Reviews in 1763-1764--Shooting-butts in 1778--Camp in 1780--Severe
Sentence of a Court-martial--Volunteer reviews, 1799-1800--The rain
at the latter.
IT would be wearisome to chronicle every review, except grand ones such
as the following, which is thus described in the _St. James’s
Chronicle_, June 25-28, 1763. “On the morning of the 27th inst. at
half-past eight, his Majesty, the Duke of York, and Prince William
Henry, attended by Earl Delawar, and escorted by the first troop of
Horse Guards, mounted their horses at the Queen’s Palace,[46] and
proceeded up Constitution Hill to Hyde Park. They were received at their
entry into St. James’s Park by Lord Ligonier, the Marquis of Granby,
Earl Talbot and Earl Harcourt, with their attendants and their led
horses. At the gate of the Green Park they were received by Lord Orford,
Ranger of the Parks, on Horseback; and, on their entry into Hyde Park,
his Majesty received a Royal Salute from the Artillery. The manner of
the three Regiments of Foot Guards going through their new method of
exercise, need not be repeated; it is sufficient to observe that never
men went through their discipline with greater exactness, which
reflected the highest honour on their Officers, and filled the numerous
spectators with admiration.
[Illustration: VOLUNTEER REVIEW BY GEORGE III., 1799.
Page 143
]
Besides the illustrious personages above mentioned, his Majesty’s two
younger Brothers, and a great number of the First Persons of Distinction
of both Sexes, and near One Hundred Thousand other People, were present.
It is remarkable that Elliot’s Light Horse, the _Matrosses_,[47] who
managed the artillery with such inimitable skill, and those of the
Guards, who served abroad in Germany, wore in their Caps and Hats Sprigs
of Laurel and Oak, emblematical of the Immortality and never-dying Fame
of their late glorious Achievements.”
On July 25 following, the King again reviewed Elliot’s Light Horse in
the Park, and the same newspaper (July 23-26) records the following
accidents. “Colonel Elliot, in putting up his sword into the Scabbard,
by the prancing of his Horse wounded himself in the Thigh, but not so
dangerously but that he went through the whole Exercise of his Regiment,
with great Composure and Exactness. A large arm of a Tree broke down, by
which accident a Sergeant in the Guards had his Skull fractured, and
several others were terribly bruised.”
George III. held many reviews in Hyde Park, especially during the early
days of the American War of Independence, and the Park was a veritable
_Champ de Mars_ for military exercises. In 1778, an earthen rampart,
twenty feet high and three feet wide at its base, was erected as butts
for musket practice. It began at Cumberland Gate, and ran westwards
towards Bayswater. Being near the high road, it was very dangerous,
although at that time the other side of the road was all fields.
On June 2nd, 1780, broke out the fanatical riots generally known as the
“Lord George Gordon Riots,” with which we have nothing to do, other than
to chronicle the fact that the troops in and near London being
considered insufficient to cope with the rioters, others were summoned
from different parts of the country. Lodging must be found for these on
their arrival, and we read in _The London Chronicle_, June 6-8, 1780,
that “Orders are given from the War Office for a Camp to be formed in
Hyde Park, and the several regiments that are to compose the same are
now on their march; and, yesterday, the Hampshire Militia pitched their
tents there for that purpose.” Also, later on in the same paper (p.
552), “Seven battalions of militia marched into Hyde-Park yesterday
afternoon, where they immediately encamped. A large detachment of the
Hampshire militia are doing duty at the President Lord Bathurst’s house
in Piccadilly. The Park Gates are all shut, and no person suffered to
pass through on any account whatever.”
_The Morning Chronicle_ of June 10 says: “Thursday (June 8), six
regiments of Militia were encamped in Hyde Park; they are to be joined
by several other regiments, which will make their number 10,000 men”:
and the same journal, June 13, tells us that, “The Grand Camp in Hyde
Park consists of the nine following regiments: the Queen’s, the Royal
Irish, the Twenty-second, Cambridge, South Hants, North Hants, Oxford,
Northumberland, One of York.” On the 14th June, the King, Prince of
Wales, and “the Bishop of Osnaburgh” (Duke of York) visited the
Camp--and so he did on several other occasions. But the riots came to an
end, and
[Illustration: THE SOLDIERS’ TOILET, 1780.
Page 145.
