[168]. ‘United Service Journal,’ ii., 1831, p. 329.
[169]. Jones’s ‘Sieges,’ vol. i., p. 70, 2nd edit. ‘United Service Journal,’ ii., 1831, p. 331.
[170]. Jones’s ‘Sieges,’ vol. i., p. 90, 2nd edit.
[171]. A third of whom were to be gardeners, hedgers, or canal-diggers, but only to be enlisted on special authority from head-quarters.
[172]. These appointments were never conferred. The whole business of the corps was carried on by an Adjutant, who held his office independently of the battalions.
[173]. Pasley’s ‘Elementary Fortification,’ note a, p. iv., vol. i.
[174]. There was a William Painter at Gibraltar, whose affluence was something extraordinary. He enlisted into the corps in July, 1798, and though a man of very useful intelligence, only attained the rank of second-corporal in 1807. He tried to procure his discharge to return to his estate in Cornwall, but such was the pressure for men, his desire was negatived. His humble position, however, did not prevent his living in ease and luxury. He kept his servants, horses, and, it is said, his carriage, and entertained and enjoyed very good society. Well could he do all this, for, coupling with his own receipts his wife’s settlement, he possessed an income of eleven hundreds pounds a-year! He died at the Rock, August 13, 1811, aged 45 years. By his Will he left 5000l. stock to his two sons—John, and William Grible; 300l. to Sub-Lieutenant Falconer and his family, and a few smaller legacies to relatives and an attached servant, besides considerable landed property, houses, and the usual legal addenda of “messuages, tenements, and hereditaments” at Gwennap in Cornwall to his elder son John, “and his heirs for ever.” The widow, under a jointure, was in receipt of 550l. a-year.
As if to show how likely fortune is to be overtaken by calamity, Sub-Lieutenant Falconer, five days after the death-bed remembrance of the corporal, was fired at from an open window by private Samuel Fraser. The ball luckily missed him, but whizzed sufficiently near to be alarming. The ruffian was sent to a condemned regiment in commutation for his sentence of one thousand lashes!
[175]. He invented an engine for nipping lead shot, used for years in the royal laboratory, but for which an impostor and spy, named De Haine, received a reward of 500l. While filling the office of inspector of ordnance stores, he made various improvements in the mechanical and intrenching tools. He also detected many extraordinary frauds in the deliveries made by contractors. In one attempted imposition only, he saved the Government 2000l. He designed and constructed a life-ladder, which was frequently used with success at fires, and an ingenious mortar-mill which occasioned a great saving of expense to the department. At Chatham he invented many useful tools, implements, and apparatus, and his services were repeatedly acknowledged in the order books of the establishment.
[176]. Jones’s ‘Sieges,’ 2nd edit., ii., p. 390.