The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-05-13 00:00:00

"THE BATTLE OF DORKING!"

The following extracts are from an article in Blaek•
wnoat's Mayo-lee for the present month, entith d "The
Battle of Dorking : Reminiscences of a Volunteer,"
and should it so happen that the imaginative writer
has not been building castles in the air," then a aad
day is in store for "Old England ;" but let u hope
that this evil day may never arrive :

-
You auk me to tell you, my grandchildren, something
sin ut my own share In the great events that happened fifty
years ago. "I Is sad work turning hack to that bitter page In
our history, but you may le rhapa take profit In your new
homes from the lesson It teaches. For u. iii J.:401111d It came
too late. And yet we bad plenty of warning., If we had
only made use of them. The dal ip.r did not Come on us un-
aware. It hunt on mi suddenly, Us true, but Its comb g
was foreshadowml plainly °nought° open our eyes, if we had
not Veen wilfully blir.d We Eoglia, have only ourselves to
blame for the humiliation which has been Lrmght on the

What a proud and happy country was this fifty years ago
Free.ttatie had been working for more than • quarter of a
century, and there seemed to be no end to the riches It was
bringing us London was growtbg bigger and bigger ; you
could not build houses fast enough for the rich people who
wanted to live In them, the merchants who made the money
and came from all parts of the world to settle there, and the
law)srs and doctonr and engineers and others, aid trades-
people who got their abase out of the profit.. The streets
reached down to Croydon and Wimbledon, which my father
could remember quite country place.; and people used to
say that Kingston and Reigate wont I soon be Joined to Lon-
don We thought we could go on building and multiplying
for ever. .

Fools that we were! We thought that all this wealth and
prosperity were sent us by Providence, and could not stop
comlng. In our blindue,s we did not see that we were
merely a big workshop, making up the things which came
tom all parts of the world; and that If c the'. nations stopped
sending us raw goods to work up, we could not produce
them ourselves. true, we had In shore class an advantage
In our cheap coal and Iron: and had we taken care not to
waste the fuel, It might have lasted us loner. But even
then there we re signs that coal and Iron would soon become
cheaper in other ports; while as to food and other tiling.,
Eugland was not he ter off than It Is now. We were so mil
simply because other nations from all parts of the world
were in the habit of sending their goods to us to he sold or
rnattufuctured ; and we thought that this wont/ not for ever
And so perhaps, It might have lasted, If we had only taken
proper means to keep it; but, In our folly, we were too care-
less even to Insure our prosperity, and after, the course of
trade was turned away It wou'd not come back agate.

And yet, if ever a nation had a plain warding, we had. If
we were the greatest trading country, our neighbours were
the leading military power In Europe. They were driving a
good trade, too, for this was before their foolish COMMIIIifiILP
tb sat which you will hear when you are older) had ruined
the rich without benefiting the poor, and they wore In many
respects the tint nation In Europe; but It ca, on their
army that they prided themselves most. And with reason.
They had beaten the Russians and the Austrianv, and the
111111kult. too, In bygone years, and they thought they were
Invincible. Well do I remember the great review held at
Pll/111 by the Emperor Napoleon during the great Exhibition,
and how proud he looked showing off his splendid Uukrds to
the assembled kings and princes. Yet, three years alter.
ward., the force so long deemed the first in Europe was ig-
nominiously beaten, and the whole army taken prisoners.
Such a defeat had never happened before he the world's
history ; and with this proof before us of the folly of din-
loelleving in the possibility of disaster merely because it had
never happened before, It might have been supposed that we
should have the recite to take tile 'neon to heart And the
country was certainly rotund for a time, awl a cry was raised
that the army ought to be reorganised, and oar defences
strengthened against the enormous p-wer for sudden attacks
which it was seen other nation. were able ti wit forth. Eut
our S ivernment had come Into (Alice on a cry or retrench-
ment, and could, not bring themselves to eat their own
pledge a

