ABSTRACT
On his return to London, SB took up residence in Dover Street, London, off Piccadilly.1 He visited Portsmouth, Plymouth, Chatham and renewed friendships. One was with Alleyne Fitzherbert, Baron St Helens, who had been British envoy at St Petersburg between 1783 and 1787. SB’s letter to him of 8 July 1791 expressed both indifference to the fighting in which he had been involved and a sense of uncertainty as to the benefit to be derived from his activities. ‘Since I saw you, I have been just equipping flotillas, and fighting on board them, and view them visiting my ever-beloved Siberia: in short, the inquiry, how utility is to come of it, is what must forever occupy me. It makes but little difference to me what be the country.’ However he still pinned hope and interest upon his Siberian operations. ‘I have at present the command of a regiment of two battalions: one of them on the Irtish, the other near Kiaktha: 2800 miles one from the other. Projects of discovery and improvement, some executed, others, I hope, executing, and many more to execute, occupy me, and these battalions are subservient to these projects.’2
