He had, says his biographer, "in union with a capacity for very difficult services, a simplicity that often put him at disadvantage in worldly matters, and it became a common joke with the Admiral, that 'the doctor would always want somebody to take care of him.'" Nelson had everything read to him; first of all, newspapers, which were sent regularly to the fleet by British agents in various quarters.

Upon them chiefly, and not upon England, he depended for knowledge of what was happening; in Great Britain itself, as well as on the Continent.

From ten to twelve weeks was no uncommon length of time for him to be without word from home.

"I never hear from England," he wrote to Elliot in the summer of 1804, "but as we manage to get the Paris papers regularly through Spain.

From ten days to a fortnight we get them from their date at Paris: therefore we know the very great events which are passing in Europe--at least as much as the French people;" a shrewd limitation.