To avoid tedium an abridgment of the whole performance is given at some length in the Appendix, and it is sufficient to say here that the first two evolutions consisted in the doubling of the depth of the column. The left half-ranks reined back and passaged to the right until they covered the right half-ranks; and the original formation having been restored by more passaging, the right half-ranks did likewise. The next evolution was the conversion of three ranks into two, which was effected by the simple process of wheeling the rear rank into column of two ranks, and bringing it up to the flank of the front and centre ranks. Then came further variations of wheeling, and wheeling about by half-ranks, thirds of ranks, and fours; each movement being executed of course to the halt on a fixed pivot, so that through all these intricate manœuvres the regiment practically never moved off its ground. No doubt when performed, as in smart regiments they were performed, like clockwork, these evolutions were very pretty—and of course, like all drill, they had a disciplinary as well as an æsthetic value; but it must be confessed that they left a blight upon the British cavalry for more than a century. It is only within the last twenty years that the influence of these evolutions, themselves a survival from the days of Alexander the Great, has been wholly purged from our cavalry drill-books.

Meanwhile at this time (and for full forty years after for that matter) an immense deal of time was given up to dismounted drill; for the dragoons had not yet lost their character of mounted infantry. To dismount a squadron, the even numbers (as we should now say) reined back and passaged to the right; and the horses were then linked with “linking reins” carried for the purpose, and left in charge of the two flank men, while the rest on receiving the word, “Squadrons have a care to march forward,” formed up in front, infantry wise, and were called for the time a battalion. This dismounted drill formed as important a feature of an inspection as the work done on horseback. Probably the survival of the march past the inspecting officer on foot may be traced to the traditions of those days.

If it be asked how time was found for so much dismounted work, the explanation is simple. From the 1st of May to the 1st October the troop horses were turned out to grass, and committed to the keeping of a “grass guard”—having, most probably, first gone through a course of bleeding at the hands of the farriers. It appears to have mattered but little how far distant the grass might be from the men’s quarters; for we find that if it lay six or eight miles away, the “grass guard” was to consist of a corporal and six men, while if it were within a mile or two, two or three old soldiers were held to be amply sufficient. Men on “grass guard” were not allowed to take their cloaks with them, but were provided with special coats, whereof three or four were kept in each troop for the purpose. “Grass-time,” it may be added, was not the busy, but the slack time for cavalrymen in those days—the one season wherein furloughs were permitted.

The close of the “grass-time” must have been a curious period in the soldier’s year, with its renewal of the long-abandoned stable work and probable extra tightening of discipline. On the farriers above all it must have borne heavily, bringing with it, as we must conclude, the prospect of reshoeing every horse in the regiment. Moreover, the penalty paid by a farrier who lamed a horse was brutally simple: his liquor was stopped till the horse was sound. Nevertheless the farrier had his consolations, for he received a halfpenny a day for every horse under his charge, and must therefore have rejoiced to see his troop stable well filled. The men, probably, in a good regiment, required less smartening after grass-time than their horses. Light Dragoons thought a great deal of themselves, and were well looked after even on furlough. At the bottom of every furlough paper was a note requesting any officer who might read it to report to the regiment if the bearer were “unsoldierly in dress or manner.” We gather, from a stray order, “that soldiers shall wear their hair under their hats,” that even in those days men were bitten with the still prevailing fashion of making much of their hair; but we must hope that Hale’s regiment knew better than to yield to it.

Every man, of course, had a queue of leather or of his own hair, either hanging at full length, in which case it was a “queue,” or partly doubled back, when it became a “club.” Which fashion was favoured by Colonel Hale we are, alas! unable to say,[2] but we gain some knowledge of the coiffure of the Light Dragoons from the following standing orders:—

“The Light Dragoon is always to appear clean and dressed in a soldier-like manner in the streets; his skirts tucked back, a black stock and black gaiters, but no powder. On Sundays the men are to have white stocks, and be well powdered, but no grease on their hair.”

Here, therefore, we have a glimpse of the original trooper of the Seventeenth in his very best: his scarlet coat and white facings neat and spotless, the skirts tucked back to show the white lining, the glory of his white waistcoat, and the sheen of his white breeches. “Russia linen,” i.e. white duck, would be probably the material of these last—Russia linen, “which lasts as long as leather and costs but half-a-crown,” to quote one of our best authorities. Then below the white ducks, fitting close to the leg, came a neat pair of black cloth gaiters running down to dull black shoes, cleaned with “black ball” according to the regimental recipe. Round on his neck was a spotless white stock, helping, with the powder on his hair, to heighten the colour of his round, clean-shaven face. Very attractive he must have seemed to the girls of Coventry in the spring of 1760. What would we not give for his portrait by Hogarth as he appeared some fine Sunday in Coventry streets, with the lady of his choice on his arm, explaining to her that in the Light Dragoons they put no grease on their heads, and in proof thereof shaking a shower of powder from his hair on to her dainty white cap! Probably there were tender leave-takings when in September the regiment was ordered northward; possibly there are descendants of these men, not necessarily bearing their names, in Coventry to this day.

CHAPTER III
REFORMS AFTER THE PEACE OF PARIS, 1763–1774

1760.

In September Hale’s Light Dragoons moved up to Berwick-on-Tweed, and thence into Scotland, where they were appointed to remain for the three ensuing years. Before it left Coventry the regiment, in common with all Light Dragoon regiments, had gathered fresh importance for itself from the magnificent behaviour of the 15th at Emsdorf on the 16th July; in which engagement Captain Martin Basil, who had returned to his own corps from Colonel Hale’s, was among the slain. The close of the year brings us to the earliest of the regimental muster-rolls, which is dated Haddington, 8th December 1760. One must speak of muster-rolls in the plural, for there is a separate muster-roll for each troop—regimental rolls being at this period unknown.