The second division did not reach Gravesend till September 23, when they disembarked, and marched to Canterbury, where they arrived on the 26th. Thus the whole Battalion was reunited; but owing to the free discharges given in Africa it was greatly below its strength; and recruiting was actively carried on and the staff and parties at the principal stations in England, and at Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Newry were directed, by order from the Horse Guards, to raise 160 men at once for the Battalion; yet up to the end of the year it had only succeeded in obtaining 114 recruits. On December 30 and 31 the Battalion marched in two divisions from Canterbury to Dover, where they were quartered; Head-quarters with five companies in the Western heights, and five companies in the Castle. By an order from the Horse Guards dated February 6, 1850, the Reserve Battalion of the 2nd Battalion was to be done away; and the 2nd Battalion and Reserve, of six companies each, were from April 1 to be absorbed into one Battalion of ten companies. The officers (1 Lieutenant-Colonel, 2 Captains, 2 First Lieutenants, 2 Second Lieutenants and an Adjutant), who thus became supernumerary, were retained _en second_, until vacancies occurred. Pursuant to this arrangement the six companies which formed the Reserve Battalion left Quebec, where they had been stationed since their formation in August 1846, and proceeded to Kingston in two divisions; the first, consisting of three companies under Major Norcott, leaving Quebec on May 1, and arriving at Kingston on the 3rd; the remaining three companies leaving on the 8th, and arriving on the 11th. The 2nd Battalion itself left Toronto, where it had been quartered since August 1847, in two divisions on May 22 and 24, arriving at Kingston on the following days respectively. Thus the Battalion and its Reserve were amalgamated; and at Kingston reunited into one Battalion. FOOTNOTES: [193] _i.e._ A wooded ravine or valley. [194] Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Hardinge, retired. [195] _i.e._ A ford. [196] Colonel Charles Vernon Oxenden died April 26, 1868. [197] Major-General Alexander Macdonell, C.B. [198] ‘It was,’ says an historian of the war, ‘the useful green jackets, the untiring Rifle Brigade, who worried Sandilli out of his hiding-place among the mountains.’ (‘Five Years in Kaffirland,’ ii. 240, 2nd edition.) [199] ‘Five Years in Kaffirland,’ by Mrs. Ward, ii. 329-30. [200] Hoek, _i.e._ an inlet from a plain to high land, and from which there is no outlet. [201] _i.e._ An enclosure, generally for cattle. [202] Major-General Glyn, C.B. [203] ‘Annual Register,’ xc. 248. [204] Colonel the Hon. H. H. Clifford, C.B., V.C. [205] Colonel Evelyn (formerly of the Rifle Brigade) in the ‘Journal of the Royal United Service Institution,’ vol. xiv. p. 103. [206] Not the steam Troop-ship of that name; but a sailing Barque. CHAPTER IX.