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SIXPENCE  NET 


THE  BATTLE 
OF  DORKING 


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THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING 


THE  BATTLE  OF 
DORKING 


WITH  AN  INTRODUGTlOr^ ' 

BY 

G.   H.   POWELL 


LONDON 
GRANT    RICHARDS    LTD, 

MDGGCGXIV 


HcLl 


I  ENS 


PREFACE 

The  warnings  and  prophecies  addressed  to  one 
generation  must  prove  very  ineffective  if  they  are 
equally  applicable  to  the  next.  But  in  the  eloquent 
appeal  published  forty-three  years  ago,  by  General 
Chesney,  with  its  vivid  description  and  harrowing 
pathos,  few  readers  will  not  recognize  parallel 
features  to  those  of  our  own  situation  in  Septem- 
ber, 1914. 

True  the  handicaps  of  the  invasion  of  August, 
1871,  are  heavily  piled  upon  the  losing  combatant. 
Not  only  the  eternal  Anglo- Irish  trouble  (so  easily 
mistaken  by  the  foreigner  for  such  a  difference  as 
might  be  found  separating  two  other  countries) 
but  complications  with  America,  as  well  as  the 
common  form  seduction  of  the  British  fleet  to  the 
Dardanelles,  a  general  unreadiness  of  all  adminis- 
trative departments,  and  a  deep  distrust  of  the 
"  volunteer  "  movement,  involve  the  whole  drama 
in  an  atmosphere  of  profound  pessimism. 

But  there  are  scores  of  other  details,  counsels, 
and  reflections  (of  which  we  will  not  spoil  the 
reader's  enjoyment  by  anticipation)  which,  as  the 
common  saying  is  of  history  when  it  repeats  itself, 
"  might    have    been    written    yesterday."      The 


86(>883 


vi  PREFACE 

desperate  condition  of  things  is  all  the  more 
remarkable  as  Englishmen  had  just  witnessed  the 
crushing  defeat  of  their  great  ally — supposed  to 
be  the  first  military  power  of  Europe — ^by  the 
enemy  they  are  supposed  to  despise.  The  story 
is  otherwise  simple  enough.  The  secret  annex- 
ation of  Holland  and  Denmark  is  disclosed. 
People  said  we  might  have  kept  out  of  the  trouble. 
But  an  impulsive  nation  egged  on  the  Government 
who,  confident  that  our  old  luck  would  pull  us 
through,  at  once  declare  war.  The  fleet,  trying  to 
close  with  the  enemy,  is  destroyed  in  "a  few 
minutes  "  by  the  "  deadly  engines  "  left  behind 
by  the  evasive  enemy  ;  our  amateurish  armies 
are  defeated  on  our  own  soil,  and  voila  tout. 

Remarkable  must  have  been  the  national  in- 
souciance, or  despondent  the  eye  which  viewed  it, 
to  explain  the  impassioned  actuality  of  such  a 
reveillematin. 

For  one  thing  it  may  be  remarked  that  The 
Battle  of  Dorking,*  though  in  a  sense  the  "history" 
of  the  pamphlet  is  already  "  ancient,"  is  really  the 
first  of  its  kind.  The  topic,  then  of  such  inspiring 
freshness,  has  since  become  well  worn. 

Mutatis  mutandis,  doubtless,  much  of  General 
Chesney's  advice  and  warning  might  have  been 
repeated  on  the  occasion  of  the  Boer  War.  If 
that  were  not  a  practical  "  alarum  to  the  patriotic 

•  Contributed  by  Genl.  Sir  Geo.  T.  Chesney  (1830-1895)  to  Blackwood's 
Magazine  (May,  1871).  It  created  a  great  sensation  and  appeared  in 
pamphlet  form  the  same  year. 


PREFACE  vii 

Briton,"  we  ask  ourselves  what  could  be  so  called. 
Perhaps  it  combined  the  maximum  of  alarm  with 
the  minimum  of  national  risk,  but  its  beneficent 
influence  can  scarcely  be  questioned. 

At  the  date  of  the  republication  of  this  pamphlet 
we  face  a  peril  immeasurably  greater  than  that, 
if  not  equal  to  the  Napoleonic  terror  of  1803  ;  and 
we  face  it,  as  concerns  the  mass  of  our  population, 
with  a  calmness  which — to  critical  eyes  and  in 
view  of  the  appeal  made  by  the  Government  to 
the  country — is  at  least  susceptible  of  an  un- 
satisfactory explanation. 

If  surprise,  misunderstanding,  may  in  a  measure 
account  for  that,  it  would  be  idle  to  pretend  that 
the  national  mood  and  temper  (and  the  moods 
and  tempers  of  nations  will  vary)  were  altogether 
— if  they  could  ever  be — such  as  encouraged  the 
most  sanguine  hopes  of  our  success  when  exposed 
to  an  ordeal  of  suddenness,  extent,  and  severity 
unknown  in  the  world's  history. 

In  estimating  the  risks  of  our  situation, 
thoughtful  criticism  may  be  said  to  run  naturally 
into  two  channels. 

Firstly,  in  the  political  world — for  reasons 
which  cannot  here  be  considered — ^the  past  decade 
has  seen  a  predominance  of  idealist  activity  and 
ratiocination  scarcely  known  before. 

Hence  the  State  has  exhibited,  to  some  extent, 
a  Utopiste  attitude  likely  to  mislead  foreign 
nations — it  may  be  said  with  mild  brevity — alike 
as  to  our  real  views  of  their  conduct,  and  as  to  our 


viii  PREFACE 

national  belief  in  the  right  or  duty  of  self-assertion. 

If,  in  1871,  we  were  represented  as  the  helpless 
dupes  of  foreign  diplomacy,  in  1914  we  rather 
appear  to  have  deceived  the  enemy  to  our  own 
hurt.  A  humane  aversion  to  War — though,  for 
that  matter,  it  is  only  by  a  philanthropic  "  illu- 
sion "  that  the  extreme  stage  of  self-assertion  can 
be  morally  differentiated  from  those  that  precede 
it,  may  tempt  politicians  by  a  too  sedulous  avoid- 
ance of  the  unpleasing  phrase  to  invite  the  dread- 
ful reality.  But,  again,  in  the  private  life  of  the 
nation,  other  traits  (some  noted  in  the  pamphlet 
of  '71)  have  given  cause  for  critical  reflection. 
Besides  Luxury — remarkable  enough  in  its  novel 
and  fantastic  forms,  though  a  commonplace 
complaint  of  tractarians  in  all  ages — a  generally 
increased  relaxation  of  all  old-established  ties  of 
religion,  convention  or  tradition,  a  tendency 
noticeable  in  general  conduct,  art  and  letters 
alike,  a  sort  of  orgy  of  intellectual  and  literary 
Erastianism,  a  hlase  craving  for  sensational  novelty 
(encouraged  perhaps  if  not  sated  by  the  startling 
novelties  of  the  age)  have  given  scope  for  anxiety 
as  to  the  conservation  in  the  English  nature  of  that 
solid  morale,  that  "gesundesund  sicheres  Gefiihl" 
defined  by  an  eminent  thinker  as  the  source  of  all 
worthy  activity. 

These  words  can  but  very  crudely  sketch  a 
complex  sense  of  uneasiness  and  dissatisfaction 
familiar  to  most  of  us. 

Mr.   Kipling  has  sung  long  since  of  athletic 


PREFACE  IX 

excesses  and  indolence.  More  recent  critics  have 
dwelt  on  the  extravagant  time  and  expense 
devoted  to  golf.  General  Chesney  would  have 
branded  the  sensationalist  effeminacy  of  our 
football-gloating  crowds  of  thousands  who  mi^ht 
be  recruits.  Reviewers  laugh  wearily  over  the 
horrors  or  absurdities  of  the  latest  poetic  mon- 
strosity or  "  futurist  "  nightmare.  But  in  one 
phase  or  another  the  consciousness  is  present  to 
all,  and  not  unnoticed  by  our  enemies. 

And  it  adds  a  sting  to  our  inevitable  anxiety  if 
we  cannot  yet  feel  sure  how  far  we  can  "  recollect  " 
our  true  best  selves  in  the  very  moment  of  action, 
how  far  there  has  been  given  to  us  that  saving 
grace  of  a  storm-tost  nation,  'Tart  de  porter  en  soi 
le  remede  de  ses  yroyres  defauts."" 

Every  race,  doubtless,  has  its  own  special 
weaknesses  and  delusions,  the  "  idols "  of  its 
patriotic  "cave,"  and  it  is  a  commonplace  of 
history  that  the  moral,  physical,  or  intellectual 
"decadence"  of  one  age  is  revived  and  actualized 
by  the  material  cataclysm  of  another. 

And  the  readiness,  spiritual  and  material,  of  the 
nation  in  utrumque  paratus  is  the  index  of  its 
harmony  with  its  environment. 

On  the  other  hand  there  are  wars  to  be  fully 
prepared  for  which  would  almost  mean  to  be  a 
partner  in  their  criminality.  There  is  an  attitude 
of  defence  which,  if  successful,  would  lose  all 
dignity  were  it  allied  with  a  permanent  distrust  in 
the  morality  and  humanity  of  other  nations. 


X  PREFACE 

If  only  an  inhuman  pride  could  be  free  from 
uneasiness  at  such  a  moment,  at  least  warm 
encouragement  comes  to  us  ah  extra.  Whatever 
our  weaknesses  now,  our  sins  or  blunders  in  the 
past,  no  historian  will  question  the  motive,  nay, 
the  severe  moral  effort  with  which  the  English 
nation  enters  upon  this  war  of  the  ages. 

It  is  scarcely  conceivable  that  any  people  could 
be  called  upon  to  make  a  greater  or  more  sudden 
exhibition  of — their  peculiar  qualities. 

What  will  be  the  verdict  upon  our  own  ?  That 
we  are  wilfully  misunderstood,  misrepresented, 
must  matter  little  to  us,  if  we  have  the  moral 
support  of  a  public  opinion  which  will,  if  we 
triumph,  be  more  powerful  for  good  than  ever 
before. 

Nor  need  we  fear  its  ultimate  perversion  by 
interested  slander.  The  hostile  demonstrations  of 
the  German  intellect  during  the  early  stages  of  this 
war  have  scarcely  been  on  a  par  with  those  of  its 
material  force. 

One  of  the  latest  of  sophistical  Imperialist 
ebullitions  complains  with  somewhat  forced  pathos 
of  our  waging  war  with  our  former  allies  of 
Waterloo ! 

But  we  did  .not  fight  the  French  then  because 
they  were  French,  nor  ally  ourselves  with 
Prussians  because  they  spoke  a  guttural  tongue. 
We  fought  then,  as  now,  against  the  erection  of 
an  impossible  and  unbearable  European  tyranny, 
the  local  origin  and  nationality  of  which  would 


PREFACE  XI 

have  been  quite  immaterial  to  the  main  question. 

Can  we  beheve  for  a  moment  that  the  great 
German  intellect  has  ever  been  under  the  slightest 
misapprehension  of  so  very  simple  a  matter  ? 

War,  honest  war,  may  be  Hell,  as  General 
Sherman  described  it.  It  is,  at  least,  a  form  of 
Purgatory  in  which  personality,  nationality,  are 
forces  that  count  but  little,  while  principle  and 
motive  (as  was  tragically  exhibited  in  the  great 
American  struggle)  are  everything.  Did  not 
Christianity  itself  preach  this  kind  of  sanctified 
discord  in  which  a  novel  sense  of  right,  or  the  per- 
ception of  higher  ideal,  should  divide  even  the 
nearest  and  dearest,  and  set  them  at  war  not,  as 
in  old  days,  by  reason  of  any  "  family  compact," 
or  mere  racial  tie,  but  for  the  sake  of  "  Right," 
and — so  far  as  ordinary  friendly  or  neighbourly 
relations  were  concerned — in  utter  "  scorn  of 
consequence." 

There,  indeed,  is  the  poignant  tragedy  of  the 
case.  To  be  at  war  with  the  countrymen  of 
Schumann  and  Beethoven,  of  Goethe  and  Ranke, 
is  not  that  an  affliction  to  the  very  soul  of  England, 
an  outrage  to  feelings  and  instincts  tangled  up 
with  the  very  core  of  our  civilization  ? 

Terrible,    indeed,    is   it   that   there   should   be 
alnities  which,  at  such  crises,  we  must 
•  "  tear  from  our  bosom 

Though  our  heart  be  at  the  root." 
No  man  or  nation  expects  perfection  in  his  friends. 
Honestly  we  have  loved  and  respected  the  Ger- 


xii  PREFACE 

man.  We  have  not  wormed  ourselves  into  his 
confidence,  nursing  through  long  years  secret 
stores  of  explosive  jealousy.  His  art,  his  learning, 
have  had  their  full  meed  of  admiration  from  his 
kindred  here. 

But  we  recognize — dull,  indeed,  would  they  be 
who  needed  a  more  striking  reminder  that  be- 
neath the  defective  "  manner  "  of  the  Teuton 
lurks  an  element  of  crude  barbarity  with  which 
we  cannot  pretend  to  fraternize. 

The  violence  of  the  Goths  and  Huns  had  its 
place  in  history  ;  but  that  would  be  a  strange 
international  morality  which  would  give  the  rein 
now  to  mediaeval  instincts  of  egoistic  tyranny  and 
perfectly  organized  brute  force,  as  against  the 
gentler  instincts,  th-e  higher  social  civilization 
largely  associated  with  the  Latin  and  Celtic  races. 

In  these  matters  the  Balance  of  Power  is  no  less 
vital  to  international  life  and  the  evolution  of  true 
cosmopolitan  ideals  than  in  mere  Politics.  And 
if  we  stand  up  in  battle  for  the  smaller  races  it  is 
not  merely  because  they  are  small  and  need 
defence,  but  because  an  element  of  the  right,  a 
share  in  the  civilization  which  we  mean  to  prevail, 
is  with  them  and  a  part  of  their  heritage. 

The  technical  bond  may  be,  as  the  scoffing 
enemy  remarks  (in  words  which  will  surely,  as 
curses,  return  some  day  to  roost),  a  mere  '*  scrap 
of  paper  "  signed  with  England's  name. 

But  the  civilized  world  will  recognize  that  it  is 
only  by  the  increased  sanctity  of  such  ties  that 


PREFACE  xiii 

Europe  advances  towards  intelligent  cosmopoli- 
tanism, and  leaves  behind  the  vandal  wild  beast 

den  after  which  woe  to  those  who  still  hanker! 
*         *         *         * 

There  were  critics,  even  English  critics,  who 
have  taken  so  superficial  a  view  of  history  and 
humanity  as  to  ask  why  we  should  support 
France,  with  our  blood  and  treasure,  when  in 
morale  and  intellect  it  is  perhaps  the  candid  truth 
that  we  are  more  on  the  side  of  her  enemy. 

It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  urge  in  reply  that 
France,  if  not  the  one  great  continental  nation,  is 
the  one  great  people  of  parallel  and  contemporary 
development  to  our  own,  our  comrade,  our  rival, 
our  nearest  social  (if  not  racial)  kin,  and  that,  spite 
of  all  her  decadence  and  even  degradation,  upon 
the  arena  of  Europe  she  stands  lor  Humanity  and 
Civilization  against  Absolutism  and  Brute  Force. 

And  as  we  raised  the  world  against  her,  when 
dominated  by  the  tyrannous  egoism  of  Bona- 
parte, the  monstrous  fungoid  growth  that  over- 
laid her  great  Revolution  and  obscured  her 
services  to  freedom,  so  now  we  stand  as  foes,  not, 
we  would  fain  believe,  of  the  German  people,  but 
of  the  militarist  clique,  the  Napoleonic  nightmare 
that  overpowers  her  moral  instincts  and  clouds 
her  honesty  and  intelligence.  But  here,  again,  let 
us  not  deceive  ourselves  as  to  the  extent — perhaps 
to  be  all  too  fatally  revealed — of  "the  force  behind 
the  Kaiser."  Germany  of  to-day  stands  for  a 
compact  mass  of  highly  energized  (though  not  yet 


xiv  PREFACE 

politically  conscious)  material  and  intellectual 
vigour.  That  a  group  of  principalities,  obsessed 
by  militarist  and  petty-aristocratic  traditions, 
should  within  half  a  century  of  their  amalgama- 
tion form  a  politically  great  and  united  people, 
could  scarcely  be  expected. 

But  if  not  fully  organized  on  the  representative 
lines  to  which  we  attach  so  much  importance, 
Germany  presents  a  united  front  of  intelligence, 
commercial  industry  and  ambition  with  which  her 
rapidly  increasing  population  pushes  on,  eager  for 
new  worlds  to  conquer. 

That  she  demands  an  "  Elizabethan  age  "  of  her 
own  is  the  tragic  platitude  of  our  time. 

That  she  is  aggrieved  that  we  have  had  one, 
while  we  can  only  imperfectly  (in  her  estimation) 
utilize  its  modern  fruits,  is  her  true  theoretical 
casus  belli  against  us. 

The  immorality  of  the  position  consists  in  her 
belief  that  the  Sun  of  Civilization  must  stand  still, 
the  currents  of  Law  and  Order  run  backwards  to 
satisfy  her  entetee  and  unscrupulous  jealousy. 
Englishmen  have  been  so  innocent  as  to  believe 
she  would  be  satisfied  by  a  share,  nay  an  extensive 
monopoly  of  the  trade  we  once  thought  our  own. 
They  have  urged  that  the  German  has  all  the 
advantages  enjoyed  by  a  native  throughout  the 
British  Empire,  that  in  spite  of  a  constant  agita- 
tion by  a  large  and  powerful  party,  no  English 
Government  has  ever  used  its  power  to  impose 
any  artificial  restraints  upon  German  trade  ;  that 


PREFACE  XV 

the  fullest  hospitality  of  these  Islands  has  been 
extended  to  our  Teuton  brethren  ;  while  they  were 
invited  to  successfully  compete  on  their  merits 
with  one  English  industry  after  another. 

That  they  would  not  rest  content  with  these 
advantages,  this  political  and  commercial  equality, 
that  they  would  want  to  organize  secret  treachery, 
to  spy  out  our  weaknesses  and  hide  bombs  in  their 
bedrooms,  that — to  the  simple  Briton  of  a  few 
weeks  ago — would  have  seemed  impossible. 

He  now  knows  what  primitive  passions  may 
lurk  behind  a  plausible  commercialism  secretly 
disappointed  in  its  immoderate  greed. 

It  is  in  the  alliance  of  despotic  militarism  with 
bureaucratic  intellectual  sophistry  that  has  lain 
a  new  peril  for  the  world,  and  one  yet  to  be  fully 
realized  by  the  German  people,  when  many  of  the 
hasty  and  speculative  structures  of  her  self- 
conscious  and  academic  Protectionism  are  dis- 
covered to  be  as  unsound  as  the  quasi-religious 
aphorisms  of  the  Kaiser. 

In  spite  of  these  confident  assurances  it  may  be 
the  fate  of  that  arrogant  leader  to  find  himself  at 
war  with  "  things,"  stony  facts,  economic  laws 
that  crush  the  transgressor,  as  well  as  with  an 
indignant  world. 

Meanwhile — our  armies  have  fought  bravely 
and  held  their  own  in  the  greatest  battle,  the 
most  ferocious  conflict  the  world  ever  dreamed  of. 

Our  unconquered  fleet,  after  the  tradition  of 
four  centuries,  is  still  "looking  for  the  enemy." 


xvi  PREFACE 

All  around  us,  as  we  write,  is  evidence  that  ti 
nation  is  bracing  herself  for  a  new  and  stupendo 
effort  of  courage,  perhaps  of  imaginative  strategy 
and    even   Weltpolitik   which    will    in    startling 
fashion  bring  the  forces  of  half  the  world  to  meet 
and  crush  a  world-menacing  peril,  and  place  our 
England,  the  mistress  of  the  seas,  on  a  pinnacle 
where  she  will   be  justified  of  all  her  patriotic 
children,  counsellors,  critics  and  heroes  alike. 

G.  H.  Powell. 


THE   BATTLE  OF  DORKING 


You  ask  me  to  tell  you,  my  grandchildren,  some- 
thing about  my  own  share  in  the  great  events  that 
happened  fifty  years  ago.  'Tis  sad  work  turning 
back  to  that  bitter  page  in  our  history,  but  you 
may  perhaps  take  profit  in  your  new  homes  from 
thje  lesson  it  teaches.  For  us  in  England  it  came 
too  late.  And  yet  we  had  plenty  of  warnings,  if 
we  had  only  made  use  of  them.  The  danger  did 
not  come  on  us  unawares.  It  burst  on  us  suddenly, 
'tis  true  ;  but  its  coming  was  foreshadowed  plainly 
enough  to  open  our  eyes,  if  we  had  not  been  wil- 
fully blind.  We  English  have  only  ourselves  to 
blame  for  the  humiliation  which  has  been  brought 
on  the  land.  Venerable  old  age!  Dishonourable 
old  age,  I  say,  when  it  follows  a  manhood  dis- 
honoured as  ours  has  been.  I  declare,  even  qow, 
though  fifty  years  have  passed,  I  can  hardly  look 
a  young  man  in  the  face  when  I  think  I  am  one  of 
those  in  whose  youth  happened  this  degradation 
of  Old  England — one  of  those  who  betrayed  the 
trust  handed  down  to  us  unstained  by  our  fore- 
fathers. 

