At Keswick we saw Southey, who was very agreeable; he is just about publishing two epic poems. Windermere is the pleasantest and most agreeable of all the Lakes to my taste. Mr. Dumont was of our party. We went rather impromptu to Edinburgh, by the Kelso road, to see Melrose Abbey. Kelso is a charmingly situated town and exceedingly pretty. Melrose Abbey disappointed me greatly, especially after John Clerk’s praise, who described it as the finest remains of the richly wrought Gothic in the Island. I did not mind Walter Scott’s poetry, but was very considerably chagrined at its being so very inferior to many even in England. The high roads now making in Scotland are very characteristic of the nation; they are scientific and thrifty, for they are upon good principles, but are excessively dangerous and alarming from the parsimony with which they are executed. They are contrived to go upon the mountains like terraces or ledges, so that the up and down is avoided, but then they are rather narrow, and there is not the smallest parapet or any protection which intervenes between the poor traveller and the deep valley below.
We remained only two days at Edinbro’. During that time poor Lady Rosslyn[347] died unexpectedly at Rockville. We dined one day with Mr. Clerk,[348] and were visited by the few persons then in town—Jeffrey, Murray, &c. We went to Dunbar; then to Howick; and spent a couple of days with Sydney Smith at Heslington, near York. I went to the Roman Catholic convent in York, to visit the daughters of Mr. Gordon, of Xeres; they seemed dejected and apprehensive that the state of Spain would prevent them from joining their family.
We made a deviation from the North road to see Lincoln Minster. We were repaid for the inconvenience of a very bad road and without exception the worst inn in England, as the Cathedral is very curious and magnificent. It is not so large as that of York, but the workmanship is much richer. I was startled when I entered the Cathedral at York; I could scarcely credit that it was the identical building which appeared spacious and lofty formerly, my eye having been recently so accustomed to the Cathedral at Seville which is about three times the size of York. At York the centre aisle is wide, but the two side aisles are narrow and low, whereas at Seville there are five aisles all equally wide and lofty, and beyond are large side chapels (at York there are none).
From Lincoln we went through Spalding to Peterboro’; I asked at Spalding how far off it was to the Fens. The postmaster replied that there were no fens in Lincolnshire now, and that geese were full as scarce as in Middlesex or elsewhere. I think it impossible he can be correct, for, tho’ draining may do much, yet I remember such dykes and embankments against the waters then covered with flocks of geese, about 23 years ago, that it cannot be possible those waters can have been carried off, the bottom made sound, and put into tillage; about Boston and Crowland I meant. Peterboro’ Cathedral has a beautiful façade; the inside is not worth much. Katherine of Arragon and Queen Mary of Scotland[349] are buried there.
We returned here[350] on August 2, and found all well; the library wall rebuilt, but the house not in a condition for our reception. Accordingly we are going off in a few days to inhabit the Govt. House at Portsmouth, which Genl. Fox has lent most kindly to us.[351]
GENERAL FERGUSON
The few days we have been here we have seen Tom Sheridan and his wife, Ld. Erskine, D. of Argyle, Ld. Robt., Gen. Tupper, Mr. Whishaw, Kemble, Gen. Fox, Caroline Fox. I went one night to the Haymarket and saw the Iron Chest. General Ferguson[352] has been compelled to leave Cadiz on acct. of his health; he is afflicted with a liver complaint which is always aggravated in a hot climate. He acted the part of a real friend to our dear boy,[353] he went out with him in the Lively, and assumed a parental authority over him. He also, upon arriving at Cadiz, removed him from that ship, and placed him with Capt. Codrington of the Blake, where he now is, and is gone up to Minorca to escort the Spanish ships from Cadiz thither. He confirms the stories of the desertions from the French armies, and himself conversed with three native-born Frenchmen, who had deserted from want of pay and want of food, the most pressing want.
On Thursday, — August, left home for Portsmouth. Henry, &c., accompanied us; the girls were to follow a few days later. Mr. Dumont came with us; we slept at Liphook, and reached Portsmouth on Friday. The Government House is a very large, rambling habitation, and was formerly a Cistercian convent.[354] From the interior arrangement of the rooms, and very inconvenient distribution of space, one can still trace its monastic origin. The conventual church, now converted into the garrison chapel, communicates with the great apartment, and access is immediate into the tribune. In that church Charles the Second married the Infanta of Portugal.
CAPTAIN MOORE
The séjour of this place has little to recommend it in the way of drives or walks, as the confinement of a garrison town is inconvenient for either, and indeed the whole neighbourhood more or less partakes of the stir and din of war. We see a few naval and military persons. General Whetham, the Lt.-Governor, a sprightly man, who talks good French, and has a superficial smattering of the light reading in that language; he was wounded in Flanders, and is a great favourite upon the Terrace at Windsor. Capt. G. Moore,[355] the brother of the General, whose good sense seems to have been bestowed in a fair division upon him, is a pleasing, well-informed, manly, gentlemanlike person. They are an affectionate, united family, and full of amiable qualities; he alluded to Sir John with feeling, his eyes were full of tears when in the course of some conversation he mentioned the narrative written by his brother James.[356] He told me that had the General lived to return and lay aside his command, it was his opinion that an explanation must have taken place with Frere, as the gross personality and insulting language in his correspondence must have been apologised for or determined(?) in some decisive manner. Capt. Moore was at Lisbon when the Court embarked for the Brésils, and accompanied the Portuguese squadron thither, having on board many of the attendants and dependants of the Prince Regent.