The Sun.
London, England, 1859-05-17 00:00:00

HER MAJESTY AT ALDERSHOTT.

The troops at Aldersh ott -were reviewed yesterday
in the presence of her Majesty, and, though the
first field day of the season, it was one of the best
attended as well as the most brilliant and interest-
ing in its manoeuvres, which has been seen at camp
for a long time past. The crowds of visitors, not
Only from London but all parts of the country
round Aldershott, were more numerous than on any
previous occasion, which was rather surprising,
considering how very frequently the public have
been disappointed on these state occasions, and that
there is not now much more than half the number
of troops in camp which the course of another
month will see assembled there. A large attendance,
too, seemed forbidden by the weather, which in
any other part of the kingdom but Aldershott
would decidedly have been accounted as unfavour-
able ; but, notwithstanding these drawbacks the
heath was covered with carriages of the nobility
and country gentry, and the dusty approaches to
the Long Valley swarmed with pedestrians. It
might, perhaps, give rise to a feeling of insubor-
dination among London cabmen were we to
allude even distantly to the cab fares which were
demanded and paid eagerly yesterday at Alder -
shott, and if there is any gratitude extant at all the
fly-drivers along the camp-road ought to carry all
persons gratis for the next month to come.
According to the first arrangement the troops
were to have quitted their cantonments at half-past
9, but at that hour the rain, which had long been
threatening, had thrown off all disguise, and was
coming down with that dull pertinacity almost pe-
culiar to the celebration of out-door fetes and grand
holiday ceremonials in England. fe
es an
how-
ever appalling at its commencement, was to those
who had come prepared to make a holiday, in
truth, a great comfort, as it in some measure checked
the ascendancy of those blinding simooms which
sweep across the heath, and thus enabled the spec-
tators to witness the earlier movements of the day
with tolerable distinctness. Owing to this change
in the weather the march of the troops was for a
time delayed, bit soon after 10 the whole force in
three strong brigades of infantry and one of cavalry
passed through the south camp and across the moor
to the steep knolls andridges which stretch between
the royal pavilion and the high picturesque mound
known as Caesar's Camp, on the Winchester road.
The Ist brigade, under Ma or-Gen. Lord Win.
Paulet, was the strongest, having 4,600 men of all
arms, as follows :-2d battalion 4th Regiment, 1,000
strong ; 11th Regiment, 800 strong; 35th Regi-
ment, 900 ; Staffordshire Militia, 850 ; North Cork
Rifles, 700; and a field battery of 6 guns and 200
men. The 2d brigade was under Major-Gen. Hon.
A. Spencer, and mustered 4,180 men—including Ist
battalion 9th Foot, 850 ; 2d battalion 11th Foot,
850 ; 2d West York Rifles, 830 ; East Kent Militia,
700 ; Oxford Militia, 750 ; and a battery. of 6 guns
and 200 men. The 3d brigade was under Major-
Gen. Lawrenee, aid only mustered 2,490 men,
being the 2d battalion of the 47th, 860 strong, a
detachment of 450 of the 100th Royal Canadians ;
the Antrim Rifles, 750; and the Stirlingshire
Militia, 600 strong. The cavalry brigade, under
Major-General Lawrence, consisting of the 4th
Dragoon Guards, 650 strong; the 10th Hussars,
500 strong; a troop of Horse Artillery of 6 guns
and 220 men, mustered about 1,300 sabres in all. In
addition to these were a troop of the Royal Engi-
neer train, 120 strong, two companies of the Royal
Engineers in charge of pontoons, a detachment of
the Ist Battalian of the Military Train, 140 strong,
with the 3d Battalian of the same corps, 340 strong.
The total force upon the ground, then, of all arms
was a little over 13,000, officers and men, with 18
guns. The whole corps d'armee concentrated it-
self in the strong natural position we have men-
tioned ; the left wing, covered by the steep Roman
Camp, and the right, where the ground was more
open, protected by the cavalry and a troop of Horse
Artillery. The programme of the day's proceedings
supposed the division on the previous day to have
been intercepted by a superior force of the enemy
in crossing the Moor on its march to Reading, and
therefore to have halted and taken up a strong po-
sition under cover of Caesar's Camp. The duty of
the Aldershott division, as the advanced guard of a
large corps d'armee, was therefore to reconnoitre the
enemy's position, and endeavour by turning his right
to recover communications with the Reading road.
The enemy was supposed to be posted with his
right on Tweezledown-hill, and his left resting on
Pyestock-ridges, holding the route across the Moor
leading to the coveted R-2ading road. As by this
convenient supposition the enemy had acted most
imprudently in taking up an almost indefensible
line, and, in case of emergency, leaving himself'
nothing better to retreat into than the Basingstoke
Canal, his opeedy discomfiture under the most
ignominious circumstances was naturally looked
forward to by the public. Nor were they disap-
pointed. The Aldershott Division posted itself
strongly and so secretly behind the ridges that
scarcely a man was flees, save the strong force of
Rifle skirmishers, which, in a dark irregular line,
dotted the hill-side. The guns were placed on the
most commanding points, and the infantry and ca-
valry behind them in dense masses waited for the
expected signal to advance. This, however, was de-
lay ed for some time, during which the military re-
mained immovable, and the visitors, detached in '
loose skirmishing order over the heath, actually gave

