Percy Grace, R.N, (brother to Sir William Grace, Bart.), and Captain William Clarke Jervoise. R.N., happening to be there on a visits and sitting up later than the rest of the family, were the first who discovered the fire; on which they instantly awoke his lordship, and induced him and his amiable consort to leave the house without a moment’s delay. They then proceeded to the nursery, and had Lady Anna Eliza Mary Grenville, the then only child of Earl and Countess Temple, conveyed to the parsonage; but before the young lady had even left the house, a great burning beam, extending across the nursery-ceiling, fell in, and crushed the cradle from which she had just been removed. Fortunately no lives were lost; but the rapid progress of the devouring element was such as to render the preservation of property hopeless and impracticable. A more rapid or merciless conflagration can scarcely be imagined. From the first discovery of the fire, by Captains Grace and Jervoise, to the total destruction of the house, an interval of two hours did not elapse.”
On the 17th of Jan. 1822, Captain Grace was appointed to the Cyrené 20, fitting out at Plymouth, for the African station, where he captured the Dutch schooner Aurora, of 144 tons, 4 guns, and 26 men; and detained l’Hypolite schooner (under French colours), of 95 tons, 2 guns, and 19 men. Both of these vessels were equipped in the most complete manner for slaving, and each had a cargo ready for embarkation at the factories on the Gallinas river; from whence 180 slaves were subsequently brought off, and sent to Sierra Leone, but not until after the boats of the Cyrené had had a sharp brush with the native dealers and their European instigators, the particulars of which are thus detailed by Captain Grace in his official report to the late Commodore Sir Robert Mends, dated Oct. 26th, 1822:–
