LIEUT.-GHENERAL THOMAS DYNELEY, C.B., R.A. 547 
know what to think of the chance he has; his duty will be very severe. 
We have had a most dreadful time of it this last fortnight. I do really 
believe it has never ceased raining for half-an-hour, and our poor men 
have never had a dry stitch on their backs during the whole of that 
time. I wish I could meet with a conveyance for the acorns for Miss 
Scott ; I had them out for inspection this morning and gave them a 
polishing to prevent them getting mildewed. Make my kind remem- 
brances to her when next you see her. 
I heard from Harding yesterday ; he has sent me a fine turkey for 
my Christmas dinner; he is in sad distress about a young brother who 
has very lately come to this country. He had heard of battles and 
must come here too, and pretty work he has had of it! In coming up 
country he had all his baggage stolen, and Harding found him at 
Salamanca without an article. I lent him £40 to set himself up again, 
and he had the whole of the new kit taken by the enemy, in addition 
to which he is very ill, but in what part of the country Harding cannot 
learn. The moment I saw him I was quite certain in my own mind 
that he was not one to stand the fatigues of the campaign, and if he 
does not return home shortly, he will not gethome atall. Tell Barbara 
I did not forget her orders about young Ord. I met him on the retreat 
and, like most of his neighbours, without a farthing in his pocket. I 
therefore lent him £20, so you see I am “ Gosling” to the army. 
Extraordinarily enough, just as I had finished this last sentence, in 
walk Downman and Harding come to stay three or four days with me. 
Harding has not heard from his brother? since he wrote. 
San Paro, December 22nd, 1812. 
It is to be regretted no other letters from the Peninsula are forth- 
coming. We lose therefore Captain Dyneley’s experiences of the 
campaign of 1813, including the affairs at Morales de Toro, that of 
June the 12th, and of the battles of Vitoria and the Pyrenees. 
He would have entered his name as a volunteer for the siege oy 
St. Sebastian, but for a letter received just before from his mother 
entreating him not to expose himself unnecessarily ; nevertheless, as an 
amateur, he was pretty constantly in the trenches. 
In November he experienced a severe return of the disorder which 
obliged him to quit Sicily and was sent to England by a medical board. 
He was on the eve of rejoining the army, his horses and baggage being 
embarked, when news arrived of the termination of hostilities in April 
1814.— Hd. 
1 This brother was in the 5th Regiment. He is mentioned as being with the army in Decomber 
1813, by Lieutenant Richard Hardinge, R.A., in his diary.—Hd, 
(4 
