After an agreeable voyage, marked by no particular incident, we duly arrived at Portsmouth. On my arrival, I was made happy by meeting the Rev. Mr. Marshall, chaplain of Nelson’s ship, the Victory, and whose acquaintance I had the pleasure of forming when that gentleman was travelling in Syria. Mr. Marshall and all the officers of the ship were extremely kind to me, and shewed me over the old ship of the renowned admiral. At this place I landed, and having got a permit, was kindly shewn over the splendid dockyards. Here also I tasted some water twenty years in cask. I afterwards went round in the same steamer to Woolwich, and having shewn my letters of introduction to the captain, he kindly undertook to advise me. He recommended me to proceed at once to the house of the Honourable and Rev. Baptist Noel; and acting upon his advice, I came to London, and thence proceeded to Hornsey, at that time the residence of my reverend friend.
Confused and amazed as I was with the noise and bustle around me in so vast a place as London, I was sufficiently alive to my own interests to have my eyes open, so that I should not be cheated. This led to a ludicrous altercation between myself and a toll-collector at a turnpike. The man insisted on his money being paid; I, on the other hand, as obstinately refused, assuring him that, though a foreigner, I was well acquainted with the tricks practised upon travellers; in short, I thought the man was asking for what, in my own country, is termed a _bakhsheesh_, which means nothing more or less than a present. Some gentlemen, however, came up and explained how matters stood, and then I paid the trifle and bade the driver proceed.
Nothing could exceed the Christian brotherly reception I met with at the excellent Mr. Noel’s house. He actually busied himself with helping to carry in my baggage; and I was lost in admiration to observe how, in the bosom of his own family, he would play and sport with his own children, doing anything for their amusement and to make them happy. His early rising and great taste for gardening quite astonished me. Pleasant indeed were the days that I spent under his hospitable roof; and if any in this world have a claim upon my esteem and gratitude, it surely must be Mr. Noel and his amiable lady.