No. CLXXXVII. Coat of Arms of the Hon. Artillery Company. CCIV.The Postures or Exercise of the Musquet (with Rest), 17th CCXIV. CCXV. The Postures or Exercise of the Fusil or Firelock; 17th century. CCXXVII. Company formations, Doublings, and Countermarchings, 17th CCXXVIII. CCXXIX. CCXXX. century. No. CCXLIV. Punishment of the Gatloup, 17th century. CCXLV. Punishment of the Strappado, 17th century. CCXLVII. Punishment of "Irons," 17th century. CCXLVIII. The Stocks and Whipping-post, 17th century. CCXLIX. The Stocks, used also for whipping. CCL. CCLI.Punishment of the Wooden Horse, 17th and 18th centuries. CCLVII. The Coningsby or Red-coat Hospital at Hereford. CCLIX. Royal Hospital of Kilmainham. CCLX. Royal Military Hospital, Chelsea. CCLXI. Pensioner of Chelsea Hospital, 1860. CCLXII.} Funeral of an Officer, 17th century. CCLXIII. CCLXXI.The Pierrier, or breech-loading cannon, 17th century. CCLXXIII. Early English Mortar. CCC. Colours, First Foot-Guards, and Second Foot-Guards, 1685. HISTORY OF THE BRITISH STANDING ARMY. 1660 TO 1700. CHAPTER I. RISE OF THE STANDING ARMY. A.D. 1660-65. Introductory.-Origin of the Coldstream Guards; of the First Foot-Guards; of the Life-Guards; and of the Royal Horse-Guards.-The Yeomen of the Guard.The Gentlemen-Pensioners.-Origin of the First Foot; of the Second Foot; of the First Dragoons; and of the Third Foot. [For Illustrations, see Note on p. xiii.] ABOUT ten o'clock on the morning of Saint Valentine's day in the year 1661, there was to be seen on Tower-Hill an ordinary London crowd collected around a small body of soldiers, only some hundred and seventy troopers, and nine hundred or a thousand infantry. The spectacle was neither very extensive nor very imposing; yet to us who can look back upon it and upon the stream of results which has flowed from it down the long page of our country's history, it is an event of the highest military and historical interest. That small body of men was, in its past and future, representative of two of the most patriotic and victorious armies known to history; it was the link betwixt the monarchical England of the middle ages and the constitutional England of modern times. It was, as it were, the Noah of the British Army for it was the sole surviving remnant of that invincible host of Puritan republicans which had been swept away before the returning tide of loyalty; and it was at the same time the stock from which has sprung that BRITISH STANDING ARMY, which has for two centuries and more been so accustomed to victory as to regard it as its inalienable right, and which has NOTICE. In the Notes will be found many abbreviations; explanations of these are given in alphabetical order in the Index of Works quoted as authorities (Appendix B of this Work). B |