xl AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP 



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, 



