We were then put through a course of ball practice. The distance being fifty, a hundred, hundred and fifty, and two hundred yards; the "old Brown Bess" being in use then. The first shot I fired I got a bull's eye, which was reckoned a first-class shot, and the only one I got during the practice. After we had finished the course, we were again inspected, when we acquitted ourselves to the entire satisfaction of the officers, and were accordingly dismissed from recruits' drill, and returned fit for duty as soldiers. Two days afterwards the head-quarters of the regiment arrived from Bombay, marched into barracks, band playing, colours flying, forming up on the barrack square. The men were tall and soldier-like, but very much tanned from exposure in the east. Their strength on arrival was only five hundred.
We were all delighted to meet the head-quarters, which had been long expected. They had a long, rough voyage of three months, having come in a sailing vessel.
After they had been inspected by the commanding officer, Colonel Pinnikuck, they were told off and shown to their different barrack-rooms.
Next day, regimental orders being issued, I heard my name read out "Private Thomas Faughan posted to the Grenadier or Captain L. C. Bourchier's company." I was well pleased to hear this, it being the best company in the regiment. The whole of the recruits were also posted to the different service companies.
Being dismissed from recruit's drill, I had ample opportunities of walking out in the afternoons, and visiting some of the old places around the city, among which was the cathedral, one of the oldest ecclesiastical edifices in England.
It was consecrated by Saint Augustine, A.D. 597. Here, too, he baptized Ethelbert, King of Kent. Saint Martin's Church under-the-hill, said to be the oldest in England, is another time-worn structure, partly built of Roman brick and tiles. There are fourteen such old churches here, most of them built of rough flint, and very ancient.
Also the ruins of a Norman Castle, one of the largest in England, which stands near a mound known as the "Dan John;" connected with this are beautiful gardens, where the band of our 17th regiment played always on Thursday afternoon, when hundreds of the élite of the city assembled to promenade.
This is one of the pleasantest stations in England for a soldier; there is no garrison duty to perform, the only duties being the regimental guards, and they come very seldom; the men getting sixteen nights in bed between guards.
Regiments arriving from India are generally stationed here for some time, in order to recruit after foreign service and the long voyage.
The citizens are very much attached to soldiers, and treat them with the greatest kindness and respect. Our regiment was not fortunate enough to be left here much longer, for a letter of "readiness" was received by the commanding officer, directing him to hold the regiment ready to proceed to Dover at the shortest notice, which he made known to us in regimental orders that evening. After this order was read we were all on the alert, officers and men preparing for the march, packing officers' and mess baggage, whitewashing and cleansing barracks—to save barrack damages, that great curse—ready to hand over to the barrack master.