The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-09-14 00:00:00

MONDAY ETEIR4O.

. . . . 'They tell us in Wilts that Yoreb 'rough Cattle is a
very nelelemted fortification, but havhig never in atd of it
bolero, and bovine at hand no hook of the, county antiquides,
one memo/ heeiu a letter with t het .het lesseriatten upon
ancient eetrenchments into whieli otherwhie one tuieht be
temeted to strip. Yarnhoh u h Castle has not a store te
its is me. Its eattlenieets ere uothieg bet rolling
mounds of the groin tent circling an inner space in
tepee conceurric sings. Ihe greeteet ring meat miike
a massy bellow SO feet in eiepth irein the bottom of tee
iliteli to te e Met of Vie mound, the space enclosed meet
lie f. or or five acres, and here and there the moods are
'ewer rued permit dheeled vehicles to pass in awl cut. To-
dey the she clod vehicles were tune srriages, icr the grassy
cestle was erased with a rev me battery, and for the first
time, peehaps, since the Britt, h or tire Legionarim sent
the hts flier 1,1,1 over Pa erects, it was turned to purpmes 4,f
wer. 0 • pei. t s iii' n, ee • or water
In many of these old camps. At Yarnborough there is not a
s•ej. ‘,l .5 v.ots, A Le,A sill inieuehee
made r ef centavos cu bouelage to carry up the water of
the Wiley. a couple of miles elf, it 13 herd to e• e abet
they could have had to drink. This is • waterless
cowary, and the c .ropine grounds are perforce se-
lected hear the few streams them are. The Engineers have
hi ought their bridge (raise—" the fleet," as it is eellied,—but
they do not often me it ie the tight of Seeurday, howeveie
the pouteioners were able to throw a treetle bridge of a new
censer:Mt n over the White:l.mile, by welch lirekine'e
and Parkes brigade, and the grins from Staveley's light
division passed over to the Resistance of Lord Mark Kerr.
This bridge was of 21 feet span, was wide enough to take
guns or men in fears, and war built in tweedy-seven minute..
. . . . . Shottly belore nine the troops had (etch theit
plaoee, the rampart s ot leerebes eugh castle wet., arna-11 with a
watery of fel 1 guta. our cavelry was lathe 1 Gilivert's
C ipee to the fleet, the begale. had foued Luna 13 trig behind
the creste, veM Ito, hail been pnithed to the front all along
the line, and Sir Cohort wan era y to begin. Brigadier
Marshall rent 11:e 2:nl Life Guards te the front with
instruottens to hang on to the enemy's line, to bring
news ol his movements, and never to let Lim slip
from their touch. The litigaie of Guards was HMI
S Ivaneleg up the glade leading from Wiiey, well with.
in rimge, but the time bed not c •me, and they were
safe. The Life Guards were soon busy with some Hussars
who would came riding over the neutral emend before they
had any business so to do. Upoa a distant ridge we could
see the Iliessms firing their carldues at the Life Guards.
men, arid ae.amperine away in all directions, to conic back
again the next minute. Prom the meuthis of Yaniliorough
one had a flue view of the whole field of the approach-
ing battle, and could see the Infantry of Me enemy
slowly withdrawing from the hollow in which they were
au well seen. As well as we could make out the Northern
regimenes were in full march to the left of their army. . . .
. . . . The eliemy'a shelter trenches were completed on two
slopee, and we did not like the look of them, for we were pre-
, randy to at teck. The time cline at last, and Sir Robert's nteu
was to push ferthe rite-roofed tarot, and cut the Southern line
in two. Now, the al ,to-roofed farm wee about two mile. trona
1 arnborough Castle, arid over three tides The last two of
these were scarred with the enemy's intreuchnieuts, but the
shelter trenches ended rather Moor than the fame, and, by
pushing two brigades along a hollow leading rather higher
than the farm, we honed to outthink the regiments in
the earthworks, without incurring much of their fire.
This attack fell to the lot of Lord Mark Kerr's Division, and
he was ordered to detach too brigades to the right to work
up the hollow towards the farm, arid meanwhile to amuse
the garriaon of the trenchea by attacking them with the third.
As long as the lower attack pro pered he was to go on with
it, though it Was not to be expected that the Umpires would
long permit him to presevere against the fire of such a line
of sheltered marksmen with only a tingle brigade, rho
brigades moved as ordered, and en the right of the Northern
force General Parke was also advaticing—wituess a line of
black and distant dot., his skirmishers. A. drooping fire
begineing on the left showed that Lord Mark was
corning out bit iiistructlowe and the puffs of
smoke jetting everywhere alone the line of shelter
trenches showed how vigurou-ly the enemy were re-
ceiving his first skirmishers. The hearekinnee 100th CaMO
trotting down the slope mama the gully, and Itegau ellnebtog
the hollow which led op to the farm. They were followed
by a black battalion of Rifles, and we waited curiously and
anxiously to see what arthtery could open when the attack-
ing regiments showed themselves. On the crest they must
eras on their way to She farm home, two miles arid teen. to
our right, a battery wag plaeed playing at lung howls, and
the latest Dr's from that side wes that cavalry hail been
engaged, and that Perk,' was ready with ha eldrmbit en, hut
