578 DILECTA

for if she was the old seventy-four gun ship (and in the engraving she looks like a two-decker) that he saw being towed to the ship-breaker’s yard, she, having been in our navy for years, may have been distinguished among sailors from the other and newer Téméraire by that name; while it is significant (if true) that Turner, when he reluctantly gave up his title, said, ‘Well, then, call her the Old Téméraire.’

13. “Thornbury’s book, which I have not seen since it was published until I borrowed it a few days back, appears to me a sort of hashed-up life of Brown, Jones, and Robinson, with badly done bits of Turner floating about in it. I have copied the passage from it referring to the Téméraire upon a separate sheet, also the history of the capture of the French Téméraire from the Gentleman’s Magazine.

“I have only now to add, in answer to your last and kindest of notes, that I read French in a bumbly sort of way, like a French yoke of oxen dragging a load of stone uphill upon a cross road, but that my wife reads it easily. Twice, dear Mr. Ruskin, you have said, ‘Is it not strange you should have sent me something about Turner just as I was employing a French critic to write his life?’¹ Now, I believe that nothing is really strange between those where on the one side there is perfect truth and honesty of purpose, and on the other faith in, and love and reverence for, that purpose.

“Forgive me if I have said too much; and believe me, yours faithfully and affectionately,

“ROBT. C. LESLIE.”

14. EXTRACT FROM A LIST OF SHIPS IN OUR NAVY BETWEEN THE YEARS 1700 AND 1800.

“Téméraire, 1685 tons, 74 guns, taken from the French, 1759.

“Téméraire, 2121 tons, 98 guns, built at Chatham, 1798.”

Charnock’s Marine Architecture (1802).

“Saturday, Sept. 15th, 1759, Admiral Boscawen arrived at Spithead with His Majestie’s ships, Namur, etc., and the Modeste and Téméraire, prizes. The Téméraire is a fine seventy-four gun ship, forty-two-pounders below, eight fine brass guns abaft her mainmast, ten brass guns on her quarter, very little hurt.”

Gentleman’s Magazine, September, 1759.

HOW THE OLD TÉMÉRAIRE WAS TAKEN

Extract of a letter from Admiral Boscawen to Mr. Cleveland, Secretary of the Admiralty, dated off Cape St. Vincent, August 20th, 1759:-

“I acquainted you in my last of my return to Gibraltar to refit. As soon as the ships were near ready, I ordered the Lyme and Gibraltar frigates, the first to cruise off Malaga, and the last from Estepona to Ceuta Point, to look out, and give me timely notice of the enemy’s approach. On the 17th, at 8 P.M., the Gibraltar made the signal of their appearance, fourteen sail, on the Barbary shore.... I got under sail as fast as possible, and was out of the bay before 10 P.M., with fourteen sail of the line. At daylight I saw the Gibraltar, and soon after seven sail of large ships lying to; but on our not answering their signals

¹ [M. Chesneau: see Vol. XIII. p. lvi.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]