Appendix.—Testimonials.—No. 1. From Lieutenant-Colonel Duffy—No. 2. From Major Travers—No. 3. From Officers of the 2d Battalion—No. 4. From Lieut.-Colonel Ross, C.B.—No. 5. From Lieut.-Col. Smith, C.B.—No. 6. From Officers of the 1st Battalion Rifle Brigade—No. 7. From Colonel Norcott, C.B.—No. 8. From Lieut.-Col. Fullarton, C.B.—No. 9. From Lieut.-Col. Balvaird—No. 10. From Major-General Sir A. F. Barnard, K.C.B.—No. 11. From Major Logan—No. 12. From Lieut.-Col. Beckwith, C.B.—No. 13. From Lieut.-General the Hon. Sir Wm. Stewart, G.C.B.—No. 14. From Major Eeles—No. 15. From Major-General Sir T. S. Beckwith, K.C.B.,
TWENTY-FIVE YEARS IN THE RIFLE BRIGADE.
CHAPTER I.
Birth and Parentage—Enters the Militia—Volunteers into the Line—Joins the Army destined for Holland—The Troops embark at Deal—Land at the Helder—Laxity of discipline—March for Schagen—Detachment under Sir Ralph Abercromby sent to surprise Hoorne—Hoorne surrenders.
I was born on the 4th of August, 1781, in the village of Corbridge, in the county of Northumberland; of parents who may be said to have been among the middle classes, my father being a tradesman. They gave me such an education as was customary with people of their station in life; viz. reading, writing, and arithmetic. My mother having sprung from a pious race, was the first to implant in my mind any sense of religion; indeed, it is to the spiritual seed sown in my heart by her during my youth, that I am indebted, under God, for having been brought, many years afterwards, to consider my ways, and to turn to Him. Nevertheless, being naturally of a sensual and wicked disposition, I, as might be expected, spent a dissolute youth, which often caused great pain and uneasiness to my good and pious mother. But I did not continue long under the paternal roof; for, having from my infancy a great predilection for a military life, I embraced almost the first opportunity that offered, after I became sufficiently grown, to enter into the militia of my native county. I enlisted on the 15th of November, 1798, being then little more than seventeen years of age. I entered this service with the determination that, should I not like a soldier's life, I would then, after remaining a few years in it, return home; but, if I did like it, to volunteer into the line, and make that my occupation for life. It will readily be believed that this undutiful step affected deeply my excellent parents; for though my father was not then a religious man, he had a heart susceptible of the tenderest feelings; and I really believe that no parents ever felt more deeply the combined emotions of tender regret at my leaving them so young, and for such a purpose, and at the disgrace which my wayward conduct had, as they imagined, brought upon myself. But though evil in itself, God overruled it for good to me, and, I trust, to them also. I would here remark that the life of a soldier was by no means considered in my native village, at that time, as at all creditable; and when I sometimes in my boyhood used to exhibit symptoms of a military inclination, I was often taunted with the then opprobrious expression, "Ay, thou likes the smell of poother," intimating thereby that I was likely to disgrace myself by going for a soldier.