He was a clever, facetious, and kind-hearted person; and I believe it was money matters that drove him, poor man! to the bottle; he died sometime after on shore. He used to tell us boys: “My dear fellows, do as I say, and not as I do.” Not having been in England for four years, and my brother being encamped on Coxheath, I got permission, previous to the ship being paid off, to go and see him. Nothing would serve me but a ride on horseback. I was dressed out very smart in white visibles--not invisibles, as the ladies call them--although it appears the fashion of the day to show they wear trousers, _whose scientific, Oriental name, by-the-bye, is fatimas_. To the young ladies I have a pretty little anecdote to relate. I knew a very gallant officer who fell deeply in love with a lady merely from handing her into a carriage. The moment she put her pretty feet upon the carriage steps he was pierced by Cupid’s arrows. He dreamed of them all night; thought of them when he awoke in the morning; he could not drive them from his imagination during the day. The pretty feet again appeared before his fancy when asleep the next night, and the third day found him prostrate before them, acknowledging their beauty, and supplicating that he might call them his own. He was accepted. Were this not an “olla”--which means in Spanish something of all sorts--I should not have ventured to have written the above. To return to my ride. As I said before, I was in full dress, with cocked hat, long coat, and side-arms, that I might appear in camp in a becoming manner. The landlord at the inn told me he knew sailors liked to ride fast, and promised to give me a quiet blood mare he had in his stables, who would show me the way. She was shortly equipped, and brought out. Upon her back I mounted; but scarcely were we out of the town of Chatham when off she started at full speed, and ran away with me along the turnpike road, to the amusement of some of his Majesty’s liege subjects, and to the terror and dismay of others--up hill, down dale, splashing myself, and every person I met, with mud, for the roads were wet, and it began to pour with rain. The ladies and gentlemen in their carriages as I passed them stared at me with astonishment. Having got to a place, called Kit’s Cot Hill, I ran on board of a man riding upon a donkey, with two sacks of flour, knocking him, donkey and cargo, head over heels; but my steed being pretty nearly blown, I at length stopped her. The miller was, fortunately, not hurt, but came up in a great passion to attack me. Luckily just at the moment some soldiers, who belonged to the same regiment as my brother, were passing by: they took my part, and, a parley ensuing, I explained how the untoward event had happened, and it ended in a laugh. Not far from this was a small inn, where I put up my flyaway, having had enough riding for one day, hired a gig, and at last got safe to the regiment without any broken bones.