for my return. I am 
 getting on in the meantime with my Italian, but am 
 sorry to find that my fears about Spanish were too well 
 grounded. Already I bungle and find great difficulty 
 in speaking the latter, while at the same time it con* 
 founds my Italian. What would I not give to speak 
 French, Italian, and Spanish well ! but I despair of 
 it, my head is not clear enough ; however, I hope I 
 shall always be able to read them, and that will be 
 something. I hope you have got my Spanish music 
 from John, and the shawls from Bob Spencer. I was 
 astonished to see John's arrival in England about 
 
 B B 
 
1 86 Palermo, Febmary ^tk, 1814. 
 
 three weeks after he left us at Mahon \&flew home, 
 on what wings I know not, but I suppose on those of 
 political ambition. I saw by the same paper that 
 William was appointed an A.D.C. to Lord Welling- 
 ton. I have received a letter from Pelham written so 
 long ago as the 8th of December ; it is in answer to 
 mine from Mahon, and, finally, puts me quite at ease 
 
 about not getting home to him Don't let what 
 
 I have said of Herbert go beyond yourselves. Clive 
 has still some hopes of getting him away, but I con- 
 fess / have none. His tie at present here is the 
 Princess Butera. What a hard thing it is to be linked 
 to a person for whom I have scarcely a grain of 
 feeling left ! yet I feel sincerely for Lord and Lady 
 Pembroke, who are miserable about him, and will do 
 
 my utmost to save him You can't think how 
 
 hurt poor Clive is. Pelham has received the books 
 Clive sent him, which went (or ought to have done so) 
 from Gibraltar by the same conveyance as John's and 
 mine, his were for Lord Holland. It is a most cruel 
 case losing them. I have a letter from Fraser of the 
 22nd January, in which he tells me he has made every 
 inquiry of his people, who say that what things did 
 not go with our servant to Alicante in the " Mermaid," 
 
Palermo, February \th> 1814. 187 
 
 Captain Dunn (viz., our travelling baggage), went 
 home to England in the " Tortoise " store ship, as I 
 wrote you word from Mahon. He says there is no- 
 thing of ours left in the dockyard store-room. The 
 only way I can account for it is as follows: the 
 moment we left Gibraltar we all went with Fraser to 
 look over our things in the store-room there; we 
 wrote directions for our three boxes of books (as like- 
 wise John for a box of segars) on cards, and nailed 
 them lightly on. Fraser promised us that these 
 directions should be painted on the boxes ; now, if 
 he forgot this, John's cards and mine may have been 
 knocked off and dive's not, and thus, while Pelham's 
 arrived safe, ours may be still on board or in the 
 Custom House without a direction, and therefore 
 unclaimed. Mine is a deal box about three feet long 
 and two wide, with thongs of hide nailed round it. If 
 there is such a one unclaimed and it could be opened, 
 some of the books, if not all, have my name in them, 
 and it could be thus discovered. John's box of books 
 is much like mine, I believe. My journals are a cruel 
 loss. In one of the papers by the last packet I hear 
 my father is said to have gone over to Lord Clan- 
 carty in Holland. I am delighted to hear it. He 
 
1 88 Palermo, February ^th, 1814. 
 
 will be much interested, and if he is gone (as I suppose 
 he is) only for a short time, I can't help hoping he 
 has taken Henry with him. Dear Hal! what a 
 pleasure it would be to him. 
 
 I am very sorry to hear of all these militia regi- 
 ments volunteering ; I hope the Shropshire * has been 
 wiser. Heavens ! are not our exertions in the common 
 cause great enough already, without endangering our 
 Constitution thus ? Have we not a larger proportion 
 of men fighting compared with our population than 
 any other nation; besides paying the expenses of 
 Europe ? Surely the successes of the allies have over- 
 turned steady John Bull's head ; you cannot think 
 how frightened I am at home politics ; you would 
 laugh to see me such a strenuous oppositionist. Now 
 is the time for your Whitbreads to be of real use to 
 their country in setting up popular cries, and they 
 seem to be struck dumb and quite stupefied by the 
 wonderful successes on the Continent ; even there 
 again, I have a hundred doubts and fears I am sus- 
 picious of Austria. I am sure she is not well inclined 
 
 1 Lord Bradford commanded the Shropshire militia, 
 
Palermo, Febmary 5^, 1814. 189 
 
 to the general good ; depend upon it she will prove 
 ambitious and unjust. Oh ! for the death of that 
 arch-fiend Bonaparte ! then, indeed, my fears would 
 in a great measure subside. I have written some of 
 my new politics to my Aunt Bath, 1 whose surprise 
 I expect you will hear. 
 
 February $th. Nothing yet from Naples; but I 
 must get my letters ready. I have really nothing to 
 tell you about ourselves ; we continue dining with the 
 persons I named in my last letter, and our evenings 
 pass at the opera or at Prince Butera's ; lately, how- 
 ever, we have had some dances at General Gosselin's, 
 Mrs. Vaughan's, and Douglas's, generally it is the 
 English country dance, with sometimes a reel, a little 
 waltzing, and a bad quadrille. I don't find the 
 Sicilians improve on acquaintance in any way ; a 
 little Spanish woman, wife of the Charge-d'affaires, 
 beats them all hollow the pretty, graceful little 
 figure is quite a pleasure to look at here, but her 
 husband is so jealous of her that he never lets her 
 show herself; I have only seen her twice, at the 
 Princess Butera's and at Douglas's. The Princess 
 
 1 Isabella, Marchioness of Bath. 
 
Palermo, February io//fc, 1814. 
 
 Paterno, a very famed Sicilian, has been a very fine 
 woman, but she is passed. Our weather lately has 
 been wretchedly cold and damp. News from Naples 
 is anxiously expected. I believe half the English 
 here will remove there the moment it is open to 
 them. The expedition remains in statu quo ; they 
 expect to garrison some Neapolitan towns as a 
 security for the treaty. Mrs. Cadogan and Lady 
 Louisa were here for a long while ; they went to 
 Trieste a short time before our arrival, and are now, 
 I believe, at Vienna. I understand they write that it 
 is a most stupid place. I really believe we travellers 
 think all places stupid while we are at them. You 
 have no idea of Lady Louisa's popularity here ; the 
 whole army to a man are in love with her. I found 
 that I committed treason by saying her figure was 
 not good ; she is thought the most beautiful, as well 
 as the most charming of beings ; she accompanied 
 Mrs. Dashwood in her tour of the island, and she 
 seems to have formed a very just opinion of her she 
 is certainly a clever creature, and lays herself out to 
 please. 
 
 February loth. Contrary winds have prevented the 
 packet from coming round from Malta, and in the 
 
Palermo, February i o///, 1814. 191 
 
 mean time Lord William has returned from Naples 
 he came on the 8th, and I had yesterday the satisfac- 
 tion, my dearest mother, of receiving your letters, Nos. 
 34 35, and 36, from the I3th November to the 27th 
 December. I am cruelly disappointed to find that 
 Charles has again returned to England unpromoted. 
 Your anxiety about Orlando must have continued 
 some days after you closed your letter to me ; the 
 gazette, I think, was in the paper of the 3Oth ; those 
 brought by the last packet reach fortunately to the 
 3 ist, so that I had the satisfaction of looking over the 
 list of killed and wounded. This by-the-bye reminds 
 me of the battles of the preceding month ; in the list 
 of which I was sorry to see that both, Mortimer 
 and Meyrick were wounded the former, poor fellow ! 
 I think, was severely so I shall be anxious to hear 
 more of him from you ; I wonder you did not 
 mention him in your letter from Longleat Do not 
 for an instant suppose, my beloved mother, that when 
 I say I wonder at this, or at your not having acknow- 
 ledged my letter from Madrid, I am capable of mean- 
 ing a reproach good heavens ! how far otherwise ! 
 I am surprised, and most grateful to you for writing 
 so much and so fully as you do. A thousand, thou- 
 
1 92 Palermo, February loth, 1814. 
 
 sand thanks for these last three letters, and for the 
 almanack, which is a great treasure, and I looked for- 
 ward to its arrival with pleasure, for I knew you 
 would send me one. You enclose letters from dear 
 Lucy and Henry, give him my love and many thanks ; 
 if I have time before the packet sails, I will write to 
 him ; I have written to Lucy, therefore I send no 
 message to her. No, my dear mother, I have not 
 been able to take the sacrament ; I believe it was ad- 
 ministered here on Christmas day, but I only landed 
 the preceding day, and I was ignorant of our having a 
 chapel here till it was too late ; I have, however, had 
 the satisfaction of going to church every Sunday, and 
 after so long a deprivation, you cannot think how 
 great a one it is. Lord William has made a treaty 
 with Murat, as you will know ; the English may now 
 go to Naples, and the Dashwoods, Orby Hunters, 
 Lord Frederick Montague, and Stourton, will all go 
 when opportunities offer ; Clive and I may, perhaps, 
 run over to look at it for three or four days, if any one 
 offers to take us. Herbert is kept in leading-strings 
 by Princess Butera. I thought you were mistaken about 
 the wine, which was with Clive's I did not expect it 
 to go home even by the same ship ; I am glad my 
 