What   a  proud   and   happy  country  was   this 

17 


18  THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING 

fifty  years  ago !  Free-trade  had  been  working  for 
more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century,  and  there 
seemed  to  be  no  end  to  the  riches  it  was  bringing 
us.  London  was  growing  bigger  and  bigger  ;  3^ou 
,  could  c  npjj  Jbjiild  houses  fast  enough  for  the  rich 
'^  '^^^  people  ^^lio' wanted  to  Hve  in  them,  the  merchants 
/.  i  i;:  ^i\o:i^§,deAlie>hioney  and  came  from  all  parts  of 
the  world  to  settle  there,  and  the  lawyers  and 
doctors  and  engineers  and  others,  and  trades- 
people who  got  their  share  out  of  the  profits.  The 
streets  reached  down  to  Croydon  and  Wimbledon, 
which  my  father  could  remember  quite  country 
^-places  ;  and  people  used  to  say  that  Kingston  and 
Reigate  would  soon  be  joined  to  London.  We 
thought  we  could  go  on  building  and  multiplying 
for  ever.  'Tis  true  that  even  then  there  was  no 
lack  of  poverty  ;  the  people  who  had  no  money 
went  on  increasing  as  fast  as  the  rich,  and  pauper- 
ism was  already  beginning  to  be  a  difficulty  ;  but 
if  the  rates  were  high,  there  was  plenty  of  money 
to  pay  them  with  ;  and  as  for  what  were  called  the 
middle  classes,  there  really  seemed  no  limit  to  their 
increase  and  prosperity.  People  in  those  days 
thought  it  quite  a  matter  of  course  to  bring  a 
dozen  children  into  the  world — or,  as  it  used  to  be 
said,  Providence  sent  them  that  number  of  babies ; 
and  if  they  couldn't  always  marry  off  all  the  daugh- 
ters, they  used  to  manage  to  provide  for  the  sons, 
for  there  were  new  openings  to  be  found  in  all  the 
professions,  or  in  the  Government  offices,  which 
went  on  steadily  getting  larger.    Besides,  in  those 


THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING  19 

days  young  men  could  be  sent  out  to  India,  or  into 
the  army  or  navy  ;  and  even  then  emigration  was 
not  uncommon,  although  not  the  regular  custom 
it  is  now.  Schoolmasters,  like  all  other  profes- 
sional classes,  drove  a  capital  trade.  They  did 
not  teach  very  much,  to  be  sure,  but  new  schools 
with  their  four  or  five  hundred  boys  were  springing 
up  all  over  the  country. 

Fools  that  we  were!  We  thought  that  all  this 
wealth  and  prosperity  were  sent  us  by  Providence, 
and  could  not  stop  coming.  In  our  blindness  we 
did  not  see  that  we  were  merely  a  big  workshop, 
making  up  the  things  which  came  from  all  parts 
of  the  world  ;  and  that  if  other  nations  stopped 
sending  us  raw  goods  to  work  up,  we  could  not 
produce  them  ourselves.  True,  we  had  in  those 
days  an  advantage  in  our  cheap  coal  and  iron ;  and 
had  we  taken  care  not  to  waste  the  fuel,  it  might 
have  lasted  us  longer.  But  even  then  there  were 
signs  that  coal  and  iron  would  soon  become 
cheaper  in  foreign  parts  ;  while  as  to  food  and 
other  things,  England  was  not  better  off  than  it  is 
now.  We  were  so  rich  simply  because  other  na- 
tions from  all  parts  of  the  world  were  in  the  habit 
of  sending  their  goods  to  us  to  be  sold  or  manu- 
factured ;  and  we  thought  that  this  would  last  for 
ever.  And  so,  perhaps,  it  might  have  lasted,  if  we 
had  only  taken  proper  means  to  keep  it ;  but,  in 
our  folly,  we  were  too  careless  even  to  insure  our 
prosperity,  and  after  the  course  of  trade  was 
turned  away  it  would  not  come  back  again. 


20  THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING 

And  yet,  if  ever  a  nation  h&d  a  plain  warning, 
we  had.  If  we  were  the  greatest  trading  country, 
our  neighbours  were  the  leading  military  power  in 
Europe.  They  were  driving  a  good  trade,  too,  for 
this  was  before  their  foolish  communism  (about 
which  you  will  hear  when  you  are  older)  had 
ruined  the  rich  without  benefiting  the  poor,  and 
they  were  in  many  respects  the  first  nation  in 
Europe;  but  it  was  on  their  army  that  they 
prided  themselves  most.  And  with  reason.  They 
had  beaten  the  Russians  and  the  Austrians,  and 
the  Prussians  too,  in  bygone  years,  and  they 
thought  they  were  invincible.  Well  do  I  remem- 
ber the  great  review  held  at  Paris  by  the  Emperor 
Napoleon  during  the  great  Exhibition,  and  how 
proud  he  looked  showing  off  his  splendid  Guards 
to  the  assembled  kings  and  princes.  Yet,  three 
years  afterwards,  the  force  so  long  deemed  the 
first  in  Europe  was  ignominiously  beaten,  and  the 
whole  army  taken  prisoners.  Such  a  defeat  had 
never  happened  before  in  the  worM's  history  ; 
and  with  this  proof  before  us  of  the  folly  of  dis- 
believing in  the  possibility  of  disaster  merely  be- 
cause it  had  never  fallen  upon  us,  it  might  have 
been  supposed  that  we  should  have  the  sense  to 
take  the  lesson  to  heart.  And  the  country  was 
certainly  roused  for  a  time,  and  a  cry  was  raised 
that  the  army  ought  to  be  reorganized,  and  our 
defences  strengthened  against  the  enormous  power 
for  sudden  attacks  which  it  was  seen  other  na- 
tions were  able  to  put  forth.     And  a  scheme  of 


THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING  21 

army  reform  was  brought  forward  by  the  Govern- 
ment.   It  was  a  half-and-half  affair  at  best ;  and 
unfortunately,  instead  of  being  taken  up  in  Parlia- 
ment as  a  national  scheme,  it  was  made  a  party 
matter  of,   and  so  fell  through.     There  was  a 
Radical  section  of  the  House,  too,  whose  votes 
had  to  be  secured  by  conciliation,   and  which 
blindly  demanded  a  reduction  of  armaments  as 
the  price  of  allegiance.    This  party  always  decried 
military  establishments  as  part  of  a  fixed  policy 
for  reducing  the  influence  of  the  Crown  and  the 
aristocracy.    They  could  not  understand  that  the 
times  had  altogether  changed,  that  the  Crown  had 
really  no  power,  and  that  the  Government  merely 
existed  at  the  pleasure  of  the  House  of  Commons, 
and  that  even  Parliament-rule  was  beginning  to 
give  way  to  mob-law.    At  any  rate,  the  Ministry, 
baffled  on  all  sides,  gave  up  by  degrees  all  the 
strong  points  of  a  scheme  which  they  were  not 
heartily  in  earnest  about.    It  was  not  that  there 
was  any  lack  of  money,  if  only  it  had  been  spent 
in  the  right  way.     The  army  cost  enough,  and 
more  than  enough,  to  give  us  a  proper  defence, 
and  there  were  armed  men  of  sorts  in  plenty  and 
to  spare,  if  only  they  had  been  decently  organized. 
It  was  in  organization  and  forethought  that  we 
fell  short,  because  our  rulers  did  not  heartily  be- 
lieve in  the  need  for  preparation.     The  fleet  and 
the  Channel,  they  said,  were  sufficient  protection. 
So  army  reform  was  put  off  to  some  more  con- 
venient season,  and  the  militia  and  volunteers 


22  THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING 

were  left  untrained  as  before,  because  to  call  them 
out  for  drill  would  "interfere  with  the  industry 
of  the  country."    We  could  have  given  up  some  of 
the  industry  of  those  days,  forsooth,  and  yet  be 
busier  than  we  are  now.    But  why  tell  you  a  tale 
you  have  so  often  heard  already  ?    The  nation, 
although  uneasy,  was  misled  by  the  false  security 
its  leaders  professed  to  feel ;    and  the  warning 
given  by  the  disasters  that  overtook  France  was 
allowed  to  pass  by  unheeded.    We  would  not  even 
be  at  the  trouble  of  putting  our  arsenals  in  a  safe 
place,  or  of  guarding  the  capital  against  a  surprise, 
although  the  cost  of  doing  so  would  not  have  been 
so  much  as  missed  from  the  national  wealth.   The 
French  trusted  in  their  army  and  its  great  repu- 
tation, we  in  our  fleet ;  and  in  each  case  the  result 
of  this  blind  confidence  was  disaster,  such  as  our 
forefathers  in  their  hardest  struggles  could  not 
have  even  imagined. 

I  need  hardly  tell  you  how  the  crash  came  about. 
First,  the  rising  in  India  drew  away  a  part  of  our 
small  army ;  then  came  the  difficulty  with 
America,  which  had  been  threatening  for  years, 
and  we  sent  off  ten  thousand  men  to  defend 
Canada — a  handful  which  did  not  go  far  to 
strengthen  the  real  defences  of  that  country,  but 
formed  an  irresistible  temptation  to  the  Ameri- 
cans to  try  and  take  them  prisoners,  especially  as 
the  contingent  included  three  battaUons  of  the 
Guards.  Thus  the  regular  army  at  home  was  even 
smaller  than  usual,  and  nearly  half  of  it  was  in 


THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING  23 

Ireland  to  check  the  talked-of  Fenian  invasion 
fitting  out  in  the  West.  Worse  still — though  I  do 
not  know  it  would  really  have  mattered  as  things 
turned  out — ^the  fleet  was  scattered  abroad  :  some 
ships  to  guard  the  West  Indies,  others  to  check 
privateering  in  the  China  seas,  and  a  large  part  to 
try  and  protect  our  colonies  on  the  Northern 
Pacific  shore  of  America,  where,  with  incredible 
folly,  we  continued  to  retain  possessions  which  we 
could  not  possibly  defend.  America  was  not  the 
great  power  forty  years  ago  that  it  is  now  ;  but  lor 
us  to  try  and  hold  territory  on  her  shores  which 
could  only  be  reached  by  sailing  round  the  Horn, 
was  as  absurd  as  if  she  had  attempted  to  take  the 
Isle  of  Man  before  the  independence  of  Ireland. 
We  see  this  plainly  enough  now,  but  we  were  all 
bhnd  then. 

It  was  while  we  were  in  this  state,  with  our 
ships  all  over  the  world,  and  our  little  bit  of  an 
army  cut  up  into  detachments,  that  the  Secret 
Treaty  was  published,  and  Holland  and  Denmark 
were  annexed.  People  say  now  that  we  might 
have  escaped  the  troubles  which  came  on  us  if  we 
had  at  any  rate  kept  quiet  till  our  other  difficulties 
were  settled  ;  but  the  English  were  always  an 
impulsive  lot  :  the  whole  country  was  boiling  over 
with  indignation,  and  the  Government,  egged  on 
by  the  Press,  and  going  with  the  stream,  declared 
war.  We  had  always  got  out  of  scrapes  before, 
and  we  believed  our  old  luck  and  pluck  would 
somehow  pull  us  through. 


24  THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING 

Then,  of  course,  there  was  bustle  and  hurry  all 
over  the  land.  Not  that  the  calling  up  of  the  army 
reserves  caused  much  stir,  for  I  think  there  were 
only  about  5,000  altogether,  and  a  good  many  of 
these  were  not  to  be  found  when  the  time  came  ; 
but  recruiting  was  going  on  all  over  the  country, 
with  a  tremendous  high  bounty,  50,000  more  men 
having  been  voted  for  the  army.  Then  there  was  a 
a  Ballot  Bill  passed  for  adding  55,500  men  to  the 
militia  ;  why  a  round  number  was  not  fixed  on  I 
don't  know,  but  the  Prime  Minister  said  that  this 
was  the  exact  quota  wanted  to  put  the  defences 
of  the  country  on  a  sound  footing.  Then  the  ship- 
building that  began!  Ironclads,  despatch-boats, 
gunboats,  monitors, — every  building-yard  in  the 
country  got  its  job,  and  they  were  offering  ten 
shillings  a  day  wages  for  anybody  who  could  drive 
a  rivet.  This  didn't  improve  the  recruiting,  you 
may  suppose.  I  remember,  too,  there  was  a 
squabble  in  the  House  of  Commons  about  whether 
artisans  should  be  drawn  for  the  ballot,  as  they 
were  so  much  wanted,  and  I  think  they  got  an  ex- 
emption. This  sent  numbers  to  the  yards  ;  and 
if  we  had  had  a  couple  of  years  to  prepare  instead 
of  a  couple  of  weeks,  I  daresay  we  should  have 
done  very  well. 

It  was  on  a  Monday  that  the  declaration  of  war 
was  announced,  and  in  a  few  hours  we  got  our  first 
inkling  of  the  sort  of  preparation  the  enemy  had 
made  for  the  event  which  they  had  really  brought 
about,  although  the  actual  declaration  was  made 


THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING  25 

by  us.  A  pious  appeal  to  the  God  of  battles, 
whom  it  was  said  we  had  aroused,  was  telegraphed 
back  ;  and  from  that  moment  all  communica- 
tion with  the  north  of  Europe  was  cut  off.  Our 
embassies  and  legations  were  packed  off  at  an 
hour's  notice,  and  it  was  as  if  we  had  suddenly 
come  back  to  the  middle  ages.  The  dumb  as- 
tonishment visible  all  over  London  the  next 
morning,  when  the  papers  came  out  void  of  news, 
merely  hinting  at  what  had  happened,  was  one  of 
the  most  startling  things  in  this  war  of  surprises. 
But  everything  had  been  arranged  beforehand  ; 
nor  ought  we  to  have  been  surprised,  for  we  had 
seen  the  same  Power,  only  a  few  months  before, 
move  down  half  a  million  of  men  on  a  few  days' 
notice,  to  conquer  the  greatest  military  nation  in 
Europe,  with  no  more  fuss  than  our  War  Office 
used  to  make  over  the  transport  of  a  brigade  from 
Aldershot  to  Brighton, — and  this,  too,  without 
the  allies  it  had  now.  What  happened  now  was 
not  a  bit  more  wonderful  in  reality ;  but  people 
of  this  country  could  not  bring  themselves  to  be- 
lieve that  what  had  never  occurred  before  to 
England  could  ever  possibly  happen.  Like  our 
neighbours,  we  became  wise  when  it  was  too  late. 

Of  course  the  papers  were  not  long  in  getting 
news — even  the  mighty  organization  set  at  work 
could  not  shut  out  a  special  correspondent ;  and 
in  a  very  few  days,  although  the  telegraphs  and 
railways  were  intercepted  right  across  Europe,  the 
main  facts  oozed  out.    An  embargo  had  been  laid 


26  THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING 

on  all  the  shipping  in  every  port  from  the  Baltic 
to  Ostend;  the  fleets  of  the  two  great  Powers  had 
moved  out,  and  it  was  supposed  were  assembled  in 
the  great  northern  harbour,  and  troops  were 
hmTving  on  board  all  the  steamers  detained  m 
these  places,  most  of  which  were  British  vessels. 
It  was  clear  that  invasion  was  intended.  Even 
then  we  might  have  been  saved,  if  the  fleet  had 
been  ready.  The  forts  which  guarded  the  flotilla 
were  perhaps  too  strong  for  sliipping  to  attempt ; 
but  an  ironclad  or  two,  handled  as  British  sailors 
knew  how  to  use  them,  might  have  destroyed  or 
damaged  a  part  ot  the  transports,  and  delayed  the 
expedition,  giving  us  what  we  wanted,  time.  But 
then  the  best  part  of  the  fleet  had  been  decoyed 
down  to  the  Dardanelles,  and  what  remained  of  the 
Channel  squadron  was  looking  after  Fenian  fih- 
busters  off  the  west  of  Ireland  ;  so  it  was  ten  days 
before  the  fleet  was  got  together,  and  by  that  time 
it  was  plain  the  enemy's  preparations  were  too  far 
advanced  to  be  stopped  by  a  coup-de-iiiain,  In- 
iormation,  which  came  cliiefly  through  Italy, 
came  slowly,  and  was  more  or  less  vague  and  un- 
certain ;  but  this  much  was  known,  that  at  least 
a  couple  of  hundred  thousand  men  were  em- 
barked or  ready  to  be  put  on  board  ships,  and  that 
the  flotilla,  was  guarded  by  more  ironclads  than 
we  could  then  muster.  I  suppose  it  was  the  un- 
certainty as  to  the  point  the  enemy  would  aim  at 
for  landing,  and  the  fear  lest  he  should  give  us  the 
the  go-by,  that  kept  the  fleet  for  several  days  in 


THE^BATTLE  OF  DORKING  27 

the  Downs ;  but  it  was  not  until  the  Tuesday 
fortnight   after   the   declaration   of   war   that  it 
weighed  anchor  and  steamed  away  for  the  North 
Sea.    Of  course  you  have  read  about  tlie  Queen's 
visit  to  the  fleet  the  day  before,  and  how  she 
sailed  round  the  sliips  in  her  yacht,  and  went  on 
board  the  flag-ship  to  take  leave  of  the  admiral ; 
how,  overcome  with  emotion,  she  told  him  that 
the  safety  of  the  country  was  committed  to  liis 
keeping.     You  remember,   too,   the  gallant  old 
officer's  reply,  and  how  all  the  ships'  yards  were 
manned,  and  how  lustily  the  tars  cheered  as  her 
Maj  esty  was  rowed  off.    The  account  was  of  course 
telegraphed  to  London,  and  the  high  spirits  of  the 
fleet  infected  the  whole  to\vn.    I  was  outside  the 
Charing  Cross  station  when  the  Queen's  special 
train  from  Dover  arrived,  and  from  the  cheering 
and  shouting  which  greeted  her  ^lajesty  as  she 
drove  away,  you  might  have  supposed  we  had 
already  won  a  great  victor\'.    The  leading  journal, 
which  had  gone  in  strongly  for  the  army  reduction 
carried   out   during   the   session,   and   had  been 
nervous  and  desponding  in  tone  during  the  past 
fortnigiit,  suggesting  all  sorts  of  compromises  as  a 
way  of  getting  out  of  the  war,  came  out  in  a  very 
jubilant    form    next    morning.      "  Panic-stricken 
inquirers,''  it  said,  "  ask  now,  where  are  the  means 
of  meeting  the  invasion?    We  reply  that  the  in- 
vasion will  never  take  place.      A  British    fleet 
manned  by  British  sailoi^s,   whose   courage  and 
enthusiasm  are  reflected    in  the  people  of  this 


28  THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING 

country,  is  already  on  the  way  to  meet  the  pre- 
sumptuous foe.  The  issue  of  a  contest  between 
British  ships  and  those  of  any  other  country,  under 
anything  hke  equal  odds,  can  never  be  doubtful. 
England  awaits  with  calm  confidence  the  issue 
of  the  impending  action." 

Such  were  the  words  of  the  leading  article,  and 
so  we  all  felt.     It  was  on  Tuesday,  the  10th  of 
August,  that  the  fleet  sailed  from  the  Downs.    It 
took  with  it  a  submarine  cable  to  lay  down  as  it 
advanced,  so  that  continuous  communication  was 
kept  up,  and  the  papers  were  publishing  special 
editions  every  few  minutes  with  the  latest  news. 
This  was  the  first  time  such  a  thing  had  been  done 
and  the  feat  was  accepted  as  a  good  omen.  Whe- 
ther it  is  true  that  the  Admiralty  made  use  of  the 
cable  to  keep  on  sending   contradictory  orders, 
which  took  the  command  out  of  the  admiral's 
hands,  I  can't  say  ;   but  all  that  the  admiral  sent 
in  return  was  a  few  messages  of  the  briefest  kind, 
which  neither  the  Admiralty  nor  any  one  else 
could  have  made  any  use  of.     Such  a  ship  had 
gone  off  reconnoitring  ;  such  another  had  rejoined 
—fleet  was  in  latitude  so  and  so.    This  went  on  till 
the  Thursday  morning.     I  had  just  come  up  to 
town  by  train  as  usual,  and  was  walking  to  my 
office,  when  the  newsboys  began  to  cry,  "  New 
edition — enemy's  fleet  in  sight!  "    You  may  ima- 
gine the  scene  in  London!    Business  still  went  on 
at  the  banks,  for  bills  matured  although  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  country  was  being  fought  out 


THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING  29 

under  our  own  eyes,  so  to  say,  and  the  speculators 
were  active  enough.  But  even  with  the  people 
who  were  making  and  losing  their  fortunes,  the 
interest  in  the  fleet  overcame  everything  else  ; 
men  who  went  to  pay  in  or  draw  out  their  money 
stopped  to  show  the  last  bulletin  to  the  cashier. 
As  for  the  street,  you  could  hardly  get  along  for 
the  crowd  stopping  to  buy  and  read  the  papers  ; 
while  at  every  house  or  office  the  members  sat 
restlessly  in  the  common  room,  as  if  to  keep  to- 
gether for  company,  sending  out  some  one  of  their 
number  every  few  minutes  to  get  the  latest  edi- 
tion. At  least  this  is  what  happened  at  our  office  ; 
but  to  sit  still  was  as  impossible  as  to  do  anything, 
and  most  of  us  went  out  and  wandered  about 
among  the  crowd,  under  a  sort  of  feeling  that  the 
news  was  got  quicker  at  in  this  way.  Bad  as  were 
the  times  coming,  I  think  the  sickening  suspense 
of  that  day,  and  the  shock  which  followed,  was 
almost  the  worst  that  we  underwent.  It  was  about 
ten  o'clock  that  the  first  telegram  came  ;  an  hour 
later  the  wire  announced  that  the  admiral  had 
signalled  to  form  line  of  battle,  and  shortly  after- 
wards that  the  order  was  given  to  bear  down  on 
the  enemy  and  engage.  At  twelve  came  the 
announcement,  "  Fleet  opened  fire  about  three 
miles  to  leeward  of  us  " — ^that  is,  the  ship  with  the 
cable.  So  far  all  had  been  expectancy,  then  came 
the  first  token  of  calamity.  "  An  ironclad  has 
been  blown  up  " — "  the  enemy's  torpedoes  are 
doing    great    damage" — "the    flagship    is    laid 


so  THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING 

aboard  the  enemy  " — "  the  flag-ship  appears  to 
be  sinking  " — "  the  vice-admiral  has  signalled  to  " 
— ^there  the  cable  became  silent,  and,  as  you  know, 
we  heard  no  more  till,  two  days  afterwards,  the 
solitary  ironclad  which  escaped  the  disaster 
steamed  into  Portsmouth. 

