Volume 4 — GUN-BOATS FOR DEFENCE (1803). Source.—Diaries ... of the Right Hon. George Rose, 1860. P. 69.

Mr. Pitt to Mr. Rose.

Margate, Oct. 18th, 1803.

Dear Rose

I received your letter just as I left home this morning. I had not forgot your wish to have a description of our gun-boats; but as many of my friends here are more expert in fitting a boat, or fighting it, than in writing or drawing, I could not at once obtain one which would explain to you the last improved mode of fitting as accurately as I wished. But Mr. Whitby, the Assistant of Sheerness Yard, who has been appointed to superintend the work, and whom I saw yesterday, has promised me to send immediately to your house, in Palace Yard, a small model of the frame and slide, which will, I trust, completely answer the purpose. I should hope it will reach your house in a day or two, and you will, I take for granted, send orders for its being immediately forwarded to you by coach. We have now fitted, or are fitting, I believe, about 170 boats between Margate and Hastings, which, I think, will contribute not a little to giving the enemy a good reception whenever they think proper to visit us. By the intelligence I collect, and by the orders for extraordinary preparation which are received from London by this post, I am much more inclined than I have ever been hitherto to believe that some attempt will be made soon. In this situation I am likely to have my time very completely occupied by the various concerns of my regiment and my district. I hope, however, to find some interval for attending a little to the cursory remarks, when I hear from Long, which I am expecting to do every day. Our volunteers are, I think, likely, to be called upon to undertake permanent duty, which, I hope, they will readily consent to. I suppose the same measure will be recommended in your part of the coast. I wish the arrangements for defence were as forward everywhere else as they are in Hythe Bay, under General Moore. We begin now to have no other fear in that quarter than that the enemy will not give us an opportunity of putting our preparations to the proof, and will select some other point, which we should not be in search of in the first instance. I write here to save the post, as I shall not get back to Walmer till a late hour.

Ever sincerely yours, W. Pitt.