HER ,A1 STY'S R'.; . THE HORSE GUARDS- sAi VOL. I. MAY 1 \riDTiTU v. f-r\ i 5 1992 HER MAJESTY'S ARMY, I. CAVALEY. " TTTITH such an army I could go anywhere and do anything." Such were the words of one who, on that terrible Sunday at "Waterloo, proved them to be no idle boast and for all Scotch it is to to the ; English, Irish, whose pride belong mightiest Empire the world has ever known, they represent an accepted, indubitable fact. The British can and do whether it be beneath the army go anywhere anything ; glowing skies of India, amongst the scorching sands of Egypt, the tangled brush of New Zealand, the strange, historic, unfamiliar temples of China and Japan, the terrible dreariness of Crimean snows no region is too remote, no task too hard. "We are apt to smile at the seeming anticlimax of the boast made two centuries ago " Under the tropic is our language spoke, And part of Flanders hath received our yoke." But after all it was no empty one, and foreshadowed, though in a faint degree, the sober fact of to-day. In Europe, the English flag floats over the frowning fortress of the defences of the classic hills of in Asia the Gibraltar, impregnable Malta, Cyprus ; Empire of India owns as sovereign the Queen of England, and the spicy breezes of Ceylon's isle fill and wave the folds of her standard; in America, "the loyal pines of " Canada above a British to the heart's core in the of Good sway populace ; Africa, Cape Hope welcomes the emigrant to land which his forefathers took possession of nearly a hundred in Australia and Zealand has a years ago ; New new England sprung up, prosperous, with the strong, priceless heritage of the mother land, and the bounteous promise of its own stalwart youth. Over nearly a seventh of the habitable globe, over B 2 HER MAJESTY'S ARMY. more than a quarter of its inhabitants, reigns Victoria, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, Empress of India. And this mighty lordship has been obtained and held by the warriors of an island whose area is but little more than half that of France, and smaller by far than many a Eussian province. Of these warriors, these makers of empire, it is purposed to give a description, which it is hoped will familiarise their countrymen with the various branches of the service to which they owe so much, with the origin, the history, the traditions, and the valour of every regiment in her Majesty's army. The various branches of the service will be treated of in the following order : the Guards and Line the Cavalry ; Artillery ; Engineers ; Eegiments ; Auxiliary Forces. The regiments of cavalry will be taken in order of precedence, those of the line alphabetically, the precedence of each regiment being notified. Before, however, dealing with the Army proper, it will be of interest to glance at those other military bodies stately, vigorous relics of old chivalrous days which are included in the honourable titles of The Queen's Body-Guard, The Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms, the Body-Guard of the Yeomen of the Guard, and (in Scotland) the Eoyal Company of Archers. Of a yet greater antiquity than these are the Serjeants- at-Arms, now reduced in number to eight, and in duties to the arrest of certain classes of offenders and participation in ceremonies of state, but which were founded in the time of of a Eichard I., and from then to the reign of Elizabeth (with the exception period of almost complete effacement under Edward IV.), numbered between twenty of and thirty. That they were in reality a body-guard, and not merely a species sublime sheriff's officers, is evident from a warrant concerning them issued by Henry V. From that we learn that a serjeant-at-arms ought to stand before the King armed, his head bare, and all his body armed to the feet with arms of a knight riding, wearing a in his gold chain with a medal bearing all the King's coats, and with a mace of silver " right hand, and in his left a truncheon. They ought to go before the King for the more safeguard of the person of the King's Majesty." In the same warrant is mentioned their power to arrest, which, as before mentioned, is the function most associated with the serjeants-at-arms at the present day. THE HONOURABLE CORPS OF GENTLEMEN-AT-ARMS owe their origin to the love of splendour and regal state characteristic of Henry VIII. His father, of more frugal mind, had incorporated a stalwart body of yeomen to guard the person of the King's CA VALRY. 