]
the news of the taking of Charlestown drove everything else out of
people’s heads, so that we do not hear much more of this Camp; but Paul
Sandby painted a series of views of the Camp, and exhibited them at the
next Royal Academy. He also engraved them. “_The Great Encampment in
Hyde Park._” “_The Encampment in Hyde Park_--_The Filbert Merchant_.”
“Ditto--_Marshall Sax’s Tent_.” “Ditto--_The Soldier’s Toilet_” (which
is here reproduced), and several others. In “_The Soldier’s Toilet_” we
get rather more than a peep into the domestic life of the Camp, and in
the background we see St. George’s Row, and the chapel attached to the
burial ground in the Bayswater Road, now rebuilt. After the scare was
over, and martial law in London was abolished, the Camp was much
visited; but when it had fulfilled its needs it had to come to an end,
and on the 10th of August the Camp broke up, after having earned golden
opinions from the Londoners.
After this Camp the King held frequent reviews, of which nothing need be
said, nor indeed is there anything military to chronicle with regard to
Hyde Park until May 1, 1787, on which date (_Gent.’s Mag._) “His Majesty
having sent down the sentence of a Court-martial held upon a private of
the Life Guards (for rude and improper behaviour to his officer) to the
Colonels of the four troops, for their consideration, it was returned by
them, and the purport was as follows:
_Sentence._--“That the prisoner Lloyd, private in the first troop of
Horse Guards, shall receive one thousand lashes, and then be publicly
dismissed the troop.
“His Majesty, we understand, but not in pity to the prisoner, whose
demerits deserve a severer punishment, has remitted that part of the
sentence which orders the _thousand lashes_, as corporal punishment was
never inflicted on his own Body Guard; and has ordered him to be
dismissed the troop, with every public mark of infamy.
“May 14. This day Lloyd, the Life Guardsman, convicted by a
Court-martial, as mentioned in a former article, was publicly trumpeted
out of the regiment, on the reviewing ground in Hyde Park. After the
ceremony was over, the populace carried off the man in triumph, in sight
of the whole regiment.”
Reviews by the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York, and the Duke of
Gloucester were frequent; and, after 1793, were much increased by the
Volunteers, who were then generally enrolled. There had been Volunteers
previously, notably the “Royal London and Middlesex Light Horse
Volunteers,” which ranked as the oldest corps, having been enrolled in
1779, during a violent French scare. Next year, they materially helped
to put down the Lord George Gordon Riots, and were rewarded by the King
and the City of London with standards. Disbanded in 1783, they were
again enrolled in 1794, and reviewed in Hyde Park, with their old
standards proudly flying, in July of that year.
But the grandest review in the Park at this time was on the 4th of June,
1799, the 62nd birthday of George III., when the “Armed Associations”
passed before him. The illustration is taken from a portion of a
contemporary engraving, and the following account is taken from _The
Annual Register_:--
“June 4th. Being his Majesty’s birthday, the several associations of the
metropolis and its neighbourhood, consisting of sixty-five well-equipped
corps, and amounting to upwards of 8000 effective men,[48] assembled in
Hyde Park, where they were reviewed by the King. The Temple Association,
commanded by Captain Graham, was the first that entered the Park; it
arrived at seven o’clock, during a heavy shower of rain, which continued
incessantly from the time it left the Temple Gardens. Several other
corps followed soon after; and, at half past eight, the whole were on
the ground. The necessary dispositions, agreeable to the official
regulations, were then made; and, about ten minutes past nine, his
Majesty appeared, attended by the Prince of Wales, the Dukes of York,
Kent, Cumberland and Gloucester, a number of general officers, and a
formidable detachment of the Life Guards.
“The line being formed, a cannon was fired, to announce the approach of
the King; on which all the corps immediately shouldered in perfect
order, and the artillery then fired a royal salute of twenty-one guns. A
second gun was fired on his Majesty’s arrival in front of the line, and
each corps immediately presented arms, with drums beating and music
playing. A third cannon was fired as the signal for shouldering, which
was promptly obeyed. His Majesty having passed along the line, and
returned by a central point in front, a fourth cannon was fired as a
signal to load; and, upon the fifth gun being fired, the different corps
began to fire volleys, in succession, from right to left. The same
loading and firing were repeated upon the sixth and seventh cannons
being fired; in all fifty-nine rounds.
