Lady Mary was kindness itself. There were four children--the only daughter, a darling child with black eyes, now a happy grandmother, and long may she remain so! Of the three boys more hereafter. Both Colonel and Lady Mary had been at the Duchess of Richmond’s ball at Brussels on the eve of Waterloo. Fitzroy was in the Blues, and they accompanied the Duke of Richmond when he went to Canada as Governor, where I believe His Grace died from the bite of a fox. The then Dowager Duchess accepted a small collection of birds which I shot, skinned, and had stuffed while staying with her children at Wynberg. [Sidenote: Dec. 25.] Christmas Day arrived. Oh, how different from what I expected a month ago! How bright and cheery was this day’s gathering! [Sidenote: 1828. January.] My host was a thorough sportsman and a first-rate whip, and a month after arrival I found myself in the saddle; but being subject to attacks of intermittent fever, which caused a dismount, some one was always with me. As I grew stronger, I could sit on a side-saddle with a rug, and exercise Lady Mary’s own riding-horses. Often when riding over the usual hunting-ground in the open space at Stillenbach division, snakes were disturbed. Lord Charles Fitzroy Somerset had for many years been Governor of the Cape, and, as the name naturally implies, there was a vast improvement in the breed of horses. His name was a household word. [Sidenote: Cape.] Just before the arrival of the _Tweed_ two Oxfordshire emigrants, Henry and George Peck, had been wrecked in False Bay. Savings from the wreck enabled them to erect a shelter at Musemberg, a lucky spot, where the road between Cape Town and Simon’s Bay turns off at right angles fifteen miles from one place and seven from the other. There was an amusing simplicity about the brothers, and Lord John Churchill, claiming them as Oxford yeomen, gave a kind help. They commenced by selling ginger-beer to midshipmen. Lord John had a board painted, “The Farmers Peck,” which was raised on a post in front. After the _Tweed_ left, the officers of the next Commodore’s ship added an inscription, styling the brothers as “The Gentle Shepherds of Salisbury Plain.” “LIFE’S BUT A JOURNEY. LET US LIVE ON THE ROAD.” SAYS THE GENTLE SHEPHERD OF SALISBURY PLAIN. Multum in parvo, pro bono publico, Entertainment for men and beasts all of a row, Lekker kost as much as you please; Excellent beds without any fleas. Nos patriam fugimus, Now we are here, Vivamus; let us live by selling beer, On donne à boire et à manger ici; Come in and try it, whoever you be? It is now seventy years since our Captain started these honest farmers. _They_ have departed long since, but the original boards remain. A wing has been added, stables improved, and he must be a good rider that can get a Cape hack past without washing his mouth out.