Palermo, February lot/i, 1814. 193 
 
 father's has arrived safe, and I hope it will prove as 
 good as it promised to be. I believe Costello, from 
 whom I got it, is an honest man. The arrival of my 
 books, too, is a real jubilee to me ; you will be sadly 
 bored with my journal ; I wish I could point out to 
 you the interesting parts to read three-fourths of it 
 must be -very tiresome. I have written to Fraser to tell 
 him of their arrival, and I hope my letter will find him 
 in England. I wish my father may have been able to 
 find General Trant ; his kindness to us was very great. 
 Alas ! I was right in fearing that the melancholy style 
 of some of my letters would give you pain ; I have 
 been weak, but I will try to be more firm. Your last 
 letters contain a great deal about dear, dear Harriet ; 
 but I will not allow myself to comment upon them 
 I am now quite convinced that nothing does me so 
 much harm as allowing myself to write all my 
 feelings on that melancholy subject, the violence 
 of them having considerably abated, I have more 
 command over myself, and will endeavour to 
 use that command. You say my letters lately have 
 given you but little description of the country, 
 &c., I have seen ; but, in truth, though other subjects 
 may in a great measure have occupied my thoughts, 
 
 c c 
 
194 Palermo, February io/>&, 1814. 
 
 and conduced to my silence on such subjects, yet I 
 assure you I have seen little worth noticing, compared 
 to the time that has elapsed since we were at Madrid. 
 At Valencia, certainly, there was much to interest, 
 particularly in the high cultivation of that district, 
 and this I think I described ; so I did the beautiful 
 country we rode through to the north of Majorca ; at 
 Mahon, God knows there is nothing that deserves one 
 line of remarks, neither do I see much here to amuse 
 or interest ; however, perhaps I do not find inter- 
 est in what some months ago would have occupied 
 my mind considerably ; but since I left Castille I 
 have not met with any interesting/^//^, and this is 
 what always delights me. How you would enjoy the 
 Madrillanians ! I am glad the shawls are arrived safe, 
 and I hope you will like them. I must have ex- 
 pressed myself ill about the music ; that which I sent 
 from Mahon I got copied at Madrid, feeling how un- 
 certain it was whether the gay Isnardi would think 
 any more about his promise of sending you some 
 from Cadiz. How fortunate Robert Gunning is to go 
 out with Lord Clancarty as his secretary. John was 
 very wrong to tell my father I was the worse for my 
 travels but I suppose you won't believe me. Clive 
 
Palermo, February io//, 1814. 195 
 
 is writing you a letter, and I hope he will meet with 
 more credit. We are both as anxious as ever to see 
 Greece, notwithstanding the events on the continent, 
 and feeling that never was any one more deceived 
 than you have been by my mischievous cousin. I 
 hope I may consider myself at liberty to pursue my 
 travels there, as your request is only made on the 
 supposition that I am suffering from them ; but I 
 promise you, that should I feel the worse for travelling 
 in Greece, I will go no farther than Athens. I wish I 
 may be able to persuade Clive to substitute Germany 
 for that stupid country Russia. Clive has got some 
 Sicilian agates for my Aunt Bath, and both he and I 
 have bought collections of agates and marbles for 
 ourselves many of the former are beautiful ; they 
 will go home with John's servant. I shall likewise 
 send by him the Spanish chain I have bought for 
 Lucy, also another box of Spanish books bought at 
 Valencia, and a few Italian from hence, as well as the 
 print of Guzman the Good, with some maps and plans. 
 I have bought here two necklaces made of a sort of 
 shell, and cut in imitation of cameos ; they are poor 
 things, not worth their cost, but I am fond of any- 
 thing peculiar to a country ; they make them also at 
 
196 Palermo >, February iotfr> 1814, 
 
 Rome, and they say much better. Lord William 
 Bentinck expects Lady William next month ; I hear 
 she has been unwell, which is partly the cause of her 
 returning to this warmer climate. 
 
 I have written such a long letter that I shall say 
 little more on politics. I look forward to peace, if 
 made now with Bonaparte, as the death-warrant of 
 Europe ; I am ashamed of our having treated with 
 Murat ; he cannot but be a Frenchman in heart, and 
 we shall suffer for it. The revolution in Holland 
 does not go on as I could wish. I am convinced there 
 is a strong French party, and if we make peace with 
 that fiend Bonaparte, one of the first events of the 
 next war would be the recovery of that country. Oh 
 that the spirit of poor Moreau could rise and prevent 
 the mad policy of Austria from taking effect ! Clive, 
 Dashwood, and myself, went on such a wild shooting 
 scheme the other day that I am ashamed to give you 
 an account of it, we were rightly served for our folly 
 by having no sport. We started immediately from 
 Mrs. Vaughan's ball, went near twenty miles, part of 
 the way in a carriage and the rest on horseback ; we 
 began to shoot at daylight, and left off at one o'clock, 
 about nine miles from this place, from whence we 
 
Palermo, February loM, 1814. 197 
 
 walked home to dinner ; the last three miles it rained 
 torrents, and we were drenched, besides being com- 
 pletely knocked up. We went, in the carriage to a 
 villa of Prince Butera's at Bagheria, where we break- 
 fasted, and the night being very dark we proceeded 
 by torch-light to the Chasse, about ten miles from the 
 villa, on miserable horses, over mountains and roads 
 unfit for human beings. At the Chasse we had about 
 thirty men on foot (twelve of whom had guns, which 
 was a hard thing upon us) and twenty dogs of all 
 descriptions ; we beat along the sides of a small river, 
 and saw only a very few woodcocks and two snipes ; 
 Clive had but two shots and he killed his woodcock 
 and snipe ; Dashwood missed a woodcock, and I 
 killed one, the only shot I got ; the other twelve guns 
 killed two woodcocks and some unhappy blackbirds 
 and thrushes, larks, &c., which they considered fine 
 fun, and were astonished we did not fire at them. 
 Our sally forth from Villa Butera by torch-light in a 
 night dark as chaos, accompanied by all these people 
 (shouting like savages) and dogs, was the only amusing 
 part of our day ; the badness of the road, however, 
 soon made us tire of this, and we were from half-past 
 four till half-past eight reaching the river. 
 
 Adieu, my dearest mother, &c., &c. 
 
198 Palermo, February loM, 1814. 
 
 We dined yesterday at the Prince Villafranca's ; he 
 is one of the Secretaries of State, and a very good- 
 natured man. They talk of his going as Minister to 
 England next spring. He and the princess, though 
 young, are both uncommonly fat. She is one of the very 
 few Sicilian wives whose character is good, and there 
 are people who deny it to her. The Prince of Bel- 
 monte, who has always been considered as England's 
 best friend here, appears to me to be the proudest 
 courtier I ever saw. I mean these words to be un- 
 derstood in the fullest sense ; his manners are so 
 French, and there is something in them and in his 
 countenance so deceitful, that I am persuaded he hates 
 us in his heart most cordially. Few of the Sicilians see 
 much of the English, and I believe we are very un- 
 popular among the higher orders. 
 
 The perfect ignorance in which Lord William con- 
 trives to keep everybody here is quite extraordinary, 
 and it is a great merit ; but he has one failing, viz., 
 partiality to foreigners, which he carries to an excess. 
 There is a certain Catanelli on the staff of the Italian 
 Levey who has immense weight with him. I believe 
 he has talent, but he makes himself very obnoxious to 
 the English in various ways, and gives himself in- 
 
Palermo >, February loth, 1814. 199 
 
 tolerable airs. He is supposed to be the planner of 
 all these expeditions, by the last of which we seem to 
 have made ourselves ridiculous enough. The navy 
 make a high joke of it. In short, I confess I think 
 the English have several just causes of complaint of 
 this sort, which I lament, because Lord William's 
 character stands so high in all other respects. Surely 
 after all Lord Wellington has performed with British 
 generals, engineers, &c., &c., it is hard to prefer 
 foreigners to them. What a bloody, but what a 
 glorious campaign this has been all over Europe ! on 
 what a pinnacle of glory does Great Britain stand ! 
 The English are said to be the proudest people on 
 earth, but they have a right to be so. Oh for an 
 historian worthy of recording to posterity the events 
 of the few last years ! But are we not in the midst of 
 this good fortune forgetting our liberties and honour ? 
 Our treaty with Sweden has sullied the latter, and 
 these strange Militia Bills are very like resigning the 
 former. I am not in England, where the general 
 feeling is on fire from the late glorious successes; I 
 am in a mean, enslaved little island of the Mediter- 
 ranean, where I am more at liberty to reflect coolly 
 upon what passes in that Queen of the Atlantic, that 
 
2OO Palermo, February ioth y 1814. 
 
 champion of universal liberty, to which, thanks inex- 
 pressible to the Great Creator, I have the happiness 
 and glory to belong. They say that the Hereditary 
 Prince of Sicily would not sign the treaty with Murat, 
 which took Lord William over to Naples. I am 
 sorry our Government will have anything to do with 
 him. 
 
