The Sun.
London, England, 1855-08-03 00:00:00

THE CAMP OF TITF FoRPION LE'UONy

, •

- ..z -

AUGUST 2.—TraveFiere aastward from Feike-tone, a
walk of less than half an hour brought Inc to the little
town of Sandgate. There are two roads leading there,
one a carriage road close to the beach, and another, a
footpath, high above, that follows the windings of the
cliffs. I preferred the latter. It was still very early
when I left Folkestone. The tide was out, and the air
quiet and heavy ; but as I walked on, the tide turned,
nod a smart sea-breeze sprang up that brought with it
a dense mist from the surface of the Channel. So
thick was the fog that I could see it rising up around
the cliffs, like smoke curling up from a cot-
tage chimney. The subdued roar of the waves
began to make itself heard in the distance ; it seemed
as though the sea were sending its "good morrow" to
the shore. None seemed abroad at that early hour be-
sides myself and a lady, who was eagerly gathering
sprigs of the wild coneolvulus that abounds among the
clie. I sat down upon a stile made out of the aide-
tree of 'an old cart, to await the clearing, for I could
hardly see where my path lay. The mist soon passed'
overhead to settle down upon the hills beyond, and the
atmosphere became so transparent that I could dis-
tinctly see the shores of France. Before descending
int) the town of Sandgate, I passed one of the numer-
ous Martello towers that grew up in 1803 under our
fear of the French invasion, but the walls of which
the entente cordiale has allowed to crack and
burst with impunity, while the fosse is turned
into a kitchen garden for the benefit of some pensioner
who holds the sinecure of watching the building., Sand-
gate itself seems chiefly remarkable, as far as I was
enabled to judge, for its number of desolate-looking
empty houses, from whose dirty windows large weird
placards are constantly, but unsuccessfully, enticing the
unwary passer-by to "apply over the way for further
particulars." The town was last year rather severely
visited by cholera, which circumstance, together with
the proximity of the camp, has made it lose caste in the
eyes of the sea-shore visitors. Another characteristic—
not of the nature of the place, but of the times—is pre-
sented by the toy, stationery, sweetmeat, and millinery
shop and post-office, where sundry English grammars
for Germans, and German and English dictionaries,
are awaiting purchasers, while an advertisement in a
large, firm Saxon hand, states that within English is
taught upon the newest and most approved principles,
and terms of the utmost moderation.
Leaving the beach at Sandgate, a shady lane between
parks and fields, leads up to the extensive grassy plateau
upon the cliffs, where the Foreign Legion-is encamped
in rows of wooden and iron huts, forming three sides of
a parallelogram, the fourth unoccupied side being
the westward one. The huts are not visitle from be-
low, so that the first sign of the vicinity of the camp is
given by the dark outline of a sentry standing out
boldly against the blue sky above, as 1,13 paces back-
ward and forward ou the ridge of he bill. It was
a rifleman, in his plain dark dress and Albert
hat, with a true open German face, eon burnt and
beard, d. The whole place is now surrounded by a cor-
don of sentries, to guard against desertion, which was
not the case when I was here last ; but the fact that no
case caul I be made out at the Maidstone Assizes against
the man Hills, although it is notorious that he induced
several men to desert, coupled with the other fact that
there is still skulking about the camp another fellow,
suspected of similar practices, and understood to be an
agent of Hills, but against whom they cannot as yet
prove anything, has put the authorities on their guard.
Strict discipline is kept, and no man is allowed to
leave the camp. Measures of such doubtful policy
naturally excite a good deal of murmuring,
but they are only the natural consequence of
the manner in which some of these men
have been enlisted. , As your correspondent justly re-
marks, if we give a premium for desertion we cannot
expect that the deserter will be true to us. The inno-
cent suffer with the culprits. The Rifles will tell you
with pride that they have lost no one by desertion, ex-
cept a half crasy student of theology, who has already
returned voluntarily. But they have a great advantage
over other regiments. They are almost all from the
same part of Germany, Hanover, and North Prussia.
Most of them are tried soldiers, who have seen war
under the same officers who command them now ; sub-
mission to camp discipline falls, therefore, less heavily
upon them.
The north side of the camp is occupied, going from
east to west, by the Artillery, the cavalry, and the
Mee. The artillery corps left yesterday morning
it is said for London, and it is not known whether they
will return. The cavalry consists at present, lam told,
of about three hundred men, only one hundred of whom
are in uniform, in consequence, I am informed, of 100
of the suits sent down having been found too small. The
others exercise in blouses, dress-coats, and smock-frocks,
and every description of hat, from a Gibus down to a
wide-awake. The men naturally wonder how it is that
in this country, of whose enormous riches, and of whose
skilful manufacturers they have heard so much, it takes
snoh an enormous time to make 300 suits of clothes,
and that in the end they turn out too small.
But the most ;musing—or perhaps I should say the
most scandalous—part of their story is, that their sabres
are not yet provided with the necessary straps and
buckles, so that the men go through their exercise with
their sabre in one hand and the sheath in the other. The
reason for this extraordinary delay I have not been able
to discover—perhaps there is no reason. The whole of
the Legion stationed here were on parade when I arrived,
they amount at present to somewhat over 2,000, and are
certainly a fine-looking body of men. The drill was hardly
over, and the men might have been half an hour in their
huts, whensuddenly the call sounded "to arms in march-
big order." After a good deal of hurry and bustle, and
scolding and swearing, the men were at last ready, the
order to march was given, and the whole Legion set out
towards a high steep hill about two miles from the shore,
half-way between Folkestone and Sandgate, known as
Career's Camp. Part of the Legion were to defend this
-bill, the rent to attack and take it. It was all very fine
and rather nonsensical ; to take men who had only
received their arms a week ago away from the drilling
they so much require to attack and defend a position
made almost unassailable by nature alone, seemed ra-
ther misplaced activity ; and the disorder that pre-
vailed throughout, in spite of the efforts of the
aides-de-camp, who carried messages indiscriminately
to friend and foe, did not tend to increase the thebenefit
the soldiers were intended to derive from this manoeuvre.
Unfortunately, the display was attended by an accident
of a serious nature. Major Rodowitz, a highly-esteemed
officer, fell with his horse on the uneven ground, broke
his foot, and received beskka a bad wound in the head.
A good deal of powder was blazed away, and the men
returned to camp at a late hour of the evening.
Owing to the circumstance of the field-day, I had not,
of course,:; much opportunity of seeing the internal
managemeiet of the Legion, but in my next I hope to
be able to give you some interesting informatj.on.