an animated appearance to that bleak Nk old, and at
' the first glance led the spectator to imagine that the

usual order of things had been reversed,-and that the
troops were reviewing the public. At 20 minutes
past eleven her Majesty quitted the Pavilion in
an open pony carriage. At either side of her were
seated the Princesses Alice and Helena, and Lady
Macdonald and the Hon. Miss Stanley also occupied
seats in the carriage. His Royal Highness the
Prince Consort, in the uniform of the Colonel of the
Rifle Brigade, with the Duke of Cambridge, fol-
lowed the Royal carriage with a numerous and
brilliant staff of the chief officers in camp. The
cortege having passed through the ranas of the
Division descended the ridges, and took up a posi-
tion at the head of the Long Valley, when the
review immediately commenced. The first affair
was merely driving in the enemy's outposts, which
was soon accomplished by a sharp fire and rapid
advance of the Riflemen. As these got closer down
upon the enemy a supporting cannonade was
opened, and the strength of the Aldershott
position, till then concealed, was distinctly seen.
Up on the steep heights, and far away in
picturesque nooks and glens, where no one
dreamt that guns lay lurking, came the thick
spurts of flame and smoke, till the cannonade along
the line was loud and general. It was not of long
duration, however, and ere the heights were well
crowned with smoke the peculiar rumble and jing-
ling noise told that the guns were already limbering
up, and an advance of the whole line commencing.
As the great object of the advance was to turn the
enemy's right, it followed as a matter of course that
the left of tl e Aldershott division had to bear the
brunt of the day. A brigade of infantry, with a
strong force of skirmishers and some guns, made a
rapid movement on the left, and, supported by the
10th Hussars, advanced against the copses of Bick-
ley Farm, where the enemy's Riflemen were strongly
placed. A confused rattle of skirmishers followed,
after a few minutes, by the heavy continuous roll of
musketry and' guns, showed that the left of the
troops was hotly engaged, and the advance of the
right and centre began at once. The infantry
_ poured down the hill in dense bright masses of
close columns, the heavy cavalry on their right and
the gun:, winding cautiouslydown the steep ascent
with all the artillerymen hanging on behind to the
drag-repos, to prevent the ordnance rushing down
and overwhelming horses and mein. By and 'by the
scene grows more exciting. The guns keep still
busy on the left, and the confused din of musketry
has penetrated the wood, and tellswthat Aldershott
is gaining so far, and that the copse is being cleared
of the enemy. The light cavalry circle and move
about till they emerge from a cloud of dust in line,
and wait to charge till the enemy shall emerge from
the wood upon the open. Bugle sounds and hoarse
shouts resound through the right and centre bri-
gades as they come up with a rapid dull tramp in
close column, till they reach the head of the Long
Valley, and deploy into a front of more than a mile
in length. The Aldershott division at last clear
Bickley copses, and, advancing at a canter, the
10th Hussars prepare to charge them as they
cross the moor. They move • to the edge of the
wood and halt, while their ranks form up,
and then advance, slowly at first, but gradually in-
crease in speed till the " charge" rings from the bugles
from troop to troop, and they sweep over the Moor
like a whirlwind, shaking the solid earth with the
noise of distant thunder, and scattering the turf and
grass like water behind them. The heavy cavalry
at a slow pace, and in massive squadrons, advance,
while the light at last retire, having pursued the
lemy to the very foot of the I'yestock Ridges.
Directly this was accomplished, the left division of
the Aldershott corps issued from the wood, and
advanced rapidly against the enemy's right, so as
to throw it back
completely upon the line of hills
aboventillitcaßnapngstoke Canal. At the same time
the right
•Cettilitre advance upon the plain in iine,
and, mountin hills, under cover of a cannonade,
the battle becomes general along the whole front.
The enemy were
supposed to be in a bad
way; and' apparently °Zer
ell aware of the fact,
for the ridge of hills was desperately
a cdontefstetd. Theth
file fire began on the extreme left,
regiments of the centre and right and
aisntaoslinee
they joined the fusillade, till it roared and crackled
over the hills and valleys in a dense line of fire and
smoke nearly a mile and a half in length. The guns
on the flanks hurried up, and each as soon as it un-
limbered came into action, almost drowning in their
heavy reverberations the continuous roll of mus-