PALERMO, 
 March 2nd, 1814. 
 
 HAVE little to say to you, my dear 
 mother, this post, and hardly a moment 
 for that the packet sails in a few hours ; 
 it arrived yesterday from Malta ; that 
 from England, due a week ago, is not yet come in. 
 Lord William and the first division of the expedition 
 sailed on the 28th ult. We have had incessant rain 
 for the last six weeks, but it is fine to-day, and rather 
 promises to continue so. Clive and I begin our tour 
 of Sicily to-morrow morning. I can say nothing of 
 Herbert, but I neither expect nor hope he will go with 
 us. I enclose a memorandum of the things I send 
 home by John Russell's servant. I hope he will get 
 my chain and necklaces safe to Heaton's. I foolishly 
 
 D D 
 
2O2 Palermo, March znd, 1814. 
 
 never thought of taking a memorandum of the con- 
 tents of my box of books from Gibraltar, and I was 
 equally thoughtless about that which I packed up at 
 Valencia, and now I don't think it worth while to un- 
 pack it in order to take one. You shall have a full 
 account of our tour from Messina ; perhaps I may be 
 able to write from Syracuse or Catania. My spirits 
 are wonderfully better ; I am more indebted to the 
 Dashwoods than I can describe ; there cannot be two 
 more amiable beings, and their kindness to me has 
 been excessive ; she is really a most superior creature, 
 and would suit you particularly. I have some hopes 
 of meeting them again. The state of affairs in Italy 
 is so uncertain, and so unpleasant, that it is most de- 
 sirable they should not go there at present. The 
 Orby Hunters have been at Naples some time, and 
 we hear they are most uncomfortable, and very 
 anxious to be back here. The Dashwoods have just 
 thought of a plan which I hope they may execute : it 
 is, to go almost immediately by sea to Messina, where 
 Mrs. Dashwood would see Lady Sonnes, 1 whom she is 
 very fond of, and she might either remain with her 
 
 1 Sondes. 
 
Palermo, March 2nd, 1814. 203 
 
 while Dash wood went to see Syracuse, which he 
 missed in his tour, or, if the weather was fine, she 
 might accompany him there by sea. From Messina 
 they think of going to Zante, and by the Gulf of 
 Lepanto to Athens ; afterwards by the Adriatic to 
 Vienna, before they go to Italy. The plan seems to 
 me a delightful one, and very practicable, and it is of 
 consequence that she should not remain at Palermo, 
 which decidedly disagrees with her. Lord William 
 has pledged himself to the ministers here to be back 
 for the meeting of their new parliament early in 
 April ; it is quite absurd to see what babies they all 
 are without him. 
 
 God bless you, my beloved parents, 
 &c., &c. 
 
GlRGENTI, 
 
 March 15^, 1814. 
 
 WILL write you a short letter, my dear 
 mother, from hence, although I am quite 
 uncertain where I may be able to send 
 it from, but having a little leisure time 
 this evening, I can't employ it better than in writing 
 to the best of mothers. We did not leave Palermo till 
 the 4th, as our mules and horses did not appear on 
 the morning of the 3rd until so late, that we feared 
 not being able to accomplish the day's journey ; our 
 first and fourth days were rather bad and rainy, but the 
 rest have been fine ; owing, however, to the long and 
 heavy rains that had previously fallen incessantly for 
 many weeks, we found the roads (which are only 
 horse paths at best), in such a deep and almost im- 
 
Girgenti, March i^th, 1814. 205 
 
 passable state as an Englishman at home is really in- 
 capable of conceiving. Rivers, properly speaking, do 
 not exist in Sicily, but we found the rivulets (very few 
 of which have bridges) so swelled, deep, and rapid, as 
 to be nearly dangerous. Between Trapani and Marsala 
 we travelled miles together across flooded rivulets, 
 with a deep, tenacious mud at bottom, and the water 
 so thick and rapid that you could not see the bottom, 
 and suddenly changing from being shallow to a great 
 depth. That day two of the baggage mules fell in 
 the water, and my bed, John Cobb's, the cantine, and 
 some other things, were completely soaked ; we were 
 obliged to stay a day at Marsala to dry them, which 
 we fortunately succeeded completely in doing as it 
 proved a very fine one and a fine day in these 
 countries is what you hardly know, unless you saw it 
 in the south of France when you were there. We 
 have generally gone to the locandas (or inns as they 
 are intended to be) in Sicily, and the one we were at 
 in Marsala was a good one of its kind, but yet the 
 bed they made up for me the first night was so bad 
 and so filthy that I could not sleep, and the next 
 night I slept in my own ; though that very morning 
 the mattress and every part of it was as wet as if it had 
 
206 Girgenti, March \$th, 1814. 
 
 just been taken out of a river and such is a Medi- 
 terranean sun, that I found it perfectly dry. From 
 Marsala to this place we met with no particular 
 accident, the River Platani, between Sciacca and 
 Girgenti, was still so deep and rapid on the nth, that 
 we were forced to have men with strong poles to go 
 through with us, and show us the ford, and that was 
 the first day it had been passable for months no 
 small good fortune on our parts ! We were to have 
 proceeded again this morning on our journey, but it 
 rained such torrents that we were obliged to defer pro- 
 ceeding till to-morrow ; we were called at half-past 
 five for that purpose, and you will hardly suppose it 
 possible that it should be necessary to rise at that 
 hour to perform a journey of eighteen miles. I will 
 now return to Palermo, and tell you our days' 
 journeys : on the 4th instant we went to Alcamo, 
 thirty-one miles, but most of it good road ; on the 
 5th we intended to reach Trapani, thirty miles, but 
 were soon undeceived, and were obliged to stop at a 
 farm-house half way, where we had the good fortune 
 of being invited by a Sicilian, who happened to be 
 travelling that road, and knew its possessor, otherwise 
 we might have slept on the hills ; our muleteers 
 
Girgenti, March i^th, 1814. 207 
 
 wanted to cheat us finely ; on coming to the first ford, 
 we found it impassable, and they declared there was 
 no other, nor a bridge, on the whole river however, 
 we found this to be a lie, from our above-mentioned 
 friend, who conducted us through some vineyards 
 knee-deep in mud, to a bridge about two miles lower 
 down. We went out of our road a little that day to 
 see the Temple of Segeste, all the columns of which, 
 thirty-six in number, with its entablature and pedi- 
 ments remain perfect ; it is of the Doric order, as are 
 all the temples in Sicily, and its columns not fluted 
 its situation is fine, and commands an extensive view, 
 with the Bay of Castellamare to the north. Only 
 think of these fifteen miles taking us eight hours ! 
 On the 6th we reached Trapani (fifteen miles farther) 
 easily. Monte San Giuliano, just above Trapani, was 
 the ancient Eryx but not a vestige of the town or 
 of the famous Temple of Venus remains ; it is a fine, 
 bold, insulated mountain (though not equal to Monte 
 Pellegrino, near Palermo), and has a village at the 
 top with the remains of a very large Saracenic castle. 
 At Trapani is a famous coral fishery I bought some 
 of the coral, but I don't think its colour is good. 
 Marsala was our next day, eighteen miles, which the 
 
2o8 Girgenti, March 15^, 1814. 
 
