We left London July 28th 1814 on a hotter day than has been known in this climate for many years. I am not a good traveller and this heat agreed very ill with me till on arriving at Dover I was refreshed by a sea-bath. As we very much wished to cross the channel with all possible speed we would not wait for the packet of the following day (it being then about four in the afternoon) but hiring a small boat resolved to make the passage the same evening the seamen promising us a voyage of two hours.