I ride fast through the countryside north of London. I have spent the winter months at Candleford house, my village estate in Stanmere, whilst on the European continent the remnants of the French army licks its wounds and sends the press gangs out into the streets of Paris. Bonaparte has been in America spreading the poisonous seeds of republicanism whilst our brave lobster backs hold the forts on the Canadian border. But in the Peninsular, though the gates of Madrid had only last year opened for us, and I myself remember hearing of the destruction whilst lying upon the surgeon's bed, a bayonet wound still healing in my side, Marquess Wellington has met with defeat for the first time since landing on the beaches of Portugal. It has been the castle of Burgos that finally defeated him! High losses were taken by us the 42nd, as we lost thirty nine men and four officers including Captain Butterworth, hero of Corunna, and when our company retreated, along with the rest of the British army under Wellington's command, back across the Portuguese border to winter quarters in Guillade, the entire battalion still carrier but only four hundred men effective, the rest having been struck down with Walachern fever.
However I have, as previously stated, spent the winter months on my estates nine miles north of the capital recovering from my wounds, so I have experienced none of the hardships of the first battalion and have even been exempted from training with the second battalion. But I am travelling again now, heading north by coach to the first muster of the troops bound for Spain this spring (which is not yet officially upon us, for only yesterday it snowed!). A camp has been formed in the grounds of Ickworth house, the residence of the earl of Bristol, the grounds of which have been commandeered as a training ground for the rifles and which, this weekend, are to become the home of General Monk's new recruits.
Recruiting parties will ravage Bury St Edmunds and the surrounding countryside, whilst fresh soldiers like myself will be retrained and reequipped. This May we shall all sail for the Peninsular, if the regiment has not completely succumbed entirely to fever.
Tonight we rest in local billets in anticipation of General Monk's arrival.