 mules were eleven hours going ; there is nothing 
 picturesque or fine in this promontory all this 
 western part of Sicily is low and flat, and cultivated 
 with corn and vines, with few trees ; at Marsala there 
 are some very extensive and extraordinary caves, 
 parts of which are now used for making gun- 
 powder ; they extend miles, opening at short intervals 
 to the air ; they are all excavated by man, and indeed 
 by some of the very early inhabitants of Sicily, they 
 variously say by the Sicani, Siculi, and Phoenicians, 
 possibly it might be the Saracens. On the Qth we 
 went to Castel Vetrano, an ugly old town, but with a 
 rich plain below it towards the south-east. This 
 day's journey was twenty-four miles, and easily per- 
 formed. On the loth we went twenty-four miles 
 further to Sciacca ; Clive and I, however, went round 
 to see the ruins of Selinuntum, eight miles from 
 Castel Vetrano, close to the sea ; there are the ruins of 
 six temples, which have been thrown down by a 
 violent earthquake not one column now stands 
 entire, but the greater part are discoverable on the 
 ground, at least of the larger temples ; many stones 
 from the smaller ones have been carried away for 
 building. The five smaller temples were all with 
 
Girgenti, March i^th, 1814. 209 
 
 fluted columns (the other, which was immense, and 
 dedicated to Jupiter, had but very few fluted columns), 
 some persons think therefore, from so odd a mixture, 
 that it never was finished ; altogether these ruins are 
 very interesting ; at present the spot (which then was 
 so flourishing) is dreary and desolate we saw no 
 living creature, nor heard any sound but that of the 
 sea. Sciacca is a fine old town, and its situation and 
 surrounding country beautiful ; the ground very varied 
 and full of almond, caroba, and olive trees, and the 
 sea view very extensive. Near the town rises a rocky 
 mountain called the San Calogero ; at its summit are 
 some very extraordinary grottos, which are natural 
 vapour baths ; they have been used medically ever 
 since the time of Daedalus, who is said to have dis- 
 covered them, and by whose name they are called ; 
 a hot wind is continually rushing to the mouth of the 
 grotto, which instantly covers any one approaching it 
 with moisture all over ; we found the heat 92 ; the 
 air is quite powerful, and the cause whence it may 
 proceed invisible. Near these grottos rises a hot 
 sulphureous spring, which by a natural channel under 
 ground supplies some ancient baths an immense 
 distance below ; the heat of this water is 130^ ; this 
 
 E E 
 
2 io Girgenti, March \$th y 1814. 
 
 is generally ascribed as the cause of the hot damp 
 wind from the grottos, but Denon (who gives a very 
 just and long account of this phenomenon) observes 
 that there is no smell whatever in this hot air, which 
 there would be if it was sulphureous the fact is true 
 that there is no smell ! At Sciacca we were lodged 
 in an Augustine convent, to the prior of which we had 
 a letter ; we were very well treated by him. From 
 Sciacca we were two days coming here, without any- 
 thing remarkable but the River Platani, that I have 
 before mentioned. On the nth instant we went 
 twenty-four miles to the wretched village of Monte 
 Allegro, which deserves anything but its name, and 
 where we slept in filth and vermin ; and eighteen 
 miles further brought us on the I2th to this place. 
 Here we find the inn a tolerable one. The situation 
 of Girgenti is magnificent, upon a high, steep, rocky 
 hill, overlooking a highly cultivated and beautiful 
 varied country, and an immense expanse of sea 
 beyond ; the little rivers which wind along rocky 
 valleys, the great unevenness of the country, with the 
 numbers of almond and other trees, the richness of 
 the corn at this time of year, with the two beautiful 
 ruins of the temples of Juno and Concord, situated 
 
Girgentiy March 1 5/^, 1 8 1 4. 211 
 
 on the most picturesque spots, and the mole, port, 
 and shipping, four miles off, make this vast picture 
 quite enchanting. Here the ruins are very different 
 from Selinuntum, being surrounded by farm-houses 
 and a busy multitude ; there are still to be seen ten 
 temples, but eight of these are in a worse state than 
 those at Selinuntum ; the Temple of Juno has its 
 thirteen northern columns standing entire, with the 
 entablature and several other columns variously 
 damaged ; the situation of this ruin is uncommonly 
 fine, and it is the most picturesque thing imaginable. 
 The Temple of Concord is not far from it, and is still 
 more entire than that of Segeste ; it has all its twenty- 
 four columns and inner walls, with two staircases 
 in short, almost everything but the roof ; it gives one 
 a perfect idea of a Grecian temple. All the temples 
 of Agrigentum had fluted columns ; the temple of 
 Olympian Jupiter was perhaps the largest ever built ; 
 it is supposed to have had seventeen columns in length 
 and six in front in all forty-two, and of gigantic 
 dimensions ; but then the circumferences of the pillars 
 were not of single stones, excepting the capitals, and 
 in this respect it must have been very inferior to the 
 smaller temples ; the small ones at Selinuntum had 
 
212 Girgentiy March 15^, 1814. 
 
 not only the circumferences of the columns, but the 
 whole entire columns, of single stones. There is a 
 tolerable old cathedral here, in which is a famous 
 sarcophagus, representing on its four sides the story 
 of Phaedra and Hippolitus ; there is also a beautiful 
 picture by Guido of the Virgin and Child, and some 
 magnificent pieces of plate, extremely old. 
 

 CASTRO GIOVANNI, 
 March iqth, 1814. 
 
 SHALL send this letter to Palermo 
 from hence, my dear mother, as I am 
 ignorant when the next packet will sail 
 for England, and I should be sorry my 
 letter was not in time for it. I shall send it under 
 cover to Mr. Gibbs, Herries's correspondent, as the 
 safest means I can think of. The post to Palermo 
 goes to-morrow morning. 
 
 We left Girgenti on the i6th, and reached this 
 place yesterday, sleeping at Canicatti and Calt- 
 anissetta ; we had eighteen miles each of the three 
 days ; the first twenty-five miles the country was 
 beautiful, since then it has been less so, but not ugly. 
 
214 Castro Giovanni, March igtk, 1814. 
 
 At Canicatti, which is an ugly town of 15,000 inhabi- 
 tants, we were at the inn, which is not a bad one. At 
 Caltanissetta we were in a Benedictine convent, to a 
 brother of which we had a letter from the Duke of 
 San Giovanni, in Palermo ; it is a large, substantial 
 old building, finely situated above the town (which 
 itself covers a high hill) and commanding an ex- 
 tensive view. We were here remarkably well treated, 
 and found our friend a well-informed, liberal, happy, 
 fat man his name is Giuseppe Scotti Cassinesi ; all 
 the Benedictines in Sicily are of noble families. 
 Caltanissetta is a good town of 15,000 inhabitants 
 also, but there is nothing remarkable in it, as we were 
 told ; the afternoon we were there was so rainy we 
 could not stir from the convent. We arrived here 
 on another equally miserable afternoon, and our poor 
 animals were so tired with the deep and execrable 
 roads, we were ourselves and our servants such 
 drowned rats, and many of our things in such a 
 wretched state, that we determined to remain 
 here to-day. This is the ancient Enna, but no re- 
 mains of antiquity exist, except the ruins of an im- 
 mense old castle, and a singular octagonal tower it 
 is called the Tower of Piso, and the castle Saracenic. 
 
Castro Giovanni, March igtk, 1814. 215 
 
 I confess I believe them both to be Roman. The 
 situation of this town is most singular it is built 
 upon the nearly level top of a rocky mountain, almost 
 perpendicular on every side. It is so high that from 
 the castle I could see plainly this morning the whole 
 of ^Etna, the sea near Catania to the east, and Licata 
 to the S.S.W., the range of mountains running from 
 Messina to Termini, and the following towns, viz., 
 Calatascibetta, Traina, Leonforte, Asaro, San Filippi 
 d'Argiro, Centorbi, Caropipi, Aidone, Mazzarino, 
 Naro, Caltanissetta, and Sutera. If you will look at 
 the map of Sicily, you will be astonished at the dis- 
 tance of some of these places. We have had no 
 accident, or anything worth mentioning, since I wrote 
 at Girgenti. We are all quite well and happy, and 
 in hopes that after the new moon on the 2ist we shall 
 have fine weather. To-morrow we go to Piazza., the 
 next day to Caltagirone, and then by Chiaramonte, 
 Modica, Spaccaforno, and Noto, to Syracuse ; there 
 we shall stop about three days, and then proceed by 
 Augusta to Catania. We hope to be able to see 
 Mount ^Etna, but we cannot know till we reach 
 Catania ; some people say it is easy in April, others, 
 impossible ; we shall afterwards go to Messina and 
 
2 1 6 Castro Giovanni, March i^th, 1814. 
 
 embark for Malta. The Sicilians appear to me a 
 sorry set of people the nobles are illiterate, and little 
 to be respected ; in the middle orders I see no char- 
 acter at all ; the lower orders are knavish, and more 
 horridly filthy than anything you can imagine ; the 
 country is fertility itself, and seems to me much better 
 cultivated than Spain ; it is a beautiful island, good 
 roads would make it quite a paradise. I never saw 
 such ugly women as the Sicilians ; the men are not 
 ill-looking, but the women have bad figures, ugly faces, 
 and dress abominably, without an atom of grace. 
 The poultry throughout the island is exquisite ; meat 
 extremely scarce. I am so starved with cold I can 
 hardly guide my pen ; there are no windows to the 
 room, and the air (which at this height is very keen) 
 comes in at every direction ; I will finish my letter 
 after dinner. 
 