It was on a Monday that the declaration of war was an-
nounced, and In • few hours we got our first inkling of the
cost of preparation the enemy had made for the event which
they had really brought ab ut, although the actual declara-
tion was made by us. A plonsral to the Clod of battles,
mi whom It was mild we had aro was te:egraphe I back:
and from that moment all no ... oin:dim with the north
of Europe was cut off. 011 erubarefes and legations were
pecked off at an hour's notice, and it was as II we had sud-
den y come back to the middle ages The dumb astonishment
vi Ibis WI over London the next moraine, when the papers
came out v,td of news, merely hinting at what had happened
was one of the moat stsrtling things in this war of surprises.
But everything bad br en arranged beforehand ; nor ought we
to have been surprised, for we had seen the tame Power,
only a few month, before, move down half a million of men
on a few dais' notice, to cominer the greatest Muhl try
nation In Europe, with no more fuss than our Was Office
used to make over the transport of a briewle from Aldershot
to Brighton—and this, too, without the allies It bad now.
What happened now was not a bit more wonderful In
reality; but people of this country could not bring them
selves to believe that what had never occurred before to
England could ever possibly happen. Like our neighbours,
we became wise when it was too lute.

Of course the papers were cot lone in getting news—even
the mighq orgenixstion set at work could riot abut out a
special correspondent ; and In • very few dais, although the
telt graphs and railevey• were lenee elated right across
Europe, the mitre facts metel out An emharget had been
lull ou all the altipplug in every poet from the. Baltic to
°deed ; the fleets of the two great Powers had move i Out
and P. was supposed were assemb'ed In the great
northern harbour, and troupe were hurrying on I”ard
all the steamers detained In these placev, most of
wh•ch were British mains. It wee clear that levastoe
was intended Even then we might have been raved
if the fleet had been ready The forte which guarder,
the ti Atha were perhaps too strong for shipping to attempt;
but an Ironclad or two, tandle 4 as British eaters knew how
to Use them, might have destroyed or damaged a part of the
transports, and delayed the expedition, giving us what we
wanted, time. But then the best part of the fleet had beau
decoyed cinwn be the Dardanelles, and what remained of
the Channel squadron was looking after Pentad illibutters off
tie west of Ireland; no it was fen due before the fl.et was
got together, and by that time it was plam the al emit pre-
parttlots were too far advanced to be stopped by a coup-de
main.. . . I was outride the Charted Crags station when
the Q teen's special train from Dover arrived, and from the
cheering and shouting which greened her as the drove away,
you might have supposed we had a'ready won a great victory.
The journals which had gone in strongly for the army endue.
lion carted out during the section, and hart been nervous
and desponding In tobe during the put fortnight, eualreeleg
all sorts of compromises as a wiry of getting out of the war,
came out in a very jubilant form lieu morning. "Panic.
stricken inquirer'," they said, " Rik now, where are the
mewls of mee jog the invent. ? We reply th elfin UM:J.3IOU
will never take piece A British fl et manned by British
action whose c wage and enthusiann are reflected in the
people of this country, is already on the way to meet the
presumptuous foe. The issue of a contest between British
ships and those of any other country, under anythiug like
equal odds, can never be doubtful. England mind a with calm
creefidence the lune of the Impending "
Such were the words of the leading article, and so we all
felt. It was on Tuesday, the 10th of August, that the fleet
sailed Dom the Down.. It tottk with le a submarine cable
to lay down as it advanced, ea that c • ntinuous Communica-
tion wae Sept op. and the pepers were publishing special
editions every few minutes with the latest news. This was
the first time such a thing had been done, and the feat was
accepted an • good omen. Whether ibis true that be eAd
miralty made UPO of the gable to keep on sending contradic-
tory orders, which took the command out of tie admiral's
halide, I can't say; but all that the admiral sent In
return was a few messages of the briefest kind, which
neither the Admiralty nor any one else could have made any
use of. each • ship had gone elf reconnoitring ; such another
had rejoined—fleet want, latitude so and so. this went on
the Thursday morning. I had just come up to town by
train as usual, and was walking to my ffice. when the new,-
boys began to cry, "New edition—euemy• 11 et In eight "
You may imegibe the scene In London ! Buttress still went on
at the bents, for bills matured altheugh the independence of
the country wan being fought out under our own eyer, no to
Say ; and the speculators were active enough, lint even with
thy people who were retaking and losing their fortunes, the
Interest In the fleet overcame everythieg elm ; men who went
to pay in or draw out their money stopped to show the last
belittle to the cashier. As hr the street, you mond hardly
get along for the crowd stonping to buy sued read the papers;
while at every house or care the members eet restlessly In
the common room, as if to keep together for company, send-
ing tut some one of their I tunaher every few minutes to get
the latest edition. At least this is what happened at one
e ffice ; but to sit still was as impossible as to do anything,
• t most of no went out and wandered shout among the
crowd, under a sort of feeling that the newt was got quicker
at In this way Bad as were the times coming, I Moir the
sickening suspense of th rt day, and the shock which followed,
was aimed the worst that we underwent It Wu about ten
o'clee k that the first telegram came an hour later the wire
announced that the admiral had signalled to form line of
battle, and shortly any rwards that the order was given to
bear down on the enemy and engage. Al twelve Came the
Renouncement, "Fleet opened fire ationt three miles to let'
warded us "—that is, the ship with the cede 0, far an had
been expectancy, then came rim first token of calsarliy. "An
Ironclad has beeri blown up"—" the enemy's torpedoes are
doing great damage "—"the flagship is laid aboard the
enemy—the flag ship appears to be sinkleg "—" the vice -
admiral has sigetalleti "—there the cable became silent, and,
any u know, we heard no more till two days afterwards. the
soirtasy Deeded which escaped the disaster steamed Into
Pease:toe:h.

