r uncle, was the whole that ever came into
his hands by his marriage with that lady. When it is considered, that he
was, at this time, a post-captain in the British navy, of more than
eight years standing, though only twenty-nine years of age, there could,
surely, be no reason for him to expect, without saying a word about
prospects from his transcendent abilities, that he was ever to hear any
reflections on the pecuniary advantages which he derived from this most
disinterested union!

The Boreas was paid off at Sheerness, on the 30th of November 1787; and
the winter was chiefly employed in visiting places of public amusement,
and introducing Mrs. Nelson to his numerous respectable friends.

In a letter, written at Bath, April 3, 1778, to his friend Captain
Locker, he says, that he has been, for the last month, at a relation's
near Bristol, and is only just returned, to drink the waters another
fortnight. He was, in fact, very partial to Bath: not only on account of
the present cure he had himself received there; but because his
venerable and much afflicted father was under the absolute necessity of
spending his winters in that city, during so many of the latter years of
his life. The Reverend Mr. Nelson, indeed, from paralytic and asthmatic
affections, which would scarcely permit him to speak for several hours
after rising in the morning, had actually been given over by the
physicians almost forty years prior to his decease.

From Bath, Captain Nelson proceeded, on another visit of a month, to
Exmouth; and, passing through London, in the summer, went immediately
into Norfolk, where it was agreed to fix his future residence.

His father, accordingly, gave him up the parsonage-house at
Burnham-Thorpe, where he formed his little domestic establishment. He
had, in the mean time, since his arrival in England, been again pestered
with prosecutions from some of the Americans whose ships he seized in
the West Indies, On this subject he says, in a letter to Captain Locker,
"I have written them word, that I will have nothing to do with them, and
they must act as they think proper: government, I suppose, will do what
is right, and not leave me in the lurch. We have heard enough, lately,
of the consequence of the Act of Navigation to this country. They may
take my person; but, if six-pence would save me from a prosecution, I
would not give it."

Though this may have the semblance of treating lightly these menaced
legal prosec