At a later date he writes from "Sandham" (Sandown) Cottage, a country retreat which he occupied frequently in these latter days, and several references to the Portsmouth Road occur from time to time, as he journeyed between Sandham Cottage and Prince's Court, London. He lay generally at the "Anchor," Liphook, where the landlady, Mrs. Keen, "dull and sour" though she might have been, according to one of Wilkes' letters, seems to have made the triumphant demagogue and his daughter sufficiently comfortable. Writing on September 14, 1788, he says:-- "MY DEAREST POLLY, "I arrived at Sandham yesterday afternoon at three, after a lucky passage of an hour and five minutes. There was very little wind, and that quite adverse. I therefore hired for four-and-sixpence a wherry with two oars not larger than a Thames boat, and committed myself to our English deity, Neptune, who favourably heard my prayers. The opposition of a little wind to the tide at high water made the beginning of this long voyage rather rough; but the rest was exceedingly pleasant. "The preceding day I lay at Liphook, and directed Mrs. Keen to send you this week a fine goose, and a brace of partridges.... "The road from Guildford quite to Portsmouth is really enchanting. But I wanted you to enjoy with me these glorious scenes of Nature. I hope, however, that the quiet of your present situation" (Miss Wilkes was visiting the Duchess de la Vallière) "has chased away your feveret, and restored you to sweet sleep, Nature's best nurse. Pray send me such welcome news." And then this agitator and sometime blasphemous member of the Medmenham Hell-Fire Club goes on to write verses appreciative of the scenery on the Portsmouth Road. In this wise:-- "Ever charming, ever new, The landscape never tires the view: The verdant meads, the river's flow, The woody vallies warm and low; The windy summit, wild and high, Roughly rushing on the sky: The pleasant seat, the ruin'd tower, The naked rock, the shady bower; The town and village,"---- But enough, enough. This "poetry" is but journalism cut into lengths and rhymed. [Sidenote: _WILKES AS CRITIC_]