IT would be wearisome to chronicle every review, except grand ones such
as the following, which is thus described in the _St. James’s
Chronicle_, June 25-28, 1763. “On the morning of the 27th inst. at
half-past eight, his Majesty, the Duke of York, and Prince William
Henry, attended by Earl Delawar, and escorted by the first troop of
Horse Guards, mounted their horses at the Queen’s Palace,[46] and
proceeded up Constitution Hill to Hyde Park. They were received at their
entry into St. James’s Park by Lord Ligonier, the Marquis of Granby,
Earl Talbot and Earl Harcourt, with their attendants and their led
horses. At the gate of the Green Park they were received by Lord Orford,
Ranger of the Parks, on Horseback; and, on their entry into Hyde Park,
his Majesty received a Royal Salute from the Artillery. The manner of
the three Regiments of Foot Guards going through their new method of
exercise, need not be repeated; it is sufficient to observe that never
men went through their discipline with greater exactness, which
reflected the highest honour on their Officers, and filled the numerous
spectators with admiration.
[Illustration: VOLUNTEER REVIEW BY GEORGE III., 1799.
Page 143
]
Besides the illustrious personages above mentioned, his Majesty’s two
younger Brothers, and a great number of the First Persons of Distinction
of both Sexes, and near One Hundred Thousand other People, were present.
It is remarkable that Elliot’s Light Horse, the _Matrosses_,[47] who
managed the artillery with such inimitable skill, and those of the
Guards, who served abroad in Germany, wore in their Caps and Hats Sprigs
of Laurel and Oak, emblematical of the Immortality and never-dying Fame
of their late glorious Achievements.”
On July 25 following, the King again reviewed Elliot’s Light Horse in
the Park, and the same newspaper (July 23-26) records the following
accidents. “Colonel Elliot, in putting up his sword into the Scabbard,
by the prancing of his Horse wounded himself in the Thigh, but not so
dangerously but that he went through the whole Exercise of his Regiment,
with great Composure and Exactness. A large arm of a Tree broke down, by
which accident a Sergeant in the Guards had his Skull fractured, and
several others were terribly bruised.”
George III. held many reviews in Hyde Park, especially during the early
days of the American War of Independence, and the Park was a veritable
_Champ de Mars_ for military exercises. In 1778, an earthen rampart,
twenty feet high and three feet wide at its base, was erected as butts
for musket practice. It began at Cumberland Gate, and ran westwards
towards Bayswater. Being near the high road, it was very dangerous,
although at that time the other side of the road was all fields.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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