COL. ANSTRUTHER THOMSON 167 



Shamba. Tell George Moore. Good-bye, Jack ; I 

 hope we shall have a fight soon. 



" We had no end of false alarms on our patrol, on 

 which occasions we were very pugnacious. It strikes 

 me you will have to pay for this letter. I have no 

 foreign paper, and my eyes are too weak to write 

 close. Pray write soon. 



" SOAME G. JENYNS." 



" BALAKLAVA, i8th November, 1854. 



" MY DEAR JACK, 



" I intended writing you a line long ago, 

 but really we have had so much to do, and when we 

 have had a spare moment too glad to sleep, that I 

 have, I am afraid, been very idle. I am now on 

 board ship in Balaklava harbour, as my old enemy, 

 diarrhoea, has come on again from the wet and cold, 

 and I have been ordered a few days' rest and com- 

 fort. You will have seen, alas, in the papers our sad 

 loss. Poor dear old Goad never can be replaced. 

 It is a terrible blow to me and all, and I am sure all 

 old 1 3th will feel the same. However, I hope you 

 all need not feel ashamed of the old corps. We were 

 ordered to do a thing that no cavalry unsupported 

 could do. However, we did what we could, and had 

 the satisfaction of sending all the Russe cavalry 

 cutting like a flock of sheep, till we were all nearly 

 bowled over by the guns, as you may imagine when 

 we had only 1 1 o horses on parade that morning, and 

 had eighty-six killed and ten wounded, and every 

 officer's horse killed except Percy Smith's. The 

 1 7th and I3th went in first line, so caught it worst, 



