d. But "the pilot that weathered
the storm" refused to leave the tiller in case decisive news came from
Harrowby. He also prepared to strengthen his Cabinet against the attacks
certain to be made in the ensuing session, by including in it two
excellent speakers, Canning and Charles Yorke, the latter taking the
Board of Control. Why he did not complete these changes, as Canning
begged him to do, is far from clear. Possibly the sharp though friendly
criticism which Canning levelled against the Anglo-Russian expedition to
Hanover made him apprehensive of divisions in the Cabinet on a question
which was very near his heart. Certainly much could be said in favour of
an expedition to Walcheren, which Canning urged should be entrusted to
General M[oore?]. Pitt preferred the Hanoverian enterprise, doubtless
because it would lay Russia and Prussia under a debt of honour to
co-operate to the utmost of their power.

At last the strain became too great, and on 7th December Pitt set out
for Bath, arriving there on the 11th. He resided at Harrowby's house,
11, Laura Place. His stay in Bath aroused interest so intense that he
found it necessary to vary the time of his visits to the Pump Room in
order to escape the crowd which would otherwise have incommoded
him.[757] As has just appeared, he expected a speedy recovery; for, as
was the case with his father, if the attack of gout ran a normal course,
the system felt relief. Freedom from worry was the first condition of
amendment. After his retirement from office in 1768 Chatham recovered so
quickly that his opponents gibed at the illness as a political
device.[758] Ten years later he succumbed to excitement and strain.

During the first part of his stay at Bath, Pitt was in good spirits and
wrote cheerfully about his health. The following letter to his London
physician, Sir Walter Farquhar, is not that of a man who feels death
approaching:

Bath, _Dec. 15. 1805_.[759]

The gout continues pretty smartly in my foot; and I find from
Mr. Crooks that it is attended with a feverish pulse and some
other symptoms of the same nature. I have communicated to Mr.
Crooks your directions, and he is to send me the saline draughts
with some little addition, which he will explain to you. I
thought he would detail symptoms more precisely than I could,
and have therefore desired him to write to you. On the whole, I
have no doubt the