Temperance > Autobiography and personal recollections of John B. Gough

BIRTH—BIRTH-PLACE.
in the Fortieth and the famous Fifty-Second Regiments
of Light Infantry, till 1823, when he was discharged with
a pension of twenty pounds a year. He was in the Penin¬
sular war, and obtained a medal with six clasps, for
Corunna, Talavera, Salamanca, Badajos, Pombal, and
Busaco. He was once slightly wounded in the breast.
I remember, as well as if it had been but yesterday, how
he would go through military exercises with me, my
mimic weapon being a broom, and my martial equipments
some of his faded trappings. I was not, however, des-
tiued to see how fields were won. With what iutense
interest have I often listened to his descriptions of battle¬
fields! How I have shuddered at contemplating the
dreadful scenes which he so graphically portrayed! He
was present at the memorable battle of Corunna, and
witnessed its hero, Sir John Moore, carried from that
[fatal field. “Here,” he would say, “wassuch a regiment;
there, such a battalion; in this situation was the enemy;
and yonder was the position of the general and his staff.”
And then he would go on to describe the death of the
hero, his looks, and his burial near the ramparts, until
my young heart would leap with excitement. A part from
such attractions as these, my father possessed few for a
child. His military habits had become a second nature
with him. Stern discipline had been taught him in a
severe school, and, it being impossible for him to cast off
(old associations, he was not calculated to win the deep
affections of a child,—although in every respect he de¬
served and possessed my love.
My mother’s character was cast in a gentler mould.
Her heart was a fountain whence the pure waters of
affection never ceased to flow. Her very being seemed
twined with mine, and ardently did I return her love.
For the long space of twenty years she had occupied the