Then  the  whole  story  came  out — how  our  sailors 
gallant  as  ever,  had  tried  to  close  with  the  enemy  ; 
how  the  latter  evaded  the  conflict  at  close  quar- 
ters, and,  sheering  off,  left  behind  them  the  fatal 
engines  which  sent  our  ships,  one  after  the  other, 
to  the  bottom  ;  how  all  this  happened  almost  in  a 
few  minutes.  The  Government,  it  appears,  had 
received  warnings  of  this  invention  ;  but  to  the 
nation  this  stunning  blow  was  utterly  unexpected. 
That  Thursday  I  had  to  go  home  early  for  regi- 
mental drill,  but  it  was  impossible  to  remain  doing 
nothing,  so  when  that  was  over  I  went  up  to  town 
again,  and  after  waiting  in  expectation  of  news 
which  never  came,  and  missing  the  midnight 
train,  I  walked  home.  It  was  a  hot  sultry  night, 
and  I  did  not  arrive  till  near  sunrise.  The  whole 
town  was  quite  still — ^the  lull  before  the  storm; 
and  as  I  let  myself  in  with  my  latch-key,  and  went 
softly  upstairs  to  my  room  to  avoid  waking  the 
sleeping  household,  I  could  not  but  contrast  the 
peacefulness  of  the  morning — no  sound  breaking 
the  silence  but  the  singing  of  the  birds  in  the  gar- 
den— with  the  passionate  remorse  and  indignation 
that  would  break  out  with  the  day.  Perhaps  the 
inmates  of  the  rooms  were  as  wakeful  as  myself ; 


THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING  31 

but  the  house  in  its  stillness  was  just  as  it  used  to  be 
when  I  came  home  alone  from  balls  or  parties  in 
the  happy  days  gone  by.  Tired  though  I  was,  I 
could  not  sleep,  so  I  went  down  to  the  river  and 
had  a  swim  ;  and  on  returning  found  the  house- 
hold was  assembling  for  early  breakfast.  A  sor- 
rowful household  it  was,  although  the  burden 
pressing  on  each  was  partly  an  unseen  one.  My 
father,  doubting  whether  his  firm  could  last 
through  the  day  ;  my  mother,  her  distress  about 
my  brother,  now  with  his  regiment  on  the  coast, 
already  exceeding  that  which  she  felt  for  the 
public  misfortune,  had  come  down,  although 
hardly  fit  to  leave  her  room.  My  sister  Clara  was 
worst  of  all,  for  she  could  not  but  try  to  disguise 
her  special  interest  in  the  fleet ;  and  though  we 
had  all  guessed  that  her  heart  was  given  to  the 
young  lieutenant  in  the  flag-ship — the  first  vessel 
to  go  down — a  love  unclaimed  could  not  be  told, 
nor  could  we  express  the  sympathy  we  felt  for  the 
poor  girL  That  breakfast,  the  last  meal  we  ever 
had  together,  was  soon  ended,  and  my  father  and 
I  went  up  to  town  by  an  early  train,  and  got  there 
just  as  the  fatal  announcement  of  the  loss  of  the 
fleet  was  telegraphed  from  Portsmouth. 

The  panic  and  excitement  of  that  day — how  the 
funds  went  down  to  35  ;  the  run  upon  the  bank 
and  its  stoppage  ;  the  fall  of  half  the  houses  in  the 
city  ;  how  the  Government  issued  a  notification 
suspending  specie  payment  and  the  tendering  of 
bills — this  last  precaution  too  late  for  most  firms. 


32  THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING 

Graham  &  Co.  among  the  number,  which  stopped 
payment  as  soon  as  my  father  got  to  the  office  ; 
the  call  to  arms  and  the  unanimous  response  of 
the  country — all  this  is  history  which  I  need  not 
repeat.  You  wish  to  hear  about  my  own  share  in 
the  business  of  the  time.  Well,  volunteering  had 
increased  immensely  from  the  day  war  was  pro- 
claimed, and  our  regiment  went  up  in  a  day  or  two 
from  its  usual  strength  of  600  to  nearly  1,000.  But 
the  stock  of  rifles  was  deficient.  We  were  pro- 
mised a  further  supply  in  a  few  days,  which  how- 
ever, we  never  received  ;  and  while  waiting  for 
them  the  regiment  had  to  be  divided  into  two 
parts,  the  recruits  drilling  with  the  rifles  in  the 
morning,  and  we  old  hands  in  the  evening.  The 
failures  and  stoppage  of  work  on  this  black  Friday 
threw  an  immense  number  of  young  men  out  of 
employment,  and  we  recruited  up  to  1,400  strong 
by  the  next  day  ;  but  what  was  the  use  of  all  these 
men  without  arms  ?  On  the  Saturday  it  was  an- 
nounced that  a  lot  of  smooth-bore  muskets  in  store 
at  the  Tower  w^ould  be  served  out  to  regiments 
applying  for  them,  and  a  regular  scramble  took 
place  among  the  volunteers  for  them,  and  our 
people  got  hold  of  a  couple  of  hundred.  But  you 
might  almost  as  well  have  tried  to  learn  rifle-drill 
with  a  broom-stick  as  with  old  brown  bess ; 
besides,  there  was  no  smooth-bore  ammunition 
in  the  country.  A  national  subscription  was 
opened  for  the  manufacture  of  rifles  at  Birming- 
ham, which  ran  up  to  a  couple  of  millions  in  two 


THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKINCx  33 

days,  but,  like  everything  else,  this  came  too  late. 
To  return  to  the  volunteers  :  camps  had  been 
formed  a  fortnight  before  at  Dover,  Brighton, 
Harwich,  and  other  places,  of  regulars  and  hiilitia, 
and  the  headquarters  of  most  of  the  volunteer 
regiments  were  attached  to  one  or  other  of  them, 
and  the  volunteers  themselves  used  to  go  down  for 
drill  from  day  to  day,  as  they  could  spare  tirhe, 
and  on  Friday  an  order  went  out  that  they  should 
be  permanently  embodied  ;  but  the  metropolitan 
volunteers  were  still  kept  about  London  as  a  sort 
of  resei-ve,  till  it  could  be  seen  at  what  point  the 
invasion  would  take  place.  We  were  all  told  off  to 
brigades  and  divisions.  Our  brigade  consisted  of 
the  4th  Royal  Surrey  Militia,  the  1st  Surrey 
Administrative  Battalion,  as  it  was  called,  at 
Ckpham,  the  7th  Surrey  Volunteers  at  South- 
wark,  and  ourselves  ;  but  only  our  battalion  and 
the  militia  were  quartered  in  the  same  place,  and 
the  whole  brigade  had  merely  two  or  three  after- 
noons together  at  brigade  exercise  in  Bushey  Park 
before  the  march  took  place.  Our  brigadier  be- 
longed to  a  line  regiment  in  Ireland,  and  did  not 
join  till  the  very  morning  the  order  came.  Mean- 
while, during  the  preliminary  fortnight,  the  militia 
colonel  commanded.  But  though  we  volunteers 
were  busy  with  our  drill  and  preparations,  those  of 
us  who,  like  myself,  belonged  to  Government  offices, 
had  more  than  enough  of  office  work  to  do,  as  you 
may  suppose.    The  volunteer  clerks  were  allowed 

t9  leave  office  at  four  o'clock,  but  the  rest  were 

c 


34  THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING 

kept  hard  at  the  desk  far  into  the  night.  Orders 
to  the  lord-heutenants,  to  the  magistrates,  noti- 
fications, all  the  arrangements  for  cleaning  out  the 
workhouses  for  hospitals — ^these  and  a  hundred 
other  things  had  to  be  managed  in  our  office,  and 
there  was  as  much  bustle  indoors  as  out.  Fortu- 
nate we  were  to  be  so  busy — the  people  to  be 
pitied  were  those  who  had  nothing  to  do.  And  on 
Sunday  (that  was  the  15th  August)  work  went  on 
just  as  usual.  We  had  an  early  parade  and  drill, 
and  I  went  up  to  town  by  the  nine  o'clock  train  in 
my  uniform,  taking  my  rifle  with  me  in  case  of 
accidents,  and  luckily  too,  as  it  turned  out,  a 
mackintosh  overcoat.  When  I  got  to  Waterloo 
there  were  all  sorts  of  rumours  afloat.  A  fleet  had 
been  seen  off  the  Downs,  and  some  ot  the  despatch 
boats  which  were  hovering  about  the  coasts 
brought  news  that  there  was  a  large  flotilla  off 
Harwich,  but  nothing  could  be  seen  from  the 
shore,  as  the  weather  was  hazy.  The  enemy's 
light  ships  had  taken  and  sunk  all  the  fishing 
boats  they  could  catch,  to  prevent  the  news  of 
their  whereabouts  reaching  us  ;  but  a  few  escaped 
during  the  night  and  reported  that  the  Inconstant 
frigate  coming  home  from  North  America  without 
any  knowledge  of  what  had  taken  place,  had 
sailed  right  into  the  enemy's  fleet  and  been  cap- 
tured. In  town  the  troops  were  all  getting  ready 
for  a  move  ;  the  Guards  in  the  Wellington  Bar- 
racks were  under  arms,  and  their  baggage-wag- 
gons packed  and  drawn  up  in  the  Bird-cage  Walk. 


THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING  35 

The  usual  guard  at  the  Horse  Guards  had  been 
withdrawn,  and  orderlies  and  staff- officers  were 
going  to  and  fro.  All  this  I  saw  on  the  way  to  my 
office,  where  I  worked  away  till  twelve  o'clock, 
and  then  feeling  hungry  after  my  early  breakfast, 
I  went  across  Parliament  Street  to  my  club  to  get 
some  luncheon.  There  were  about  half-a-dozen 
men  in  the  coffee-room,  none  of  whom  I  knew; 
but  in  a  minute  or  two  Danvers  of  the  Treasury 
entered  in  a  tremendous  hurry.  From  him  I  got 
the  first  bit  of  authentic  news  I  had  had  that  day. 
The  enemy  had  landed  in  force  near  Harwich,  and 
the  metropolitan  regiments  were  ordered  down 
there  to  reinforce  the  troops  already  collected  in 
that  neighbourhood  ;  his  regiment  was  to  parade 
at  one  o'clock,  and  he  had  come  to  get  something 
to  eat  before  starting.  We  bolted  a  hurried  lunch, 
and  were  just  leaving  the  club  when  a  messenger 
from  the  Treasury  came  running  into  the  hall. 

"Oh,  Mr.  Danvers,"  said  he,  "I've  come  to 
look  for  you,  sir  ;  the  secretary  says  that  all  the 
gentlemen  are  wanted  at  the  office,  and  that  you 
must  please  not  one  of  you  go  with  the  regiments." 

"  The  devil!  "  cried  Danvers. 

"  D6  you  know  if  that  order  extends  to  all  the 
public  offices  ?  "  I  asked. 

"  I  don't  know,"  said  the  man,  "  but  I  believe 
it  do.  I  know  there's  messengers  gone  round  to  all 
the  clubs  and  luncheon-bars  to  look  for  the  gentle- 
men ;  the  secretary  says  it's  quite  impossible  any 
one  can  be  spared  iust  now,  there's  so  much  work 


36  THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING 

to  do  ;  there's  orders  just  come  to  send  off  our 
records  to  Birmingham  to-night." 

I  did  not  wait  to  condole  with  Danvers,  but, 
just  glancing  up  Whitehall  to  see  if  any  of  our 
messengers  were  in  pursuit,  I  ran  off  as  hard  as  I 
could  for  Westminster  Bridge,  and  so  to  the 
Waterloo  station. 

The  place  had  quite  changed  its  aspect  since  the 
morning.  The  regular  service  of  trains  had  ceased, 
and  the  station  and  approaches  were  full  of  troops, 
among  them  the  Guards  and  artillery.  Every- 
thing was  very  orderly  :  the  men  had  piled  arms, 
and  were  standing  about  in  groups.  There  was  no 
sign  of  high  spirits  or  enthusiasm.  Matters  had 
become  too  serious.  Every  man's  face  reflected 
the  general  feehng  that  we  had  neglected  the 
warnings  given  us,  and  that  now  the  danger  so 
long  derided  as  impossible  and  absurd  had  really 
come  and  found  us  unprepared.  But  the  soldiers, 
if  grave,  looked  determined,  like  men  who  meant 
to  do  their  duty  whatever  might  happen.  A  train 
full  of  guardsmen  was  just  starting  for  Guildford. 
I  was  told  it  would  stop  at  Surbiton,  and,  with 
several  other  volunteers,  hurrying  like  myself  to 
join  our  regiment,  got  a  place  in  it.  We  did  not 
arrive  a  moment  too  soon,  for  the  regiment  was 
marching  from  Kingston  down  to  the  station.  The 
destination  of  our  brigade  was  the  east  coast. 
Empty  carriages  were  drawn  up  in  the  siding,  and 
our  regiment  was  to  go  first.  A  large  crowd  was 
assembled  to  see  it  off,  including  the  recruits  who 


THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING  37 

had  joined  during  the  last  fortnight,  and  who 
formed  by  far  the  largest  part  of  our  strength. 
They  were  to  stay  behind,  and  were  certainly  very 
much  in  the  way  already  ;  for  as  all  the  officers 
and  sergeants  belonged  to  the  active  part,  there 
was  no  one  to  keep  discipline  among  them,  and  they 
came  crowding  around  us,  breaking  the  ranks  and 
making  it  difficult  to  get  into  the  train.  Here  I 
saw  our  new  brigadier  for  the  first  time.  He  was 
a  soldier-like  man,  and  no  doubt  knew  his  duty, 
but  he  appeared  new  to  volunteers,  and  did  not 
seem  to  know  how  to  deal  with  gentlemen  privates. 
I  wanted  very  much  to  run  home  and  get  my 
greatcoat  and  knapsack,  which  I  had  bought  a  few 
days  ago,  but  feared  to  be  left  behind  ;  a  good- 
natured  recruit  volunteered  to  fetch  them  for  me, 
but  he  had  not  returned  before  we  started,  and  I 
began  the  campaign  with  a  kit  consisting  of  a 
mackintosh  and  a  small  pouch  of  tobacco. 

It  was  a  tremendous  squeeze  in  the  train  ;  for, 
besides  the  ten  men  sitting  down,  there  were  three 
or  four  standing  up  in  every  compartment,  and 
the  afternoon  was  close  and  sultry,  and  there  were 
so  many  stoppages  on  the  way  that  we  took  nearly 
an  hour  and  a  half  crawling  up  to  Waterloo.  It 
was  between  five  and  six  in  the  afternoon  when 
we  arrived  there,  and  it  was  nearly  seven  before 
we  marched  up  to  the  Shoreditch  station.  The 
whole  place  was  filled  up  with  stores  and  ammuni- 
tion, to  be  sent  off  to  the  east,  so  we  piled  arms  in 
the  street  and  scattered  about  to  get  food  and 


38  THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING 

drink,  of  which  most  of  us  stood  in  need,  especially 
the  latter,  for  some  were  already  feeling  the  worse 
for  the  heat  and  crush.  I  was  just  stepping  into  a 
public-house  with  Travers,  when  who  should  drive 
up  but  his  pretty  wife  ?  Most  of  our  friends  had 
paid  their  adieus  at  the  Surbiton  station,  but  she 
had  driven  up  by  the  road  in  his  brougham,  bring- 
ing their  little  boy  to  have  a  last  look  at  papa.  She 
had  also  brought  his  knapsack  and  greatcoat,  and, 
what  was  still  more  acceptable,  a  basket  contain- 
ing fowls,  tongue,  bread-and-butter,  and  biscuits, 
and  a  couple  of  bottles  of  claret, — which  priceless 
luxuries  they  insisted  on  my  sharing. 

Meanwhile  the  hours  went  on.  The  4th  Surrey 
Militia,  which  had  marched  all  the  way  from 
Kingston,  had  come  up,  as  well  as  the  other  volun- 
teer corps  ;  the  station  had  been  partly  cleared  of 
the  stores  that  encumbered  it  ;  some  artillery, 
two  militia  regiments,  and  a  battalion  of  the  line, 
had  been  despatched,  and  our  turn  to  start  had 
come,  and  long  lines  of  carriages  were  drawn  up 
ready  for  us  ;  but  still  we  remained  in  the  street. 
You  may  fancy  the  scene.  There  seemed  to  be  as 
many  people  as  ever  in  London,  and  we  could 
hardly  move  for  the  crowds  of  spectators — fellows 
hawking  fruits  and  volunteers'  comforts,  news- 
boys and  so  forth,  to  say  nothing  of  the  cabs  and 
omnibuses  ;  while  orderlies  and  staff- officers  were 
constantly  riding  up  with  messages.  A  good  many 
of  the  militiamen,  and  some  of  our  people  too, 
had  taken  more  than  enough  to  drink  ;   perhaps  a 


THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING  39 

hot  sun  had  told  on  empty  stomachs  ;  anyhow, 
they  became  very  noisy.  The  din,  dirt,  and  heat 
were  indescribable.  So  the  evening  wore  on,  and 
all  the  information  our  officers  could  get  from  the 
brigadier,  who  appeared  to  be  acting  under  another 
general,  was,  that  orders  had  come  to  stand  fast 
for  the  present.  Gradually  the  street  became 
quieter  and  cooler.  The  brigadier,  who,  by  way  of 
setting  an  example,  had  remained  for  some  hours 
without  leaving  his  saddle,  had  got  a  chair  out  of  a 
shop,  and  sat  nodding  in  it ;  most  of  the  men  were 
lying  down  or  sitting  on  the  pavement — some 
sleeping,  some  smoking.  In  vain  had  Travers 
begged  his  wife  to  go  home.  She  declared  that, 
having  come  so  far,  she  would  stay  and  see  the  last 
of  us.  The  brougham  had  been  sent  away  to  a  by- 
street, as  it  blocked  up  the  road  ;  so  he  sat  on  a 
doorstep,  she  by  him  on  the  knapsack.  Little 
Arthur,  who  had  been  delighted  at  the  bustle  and 
the  uniforms,  and  in  high  spirits,  became  at  last 
very  cross,  and  eventually  cried  himself  to  sleep  in 
his  father's  arms,  his  golden  hair  and  one  little 
dimpled  arm  hanging  over  his  shoulder.  Thus 
went  on  the  weary  hours, till  suddenly  the  assembly 
sounded,  and  we  all  started  up.  We  were  to 
return  to  Waterloo.  The  landing  on  the  east  was 
only  a  feint — so  ran  the  rumour — ^the  real  attack 
was  on  the  south.  Anything  seemed  better  than 
indecision  and  delay,  and,  tired  though  we  were, 
the  march  back  was  gladly  hailed.  Mrs.  Travers, 
who  made  us  take  the  remains  of  the  luncheon 


40  THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING 

with  us,  we  left  to  look  for  her  carriage  ;  little 
Arthur,  who  was  awake  again,  but  very  good  and 
quiet,  in  her  arms. 

