The regiment was at the time camped out for summer quarters at Strensall camp, about five miles from York. On the evening of a hot July day, when Colonel Wauchope was to leave for the Soudan, there was an open mess among the officers, and the health and prosperity of their departing colonel was enthusiastically drunk. It was arranged that he was to go south by the midnight train at York, and as the evening hours sped on, the regiment as usual retired to their tents to rest for the night, after tuck of drum. They did not, however, retire to {145} sleep, for no sooner were the wheels of the Colonel's carriage heard than there was a general move. It was a little after twelve o'clock, and the men were stripped and in bed. But in an instant every tent was astir, and like a swarm of bees the whole regiment broke loose. Every tent belched forth its quota of excited men, and without taking time to dress they had surrounded the carriage, cheering, and enthusiastically shaking hands with their departing chief. Many of them, with only their nightshirts on, ran after the carriage a considerable distance, still cheering as they went along! It was such a send-off as few officers ever experienced. It is a striking testimony to the impression made during these two years upon the community of the city of York by this good Scotsman and his regiment, that at the unveiling of a handsome marble memorial in the Presbyterian Church, Prior Street, on the 26th November 1900, all classes were represented, and the Dean of York gave expression to the thoughts of many when he said that, although he never saw General Wauchope until he came to York, and during his residence there with his regiment it was not very often they met, 'yet there was in some characters a sort of magnetic attraction so that one felt at once drawn to them because they were sterling material, true metal. It would be impossible to be in General Wauchope's company, and be associated in any way with him, or to hear very much about him, without feeling that he was not only a soldier of the Crown but eminently a soldier of the Cross. It was right that his memory should be perpetuated in York, it was right that it should be perpetuated in that house of God which he specially identified himself with, and which specially belonged to his nationality.' {146} CHAPTER IX THE SOUDAN--BATTLES OF ATBARA AND OMDURMAN--ARRIVAL HOME--RECEPTION AT NIDDRIE----DEGREE OF LL.D.--PAROCHIAL DUTIES--PARLIAMENTARY CONTEST FOR SOUTH EDINBURGH.