“On the eighth cannon being fired, three cheers were given, and the
music played, “God save the King.” The corps then passed his Majesty in
grand divisions, in a most excellent manner, under the direction of
General Dundas, who headed them on horseback; after which, they filed
off to the stations respectively allotted for them. The whole of the
evolutions pointed out to them in the general orders having been
performed, and another royal salute of twenty-one guns fired, his
Majesty, after expressing the highest satisfaction at the martial
appearance and excellent conduct of this loyal and patriotic army,
departed from the ground at a quarter before one, amidst the joyous
shouts and affectionate greetings of the people, who assembled, on this
occasion, to the amount of upwards of 100,000, including all the beauty
and fashion of the metropolis.
“The sight was truly grand and highly gratifying; and notwithstanding
the evolutions were considerably impeded by the high wind and some rain,
the whole were performed in a manner that reflects much credit upon
every corps present, whose conduct fully entitles them to the very
handsome compliment of his Royal Highness the Commander-in-Chief, paid
them by order of his Majesty, in the _Gazette_ of that evening. The
ground was kept clear by the London and Westminster, and Southwark
Volunteer corps of cavalry, who preserved the lines from being infringed
by the immense multitude who crowded the Park.”
Another review in the Park on 15th May, 1800, did not pass off so
quietly. The Grenadier battalion of the Guards were being exercised,
when a gentleman named Ongley, a clerk in the Navy Office, was shot by a
musket ball during the volley firing, whilst standing but twenty-three
feet from the King. The wound was not dangerous--through the fleshy part
of the thigh--and it was immediately dressed; and very little might have
been heard of it, had not the King, that same night, been shot at in
Drury Lane Theatre. The cartouch-boxes of the soldiers were examined,
but none but blank cartridges were found. So little, indeed, was thought
of it, that the King, who said it was an accident, stopped on the ground
for half an hour afterwards, and four more volleys were fired by the
same company before he left.
The next birthday review of Volunteers (4th June, 1800) was not a happy
one. It was a larger affair than that of the previous year, some 12,000
men being under arms; but they had to stand in soaking rain for eight
hours, as did the majority of the spectators. The following is from the
pen of an eye-witness:--
“So early as four o’clock, the drums beat to arms in every quarter, and
various other music summoned the reviewers and the reviewed to the
field. Even then the clouds were surcharged with rain, which soon began
to fall; but no unfavourableness of the weather could damp the ardour of
even the most delicate of the fair. So early as six o’clock, all the
avenues were crowded with elegantly dressed women escorted by their
beaux; and the assemblage was so great, that, when the King entered the
Park, it was thought advisable to shut several of the gates, to avoid
too much pressure.
“The circumstance of the weather, which, from the personal inconvenience
it produced, might be considered the most inauspicious of the day,
proved, in fact, the most favourable for a display of beauty, for
variety of scene, and number of incidents. From the constant rain, and
the constant motion, the whole Park could be compared only to a
new-ploughed field. The gates being locked, there was no possibility of
retreating, and there was no shelter but an old tree or an umbrella. In
this situation you might behold an elegant woman, with a neat yellow
slipper, delicate ankle, and white silk stockings, stepping up to her
garter in the mire, with as little dissatisfaction as she would into her
coach--there, another, making the first _faux pas_, perhaps, she ever
did, and seated, reluctantly, on the moistened clay.
“Here is a whole group assembled under the hospitable roof of an
umbrella, whilst the exterior circle, for the advantage of having one
shoulder dry, is content to receive its dripping contents on the other.
The antiquated virgin laments the hour in which, more fearful of a
speckle than a wetting, she preferred the dwarfish parasol to the
capacious umbrella. The lover regrets there is no shady bower to which
he might lead his mistress, ‘nothing loath.’ Happy she, who, following
fast, finds in the crowd a pretence for closer pressure. Alas, there
were but few grottos, a few caverns--how many Didos--how many Æneas’s?
Such was the state of the spectators. That of the troops was still
worse--to lay exposed to a pelting rain; their
[Illustration: RETURNING FROM THE REVIEW, 1800.
Page 150.
]
arms had changed their mirror-like[49] brilliancy to a dirty brown;
their new clothes lost all their gloss, the smoke of a whole campaign
could not have more discoloured them. Where the ground was hard, they
slipped; where soft, they sunk up to the knee. The water ran out at
their cuffs as from a spout, and, filling their half boots, a squash at
every step proclaimed that the Austrian buckets could contain no more.”
[Illustration]
[Illustration: decorative bar]