ketry. Suddenly the fire ceased, the line broke up
as if by magic, and each regiment, throwing itself
into a square, prepared to receive cavalry. This
manoeuvre was the most picturesque of the day,
the massive squares close at hand bristling with
their triple rows of bayonets, like hedges of steel,
while the warlike terror of those in the distance
was so much diminished that they rather resembled
bright parterres of flowers upon the hillside than
the strongest and most formidable combination of
which infantry is capable. Twice was this iba-
nceuure repeated, when the Aldershott cavalry ap-
peared to think that the enemy had had quite enough
of their own way, and prepared to charge, as the
hostile forces retired from the squares discomfited.
For this purpose both the light and heavy cavalry
united in one splendid line, and dashed forward..
But long ere the movement commenced the Alder-
shott dust had resumed its despotic sway, and be-
fore the squadrons had gone 50 yards the whole
line was hidden in a dense cloud, and the spectators
could only judge by the rapidity with which it tra-
versed the plain, and the dull, heavy rumbling,
which seemed to penetrate the solid earth, how re-
sistless and furious the charge had been. If one
might hazard a conjecture from the appearance of
the troops as they at last emerged from this dense
stifling cloud, the enemy must have been driven to
the extremity of taking refuge in a chimney, up
which their ardent pursuers had followed them,
man and horse, for probably never in the annals of
her Majesty's service did a blacker-looking division
parade in England.
The instant the charge was over there was a
second advance of the whole line to the banks of the
canal, the brigades on the extreme left going on in
the old style of heavy musketry and cannonading,
while the right prepared to cross the canal in pursuit
of their fast retiring antagonists. Crossing the canal
was a very pretty movement. Covered by some guns
in the Pyestock Ridge to their left, the Riflemen
were thrown out, and succeeded in gaining the banks
of the canal, where a continuing skirmishine, fusil-
lade was kept up, which in turn covered and pro-
tected the advance of the pontoon train. The pon-
toons were rapidly driven up, the rafts out, and the
floating bridge completed in a few minutes. While
being constructed two 12-pounders were lowered
down the steep face of the hill on the left by the
artillerymen, and got into play as the Rifles, forming
up in sections of four, advanced at double time across
the bridge, spreading out as fast as they gained the
opposite bank,: when in skirmishing order they
covered the advance of a strong column of riflemen
who occupied the pine wood, and made it rever-
berate like thunder under their continued fusillade.
This, with the advance of the extreme left and one
grand finale of musketry and artillery, completed
the rout of the enemy, who was driven so far away
as to be now beyond the reach of his pursuers. In
another minute, therefore, the troops began to fall
back, and there was a " solution of continuity" in
the pontoon bridge, which, even more rapidly than
it had been put together, was dismantled, hauled
ashore, and piled upon the waggons in a few mi-
nutes. This little adroit military manoeuvre, how-
ever interesting in a general point of view, was
beheld with considerable chagrin by a portion of
the public. Not viewing the bridge in the light of
a subtle military stratagem, but accepting it as an
accomplished fact, they had unwarily crossed to the
opposite bank of the canal, and were thus by the
sudden retreat of the pontoons reduced to the un-
pleasant necessity of walking some two miles round
to gain the road to camp, and must therefore have
arrived exactly when the prodigious cloud of dust
told that the marching past was over, and the
review terminated. .

