Memoirs of My Life by Edward Gibbon

Memoirs of My Life by Edward Gibbon

Author:Edward Gibbon
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780141958620
Publisher: Penguin Group USA, Inc.
Published: 2009-11-04T16:00:00+00:00


and such was our indefatigable labour, that in the general reviews, the South Hampshire were rather a credit than a disgrace to the line. A friendly emulation, ready to teach and eager to learn, assisted our mutual progress; but the great evolutions, the exercise of acting and moving as an army, which constitutes the best lessons of a camp, never entered the thoughts of the Earl of Effingham, our drowsy General.

vi. The Devizes, our winter quarters during four months (October 23, 1761–February 28, 1762) are a populous town full of disorder and disease. The men who were allowed to work earned too much money; and their drunken quarrels with the townsmen and Colonel Barré’s black musqueteers were painfully repressed by the sharp sentences of one and twenty court-martials. The Devizes afforded, however, a great number of fine young recruits whom we enlisted from the regimental stock-purse without much regard to the forms or the spirit of the Militia laws.

vii. After a short march and halt at Salisbury we paid a second visit of ten weeks (March 9–May 31) to our old friends at Blandford, where in that garden of England we again experienced the warm and constant hospitality of the natives. The spring was favourable to our military exercise, and the Dorsetshire gentlemen who had cherished our infancy now applauded a regiment, in appearance and discipline, not inferior to their own.

viii. The necessity of discharging a great number of men, whose term of three years was expired, forbade our encampment in the summer of 1762, and the colours were stationed at Southampton in the last six or seven months (June–December) of our actual service. But after so long an indulgence we could not complain that during many of the first and last weeks of this period, a detachment almost equal to the whole was required to guard the French prisoners at Forton and Fareham. The operation of the ballot was slow and tedious. In the months of August and September our life at Southampton was indeed gay and busy; the battalion had been renewed in youth and vigour; and so rapid was the improvement, that had the militia lasted another year we should not have yielded to the most perfect of our brethren. The preliminaries of peace and the suspension of arms determined our fate. We were dismissed with the thanks of the King and Parliament; and on the 23rd of December 1762, the companies were disembodied at their respective homes. The officers possessed of property rejoiced in their freedom; those who had none lamented the loss of their pay and profession; but it was found by experience that the greatest part of the men were rather civilized than corrupted by the habits of military subordination.

A young mind, unless it be of a cold and languid temper, is dazzled even by the play of arms; and in the first sallies of my enthusiasm I bad seriously wished and tried to embrace the regular profession of a soldier. This military fever was cooled by the enjoyment of our mimic Bellona, who gradually unveiled her naked deformity.



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