Unfortunately records of the early proceedings connected with the raising of this company are not to be found; and whether the usual public meetings were held and the neighbourhood asked for subscriptions as a preliminary business, with the subsequent formation of committees of management and drawing up rules, &c., as was customary generally, is not shown. On the Groves, of Zeals House (whose estates, including the town of Mere, bordered on those of the Duke of Somerset), appears to have fallen almost all, if not quite all, of the trouble and expense of raising and equipping this corps. The heir to the dukedom of Somerset had raised and equipped a very fine body of men from his father's properties at Maiden Bradley and Silton, and not improbably this led the young squire of the adjacent property to attempt the same thing, more especially as knowing that he could get advice and valuable assistance from his neighbour and friend, Lord Seymour, the captain of the newly-raised corps of rifle volunteers, with their headquarters at Maiden Bradley. It is very clever now in people to discover that in a neighbourhood such as Mere and Bradley there was too sparse a population from which to form and keep up two rifle corps, and that to have always sixty efficients on your roll entailed the necessity for very many more useless appendages being within hail. The young squire of Zeals House, at that time just obtaining a commission in the Guards as ensign and lieutenant, managed, without much difficulty, from among his tenants and the tradesmen and mechanics of the small town of Mere, to get together the required number wherewith a company or corps could be formed; and, as is shown by letters, asked Lord Seymour to advise him on what next was to be done, as he was anxious that all should be performed well and quickly. At the time the possibility of invasion was never doubted, and those knowing the horrors of being invaded, or after thought and consultation, saw how exposed and really unprotected we were, dreaded losing the time necessary for the proper training and equipping of the new force through the red-tapeism and prejudices of War Office subordinates. Then, as now, the navy was our great stand-by, and was our first, and with the regulars abroad, our only line of defence; the militia being, generally speaking, too ill-trained to be quite reliable. We have now improved our regulars, militia, and added a huge multitude of fairly-instructed volunteers. We have, too, a navy more powerful than any other single nation, but other peoples have increased and improved their armies, and as regards their navies and mercantile marine have advanced as much if not more than ourselves, and things which were doubtfully possible thirty years ago may now be, comparatively speaking, not a very difficult matter to realize.