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Hamburgh. Octr 9th.
I arrived here about 2 o'Clock and as soon as I could
get myself dressed which was not till 5 I went to
Mr Hanbury's The whole family was in the country
at their house 2 or 3 miles from the Town. I was rejoied
to see my trunk and to find your letters. The shortest
and oldest date I read before I left the house as likewise
one from Mr Lindgren. The others I have am now
going to treat myself with and shall have taken
a fresh sheet of paper not to write down any thing which
may recur at the instant of reading them. I have
scarcely any thing for 2 or 3 days for my stomach has
been much out of order but I now better and have got
some coffee & bread & butter which is the first and shall
be the last I eat to day. Now I am going to enjoy myself:
I drink one dish and then to the letters.
Yes the Dutch are in a miserable plight - it is not for
the service they would be to us in supplying us with their
squadron that the demand was made. Sr Josh Y said
so. The making the demand seems to have been by Sr
Jes's adviser, indeed he as much as told me so.
John May has given me a little pamphlet of a description
of experiments he made with the Carronades. He appears
to have been consulted in these too. He shewd me a
letter from the commanding Officer at Woolwich War
about them. Government have ordered 1600 of them of
18, 24, & 32 Pounders. May told me also of the complaint
for the powder. Holland is making powder at this present
time I believe for England France & Spain.
your bad eyes are your excuse for bad writing, mine is
that my silver pen is bad and I have not set about to
mend it and besides it is at odd times and under many
difficulties that I usually write to you.
In looking over the very short journal I have kept while
at Amsterdam you would find 2 or perhaps 3 idle days
spent in eating & drinking with people from whom no
information or none to signify could be obtained or
where ladies the company of some lady was the chief
inducement. To spend a whole day in this manner to be
sure I do not like at all but that is an inconvenience
attending the having so many letters of introduction.
comfort yourself however with the thoughts that out of the
21 days I spent at Amsterdam some part or other of
13 of them I spent with one of the May's.
Mr Henderson spent 2 whole mornings in attending me
to the East India company's Yard and taking me to
a private Shipbuilder's besides the greatit part of another
in which he took me to the house of one of the Officer's
in the public Yard. He tried his utmost to get
me admitted to see every thing there. He went to the
Board of Admiralty, He called on one or two of the
Members of his acquaintance but all would not do
They would not admit either an English or a French man.
I saw however as much as there would have been any
use in my seeing which was very little from the windows
of the house I was at. Their Oeconomy and the maagement
of the Timber is all there is worth knowing and
that is not to be got by inspection but in short by such
means which I had & still have. Henderson of
his own accord offered in a very friendly & pressing
manner to furnish me with any information which
it could be in his power to obtain at any time whenever
I would write for it. He is a general Merchant
but is chiefly concerned in the Greenland trade. He
has a wife who is a plain dressing homely woman
and what family I dont know. I shall certainly
make use of him. Pye Rich, & Wilkinson are but
2 people. Rich is christened Pye Rich and is the first
of the 2. There was a Pye who was the 1st of the hous
and there the firm stood Pye, Rich, & Wilkinson
and consisted of 3 persons of which Pye is dead or
retired and Rich being christened Pye, the firm
continues the same. They are related to Admiral Pye.
This & May's house do all the political business for
Sr Josh Yorke at Amsterdam such as procuring information
&c. Rich has a fine woman for a wife from Geneva
I was inat 3 kind of formal Suppers at their house
to meet english company and had all imaginable attention
paid me. I was invited to a fourth which
I declined accepting of, although it was to meet a charming
english girl who was just come with her brother
from Gibralter, to be sure if her back had been turned
towards me at the time I was invited the invitation
was given there would have been no resisting; I had
was to breakfast the next morning with Job May for
the last time and if I had supped with these folks, I
should not have got to bed before 2 o'clock and
perhaps have not had my senses so well about me
very early in the morning. I deserve a sugar plum
for this resolution. Rich was all readiness to do
any thing that I could point out in which he could
serve me. I made him first introduce me to May
that I might not trust to Henniker's miserable
letter. Indeed I had Sr Josh Yorke's message besides.
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Identifier: | JB/538/389/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 538.
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1779-10-09 |
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538 |
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389 |
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001 |
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Correspondence |
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Samuel Bentham |
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