We  did  not  reach  Waterloo  till  nearly  midnight, 
and  there  was  some  delay  in  starting  again. 
Several  volunteer  and  militia  regiments  had 
arrived  from  the  north  ;  the  station  and  all  its 
approaches  were  jammed  up  with  men,  and  trains 
were  being  despatched  away  as  fast  as  they  could 
be  made  up.  All  this  time  no  news  had  reached  us 
since  the  first  announcement ;  but  the  excitement 
then  aroused  had  now  passed  away  under  the 
influence  of  fatigue  and  want  of  sleep,  and  most  of 
us  dozed  off  as  soon  as  we  got  under  way.  I  did, 
at  any  rate,  and  was  awoke  by  the  train  stopping 
at  Leatherhead.  There  was  an  up-train  returning 
to  town,  and  some  persons  in  it  were  bringing  up 
news  from  the  coast.  We  could  not,  from  our  part 
of  the  train,  hear  what  they  said,  but  the  rumour 
was  passed  up  from  one  carriage  to  another.  The 
enemy  had  landed  in  force  at  Worthing.  Their 
position  had  been  attacked  by  the  troops  from  the 
camp  near  Brighton,  and  the  action  would  be 
renewed  in  the  morning.  The  volunteers  had 
behaved  very  well.  This  was  all  the  information 
we  could  get.  So,  then,  the  invasion  had  come  at 
last.  It  was  clear,  at  any  rate,  from  what  was 
said,  that  the  enemy  had  not  been  driven  back 
yet,  and  we  should  be  in  time  most  likely  to  take 
a  share  in  the  defence.  It  was  sunrise  when  the 
trrJn  crawled  into  Dorking,  for  there  had  beon 


THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING  41 

numerous  stoppages  on  the  way  ;  and  here  it  was 
pulled  up  for  a  long  time,  and  we  were  told  to  get 
out  and  stretch  ourselves — an  order  gladly  res- 
ponded to,  for  we  had  been  very  closely  packed  all 
night.  Most  of  us,  too,  took  the  opportunity  to 
make  an  early  breakfast  off  the  food  we  had 
brought  from  Shoreditch.  I  had  the  remains  of 
Mrs.  Travers's  fowl  and  some  bread  wrapped  up 
in  my  waterproof,  which  I  shared  with  one  or  two 
less  provident  comrades.  We  could  see  from  our 
halting-place  that  the  line  was  blocked  with  trains 
beyond  and  behind.  It  must  have  been  about 
eight  o'clock  when  we  got  orders  to  take  our  seats 
again,  and  the  train  began  to  move  slowly  on 
towards  Horsham.  Horsham  Junction  was  the 
point  to  be  occupied — so  the  rumour  went ;  but 
about  ten  o'clock,  when  halting  at  a  small  station 
a  few  miles  short  of  it,  the  order  came  to  leave  the 
train,  and  our  brigade  formed  in  column  on  the 
high  road.  Beyond  us  was  some  field  artillery  ; 
and  further  on,  so  we  were  told  by  a  staff- officer, 
another  brigade,  which  was  to  make  up  a  division 
with  ours.  After  more  delays  the  line  began  to 
move,  but  not  forwards  ;  our  route  was  towards 
the  north-west,  and  a  sort  of  suspicion  of  the  state 
of  affairs  flashed  across  my  mind.  Horsham  was 
already  occupied  by  the  enemy's  advance-guard, 
and  we  were  to  fall  back  on  Leith  Common,  and 
take  up  a  position  threatening  his  flank,  should  he 
advance  either  to  Guildford  or  Dorking.  This 
was  soon  confirmed  by  what  the  colonel  was  told 


42  THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING 

by  the  brigadier  and  passed  down  the  ranks  ;  and 
just  now,  for  the  first  time,  the  boom  of  artillery 
came  up  on  the  light  south  breeze.  In  about  an 
hour  the  firing  ceased.  What  did  it  mean  ?  We 
could  not  tell.  Meanwhile  our  march  continued. 
The  day  was  very  close  and  sultry,  and  the  clouds 
of  dust  stirred  up  by  our  feet  almost  suffocated  us. 
I  had  saved  a  soda-water-bottleful  of  yesterday's 
claret ;  but  this  went  only  a  short  way,  for  there 
w  ere  many  mouths  to  share  it  with,  and  the  thirst 
soon  became  as  bad  as  ever.  Several  of  the  regi- 
ment fell  out  from  faintness,  and  we  made  frequent 
halts  to  rest  and  let  the  stragglers  come  up.  At 
last  we  reached  the  top  of  Leith  Hill.  It  is  a 
striking  spot,  being  the  highest  point  in  the  south 
of  England.  The  view  from  it  is  splendid,  and 
most  lovely  did  the  country  look  this  summer  day, 
although  the  grass  was  brown  from  the  long 
drought.  It  was  a  great  relief  to  get  from  the 
dusty  road  on  to  the  common,  and  at  the  top  of 
the  hill  there  was  a  refreshing  breeze.  We  could 
see  now,  for  the  first  time,  the  whole  of  our  division. 
Our  own  regiment  did  not  muster  more  than  500, 
for  it  contained  a  large  number  of  Government 
office  men  who  had  been  detained,  like  Danvers, 
for  duty  in  town,  and  others  were  not  much  larger  ; 
but  the  militia  regiment  was  very  strong,  and  the 
whole  division,  I  was  told,  mustered  nearly  5,000 
rank  and  file.  W^e  could  see  other  troops  also  in 
extension  of  our  division,  and  could  count  a 
couple  of  field-batteries  of  Royal  Artillery,  besides 


THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING  43 

some  heavy  guns,  belonging  to  the  volunteers 
apparently,  drawn  by  cart-horses.  The  cooler  air, 
the  sense  of  numbers,  and  the  evident  strength  of 
the  position  we  held,  raised  our  spirits,  which,  I 
am  not  ashamed  to  say,  had  all  the  morning  been 
depressed.  It  was  not  that  we  were  not  eager  to 
close  with  the  enemy,  but  that  the  counter- march- 
ing and  halting  ominously  betokened  a  vacillation 
of  purpose  in  those  who  had  the  guidance  of  affairs. 
Here  in  two  days  the  invaders  had  got  more  than 
twenty  miles  inland,  and  nothing  effectual  had 
been  done  to  stop  them.  And  the  ignorance  in 
which  we  volunteers,  from  the  colonel  downwards, 
were  kept  of  their  movements,  filled  us  with  un- 
easiness. We  could  not  but  depict  to  ourselves 
the  enemy  as  carrying  out  all  the  while  firmly  his 
well-considered  scheme  of  attack,  and  contrasting 
it  with  our  own  uncertainty  of  purpose.  The  very 
silence  with  which  his  advance  appeared  to  be  con- 
ducted filled  us  with  mysterious  awe.  Meanwhile 
the  day  wore  on,  and  we  became  faint  with  hunger, 
for  we  had  eaten  nothing  since  daybreak.  No 
provisions  came  up,  and  there  were  no  signs  of  any  . 
commissariat  officers.  It  seems  that  when  we 
were  at  the  Waterloo  station  a  whole  trainful  of 
provisions  was  drawn  up  there,  and  our  colonel 
proposed  that  one  of  the  trucks  should  be  taken 
off  and  attached  to  our  train,  so  that  we  might 
have  some  food  at  hand  ;  but  the  officer  in  charge 
an  assistant-controller  I  think  they  called  him — 
this  control  department  was  a  newfangled  affair 


44  THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING 

which  did  us  almost  as  much  harm  as  the  enemy 
in  the  long-run — said  his  orders  were  to  keep  all  the 
stores  together,  and  that  he  couldn't  issue  any 
without  authority  from  the  head  of  his  depart- 
ment. So  we  had  to  go  without.  Those  who  had 
tobacco  smoked — indeed  there  is  no  solace  like  a 
pipe  under  such  circumstances.  The  militia 
regiment,  I  heard  afterwards,  had  two  days'  pro- 
visions in  their  haversacks  ;  it  was  we  volunteers 
who  had  no  haversacks,  and  nothing  to  put  in 
them.  All  this  time,  I  should  tell  you,  while  we 
were  lying  on  the  grass  with  our  arms  piled,  the 
General,  with  the  brigadiers  and  staff,  was  riding 
about  slowly  from  point  to  point  of  the  edge  of  the 
common,  looking  out  with  his  glass  towards  the 
south  valley.  Orderlies  and  staff- officers  were 
constantly  coming,  and  about  three  o'clock  there 
arrived  up  a  road  that  led  towards  Horsham  a 
small  body  of  lancers  and  a  regiment  of  yeomanry, 
who  had,  it  appears,  been  out  in  advance,  and  now 
drew  up  a  short  way  in  front  of  us  in  column  facing 
to  the  south.  Whether  they  could  see  anything  in 
their  front  I  could  not  tell,  for  we  were  behind  the 
crest  of  the  hill  ourselves,  and  so  could  not  look 
into  the  valley  below  ;  but  shortly  afterwards  the 
assembly  sounded.  Commanding  officers  were 
called  out  by  the  General,  and  received  some  brief 
instructions  ;  and  the  column  began  to  march 
again  towards  London,  the  militia  this  time  com- 
ing last  in  our  brigade.  A  rumour  regarding  the 
object  of  this  counter- march  soon  spread  through 


THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING  45 

the  ranks.  The  enemy  was  not  going  to  attack  us 
here,  but  was  trying  to  turn  the  position  on  both 
sides,  one  column  pointing  to  Reigate,  the  other  to 
Aldershot ;  and  so  we  must  fall  back  and  take  up 
a  position  at  Dorking.  The  line  of  the  great  chalk- 
range  was  to  be  defended.  A  large  force  was  con- 
centrating at  Guildford,  another  at  Reigate,  and 
we  should  find  supports  at  Dorking.  The  enemy 
would  be  awaited  in  these  positions.  Such,  so  far 
as  we  privates  could  get  at  the  facts,  was  to  be  the 
plan  of  operations.  Down  the  hill,  therefore,  we 
marched.  From  one  or  two  points  we  could  catch 
a  brief  sight  of  the  railway  in  the  valley  below 
running  from  Dorking  to  Horsham.  Men  in  red 
were  working  upon  it  here  and  there.  They  were 
the  Royal  Engineers,  some  one  said,  breaking  up 
the  line.  On  we  marched.  The  dust  seemed  worse 
than  ever.  In  one  village  through  which  we 
passed — I  forget  the  name  now — ^there  was  a 
pump  on  the  green.  Here  we  stopped  and  had  a 
good  drink  ;  and  passing  by  a  large  farm,  the 
farmer's  wife  and  two  or  three  of  her  maids  stood 
at  the  gate  and  handed  us  hunches  of  bread  and 
cheese  out  of  some  baskets.  I  got  the  share  of  a 
bit,  but  the  bottom  of  the  good  woman's  baskets 
must  soon  have  been  reached.  Not  a  thing  else 
was  to  be  had  till  we  got  to  Dorking  about  six 
o'clock  ;  indeed  most  of  the  farmhouses  appeared 
deserted  already.  On  arriving  there  we  were 
drawn  up  in  the  street,  and  just  opposite  was  a 
baker's  shop.    Our  fellows  asked  leave  at  first  by 


46  THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING 

twos  and  threes  to  go  in  and  buy  some  loaves,  but 
soon  others  began  to  break  off  and  crowd  into  the 
shop,  and  at  last  a  regular  scramble  took  place.  If 
there  had  been  any  order  preserved,  and  a  regular 
distribution  arranged,  they  would  no  doubt  have 
been  steady  enough,  but  hunger  makes  men 
selfish  ;  each  man  felt  that  his  stopping  behind 
would  do  no  good — he  would  simply  lose  his  share  ; 
so  it  ended  by  almost  the  whole  regiment  joining 
in  the  scrimmage,  and  the  shop  was  cleared  out  in 
a  couple  of  minutes  ;  while  as  for  paying,  you 
could  not  get  your  hand  into  your  pocket  for  the 
crush.  The  colonel  tried  in  vain  to  stop  the  row  ; 
Fome  of  the  officers  were  as  bad  as  the  men.  Just 
then  a  staff- officer  rode  by  ;  he  could  scarcely 
make  way  for  the  crowd,  and  was  pushed  against 
rather  rudely,  and  in  a  passion  he  called  out  to  us 
to  behave  properly,  like  soldiers,  and  not  like  a 
parcel  of  roughs.  "  Oh,  blow  it,  governor,"  said 
Dick  Wake,  "  you  aren't  agoing  to  come  between 
a  poor  cove  and  his  grub."  Wake  was  an  articled 
attorney,  and,  as  we  used  to  say  in  those  days,  a 
cheeky  young  chap,  although  a  good-natured 
fellow  enough.  At  this  speech,  which  was  followed 
by  some  more  remarks  of  the  sort  from  those  about 
him,  the  staff-officer  became  angrier  still. 
"  Orderly,"  cried  he  to  the  lancer  riding  behind 
him,  "  take  that  man  to  the  provost-marshal.  As 
for  you,  sir,"  he  said,  turning  to  our  colonel,  who 
sat  on  his  horse  silent  with  astonishment,  "  if  you 
don't  want  some  of  your  men  shot  before  their 


THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING  47 

time,  you  and  your  precious  officers  had  better 
keep  this  rabble  in  a  httle  better  order  "  ;  and 
poor  Dick,  who  looked  crestfallen  enough,  would 
certainly  have  been  led  off  at  the  tail  of  the 
sergeant's  horse,  if  the  brigadier  had  not  come  up 
and  arranged  matters,  and  marched  us  off  to  the 
hill  beyond  the  town.  This  incident  made  us  both 
angry  and  crestfallen.  We  were  annoyed  at  being 
so  roughly  spoken  to  :  at  the  same  time  we  felt  we 
had  deserved  it,  and  were  ashamed  of  the  miscon- 
duct. Then,  too,  we  had  lost  confidence  in  our 
colonel,  after  the  poor  figure  he  cut  in  the  affair. 
He  was  a  good  fellow,  the  colonel,  and  showed 
himself  a  brave  one  next  day  ;  but  he  aimed  too 
much  at  being  popular,  and  didn't  understand  a 
bit  how  to  command. 

To  resume  : — We  had  scarcely  reached  the  hill 
above  the  town,  which  we  were  told  was  to  be  our 
bivouac  for  the  night,  when  the  welcome  news 
came  that  a  food-train  had  arrived  at  the  station  ; 
but  there  were  no  carts  to  bring  the  things  up,  so 
a  fatigue-party  went  down  and  carried  back  a 
supply  to  us  in  their  arms, — loaves,  a  barrel  of 
rum,  packets  of  tea,  and  joints  of  meat — abund- 
ance for  all ;  but  there  was  not  a  kettle  or  a  cook- 
ing-pot in  the  regiment,  and  we  could  not  eat  the 
meat  raw.  The  colonel  and  officers  were  no  better 
off.  They  had  arranged  to  have  a  regular  mess, 
with  crockery,  steward,  and  all  complete,  but  the 
establishment  never  turned  up,  and  what  had 
become  of  it  no  one  knew.    Some  of  us  were  sent 


48  THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING 

back  into  the  town  to  see  what  we  could  procure 
in  the  way  of  cooking  utensils.  We  found  the 
street  full  of  artillery,  baggage-waggons,  and 
mounted  officers,  and  volunteers  shopping  like 
ourselves  ;  and  all  the  houses  appeared  to  be 
occupied  by  troops.  We  succeeded  in  getting  a 
few  kettles  and  saucepans,  and  I  obtained  for 
myself  a  leather  bag,  with  a  strap  to  go  over  the 
shoulder,  which  proved  very  handy  afterwards  ; 
and  thus  laden,  we  trudged  back  to  our  camp  on 
the  hill,  filling  the  kettles  with  dirty  water  from  a 
little  stream  which  runs  between  the  hill  and  the 
town,  for  there  was  none  to  be  had  above.  It  was 
nearly  a  couple  of  miles  each  way  ;  and,  exhausted 
as  we  were  with  marching  and  want  of  rest,  we 
were  almost  too  tired  to  eat.  The  cooking  was  of 
the  roughest,  as  you  may  suppose  ;  all  we  could 
do  was  to  cut  off  slices  of  the  meat  and  boil  them 
in  the  saucepans,  using  our  fingers  for  forks.  The 
tea,  however,  was  very  refreshing;  and,  thirsty  as 
we  were,  we  drank  it  by  the  gallon.  Just  before  it 
grew  dark,  the  brigade-major  came  round,  and, 
with  the  adjutant,  showed  our  colonel  how  to  set 
a  picket  in  advance  of  our  line  a  little  way  down 
the  face  of  the  hill.  It  was  not  necessary  to  place 
one,  I  suppose,  because  the  town  in  our  front  was 
still  occupied  with  troops  ;  but  no  doubt  the 
practice  would  be  useful.  We  had  also  a  quarter- 
guard,  and  a  line  of  sentries  in  front  and  rear  of 
our  line,  communicating  with  those  of  the  regi- 
ments on  our  flanks.    Firewood  was  plentiful,  for 


THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKIXG  49 

the  hill  was  covered  with  beautiful  wood  ;  but  it 
took  some  time  to  collect  it,  for  we  had  nothing 
but  our  pocket-knives  to  cut  down  the  branches 
with. 

So  we  lay  down  to  sleep.  My  company  had  no 
duty,  and  we  had  the  night  undisturbed  to  our- 
selves ;  but,  tired  though  I  was,  the  excitement 
and  the  novelty  of  the  situation  made  sleep  diffi- 
cult. And  although  the  night  was  still  and  warm, 
and  we  were  sheltered  by  the  woods,  I  soon  found 
it  chilly  with  no  better  covering  than  my  thin 
dust-coat,  the  more  so  as  my  clothes,  saturated 
with  perspiration  during  the  day,  had  never  dried  ; 
and  before  daylight  I  woke  from  a  short  nap, 
shivering  with  cold,  and  was  glad  to  get  warm 
^vith  others  by  a  fire.  I  then  noticed  that  the 
opposite  hills  on  the  south  were  dotted  with  fires  ; 
and  we  thought  at  first  they  must  belong  to  the 
enemy,  but  we  were  told  that  the  ground  up  there 
was  still  held  by  a  strong  rear-guard  of  regulars, 
and  that  there  need  be  no  fear  of  a  surprise. 

At  the  first  sign  of  dawn  the  bugles  of  the  regi- 
ments sounded  the  reveille,  and  we  were  ordered 
to  fall  in,  and  the  roll  was  called.  About  twenty 
men  were  absent,  who  had  fallen  out  sick  the  day 
before  ;  they  had  been  sent  up  to  London  by  train 
during  the  night,  I  beUeve.  After  standing  in 
column  for  about  half  an  hour,  the  brigade-major 
came  down  ^\ith  orders  to  pile  arms  and  stand 
easy  ;  and  perhaps  half  an  hour  afterwards  we 
were  told  to  get  breakfast  as  quickly  as  possible. 


