g
with a few clothes and shirts. It is possible that I shall be at home
soon after your receiving this, or at most three weeks after--I hope to
write to you again from Corfu, which is a British island with a British
garrison in it, like Gibraltar.

The English newspapers came last week. I see those wretched French
cannot let us alone, they want to go to war; well, let them--they richly
deserve a good drubbing. The people here are very kind in their way, but
home is home, especially such a one as mine, with true hearts to welcome
me.

Oh, I was so glad to get your letters; they were rather of a distant
date, it is true, but they quite revived me. I hope you are all well,
and my dear mother. Since I have been here I have written to Mr. Lord.
I was glad to hear that he has written to Hen. I hope Lucy is well; pray
remember me most kindly to her, and tell her that I hope to see her soon.
I count so on getting into my summer-house again, and sitting down to
write; I have arranged my book in my mind, and though it will take me a
great deal of trouble to write it, I feel that when it is written it will
be first-rate.

My journey with God's help has done me a great deal of good--I am
stronger than I was, and I can now sleep. I intend to draw on England
for forty or fifty pounds; if I don't want the whole of it, it will be
all the same. I have still some money left, but I have no wish to be
stopped on my journey for want of it. I am sorry about what you told me
respecting the railway, sorry that the old coach is driven off the road.
I shall patronise it as little as possible, but stick to the old route
and Thurton George. What a number of poor people will these railroads
deprive of their bread. I am grieved at what you say about poor M. He
can take her into custody however, and oblige her to support the
children; such is law, though the property may have been secured to her,
she can be compelled to do that.

Tell Hen that there is a mosque here, called the mosque of Sultan
Bajazet; it is full of sacred pigeons; there is a corner of the court to
which the creatures flock to be fed, like bees, by hundreds and
thousands; they are not at all afraid, as they are never killed. Every
place where they can roost is covered with them, their impudence is
great; they sprang originally from two pigeons brought from Asia by the
Emperor of Constantinople. They are of a deep blue.