This was, I may say, my first courtship, (and I then thought it would be my last,) for, during the three years I was in Ireland, I never spent an hour in a woman's company, good or bad, although some of my companions often tried to lead me astray. But I was always so much taken up with my music, that I had no time to spend in such courses: Providence by this means preserving me from at least a worse evil; for these strange women (as Solomon calls them) were the occasion of hundreds of the regiment getting themselves confined and flogged, besides the other dreadful effects produced by their company. Nothing extraordinary happened till we came to Hastings, which we left on the 15th March, 1807, (on our route to Portsmouth to be embarked for India,) and reached Lewes on that day, where I, and thirty others of our regiment, were billeted at the White Hart. Shoreham is the next stage for soldiers, and here, intending to write my friends in Scotland, I felt for my watch, (which cast up the day of the month,) that I might put the right date to my letter, but, to my great mortification, my watch was gone. After a little reflection, I remembered that I had, very stupidly indeed, left it in my quarters at Lewes: so I immediately went to Colonel Stewart to ask his permission to return there, which he readily granted. I left Shoreham about four o'clock at night, and reached the inn at Lewes about eleven. Happy was I to find my watch safe in the possession of Boots, and I immediately took the road again, and was in Shoreham in good time to march with the regiment in the morning. When Colonel Stewart saw me, he inquired why I had not gone for my watch; and when I told him I had already been at Lewes, he would scarcely believe me, until I showed her to him. He then desired me to get on one of the baggage waggons; but I said I was able enough for the march; but you may believe I was terribly tired before we reached the next stage.