Then the whole story came out—how our pallor., gallant
as ever, had tried to close with the enemy ; how the latter
evaded the conflict at close quarters, and, eheering oil, left
behind then the fatal engines which sent our ships, one after
the other, to the bottom; how all this happened almost is. •
few minutes. The Government, it appears, had received
warnings of this invention ; but to the nation this stunning
blow was utterly unexpected. That Thursday I had to go
home early tor regimental drill. hot It was Impossible to
remain doing or thing, no when that wee over I went up to
town again, and after waiting in expectation of sews which
never came, and miss mg the midnight train, I walked house ..
Tired thought was, I could not sleep, sot cent down to the
river and had • swim; and on returning found the house-
hold was assembled for early hreakfast A mum, Jul brute.
bold it was, although the burden premlog on each was partly
an Witten one. My father, doubting whether his firm could
last through the day ; my mother, her distress al sot my
brother, now with his regiment on the coast. already ex-
ceeding that which she felt for his public misfortune, had
come down, although hardly fit to leave her room. My
sister Clara was worst of all, for she could not but try to
disguise her special interest in the fleet; and though we had
all guessed that her heart was Orel to the young lieutenant
In toe II egehip—the fret logo down—a love unclaimed c sold
not Is. told, nor could we express the es mpathy we felt for
the poor girl. That breakfast, the lan meal we ever had
together, was soon Coded, and my father and I went up to
town by no early train, and g .t there jost as the fatal
announcement of the hass of the filet was telegraphed from
Portsmouth.
Toe panic and excitement of that day—Low the funds
went down to 35; the rut, upon the hank an 4 Its stoppage ;
to. fall of half the house. In tho city; hoe the Govern-
ment issued • notifl ration suspending specie payment and
the tendering of bills. . . The Call to arms, and the
unanimous response of the country—al this Is history which
I need not repeat. You wish to hear obout my ewo share
the business at the time. Well, volunteering has increamsi
immensely from the day war was proclaimed, and, our regi-
ment went up in • day or two from its ultra, strength 01 003
to nearly 1,000 But the stock of r 111. was deficient. We
were promised a further supply in • few days, which, how-
ever, w never received and while waiting for them the
regiment had to be divided into two parts, the recruit.
drilling with the rifle, In the morning, and we old herds In
the evening. The failure. and stoppage of work on this black
Friday threw an Immense number of young meo out of em-
ployment, and we recruited up to 1,400 atrong by the next
tiny; but what was the use of all them men with alt armi?
On the Saturday it was announced that a lot of anioath-b are
muskets in store at the Tower would be served out to regt.
went. applying for Mem, and a regular ecrausiole took place
&moue the volunteers for them, end WI" people got hold of
• coupe of hundred. But 3,, u might almost as well hive
tried to learn rifle drill with a broomstick as wilt oil Mown
hem ; besides, there was no smooth.to re ammunition In the
country. A national subscription woe opened for the manu-
facture of rifles at Birmingham, which ran up Ma couple of
millions in two days, but, like everything the, this came
too late. To return to tee volunteers , camps had been
formed a fortnight before at Dover, Brighton, Harwich, and
other places, of regulars and militia, and the head.tinarten of
most of the volunteer regiments were attached to one or
other of them, and the volunteers themselves used to go down
for drill from day to day, as they could spare time, and on
Friday an order went out that they should be permamently
embodied ; hut the metropolitan volunteers were still kept
about London se aeon of reserve, tin it Could be teen et

