Item 68 - Henry Mordaunt Clavering to John Benn

Follows the method of the Duke of Wellington to avoid bad colds - being rubbed down with hair gloves or a stiff brush in the morning. Advice on kit for JB's sons, one of whom is being posted to Newfoundland, and the other to Corfu. HMC himself has gone from England to America to Africa to Portugal to France and finally back to England. HMC's sons Douglas and Rawdon are both dead, so HMC mainly interested in his grandson, son of Rawdon, now cruising in HMS Leander off the coast of Portugal. On the Frenchman Alexis Soyer, chef at the Reform Club, falling through some ice (while skating), being rescued by some members of the Humane Society, and setting up an annual fund to its benefit. Recalls dropping an Ainsworth Latin Dictionary over a staircase on the head of a French master Tavalle or Savalle - there was one of each name) coming up. Brought before Dr. Smith the next morning by a monitor bearing a birch rod, on being questioned about the circumstances, he replied that it was only a Frenchman; on hearing this, the Head Master dismissed him. Smith was too lenient in those days, having become indifferent through having long been passed over for meaningful preferment.