Page:The Naval Officer (1829), vol. 1.djvu/29

 val between my nomination and joining was spent by my parents in giving advice to me, and directions to the several tradesmen respecting my equipment. The large chest, the sword, the cocked-hat, the half-boots, were all ordered in succession; and the arrival of each article either of use or ornament was anticipated by me with a degree of impatience which can only be compared to that of a ship's company arrived off Dennose from a three years' station in India, and who hope to be at an anchor at Spithead before sunset. The circumstance of my going to sea affected my father in no other way than as it interfered with his domestic comforts by the immoderate grief of my poor mother. In any other point of view, my choice of a profession was a source of no regret to him. I had an elder brother, who was intended to have the family estates, and who was then at Oxford, receiving an education suitable to his rank in life, and also to learn how to spend his money like a gentleman. Younger brothers are, in