CHAPTER II

17. MR. LESLIE’S notes on the Téméraire and her double have led to some farther correspondence respecting both this ship and Nelson’s own, which must still take precedence of any connected with the early numbers of Præterita.

“DEAREST MR. RUSKIN-Mr. W. Hale white, of the Admiralty, has, as you will see, written to me about the Téméraires, and I thought you ought to know what he has to say on the subject, especially that postscript to his note about placing some short history of the ship under Turner’s picture. Also the fact of the old French ship being sold in the year 1784, when there could have been no tugs on the river, and when Turner was only nine years old, seems to settle the point as to which of the two ships it was, in favour of ‘the English Téméraire.’ Still, as boyish impressions in a mind like Turner’s must have been very strong, it is just possible that he may have seen the last of both ships when knocking about the Thames below London.

“In the picture, as I said before, the ship is a two-decker, and her having her spars and sails bent to the yards looks very like a time before steam, when a hulk without some kind of jury-rig would be almost useless, even to a ship-breaker, if he had to move her at all.

“Ever affectionately,

“ROBT. C. LESLIE.”

18. “ADMIRALTY, WHITEHALL, S.W.,

“20th November, 1886.

“DEAR SIR,-I see in Mr. Ruskin’s Dilecta a letter of yours about the Téméraire. Perhaps you will like to know the facts about the two vessels you name.

“The Téméraire taken by Admiral Boscawen from the French in 1759 was sold in June 1784.

“The Téméraire which Turner saw was consequently the second Téméraire She was fitted for a prison ship at Plymouth in 1812. In 1819 she became a receiving ship, and was sent to Sheerness. There she remained till she was sold in 1838.

“What Mr. Thornbury means by ‘the grand old vessel that had been taken prisoner at the Nile’ I do not know. I may add that it cannot be ascertained now, at any rate without prolonged search amongst documents

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