He visited Balmoral Castle in September 1879, and in subsequent years wrote the Queen letters described by Ian Beckett as "extraordinarily sycophantic". He was already very deaf and hardly stopped talking; the Queen herself recorded that she "hollered at him", whilst in the field an officer had to accompany him at night as he might not hear a sentry's challenge; his deafness came partly from his various fevers. He was also a hypochondriac, and very vain – he is said to have had his medal ribbons bordered in black so that they would be more visible.