50  THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING 

and  to  cook  a  day's  food  at  the  same  time.  This 
operation  was  managed  pretty  much  in  the  same 
way  as  the  evening  before,  except  that  we  had  our 
cooking-pots  and  kettles  ready.  Meantime  there 
was  leisure  to  look  around,  and  from  where  we 
stood  there  was  a  commanding  view  of  one  of  the 
most  beautiful  scenes  in  England.  Our  regiment 
was  drawn  up  on  the  extremity  of  the  ridge  which 
runs  from  Guildford  to  Dorking.  This  is  indeed 
merely  a  part  of  the  great  chalk- range  which  ex- 
tends from  beyond  Aldershot  east  to  the  Medway  ; 
but  there  is  a  gap  in  the  ridge  just  here  where  the 
little  stream  that  runs  past  Dorking  turns  suddenly 
to  the  north,  to  find  its  way  to  the  Thames,  We 
stood  on  the  slope  of  the  hill,  as  it  trends  down 
eastward  towards  this  gap,  and  had  passed  our 
bivouac  in  what  appeared  to  be  a  gentleman's 
park.  A  little  way  above  us,  and  to  our  right,  was 
a  very  fine  country-seat  to  which  the  park  was 
attached,  now  occupied  by  the  headquarters  of 
our  division.  From  this  house  the  hill  sloped 
steeply  down  southward  to  the  valley  below, 
which  runs  nearly  east  and  west  parallel  to  the 
ridge,  and  carries  the  railway  and  the  road  from 
Guildford  to  Reigate  ;  and  in  which  valley,  im- 
mediately in  front  of  the  chateau,  and  perhaps  a 
mile  and  a  half  distant  from  it,  was  the  little  town 
of  Dorking,  nestled  in  the  trees,  and  rising  up  the 
foot  of  the  slopes  on  the  other  side  of  the  valley 
which  stretched  away  to  Leith  Common,  the  scene 
of  yesterday's  march.    Thus  the  main  part  of  the 


THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING  51 

town  of  Dorking  was  on  our  right  front,  but  the 
suburbs  stretched  away  eastward  nearly  to  our 
proper  front,  culminating  in  a  small  railway 
station,  from  which  the  grassy  slopes  of  the  park 
rose  up  dotted  with  shrubs  and  trees  to  where  we 
were  standing.  Round  this  railway  station  was  a 
cluster  of  villas  and  one  or  two  mills,  of  whose 
gardens  we  thus  had  a  bird's-eye  view,  their  little 
ornamental  ponds  glistening  like  looking-glasses 
in  the  morning  sun.  Immediately  on  our  left  the 
park  sloped  steeply  down  to  the  gap  before  men- 
tioned, through  which  ran  the  little  stream,  as  well 
as  the  railway  trom  Epsom  to  Brighton,  nearly 
due  north  and  south,  meeting  the  Guildford  and 
Reigate  line  at  right  angles.  Close  to  the  point  of 
intersection  and  the  little  station  already  men- 
tioned, was  the  station  of  the  former  line  where  we 
had  stopped  the  day  before.  Beyond  the  gap  on 
the  east  (our  left),  and  in  continuation  of  our  ridge, 
rose  the  chalk-hill  again.  The  shoulder  of  this 
ridge  overlooking  the  gap  is  called  Box  Hill,  from 
the  shrubbery  of  boxwood  with  which  it  was 
covered.  Its  sides  were  very  steep,  and  the  top  of 
the  ridge  was  covered  with  troops.  The  natural 
strength  of  our  position  was  manifested  at  a  glance, 
a  high  grassy  ridge  steep  to  the  south,  with  a 
stream  in  front,  and  but  little  cover  up  the  sides. 
It  seemed  made  for  a  battle-field.  The  weak  point 
was  the  gap  ;  the  ground  at  the  junction  of  the 
railways  and  the  roads  immediately  at  the  entrance 
of  the  gap  formed  a  little  valley,  dotted,  as  I  have 


52  THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING 

said,  with  buildings  and  gardens.  This,  in  one 
sense,  was  the  key  of  the  position  ;  for  although  it 
would  not  be  tenable  while  we  held  the  ridge  com- 
manding it,  the  enemy  by  carrying  this  point  and 
advancing  through  the  gap  would  cut  our  line  in 
two.  But  you  must  not  suppose  I  scanned  the 
ground  thus  critically  at  the  time.  Anybody, 
indeed,  might  have  been  struck  with  the  natural 
advantages  of  our  position ;  but  what,  as  I 
remember,  most  impressed  me,  was  the  peaceful 
beauty  ol  the  scene — ^the  little  town  with  the 
outline  of  the  houses  obscured  by  a  blue  mist,  the 
massive  crispness  of  the  foliage,  the  outlines  of  the 
great  trees,  lighted  up  by  the  sun,  and  relieved  by 
deep-blue  shade.  So  thick  was  the  timber  here, 
rising  up  the  southern  slopes  of  the  valley,  that  it 
looked  almost  as  if  it  might  have  been  a  primeval 
forest.  The  quiet  ol  the  scene  was  the  more  im- 
pressive because  contrasted  in  the  mind  with  the 
scenes  we  expected  to  follow  ;  and  I  can  remember 
as  if  it  were  yesterday,  the  sensation  of  bitter 
regret  that  it  should  now  be  too  late  to  avert  this 
coming  desecration  of  our  country,  which  might 
so  easily  have  been  prevented.  A  little  firmness, 
a  little  prevision  on  the  part  of  our  rulers,  even  a 
little  common  sense,  and  this  great  calamity 
would  have  been  rendered  utterly  impossible.  Too 
late,  alas !  We  were  like  the  foolish  virgins  in  the 
parable. 

But  you  must  not  suppose  the  scene  immediately 
around  was  gloomy  :    the  camp   was  brisk  and 


THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING  53 

bustling  enough.     We  had  got  over  the  stress  of 
weariness  ;    our  stomachs  were  full ;    we  felt  a 
natural  enthusiasm  at  the  prospect  of  having  so 
soon  to  take  a  part  as  the  real  defenders  of  the 
country,  and  we  were  inspirited  at  the  sight  of  the 
large  force  that  was  now  assembled.     Along  the 
slopes  which  trended  off  to  the  rear  of  our  ridge, 
troops   came   marching  up — volunteers,    militia, 
cavalry,  and  guns  ;  these,  I  heard,  had  come  down 
from  the  north  as  far  as  Leatherhead  the  night 
before,  and  had  marched  over  at  daybreak.   Long 
trains,  too,  began  to  arrive  by  the  rail  through  the 
gap,  one  after  the  other,  containing  militia  and 
volunteers,  who  moved  up  to  the  ridge  to  the  right 
and  left,  and  took  up  their  position,  massed  for  the 
most  part  on  the  slopes  which  ran  up  from,  and  in 
rear  of,  where  we  stood.    We  now  formed  part  of 
an  army  corps,  we  were  told,  consisting  of  three 
divisions,  but  what  regiments  composed  the  other 
two  divisions  I  never  heard.    All  this  movement 
we  could  distinctly  see  from  our  position,  for  we 
had  hurried  over  our  breakfast,  expecting  every 
minute  that  the  battle  would  begin,  and  now  stood 
or  sat  about  on  the  ground  near  our  piled  arms. 
Early  in  the  morning,  too,  we  saw  a  very  long  train 
come  along  the  valley  from  the  direction  of  Guild- 
ford, full  of  redcoats.    It  halted  at  the  little  station 
at  our  feet,  and  the  troops  alighted.     We  could 
soon  make  out  their  bear-skins.     They  were  the 
Guards,  coming  to  reinforce  this  part  of  the  line. 
Leaving  a  detachment  of  skirmishers  to  hold  the 


54  THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING 

line  of  the  railway  embankment,  the  main  body 
marched  up  with  a  springy  step  and  with  the  band 
playing,  and  drew  up  across  the  gap  on  our  left,  in 
prolongation  of  our  line.  There  appeared  to  be 
three  battalions  of  them,  for  they  formed  up  in 
that  number  of  columns  at  short  intervals. 

Shortly  after  this  I  was  sent  over  to  Box  Hill 
with  a  message  from  our  colonel  to  the  colonel  of 
a  volunteer  regiment  stationed  there,  to  know 
whether  an  ambulance-cart  was  obtainable,  as  it 
was  reported  this  regiment  was  well  supplied  with 
carriage,  whereas  we  were  without  any  :  my  mis- 
sion, however,  was  futile.  Crossing  the  valley,  I 
found  a  scene  of  great  confusion  at  the  railway 
station.  Trains  were  still  coming  in  with  stores 
ammunition,  guns,  and  appliances  of  all  sorts, 
which  were  being  unloaded  as  fast  as  possible  ; 
but  there  were  scarcely  any  means  of  getting  the 
things  off.  There  were  plenty  of  waggons  of  all 
sorts,  but  hardly  any  horses  to  draw  them,  and 
the  whole  place  was  blocked  up  ;  while,  to  add  to 
the  confusion,  a  regular  exodus  had  taken  place  of 
the  people  from  the  town,  who  had  been  warned 
that  it  was  likely  to  be  the  scene  of  fighting. 
Ladies  and  women  of  all  sorts  and  ages,  and  child- 
ren, some  with  bundles,  some  empty-handed, 
were  seeking  places  in  the  train,  but  there  ap- 
peared no  one  on  the  the  spot  authorized  to  grant 
them,  and  these  poor  creatures  were  pushing  their 
way  up  and  down,  vainly  asking  for  information 
and  permission  to  get  away.     In  the  crowd   I 


THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING  55 

observed;our][surgeon,  who  likewise  was  in  search 
of  an  ambulance  of  some  sort  :  his  whole  profes- 
sional apparatus,  he  said,  consisted  of  a  case  of 
instruments.  Also  in  tlcih  crowd  I  stumbled  upon 
Wood,  Travers's  old  coachman.  He  had  been 
send  down  by  his  mistress  to  Guildford,  because  it 
was  supposed  our  regiment  had  gone  there,  riding 
the  horse,  and  laden  with  a  supply  of  things — 
food,  blankets,  and,  of  course,  a  letter.  He  had 
also  brought  my  knapsack  ;  but  at  Guildford  the 
horse  was  pressed  for  artillery  work,  and  a  receipt 
for  it  given  him  in  exchange,  so  he  had  been 
obliged  to  leave  all  the  heavy  packages  there,  in- 
cluding my  knapsack  ;  but  the  faithful  old  man 
had  brought  on  as  many  things  as  he  could  carry, 
and  hearing  that  we  should  be  found  in  this  part, 
had  walked  over  thus  laden  from  Guildford. 
He  said  that  place  was  crowded  with  troops,  and 
that  the  heights  were  lined  with  them  the  whole 
way  between  the  two  towns  ;  also,  that  some 
trains  with  wounded  had  passed  up  from  the  coast 
in  the  night,  through  Guildford.  I  led  him  off  to 
where  our  regiment  was,  relieving  the  old  man 
from  part  of  the  load  he  was  staggering  under. 
The  food  sent  was  not  now  so  much  needed,  but 
the  plates,  knives,  etc.,  and  drinking-vessels, 
promised  to  be  handy — ^and  Travers,  you  may  be 
sure,  was  delighted  to  get  his  letter  ;  while  a 
couple  of  newspapers  the  old  man  had  brought 
were  eagerly  competed  for  by  all,  even  at  this 
critical  moment,  for  we  had  heard  no  authentic 


56  THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING 

news  since  we  left  London  on  Sunday.  And  even 
at  this  distance  of  time,  although  I  only  glanced 
down  the  paper,  I  can  remember  almost  the  very 
words  I  read  there.  They  were  both  copies  of  the 
same  paper  :  the  first,  published  on  Sunday  eve- 
ning, when  the  news  had  arrived  of  the  successful 
landing  at  three  points,  was  written  in  a  tone  of 
despair.  The  country  must  confess  that  it  had 
been  taken  by  surprise.  The  conqueror  would  be 
satisfied  with  the  humiliation  inflicted  by  a  peace 
dictated  on  our  own  shores  ;  it  was  the  clear  duty 
of  the  Government  to  accept  the  best  terms  ob- 
tainable, and  to  avoid  further  bloodshed  and  dis- 
aster, and  avert  the  fall  of  our  tottering  mercan- 
the  credit.  The  next  morning's  issue  was  in  quite 
a  different  tone.  Apparently  the  enemy  had  re- 
ceived a  check,  for  we  were  here  exhorted  to 
resistance.  An  impregnable  position  was  to  be 
taken  up  along  the  Downs,  a  force  was  concen- 
trating there  far  outnumbering  the  rash  invaders, 
who,  with  an  invincible  line  before  them,  and  the 
sea  behind,  had  no  choice  between  destruction  or 
surrender.  Let  there  be  no  pusillanimous  talk  of 
negotiation,  the  fight  must  be  fought  out ;  and 
there  could  be  but  one  issue.  England,  expectant 
but  calm,  awaited  with  confidence  the  result  of  the 
attack  on  its  unconquerable  volunteers.  The 
writing  appeared  to  me  eloquent,  but  rather  in- 
consistent. The  same  paper  said  the  Government 
had  sent  off  500  workmen  from  Woolwich,  to  open 
a  branch  arsenal  at  Birmingham. 


THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING  57 

All  this  time  we  had  nothing  to  do,  except  to 
change  our  position,  which  we  did  every  few 
minutes,  now  moving  up  the  h'll  farther  to  our 
right,  now  taking  ground  lower  down  to  our  left, 
as  one  order  after  another  was  brought  down  the 
line  ;  but  the  staff- officers  were  galloping  about 
perpetually  with  orders,  while  the  rumble  of  the 
artillery  as  they  moved  about  from  one  part  of  the 
field  to  another  went  on  almost  incessantly.  At 
last  the  whole  line  stood  to  arms,  the  bands  struck 
up,  and  the  General  commanding  our  army  corps 
came  riding  down  with  his  staff.  We  had  seen  him 
several  times  before,  as  we  had  been  moving  fre- 
quently about  the  position  during  the  morning ; 
but  he  now  made  a  sort  of  formal  inspection.  He 
was  a  tall  thin  man,  with  long  light  hair,  very  well 
mounted,  and  as  he  sat  his  horse  with  an  erect  seat, 
and  came  prancing  down  the  line,  at  a  little  dis- 
tance he  looked  as  if  he  might  be  five-and-twenty ; 
but  I  believe  he  had  served  more  than  fifty  years, 
and  had  been  made  a  peer  for  services  performed 
when  quite  an  old  man.  I  remember  that  he  had 
more  decorations  than  there  was  room  for  on  the 
breast  of  his  coat,  and  wore  them  suspended  like  a 
necklace  round  his  neck.  Like  all  the  other 
generals,  he  was  dressed  in  blue,  with  a  cocked-hat 
and  feathers — a  bad  plan,  I  thought,  for  it  made 
them  very  conspicuous.  The  general  halted  before 
our  battalion,  and  after  looking  at  us  a  while, 
made  a  short  address :  We  had  a  post  of  honour 
next  Her  Majesty's  Guards,  and  would  show  our- 


58  THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING 

selves  worthy  of  it,  and  of  the  name  of  Enghsh- 
men.  It  did  not  need,  he  said,  to  be  a  general  to 
see  the  strength  of  our  position  ;  it  was  impreg- 
nable, if  properly  held.  Let  us  wait  till  the  enemy 
was  well  pounded,  and  then  the  word  would  be 
given  to  go  at  him.  Above  everything,  we  must 
be  steady.  He  then  shook  hands  with  our  colonel, 
we  gave  him  a  cheer,  and  he  rode  on  to  where  the 
Guards  were  drawn  up. 

Now  then,  we  thought,  the  battle  will  begin. 
But  still  there  were  no  signs  of  the  enemy  ;  and 
the  air,  though  hot  and  sultry,  began  to  be  very 
hazy,  so  that  you  could  scarcely  see  the  town 
below,  and  the  hills  opposite  were  merely  a  con- 
fused blur,  in  which  no  features  could  be  dis- 
tinctly made  out.  After  a  while,  the  tension  of 
feeling  which  followed  the  General's  address  re- 
laxed, and  we  began  to  feel  less  as  if  everything 
depended  on  keeping  our  rifles  firmly  grasped  : 
we  were  told  to  pile  arms  again,  and  got  leave  to 
go  down  by  tens  and  twenties  to  the  stream  below 
to  drink.  This  stream,  and  all  the  hedges  and 
banks  on  our  side  of  it,  were  held  by  our  skir- 
mishers, but  the  town  had  been  abandoned.  The 
position  appeared  an  excellent  one,  except  that 
the  enemy,  when  they  came,  would  have  almost 
better  cover  than  our  men.  While  I  was  down  at 
the  brook,  a  column  emerged  from  the  town, 
making  for  our  position.  We  thought  for  a 
moment  it  was  the  enemy,  and  you  could  not 
make  out  the  colour  of  the  uniforms  for  the  dust  ; 


THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING  59 

but  it  turned  out  to  be  our  rear-guard,  falling  back 
from  the  opposite  hills  which  they  had  occupied 
the  previous  night.  One  battalion,  of  rifles, 
halted  for  a  few  minutes  at  the  stream  to  let  the 
men  drink,  and  I  had  a  minute's  talk  with  a 
couple  of  the  officers.  They  had  formed  part  of 
the  force  which  had  attacked  the  enemy  on  their 
first  landing.  They  had  it  all  their  own  way,  they 
said,  at  first,  and  could  have  beaten  the  enemy 
back  easily  if  they  had  been  properly  supported  ; 
but  the  whole  thing  was  mismanaged.  The  vol- 
unteers came  on  very  pluckily,  they  said,  but  they 
got  into  confusion,  and  so  did  the  militia,  and  the 
attack  failed  with  serious  loss.  It  was  the 
wounded  of  this  force  which  had  passed  through 
Guildford  in  the  night.  The  officers  asked  us 
eagerly  about  the  arrangements  for  the  battle, 
and  when  we  said  that  the  Guards  were  the  only 
regular  troops  in  this  part  of  the  field,  shook  their 
heads  ominously. 

While  we  were  talking  a  third  officer  came  up  ; 
he  was  a  dark  man  with  a  smooth  face  and  a 
curious  excited  manner.  "  You  are  volunteers,  I 
suppose,"  he  said,  quickly,  his  eye  flashing  the 
while.  "  Well,  now,  look  here ;  mind  I  don't 
want  to  hurt  your  feelings,  or  to  say  anything  un- 
pleasant, but  I'll  tell  you  what ;  if  all  you  gentle- 
men were  just  to  go  back,  and  leave  us  to  fight  it 
out  alone,  it  would  be  a  devilish  good  thing.  We 
could  do  it  a  precious  deal  better  without  you,  I 
assure  you.    We  don't  want  your  help,  I  can  tell 


60  THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING 

you.  We  would  much  rather  be  left  alone,  I 
assure  you.  Mind  I  don't  want  to  say  anything 
rude,  but  that's  a  fact."  Having  blurted  out  this 
passionately,  he  strode  away  before  any  one  could 
reply,  or  the  other  officers  could  stop  him.  They 
apologized  for  his  rudeness,  saying  that  his 
brother,  also  in  the  regiment,  had  been  killed  on 
Sunday,  and  that  this,  and  the  sun,  and  marching, 
had  affected  his  head.  The  officers  told  us  that 
the  enemy's  advanced-guard  was  close  behind, 
but  that  he  had  apparently  been  waiting  for  re- 
inforcements, and  would  probably  not  attack  in 
force  until  noon.  It  was,  however,  nearly  three 
o'clock  before  the  battle  began.  We  had  almost 
worn  out  the  feeling  of  expectancy.  For  twelve 
hours  had  we  been  waiting  for  the  coming  strug- 
gle, till  at  last  it  seemed  almost  as  if  the  invasion 
were  but  a  bad  dream,  and  the  enemy,  as  yet  un- 
seen by  us,  had  no  real  existence.  So  far  things 
had  not  been  very  different,  but  for  the  numbers 
and  for  what  we  had  been  told,  from  a  Volunteer 
review  on  Brighton  Downs.  I  remember  that  these 
thoughts  were  passing  through  my  mind  as  we  lay 
down  in  groups  on  the  grass,  some  smoking,  some 
nibbling  at  their  bread,  some  even  asleep,  when 
the  listless  state  we  had  fallen  into  was  suddenly 
disturbed  by  a  gunshot  fired  from  the  top  of  the 
hill  on  our  right,  close  by  the  big  house.  It  was  the 
first  time  I  had  ever  heard  a  shotted  gun  fired,  and 
although  it  is  fifty  years  ago,  the  angry  whistle 
of  the  shot  as  it  left  the  gun  is  in  my  ears  now.  The 


THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING  61 

sound  was  soon  to  become  common  enough.  We 
all  jumped  up  at  the  report,  and  fell  in  almost  with 
out  the  word  being  given,  grasping  our  rifles 
tightly,  and  the  leading  files  peering  forward  to 
look  for  the  approaching  enemy.  This  gun  was 
apparently  the  signal  to  begin,  for  now  our  bat- 
teries opened  fire  all  along  the  line.  What  they 
were  firing  at  I  could  not  see,  and  I  am  sure  the 
gunners  could  not  see  much  themselves.  I  have 
told  you  what  a  haze  had  come  over  the  air  since 
the  morning,  and  now  the  smoke  from  the  guns 
settled  like  a  pall  over  the  hill,  and  soon  we  could 
see  little  but  the  men  in  our  ranks,  and  the  outline 
of  some  gunners  in  the  battery  drawn  up  next  us 
on  the  slope  on  our  right.  This  firing  went  on,  I 
should  think,  for  nearly  a  couple  of  hours,  and  still 
there  was  no  reply.  We  could  see  the  gunners — it 
was  a  troop  of  horse-artillery— working  away  like 
fury,  ramming,  loading,  and  running  up  with  car- 
tridges, the  officer  in  command  riding  slowly  up 
and  down  just  behind  his  guns,  and  peering  out 
with  his  field-glasses  into  the  mist.  Once  or  twice 
they  ceased  firing  to  let  their  smoke  clear  away, 
but  this  did  not  do  much  good.  For  nearly  two 
hours  did  this  go  on,  and  not  a  shot  came  in  reply. 
"If  a  battle  is  like  this,"  said  Dick  Wake,  who  was 
my  next-hand  file,  "it's  mild  work,  to  say  the  least." 
The  words  were  hardly  uttered  when  a  rattle  of 
musketry  was  heard  in  front  ;  our  skirmishers 
were  at  it,  and  very  soon  the  bullets  began  to  sing 
over  our  heads,  and  some  struck  the  ground  at  our 


62  THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING 

feet.  Up  to  this  time  we  had  been  in  column  ;  we 
were  now  deployed  into  line  on  the  ground  assigned 
to  us.  From  the  valley  or  gap  on  our  left  there 
ran  a  lane  right  up  the  hill  almost  due  west,  or 
along  our  front.  This  lane  had  a  thick  bank  about 
four  feet  high,  and  the  greater  part  of  the  regiment 
was  drawn  up  behind  it ;  but  a  little  way  up  the 
hill  the  lane  trended  back  out  of  the  line,  so  the 
right  of  the  regiment  here  left  it  and  occupied  the 
open  grass-land  of  the  park.  The  bank  had  been 
cut  away  at  this  point  to  admit  of  our  going  in  and 
out.  We  had  been  told  in  the  morning  to  cut 
down  the  bushes  on  the  top  of  the  bank,  so  as  to 
make  the  space  clear  for  firing  over,  but  we  had  no 
tools  to  work  with  ;  however,  a  party  of  sappers 
had  come  down  and  finished  the  job.  My  com- 
pany was  on  the  right,  and  was  thus  beyond  the 
shelter  of  the  friendly  bank.  On  our  right  again 
was  the  battery  of  artillery  already  mentioned  ; 
then  came  a  battalion  of  the  line,  then  more  guns, 
then  a  great  mass  of  militia  and  volunteers  and  a 
few  line  up  to  the  big  house.  At  least  this  was  the 
order  before  the  firing  began  ;  after  that  I  do  not 
know  what  changes  took  place. 

