Frasers of Philorth > Volume 3

16 LETTERS FROM SICILY AND
those who are apt to despair, and trust now to be home by Christmas as a Lieut.-
Colonel.
I am going to-day to see a friend of mine who was wounded the other day
in the general action before Pampeluna. I do not know if you are acquainted
with him. His name is Campbell, and he is Lady Malpas' eldest brother, a
Major in the 6th regiment.
Sir D. H. Blair and myself are old hunting friends. A few years back we
kept house together for a season. The Victoria fete seems to have been the
great lion this year. It must have had a very grand effect ; for of all places in
London there cannot be a better place for a public sort of thing than Vauxhall ;
but to be good it ought to have been very full.
How goes on loo and the Tabby set 1 I dined yesterday with a man whom
you must have often met there, Captain E of our regiment. He began
to talk about Mrs. H , " a little varrnin woman with black eyes." I asked him
where he had met her. He said he often met her at Mrs. P.'s, and that she
was very fond of play, and led her husband a devil of a life. R and I
happen never to have met at P.'s, and he little thought I could have given him
tolerable information on that subject.
You see I take you at your word, and write as often and as long as I have
anything to say ; and it is accidental whether I have or not, for our life is either
a very active or a very dull one, no medium.
I have written this on my knees, and I fear you will have some difficult}' to
decipher it, for my table, which cannot be very large in camp, is laid for break-
fast, and four cups rather crowd it.
We are going to have a rare wet day, but I must go and see Campbell for all
that, as he is on his way to Bilboa, and I shall miss him if I do not. I hope
to see you in less than six months.
Till then, my dear, my dear Miss Thurlow, believe me, yours ever,
S .
XI.
Camp Irun, 2 September 1813.
My dear Miss Thurlow, — We came here two days back in order to sup-
port the advance, as the French were making demonstrations on this point with