requests Lieut.-Colonel Napier to express to the officers and men his sense of the diligence they have bestowed on the several field duties, and of the proficiency to which they have attained.*

Sergeants were sometimes allowed to resign rather than stand trial.

R.O., May 21st.-Sergeant Lewis MacGregor, having been guilty of an irregularity, Lieut.-Colonel Napier has accepted his resignation.

In May six officers were employed in receiving volunteers from the Scotch Militia regiments in England. Three volunteers were also received from the Oxfordshire, and six from the Irish Militia.

At Weely the married men were allowed to live in huts belonging to Government outside barracks, but their wives sometimes abused this privilege by selling liquor and allowing disorderly conduct. "Major Cameron was perfectly shocked at the infamous scene of gambling he witnessed to-day in rear of the centre huts of the 92nd Regiment," etc. "On account of the irregularities allowed by Private M'Kean, his hut is to be burned down by the pioneers, and if Mrs M'Kean continues these disgraceful scenes, she will be drummed out of the regiment."

On the 4th of June, being the King's birthday, the battalion fired three volleys, and drill was dispensed with in honour of the occasion.

R.O. It is to be observed that when the open column marches past in parade order the drummers on the flanks of divisions are not to roll; the pipers may, however, be allowed to play.†

At this time a few carpenters and masons were allowed to * This was the more satisfactory, as General Hope is by no means so complimentary in his Order to a regiment he had inspected the previous day.

It was the custom in the regiment till after the Crimean War, when marching past in slow time was done away, for the piper of each company to play "Failte am Prionsa" or some other salute on the flank of his company as it passed the General, the band all the time playing the "Garb of Old Gaul.”

On May 11th, in Regimental Orders, "Alexander Cameron the piper is to be taken on the strength of the Grenadiers as drummer from the 25th of last month" (probably to get him drummer's pay, to which, as piper, he was not entitled).

volunteer from the regiment to the corps of Royal Military Artificers with ten guineas bounty.

R.O., July 10th.-Complaints having been made in an irregular manner by Captain Watts' company, Lieut.-Colonel Napier admonishes the men, "who know perfectly the proper mode to be adopted when they feel themselves to be aggrieved. It appearing, however, that some negligence has taken place on the part of Captain Watt, Lieut.-Colonel Napier has reprimanded him in presence of the field officers and captains of the battalion."

In August a certain number of men of good character and large families, are allowed to assist at harvest, but are not to solicit work from the farmers, who are to apply to the commanding officer if they want men.

At a time when the price of bread varied, according to the season and district, from 74d. to 104d. for the 4lb. loaf,* it was a great help to men with children to be able in this way to add to their means of support.

On September 2nd the 1st Battalion, along with the 1st 42nd, 91st and 95th (Rifles), marched to Colchester, leaving a detachment in charge of the heavy baggage at Weely, but on the 4th it was ordered to hold itself in readiness for embarkation, and returned to Weely on the 6th. On the 8th October they were again at Colchester for exercise and field days.† While there, they were reviewed at Broxted by H.R.H. the Commander in-Chief, who expressed his approval of their "soldier-like appearance and correct discipline." On the 18th the Highland regiments returned to Weely, and on the 29th the 1st Battalion marched to Tilbury Fort, en route for Ospringe Barracks, where they arrived November 6th.

R.O., October 28th, 1805, Weely. In leaving the district. and quarters so long occupied by the regiment, Lieut.-Colonel Napier hopes and trusts that the regiment will conduct themselves in a manner worthy of the high character they hold in the army, and that they will not, by drunkenness or other

Monthly commissariat prices in Orders. In March 1805 it was 104d. † At this period Sunday could hardly be called a day of rest. It was the custom to march past in review order after church, and "evening parade is to be formed with arms at same hour and in same manner as on week-days."

wise, give people reason to suppose that their present character has been established merely from their appearance in the field or at a review.*

In a letter to the commanding officer in November, Messrs Greenwood and Cox, the army agents, inform him that each married woman left behind on embarkation is to be allowed £1, 1s., and 5s. for each child. In a letter from Ospringe Barracks, Feversham, Kent, Major Cameron writes" We are waiting here till the transports are ready for us.† We are all of us this morning in the most extraordinary mixture of joy and sorrow, for the loss, in the midst of such glorious achievements, of that greatest of men-Nelson." Again, on the 25th December 1805, " to the astonishment of every person here we are still without a word of moving; the 2nd Battalion of the 79th and we form the brigade of the Honourable MajorGeneral John Hope, commanded ad interim by his brother Charles."

