LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON. XXVll 



tlie career of this gentleman offers so remarkable an instance of 

 energy and perseverance in carrying out what appears to have 

 been an irresistible impulse for visiting foreign and distant lands 

 under circumstances which might be supposed to present almost 

 insuperable obstacles, that I need scarcely apologize for dwelling 

 upon it at some length. He was first sent to a day school in 

 Theatre Lane, Exeter, kept by an old woman, at which he re- 

 mained until he was between eight and nine years of age, when 

 he was transferred to a private school near Alphington Cross, 

 kept by the well-known Dr. Halloran ; and afterwards to another 

 school, where, as he says, he was crammed with geography, astro- 

 nomy, algebra, geometry, navigation, &c., in order to fit him for the 

 position of first-class volunteer obtained for him by Lord Bridport 

 through the kindness of Greneral Simco. He accordingly joined, 

 in December 1798, being then twelve years old, the Royal George, 

 100, Captain C. M. Pole, bearing Lord Bridport' s flag, in the 

 English Channel; was present at the attempt at Basque Eoads, 

 and, after two unsuccessful applications to Lord Bridport to be 

 allowed to join cruising frigates, was placed on board the Cam- 

 brian, 40, Captain Legge, in which he served from 1799 to 1805 

 on the Home and North American stations. He then joined in 

 succession the Leander and Cleopatra, of which latter frigate he 

 was appointed lieutenant, April 27, 1807. He was next employed 

 in the Gruerriere frigate, on the North American station, from 

 October 1808 to November 1810, when, in consequence of severe 

 rheumatism brought on by the hard service on that station, he 

 invalided, and was placed on half-pay, returning to England in 

 January 1811, in H.M. Brig Eantome. In July of that year he 

 was visiting his friends at and near Bath, when he was attacked 

 with severe ophthalmia, which in a short time entirely deprived 

 him of sight. In 1812, having become permanently blind, he was 

 made a Naval Knight of Windsor. During the next seven years 

 he devoted his time so much to the study of literature (entering 

 at the University of Edinburgh, where he obtained a diploma), that 

 his health suffered severely, and he was compelled to seek restora- 

 tion in the air of his native county. Not finding the benefit he 

 expected, this, together with the permission which he had obtained 

 to absent himself from Windsor, induced him, in the year 1819, 

 to visit the South of France alone, and without any knowledge of 

 the continental languages. He then made the grand tour, passing 

 through the south of France into Italy, traversing the greater part 

 of both the southern and northern states of that peninsula, cross- 



