VEO.MAXRY CAVALRY 83 



pastimes then in vogue, including cock-fighting and 

 bull-baiting, which had not then been abandoned. 



I also joined the Yeomanry Cavalry, at that time 

 commanded by a son of the East India Company's 

 agent at Portsmouth ; ^ and as I had the means of 

 mounting my principal clerk as one of the troop, and mj 

 foreman in the stables as a trumpeter, I was pretty 

 well recommended to the notice of the Colonel-command- 

 ing and the Adjutant, the latter being an intimate friend 

 of our family. These avocations extended my acquaint- 

 ance among some of the most flourishing tradesmen in 

 the town, as well as the leading farmers and dealers in 

 the country. Among the former was a man some few 

 years older than myself, who was the sergeant-major, and 

 a very efiicient soldier he was ; being a good swordsman, 

 as well as a most excellent horseman. 



Of these qualities he had given me a proof, which was 

 the cause, if not the commencement, of our friendship. 

 Being in London for the first time since my recovery, I 

 determined to see the Derby, for which purpose I bor- 

 rowed a nag from a well-known horse-dealer in London, 

 with whom my father was acquainted. The animal on 

 which I was mounted threw me three times between 

 Bethlem Hospital and Epsom, and was altogether a 

 restive and unruly brute. Meeting the sergeant-major on 

 the Downs, with an intimate friend of mine in a gig, they 

 observed by the dust on my coat that I must have had a 

 fall; on my telling them how I had been served, he 

 volunteered to ride the mare home, while I should take 



' John Lindegren, Esq. 



