Glasgow and its clubs, or, Glimpses of the condition, manners, characters, & oddities of the city, during the past & present centuries / [John Strang].
- John Strang
- Date:
- 1856
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Glasgow and its clubs, or, Glimpses of the condition, manners, characters, & oddities of the city, during the past & present centuries / [John Strang]. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![degree, of what was esteemed absolutely necessary to one’s gentility in those days of Spencean principles,—the character of being a thorough-paced Tory, and a sworn foe to demagogues and democrats. With many useful and amiable qualities of head and heart, which it is here unnecessary to enumerate, this gallant olEcer had one foible, and it Avas one which, whenever military movements were occupying his thoughts, or were the topic of conversation, he displayed. Proud, as well he might be, of his share in the achievement in Jersey, he had acquired the habit of prefacing every opinion on military tactics, and every project of military operation, with a full and particular account of the whole transactions of the eventful day at St. Helier’s, and which at length became to his friends and the corps, about as well known and as tiresome as the story of the royal dejeune at the castle of Tillie- tudlera. U]Don the present occasion, this Lady Margaret Bellenden peculiarity displayed itself strongly, for no sooner were the car- touch-boxes observed to be filled with ammunition, than the Colonel, after telling us that we were about to march to Garscube, and warning us when there to be steady and cool, involuntaidly stumbled upon Jersey. “ Gentlemen,” said he, “ well do I recollect when, on the morn- ing of the 6th of January 1781, the drum summoned us to arms, and when ” The Major, well knowing the Colonel s foible aware also that there was no time for the accustomed yarn of half an hour’—no sooner heard the famous 6th of January uttered than, in open defiance of all military rule, he instantly rode up and intimated that all was in readiness for the regiment to proceed. The thread of the Colonel’s discourse being broken, the battle of St. Helier’s Avas forgotten, and instant preparations were made for the battle of Garscube. The Volunteers being then successively ordered to “ prime and load”—“ fix bayonets”— shoulder arms” and “ by sections on the left backwards wheel,”—the word “ march” Avas given; and off Ave paced boldly to beard the foe, folloAved by a crowd of idle urchins, Avhose reiterated shouts rendered the field-officers’ steeds more restive than their horse- manship warranted to be either safe for themselves or seemly for the character of the corps. The day was one of those more in unison with the climate of there represented wdth a draAvn sword in his hand, gazing on the face of the dying soldier.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24870213_0593.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