not yet firing. Lord Mark Kerr's regimentn bud not been a
minute on the ridge before a battery ',cooed heeded the shelter
trenches opened an etifilatiter fire. The reelmeets donated
aeries the dargeries• spot, crossed the second arel
retahed up some stuiehle fields. C,lnnnel Phileets mule bait°
to mine up a battery, and the two Regular ri glineete of the
Yernb ouueli Brig ide were sent f r, teaviog tleodaoils gad-
s:mad by the eteerdeensbire ilighiandeis, The enemy heet two
ia eaei s intreuched, awl &galled these Su. Itehert brought
for So far the battle had been simple emeigh, but west
with smoke awl 1101813, and n uthicks aud deice:cos, it
snore bee inie weltt Leh Impossible to follow its creire.e. It
was a grand sight to watch the dark cloud of the Northern
cavalry sweeping along a ewer to the right of Lord Mere
Kerr's eldredshers, sho threw tlitruselves by ralstedie
into Enures. awl gave oue of Maxwell s regiments on
opportunity ef flame at its friends. . . . . The mom
were stubbern and held their position so well thet at
the end of Cu hoer Lord Mark K err's brigades were still far
fir, lei the elate-covered farmhouses. Skirmithers etretcheil
In heng lbws soon, the dopes ; Dime sere rown upon rows of
teem, mei where Sir John Michel's men began aud Sir Robert
Welpole's ended seas a matter not lob, decided efreand. Sir
it dert was enleavouring to break throueh the manly $
centre, le it Sir John had brought tip Co malty gulls and regi-
ments teat it was wit sin easy metier. rile 4015 i mart,7l•
dose a el +yen well within mere of all enfilediag battery,
fleshing ligtihisie.g a few huieiree yi rls to the kit, tel
eras ortleind out of action by the Duke. The tiring of
grad gnus end smell arms swells into high chorus on every
stae. Reserve regime et s were brought up and mareind don n
into hollows Awl 1111 hill-sides, bet the slate-roofed farm w is
Lever won; the attaesiog force bore away tor fir to Me
eight en.l iteregimeets got much farther apart than they had
any busine,s to he The hillsides were pelted in smoke, end
wiser. it eleared (rice and wo looked to the right we raw
there were sumo remarkable doinee between cevaley.
Remarkable ihtteed they were. The Remy Cavalry
erigade had woo a victory all to itself over the
3ed Draeenns, tee 10th Hussars, and the Cerabineert,
having charged those regiments. When Williams's hate
ft ry had given them 41 rounds at close flume, the
Northerners were ordered ant of action, but not for leng—
th. y were men alive arid clime:Me agate before the battle was
over ; bat I ate 'amid to say how many regiments and hate
teriea en either side were ordered out of action lit this roost
niurdereue batt.e, whlehraged more fee lonely than ane fought
thin yen e. When the Lugle soundee to cease firing it was just
12, and Vic attack had continued for two honrs, thoneh it had
not altogether prosperee, mid though the lectubeinere
centre woe still far from being broken through, the North
had eceredi a suceess or WO. Sir Robert had wen nearly a
mile of actual ground in his trout to his right flank ; the
lienvy cavalry awl their battery had so resettled Sir John
Nichols horse that a laree h dy of it was nut out of action
for s tine time ; whilel.o the left flack Stephenson had pushed
forward and establieheel himself at Wiley, thus merionsly too-
pairing the Southern commode idiom— The Northern
fote.r rat a brig march of 10 or 11 miles to the new camp at
' Arneetury ; the Southern haled at Winterboarne Stoke,
where Attica ou the ground lately occupied by its enemies.
BERWICK ST. 'ABM, Monday.
The Mei of to-day's battle was unlike any that has yet
been fought on, and the same may be said of the eperations
thenmelves. Part of the eirgaeement, indeed, was Vaught at
the tell:ism of Wiley. but the tightieg extended aches the
Downs for a distal:cc of folly three mi'es or more. I litherte
the marl:cam es end flark marehes, of which so much nas
been sahl awl writeen, have been largely aided by the thick
woods and slopes whieit seemed to abound everywhere; but to.
day the cavalry engagements. at Mat, were fought upon a
portion of Sallsbury Plain of which the description still
holds good that is ;elven in the Ingokay Legends:—

"No bodges, no ditches, no gates, no stiles.
Much hes a house or. cottage, for miles.
Its a very sml thing to be c.toglit in the rain,
When night's coming on, upon Salisbury Plain."
And to make the description, it Possible, more applicable to
the actual circumstance., he ivy rain clouds drifted, every
halt hour or so, across the outface of the plain, producing a
large amount of discomfort at the moment, but still more sag.
gestively leading one on to think of the miaery ot camps to be
pitched on grass already ink Tin troop. however, fosght a.

tagerly as inks skies were sugUng; and thlsis one of the condoles
rations upon whih the foreign slicers lay groat stress. " The
English foot soldier," they remark, is not numerous ; but
you can do anything with an. lie a ill march early and
march late, he emu not talk m the ranks, be does nut raise
objections. Toll him to its down, and he aid use. Send
him unlink mol at the top he will also lire. Walk him
tliv„ugh is river and at the siker aide he will tire just the
same. Eniphaticully, he is willing. You can do a great
deal with such men."