was a complete
disgrace to any man of a liberal education, in which I perfectly
agree with you.... I sincerely hope and trust that he [your son]
will mend as he becomes older and wiser.

Tom confesses himself at this time "a complete idle, good for nothing
fellow," but he disarms his mother's reproaches when he adds that he is
chiefly occupied in thinking of her and of his large estate in Canada
where he longs to be. It had for him a new attraction, since his cousin
Alick Ker was just going out to Canada, a Captain on the staff of Sir
James Craig, the new Governor, who was related to the Kers. For the time
Tom's family was content that he should be at Gibraltar, where he was
safe, and where, too, as Ker prudently says, "he lives cheaper than he
could in England, has a genteel [how the age loved that word!] society
and the use of a large Library." He rode on the sandy beach; sometimes,
until the coming of the French troops, the British officers were allowed
to ride into Spain.

These diversions all came to an end on August 26th, 1807, when Tom
turned his back on Gibraltar for good. Incredible as it may now seem,
the voyage to England took nearly a month; he arrived on the 24th of
September. The young man had been turning over seriously his future
prospects. In a letter to his mother he makes some enquiry about his
own probable income from his estate. While protesting that he is himself
"a Devilish ugly fellow" he has some thought of getting his mother to
choose a "rib" for him and, presumptuous as it may seem, she must be
handsome. He was thinking now of a civilian career. At Gibraltar he had
found that he was short-sighted, and long sight seemed a necessity to a
soldier. But Fraser, to whom he poured out his woe, answered that
short-sightedness need not interfere with his efficiency; Colonel Nairne
had been short-sighted and yet, withal, a successful officer; the
question of sight would matter only if he was in command, in face of the
enemy, and, even then, he could get assistance. Fraser advised him to
stay in the army until he attained the rank of a field officer, when he
might retire on half pay to his estate at Murray Bay, "extensive but not
valuable in proportion." In truth Tom, tired of the army, was home-sick.
He says to Fraser that he is "feeling an indescribable degree of anxiety
to see my dearest mother, sisters, and yourself, not forgetting to
include my estate, where I often figure myself, st