our Adjutant. Several of the officers and sergeants had served in the Crimea, and the ways of the Army were still very old-fashioned. Muzzle¬ loading Enfield rifles were still used; wine at mess was much more freely drunk than it is today; and anything like military study was practically unknown. Out of my brother officers a few still survive. Amongst them Paul Methuen, later Field-Marshal Lord Methuen, was by far the keenest, if not the only keen student of his profession among the subalterns. There was a very strong racing element in the battalion, among whom “Curly" Knox, “Lummy” Harford and Charlie Kerr were conspicuous. I had never any taste for this pursuit, but if I had I think the conversation and associates of the racing men of those days would have put me off; for though they were not so bad as an outsider might have supposed, it seemed very difficult, if not impossible, for a young man to have much to do with it without losing his money; and I have never regretted my refusal to take part in a sport which only very straight, very clever or very wealthy men can afford.
The old soldiers in the ranks were very fine soldiers, though not always the best of characters. In all matters of duty the Guards set a standard to the whole Army, because the non-commissioned officers were splendid, and, though our privileges as regards leave were much greater than those allowed in line legiments, yet the duty was done on all occasions as the Guards then and now always have done their duty.
I remember on one occasion, when the Fenians were giving much trouble, the battalion was ordered down at very short notice to Chester to suppress an attempt which had been planned to seize the arms in Chester Castle and start a rebellion. Many of the officers were on leave in distant parts of England, Scotland and Ireland, but the only one who was not with his men when we left Euston Square was one officer who happened to be in Italy, and he rejoined on the next day at Chester.
As an illustration of the way in which regimental duty was run in those days almost entirely by the Adjutant and the sergeant-major, I may say that when the battalion detrained at Chester, very tired and sleepy from having come off guard the night before we started, the Adjutant would not allow the company officers to see their own companies billeted, but insisted on doing it himself, with the result that my company, the “left flank company,” stood at ease more than half asleep in the station yard for six or eight hours before getting into their billets.
The Fenians had cleared out before we got there, and after three or four days, during which time the men, though in some cases too much treated by their hosts, behaved admirably, we returned to London. This was the only occasion during the five years I was in the service on which we had anything to do beyond mounting guard, occasional field days and marches out, and a fortnight’s musketry practice at Aldershot. Autumn manoeuvres were then unheard of; no one was expected to know anything of military history, strategy or tactics; and internal economy of the companies was left to the sergeants and the Adjutant, as the company commanders, who then held the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the Army, were on leave during the greater part of the year from August to April, when the so-called drill season began.
