A tutor from Wells was found to coach me for the Royal Naval College. One morning, after breakfast, Mr. Coke told me to join him in his study, directing me to sit on a certain chair, he at his desk. After a while he called me, and said: “Now I will tell you why I put you in that chair. Young Nelson sat there on an occasion when he came to make his declaration for half-pay as Commander.” Nelson’s home was with his father, the clergyman at Burnham Thorpe, about three miles from Holkham. Mr. Coke likewise introduced young Hoste (a neighbour) to Nelson.[1] At Holkham now there is a bedroom called “Nelson’s.” [1] Afterwards Admiral Sir William Hoste. [Illustration: _Nelson’s Chair._] [Sidenote: 1822.] Early in 1822 I was sent to my relative, William Garnier, Prebendary of Winchester Cathedral, whose home was in the Close; but it was his brother, the Dean, better known to us as “Uncle Tom,” to whom I was consigned. He had a son, George, who was already at the Royal Naval College. [Sidenote: Feb. 8.] It was on February 8 that I started with Uncle Tom in the Prebendary’s family coach, drawn by four fat greys, coachman on box, boy on near leader, pace about five miles per hour, for Gosport. On arrival I saw, for the first time, among other vessels, three full-rigged ships of the line, whose trucks reached at least 220 feet above the water-line. As yet I had seen nothing larger than a collier brig alongside Wells Pier. Uncle Tom took me in a wherry across the harbour to the dockyard, and so to the Royal Naval College, where I soon found myself in the presence of the Governor, Captain Loring, a warrior in uniform; as imposing to me as the leviathans I had just seen. Professor Inman was there--a tall man in black, with an austere countenance; but there was that in him that I liked. How I got through the examination I forget, but that day found me an officer in the service of King George IV. Captain John Wentworth Loring was the son of Joshua Loring, who held a staff appointment at Boston. At the end of the war he settled in Berkshire. His son, born in 1785, entered the navy as midshipman on board the _Salisbury_ in 1819. While Loring was serving in the West Indies in command of the _Lark_ sloop, she capsized in a hurricane. They cleverly saved themselves by cutting away masts and rigging, and, being well battened down, the vessel righted. She was towed into port at San Domingo to refit. Loring gained so much credit for the expeditious manner in which he performed this duty that the Admiral, Lord Hugh Seymour, appointed him Acting Captain of the _Syren_, 32-gun frigate, which had lately come out from Bantry Bay in a thoroughly demoralised and mutinous state!