Believe me, yours faithfully,

NELSON

Excuse this hasty and blotted scrawl, as I have been detained so
long at the Admiralty that I have scarce time to save the Post.


Canterbury,

Dec. 26, 1805

Dear Sir,--I received your letters of the 23rd and 25th this
morning. I am glad to hear the remains of my late dear and most
illustrious brother are at length removed to Mr. Peddieson's
coffin, and safely deposited in Greenwich Hospital. Your kind and
affectionate attention throughout the whole of this mournful and
trying scene cannot fail to meet my sincere and grateful thanks,
and that of the whole family. I am perfectly satisfied with the
surgeon's reports which have been sent to me, that every thing
proper has been done. I could wish to have known what has been
done with the bowels--whether they were thrown overboard, or
whether they were preserved to be put into the coffin with the
body. The features being now lost, the face cannot, as Mr. Beatty
very properly observes, be exposed; I hope therefore everything is
closed and soldered down.

I wrote to Mr. Tyson a few days ago, and should be glad to hear
from him. I mean to go towards London about the 1st, 2nd or 3rd of