And  now  the  enemy's  artillery  began  to  open; 
where  their  guns  were  posted  we  could  not  see, 
but  we  began  to  hear  the  rush  of  the  shells  over 
our  heads,  and  the  bang  as  they  burst  just  beyond. 
And  now  what  took  place  I  can  really  hardly  tell 
you.  Sometimes  when  I  try  and  recall  the  scene,  it 
seems  as  if  it  lasted  for  only  a  few  minutes  ;   yet  I 


THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING  63 

know,  as  we  lay  on  the  ground,  I  thought  the 
hours  would  never  pass  away,  as  we  watched  the 
gunners  still  plying  their  task,  firing  at  the  invis- 
ible enemy,  never  stopping  for  a  moment  except 
when  now  and  again  a  dull  blow  would  be  heard 
and  a  man  fall  down,  then  three  or  four  of  his 
comrades  would  carry  him  to  the  rear.  The  cap- 
tain no  longer  rode  up  and  down  ;  what  had  be- 
come of  him  I  do  not  know.  Two  of  the  guns 
ceased  firing  for  a  time  ;  they  had  got  injured  in 
some  way,  and  up  rode  an  artillery  general.  I 
think  I  see  him  now,  a  very  handsome  man,  with 
straight  features  and  a  dark  moustache,  his  breast 
covered  with  medals.  He  appeared  in  a  great 
rage  at  the  guns  stopping  fire. 

"  Who  commands  this  battery  ?  "  he  cried. 

"  I  do.  Sir  Henry,"  said  an  officer,  riding  for- 
ward, whom  I  had  not  noticed  before. 

The  group  is  before  me  at  this  moment,  stand- 
ing out  clear  against  the  background  of  smoke, 
Sir  Henry  erect  on  his*  splendid  charger,  his 
flashing  eye,  his  left  arm  pointing  towards  the 
enemy  to  enforce  something  he  was  going  to  say, 
the  young  officer  reining  in  his  horse  just  beside 
him,  and  saluting  with  his  right  hand  raised  to  his 
busby.  This  for  a  moment,  then  a  dull  thud,  and 
both  horses  and  riders  are  prostrate  on  the  ground. 
A  round-shot  had  struck  all  four  at  the  saddle- 
line.  Some  of  the  gunners  ran  up  to  help,  but 
neither  officer  could  have  lived  many  minutes. 
This  was  not  the  first  I  saw  killed.     Some  time 


64  THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING 

before  this,  almost  immediately  on  the  enemy's  ar- 
tillery opening,  as  we  were  lying,  I  heard  something 
like  the  sound  of  metal  striking  metal,  and  at  the 
same  moment  Dick  Wake,  who  was  next  me  in  the 
ranks,  leaning  on  his  elbows,  sank  forward  on  his 
face.  I  looked  round  and  saw  what  had  happened; 
a  shot  fired  at  a  high  elevation,  passing  over  his 
head,  had  struck  the  ground  behind,  nearly  cut- 
ting his  thigh  off.  It  must  have  been  the  ball 
striking  his  sheathed  bayonet  which  made  the 
noise.  Three  of  us  carried  the  poor  fellow  to  the 
rear,  with  difficulty  for  the  shattered  limb  ;  but 
he  was  nearly  dead  from  loss  of  blood  when  we  got 
to  the  doctor,  who  was  waiting  in  a  sheltered  hol- 
low about  two  hundred  yards  in  rear,  with  two 
other  doctors  in  plain  clothes,  who  had  come  up  to 
help.  We  deposited  our  burden  and  returned  to  the 
front.  Poor  Wake  was  sensible  when  we  left  him, 
but  apparently  too  shaken  by  the  shock  to  be  able 
to  speak.  Wood  was  there  helping  the  doctors. 
I  paid  more  visits  to  the  rear  of  the  same  sort 
before  the  evening  was  over. 

All  this  time  we  were  lying  there  to  be  fired  at 
without  returning  a  shot,  for  our  skirmishers  were 
holding  the  line  of  walls  and  enclosures  below. 
However,  the  bank  protected  most  of  us,  and  the 
brigadier  now  ordered  our  right  company,  which 
was  in  the  open,  to  get  behind  it  also  ;  and  there 
we  lay  about  four  deep,  the  shells  crashing  and 
bullets  whistling  over  our  heads,  but  hardly  a  man 
being  touched.    Our  colonel  was,  indeed,  the  only 


THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING  65 

one  exposed,  for  he  rode  up  and  down  the  lane  at 
a  foot-pace  as  steady  as  a  rock  ;  but  he  made  the 
major  and  adjutant  dismount,  and  take  shelter 
behind  the  hedge,  holding  their  horses.  We  were 
all  pleased  to  see  him  so  cool,  and  it  restored  our 
confidence  in  him,  which  had  been  shaken  yes- 
terday. 

The  time  seemed  interminable  while  we  lay  thus 
inactive.  We  could  not,  of  course,  help  peering 
over  the  bank  to  try  and  see  what  was  going  on  ; 
but  there  was  nothing  to  be  made  out,  for  now  a 
tremendous  thunder-storm,  which  had  been  gath- 
ering all  day,  burst  on  us,  and  a  torrent  of  almost 
blinding  rain  came  down,  which  obscured  the  view 
even  more  than  the  smoke,  while  the  crashing  of 
the  thunder  and  the  glare  of  the  lightning  could 
be  heard  and  seen  seen  even  above  the  roar  and 
flashing  of  the  artillery.  Once  the  mist  lifted^ 
and  I  saw  for  a  minute  an  attack  on  Box  Hill,  on 
the  other  side  of  the  gap  on  our  left.  It  was  like 
the  scene  at  a  theatre — a  curtain  of  smoke  all 
round  and  a  clear  gap  in  the  centre,  with  a  sudden 
gleam  of  evening  sunshine  lighting  it  up.  The 
steep  smooth  slope  of  the  hill  was  crowded  with  the 
dark-blue  figures  of  the  enemy,  whom  I  now  saw 
for  the  first  time — an  irregular  outline  in  front, 
but  very  solid  in  rear  :  the  whole  body  was 
moving  forward  by  fits  and  starts,  the  men  firing 
and  advancing,  the  officers  waving  their  swords, 
the  columns  closing  up  and  gradually  making  way. 
Our  people  were  almost  concealed  by  the  bushes 


66  THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING 

at  the  top,  whence  the  smoke  and  their  fire  could 
be  seen  proceeding  :  presently  from  these  bushes 
on  the  crest  came  out  a  red  line,  and  dashed  down 
the  brow  of  the  hill,  a  flame  of  fire  belching  out 
from  the  front  as  it  advanced.  The  enemy  hesi- 
tated, gave  way,  and  finally  ran  back  in  a  con- 
fused crowd  down  the  hill.  Then  the  mist  cov- 
ered the  scene,  but  the  glimpse  of  this  splendid 
charge  was  inspiriting,  and  I  hoped  we  should 
show  the  same  coolness  when  it  came  to  our  turn. 
It  was  about  this  time  that  our  skirmishers  fell 
back,  a  good  many  wounded,  some  limping  along 
by  themselves,  others  helped.  The  main  body 
retired  in  very  fair  order,  halting  to  turn  round 
and  fire  ;  we  could  see  a  mounted  officer  of  the 
Guards  riding  up  and  down  encouraging  them  to 
be  steady.  Now  came  our  turn.  For  a  few 
minutes  we  saw  nothing,  but  a  rattle  of  bullets 
came  throvigh  the  rain  and  mist,  mostly,  however, 
passing  over  the  bank.  We  began  to  fire  in  reply, 
stepping  up  against  the  bank  to  fire,  and  stooping 
down  to  load  ;  but  our  brigade-major  rode  up 
with  an  order,  and  the  word  was  passed  through 
the  men  to  reserve  our  fire.  In  a  very  few  mo- 
ments it  must  have  been  that,  when  ordered  to 
stand  up,  we  could  see  the  helmet-spikes  and  then 
the  figures  of  the  skirmishers  as  they  came  on  : 
a  lot  of  them  there  appeared  to  be,  five  or  six  deep 
I  should  say,  but  in  loose  order,  each  man  stopping 
to  aim  and  fire,  and  then  coming  forward  a  little. 
Just  then  the  brigadier  clattered  on  horseback  up 


THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING  G7 

the  lane.  "  Now  then,  gentlemen,  give  it  them 
hot!  "  he  cried  ;  and  fire  away  we  did,  as  fast  as 
ever  we  were  able.  perfect  storm  of  bullets 

seemed  to  be  flying  about  us  too,  and  I  thought 
each  moment  must  be  the  last ;    escape  seemed 
impossible,  but  I  saw  no  one  fall,  for  I  was  too 
busy,  and  so  were  we  all,  to  look  to  the  right  or 
left,  but  loaded  and  fired  as  fast  as  we  could.  How 
long  this  went  on  I  know  not — it  could  not  have 
been  long;    neither  side  could  have  lasted  many 
minutes  under  such  a  fire,  but  it  ended  by  the 
enemy  gradually  falling  back,  and  as  soon  as  we 
saw  this  we  raised  a  tremendous  shout,  and  some 
of  us  jumped  up  on  the  bank  to  give  them  our 
parting  shots.     Suddenly  the  order  was  passed 
down  the  line  to  cease  firing,  and  we  soon  dis- 
covered the  cause  ;  a  battalion  of  the  Guards  was 
charging  obliquely  across  from  our  left  across  our 
front.    It  was,  I  expect,  their  flank  attack  as  much 
as  our  fire  which  had  turned  back  the  enemy ;  and 
it  was  a  splendid  sight  to  see  their  steady  line  as 
they  advanced   slowly  across  the  smooth  lawn 
below  us,  firing  as  they  went,  but  as  steady  as  if  on 
parade.    We  felt  a  great  elation  at  this  moment ; 
it  seemed  as  if  the  battle  was  won.     Just  then 
somebody  called  out  to  look  to  the  wounded,  and 
for  the  first  time  I  turned  to  glance  down  the  rank 
along  the  lane.    Then  I  saw  that  we  had  not  bea- 
ten back  the  attack  without  loss.     Immediately 
before  me  lay  Bob  Lawford  of  my  office,  dead  on 
his  back  from  a  bullet  through  his  forehead,  his 


68  THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING 

hand  still  grasping  his  rifle.  At  every  step  was 
some  friend  or  acquaintance  killed  or  wounded, 
and  a  few  paces  down  the  lane  I  found  Travers, 
sitting  with  his  back  against  the  bank.  A  ball  had 
gone  through  his  lungs,  and  blood  was  coming 
from  his  mouth.  I  was  lifting  him  up,  but  the  cry 
of  agony  he  gave  stopped  me.  I  then  saw  that 
this  was  not  his  only  wound  ;  his  thigh  was 
smashed  by  a  bullet  (which  must  have  hit  him 
when  standing  on  the  bank),  and  the  blood  stream- 
ing down  mixed  in  a  muddy  puddle  with  the  rain- 
water under  him.  Still  he  could  not  be  left  here, 
so,  lifting  him  up  as  well  as  I  could,  I  carried  him 
through  the  gate  which  led  out  of  the  lane  at  the 
back  to  where  our  camp  hospital  was  in  the  rear. 
The  movement  must  have  caused  him  awful 
agony,  for  I  could  not  support  the  broken  thigh, 
and  he  could  not  restrain  his  groans,  brave  fellow 
though  he  was  ;  but  how  I  carried  him  at.  all  I 
cannot  make  out,  for  he  was  a  much  bigger  man 
than  myself ;  but  I  had  not  gone  far,  one  of  a 
stream  of  our  fellows,  all  on  the  same  errand,  when 
a  bandsman  and  Wood  met  me,  bringing  a  hurdle 
as  a  stretcher,  and  on  this  we  placed  him.  Wood 
had  just  time  to  tell  me  that  he  had  got  a  cart 
down  in  the  hollow,  and  would  endeavour  to  take 
off  his  master  at  once  to  Kingston,  when  a  staff- 
officer  rode  up  to  call  us  to  the  ranks.  "You 
really  must  not  straggle  in  this  way,  gentlemen," 
he  said  ;  "  pray  keep  your  ranks."  "  But  we 
can't  leave  our  wounded  to  be  trodden  down  and 


THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING  69 

die,"  cried  one  of  our  fellows.  "  Beat  off  the  ene- 
my first,  sir,"  he  replied.  "  Gentlemen,  do,  pray, 
join  your  regiments,  or  we  shall  be  a  regular  mob." 
And  no  doubt  he  did  not  speak  too  soon  ;  for 
besides  our  fellows  straggling  to  the  rear,  lots  of 
volunteers  from  the  regiments  in  reserve  were 
running  forward  to  help,  till  the  whole  ground  was 
dotted  with  groups  of  men.  I  hastened  back  to 
my  post,  but  I  had  just  time  to  notice  that  all  the 
ground  in  our  rear  was  occupied  by  a  thick  mass 
of  troops,  much  more  numerous  than  in  the 
morning,  and  a  column  was  moving  down  to  the 
left  of  our  line,  to  the  ground  before  held  by  the 
Guards.  All  this  time,  although  musketry  had 
slackened,  the  artillery-fire  seemed  heavier  than 
ever ;  the  shells  screamed  overhead  or  burst 
around  ;  and  I  confess  to  feeling  quite  a  relief  at 
getting  back  to  the  friendly  shelter  of  the  lane. 
Looking  over  the  bank,  I  noticed  for  the  first  time 
the  frightful  execution  our  fire  had  created.  The 
space  in  front  was  thickly  strewed  with  dead  and 
badly  wounded,  and  beyond  the  bodies  of  the 
fallen  enemy  could  just  be  seen — ^for  it  was  now 
getting  dusk — ^the  bear- skins  and  red  coats  of  our 
own  gallant  Guards  scattered  over  the  slope,  and 
marking  the  line  of  their  victorious  advance.  But 
hardly  a  minute  could  have  passed  in  thus  looking 
over  the  field,  when  our  brigade-major  came 
moving  up  the  lane  on  foot  (I  suppose  his  horse 
had  been  shot),  crying,  "  Stand  to  your  arms, 
volunteers!  they're  coming  on  again;  "    and  we 


70  THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING 

found  ourselves  a  second  time  engaged  in  a  hot 
musketry-fire.  How  long  it  went  on  I  cannot  now 
remember,  but  we  could  distinguish  clearly  the 
thick  line  of  skirmishers,  about  sixty  paces  off 
and  mounted  officers  among  them ;  and  we  seemed 
to  be  keeping  them  well  in  check,  for  they  were 
quite  exposed  to  our  fire,  while  we  were  protected 
nearly  up  to  our  shoulders,  when — I  know  not 
how — I  became  sensible  that  something  had  gone 
wrong.  "We  are  taken  in  flank!"  called  out 
some  one  ;  and  looking  along  the  left,  sure  enough 
there  were  dark  figures  jumping  over  the  bank  into 
the  lane  and  firing  up  along  our  line.  The  volun- 
teers in  reserve,  who  had  come  down  to  take  the 
place  of  the  Guards,  must  have  given  way  at  this 
point ;  the  enemy's  skirmishers  had  got  through 
our  line,  and  turned  our  left  flank.  How  the  next 
move  came  about  I  cannot  recollect,  or  whether  it 
was  without  orders,  but  in  a  short  time  we  found 
ourselves  out  of  the  lane,  and  drawn  up  in  a  strag- 
gling line  about  thirty  yards  in  rear  of  it — at  our 
end,  that  is,  the  other  flank  had  fallen  back  a  good 
deal  more — and  the  enemy  were  lining  the  hedge, 
and  numbers  of  them  passing  over  and  forming 
up  on  our  side.  Beyond  our  left  a  confused  mass 
were  retreating,  firing  as  they  went,  followed  by 
the  advancing  hne  of  the  enemy.  We  stood  in  this 
way  for  a  short  space,  firing  at  random  as  fast  as 
we  could.  Our  colonel  and  major  must  have  been 
shot,  for  there  was  no  one  to  give  an  order,  when 
somebody  on  horseback  called  out  from  behind — 


THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING  71 

I  think  it  must  have  been  the  brigadier — "  Now, 
then,  volunteers!  give  a  British  cheer,  and  go  at 
them — charge!  "  and,  with  a  shout,  we  rushed  at 
the  enemy.  Some  of  them  ran,  some  stopped  to 
meet  us,  and  for  a  moment  it  was  a  real  hand-to- 
hand  fight.  I  felt  a  sharp  sting  in  my  leg,  as  I 
drove  my  bayonet  right  through  the  man  in  front 
of  me.  I  confess  I  shut  my  eyes,  for  I  just  got  a 
glimpse  of  the  poor  wretch  as  he  fell  back,  his  eyes 
starting  out  of  his  head,  and,  savage  though  we 
were,  the  sight  was  almost  too  horrible  to  look  at. 
But  the  struggle  was  over  in  a  second,  and  we  had 
cleared  the  ground  again  right  up  to  the  rear 
hedge  of  the  lane.  Had  we  gone  on,  I  believe  we 
might  have  recovered  the  lane  too,  but  we  were 
now  all  out  of  order ;  there  was  no  one  to  say  what 
to  do  ;  the  enemy  began  to  line  the  hedge  and 
open  fire,  and  they  were  streaming  past  our  left ; 
and  how  it  came  about  I  know  not,  but  we  found 
ourselves  falling  back  towards  our  right  rear, 
scarce  any  semblance  of  a  line  remaining,  and  the 
volunteers  who  had  given  way  on  our  left  mixed 
up  with  us,  and  adding  to  the  confusion.  It  was 
now  nearly  dark.  On  the  slopes  which  we  were 
retreating  to  was  a  large  mass  of  reserves  drawn 
up  in  columns.  Some  of  the  leading  files  of  these, 
mistaking  us  for  the  enemy,  began  firing  at  us  ; 
our  fellows,  crying  out  to  them  to  stop,  ran  to- 
wards their  ranks,  and  in  a  few  moments  the  whole 
slope  of  the  hill  became  a  scene  of  confusion  that 
I  cannot  attempt  to  describe,  regiments  and  de- 


72  THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING 

tachments  mixed  up  in  hopeless  disorder.  Most 
of  us,  I  believe,  turned  towards  the  enemy  and 
fired  away  our  few  remaining  cartridges  ;  but  it 
was  too  late  to  take  aim,  fortunately  for  us,  or 
the  guns  which  the  enemy  had  brought  up  through 
the  gap,  and  were  firing  point-blank,  would  have 
done  more  damage.  As  it  was,  we  could  see  little 
more  than  the  bright  flashes  of  their  fire.  In  our 
confusion  we  had  jammed  up  a  line  regiment  im- 
mediately behind  us,  which  I  suppose  had  just 
arrived  on  the  field,  and  its  colonel  and  some  staff- 
officers  were  in  vain  trying  to  make  a  passage  for 
it,  and  their  shouts  to  us  to  march  to  the  rear  and 
clear  a  road  could  be  heard  above  the  roar  of  the 
guns  and  the  confused  babel  of  sound.  At  last  a 
mounted  officer  pushed  his  way  through,  followed 
by  a  company  in  sections,  the  men  brushing  past 
with  firm-set  faces,  as  if  on  a  desperate  task  ;  and 
the  battalion,  when  it  got  clear,  appeared  to  de- 
ploy and  advance  down  the  slope.  I  have  also  a 
dim  recollection  of  seeing  the  Life  Guards  trot 
past  the  front,  and  push  on  towards  the  town — a 
last  desperate  attempt  to  save  the  day — before 
we  left  the  field.  Our  adjutant,  who  had  got  sep- 
arated from  our  flank  of  the  regiment  in  the  con- 
fusion, now  came  up,  and  managed  to  lead  us,  or 
at  any  rate  some  of  us,  up  to  the  crest  of  the  hill 
in  the  rear,  to  re-form,  as  he  said  ;  but  there  we 
met  a  vast  crowd  of  volunteers,  militia,  and  wag- 
gons, all  hurrying  rearward  from  the  direction  of 
the  big  house,  and  we  were  borne  in  the  stream  for 


THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING  73 

a  mile  at  least  before  it  was  possible  to  stop.  At 
last  the  adjutant  led  us  to  an  open  space  a  little 
off  the  line  of  fugitives,  and  there  we  re-formed 
the  remains  of  the  companies.  Telling  us  to  halt, 
he  rode  off  to  try  and  obtain  orders,  and  find  out 
where  the  rest  of  our  brigade  was.  From  this 
point,  a  spur  of  high  ground  running  off  from  the 
main  plateau,  we  looked  down  through  the  dim 
twilight  into  the  battle-field  below.  Artillery-fire 
was  still  going  oh.  We  could  see  the  flashes  from 
the  guns  on  both  sides,  and  now  and  then  a  stray 
shell  came  screaming  up  and  burst  near  us,  but  we 
were  beyond  the  sound  of  musketry.  This  halt 
first  gave  us  time  to  think  about  what  had  hap- 
pened. The  long  day  of  expectancy  had  been  suc- 
ceeded by  the  excitement  of  battle ;  and  when 
each  minute  may  be  your  last,  you  do  not  think 
much  about  other  people,  nor  when  you  are  facing 
another  man  with  a  rifle  have  you  time  to  consider 
whether  he  or  you  are  the  invader,  or  that  you  are 
fighting  for  your  home  and  hearths.  All  fighting 
is  pretty  much  alike,  I  suspect,  as  to  sentiment, 
when  once  it  begins.  But  now  we  had  time  for 
reflection  ;  and  although  we  did  not  yet  quite 
understand  how  far  the  day  had  gone  against  us, 
an  uneasy  feeling  of  self-condemnation  must  have 
come  up  in  the  minds  of  most  of  us ;  while,  above 
all,  we  now  began  to  realise  what  the  loss  of  this 
battle  meant  to  the  country.  Then,  too,  we  knew 
not  what  had  become  of  all  our  wounded  comrades. 
Reaction,  too,  set  in  after  the  fatigue  and  excite- 


74  THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING 

merit.  For  myself,  I  had  found  out  for  the  first 
time  that  besides  the  bayonet-wound  in  my  leg, 
a  bullet  had  gone  through  my  left  arm,  just  below 
the  shoulder,  and  outside  the  bone.  I  remember 
feeling  something  like  a  blow  just  when  w^e  lost 
the  lane,  but  the  wound  passed  unnoticed  till 
now,  when  the  bleeding  had  stopped  and  the  shirt 
was  sticking  to  the  wound. 

