COL. ANSTRUTHER THOMSON 23 



CHAPTER III. 



GERMANY. 



AFTER leaving Eton I went abroad with Captain 

 Lethbridge, Royal Artillery, as tutor. He was rather 

 a stuck-up chap, but we got on pretty well. We 

 started on top of a coach from Gloucester Coffee- 

 house in January, 1835, sailed over to Ostend, ran 

 aground, and had to wait till the tide rose. Luckily 

 it was very calm. At last we got to Ostend, and 

 went on to Saxe- Weimar. 



" gth January, 1835. 



" MY DEAR MOTHER, 



"We have arrived here at last in the 

 middle of yesterday morning at two o'clock. I never 

 felt it so cold in my life, and we got cold rooms 

 and were obliged to get beds made for us ; but now 

 we have got into our own abode. Sir John Hope 

 had written to General Slybach, or Swybach, that 

 we were coming, so he had got lodgings ready for 

 us. He is very good-natured to us and very useful. 

 We had a recommendation to Baron Someone from 

 Baron Ompteda, and we got an invitation last night 

 to a ball there ; but it is not proper to go anywhere 

 and meet the Grand Due till you have been at court, 

 so we asked the General what we should do, and he 