After the marching past, which of course was a
tame affair compared with the brilliant movements
which had taken place, her Majesty returned at
once to the Pavilion, and after partaking of lunch
started for Farnborough, where Mr. Crombie, the
secretary of the South-Western Company, was in
waiting to receive the Royal party. The train
left the station in charge of Mr. Godson at 4.20,
and arrived at the private station at Nine Elms at
about 5.5.
The railway arrangements at Farnborough to
return the unusual influx of visitors were, as they
always are, of the most satisfactory kind.
In our notice of the camp in yesterday's im-
pression we inadvertently Stated that the troops
in camp would be reinforced by the addition of
several other regiments which we specified, and
among them the 22d. This our readers will, of
course, see was a clerical error, the 22d being
absent on foreign service in the Mediterranean.

LIFEBOAT FOR ANSTBUTHER,

SCOTLAND.

A correspondent writing from Anstruther, thus
alludes to the urgent necessity of a lifeboat at
that place :—" You are, perhaps, aware that this
is the centre of a very extensive deep-sea fishery,
within two and a half miles off coast ; we
have a population of about 7,000, the greater
part of whom are fishermen and their families. We
have several harbours, but none of them can be
taken at much less than two hours' flood, and there
is not a lifeboat upon our coast. You will thus
readily perceive that we have frequent disasters and
loss of life, as well from lying off till the tide flows,
as in attempting to take the harbour through the
surf. A case of this nature occurred recently, and it
seemed for some time that many of our boats with
their crews would perish almost within cable
length, and under our eyes. At that season the
winter herring fishing was prosecuted here by nearly
200 boats. On a recent afternoon a number of them
left our harbour, the whole fleet woul& have fol-
lowed, but were afraid of the weather. About 6 p.m.,
when the harbour was yet almost dry, a strong gale
broke from the south-east, and the boats at sea
commenced to run in as close as they could to the
harbour. About seven o'clock the gale had riser,
to a perfect hurricane, accompanied by a drenching
rain, and all our own boats at sea, as well as
strangers, were crowded amidst the surf near the
entrance to the harbour. They lay there helplessly
waiting for water. Several of them became un
r ianageable and drifted amongst the rocks. A
large crowd of townspeople, as well as the wives
and children of the fishermen crowded the quay
and beach. The cries of the men for help as they
struggled with the surf, mingled with the help-
less screams of their relatives on shore, and the
fierce wind and blinding rain, made up a most
heartrending scene. At last a small yawl was
manned, and, at the imminent peril of its crew, a
rope was carried out to the boats, and communica-
tion beint, thus opened with the shore, the impe-
rilled boats were happily hauled on shore, and no
life was lost. Several of the boats are damaged,
one of them so much so that she sank in the har-
bour. If we had a lifeboat all the agony of that
night and risk of life would have been prevented.
The want of one has made a deep impression on the
minds of the fishermen and the public. Some of
the inhabitants of Anstruther have put themselves
in communication with the Royal National Life-
boat Institution on the subject, which has, as usual,
readily offered them, from its limited means, every
assistance to carry out their humane objects.
Anstruther is the birthplace of one of Scotia's
greatest men—Dr. GI almers—and surely there
must be many admirers of that great man who will
not withhold their help in providing his native
place with lifeboats. We regret, however, to have
to add, that little or no exertion is made by the
Scotch people generally to assist in providing dan-
gerous places on their coasts with lifeboats.

Intelligence has been received from Bombay of
the death of Sir Jamsetjee Jejecbhoy, on the 14th of April,
at the age of 70. He was at the head of the native mercan-
tile body of India, and was created a baronet by the British
Government a few years back. He was also presented with
the freedom of the city of London. His donations to public
objects during his successful mercantile career amounted to
about £300,000, and he has bequeathed a large fortune to
his family.

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