[Henry Bathurst, Bishop of Norwich.] Autograph Letter Signed ('H. Norwich'), to a relative of Captain George Nicholas Hardinge, Royal Navy hero, on receipt of an engraving of him, discussing naval 'merit' in the Napoleonic Wars.

1p, 4to. In fair condition, aged and worn; laid down on part of a leaf removed from an album. Bathurst's name written in two nineteenth-century hands at the head. The letter was evidently written on receipt of an engraving of Captain George Nicholas Hardinge (1776-1813) of HMS St Fiorenzo, adopted son of George and Lucy Hardinge, who was killed in a naval action off the coast of Ceylon. The letter begins: 'Dear Sir, | To a mind like yours, it must be a very genuine, though a melancholy pleasure, to reflect that among the number of young men, whom the destructive war has hurried to an untimely Grave, there is not one, to whom the following beautiful Lines of Collins are more applicable, than to Captain Hardinge. - | How sleep the Brave, who sink to rest | By all their Countrys wishes blest. - &c'. Bathurst will 'feel a particular pride and satisfaction, in placing the Engraving to the memory of your excellent relative, next to the Portrait of our Norfolk Heroe, the immortal Nelson. - may the sight of two such characters inspire my children, with an ardent wish, to emulate, as they can, transcendant [sic] merit!' Bathurst's youngest son 'is lately gone to Sea'. A postscript reads: 'If I should have neglected to pay my Subscription for the Engraving, will you be so good as to desire some one to call upon Mr: Payne the Bookseller [i.e. Thomas Payne the younger (1752-1831), for whom see the Oxford DNB]'.