in the failure of children he was deprived, both then and
afterwards, of that sweetest of interests, continuous yet ever new in
its gradual unfolding, which brings to the most monotonous existence
its daily tribute of novelty and incident. The fond, almost rapturous,
expressions with which he greeted the daughter afterwards born to him
out of wedlock, shows the blank in his home,--none the less real
because not consciously realized.

The lack of stimulus to his mind from his surroundings at this time is
also manifested by the fewness of his letters. But thirty remain to
show his occupation during the five years, and seventeen of these are
purely official in character. From the year 1791 no record survives.
His wife being with him, one line of correspondence was thereby
closed; but even to his brother, and to his friend Locker, he finds
nothing to write. For the ordinary country amusements and pursuits of
the English gentry he had scant liking; and, barring the occasional
worry over his neglect by the Admiralty, there was little else to
engage his attention. The first few months after his release from the
"Boreas" were spent in the West of England, chiefly at Bath, for the
recovery of Mrs. Nelson's health as well as his own; but toward the
latter part of 1788 the young couple went to live with his father at
the parsonage of Burnham Thorpe, and there made their home until he
was again called into active service. "It is extremely interesting,"
say his biographers, "to contemplate this great man, when thus removed
from the busy scenes in which he had borne so distinguished a part to
the remote village of Burnham Thorpe;" but the interest seems by their
account to be limited to the energy with which he dug in the garden,
or, from sheer want of something to do, reverted to the bird-nesting
of his boyhood. His favorite amusement, we are told, was coursing, and
he once shot a partridge; but his habit of carrying his gun at full
cock, and firing as soon as a bird rose, without bringing the piece to
his shoulder, made him a dangerous companion in a shooting-party. His
own account is somewhat different: "Shoot I cannot, therefore I have
not taken out a license; but notwithstanding the neglect I have met
with I am happy;" and again, to his brother, he says: "It was not my
intention to have gone to the coursing meeting, for, to say the truth,
I have rarely escaped a wet jacket and a violent cold; besides, to me,
even the ride to th