The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-06-25 00:00:00

THE FORTHCOMING ROYAL REVIEW
OF VOLUNTEERS.

On Monday the arrangements for the assembling
and disposition of the 51,000 Volunteers who will be
reviewed by her Majesty on Saturday fortnight in
Windsor Great Park were completeti under the
supervision of Prince Christian, the Ranger of the
Royal demesne.

His Royal Highness who was accompanied by
Princess Christian in a pony chaise, rode from
Cumberland Lodge, attended by Colonel Gordon, and
was met upon the review ground near Queen Anne's
Ride by Major Furse, Deputy Assistant Quarter-
master-General; Major Salmon, 8,.E., Colonel the
Hon. A. Liddell, Deputy Ranger of Windsor Great
Park, and other officials. The Prince and the various
officials were engaged for several hours examining and
selecting ground for the assembling of the Volun-
teers and spectators, and planning the details of the
review.

The actual site is the grassy plateau situated
between Queen Anne's Ride and the Long Walk, but
in addition to this the upper part of the Long Walk
between the Double Gates and the Castle will have to
be utilised for the display. As upon previous occa-
sions, the principal line of spectators will stretch away
from Queen Anne's Gate along the eastern side of the
Ride towards Ascot, and will be nearly a mile in
length, the saluting point where her Majesty's carriage
will take position being nearly in the centre of the
spectators, and about 200 yards from Queen Victoria's
Review Oak.
The Volunteer regiments conveyed to Windsor and
Slough by the Great Western Railway will assemble
on the Cavalry exercise ground, while those carried
by the South-Western line to Datchet will cross the
Thames by a pontoon bridge to be erected by the
Royal Engineers to the park, on the east side of the
Long Walk, where they will be joined by the corps
marching from Ascot, Sunningdale, Virginia Water,
and Egham. After an interval for rest and refresh-
ments, the Volunteers will be formed into two army
corps, of six divisions, each of which will consist of
four brigades of four battalions, massed in quarter
columns. One army corps will take position on the
review ground, between Queen Anne's Ride and the
Long Walk, while the other will occupy the upper
portion of the Long Walk between the Double Gates
and the Palace.

The Queen and Royal family will leave the Grand
Quadrangle of the Castle, under escort, at five o'clock,
the Royal cortege proceeding under the archway
between the York and Lancaster Towers, and down
the private road to the top of the Long Walk. Driving
along this avenue her Majesty will inspect the ranks of
the Volunteer regiments composing the first Army corps,
massed in the Long Walk, a salute of 21 guns being
fired from a battery of artillery stationed in the park
as the Queen proceeds on her way through the Double
Gates to the second army corps, upon the review
ground. Having inspected thJ latter, the Qu,en and
Royal family will take a position at the saluting
point, in the centre and to the front of the line of
spectators, which will be marked by the Royal
Standard hoisted upon a flagstaff. The march-past
will then commence, and as some 51,000 officers and
men have to pass the Sovereign, the movement will
occupy a considerable time, the entire review being
expected to be concluded in about three hours—that
is, by eight o'clock in the evening.

All regiments of Volunteers whose applications for
leave to attend the Windsor Review did not reach the
War Office until after June 1. have had the permission
refused. These applications relate to about 12,000
men from different parts of the country. The chief
reason given is that proposals to attend are far more
numerous than were contemplated, and the railway
companies cannot undertake to carry a greater
number than that of which they have given notice—
viz., 50,000.

The Standardscommenta upon the forthcoming Volunteer
Review in a leader from which we extract the following:—

It is doubtful whether, since King Edward marched
with a mighty host to the invasion of Scotland, so
large a body of armed men have been gathered on
British soil as will assemble in Windsor Park on the
t)th of next month, for inspection by her Majesty.
The Volunteer gathering in Hyde Park, as a reply to
the presence of the French Army at Boulogne,
approached perhaps most nearly to it; but even
that assemblage fell far short of the fifty-one
thousand men who will parade before the Queen.
Even in the great battles of the Civil Wars the
forces on both sides together fell short of this total.
At the crowning fight of Worcester the Royalists
numbered only fourteen thousand ; the Roundheads
twice as many, whilst at Tewkesbury, the final battle
of the Wars of the Roses, the numbers were not
greater. On the 23rd of June, 1860, when the Queen
and Prince Albert reviewed the Volunteers in Hyde
Park, the numbers present were under twenty-three
thousand; and at the review of 1864 they did not
reach twenty-two thousand. Not only will the manber
of men assembled in Windsor Park be larger than
upon those occasions, but the individual efficiency of
the men will be much greater

The Queen has done a gracious act in consenting to
hold a Review of the Volunte9rs in honour of the
Force attaining its majority; for the men who will
march before her, and the larger absent body which they
will represent, deserve well of their country. Those
who become Volunteers must make considerable sacri-
fice, and give up a large portion of their leisure time
to their duties. The number of drills in which they
must take part is considerable, an most of their
Saturday half-holidays must be spent at the butts.
These may seem small things to those whose time is
unoccupied, but to men in business or trade it is no
slight matter to give up a large portion of the scanty
time at their disposal. The people of other nations
may respond willingly enough to the call to arms
when the country is menaced by invasion; but never
before since the world began has a standing and well-
disciplined force of two hundred thousand men been
maintained permanently by the freely given and un-
paid services of that portion of its manhood. Nor
does even that number represent the whole fighting
force which the Volunteer movement has added to the
national strength. A great number than are at pre-
rent in the ranks have passed through them, and
having borne their share of the toil and privation from
pleasure, have retired from the service; but were
there need for it, the major portion of these men would
at once rejoin, and the Force would be raised with-
out an effort to a strength of half a million of trained
soldiers The gathering of fifty thousand
Volunteers in Windsor Park will be practical refuta-
tion of the fallacy that the fighting spirit of the coun-
try is dead. The Review will be a sight such as Eng-
land has never seen before, and it will reflect the
highest honour alike upon the men engaged in it and
the nation to which they belong.