materials, such as polishing paste for brasses, oil for steel equipment, and soft-soap for saddlery.
A beneficent regulation, recognising these drains on the unfortunate man's pay, laid down that in no case should he receive less than a penny a day! In my regiment the custom was never to give less than a shilling a week, but even this sum did not go far to supplement the allowance of food, to say nothing of beer and tobacco. The Government now provides ample food, practically all clothing, and the amount of pay actually received is five or six times greater than it used to be.
The "kit" with which I was issued free of cost consisted of a valise, stable-bag, hold-all (containing knife, fork, spoon, razor and comb, shaving, hair, lace, button, clothes and boot brushes), three baggage straps, tin of oil, tin of blacking, tin of brass paste, cloak, cape, lance-cap and plume, two forage caps, tunic, jacket, overalls (trousers), pantaloons, canvas ducks, jack-boots and spurs, Wellington boots and spurs, ankle-boots, braces, three shirts, three pairs of socks, two pairs of pants, two towels, and a piece of soap. Finally, I was given a lance, sword, pistol, cartridge-case, cap-case, and numerous belts—an amount of armament that completely staggered me.
Uniform was of a very unpractical kind, especially the undress part of it. This comprised skin-tight overalls, an equally tight "shell-jacket" cut off short above the hips, and a forage cap of about the size of a breakfast saucer, and kept in its place immediately above the right ear by a narrow chin-strap worn under the lower lip (never under the chin in the cavalry, except on mounted parades). There were no "British-warms" or woollen "jumpers" as to-day, and cloaks were not allowed to be worn when off duty without a regimental order to that effect. This order was never given except when the weather was very inclement. Later on the forage cap became a "free issue," and was thoroughly disliked by everybody because of its ugly shape and abnormally large size as compared with the regimental pattern.
The first occasion on which it was worn by the regiment was at an inspection by the Duke of Cambridge at York in