what point the invasion would take place. We were oh
told off to brigades and divisions hwy brigade consided if
the CB Royal Surrey Militia, the let surrey Administrative
Battaßoo, as it we. called, at hiaphom. the 7.0 Surrey
Volunteer. at Southwark, and ourselves; but only our
battalion and the militia were qoartered to the same pls.,
and the whole brigade had merely two or three afternoons
together at brigade exercim in Bushey Park beforethe march
took place. . . But though we volunteers core busy with
our drill and preparalbeis, those of us who, like myself,
belouged to &merriment offices, had more than enough of
office work to do, as yowl may suppoee. Ihe volunteer chmk.
were allowed to leave office at four o'clock, but the rest wore
kept hard at the desk far Into the night. tirders to the lord-
lieutenants, to the magistrates, notilioattons, all the
arrangements for cleaning out the workhouses for hospitals
—these and a huudred other thlngs had to be managed in
our office, and there was as much bustle to-door, as Out
Fortunate we were to ho so busy—the pe,ple to be pitied ems
those who had nothing to do. And on Sunday (that Was the
15'h Angust) work went on Nat as usual. We bad an tidy
parade and drill, and I wont up to town by the nine o'clock
train In my uniform, taking my rid w will me locale of acci-
dents, and luckily too, as it turned out, a cuakintooh overe
When I got to Waterloo there wore &noon. ot rumours ell At
A diet hod been Seen Or die Dowt 5. and somo of Vie des-
patch-boats which were hovering about the coasts brought
news that there was a large U,tllla cff arw'ch, but nothing
could be seen fri m the shore, as the weather was hazy. Thu
snow.. 's fight Milne had taken and sunk all the fishitigeboats
they could catch, to prevent the news of their whereabouts
reaching us, but • few escat. thi during the night and reported
that the Meaty taut frigate coming home from North America,
without any knowtedge of what had taken place, had salad
right foto the enemy's diet 'Led heen captue.ll In town the
troops were ell getting ready for a move; the (Blares In the
Wellington lierracka were under arms. and their boggsge-
waggous pa keel and drown rp in the Birtl.cage Walk. The
nee& guard at the Horse Guards had been vrithdrown, and
orderlimand staff officers were going to and fro. All this I
Saw on the way to nip office, where I worked away WI tat elve
o'clock, and then feeling hungry after my early breakfast, I
went coos. I.B7llalLeat-Arelt to ray club to get souse
luncheon

[Our limited space prechyles us from giving further
rxtraes from thy attic'. —but it is well worth a
mruzal, as it iv racily and ably written.]