Trollope's final years: honours, illness and isolation

After his wife's death, Trollope lived alone in Bath and had no children. Gout troubled him, and fear of burglary led him to turn his bedroom into an armoury. He was a Knight Commander and later a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, and eventually reached Admiral of the White. For all those honours, his old age was marked by illness, fear and isolation. He died by suicide in November 1839. The account suggests loneliness and gout may have contributed, but his motives remain uncertain. The closing reflection contrasts the confidence of a younger captain, surrounded by his crew and guns, with the isolation of old age.