CRUISE WITH THE EXPERIMENTAL SQUADRON. 343 



and hope to be able to pay my bill to Monsieur Gallois when I take 

 my departure. I walk to Woolwich daily (three miles), and board 

 the 'Vernon,' who now assumes a seaward seeming. Her gun- 

 carriages are on board, but not the guns themselves, which are to 

 be taken in at Sheerness. I have seen Sir F. Collier, who behaves 

 civilly, but he cannot comprehend what I want on board the ' Ver- 

 non,' neither can I. Her destination is still unknown, but she is to 

 have marines and artillerymen on board, which smells of fighting. 

 But with whom are we to fight ? My own opinion is, that we are 

 going to cruise off Ireland, and to land troops at Cork. Williams 

 thinks we are going to Madeira, to look after an American frigate, 

 and Tatnal talks of the Greek Islands. Meanwhile, Sir P. Malcolm, 

 I hear, is enraged at being kept tossing about in the 'Donegal,' 

 without knowing why or wherefore ; and nobody knows where the 

 ' Orestes' has gone. The ' Tyne' sails to-morrow for Plymouth. 

 The 'Vernon,' it is thought, cannot be off before the 27th, so that 

 there will be time to write me again before I go to sea. You will 

 get this on Monday morning, and I hope some of you will answer 

 it that night. Direct it to me at Captain Tatnal's, No. 5 Park 

 Terrace, Greenwich, in case I should be off. If our destination be 

 merely Ireland, there is every probability of our touching at some 

 Scotch port. I have been several times at Sir Henry Blackwood's, 

 in Regent Park ; pleasant family, and fashionable. I forgot if I 

 mentioned that I went to the Opera, singing and dancing, and tout- 

 ensemble beautiful. A Miss Doyle (a Paddy about thirty-five), at 

 Sir H. B.'s, plays the harp ten times better than Taylor. She is 

 held to be the finest harpist we have. Miss Blackwood is very 

 pretty, and clever. I go up to town to-day to dine with Mrs. 

 Burke, and to-morrow a party of us eat white bait at the ' Crown 

 and Sceptre' here. Besides the ' Vernon,' there are lying at Wool- 

 wich two new gun-brigs, also built by Symonds, called the ' Snake' 

 and the ' Serpent.' They go with us to compete with the ' Orestes.' 

 The squadron, therefore, at first, will consist of the 'Donegal,' 84, 

 the ' Vernon,' 50, the ' Castor,' 44, the 'Tyne,' 28, the 'Orestes,' 

 'Serpent,' and 'Snake,' 18; and we expect to be joined by the 

 'Britannia' and 'Caledonia,' 120; but that is uncertain. The 

 hatred felt for the ' Vernon' is wide and deep, and all the old fogies 

 predict she will capsize in a squall. This is all owing to her incom- 

 parable beauty. You have just to imagine the 'Endeavor' magni- 



