For Eastern service something lighter than this is of course
necessary--a cap or a broad hat might easily be adopted there; and for
American service another description of covering is also most essential
to the health and comfort of the soldier. We mean the close-fitting and
well-formed fur cap, which can protect the head, neck, and cheeks of the
wearer from the extraordinary rigour of a Canadian winter. The cap worn
by our guards when last on service in these regions, was at once
comfortable, useful, and handsome.
For the cavalry, where ornament seems to be required much more than
amongst the infantry--for they fancy themselves, if indeed they are not,
the top sawyers in all matters of service--the head-dress must be not
only useful, but can hardly be made too ornamental, within the limits of
good taste. And here allow us to say that the infantry shako and the
great grenadier's cap are perfectly absurd and misplaced; the one will
never give a man any chance against a sabre-cut, and the other is fit
only to tumble off within the first two minutes of a charge. In heavy
cavalry nothing but the helmet, richly plumed and crested, should be
allowed; constructed either of leather or metal, yellow brass or silvery
steel, and adorned sometimes with skins, sometimes with graven plates.
The handsomest helmet worn by any regiment in Europe, is that of the old
_gardes du corps_ of Charles X., the same as that now worn by the
_gardes municipaux a cheval_ in Paris; a metal helm with leopard-skin
visir; a lofty crest, with a horse-tail streaming down the back, and a
high red and white feather rising from the left side. Beauty of natural
form, the sharp contrast of flowing lines between the feather and the
tailed crest, and the general brilliancy of colour, render this by far
the most effective head-dress for cavalry which we have ever seen. Our
helmets in England, for the dragoon guards, are too heavy, too
theatrical; there is no life and spirit in them.
In light cavalry of all kinds, except lancers, the fur cap, lately
re-introduced into the British army, is the most useful and most
suitable covering; it is at once comfortable and becoming; its form is
warlike and harmonious; its colour rich; and it admits of as much or as
little ornament as you please to put upon it. Without a feather it is
good, with one it is better; guard-bands add to its appearance without
troubling the wearer; and it has the merit of lasting to look well
longer than any other kind of cap whatever. In the lancers they should
always preserve that national cap which tells us of the origin of this
arm, and which is an ingenious and elegant adaptation of the strength of
the helmet to the lightness of the shako; it is beautiful and graceful
as the lance itself; we have nothing to say of it but what is in its
favour.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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