The crowne of thornys, the naylys three, Youre syde ys openyd to love shewynge, Jesu, youre moder that by yow dydde stande, Tenderly wepte and wrange here hande, Jesu, ye that have so tender a lovynge That for us wolde suffer suche paynys All myne love stedfastly in yow, Lorde, sette, And lete it never fram you fade ne flette. Ne make myne herte turne yoo froo. That may myn sowle brynge from blame, And make myne berte both mylde and tame; That I may the worldes welthe, the feendys glee, The whiche me thenkyth fayre for to see, Lord, to forsake for the love of the. Glorious Jesu! in myn sowle I see Jesu, yowre love and fleshly thowht, Jesu, with herte I knowledge to the, Jesu, al swetnes! Jesu, al good! Make myne herte clene and clere of con- That I may ever love you in all reverence. crave; Fro the feendis malis, Lord, myne sowle save, So that I never him drede ne have in awe. Yowre love ful ofte chaungyth myn chere; Myn sowle hath to yow grete longyng; ANECDOTES OF LIGONIER'S HORSE. BY AN EYE-WITNESS. (Egerton MSS. Brit. Mus. 201.) There is a series of books we believe still in course of publication, under the following general title :-" Historical Records of the British Army, a series of Narratives of the services of Regiments from their formation to the present time. Prepared by Richard Cannon, Esq., Adjutant-General's Office." One of these is the "Historical Record of the Seventh, or Princess Royal's, Regiment of Dragoon Guards; containing an account of the formation of the Regiment in 1688, and of its subsequent services to 1839." From this work it appears that the regiment now called the Seventh Dragoon Guards was first raised by commission from the Prince of Orange (King William III.), 31 Dec. 1688; was equipped as cuirassiers, and obtained rank as the Tenth Horse. Its usual name, however, according to the practice of the day, was taken from its Colonel. It was at first called the Earl of Devonshire's Regiment, and subsequently Schomberg's Horse, being commanded by the Duke of Schomberg. Having fought at the battles of Blenheim and Ramillies, and in other actions of Marlborough's campaigns, it was sent to Ireland in 1714, and remained there until the year 1742. And here it is that the following interesting paper, which we believe to be hitherto unpublished, takes up its history. The writer names it "His Majesty's Fourth Regiment of Horse," but in so doing he uses a later name; for it appears from Mr. Cannon's account that it first obtained rank as the "Fourth Irish Horse" in 1747, and that its name was finally changed to the Seventh, or Princess Royal's, Regiment of Dragoon Guards in 1788. At the commencement of the ensuing narrative it was the Tenth Horse, or Ligonier's Regiment.-Edit. HIS Majesty's Fourth Regiment of Horse, commanded by Sir John Ligonier,* continued upon the Irish establishment from the conclusion of Queen Anne's wars to the year 1742. This long period of thirty years naturally brought the corps to be composed almost entirely of Irish, as I do not recollect at any time more than two or three private men in it of any other country. A regiment eminently distinguished at the Revolution, and in the Queen's wars under Marlborough, found no difficulty in recruiting. It was in general composed of the younger branches of ancient and respectable families, nor was it uncommon to give from 20 to 30 guineas to become a trooper. In summer 1742 the regiment was ordered for foreign service, and so very unexpectedly that the troop horses were taken up from grass, and the clothing of the men in the last month of its being to be worn; under these disadvantages was the regiment embarked for England; and upon their march for embarkation for Flanders was reviewed, without respit or preparation, at Hounslow, by the King, in the centre, between the Oxford Blues and Pembroke's Horse,† of nine troops each, newly and completely appointed, and which had only marched from the neighbouring cantonments for that purpose. No wonder that there was a manifest disparity in appearance of the corps, the meagre horses of the Blacks scarcely able to crawl under the raw-boned, half-naked Hibernian. The old King, however, had judgment to discern and generosity to make the proper allowances; and, wishing to afford their dejected Colonel some consolation, who, no doubt found not a little uneasiness upon the occasion, said, "Ligonier! your men have the air of soldiers; their horses indeed look poorly, how is it?" "Sire!" replied he, "the men are Irish and gentlemen; the horses are English." The regiment shortly after embarked for Germany, and in the ensuing cam * Sir John Ligonier (afterwards Earl Ligonier) was promoted to the rank of Colonel in the army in 1711; was appointed Lieut.