408 REMINISCENCES OF 



" I stayed a night with Captain Williams lately, 

 and had a very merry day with the Jesuits at Stony- 

 hurst a great dinner and plays at night. I never 

 saw such a jolly set of men when they really unbend 

 among themselves. Sir Charles Tempest had just 

 died there ' in retreat '. They smiled when he came, 

 and said he looked well, but he told them he had 

 only a few days left, and he lived five. 



" Faithfully yours, 



" HENRY DIXON." 



" 10 KENSINGTON SQUARE, W., 

 " i8th February, 1867. 



" DEAR SIR, 



" Would you kindly, if it is not asking you 

 too much, drop me a line on your off day to say 

 what you are doing ? I see the great run's memory 

 is to be embalmed in a Waterloo Gorse Stakes. I 

 found my wife (and never changed on the line) within 

 a quarter of a mile of that cover, so from different 

 reasons I have as great a respect for it as you can 

 have. 



" I have had a fearful fight with asthma these 

 last three months, but it fairly wore me out with 

 gasping and sleepless nights, and now I cannot walk 

 across a room without holding by somebody and 

 blowing like a steam-engine, so for eight days I have 

 been in bed propped up with a bed-rest, and I know 

 not when I shall leave it, as the slightest turn or 

 twist affects the throat. Night and day are much 

 the same. I sleep when I can, like a poacher's dog 

 more by day than night, and I write this at half-past 



