_Tor,November 30th_,1840.--I reached this place on Thursday;having,after much hesitation,resolved to come here,at least for the next three weeks,--with some obscure purpose of embarking,at the New Year,from Falmouth for Malta,and so reaching Naples,which I have not seen.There was also a doubt whether I should not,after Christmas,bring my family here for the first four months of the year.All this,however,is still doubtful.But for certain inhabitants of Falmouth and its neighborhood,this place would be far more attractive than it.
But I have here also friends,whose kindness,like much that I met with last winter,perpetually makes me wonder at the stock of benignity in human nature.A brother of my friend Julius Hare,Marcus by name,a Naval man,and though not a man of letters,full of sense and knowledge,lives here in a beautiful place,with a most agreeable and excellent wife,a daughter of Lord Stanley of Alderley.I had hardly seen them before;but they are fraternizing with me,in a much better than the Jacobin fashion;and one only feels ashamed at the enormity of some people's good-nature.I am in a little rural sort of lodging;and as comfortable as a solitary oyster can expect to be."--_To C.Barton_.