-Colonel of the Fourth Horse, now the Third Dragoon Guards, in 1706, and was made Colonel of the regiment to which this narrative belongs in 1720. It was after the battle of Dettingen in 1743 that he was made a Knight of the Bath. In 1749 he was removed to the Second Dragoon Guards, and in 1753 to the Royal Horse Guards. He was created Viscount Ligonier of the kingdom of Ireland in 1757, Baron Ligonier of Ripley in Surrey 1763, Earl Ligonier 1766; and died without issue in 1770. His brother Francis was appointed Major in "the Ligoniers" 1729, and Lieut.-Colonel 1737. herwise called the Royal Horse Guards and the King's Regiment of Horse (1st mards). paign, in June 1743, were of the brigade of English cavalry at the battle of Dettingen, [where,] the army being surprised into action, and not having an opportunity of calling in their outposts, [it] was but 180 strong in the field. After having sustained a heavy cannonade from three batteries for an hour and forty minutes, they charged the French gendarmerie, drawn up six deep, to sustain the weight of the British horse. From a failure in one of the flank regiments of the brigade, of which the enemy having taken the advantage, the regiment was surrounded and overpowered, and forced to fight their way back through the enemy as the only means of preventing their being totally cut off. In this charge the regiment had 56 men and 6 officers killed and wounded, making nearly one-third of the whole; for the remainder of the campaign the regiment did duty but as one squadron. Many had hitherto been the taunts and snouches which the two English regiments had thrown upon the Virgin Mary's Guards (for so the Blacks were termed); but from this period the tables were changed, and St. Patrick protected the honour of his countrymen. Having served in that engagement in the 33rd Regiment of Foot (Johnston's) I had fortunately an opportunity of preserving the life of a French nobleman; and, having occasion to fall into the rere of the line to protect my prisoner, I came immediatly behind the Blacks, and I then saw an old veteran corporal and half a dozen comrades who had fought through the enemy, and, covered with wounds, he addressed his companions with observing their present condition, that they had begun the day well and hoped they would end it so; and, collecting this small squadron of he roes, they re-charged the thickest of the enemy, and in a second of time not a man survived. Cornet Richardson, who carried a standard, received seven-and-thirty cuts and shots upon his body and through his clothes, besides many on the shaft of the standard; and, being questioned how he con The Oxford Blues. trived to save the colours, he observed (like a true Hibernian), that if the wood of the standard had not been made of iron it would have been cat off. The regiment being provided with new standards the ensuing winter, each cornet was presented with the standard he had carried as an honourable testimony of his good behaviour. In 1745 the regiment was at the battle of Fontenoy, and upon that field there was not a man or horse wanting of their full complement. One man, indeed, had been left behind at Brussels wounded in a duel; but, there having been brought up to the regiment a number of recruits, one man more than was wanting, the general ordered him to be kept at his own expense till a vacancy should happen, so that in reality the regiment was by one man more than compleat. In this action there was a trooper in the regiment named Stevenson whose horse had been shot early in the morning; the regiment saw no more of him till next evening that he joined them at Ath: the men of his troop insisted upon it that he should give an account of himself, that he was unworthy of being a Ligonier, and that he should not attempt to stay in the lines. Stevenson demanded a court-martial next day it sat, and, being questioned what he had to say in his justification, he produced Lieutenant Izard of the Welsh Fusileers, who declared that in the morning of the action the prisoner addressed him, told him that his horse being killed he requested to have the honour of carrying a firelock under his command in the grenadiers, which was complied with; that through the whole of that day's action he kept close by him, and behaved with uncommon intrepidity and conduct, and was one of nine grenadiers that he brought out of the field. Stevenson was restored to his troop with honour, and next day the Duke presented him to a lieutenancy in the regiment wherein he had behaved so well. Quarter-Master Jackson was the son of a Quarter-Master in the regiment; his father not having the means of providing for him, the young +"Colonel Ligonier, Captains Stewart and Robinson Richardson, and Quartermaster Jackson.