Back in England, on 30 June 1801, Nelson pursued a busy and rather unsettled schedule. On arriving at Yarmouth, he first visited wounded sailors in hospital and then immediately went on to London, where he reported to the First Lord of the Admiralty, Earl St Vincent, in the morning of 1 July. He spent a few days at Boxhill in Surrey with the Hamiltons and picked up old contacts, among them with Prince Castelcicala, the Neapolitan ambassador to Britain, who pressed him to write to the Prime Minister, Henry Addington. After another meeting with St Vincent he ‘was so unwell with pain in my stomach that I have been forced to get again into the country’, this time to Staines. There he received an invitation from the Prime Minister to meet him alone. The result of the meeting appears to have been an agreement according to which on the one hand Nelson's barony was allowed to be perpetuated and on the other hand he was prepared to take command of a squadron of small ships, ordered to defend the English coast against an attempt of invasion by the French. Apparently Addington hoped to calm fears of an invasion by employing Nelson for this rather unusual task for a Vice-Admiral. Nelson, however, appears to have identified immediately with this new command. When he received his orders, on 25 July, he had already finished a lengthy memorandum ‘on the defence of the Thames’. Two days later, Nelson hoisted his flag on board the Unité frigate at Sheerness.

During the first eight days of his new command, between 27 July and 3 August 1801, stationed at Sheerness, Deal and then in the Downs, Nelson wrote daily to Lady Hamilton [180–186]. The contents of the letters reflect how much his time was taken up by naval matters. He embraced them energetically and joyfully, even jokingly claiming that Admiral Graeme, who had also lost his right arm, and the Commander of the Troops, who had lost a leg, together with him should ‘be caricatured as the lame defenders of England’ [180]. He proudly reported that he had ‘found thet reception which I have been so used to’ [183] and interspersed his letters with assurances of affection [mostly 182–185].