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 CHAPTER XIII

Hastings in England

1785-1818

On the 13th June, 1785, Hastings landed at Plymouth, after a voyage comparatively short and wholly uneventful, except for a brief stay at St. Helena. He had employed much of his time in writing a narrative of the last three months of his rule, and in putting some odes of Horace into a modern English dress. His free yet scholarly rendering of the 'Otium divos rogat' shows the skill of a graceful versifier in adapting the old poet's thoughts to his own experiences. The following stanza, which tells its own tale, may be taken as a fair sample of his literary craftsmanship: —

'No fears his peace of mind annoy, Lest printed lies his fame destroy, Which labor'd years have won; Nor pack'd committees break his rest, Nor avarice sends him forth in quest Of climes beneath the sun.'

His first care of course was to rejoin his beloved wife, who had been graciously received at Court by