This  half-hour  seemed  an  age,  and  while  we 
stood  on  this  knoll  the  endless  tramp  of  men  and 
rumbling  of  carts  along  the  downs  beside  us  told 
their  own  tale.  The  whole  army  was  falling  back. 
At  last  we  could  discern  the  adjutant  riding  up  to 
us  out  of  the  dark.  The  army  was  to  retreat  and 
take  up  a  position  on  Epsom  Downs,  he  said  ; 
we  should  join  in  the  march,  and  try  and  find  our 
brigade  in  the  morning  ;  and  so  we  turned  into 
the  throng  again,  and  made  our  way  on  as  best  we 
could.  A  few  scraps  of  news  he  gave  us  as  he  rode 
alongside  of  our  leading  section  ;  the  army  had 
held  its  position  well  for  a  time,  but  the  enemy 
had  at  last  broken  through  the  line  between  us 
and  Guildford,  as  well  as  in  our  front,  and  had 
poured  his  men  through  the  point  gained,  throw- 
ing the  line  into  confusion,  and  the  first  army 
corps  near  Guildford  were  also  falling  back  to 
avoid  being  out-flanked.  The  regular  troops  were 
holding  the  rear  ;  we  were  to  push  on  as  fast  as 
possible  to  get  out  of  their  way,  and  allow  them 
to  make  an  orderly  retreat  in  the  morning.  The 
gallant  old  lord  commanding  our  corps  had  been 


THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING  75 

badly  wounded  early  in  the  day,  he  heard,   and 
carried  off  the  field.     The  Guards  had  suffered 
dreadfully  ;    the  household  cavalry  had  ridden 
down  the  cuirassiers,   but  had  got  into  broken 
ground  and  been  awfully  cut  up.    Such  were  the 
scraps  of  news  passed  down  our  weary  column. 
What  had  become  of  our  wounded  no  one  knew, 
and  no  one  liked  to  ask.     So  we  trudged  on.     It 
must    have   been    midnight    when    we    reached 
Leatherhead.    Here  we  left  the  open  ground  and 
took  to  the  road,  and  the  block  became  greater. 
We  pushed  our  way  painfully  along ;  several  trains 
passed  slowly  ahead  along  the  railway  by  the 
roadside,  containing  the  wounded,  we  supposed — 
such  of  them,  at  least,  as  were  lucky  enough  to  be 
picked  up.    It  was  daylight  when  we  got  to  Ep- 
som.    The  night  had  been  bright  and  clear  after 
the  storm,  with  a  cool  air,  which,  blowing  through 
my  soaking  clothes,  chilled  me  to  the  bone.     My 
wounded  leg  was  stiff  and  sore,  and  I  was  ready 
to  drop  with  exhaustion  and  hunger.     Nor  were 
my  comrades  in  much  better  case  ;   we  had  eaten 
nothing  since  breakfast  the  day  before,  and  the 
bread  we  had  put  by  had  been  washed  away  by  the 
storm  :   only  a  little  pulp  remained  at  the  bottom 
of  my  bag.    The  tobacco  was  all  too  wet  to  smoke. 
In  this  plight  we  were  creeping  along,  when  the 
adjutant  guided  us  into  a  field  by  the  roadside  to 
rest  awhile,  and  we  lay  down  exhausted  on  the 
sloppy  grass.    The  roll  was  here  taken,  and  only 
180  answered  out  of  nearly  500  present  on  the 


76  THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING 

morning  of  the  battle.  How  many  of  these  were 
killed  and  wounded  no  one  could  tell ;  but  it  was 
certain  many  must  have  got  separated  in  the  con- 
fusion of  the  evening.  While  resting  here,  we  saw 
pass  by,  in  the  crowd  of  vehicles  and  men,  a  cart 
laden  with  commissariat  stores,  driven  by  a  man 
in  uniform.  "Food!"  cried  some  one,  and  a 
dozen  volunteers  jumped  up  and  surrounded  the 
cart.  The  driver  tried  to  whip  them  off  ;  but  he 
was  pulled  off  his  seat,  and  the  contents  of  the 
cart  thrown  out  in  an  instant.  They  were  pre- 
served meats  in  tins,  which  we  tore  open  with  our 
bayonets.  The  meat  had  been  cooked  before,  I 
think  ;  at  any  rate  we  devoured  it.  Shortly  after 
this  a  general  came  by  with  three  or  four  staff - 
officers.  He  stopped  and  spoke  to  our  adjutant, 
and  then  rode  into  the  field.  "My  lads,"  said  he, 
"  you  shall  join  my  division  for  the  present  :  fall 
in,  and  follow  the  regiment  that  is  now  passing." 
We  rose  up,  fell  in  by  companies,  each  about 
twenty  strong,  and  turned  once  more  into  the 
stream  moving  along  the  road  ; — regiments,  de- 
tachments, single  volunteers  or  militiamen,  coun- 
try people  making  off,  some  with  bundles,  some 
without,  a  few  in  carts,  but  most  on  foot;  here  and 
there  waggons  of  stores,  with  men  sitting  where- 
ever  there  was  room,  others  crammed  with  woun- 
ded soldiers.  Many  blocks  occurred  from  horses 
falling,  or  carts  breaking  down  and  filling  up  the 
road.  In  the  town  the  confusion  was  even  worse, 
for  all  the  houses  seemed  full  of  volunteers  and 


THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING  77 

militiamen,  wounded,  or  resting,  or  trying  to  find 
food,  and  the  streets  were  almost  choked  up. 
Some  officers  were  in  vain  trying  to  restore  order, 
but  the  task  seemed  a  hopeless  one.  One  or  two 
volunteer  regiments  which  had  arrived  from  the 
north  the  previous  night,  and  had  been  halted 
here  for  orders,  were  drawn  up  along  the  roadside 
steadily  enough,  and  some  of  the  retreating  regi- 
ments, including  ours,  may  have  preserved  the 
semblance  of  discipline,  but  for  the  most  part  the 
mass  pushing  to  the  rear  was  a  mere  mob.  The 
regulars,  or  what  remained  of  them,  were  now,  I 
believe,  all  in  the  rear,  to  hold  the  advancing 
enemy  in  check.  A  few  officers  among  such  a 
crowd  could  do  nothing.  To  add  to  the  confusion 
several  houses  were  being  emptied  of  the  wounded 
brought  here  the  night  before,  to  prevent  their 
falling  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy,  some  in  carts, 
some  being  carried  to  the  railway  by  men.  The 
groans  of  these  poor  fellows  as  they  were  jostled 
through  the  street  went  to  our  hearts,  selfish 
though  fatigue  and  suffering  had  made  us.  At 
last,  following  the  guidance  of  a  staff-officer  who 
was  standing  to  show  the  way,  we  turned  off  from 
the  main  London  road  and  took  that  towards 
Kingston.  Here  the  crush  was  less,  and  we  man- 
aged to  move  along  pretty  steadily.  The  air  had 
been  cooled  by  the  storm,  and  there  was  no  dust. 
We  passed  through  a  village  where  our  new  gen- 
eral had  seized  all  the  public-houses,  and  taken 
possession  of  the  liquor  ;   and  each  regiment  as  it 


78  THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING 

came  up  was  halted,  and  each  man  got  a  drink  of 
beer,    served   out  by  companies.     Whether  the 
owner  got  paid,  I  know  not,  but  it  was  Uke  nectar. 
It  must  have  been  about  one  o'clock  in  the  after- 
noon that  we  came  in  sight  of  Kingston.    We  had 
been  on  our  legs  sixteen  hours,  and  had  got  over 
about  twelve  miles  of  ground.     There  is  a  hill  a 
little  south  of  the  Surbiton  station,  covered  then 
mostly  with  villas,  but  open  at  the  western  ex- 
tremity, where  there  w^as  a  clump  of  trees  on  the 
summit.    We  had  diverged  from  the  road  towards 
this,  and  here  the  general  halted  us  and  disposed 
the  line  of  the  division  along  his  front,  facing  to 
the  south-west,  the  right  of  the  line  reaching  down 
to  the  water-works  on  the  Thames,  the  left  ex- 
tending along  the  southern  slope  of  the  hill,  in  the 
direction  of  the  Epsom  road  by  which  we  had 
come.  We  were  nearly  in  the  centre,  occupying  the 
knoll  just  in  front  of  the  general,  who  dismounted 
on  the  top  and  tied  his  horse  to  a  tree.    It  is  not 
much  of  a  hill,  but  commands  an  extensive  view 
over  the  flat  country  around  ;    and  as  we  lay 
wearily  on  the  ground  we  could  see  the  Thames 
glistening  like  a  silver  field  in  the  bright  sunshine, 
the   palace   at   Hampton   Court,    the   bridge   at 
Kingston,  and  the  old  church  tower  rising  above 
the  haze  of  the  town,  with  the  woods  of  Richmond 
Park  behind  it.    To  most  of  us  the  scene  could  not 
but  call  up  the  associations  of  happy  days  of 
peace — days    now    ended    and    peace    destroyed 
through  national  infatuation.     W^e  did  not  say 


THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING  79 

this  to  each  other,  but  a  deep  depression  had  come 
upon  us,  partly  due  to  weakness  and  fatigue,  no 
doubt,  but  we  saw  that  another  stand  was  going 
to  be  made,  and  we  had  no  longer  any  confidence 
in  ourselves.  If  we  could  not  hold  our  own  when 
stationary  in  line,  on  a  good  position,  but  had 
been  broken  up  into  a  rabble  at  the  first  shock, 
what  chance  had  we  now  of  manoeuvring  against  a 
victorious  enemy  in  this  open  ground  ?  A  feeling 
of  desperation  came  over  us,  a  determination  to 
struggle  on  against  hope  ;  but  anxiety  for  the 
future  of  the  country,  and  our  friends,  and  all 
dear  to  us,  filled  our  thoughts  now  that  we  had 
time  for  reflection.  We  had  had  no  news  of  any 
kind  since  Wood  joined  us  the  day  before — we 
knew  not  what  was  doing  in  London,  or  what  the 
Government  was  about,  or  anything  else  ;  and 
exhausted  though  we  were,  we  felt  an  intense 
craving  to  know  what  was  happening  in  other 
parts  of  the  country. 

Our  general  had  expected  to  find  a  supply  of 
food  and  ammunition  here,  but  nothing  turned  up. 
Most  of  us  had  hardly  a  cartridge  left,  so  he  ordered 
the  regiment  next  to  us,  which  came  from  the 
north  and  had  not  been  engaged,  to  give  us  enough 
to  make  up  twenty  rounds  a  man,  and  he  sent  off 
a  fatigue-party  to  Kingston  to  try  and  get  pro- 
visions, while  a  detachment  of  our  fellows  was 
allowed  to  go  foraging  among  the  villas  in  our 
rear ;  and  in  about  an  hour  they  brought  back 
some  bread  and  meat,  which  gave  us  a  slender 


80  THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING 

meal  all  round.  They  said  most  of  the  houses 
were  empty,  and  that  many  had  been  stripped  of 
all  eatables,  and  a  good  deal  damaged  already. 

It  must  have  been  between  three  and  four  o'clock 
when  the  sound  of  cannonading  began  to  be  heard 
in  the  front,  and  we  could  see  the  smoke  of  the 
guns  rising  above  the  woods  of  Esher  and  Clare- 
mont,  and  soon  afterwards  some  troops  emerged 
from  the  fields  below  us.  It  was  the  rear-guard  of 
regular  troops.  There  were  some  guns  also,  which 
were  driven  up  the  slope  and  took  up  their  position 
round  the  knoll.  There  were  three  batteries,  but 
they  only  counted  eight  guns  amongst  them. 
Behind  them  was  posted  the  line  ;  it  was  a  brigade 
apparently  of  four  regiments,  but  the  whole  did 
not  look  to  be  more  than  eight  or  nine  hundred  men. 
Our  regiment  and  another  had  been  moved  a  little 
to  the  rear  to  make  way  for  them,  and  presently 
we  were  ordered  down  to  occupy  the  railway 
station  on  our  right  rear.  My  leg  was  now  so  stiff 
I  could  no  longer  march  with  the  rest,  and  my  left 
arm  was  very  swollen  and  sore,  and  almost  useless  ; 
but  anything  seemed  better  than  being  left  behind, 
so  I  limped  after  the  battalion  as  best  I  could 
down  to  the  station.  There  was  a  goods  shed  a 
little  in  advance  of  it  down  the  line,  a  strong  brick 
building,  and  here  my  company  was  posted.  The 
rest  of  our  men  lined  the  wall  of  the  enclosure.  A 
staff- officer  came  with  us  to  arrange  the  distribu- 
tion ;  we  should  be  supported  by  line  troops,  he 
said  ;   and  in  a  few  minutes  a  train  full  of  them 


THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING  81 

came  slowly  up  from  Guildford  way.  It  was  the 
last ;  the  men  got  out,  the  train  passed  on,  and  a 
party  began  to  tear  up  the  rails,  while  the  rest  were 
distributed  among  the  houses  on  each  side.  A 
sergeant's  party  joined  us  in  our  shed,  and  an 
engineer  officer  with  sappers  came  to  knock  holes 
in  the  walls  for  us  to  fire  from  ;  but  there  were 
only  half-a-dozen  of  them,  so  progress  was  not 
rapid,  and  as  we  had  no  tools  we  could  not  help. 

It  was  while  we  were  watching  this  job  that  the 
adjutant,  who  was  as  active  as  ever,  looked  in,  and 
told  us  to  muster  in  the  yard.  The  fatigue-party 
had  come  back  from  Kingston,  and  a  small  baker's 
hand-cart  of  food  was  made  over  to  us  as  our  share. 
It  contained  loaves,  flour,  and  some  joints  of  meat. 
The  meat  and  the  flour  we  had  not  time  or  means 
to  cook.  The  loaves  we  devoured  ;  and  there  was 
a  tap  of  water  in  the  yard,  so  we  felt  refreshed 
by  the  meal.  I  should  have  liked  to  wash  my 
wounds,  which  were  becoming  very  offensive,  but 
I  dared  not  take  off  my  coat,  feeling  sure  I  should 
not  be  able  to  get  it  on  again.  It  was  while  we 
were  eating  our  bread  that  the  rumour  first 
reached  us  of  another  disaster,  even  greater  than 
that  we  had  witnessed  ourselves.  Whence  it  came 
I  know  not ;  but  a  whisper  went  down  the  ranks 
that  Woolwich  had  been  captured.  We  all  knew 
that  it  was  our  only  arsenal,  and  understood  the 
significance  of  the  blow.  No  hope,  if  this  were 
true,  of  saving  the  country.  Thinking  over  this, 
we  went  back  to  the  shed. 


82  THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING 

Although  this  was  only  our  second  day  of  war, 
I  think  we  were  already  old  soldiers  so  far  that  we 
had  come  to  be  careless  about  fire,  and  the  shot 
and  shell  that  now  began  to  open  on  us  made  no 
sensation.  We  felt,  indeed,  our  need  of  discipline, 
and  we  saw  plainly  enough  the  slender  chance  of 
success  coming  out  of  troops  so  imperfectly 
trained  as  we  were  ;  but  I  think  we  were  all  deter- 
mined to  fight  on  as  long  as  we  could.  Our 
gallant  adjutant  gave  his  spirit  to  everybody  ; 
and  the  staff-officer  commanding  was  a  very 
cheery  fellow,  and  went  about  as  if  we  were 
certain  of  victory.  Just  as  the  firing  began  he 
looked  in  to  say  that  we  were  as  safe  as  in  a  church, 
that  we  must  be  sure  and  pepper  the  enemy  well, 
and  that  more  cartridges  would  soon  arrive. 
There  were  some  steps  and  benches  in  the  shed, 
and  on  these  a  party  of  our  men  were  standing,  to 
fire  through  the  upper  loop-holes,  while  the  line 
soldiers  and  others  stood  on  the  ground,  guarding 
the  second  row.  I  sat  on  the  floor,  for  I  could 
not  now  use  my  rifle,  and  besides,  there 
were  more  men  than  loop-holes.  The  artillery 
fire  which  had  opened  now  on  our  position  was 
from  a  longish  range  ;  and  occupation  for  the 
riflemen  had  hardly  begun  when  there  was  a  crash 
in  the  shed,  and  I  was  knocked  down  by  a  blow  on 
the  head.  I  was  almost  stunned  for  a  time,  and 
could  not  make  out  at  first  what  had  happened. 
A  shot  or  shell  had  hit  the  shed  without  quite 
penetrating  the  wall,  but  the  blow  had  upset  the 


THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING  83 

steps  resting  against  it,  and  the  men  standing  on 
them,  bringing  down  a  cloud  of  plaster  and  brick- 
bats, one  of  which  had  struck  me.  I  felt  now  past 
being  of  use.  I  could  not  use  my  rifle,  and  could 
barely  stand  ;  and  after  a  time  I  thought  I  would 
make  for  my  own  house,  on  the  chance  of  finding 
some  one  still  there.  I  got  up  therefore,  and 
staggered  homewards.  Musketry  fire  had  now 
commenced,  and  our  side  were  blazing  away  from 
the  windows  of  the  houses,  and  from  behind  walls, 
and  from  the  shelter  of  some  trucks  still  standing 
in  the  station.  A  couple  of  field-pieces  in  the  yard 
were  firing,  and  in  the  open  space  in  rear  of  the 
station  a  reserve  was  drawn  up.  There,  too,  was 
the  staff-officer  on  horseback,  watching  the  fight 
through  his  field-glass.  I  remember  having  still 
enough  sense  to  feel  that  the  position  was  a  hope- 
less one.  That  straggling  line  of  houses  and 
gardens  would  surely  be  broken  through  at  some 
point,  and  then  the  line  must  give  way  like  a  rope 
of  sand.  It  was  about  a  mile  to  our  house,  and  I 
was  thinking  how  I  could  possibly  drag  myself  so 
far  when  I  suddenly  recollected  that  I  was  passing 
Travers's  house, — one  of  the  first  of  a  row  of  villas 
then  leading  from  the  Surbiton  station  to  Kings- 
ton. Had  he  been  brought  home,  I  wondered,  as  his 
faithful  old  servant  promised,  and  was  his  wife 
still  here  ?  I  remember  to  this  day  the  sensation 
of  shame  I  felt,  when  I  recollected  that  I  had  not 
once  given  him — my  greatest  friend — a  thought 
since  I  carried  him  off  the  field  the  day  before. 


