[152] Tallard fatally repeated this independent formation of two armies at Blenheim.
[153] As I believe that this pretension is still advanced by patriotic North Britons, it is as well to say that it is preposterous. The true Scottish Guard enjoyed an independent existence till the Revolution, and to claim its privileges for Hepburn's regiment is as absurd as though a corps raised to-morrow, and officered by half a dozen gentlemen of the Grenadier Guards, should claim precedence of all British infantry.
[154] Dalton, vol. i. p. 234.
[155] Mr. Dalton has told the story very fully in his Life of Cecil.
[156] Ward, Animadversions of Warre.
[157] See Pallas Armata, by Sir T. Kellie, 1627. This writer deserves mention as the first who introduced the system of drilling by numbers. He talks as glibly of odd and even numbers as a modern drill sergeant.
[158] Barriffe and Ward.
[159] The whole of the controversy may be read at large in Rushworth.
[160] His name indeed appears as an ensign in the list of a company of foot raised for service in Ireland (printed in June 1642), but this does not count for much.
[161] I have however found an early instance of it in the French religious wars, but have unfortunately mislaid the reference.