oofs of friendship from their illustrious
relatives in general, after Mrs. Nelson's decease. It is, indeed, but
too common for the affluent to neglect those of their humbler kindred
who have a numerous offspring; as if marriage were a crime, and the
fruits of virtuous love a reproach rather than a blessing. The Reverend
Mr. Nelson, however, was never in necessitous circumstances; and, as he
felt no solicitude for any self-indulgences not always within his reach,
he was enabled to effect the respectable establishment of all his
children, without that assistance, or those attentions, which he might
naturally have expected, and which it would certainly have been pleasing
to receive.

The good grandmother, at Hilborough, however, did all in her power to
promote the happiness and comfort of her son's children; and her
kindness and affection supplied, as much as it can be supplied, the want
of a mother. She was a fine old lady, and possessed uncommon wisdom,
with extreme goodness of heart. Her faculties were so lasting, that she
could see to read the smallest print, and execute the finest needlework,
till the close of her prolonged life, which extended to ninety-three
years.

Captain Suckling, too, seems to have formed one exception, at least, to
the almost general indifference on the part of their maternal relations.
He continued his occasional visits; and engaged, the first moment
possible, to take Horatio under his immediate protection.

The child, in the mean time, was acquiring the advantages of a good
education, at North Walsham grammar-school; and it seems evident, from
subsequent circumstances, that he must have been making considerable
progress in learning, under Mr. Jones's able tuition, when he was
suddenly withdrawn, at the tender age of only twelve years, from that
respectable seminary, to commence his professional career on the
perilous ocean.

About the autumn of 1770, when the aggressions of the Spaniards, who had
violently taken possession of the Falkland Islands, so far alarmed the
country, that a naval armament was prepared to chastise this indignity,
Captain Suckling, having obtained the command of the Raisonnable, of
sixty-four guns, one of the ships put into commission on the occasion,
immediately ordered his nephew from school, and entered him as a
midshipman.

The youth, after being properly equipped for this situation, was sent to
join the ship, then at Sheerness. It should seem, however, that h