A series of twenty-four autograph letters from John Brand Umfreville of Northumberland to his sister, Margaret, and two to her husband the Rev. Robert Greenwood, describing his life in the navy, the war with the French ("...Hearts of oak are our ships & jolly tars are men...although they may be a superior force to us we will take them..."), his views on his messmates ("...very agreeable gentlemen ..."), on Napoleon ("...Buonaparte is not so fond of Smiling English Powder and Shot as Many people suppose...he has a great number of dangers to encounter before he can get a footing on British land..."), his postings, promotions and the patronage of the Duke of Northumberland, matters of prize money and his deployment to the Gulf of Florida and Mexico in 1814 ("...the whole coast of America has been declared in a state of blockade. They now begin to feel the affects of their unjust war and probably there will be a revolt in the Southern States..."), talking also of peacetime pleasures - Havana cigars and Jamaican rum by the fireside - and local gossip ("...the fascinating captain with the soft effeminate Eyes does not make his Entrée to the Ball tonight no doubt to the great disappointment of the Beauteous fair of Bleak Northumbria..."), 60 pages, 4to, seal holes, splits along folds and dust-staining, some paper losses, HMS Impetueux, HMS Ethalion, HMS Childers and others, Torbay, Plymouth Dock, Spithead, Bahamas, Bermuda, Newcastle and elsewhere, 22 September 1799 to 28 January 1820; with five autograph letters from the Duke of Northumberland to his protégé written between 1798 and 1811; two autograph letters, one from Admiral Peter Rainier to Admiral Sir George Keith Elphinstone regarding the promotion of his nephew and the question of the huge booty taken by Rainier's squadron at the capture of Amboyna and Banda Neira earlier in the year; the other from Captain John Stewart, Commander of the HMS Seahorse to ("Miss Elphinstone"), daughter of Admiral Elphinstone, recounting recent engagements and campaign news in the bay of Naples, 1796 and 1809.