To John B Edgeworth   August 1842.

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…that ever grinned in the Pope’s belly.¹ I’ll not be a beholder of my woe. Acting on this resolution, I closed my peepers, but vain are human resolutions – sure angels have bartered heaven for woman’s eyes and is it a matter of surprise that Tyndall found his air-founded resolutions vanish like a vapour when, as the steamer paused at Passage,² he was told that half a dozen of the said eyes twinkled on the quay. From this out I possessed fortitude enough to enjoy the scenery as I passed down the harbour. Cove³ was quickly passed. Shortly after we were shaded by the frisure of the two forts which guard the harbour’s mouth,⁴ then Sir we emerged into the world of waves and like a bubble on a stream we danced upon the billows. Here and there might be seen a face writhing in grim contortions ... Holland⁵ was the first to give way, he leaned over the bulwark,⁶ the picture of despair ... as ghostly as a church yard deserter.

After having amused myself sufficiently at Holland’s expense, my mind took a more sentimental turn – my eyes turned westward to behold the glories of the setting sun in peaceful splendour, he dipped beneath the horizon, when the mists of evening closed the view and shut this land of the west from my gaze for ever and ever. The moon &c ... but a truce to this awhile. Latimer and Baskin shortly after their embarkation – being desirous of pampering the flesh as most of the latter day saints are – agreed for a berth each, for which they paid 8 shillings. Well Sir, when night closed round and we unfortunate pilgarlicks⁷ were seeking a spot here and there on which to snatch a doze, the two gentlemen alluded to retired very comfortably to their warm beds between the hours of 12 and 1. However, as I was pacing the deck to keep my blood in circulation, to my no small astonishment I beheld by the starlight the woebegone countenance of Baskin before me, the sublimity of misery hung in wrinkles round his eyeballs. What! said I, is it you I see? what brought you here? Oh, hiccupped he, I met more company than I agreed for. I remained as long as I could, and that was until the bug-bites rose like small potatoes on my arms. To corroborate his assertions, he placed my hand upon his wrist which soon convinced me of the prodigious effect of the bite of a bug – I must say that an hour’s sleep on Saturday morning would have been the very acme of felicity. I endeavoured to find a place to stretch myself and was not long in fixing on a spot in the bow⁸ of the vessel under the ropes. Here I lay, Sir, on the hard deck with a plank beneath my head for a pillow and was in the act of perpetrating one of the most comfortable slumbers that ever crept over a mortal’s eyes, when suddenly the sound, aye and the substance too, of many waters struck on my ear from the confounded waterpipe of a sailor who was cleaning the vessel. On account of the darkness of the corner I had chosen, the fellow did not see me. I dare say however that whether or not the result would have been the same. At half past ten we got in sight of Holyhead⁹ – from this we kept in sight of the Welsh Coast as far as it extended. At 8 o’clock we landed on Clarence quay¹⁰ – were met by Ginty and Latimer and conducted by them to lodgings at Pace’s¹¹ – 84 Porter Street¹² – It would be a difficult thing to convey an idea of Liverpool, it is a perfect Babel,¹³ the rumbling of waggons, the gee wo of the waggoner, the clang of the tram cars and the cry of the fish-woman all keep up such an eternal din that a fellow should be furnished with brazen organs to be able to bear it all. I rambled through the best part of the city on Sunday. On Monday¹⁴ at 11 o’clock we got orders to be at the railway station Lime Street¹⁵ at half past 4 o’clock. After some mischances, such as forgetting my bag and giving a fellow half a crown to return for it, we at length mustered at the proper time, in proper order, at the proper place

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RI MS JT/1/11/3926

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