Page:The letters of William Blake (1906).djvu/203

 Rh or sorrow.—I have the honour to remain, your ever affectionate and much obliged,

I thank kindly for the remembrance of I. Denman: he is not my nephew, he is whole brother to Maria and half-brother to my wife.

30.

To William Hayley.

London, 14th January 1804,

,—I write immediately on my arrival, not merely to inform you that in a conversation with an old soldier, who came in the coach with me, I learned that no one, not even the most expert horseman, ought ever to mount a trooper s horse. They are taught so many tricks, such as stopping short, falling down on their knees, running sideways, and in various and innumerable ways endeavouring to throw the rider, that it is a miracle if a stranger escape with his life. All this I learned with some alarm, and heard also what the soldier said confirmed by another person in the coach. I therefore, as it is my duty, beg and entreat you never to mount that wretched horse again, nor again trust to one who has been so