- Ron and J The Ligoniers were sometimes designe colour, or facing, of the regiment. C k H Imley, Cornet Note in MS. *inguishing 6 fellow went on board a man-of-war in a fleet going to the Mediterranean; a party of the crew made a descent on the coast of Spain, this was in 1734; the party was surprised, and Jackson made prisoner by the Spaniards. In order to obtain his liberty from a gaol, after twelve months' captivity, he inlisted in the Spanish army, and the year following, being on command on the coast of Spain, his party was surprised by the Moors, he was made prisoner, carried to Oran, in Barbary, and exhibited as a slave, for sale; the English consul, seeing something in his appearance that made him suspect that he was his countryman, spoke to him, and finding him a British subject purchased him, brought him home to his home, and made him superintendant of his family. After some years he obtained his discharge, returned to Ireland, and found his old father living; Lord Ligonier permitted him to resign his warrant to his son. Some time after, the regiment being upon Dublin duty, Jackson passing through the Castle-yard observed a soldier standing centinel at the gate, and, perceiving, as he past him by, the soldier turned his face from him, Jackson returning to the barrack found himself unusually distressed; he could not banish the idea of this same centinel out of his mind; he had an anxiety that he could not suppress, to know who he was, and going next morning to the Castle he waited the relief of the guard, [when] he found the man that he wanted. Jackson addressed him, told him that his face was familiar to him, and beg'd to be informed where he had seen him; in short, in this soldier he found his protector, the Consul of Oran, who had redeemed him from slavery. The account that he gave of this extraordinary reverse of fortune was, that shortly after they had parted his affairs ran into confusion, he had outrun his allowance, had overdrawn, was recalled, and obliged to return to England; where, upon his arrival, he inlisted with the first recruiting party that he met, and now was a soldier, with his fortune in his knapsack. Jackson made every return in his power to his benefactor, obtained his discharge, and had him taken in a trooper in the Blacks, where Jackson shared his pay with him; in the course MAG. VOL. XXIX. MR. URBAN, Cambridge. Walter Yonge, esq., recently published IN the Introduction to the Diary of by the Camden Society, and edited by Mr. Roberts, there is (at p. xi.) a note, in which a licence to eat flesh during Lent, granted to Sir John Yonge, and dated 9th March, 1660, is stated to illustrate "the practice of keeping Lent during the Commonwealth.' I strongly suspect that this licence was granted on the 9th of March succeeding, and not preceding the Restoration, or on what, according to our present calendar, would be the 9th of March, 1661.† * I had this from the surgeon's diary, +"New Year's Day the 25th of March: this is the whole compass of the fact; with which a reader in these old books has, not without more difficulty than he expects, to familiarise himself. It has occasioned more misdatings and consequent confusions to modern editorial persons, than any other as simple circumstance. So learned a person as Whitaker, Historian of Whalley, editing Sir George Radcliffe's Correspondence (London, 1810), with the lofty air which sits well on him on other occasions, has altogether forgotten the above small circumstance: in consequence of which we have Oxford carriers dying in January, or the first half of March, and to our great amazement going on to forward butter-boxes in the May following; and similar miracles not a few occurring and in short the whole Correspondence is jumbled to pieces; a due bit of topsy-turvey being introduced into the spring of every year; and the learned editor sits, with his fofty air, presiding over mere chaos come again "Carlyle, Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches, 2d edit. 1. 50 n. 4 K |