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next man to look to after Lord Wellington; and there was a something about him which made me look forward to a future intercourse with him as a source of great satisfaction.

Anchored off Mobille: February 13.

I hardly know how to describe the sensations I feel in consequence of the 'Brazen's' arrival with the news of peace being signed, and waiting only the signature of Mr. Madison to be carried into effect. That peace on any terms is a source of joy to me of which my eager desire to return to my home, and my unwillingness ever to quit it, is a full guarantee: but I cannot help viewing the terms of this peace as discreditable to the country, and I feel it the more since our failure at New Orleans. I certainly had hopes that the Americans would have been emboldened by their success on that occasion, and would have ventured to meet us upon the open country in this neighbourhood, and exposed themselves to that dressing which our people are well disposed to give them.

February 26.

Neither is there any truth in the report of my being on any other than the best terms with Cockburn, or that I am likely to have any real difference with him. The little differences of opinion which take place respecting arrangements amongst men who are all guided by honest zeal, however their personal ambition may clash momentarily, will not last long. And I will vouch for the whole of my brother Admirals here being of this description. How often do I differ in opinion with Malcolm also: yet can I say I never saw a more zealous fellow in my life. Indeed it is nothing but his over-zeal which leads him out of the best road to gain his object; and on that road I would gladly keep them both if I could.

God bless you all!

E. C.

March 2.

We got out of the Havannah this morning and are now (noon) working along the Cuba shore in our way through the Gulf of Florida.

March 3.

I purchased Lord Nelson's letters a few days ago at the sale of Captain Langford's effects the very Langford so often named in those letters when wounded. I had read them hastily before, but I am still more impressed on a second perusal with the disgrace of their being made public. If the ungrateful woman who deceived him in not destroying them, had shown them to any friend of his, it would have been well worthy a subscription to have purchased them and prevented their circulation in print. Even I who knew him but little personally, would willingly have paid the price of these books to have merely read them and seen them destroyed.

9 P.M.

We are just now pushing through the northern part of this nasty Gulf of Florida, which is certainly a most dangerous navigation.

March 7.

The glad tidings of peace being ratified by Mr. President Madison on the 17th February, have this minute been announced to us by a poor little American schooner, which has taken the earliest moment she could of profiting by it. It has truly gladdened my heart. I would give all my share in the harvest of prize-money to be now making sail for dear old England.

Bermuda: March 18.

I have the Admiralty communication of the K.C.B. honours, dated the 3rd January. What may be the opinion others have formed of this business I, of course, cannot judge, but I for one approve the plan. I should certainly have been gratified to hear your Ladyship's opinion on this head; but I trust I shall shortly do so where my heart yearns to be at this moment. I shall be well content to find you and all your darlings as well in health as your ever affectionate E. C.

Upon the termination of hostilities with America Admiral Codrington hoisted his flag in H.M.S. ‘Havannah,’ Captain Hamilton, to return to England, and arrived at his home in Charles Street on the 16th April. Before

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leaving the station he received the following letter from Sir Alexander Cochrane :—

'I cannot allow of your departure from hence without first expressing to you how much I feel obliged by the zeal and ability which you have displayed in your public situation while under my command, and how much benefit I have derived from your counsel and assistance in the active services in which the fleet and army have been employed.'

IN

CHAPTER XI.

In the portrait, painted in 1805, which forms the frontispiece to this volume, my father is shown to be wearing powder, and he continued to do so for many years after—in fact, as long as the habit of gentlemen made it imperative; and though he left off the queue as soon as it was admissible to do so, I can still remember him as wearing powder, in my early childhood. It was my habit to go to his dressing-room of a morning, and sit on a little stool reading to him Miss Edgeworth's charming little stories, stopped every moment by him for commas, pauses, or intonation—while he carefully trained me in the art of reading aloud, an accomplishment which he excelled in himself, and by means of which, in later years, he added such pleasure to our home evenings.

6

But my young eyes were not busied in reading alone, but in the amusement of watching the successive processes of the dress of those days. There was the careful and deliberate shaving, and then the elaborate powdering: there was the white powdering-cloth,' spread out upon the carpet, the powder puff,' which seemed to me to do a fairy's work, the matter-of-fact powder knife' that cleared off the fairy's work from forehead and temples-and finally the critical operation of putting on the neckcloth. That article consisted of a square yard of the whitest jacconot, very carefully folded. It began behind, crossed in front, crossed again behind, and finally met in front; the voluminous folds being confined by the neat little bow into

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which the ends were tied under the chin, and which surmounted the very full and broad shirt-frill of the finest cambric. There was a dignity about the old style of dress not to be matched by the jaunty negligence that has taken its place; it was unspoilt by ornament; chains and rings and jewelled studs were unknown to it; and would have been as much an incongruity in the dress, as an inconvenience to the wearer here spoken of.

The little dressing-room was full of prints, and I became familiar with the faces of Lord Howe, Lord Nelson, Lord St. Vincent, and Captain Riou 'the gallant and the good,' and the pictures of the battles of the First of June' and of Trafalgar.

But there was no austerity in that room or any part of that house, which was a real home of joy, in which amusement and training went on together. Well do I remember, though I was but six years old, the patient care with which, when staying in the country for a time, my father persevered in adjusting a telescope for me, till at last he enabled me to catch the figure of a child running about in a distant field-to be present with that which was out of sight, or to see that which was not present-while he enjoyed my puzzled delight at the discovery of this beautiful wonder, which made me feel as if standing in two worlds at once.

When at home in London he would take me out for early walks, and run races with his little girl up and down the little slope of ground between Grosvenor and Stanhope gates, where then existed what few now remember, and many will scarcely believe-that riding school of Mr. Fozzard's with its stabling and attendant chickens, which have now been succeeded by beautiful flower-beds and ornamental seats.

We both delighted in looking into shop-windows, and he delighted in explaining to me their contents; and by way of helping my understanding he would stop in the