xl AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 
bill of health; but he thought otherwise, and he 
was right. 
I brought over with me from Spain a superbly’ 
mounted Spanish gun, and a beautiful ivory cruci- 
fix: they had been a present from the Duchess of 
Alva to my deceased uncle. The gun is the iden- 
tical one which the famous Duke of Alva had with 
him in the Low Countries: my uncle always in- 
tended it for his relative, the late Sir Richard 
Bedingfeld, Bart., of Oxburgh in Norfolk, to which 
place I sent it. The crucifix had been taken away 
from Rome, by a French general, in 1796: it was a 
present to my mother, and is now at Walton Hall. 
Up to the time of my leaving England for the 
Mediterranean, I had been accustomed to drink a 
little beer at dinner; but, finding the taste of it 
bitter on my return, I put the glass down upon the 
table without swallowing its contents, and have 
never since drunk one drop of fermented liquors. 
The pestilence at Malaga had shaken me con- 
siderably. Being but thinly clad, in coming up the 
Channel I caught a cold, which attacked the lungs, 
and reduced me to the brink of the grave. I must 
have sunk, had it not been for the skill of the late 
celebrated surgeon, Mr. Hey of Leeds: he set me 
on my legs again; and I again hunted with Lord 
Darlington. But the bleak and wintry wind of 
England ill suited a frame naturally chilly, and in- 
jured by what had already happened. I longed to 
bask in a warmer sun. 
My paternal uncle having estates in Demerara, 
and my father having lately made a purchase there, 
