As lieutenant-general of all the horse he accompanied Lord Astley in the last campaign of the first war, and, taken prisoner at Stow-on-the-Wold, he engaged not to bear arms against parliament in the future.
Close to the town is the beautiful Elizabethan mansion of Astley Hall, which is said to have sheltered Oliver Cromwell after the battle of Preston (1648).
He also studied at Guy's Hospital, London (1797-1801), where he was a pupil of Sir Astley Cooper.
His latest published work was a biography of his friend Sir Astley Cooper Key, and his last article was a critical examination of the tactics adopted at Trafalgar, which showed his acumen and insight at their best.
In the present Westminster Bridge Road was a circus, well known in the later 18th and early 19th centuries as Astley's, and near Vauxhall Bridge were the celebrated Vauxhall Gardens.
The earlier letters of this correspondence show how rapidly he rose to distinction in a field where success was difficult, as it was already occupied by such men as John Abernethy, Sir Astley Cooper and Henry Cline.
Through the kindness of Henry Salt, the traveller and antiquarian, who was ever afterwards his patron, he was engaged at Astley's amphitheatre, and his circumstances soon began to improve.