Of all the difficulties encountered in the winter campaign of 1808 by the Royal Artillery, the scarcity of horses was the greatest. The table given in a former part of this chapter shows that after the first gross omission in the case of Colonel Robe’s force, the Ordnance Department endeavoured, as far as numbers were concerned, to send an adequate supply of horses to ensure that mobility without which field artillery is a sham. But that the simplest precautions as to quality and soundness were overlooked is too evident from the monotonous protests of all the officers who found themselves in a position of responsibility. Colonel Harding, writing from Lisbon, reported that he had obtained permission to sell the Artillery horses he had received from England, as useless and worn out, and to purchase those of the French army, which was then embarking under the provisions of the Convention of Cintra. Colonel Cookson had not reached the Downs ere he had to report the appearance of glanders among the horses entrusted to him; and Colonel Robe had to report the death, immediately after landing, of 75 out of 300 horses--more than half occasioned by the same complaint. The officer in charge of the drivers attached to the Artillery under the command of Colonel Sheldrake, reported that “all his horses were in dreadful order when they embarked, that he had lost many, and that he attributed it in a great measure to the horses being a great many very old.” Mules were difficult to obtain--the horses of the country were few and of small size; and in spite of the plaintive appeals from successive officers that “it cost no more to the country to keep a good horse than a bad one,” shipload of cripples from England followed shipload, and nothing but superhuman exertions on the part of all on the spot enabled the Artillery to move at all. The desperate state of affairs may be gathered from a report of Colonel Robe’s, in which he described the means left to him for horsing the brigades in his charge, after Colonel Harding’s force had left Lisbon with Sir John Moore. With 52 field guns, liable to be demanded at any moment by Colonel Harding, he had only 500 men; but this number was lavish compared with that [Sidenote: Col. Robe to D.-A.-Gen. 1 Nov. 1808.] of his horses. “The following,” he wrote, “is a state of the horses left with me on the departure of the army for Spain:-- Horses. Mules. Effective 15 3 Sick or lame 49 4 -- -- 64 7 Since died of general decay, or } 7 1 destroyed for glanders } -- -- Remaining 57 6 -- --