Next week on Monday the Royal Academy opens and I shall present my drawing." "_October 21, 1811._ I wrote you by the Galen about three weeks ago and have this moment heard she was still in the Downs.

I was really provoked.
There is great deception about vessels; they advertise for a certain day and perhaps do not sail under a month after.

The Galen has been going and going till I am sick of hearing she hasn't gone." "_November 6, 1811._ After leaving this letter so long, as you see by the different dates, I again resume it.

Perhaps you will be surprised when I tell you that but yesterday I heard that the Galen is still wind-bound.
It makes my letters which are on board of her about five or six weeks old, besides the prospect of a long voyage.

However it is not her fault.
There are three or four hundred vessels in the same predicament.