DIARY OF AN INVALID,

&c.

CHAPTER I.

Departure from England-Voyage to Lisbon-LisbonCintra-Police of Lisbon-Superstition of the PeopleDeparture from Lisbon.

September 6th, 1817. I BELIEVE it is Horace Walpole who says-quoting a remark of Graythat if any man would keep a faithful account of what he had seen and heard himself, it must, in whatever hands, prove an interesting one. The observation would perhaps be strictly true, if nothing were recorded but what really appeared at the time to be worth remembering; whereas, I believe most writers of Journals keep their minds upon the stretch to insert as much matter as possible.

It is not without the fear of affording an exception to Mr. Gray's observation, that I begin a brief chronicle of what I may think, see, and hear, during the pilgrimage which I am about to undertake.

In obedience to medical advice, I have at last determined to set out upon a wild-goose chase after health, and try, like honest Tristram Shandy, whether it be possible to run away from death;— and, in spite of Horace's hint of Mors et fugacem persequitur virum, I have this day completed the first stage of my journey.

Who has not experienced the bitter feelings with which one turns round on the last height, that commands the last view of home? This farewell look was longer than usual, for in my state I can scarcely hope ever to see it again. But if, as Pope says,

Life can little more supply,

Than just to look about us and to die,

I certainly have no time to lose.

7th. My flight has been necessarily too rapid to allow any time for the gratification of curiosity on this side of the water; and I have passed through Gloucester, Bath, and Exeter, without seeing more of those places than might be viewed from the coach window.

8th. All I saw of Plymouth was in rowing across the Hamoaze, in my way to Tor Point, from whence the mail-coach starts. The harbour, full of threedeckers, presents a glorious sight; which an Englishman cannot look at without feeling that in

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ward glorying, and exultation of soul, which Longinus describes as the effect of the sublime. At Tor Point we found the mail-coach, and after a tedious drag, accomplished sixty-five miles in twelve hours.

Every thing in this district savours of the sea. The inhabitants are à sort of amphibious race. The very coachman partook of the marine nature; and the slang peculiar to his calling was tempered with sea-phrases. The coach was to be under-sail at such an hour, and it was promoted from the neuter to the feminine gender, with as much reason perhaps as the ship. At Falmouth I found my brother* waiting my arrival ;—whose anxiety respecting my health, as it had led him to urge the trial of a voyage, determined him also to accompany me across the sea.

10th and 11th. Agonies of deliberation upon my future plans.—

Too much deliberation is certainly worse than too little. This difficulty of deciding arises perhaps from the wish to combine advantages which are incompatible. A man is too apt to forget that in this world he cannot have every thing. A choice is all that is left him. The world was all before

The Rev. A. M.

me, where to choose ;-but the difficulty of the choice was increased by the arrival of a packet from Lord Viscount S., whose obliging kindness, of which I am happy to have an occasion of expressing my grateful sense, furnished me with passports and letters to various quarters;-for this, by enlarging the scope, embarrassed the decision of my plans.

At last I resolved to embark in the Malta packet, with the option of determining my bargain with the captain, at the first port at which he might touch.

12th. Received a hasty summons at seven o'clock in the evening. The post from London brought orders that the Malta packet should carry out the Lisbon as well as the Mediterranean mails. In a moment all was "bustle! bustle!" On a fine starlight evening, the boatmen came to carry us and our baggage on board.-Kissed the last stone of granite, from which I stepped into the boat, with affection and regret. All the pains of parting were renewed at this moment ;-but, luckily, at such a moment, one has scarcely leisure for the indulgence of any feelings. In a few minutes we were on board; at ten o'clock the Princess Charlotte packet slipped from her moorings,—and we were fairly off.

13th. At daybreak we found ourselves off the