Finally, on the 28th of April, the whole regiment, which had been travelling in detachments, assembled at Bombay, and in honour of its arrival Commodore Wellesley, commander-in-chief of the Indian navy, ordered all H.M.’s ships to be dressed “rainbow-fashion.”
On the evening of this day a grand entertainment was given to the 78th by the European inhabitants of Bombay, in the form of a banquet, to which were invited the non-commissioned officers, privates, women, and children of the regiment. A magnificent suite of tents was pitched on the glacis of the fort, and many days had been spent in preparing illuminations, transparencies, and other decorations, to add lustre to the scene. At half-past 7 o’clock P.M. the regiment entered the triumphal arch which led to the tents, where the men were received with the utmost enthusiasm by their hosts, who from the highest in rank to the lowest had assembled to do them honour. After a magnificent and tasteful banquet, speeches followed, in which the men of the Ross-shire Buffs were addressed in a style sufficient to turn the heads of men of less solid calibre. The entertainment was described in a local paper as “one of the most successful demonstrations ever witnessed in Western India.”
The depôt had a few days previous to this arrived from Poonah, and joined the regiment after a separation of two years and four months.
Finally, the regiment embarked on the morning of the 18th in two ships, under the distinguished honour of a royal salute from the battery. The two ships arrived at Gravesend about the middle of September, and the regiment having been transhipped, proceeded to Fort-George, where it once more rested from its hard labours, after an absence of seventeen years from home. The strength of the regiment on leaving India was 21 officers, 44 sergeants, 30 corporals, 11 drummers, 424 privates, 30 women, and 67 children; 59 men only being left of those who came out with the regiment in 1842.
We may mention here, that during this year an alteration was made in the clothing of the pipers, the colour of whose uniform was changed from buff to a dark green.
VI.
1859–1874.
Reception of the regiment in the Northern Counties—Banquet at Brahan Castle—Regiment fêted at Nairn and Inverness—Medals for Persia—Removed to Edinburgh—Officers and men fêted at Edinburgh and Hamilton—Abolition of Grenadiers and Light Companies—Medals for the Indian Mutiny—Removed to Aldershot—thence to Shorncliffe—thence to Dover—The Duke of Cambridge’s opinion of the 78th—Additional year’s service granted to Indian men—Inauguration of the Monument on the Castle Hill, Edinburgh—Presentation of Plate and Pipe-major’s Flag by the Countess of Ross and Cromarty—Lucknow Prize-money—Gibraltar—Retirement of Colonel M’Intyre—Retirement of Colonel Lockhart—His farewell Address—Canada—Presentation of Colours—Nova Scotia—Internal changes—Lieutenant-General Sir C. H. Doyle’s opinion of the 78th—Home—Belfast—Aids the civil power—Fort-George—Aldershot.
As we have devoted so much space to a narrative of the active service of this distinguished regiment, we shall be compelled to recount with brevity its remaining history; this, however, is the less to be regretted, as, like most regiments during a time of peace, the history of the Ross-shire Buffs since the Indian mutiny is comparatively uneventful.
On the 1st of June 1859 Colonel Walter Hamilton was appointed to be Inspecting Field Officer of a recruiting district, by which the command of the regiment fell to Colonel Stisted, who, on the 30th of the following September, exchanged to the 93rd Highlanders with Colonel J. A. Ewart, C.B., aide-de-camp to the Queen.