 Nine o'clock. I am almost as cold as I was before 
 dinner, and I must draw my letter to a close. We 
 are just returned from the house of the director of the 
 studies of this town. He is a learned and a most 
 good-natured man, and has a small library of very 
 valuable books, such as your Dukes of Devonshire 
 and Marquesses of Blandford would give thousands 
 
Castro Giovanni, March i^th, 1814. 217 
 
 for. He has also a collection of medals, chiefly 
 Sicilian, and a small one of mineralogy. 
 Adieu, my dear parents, 
 
 &c., &c. 
 (No. 30.) 
 
 F F 
 
CATANIA, 
 April Btk, 1814. 
 
 HAVE this morning, my dearest mother, 
 received three more letters from you, all 
 kindness as usual, which I hasten to offer 
 you a thousand thanks for, and in dutiful 
 obedience to your commands I will write you our 
 proceedings since Castro Giovanni, before I answer 
 them. I shall not have time to say much to-day, as 
 we are going to hear some music, and are only waiting 
 for a Mr. McDonald, a Scotch Roman Catholic, 
 chaplain to the regiment " De Rolle " here, who is to 
 take us to the house. Clive and I have been employed 
 this morning in going to see the Scoglj dei Ciclopi, 
 some curious insulated rocks a few miles from hence ; 
 they are entirely composed of lava, and one particularly 
 
Catania, April %>th, 1814. 219 
 
 is an abrupt pyramid of basalt columns; the most 
 general opinion concerning them is that they pro- 
 ceeded from a small volcanic crater under the sea ; 
 however, many people think that they are immediately 
 from Mount Etna ; the former opinion seems to me 
 the only probable one, for why otherwise should they 
 be islands at some distance from the land, and with a 
 great depth of sea immediately at their feet ? and 
 still more, how else should the basalt columns have 
 been formed, unless from the opposite forces of fire, 
 water, and air? There is nothing very striking in 
 their appearance, but I believe they are very great 
 natural curiosities. 
 
 We arrived here on the 1st, and have been very 
 much pleased with what we have seen at Catania ; the 
 remains of the ancient city under ground (or more 
 properly speaking under a stratum of lava), of the 
 theatre, little theatre, amphitheatre, and public baths, 
 are very curious and interesting, and several very 
 valuable public and private museums and smaller 
 collections we have seen have very much gratified us. 
 The terra cotta vases in the museum of the Prince of 
 Biscari are quite beautiful all but two were dug up 
 in Sicily ; the museum contains besides an incal- 
 
220 Catania, April St&, 1814. 
 
 culable number of lamps and various house utensils of 
 terra cotta, female ornaments of brass, household 
 gods, great numbers of perfect and imperfect statues, 
 some of which are of exquisite workmanship, frag- 
 ments of the columns, friezes, &c., of the ancient 
 theatre and other public buildings (the former of which 
 must have been one of the most sumptuous and mag- 
 nificent among the ancients), sarcophagi, an extensive 
 collection of the productions of Etna and Vesuvius, 
 and numerous other less interesting subjects ; there is 
 another general museum in the convent of Benedictine 
 monks, but inferior to that of Biscari, though far from 
 despicable. The Prince of Biscari has one of the finest 
 collections of cameos in the world, but we have in 
 vain endeavoured to get a sight of them ; the present 
 man has just succeeded to his titles and estates, and 
 promises little to resemble his patriotic, liberal grand- 
 father, who was one of the greatest benefactors to 
 Sicily. But were I to give you such detailed accounts 
 of all we have seen I should fill quires of paper, and 
 tire you quite as much as myself. I will be more 
 concise ; it is all in my journal, where some time or 
 other it may amuse you to dip a little. 
 
 This is a most magnificent town, quite composed of 
 
Catania, April 8 th, 1 8 1 4. 221 
 
 fine palaces, churches, and convents; about one 
 hundred and twenty years ago it was levelled to the 
 ground by an earthquake, and most of the present 
 town has been built within these sixty years ; many 
 of the churches are beautiful, and their altars com- 
 posed of the most beautiful agates you can imagine 
 all the productions of this country. A painted ceiling 
 of a church of Benedictine nuns is one of the hand- 
 somest things I ever saw. A priest who had some 
 money to spare amused himself with building a church 
 in exact imitation of Loretto, which encloses the sup- 
 posed house of Joseph and Mary, miraculously 
 brought from Nazareth ; here we have the church, 
 house, &c., inch by inch, as in Loretto, and it is 
 curious enough. All the environs of Catania being 
 of lava, is a most extraordinary sight that of the 
 later eruptions remains black and bare, while the rest 
 is cultivated, but even here, the black rocks that re- 
 main not decomposed among the almonds, olives, &c., 
 have a most singular appearance. I never could have 
 formed an idea of the effect of such a volcano, without 
 being an eye-witness to this strange country of the 
 Cyclops ; the lava everywhere has the appearance of 
 mountains of cinders, still seeming hot, and so sharp 
 
222 Catania, April Stfr, 1814. 
 
 that it cuts your shoes all to pieces it has still all the 
 shape which it had when a stream of fire, and gives 
 me an idea of whirlpools of burning matter suddenly 
 petrified and cooled, yet we know that it took an 
 astonishing number of years to cool. We left Castro 
 Giovanni on the 2Oth of March, and arrived at 
 Modica, via Piazza, Caltagirone and Chiaramonte, on 
 the 23rd ; we did not see anything on our way worth 
 mentioning; the roads continued horridly bad, and 
 the weather very rainy ; we were forced to ford deep 
 rapid rivers, and go out of our way for bridges, with 
 various other grievances, but without any accident. 
 The roads about Modica are solid rocks, with deep 
 holes worn in them, then filled with mud and water ; 
 our poor animals suffered much they lost their shoes, 
 tore their hoofs, &c., and we were obliged to rest a 
 day at Modica ; we were there in a private house, to 
 which we had a letter, and were very civilly treated. 
 It is a good town in a most singular and picturesque 
 situation ; it occupies several narrow and almost per- 
 pendicular rocky valleys watered by rivulets ; on the 
 sides and in the bottoms of these valleys, industry has 
 made grow the prickly pear, with a few fruit trees, 
 and a little corn and garden stuff. At the top of the 
 
Catania, April 8t/i, 1814. 223 
 
 town is an old ruined castle, whence through the 
 valley you discover the sea all this pleases the 
 traveller's eye, but is very inconvenient for the poor 
 inhabitant. On the 25th we went to Noto ; our 
 servants and baggage went there straight, but Clive 
 and I went out of our way to see some caves in a 
 valley called Ispica this valley is similar to that of 
 Modica by nature, and a small brook runs along it, 
 which passing by Spaccaforno soon after falls into the 
 sea ; these caves are artificially but very rudely cut 
 in the rocks on both sides of the valley, and there are 
 one, two, three, and even more rows of them one 
 above the other, according as the rock is more or less 
 lofty ; they extend for a distance of at least nine 
 miles, and must have contained a great number of in- 
 habitants. One dwelling with three storeys of rooms, 
 appears evidently to have been that of the prince 
 or the chief of the people. The middle is the 
 principal storey, and they ascended or descended to the 
 other two through holes in the rock, there are no re- 
 mains whatever of steps ; this dwelling is at this day 
 inhabited by the principal shepherd of the country, 
 and a few of the other caves by inferior ones ; they 
 are usually called the Caves of the Siculi, but Denon, 
 
224 Catania, April 8t/i, 1814. 
 
 in his "Travels through Sicily," conceives them to 
 have been made and first inhabited by the Sicani a 
 still more ancient people, and afterwards successively 
 by divers other people, who in the numerous wars 
 of this ever-fertile island, found themselves worsted 
 and forced to seek shelter in hiding places ; his reason- 
 ing is exceedingly ingenious and plausible. There 
 are some large sepulchral chambers, which are evi- 
 dently of a more modern construction, probably 
 either Grecian or Carthaginian. Perhaps these 
 caves are as interesting and as curious for an anti- 
 quarian as anything to be met with anywhere ; this 
 place seems to have remained down to the present 
 day as wild as when first inhabited, and the few 
 shepherds who now dwell in some of these 
 singular caves are possibly just as ignorant, though 
 less ferocious, than the Sicani or the Siculi. It rained 
 torrents all the time we were examining these wild 
 dwellings, which greatly annoyed us, and diminished 
 the pleasure we should otherwise have enjoyed. The 
 roads continued execrable ; my horse lost a shoe 
 miles from a blacksmith's shop, and I was forced to 
 creep along, sometimes mounted, sometimes on foot, 
 to the nearest village, which was seven miles off ; this, 
 
