This was a most pleasing spectacle to those
who had been so long without any other prospects than the uniform
view of a vacant ocean, and it gave us the more pleasure as we
were now free from the anxieties which the state of war occasion'd.
I set out immediately, with my son, for London, and we only stopt
a little by the way to view Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain, and Lord
Pembroke's house and gardens, with his very curious antiquities
at Wilton. We arrived in London the 27th of July, 1757.<16>
<16> Here terminates the Autobiography, as published by
Wm. Temple Franklin and his successors. What follows
was written in the last year of Dr. Franklin's life,
and was first printed (in English) in Mr. Bigelow's
edition of 1868.--ED.
AS SOON as I was settled in a lodging Mr. Charles had provided for me,
I went to visit Dr. Fothergill, to whom I was strongly recommended,
and whose counsel respecting my proceedings I was advis'd to obtain.
He was against an immediate complaint to government, and thought
the proprietaries should first be personally appli'd to, who might
possibly be induc'd by the interposition and persuasion of some
private friends, to accommodate matters amicably. I then waited
on my old friend and correspondent, Mr. Peter Collinson, who told
me that John Hanbury, the great Virginia merchant, had requested
to be informed when I should arrive, that he might carry me to Lord
Granville's, who was then President of the Council and wished to see
me as soon as possible.
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