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[Page 386]

Paris, December 9" 1815

My dear dear Mother/

The letter I did myself last the plea-
-sure of addressing you was written just previous to my setting
out for Switzerland where I had the happiness to find my dear
Father, and our dear boys all, I may say, in perfect health –
For tho my father had suffered much from his nervous gout, and
during the two months I was with him continued in a great mea-
-sure to be a Martyr to it, yet during the absence of the disease, he pur-
-sued the appearance and activity of a Man who far from having
been afflicted with so painful a malady, had ever enjoyed the most
uninterrupted state of health.

When I arrived at Vevay [Vevey] I found
my Father sitting at home by himself, and tho four years had
nearly lapsed since our last meeting, I found no other altera
-tion in his person than that of having become a little more
lusty: James and William were out on a visit to some
one of their acquaintance, but on their return home in
the evening, they no longer recognized the brother in whom
four Campaigns had wrought so great a change. They
approached him with diffidence half suspecting who it
was, yet obliged to contain themselves from an idea of his
being a stranger – This scene you will readily conceive, my
dear Mother, was of short duration; having soon been interrupted
by my anxiety to embrace them – If they could no longer remem
-ber me – I am sure I was equally at a loss to recall the two Kanga
roos I had beheld on their first arrival from the Colony, so altered;
James, in particular who tho still unformed is stouter and taller
than myself, and William though a little fellow, is yet most ast
-oundingly
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The day after I took leave of my Father I was at Geneva. It was such
wretched weather, that I felt no kind of inducement to remain in this
celebrated City, which however is one of the least prepossessing I have ever
seen. The lake and the scenery about the town are justly admired. The follow-
-ing Morning I set out in the diligence for Lyons, with five french women as
fellow travellers and as they were very apprehensive of taking cold I was com-
pelled almost to submit to suffocation, and was permitted to have a little
fresh air when I was almost incapable of asking for it – I never intend to be
so complaisant again – The only curious object I saw in this journey was
the sudden disappearance of the Rhone, which flows some hundred
yards underground, and then appears from its subterraneous channel –

We were a day and night on the road – About eleven o'clock the follow
ing Morning we entered Lyons. It stands in the confluence of the Rhone
and the Saône; is a very fine Town and contains about a hundred
thousand inhabitants. I spent three days very agreeably in this City, and
on the 18th commenced my journey to Paris. Having entered Switzerland by Dijon and Bezançon I determined to return by a different rout [route], and
therefore took that of the Loire passing through Roanne, Moulins, Nevers,
Fontainebleau &c – As I travelled in the diligence and at the worst season of
the year, I neither could, nor felt inclined to stop to make inquiries –

Fortunately [continued at lower part of next page]