Catania, April 8/^,1814. 225 
 
 through roads such as I described when speaking of 
 Modica, was no trifling distance. Having got the 
 shoe put on, I had proceeded a short way, when off 
 came another, and I was obliged to return to the 
 village ; this also being put on, I exactly arrived at 
 the same spot, when it was off once more. I now 
 perceived that the rocky roads had so torn my horse's 
 hoof, that this was the cause of what at first appeared 
 witchcraft. A countryman who was accompanying 
 me from the village to put me into the right road was 
 so surprised and terrified, that he turned all colours, 
 exclaiming, "O! Giesu Maria!" and crossed himself 
 with great fervency. This amused me so much, that 
 my patience, which was ebbing fast, soon returned to 
 me, and we went once more to the village to repair 
 our loss. The blacksmith shod my horse with great 
 care, and as I soon after got into a good turf road, all 
 went on well. I must, however, add that I am con- 
 fident my guide took me for a necromancer, for though 
 I had engaged him to go as far with me as a bridge 
 six miles off, which he had undertaken with great 
 glee, we had hardly got a mile from the village, ere 
 he entreated me to let him return home, and seeing 
 that the road became better and less intricate, I parted 
 
 G G 
 
226 Catania, April $>th, 1814. 
 
 with the poor terrified man. Clive had continued his 
 road quietly, and was quite astonished at the length 
 of time I was in overtaking him. Although we left 
 Modica at seven o'clock, and only went a distance of 
 twenty-three miles, we did not reach Noto till some 
 time after dark. Here we were lodged at the house 
 of Prince Villadorata, to whom we had a letter from 
 Dashwood, who knew him in Palermo, dive's ser- 
 vant, who had gone on first, just caught him as he was 
 going to his country house two miles off ; however, 
 he immediately ordered rooms for us, sent his cook 
 and steward from the country, gave us an excellent 
 supper, capital wines from his own vineyards, comfort- 
 able rooms and beds, and, in short, treated us like 
 princes. I never saw so much comfort since I have 
 been abroad, out of an English house ; his principal 
 man-servant is an Englishman. The Prince rode over 
 the next morning while we were seeing the town, &c., 
 of Noto ; we had otherwise intended visiting him on 
 our way to Syracuse, at his country house, to have 
 thanked him. At Noto we saw one of the most ex- 
 tensive and valuable collections of coins perhaps any- 
 where to be met with it belongs to an old Barone 
 Astuto. Noto is a beautiful town, and quite modern, 
 
Catania, April 8S/i, 1814. 227 
 
 having been destroyed by the same earthquake that 
 destroyed Catania ; it has several magnificent palaces 
 and convents. I happened to go into a church be- 
 longing to a convent, where the nuns were singing to 
 the organ one of them had a beautiful voice, and 
 sang several solo parts so divinely, that I could hardly 
 quit the church some time after the voice had ceased, 
 lest she should begin again, although I knew Clive 
 would be waiting impatiently for me ; this was the 
 first time that I was perfectly satisfied in a Roman 
 Catholic church. I am sure I have not been so with 
 any of the absurd ceremonies and tinsel magnificence 
 I have seen here during this Passion Week. We only 
 remained one night at Noto, the country about which 
 is delightful, and by far the most desirable part of 
 Sicily to live in, as far as I can judge from what I 
 have seen ; the face of the country is very varied, 
 the soil rich, plenty of springs and rivulets, corn, 
 grass, almond, olive, and caroba trees, vineyards, and 
 everything that is rich and cheerful. 
 
 We reached Syracuse on the 26th. This is a most 
 interesting spot ; we spent two days in viewing the 
 antiquities; never was there a place that called to 
 one's mind so distinctly the great events of history 
 
228 Catania, April Stti, 1814. 
 
 that there took place ; you can still trace the walls of 
 the ancient town (which extended between twenty 
 and thirty miles) nearly all round. The theatre and 
 part of the amphitheatre were cut out of the solid 
 rock, and therefore must last as long as the world. 
 The immense stone quarries, called Lautomia, in one 
 of which is that curious excavation called Dionysius's 
 Ear, the use and purport of which has so long been a 
 question among the doctors, and will in all probability 
 never be solved ; the wonderful and magnificent sepul- 
 chral chambers, where thousands and thousands of 
 sepulchres are hollowed out of the solid rock on each 
 side of long passages deep under ground ; the famous 
 port where the fate of Athens was decided; all 
 together, so many objects strike the eye at once, that 
 it is impossible to see Syracuse and not be for the 
 moment transported with enthusiastic feelings for 
 those wonderful Greeks. I know no place where so 
 many grand events of ancient history took place as 
 at Syracuse, consequently, no place in itself so in- 
 teresting. There have been several beautiful frag- 
 ments of statues found, others nearly entire, and one 
 or two quite so ; within these few years one of Venus 
 was found, but unfortunately without the head and 
 
Catania, April io//z, 1814. 229 
 
 the right arm ; the position is nearly similar to that 
 of Medici, the proportions much larger ; and it is a 
 question whether this is not superior in beauty; as 
 for myself I think it far the most beautiful statue I 
 ever beheld. Mr. McDonald has forgotten us, and I 
 have therefore been enabled to write to you a long 
 letter, but my neighbours in the adjoining rooms are 
 snoring so soundly that I must now bid yon good 
 night, my dearest mother. 
 
 April loth. I will now resume where I left off. 
 The third day we were at Syracuse we took our guns 
 and a boat, and crossing the port went up the River 
 Anapus to the source of the famous fountain of Cyane ; 
 this source is a large basin, clear as crystal, of above 
 twenty feet deep ; the bottom appears of rock, per- 
 forated with innumerable holes and covered over with 
 moss ; you see all the fish playing in it as if only the 
 purest crystal was between you and them ; it is 
 singular that there is not the most minute bubble of 
 water distinguishable, nor anything that denotes a 
 spring, yet hence flows a very copious stream per- 
 petually, equal in summer as in winter, and taking its 
 course for four miles through marshy meadows, and 
 then through cultivated lands for half a mile more, 
 
230 Catania, April loth, 1814. 
 
 unites its clear, full stream with the muddy Anapus, 
 a small river caused almost entirely by the melted 
 snow and rains in the winter, and next to nothing in 
 the summer ; half a mile further the united streams 
 empty themselves into the port of Syracuse. During 
 the greater part of the course of the Cyane it pre- 
 serves the same exquisite clearness as at its source, 
 and from the great depth of its bed the stream is 
 equally imperceptible ; approaching the River Anapus, 
 the bed becomes shallower, the banks steeper and 
 closer to each other, the stream continues to be 
 evident, and even strong, but gradually less limpid, 
 though its superior clearness is strikingly remarkable 
 till a little below its junction with the Anapus. In 
 the middle of summer, and in the autumn, the Cyane 
 is covered and quite concealed by weeds, notwith- 
 standing its great depth. One of the most interesting 
 things of this fountain is the plant of the papyrus, on 
 which the ancients wrote instead of paper ; this grows 
 here in great abundance, and was recovered by the 
 late Cavaliere Landolina Nava, of Syracuse, the royal 
 custos of the antiquities of the Val di Noto and the 
 Val Demoni, who prepared it in small quantities ; his 
 son, who has succeeded both to his office and merits, 
 
Catania, April io//fc, 1814. 231 
 
 continues to do the same. We received great civilities 
 from him and he gave to each of us a little bit of his 
 prepared papyrus, inscribed with his name ; it is a 
 beautiful feathering plant and grows in the water 
 without attaching its roots either to the bottom or 
 sides, receiving nourishment solely from the water. 
 Nothing can be more simple than the manner of pre- 
 paring it ; it is only cutting the stalk (which is pithy) 
 into thin slices, which you form into the shape and 
 size you wish to write upon ; then, laying these sheets 
 under heavy weights for about a fortnight, it unites by 
 its own succulency, and is ready for writing upon. 
 Having passed three interesting days at Syracuse, on 
 the 30th we came to Augusta, a miserable town, with 
 a beautiful natural harbour, made no use of; the 
 surrounding country is rich and pretty. On the 3ist 
 we expected to reach Catania, only twenty-five miles, 
 but on coming to the ferry of the River Giaretta or 
 Simeto (anciently the Symaethus) we found it so much 
 swelled with the rains and melted snow that they 
 assured us we could not pass, for that the stream 
 would force the cable and carry us all into the sea ; 
 we therefore got into a small uninhabited house close 
 by, bought some fowls and eels for supper, and con- 
 
