For I would have thee, as the miser hoards
His idol gold, lock’d close with ponderous key,
In chest of brazen bands round ebon boards.
I could not rest until with sails unfurl’d
I bore my treasure o’er the secret sea,
To some oasis of the desert world.
Because I want thee ALL;—and nothing less
Than thy whole being would my heart suffice,—
Thee and thy love entire I must possess.
No jot withheld,—no atom of thy love
Passing the sphere of adamantine ice,
Within whose vault we must in oneness move.
THE ROMANCE OF THE RANKS.
If any one of our readers desires to acquaint himself with all the dreary formalities, drudgery, and minutiæ of a soldier’s life, he may consult at his leisure a volume called the “Queen’s Regulations and Orders for the Army,” a portly octavo, numbering some 450 pages. He will there learn that even in the piping times of peace, there are irksome duties, besides “standing for twelve hours together in the trenches up to the knees in cold water, or engaged for months together in long dangerous marches, harassed, perhaps, in his rear to-day,—harassing others to-morrow; detached here, countermanded there; resting this night out upon his arms, beat up in his shirt the next, benumbed in his joints, perhaps without straw in his tent to kneel on.” He will also then find some excuse if a weary man takes his calumet, or throws himself on his camp-bed, and does not read quite as assiduously as his more fortunate brother citizens, especially when his only library consists of the few books which he can conveniently carry when subjected to frequent change of quarters, and his only additional resources are the meagre circulating library of a garrison town; whilst often, if on recruiting service, or detachment in some remote neighbourhood, he will be denied even those meagre means of relaxation.
There are, however, even in the volume which we have mentioned, a few amusing pages; they are headed “titles, badges, devices, mottoes and distinctions of regiments of cavalry, artillery, engineers, and infantry, to be borne on their standards and guidons, or on their regimental colour.” A few remarks grounded on these interesting pages, and partly illustrated from Mr. Cannon’s valuable, but still incomplete History of the British Army, will not be without their use, when the formation of depôt battalions is tending rapidly to the weakening, and perhaps extinction of the old esprit de corps, which is to a regiment the foundation of its chivalry and well-doing. The blazon on its colours, the distinctive honours bestowed by the sovereign, and the old traditions give a life to individual regiments, which it would be perilous to its good to lose. It has been the policy of the military authorities to foster this spirit, by giving to particular corps a national distinction; as in the case of English regiments which carry the Lion-crest, the badge of the Order of the Garter, with its motto, or that of the sovereign; and in the instance of Scotch regiments which bear the cross and motto of St. Andrew; just as the Irish regiments are distinguished by the Harp of old Erin, or the badge and motto of St. Patrick; and the Welch regiments are known by the Prince of Wales’s plume and motto, or by the Dragon and Rising Sun of the principality: whilst in remembrance of the time when Hanover was an appanage of the British crown, the White Horse and motto of Brunswick have been in some instances retained.
Since the year 1782, county titles have been also borne by particular regiments, in remembrance of the places where they were first raised; although, subsequently, some of the original designations have been changed. The following counties are represented:—Bedford, Bucks, Dorset, Durham, Cornwall, Devon, Essex, Hants, Leicester, Lincoln, Northumberland, Monmouth, Notts, Huntingdon, Middlesex, Hertford, Norfolk, Gloucester, Rutland, Stafford, Wilts, Lancashire, York and Lancaster, York, Suffolk, Kent, Warwick, Westmoreland, Cumberland, Oxford, Northumberland, Worcester, Derby, Somerset, Northampton, Cambridge, Salop, Surrey, Hereford, Derby and the Borders. Several counties give name to more than one regiment, whilst York furnishes a still larger proportion. The titles of four of these corps, the Loyal Lincoln Volunteers, the Bucks and Stafford Volunteers, and the 82nd Prince of Wales’s Volunteers, remind us of that magnificent force which within little more than a year has been raised in this country, where conscription and compulsory service are alike unknown. In Ireland, Connaught and County Down, and the town of Inniskilling; and in Scotland, Lanarkshire, Ross-shire, Argyleshire, Perthshire, the town of Coldstream, and the city of Edinburgh, still give names to regiments. The 26th are “Cameronians,” and the 79th “Cameron Highlanders.”
It was not until the year 1694, that a military board determined the relative rank of regiments in England by priority of formation: and in the case of Scotch or Irish corps, by the date of their being placed on the establishment of England. At a still later date, on July 1, 1751, a Royal warrant was issued requiring the regimental number to be embroidered upon the regimental colour, thus causing the previous inconvenient method, of designating a corps by the name of its commanding officer for the time being, to be abandoned.
The origin of particular corps is a subject of too great a length to be considered in the present paper; the mottoes and badges of some regiments are of historic, whilst others are of a still more special interest. The 1st Dragoons are known by “Spectemur agendo;” and “Vestigia nulla retrorsum” the Coldstream Guards, “Nulli Secundus,” used in the vernacular, “Second to None,” by the 2nd Dragoons in allusion to their position upon the Army List; the 16th Lancers have the apt words, “Aut cursu aut cominùs armis!” the 15th Hussars give the modest promise of “Merebimur;” while the Scots’ Fusilier Guards rejoice in the double motto of “En ferus hostis,” and “Unita fortior;” the 2nd Infantry bear the words, “Pristinæ virtutis memores,” and “Vel exuviæ triumphant.” The former motto was won