Meanwhile Napoleon's plan by which the British fleet was to be divided, and the whole French and Spanish fleets concentrated to crush the British squadron in the Channel, and protect the vast armament at Boulogne in crossing to the shores of Britain, had been frustrated by the death of the Admiral destined to command it, and by the vigilance of the British Admirals. Austria, Russia, and Sweden had formed an alliance to wrest Italy and the Low Countries from the French Emperor, who had reluctantly abandoned for the time his dream of the invasion of Britain; and marching the "Army of England," as it was called (now amounting to 150,000 men) towards the Danube, he forced an Austrian army to capitulate at Ulm, three days before Nelson's victory of the 21st October at Trafalgar.

* I do not find once in General or Brigade Orders any fault found with the 92nd by general officers, which is by no means the case with every regiment in the district.

They had probably been intended to form part of the expedition which embarked in November under Lord Cathcart, landed at Cuxhaven and occupied a position on the River Weser, for the purpose of joining the Russian and Swedish forces in causing a diversion on the side of Holland; but the French victory of Austerlitz in December put an end to hopes for its success, and` Lord Cathcart returned to England.

"England has saved herself by her courage," said Pitt, in what were destined to be his last public words. "She will save Europe by her example." *

The 1st Battalion 92nd marched to Canterbury on the 26th November, there to be quartered; and, instead of being sent to the Continent, on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th of January 1806, by order from the Commander-in-Chief, the battalion marched in three divisions to London, in order to attend the funeral of Admiral Viscount Nelson, on the 9th.

They were to return after the solemnity, and to leave everything in their present quarters, except " only such articles as are necessary to their appearance on parade on the day of the funeral."† There was evidently some difficulty as to the "appearance" they were to make. The men carried new hose and new jackets in their packs, but many of the latter were not ready, and the tailors had a hard time of it, and no "Sunday out" in London; they were ordered to "bring as many jackets in the waggon as they can finish on Sunday."

On the morning of January 9th, the 92nd marched from their quarters in the outskirts of London to the Horse Guards Parade, where the troops, consisting of three brigades of infantry, with cavalry and artillery, were formed for the funeral procession, which was led by a detachment of cavalry and four companies of light infantry, under Major Cameron of the 92nd, immediately followed by the battalion companies of the 92nd and 1st Battalion 79th, the other troops following, and four Grenadier companies bringing up the rear. "The music of the 79th to be in front of the brigade, and occasionally play a few bars of solemn and appropriate music.”

The four light companies under Major Cameron, and an officer and twenty men of the 2nd Dragoons, were formed inside the railings, to the door of St Paul's, while the Grenadier companies lined the aisle from the door to the place where the remains of the hero were deposited. The rest of the troops passed on to Moorfields, where they fired three volleys in the air, and where refreshments were provided for them; they then returned over London Bridge to their quarters.

Green's "History of the English People."

+ White leather gloves had lately been introduced for the men.

"Though the honour was great," says Major Cameron, "the trouble was by no means slight, as we were under arms from six in the morning till seven at night.'

While the Gordon Highlanders were in London, it was announced that their colonel, Major-General the Marquis of Huntly, had been removed to the 42nd Royal Highland Regiment, and Major-General the Hon. Sir John Hope (afterwards the Earl of Hopetoun), from the 60th Regiment, was appointed by His Majesty King George III. to be colonel of the 92nd. Although the official connection was thus severed, their first colonel by no means gave up his interest in the regiment. The officers were always welcome guests at Gordon Castle, several spent the evening of their days as tacksmen on the Gordon Estates in Lochaber and Badenoch, where numbers of the veteran soldiers also found comfortable homes.

Up to this period the monthly returns were always headed "92nd Regiment of Foot (or Gordon Highlanders);" the last return so headed is that of July 1st, 1807. The title used afterwards is generally " 92nd (Highland) Regiment of Foot," sometimes simply "92nd Regiment of Foot." Still "Gordon Highlanders was used colloquially in the regiment, and in the Highlands "Reismaid Gordonach" continued to be the usual appellation of the 92nd.* It is remarkable that by some inadvertence there was, for many years after its formation, no reference in the Army List to the nationality of the regiment.

Instead of returning to Canterbury as they expected, where all their belongings were left, the battalion marched to Colchester in two divisions, leaving London on Saturday the 11th and Monday the 13th of January. A sergeant of each company had to march vid Gravesend to Canterbury, to collect and take particular care of the men's necessaries, and give over the barracks. It is no wonder that Lieut.-Colonel Napier tells them "that the duty they are sent upon requires great attention, and may be attended with much trouble." The officers and men must have been patient indeed, if they

* Also on recruiting placards at various periods; and the Sphinx with the words "Gordon Highlanders" was the crest on the regimental writingpaper in 1850. The title is also used by Stewart and other writers in 1815.