232 Catania, April loth, 1814. 
 
 soled ourselves well enough, the night being fine ; the 
 next morning we passed over prosperously, and 
 arrived early at Catania. Since this month began 
 the weather has been less rainy, but still unsettled 
 and disagreeable. We are going to-morrow to 
 Lentini, eighteen miles off, to shoot for a couple of 
 days on some marshes and a lake of the Prince 
 Butera's ; the shooting in the winter is quite ex- 
 traordinary we shall be late, but still expect 
 good sport, for it never fails. John Cobb has 
 had an attack similar to that he had at Alicante, 
 but less severe he is too unwell to go with us 
 to-morrow, and I leave him under the care of the 
 surgeon of De Rolle's regiment. When we return 
 we shall make an attempt to see Etna, then 
 proceed by Taormina to Messina ; all here tell us 
 Etna is absolutely impracticable, but we shall go to 
 Nicolosi, a small place on the mountain where the 
 guides live, to ascertain the truth ; we are yet rather 
 sanguine, there is however a most formidable nightcap 
 of snow still upon it. We are going to-night to a 
 dance with the Cavaliere Patemo, with whom we dine 
 at half-past three ; we shall then see the fair Catanese, 
 who are said to be pretty women. Heaven knows, in 
 
Catania, April lot/t, 1814. 233 
 
 all the rest of Sicily they are ugly enough ! Among 
 the common people, they are absolute devils in filth 
 and ugliness, almost without exception ; nor among 
 the upper order of females at Palermo did I see any- 
 thing strikingly pretty. Catania has the greatest 
 fame ; it is singular that an island which so long and 
 so often formed part of the Spanish dominions should 
 bear so little resemblance to Spain ; it is true that in 
 the vulgar language you catch some corrupt Spanish 
 mixed with more corrupted Italian, but here the male 
 part of the common people are as mean as the 
 Spaniards are noble minded ; the females here are with- 
 out beauty, figures, or grace, nor do you meet amongst 
 the upper orders with that affability, or the quickness 
 or liveliness, that you see in Spain ; the common 
 people here of both sexes are quite despicable, dirty, 
 mean, stupid, idle, ugly, unwilling, prejudiced in 
 short, everything that can make man most contemptible 
 and revolting. Among the gentry I have seen many 
 liberal, enlightened, patriotic, pleasing men, who have 
 their country's good at heart, and are truly grateful to 
 England for her steady assistance ; the nobility are 
 very, very bad. I hear constantly from Dashwood, 
 and Mrs. D. was so kind as to write me word of poor 
 
 H H 
 
234 Catania, April \<z>th y 1814. 
 
 little Harty Pelham's death, which I thus knew before 
 I got your letters ; hers was a most amiable one on 
 the subject I must consider it a fortunate event, and 
 if you got all my letters from Mahon you will have 
 seen that I wished it but I am sorry poor Pelham 
 feels it so much. Many thanks to dear Lucy for her 
 letter. I cannot say how much I am annoyed to hear 
 of poor Charles's ill-luck ; all you say of Orlando is 
 most satisfactory ; you do not mention Henry of 
 course, you had nothing particular to tell me about 
 him, but I like to see all their names in your letters. 
 I should like to hear of Orlando's getting a staff 
 appointment now that he has seen regimental service. 
 I am sorry dear Mr. Chap has been so ill, and I don't 
 like the account my uncle Gunning writes of himself. 
 Thank you much for the books you are sending by 
 A' Court. I shall write to Palermo that they may be 
 forwarded to Malta. No, my dear mother, you will 
 never see in me again that gay, thoughtless happi- 
 ness I used to possess; it is now two years since I 
 have lost that enviable feeling, and should the recol- 
 lection of those events which deprived me of it 
 gradually decrease and sink into oblivion, yet the 
 
Catania, April i o//z, 1814. 235 
 
 mind habituated to reflect upon its losses, could 
 only recover its former harmony by returning to the 
 age in which it lost it, and I shall never again be 
 two and twenty ; but, perhaps, it may yet please 
 the Almighty to <give me a considerable share of 
 mortal happiness ; and that which He sees good to 
 deprive me of may render me more fit for eternity 
 and then be repaid tenfold. But, alas, I cannot 
 flatter myself that since I have been less happy I 
 have been more virtuous far, very far, from it. 
 This recalls to my mind that I had the misfortune 
 to lose, the other day, the ring you gave me, on 
 which was engraved in old orthography, " Let vertue 
 be thy guide ; " it was a very cold, rainy day, we 
 had to cross a river in a cockleshell-boat, while our 
 animals swam after us ; for this, of course, it was 
 necessary to take off the saddles and bridles ; we 
 are always our own grooms, and I must have rubbed 
 off the ring in putting on the saddle again, my 
 hands being so numbed with the wet and cold, I 
 did not feel it at the time. I had not, however, 
 proceeded far before I missed it, but the banks of 
 the river being grassy, I conceived it would be in 
 
236 Catania, April iotk, 1814. 
 
 vain to go back to look for it. And now adieu, my 
 dearest mother. 
 
 &c., &c. 
 
 [Two letters unfortunately are here missing they 
 were from Messina, and one of them contained an 
 account of Mount Etna. L. E. B.] 
 
MALTA, 
 
 Jtme 5//z, 1814. 
 No. 33. 
 
 MY DEAREST MOTHER, 
 
 E arrived here yesterday morning in the 
 " Trieste" merchant brig, three days from 
 Messina, and I found some letters from 
 you at General Maitland's, but as the 
 
 packet sails to-day, I have not time to answer them. 
 You will be surprised and sorry to hear I am going to 
 England from hence. Since I arrived at Messina I 
 have not been so well, and therefore Clive has per- 
 suaded me not to go on to Greece. Don't imagine 
 now that I am very unwell ; I assure you I am not, 
 and probably after passing a short time in England, I 
 shall go out again through France and join Clive 
 either at Vienna or some other place. I hope to get 
 a passage in a man-of-war, as several line-of-battle 
 
238 Malta, June 5^, 1814. 
 
 ships are coming here to proceed to England ; should 
 I fail in this, a packet is now at Palermo on its way 
 here, and will be sailing for England in about a fort- 
 night. I conceive you are abroad before this time, 
 and I have written to Mr. Heaton and Mr. Hamilton 
 to stop all letters they may receive for me ; of course 
 if I should go abroad again before your return, I shall 
 meet you somewhere, ere I join Clive. We had such 
 a crowd of passengers on board our wretched brig, 
 that nothing could be more uncomfortable than our 
 passage from Messina. I have not time to write more 
 by this packet, but I will write fully by the next, 
 should I still be here. God bless you, my dearest 
 mother. 
 
 &c., &c. 
 
No. 34. 
 
 MALTA, 
 June nth, 1814. 
 
 NOTHER packet came in on the ;th, 
 my dearest mother, and brought me 
 your letter No. 50, April 24th, with 
 several enclosures. Out of the fifty 
 letters you have written me, I have now received forty- 
 four, which, taking all things into consideration, is 
 fortunate. I find Spencer was at Gibraltar when the 
 last packet touched there ; I conceive he had not got 
 either your letter or the books, or he would surely 
 have sent them to me by the packet. 
 
SAN ANTONIO, 
 June i^th t 1814. 
 
