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.
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.
On June 2nd, 1780, broke out the fanatical riots generally known as the “Lord George Gordon Riots,” with which we have nothing to do, other than to chronicle the fact that the troops in and near London being considered insufficient to cope with the rioters, others were summoned from different parts of the country. Lodging must be found for these on their arrival, and we read in The London Chronicle, June 6-8, 1780, that “Orders are given from the War Office for a Camp to be formed in Hyde Park, and the several regiments that are to compose the same are now on their march; and, yesterday, the Hampshire Militia pitched their tents there for that purpose.” Also, later on in the same paper (p. 552), “Seven battalions of militia marched into Hyde-Park yesterday afternoon, where they immediately encamped. A large detachment of the Hampshire militia are doing duty at the President Lord Bathurst’s house in Piccadilly. The Park Gates are all shut, and no person suffered to pass through on any account whatever.”
The Morning Chronicle of June 10 says: “Thursday (June 8), six regiments of Militia were encamped in Hyde Park; they are to be joined by several other regiments, which will make their number 10,000 men”: and the same journal, June 13, tells us that, “The Grand Camp in Hyde Park consists of the nine following regiments: the Queen’s, the Royal Irish, the Twenty-second, Cambridge, South Hants, North Hants, Oxford, Northumberland, One of York.” On the 14th June, the King, Prince of Wales, and “the Bishop of Osnaburgh” (Duke of York) visited the Camp—and so he did on several other occasions. But the riots came to an end, and
the news of the taking of Charlestown drove everything else out of people’s heads, so that we do not hear much more of this Camp; but Paul Sandby painted a series of views of the Camp, and exhibited them at the next Royal Academy. He also engraved them. “The Great Encampment in Hyde Park.” “The Encampment in Hyde Park—The Filbert Merchant.” “Ditto—Marshall Sax’s Tent.” “Ditto—The Soldier’s Toilet” (which is here reproduced), and several others. In “The Soldier’s Toilet” we get rather more than a peep into the domestic life of the Camp, and in the background we see St. George’s Row, and the chapel attached to the burial ground in the Bayswater Road, now rebuilt. After the scare was over, and martial law in London was abolished, the Camp was much visited; but when it had fulfilled its needs it had to come to an end, and on the 10th of August the Camp broke up, after having earned golden opinions from the Londoners.
After this Camp the King held frequent reviews, of which nothing need be said, nor indeed is there anything military to chronicle with regard to Hyde Park until May 1, 1787, on which date (Gent.’s Mag.) “His Majesty having sent down the sentence of a Court-martial held upon a private of the Life Guards (for rude and improper behaviour to his officer) to the Colonels of the four troops, for their consideration, it was returned by them, and the purport was as follows: