The Sun.
London, England, 1868-04-14 00:00:00

THE MARCH PAST.

Precisely at ten o'clock a gun was fired as the signal for
the general body of the troops to brigade on the glacis and
prepare for the march past. Such of the men as had dis-
persed for refreshment were back in their places by this
time, and immediate attention was given to the signal.
The arrangements on the Common itself were admirable.
The portion occasionally used as a racecourse was
railed off for the troops. Outside the rails, on either
side, were lines of spectators. Half way between
the point of entry from the glacis and that of
exit, at the opening of the Portsdown•road, was the
saluting point, with ample stands to the right and left, to
which ladies and gentlemen were admitted on payment of
a tolerably high tariff of charges, graduating according to
the position. They were well filled by a company which
included very many officers in uniform, who, with great
heartiness, cheered the volunteers as they came by. Just
before the march past was commenced the cavalry were
drawn up on the right of the guns, and at eleven o'clock
the order was given to advance. First came the
cavalry, entirely composed of volunteers, and con-
sisting of the Bucks Light Horse. In their grey
uniforms, round hats, and twisted feathers, they
looked remarkably well, and they had not an indifferent
horse among them. They were followed by the Taplow
Cavalry, Lancers whom it is not easy to distinguish from
the Lancers of the regular army. Whether, in these days,
the lance is a very useful weapon of attack or defence is,
perhaps, more than questionable; but there can be no
question whatever of the picturesque appearance of
Lancers, and at Portsmouth the Taplow men elicited much
admiration. Immediately after the Volunteer Cavalry
came a field battery of the Royal Artillery, and next
two battalions of the Marine Artillery, numbering over
1,000, and after them a pontoon train. The fine bearing
of the Artillery of the British service is proverbial. The
Marine Artillery are less known to the public at large,
and therefore their appearance yesterday was a novelty
to the mass of the volunteers, as well as to vast numbers
of the spectators. They are a splendid set of fellows, and
either in the march past or the manuvres no corps shewed
to greater advantage. The marching of the 35th and 97th
Regiments was also capital, and the men were loudly
cheered. Of the volunteers, some corps distinguished them-
selves even in the eyes of the military officers present ;
but in more than one instance the marching was positively
bail, and the awkward attempts at dressing-up as the
saluting point was approached were anything but cre
ditable. The spectators at Portsmouth were not so
demonstrative as those at either Brighton or Dover, but
they were more critical, and when a corps did not acquit
itself to their satisfaction some very audible and by no
means complimentary observations came from the stands.
The number of volunteers on the field at Purtsdown,
when all were collected, was about 23,000. Of these,
16,000 defiled en Souttsea Common ; and neither at
Brighton nor at Dover was the marching past ground
comparable in picturesque effect to that of Southsea
Common.