3 grace. But the body-guard of Henry, the eighth of his name, must be composed of men of superior rank, and forthwith a troop was composed "of the cadets of noble " " families and styled the King's Pensioners and Speares." The original ordinance for " their creation smacks not a little of the pedagogue. The King, it set out, of his great noblesse, wisedom and prudence, considereth that in his realm of England be. many young gentlemen of noble Blood which have non exercise in the Feate of Armes, in handling and renying of the spere, and other faits of Werre on horsebacke, like as in other Reames and countreys be dayley practised and used to the greate honour and " " laude of theim that so doth : his Highness therefore appointed a Eetynue daily of certaine Speres called men of Armes, to be chosen of gentlemen that be comen and cxtracte of Noble Blood." At first the corps fifty in number were a perfect mass " of : splendid accoutrement an old chronicler says that themselves, their horses, and their servants, were trapped and apparelled in cloth of gold and silver and goldsmith's work," and states that they did not last very long. When we learn on good authority that the cloth of gold cost something over 5 a yard, the statement becomes the more easily credible. But if the corps of Gentlemen Pensioners terminated its existence, it was but a case of suspended animation, for a few years afterwards it is again strongly en evidence. Minute details respecting its constitution were promulgated, and in an old picture of the famous meeting on the Field of the Cloth of Gold the Gentlemen Pensioners are to be seen in brave array, armed with the battle-axe which they adopted in 1539. At the close of their founder's reign the uniforms were of red and yellow damask the orthodox royal colours according to some authorities. Edward VI. seems to have been particularly partial to the corps. In the account of " a great review held before his youthful Majesty, we read that first came the King's trumpeters, then the Lord Bray in gilt harness, Captain of the Pensioners, and a great banner of the King's Arms. Then all the Pensioners in complete harness and great in white and five and five in a rank after them their servants a array black, ; (about hundred in number) in white and black." Particularly did the young sovereign commend the horses, which he describes as "all fair and great, the worst worth at least twenty pounds, none under fourteen hands and a half .... most of them with their guides going before them" a precaution generally adopted with these magnificent " chcvaux cnticrs. Thus they capered twice round 8. James's Field, and so departed." In the following reign the Gentlemen Pensioners watched in complete armour during of stalwart men in the progress of Wyatt's insurrection, and the unaccustomed sight B2 4 HER MAJESTY'S ARMY. warlike panoply occupying the royal apartments at Whitehall, seems to have caused a pretty flutter of alarm amongst the maids of honour, albeit that those sinewy arms and trenchant weapons would do them good service should the need arise. At the ill- fated marriage of the unhappy Queen with Philip of Spain they served the Coronation dinner, which they have since done on similar occasions as well as on royal marriages, the honour of knighthood to one or two of their number being the usual recognition of their services. Under Elizabeth they enjoyed a large meed of royal favour, one of their body Sir Christopher Hatton becoming subsequently Lord Chancellor. But under James I. they were decidedly in the shade, and as a cause or a consequence of this, we may note that the Captain, the Earl of Northumberland, and a kinsman of his whom he had irregularly admitted into the corps, were involved in the Gunpowder Plot. Charles I., however, favoured them. At Edgehill a trooper bid fair to have killed or taken prisoner the Prince of "Wales despite the efforts of his attendant, had not " one Mr. Matthews, a Gentleman Pensioner, ridden in and with his polcaxe decided " the business and it is not to remark that after the Crom- ; uninteresting King's murder, well enrolled a body-guard of one hundred and forty men of superior position, almost in imitation of the Pensioners. At the Restoration the corps was again confessedly and in the embodied, 1670 number was reduced to forty (its present number), and the pay settled at the rate now in force. Chamberlayne thus describes the duties of the " Body-Guards in his day : At home within the King's house it is fit that the King's person should have a guard both above and below stairs. In the presence-chamber, wait the Gentlemen their office is to attend therefore, Pensioners, carrying poleaxes ; the to and from his as far as his chamber also in King's person chappell only privy ; all other solemnities.