 E are at General Maitland's palace in the 
 country, where he passes the summer, 
 and where we came yesterday to pass a 
 few days. There is a beautiful garden, 
 and it is infinitely cooler and altogether pleasanter 
 
 than Valletta I will not enter 
 
 much into politics, having little time, as the packet 
 sails to-morrow ; I will only say that England 
 is in no way bound to the King of Sicily 
 touching the restoration of Naples, nor do I 
 imagine such a measure desirable, as the Bourbons 
 were abhorred by the Neapolitans but I do think 
 that the Powers who restore to a Corsican robber the 
 title of emperor, which he himself resigned, who give 
 
San Antonio, June 14^, 1814. 241 
 
 the son of his wife (the discarded mistress of a revolu- 
 tionary tyrant) a petty sovereignty, and his butcher 
 of a brother-in-law such a kingdom as Naples, de- 
 serve to have their own crowns torn from their heads. 
 Was it before I wrote my last that we heard Herbert 
 was going from Sicily to join us at Zante ? I think 
 not ; Clive might have a pleasanter companion, but 
 he will be better than solitude, and I rejoice at it 
 now that I cannot accompany him. There were no 
 more carnival gaieties at Palermo than what I men- 
 tioned, except a few absurd masks in the streets, and 
 some very blackguard masquerades in the theatres. 
 In answer to your other question respecting our mad 
 shooting party from Palermo, the twelve other guns 
 were twelve clowns, being nothing more than a por- 
 tion of the thirty beaters ; the villa is a tolerable 
 house in an ugly garden, in a still uglier country, 
 and the breakfast consisted of bread and butter, tea, 
 coffee, and tough cold fowls ; we walked home eight 
 miles, because it was less fatiguing than riding rough 
 starved mules over bad roads and stony mountains 
 for nine or ten miles to the villa, whence we should 
 have had nine more to go in a carriage. We have 
 some very unpleasant accounts of the conduct of 
 
 I I 
 
242 San Antonio, June i^th, 1814. 
 
 Ferdinand the Seventh, on his arrival at Valencia ; 
 if his proclamation as we have it be true, he is a fool 
 or a madman if the Spaniards yield to him, they are 
 not what I took them for ; and if they resist, a most 
 bloody revolution must ensue ; the king will have the 
 whole army, the whole Church (perhaps the most 
 wealthy and numerous of any nation), and the greater 
 part of the grandees, with him ; against such antago- 
 nists, rivers of patriotic blood must flow ere they can 
 establish their independence. Clive is still here, but 
 will go to Zante by the next packet. The " Eliza- 
 beth " and the " Tremendous," line-of-battle ships, are 
 expected here from the Adriatic to go to England, 
 and General Maitland says he is certain Captain 
 Gower of the " Elizabeth " will give me a passage ; 
 but there is a report that she is to be the flag-ship at 
 Gibraltar, and that Captain Gower will give her up 
 there. The "Weazle" sloop, Captain Noel, was 
 going home from hence, and Noel offered me a pas- 
 sage but he has since been told he is to return to 
 the Adriatic. I do not fancy so long a passage in a 
 packet, which is a very small brig, with bad accommo- 
 dations. The " Havannah " frigate is here waiting 
 for Hamilton, who has lately been appointed to her ; if 
 
San Antonio, June 14^, 1814. 243 
 
 he comes before I have an opportunity, he will certainly 
 give me a lift to Gibraltar on his way to America, that 
 would be very pleasant, and it would be very unlucky 
 if I could not get a passage home among the nume- 
 rous ships that will go from thence. General Mait- 
 land is uncommonly civil to us ; he has a rough sin- 
 cerity of manner which displeases many here, and he 
 does not promote gaiety enough for them ; but he is 
 very entertaining in his own house, and his household 
 are very good fellows ; his aides-de-camp are a son of 
 Lord Lauderdale, and a nephew of Sir David Baird ; 
 and his private secretary, a Mr. Plaskett. This place 
 would suit you particularly ; it is an irregular, large 
 house, between three and four miles from Valletta, 
 with a large, beautiful garden with terraces, and broad, 
 straight walks full of fruit and flowers. We have a 
 burning sun and a cloudless sky, with the finest even- 
 ings possible. The distance this place is from the 
 town makes it as retired as you please, and there are 
 rooms with every aspect. We breakfast at half-past 
 seven, dine at three, and walk all the evenings in the 
 garden. The Governor's palace in Valletta is magnifi- 
 cent ; he lives there in the winter, and has assemblies 
 every ten days. They tell us the Maltese society is 
 
244 San Antonio, June i^th, 1814. 
 
 bad, but we have as yet seen nothing of it. Next 
 Monday the General means to begin weekly parties, 
 from half-past five till half-past eight in the evening, 
 with dancing and refreshments in the garden ; it will 
 be an extremely pretty scene, but we are not to 
 expect any beauty, as they say the Maltese women 
 are remarkably plain. I believe we shall go back to 
 Valletta the day after to-morrow ; we have been here 
 since last Monday, and I daresay we shall return 
 here to stay again. The cultivation of Malta is won- 
 derful, considering the rocky, barren spot it is by 
 nature ; almost all the soil is brought from Sicily, yet 
 almost every foot of the island is cultivated. The 
 beauty of it this year is passed, as the clover and corn 
 are got in ; but it still looks tolerably green from the 
 quantity of figs, with some caroba trees, orange 
 gardens, olives, and other fruit-trees. Valletta is the 
 handsomest and best built town I ever saw, and the 
 villages throughout the island are better built than 
 most towns. The divisions of all the fields are stone 
 walls which have an ugly appearance, and the whole 
 island is low and flat. The population is about 
 120,000; 50,000 of which are in Valletta and its 
 suburbs. The fortifications of these are immense; but 
 
San Antonio, June i^th, 1814. 245 
 
 from their extent they require a garrison of 50,000 
 men, a number that could never be provisioned. The 
 harbours are beautiful, and there is a very pretty little 
 dockyard ; it is altogether a most extraordinary 
 place, and well worth seeing. St. John's Church in 
 Valletta is very handsome, and hung with beautiful 
 tapestry ; the floor is entirely composed of the differ- 
 ent knights' tombstones, with their arms in mosaic, 
 and they form the most singular and beautiful pave- 
 ment I ever saw. We went yesterday to see St. 
 Paul's Cave, in Citt& Vecchia, and some catacombs, 
 which are very inferior to those at Syracuse. I 
 believe we shall go this evening to St. Paul's Bay, 
 where he was shipwrecked. A cousin of Wolryche 
 is the commanding engineer here, and his sister 
 Mary is with them ; Mrs. W. is a clever woman, and 
 they are altogether the pleasantest people here. 
 God bless you, dear mother. 
 
LONDON, 
 August 26th) 1814. 
 
 MY DEAREST MOTHER, 
 
 SAT down to write to you yesterday, 
 and I accomplished a sheet of paper, but 
 I was so dissatisfied with it that I have 
 destroyed it ; I hope I shall be able to 
 do rather better to-day. I reached London the day 
 before yesterday, from Deal, where I landed the pre- 
 ceding day. I will hasten to tell you that my health 
 is perfectly recovered, and that you need not have 
 an anxious thought about me. Would to God my 
 mind were as much at ease as my body ! But I will 
 endeavour to confine myself as much as possible to 
 matters of fact. I left Malta on the 2ist of June 
 with my friend Hamilton, who has got the " Havannah" 
 (36 guns). We went to Mahon, where they put us 
 
London, August 26t/i, 1814. 247 
 
 in forty days' quarantine. We remained but one day 
 there and were ordered to Gibraltar, where we arrived 
 on the loth of July. There they put us in forty days' 
 quarantine, but they were to reckon from the day we 
 left Malta. This would have given us pratique on the 
 30th of July, but the " Havannah" was ordered to pro- 
 ceed to America, for which she sailed on the iQth. For- 
 tunately the " Haughty" gun brig, Lieutenant Harvey, 
 had lately arrived from Malta, from whence he had 
 sailed the day after us. Mr. Harvey is well known to 
 Hamilton, and came to dine with him. He kindly 
 offered me a passage to England, and I removed from 
 the " Havannah" to the " Haughty." We sailed from 
 Gibraltar on the 22nd of July, with a small convoy ; 
 we had contrary winds for three weeks, and anchored 
 in the Downs on the 2Oth instant. We got pratique 
 on the 2$rd, and I arrived here the following day. 
 No less than five of us slept in the little gun brig's 
 cabin. I got a standing bed-place, so that I had the 
 pleasure of the whole motion. However, I am an 
 excellent sailor, and I had not a moment's sickness. 
 
 I found several letters from you I have 
 
 seen nobody but Mr. Chap, who is very ill with the 
 lumbago, and is so altered since I saw him that his 
 
248 London, August i6tk, 1814. 
 
 looks shocked me. I hope you will not think of 
 coming home on my account ; perhaps I may go 
 abroad again myself in a few months. Congratulate 
 Charles for me on his promotion. I am glad Henry 
 will see a little of the continent. Poor Clive has gone 
 into Greece alone. How it pained me to leave him. 
 There was a possibility of Herbert's joining him at 
 Zante, but there is a report here that the Prince of 
 Butera died suddenly, and that he was on the point of 
 marrying the princess. 1 
 
 $ o'clock. Orlando is just arrived, and it has done 
 me much good to see him. This is foreign post day, 
 and the bell is going, I cannot, therefore, add a word 
 more, but will write fully soon. 
 
 God bless you, my dear parents, &c., &c., &c. 
 
 1 They were married i7th August, 1814. 
 
 CHISWICK PRESS : PRINTED BY WHITTINGHAM AND WILKINS, 
 TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE. 
 
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