82 REMINISCENCES OF 



to a small one made in the corner of the verandah for 

 Willie, and Mailly gave hers to a stupid little Miss 

 Oldershaw, an engineer's daughter, who she fancies 

 she is very fond of, but she gets very tired of her, 

 and returns to recover the fatigue of entertaining her. 

 We generally have midshipmen on Sunday. So, al- 

 together, without my uncle and aunt, we went a party 

 of ten to fetch a walk, and met a party of nine from 

 Government House. It is lucky we are a long mile 

 asunder, otherwise, I think, they would try to run in 

 and out. 



" You can't get up races in Fife ; but we are 

 much grander. On the nth we all set out for St. 

 George's, after various doubts and fears. The morn- 

 ing being rainy, it cleared, and down we sailed in an 

 hour, and this time we had a whole lodging-house to 

 ourselves. Most of the Bermuda houses have the 

 staircase entering the sitting-room (for coolness I 

 suppose). This was a good large one and three 

 small bedrooms off it ; so John Erskine and Mr. 

 Katon went to their friends at the barracks. We 

 walked up to the racecourse, which was about half a 

 mile round a field, and went into the stand, where we 

 found the Reids, Hutchinsons, various officers, ladies 

 and dockyard belles. Four started for the first race 

 — The Ladies' Purse — but in the first heat Lord 

 Mark Kerr, who was running, had a bad fall and 

 was distanced. It was just in front of the stand ; 

 some ladies wept and some turned white, some red ; 

 but he was not hurt, only being very light, he carried 

 three stone dead-weight, which was not pleasant to 



