any friend of yours, but I have _no opportunity of advancing any officer
beyond a midshipman sometimes_"; and four years after the Battle of
Trafalgar he explained that he had still "some of the Lieutenants who were
with me in action a few years since and no prospect of providing for them
--I have little here but constant labour."

But what he could do in the way of protecting and befriending his little
kinsman he was eager to accomplish, and his letters show how much anxious
thought he devoted to the subject.


_Admiral Lord Collingwood to Walter Spencer-Stanhope._
_January 20th, 1806._

I shall be very glad to see your son William, and will take good care
of him, and give him the best introduction to this service that I can.
I hope he has got on a little in mathematicks, because I have not a
school master now in my ship--I had, but he got hurt in the
_Sovereign_ and went home. Lord Barham tells me a ship is to be
sent out to me soon--William might come out conveniently in her....

With respect to his equipment, do not burden him with baggage--if he
takes care of it, it is but a miserable occupation, and if he does not
it will be lost. Therefore, to keep him clean and above want is
enough; a comfortable bed, that his health requires; two or three Blue
jackets and waistcoats; his Navigation books that he has been taught
from--whether it is Robinson's Elements, or Hamilton's Moore; a
quadrant and a case of instruments. For his reading, you will give him
such books as you think proper and are least voluminous--a history of
England--of Rome--and Greece, with voyages or abridgment of them--but