84  THE  BATTLE  Of  DORKING 

But  war  and  suffering  make  men  selfish.  I  would 
go  in  now  at  any  rate  and  rest  awhile,  and  see  if 
I  could  be  of  use.  The  little  garden  before  the 
house  was  as  trim  as  ever — I  used  to  pass  it  every 
day  on  my  way  to  the  train,  and  knew  every  shrub 
in  it — ^and  ablaze  with  flowers,  but  the  hall-door 
stood  ajar.  I  stepped  in  and  saw  little  Arthur 
standing  in  the  hall.  He  had  been  dressed  as 
neatly  as  ever  that  day,  and  as  he  stood  there  in 
his  pretty  blue  frock  and  white  trousers  and  socks 
showing  his  chubby  little  legs,  with  his  golden 
locks,  fair  face,  and  large  dark  eyes,  the  picture  of 
childish  beauty,  in  the  quiet  hall,  just  as  it  used 
to  look — the  vases  of  flowers,  the  hat  and  coats 
hanging  up,  the  familiar  pictures  on  the  walls — 
this  vision  of  peace  in  the  midst  of  war  made  me 
wonder  for  a  moment,  faint  and  giddy  as  I  was, 
if  the  pandemonium  outside  had  any  real  exist- 
ence, and  was  not  merely  a  hideous  dream.  But 
the  roar  of  the  guns  making  the  house  shake,  and 
the  rushing  of  the  shot,  gave  a  ready  answer.  The 
little  fellow  appeared  almost  unconscious  of  the 
scene  around  him,  and  was  walking  up  the  stairs 
holding  by  the  railing,  one  step  at  a  time,  as  I  had 
seen  him  do  a  hundred  times  before,  but  turned 
round  as  I  came  in.  My  appearance  frightened 
him,  and  staggering  as  I  did  into  the  hall,  my  face 
and  clothes  covered  with  blood  and  dirt,  I  must 
have  looked  an  awful  object  to  the  child,  for  he 
gave  a  cry  and  turned  to  run  toward  the  basement 
stairs.    But  he  stopped  on  hearing  my  voice  calling 


THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING  85 

him  back  to  his  god-papa,  and  after  a  while  came 
timidly  up  to  me.  Papa  had  been  to  the  battle, 
he  said,  and  was  very  ill :  mamma  was  with  papa  : 
Wood  was  out :  Lucy  was  in  the  cellar,  and  had 
taken  him  there,  but  he  wanted  to  go  to  mamma. 
Telling  him  to  stay  in  the  hall  for  a  minute  till  I 
called  him,  I  climbed  upstairs  and  opened  the 
bedroom  door.  My  poor  friend  lay  there,  his  body 
resting  on  the  bed,  his  head  supported  on  his  wife's 
shoulder  as  she  sat  by  the  bedside.  He  breathed 
heavily,  but  the  pallor  of  his  face,  the  closed  eyes, 
the  prostrate  arms,  the  clammy  foam  she  was 
wiping  from  his  mouth,  all  spoke  of  approaching 
death.  The  good  old  servant  had  done  his  duty, 
at  least, — he  had  brought  his  master  home  to  die 
in  his  wife's  arms.  The  poor  woman  was  too  in- 
tent on  her  charge  to  notice  the  opening  of  the  door 
and  as  the  child  would  be  better  away,  I  closed  it 
gently  and  went  down  to  the  hall  to  take  little 
Arthur  to  the  shelter  below,  where  the  maid  was 
hiding.  Too  late !  He  lay  at  the  foot  of  the  stairs 
on  his  face,  his  little  arms  stretched  out,  his  hair 
dabbled  in  blood.  I  had  not  noticed  the  crash 
among  the  other  noises,  but  a  splinter  of  a  shell 
must  have  come  through  the  open  doorway ;  it 
had  carried  away  the  back  of  his  head.  The  poor 
child's  death  must  have  been  instantaneous.  I 
tried  to  lift  up  the  little  corpse  with  my  one  arm, 
but  even  this  load  was  too  much  for  me,  and  while 
stooping  down  I  fainted  away. 

When  I  came  to  my  senses  again  it  was  quite 


86  THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING 

dark,  and  for  some  time  I  could  not  make  out  where 
I  was  ;  I  lay  indeed  for  some  time  like  one  half 
asleep,  feeling  no  inclination  to  move.  By  de- 
grees I  became  aware  that  I  was  on  the  carpeted 
floor  of  a  room.  All  noise  of  battle  had  ceased, 
but  there  was  a  sound  as  of  many  people  close  by. 
At  last  I  sat  up  and  gradually  got  to  my  feet.  The 
movement  gave  me  intense  pain,  for  my  wounds 
were  now  highly  inflamed,  and  my  clothes  sticking 
to  them  made  them  dreadfully  sore.  At  last  I  got 
up  and  groped  my  way  to  the  door,  and  opening 
it  at  once  saw  where  I  was,  for  the  pain  had 
brought  back  my  senses.  I  had  been  lying  in 
Travers's  little  writing-room  at  the  end  of  the 
passage,  into  which  I  made  my  way.  There  was 
no  gas,  and  the  drawing-room  door  was  closed ; 
but  from  the  open  dining-room  the  glimmer  of  a 
candle  feebly  lighted  up  the  hall,  in  which  half-a- 
dozen  sleeping  figures  could  be  discerned,  while 
the  room  itself  was  crowded  with  men.  The  table 
was  covered  with  plates,  glasses,  and  bottles  ; 
but  most  of  the  men  were  asleep  in  the  chairs  or 
on  the  floor,  a  few  were  smoking  cigars,  and  one 
or  two  with  their  helmets  on  were  still  engaged  at 
supper,  occasionally  grunting  out  an  observation 
between  the  mouthfuls. 

"  Sind  wackere  Soldaten,  diese  Englischen 
Freiwilligen,"  said  a  broad-shouldered  brute, 
stuffing  a  great  hunch  of  beef  into  his  mouth  with 
a  silver  fork,  an  implement  I  should  think  he  must 
have  been  using  for  the  first  time  in  his  life. 


THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING  87 

"  Ja,  ja,"  replied  a  comrade,  who  was  lolling 
back  in  his  chair  with  a  pair  of  very  dirty  legs  on 
the  table,  and  one  of  poor  Travers's  best  cigars  in 
his  mouth  ;    "  Sie  so  gut  laufen  konnen." 

"  Ja  wohl,"  responded  the  first  speaker  ;  "  aber 
sind  nicht  eben  so  schnell  wie  die  Franzdsischen 
Mobloten." 

^  "  Gewiss,"  grunted  a  hulking  lout  from  the 
floor,  leaning  on  his  elbow,  and  sending  out  a  cloud 
of  smoke  from  his  ugly  jaws  ;  "  und  da  sind  hier 
etwa  gute  Schiitzen." 

"  Hast  recht,  lange  Peter,"  answered  number 
one ;  "  wenn  die  Schurken  so  gut  exerciren  wie 
schiitzen  konnten,  so  waren  wir  heute  nicht  hier !  " 

"Recht!  recht!"  said  the  second;  "das 
exerciren  macht  den  guten  Soldaten." 

What  more  criticisms  on  the  shortcomings  of 
our  unfortunate  volunteers  might  have  passed  I 
did  not  stop  to  hear,  being  interrupted  by  a  sound 
on  the  stairs.  Mrs.  Travers  was  standing  on  the 
landing-place  ;  I  limped  up  the  stairs  to  meet  her. 
Among  the  many  pictures  of  those  fatal  days 
engraven  on  my  memory,  I  remember  none  more 
clearly  than  the  mournful  aspect  of  my  poor 
friend,  widowed  and  childless  within  a  few 
moments,  as  she  stood  there  in  her  white  dress, 
coming  forth  like  a  ghost  from  the  chamber  of  the 
dead,  the  candle  she  held  lighting  up  her  face,  and 
contrasting  its  pallor  with  the  dark  hair  that  fell 
disordered  round  it,  its  beauty  radiant  even 
through  features  worn  with  fatigue  and  sorrow. 


88  THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING 

She  was  calm  and  even  tearless,  though  the 
trembling  lip  told  of  the  effort  to  restrain  the 
emotion  she  felt.  "  Dear  friend,"  she  said,  taking 
my  hand,  "  I  was  coming  to  seek  you  ;  forgive  my 
selfishness  in  neglecting  you  so  long  ;  but  you  will 
understand  " — glancing  at  the  door  above — "  how 
occupied  I  have  been."    "  Where,"  I  began,  "  is  " 

"  my  boy  ?  "  she  answered,  anticipating  my 

question.  "  I  have  laid  him  by  his  father.  But 
now  your  wounds  must  be  cared  for  ;  how  pale 
and  faint  you  look! — rest  here  a  moment," — and, 
descending  to  the  dining-room,  she  returned  with 
some  wine,  which  I  gratefully  drank,  and  then, 
making  me  sit  down  on  the  top  step  of  the  stairs, 
she  brought  water  and  linen,  and,  cutting  off  the 
sleeve  of  my  coat,  bathed  and  bandaged  my 
wounds.  'Twas  I  who  felt  selfish  for  thus  adding 
to  her  troubles ;  but  in  truth  I  was  too  weak  to 
have  much  will  left,  and  stood  in  need  of  the  help 
which  she  forced  me  to  accept ;  and  the  dressing 
of  my  wounds  afforded  indescribable  relief.  While 
thus  tending  me,  she  explained  in  broken  sentences 
how  matters  stood.  Every  room  but  her  own,  and 
the  little  parlour  into  which  with  Wood's  help  she 
had  carried  me,  was  full  of  soldiers.  Wood  had 
been  taken  away  to  work  at  repairing  the  railroad 
and  Lucy  had  run  off  from  fright ;  but  the  cook 
had  stopped  at  her  post,  and  had  served  up  supper 
and  opened  the  cellar  for  the  soldiers'  use  :  she 
herself  did  not  understand  what  they  said,  and 
they  were  rough  and  boorish,  but  not  uncivil.    I 


THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING  89 

should  now  go,  she  said,  when  my  wounds  were 
dressed,  to  look  after  my  own  home,  where  I  might 
be  wanted  ;  for  herself,  she  wished  only  to  be 
allowed  to  remain  watching  there — glancing  at 
the  room  where  lay  the  bodies  of  her  husband  and 
child — where  she  would  not  be  molested.  I  felt 
that  her  advice  was  good.  I  could  be  of  no  use  as 
protection,  and  I  had  an  anxious  longing  to  know 
what  had  become  of  my  sick  mother  and  sister  ; 
besides,  some  arrangement  must  be  made  for  the 
burial.  I  therefore  limped  away.  There  was  no 
need  to  express  thanks  on  either  side,  and  the 
grief  was  too  deep  to  be  reached  by  any  outward 
show  of  sympathy. 

Outside  the  house  there  was  a  good  deal  of 
movement  and  bustle  ;  many  carts  going  along, 
the  waggoners,  from  Sussex  and  Surrey,  evidently 
impressed  and  guarded  by  soldiers  ;  and  although 
no  gas  was  burning,  the  road  towards  Kingston 
was  well  lighted  by  torches  held  by  persons 
standing  at  short  intervals  in  line,  who  had  been 
seized  for  the  duty,  some  of  them  the  tenants  of 
neighbouring  villas.  Almost  the  first  of  these 
torch-bearers  I  came  to  was  an  old  gentleman 
whose  face  I  was  well  acquainted  with,  from  hav- 
ing frequently  travelled  up  and  down  in  the  same 
train  with  hin.  He  was  a  senior  clerk  in  a  Govern- 
ment office,  I  believe,  and  was  a  mild-looking  old 
man  with  a  prim  face  and  a  long  neck,  which  he 
used  to  wrap  in  a  white  double  neckcloth,  a  thing 
even  in  those  days  seldom  seen.     Even  in  that 


90  THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING 

moment  of  bitterness  I  could  not  help  being 
amused  by  the  absurd  figure  this  poor  old  fellow 
presented,  with  his  solemn  face  and  long  cravat 
doing  penance  with  a  torch  in  front  of  his  own 
gate,  to  light  up  the  path  of  our  conquerors.  But 
a  more  serious  object  now  presented  itself,  a 
corporal's  guard  passing  by,  with  two  English 
volunteers  in  charge,  their  hands  tied  behind  their 
backs.  They  cast  an  imploring  glance  at  me,  and 
I  stepped  into  the  road  to  ask  the  corporal  what 
was  the  matter,  and  even  ventured,  as  he  was 
passing  on,  to  lay  my  hand  on  his  sleeve.  "  Auf 
dem  Wege,  Spitzbube!  "  cried  the  brute,  lifting 
his  rifle  as  if  to  knock  me  down.  "  Must  one 
prisoners  who  fire  at  us  let  shoot,"  he  went  on  to 
add  ;  and  shot  the  poor  fellows  would  have  been, 
I  suppose,  if  I  had  not  interceded  with  an  officer, 
who  happened  to  be  riding  by.  "  Herr  Haupt- 
mann,"  I  cried,  as  loud  as  I  could,  "  is  this  your 
discipline,  to  let  unarmed  prisoners  be  shot  with- 
out orders  ?  "  The  officer,  thus  appealed  to, 
reined  in  his  horse,  and  halted  the  guard  till  he 
heard  what  I  had  to  say.  My  knowledge  of  other 
languages  here  stood  me  in  good^  stead,  for  the 
prisoners,  north-country  factory  hands  apparently, 
were  of  course  utterly  unable  to  make  themselves 
understood,  and  did  not  even  know  in  what  they 
had  offended.  I  therefore  interpreted  their  ex- 
planation :  they  had  been  left  behind  while  skir- 
mishing near  Ditton,  in  a  barn,  and  coming  out  of 
their  hiding-place  in  the  midst  of  a  party  of  the 


THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING  91 

enemy,  with  their  rifles  in  their  hands,  the  latter 
thought  they  were  going  to  fire  at  them  from 
behind.  It  was  a  wonder  they  were  not  shot  down 
on  the  spot.  The  captain  heard  the  tale,  and  then 
told  the  guard  to  let  them  go,  and  they  slunk  off 
at  once  into  a  by-road.  He  was  a  fine  soldier-like 
man,  but  nothing  could  exceed  the  insolence  of  his 
manner,  which  was  perhaps  all  the  greater  because 
it  seemed  not  intentional,  but  to  arise  from  a  sense 
of  immeasurable  superiority.  Between  the  lame 
freiwilliger  pleading  for  his  comrades,  and  the 
captain  of  the  conquering  army,  there  was,  in  his 
view,  an  infinite  gulf.  Had  the  two  men  been 
dogs,  their  fate  could  not  have  been  decided  more 
contemptuously.  They  were  let  go  simply  because 
they  were  not  worth  keeping  as  prisoners,  and 
perhaps  to  kill  any  living  thing  without  cause 
went  against  the  hauptmann's  sense  of  justice. 
But  why  speak  of  this  insult  in  particular  ?  Had 
not  every  man  who  lived  then  his  tale  to  tell  of 
humiliation  and  degradation  ?  For  it  was  the 
same  story  everywhere.  After  the  first  stand  in 
line,  and  when  once  they  had  got  us  on  the  march, 
the  enemy  laughed  at  us.  Our  handful  of  regular 
troops  was  sacrificed  almost  to  a  man  in  a  vain 
conflict  with  numbers;  our  volunteers  and 
militia,  with  officers  who  did  not  know  their  work, 
without  ammunition  or  equipment,  or  staff  to 
superintend,  starving  in  the  midst  of  plenty,  we 
had  soon  become  a  helpless  mob,  fighting  desper- 
ately here  and  there,  but  with  whom,  as  a  man- 


92  THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING 

oeuvring  army,  the  disciplined  invaders  did  just 
what  they  pleased.  Happy  those  whose  bones 
whitened  the  fields  of  Surrey  ;  they  at  least  were 
spared  the  disgrace  we  lived  to  endure.  Even  you, 
who  have  never  known  what  it  is  to  live  otherwise 
than  on  sufferance,  even  your  cheeks  burn  when 
we  talk  of  these  days  ;  think,  then,  what  those 
endured  who,  like  your  grandfather,  had  been 
citizens  of  the  proudest  nation  on  earth,  which  had 
never  known  disgrace  or  defeat,  and  whose  boast 
it  used  to  be  that  they  bore  a  flag  on  which  the  sun 
never  set!  We  had  heard  of  generosity  in  war;  we 
found  none  :  the  war  was  made  by  us,  it  was  said, 
and  we  must  take  the  consequences.  London  and 
our  only  arsenal  captured,  we  were  at  the  mercy 
of  our  captors,  and  right  heavily  did  they  tread 
on  our  necks.  Need  I  tell  you  the  rest  ? — of  the 
ransom  we  had  to  pay,  and  the  taxes  raised  to 
cover  it,  which  keep  us  paupers  to  this  day  ? — ^the 
brutal  frankness  that  announced  we  must  give 
place  to  a  new  naval  Power,  and  be  made  harmless 
for  revenge  ? — the  victorious  troops  living  at  free 
quarters,  the  yoke  they  put  on  us  made  the  more 
galling  that  their  requisitions  had  a  semblance  of 
method  and  legality  ?  Better  have  been  robbed  at 
first  hand  by  the  soldiery  themselves,  than  through 
our  own  magistrates  made  the  instruments  for 
extortion.  How  we  lived  through  the  degradation 
we  daily  and  hourly  underwent,  I  hardly  even  now 
understand.  And  what  was  there  left  to  us  to  live 
for  ?    Stripped  of  our  colonies  ;    Canada  and  the 


THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING  93 

West  Indies  gone  to  America  ;  Australia  forced  to 
separate  ;  India  lost  for  ever,  after  the  English 
there  had  all  been  destroyed,  vainly  trying  to  hold 
the  country  when  cut  off  from  aid  by  their  country- 
men ;  Gibraltar  and  Malta  ceded  to  the  new  naval 
Power ;  Ireland  independent  and  in  perpetual 
anarchy  and  revolution.  When  I  look  at  my 
country  as  it  is  now — its  trade  gone,  its  factories 
silent,  its  harbours  empty,  a  prey  to  pauperism 
and  decay — when  I  see  all  this,  and  think  what 
Great  Britain  was  in  my  youth,  I  ask  myself 
whether  I  have  really  a  heart  or  any  sense  of 
patriotism  that  I  should  have  witnessed  such 
degradation  and  still  care  to  live  !  France  was 
different.  There,  too,  they  had  to  eat  the  bread 
of  tribulation  under  the  yoke  of  the  conqueror  ! 
their  fall  was  hardly  more  sudden  or  violent  than 
ours  ;  but  war  could  not  take  away  their  rich  soil ; 
they  had  no  colonies  to  lose ;  their  broad  lands, 
which  made  their  wealth,  remained  to  them  ;  and 
they  rose  again  from  the  blow.  But  our  people 
could  not  be  got  to  see  how  artificial  our  prosperity 
was — that  it  all  rested  on  foreign  trade  and 
financial  credit ;  that  the  course  of  trade  once 
turned  away  from  us,  even  for  a  time,  it  might 
never  return  ;  and  that  our  credit  once  shaken 
might  never  be  restored.  To  hear  men  talk  in 
those  days,  you  would  have  thought  that  Provi- 
dence had  ordained  that  our  Government  should 
always  borrow  at  3  per  cent.,  and  that  trade 
came  to  us  because  we  lived  in  a  foggy  little  island 


94  THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING 

set  in  a  boisterous  sea.  They  could  not  be  got  to 
see  that  the  wealth  heaped  up  on  every  side  was 
not  created  in  the  country,  but  in  India  and  China, 
and  other  parts  of  the  world  ;  and  that  it  would 
be  quite  possible  for  the  people  who  made  money 
by  buying  and  selling  the  natural  treasures  of  the 
earth,  to  go  and  live  in  other  places,  and  take 
their  profits  with  them.  Nor  would  men  believe 
that  there  could  ever  be  an  end  to  our  coal  and 
iron,  or  that  they  would  get  to  be  so  much  dearer 
than  the  coal  and  iron  of  America  that  it  would  no 
longer  be  worth  while  to  work  them,  and  that 
therefore  we  ought  to  insure  against  the  loss  of  our 
artificial  position  as  the  great  centre  of  trade,  by 
making  ourselves  secure  and  strong  and  respected. 
We  thought  we  were  living  in  a  commercial 
millennium,  which  must  last  tor  a  thousand  years 
at  least.  After  all,  the  bitterest  part  of  our  reflec- 
tion is,  that  all  this  misery  and  decay  might  have 
been  so  easily  prevented,  and  that  we  brought  it 
about  ourselves  by  our  own  shortsighted  reckless- 
ness. There,  across  the  narrow  Straits,  was  the 
writing  on  the  wall,  but  we  would  not  choose  to 
read  it.  The  warnings  of  the  few  were  drowned  in 
the  voice  of  the  multitude.  Power  was  then 
passing  away  from  the  class  which  had  been  used 
to  rule,  and  to  face  political  dangers,  and  which 
had  brought  the  nation  with  honour  unsullied 
through  former  struggles,  into  the  hands  of  the 
lower  classes,  uneducated,  untrained  to  the  use  of 
political  rights,  and  swayed  by  demagogues  ;  and 


THE  BATTLE  OF  DORKING  95 

the  few  who  were  wise  in  their  generation  were 
denounced  as  alarmists,  or  as  aristocrats  who 
sought  their  own  aggrandisement  by  wasting 
pubhc  money  on  bloated  armaments.  The  rich 
were  idle  and  luxurious  ;  the  poor  grudged  the 
cost  of  defence.  Politics  had  become  a  mere 
bidding  for  Radical  votes,  and  those  who  should 
have  led  the  nation  stooped  rather  to  pander  to 
the  selfishness  of  the  day,  and  humoured  the 
popular  cry  which  denounced  those  who  would 
secure  the  defence  of  the  nation  by  enforced 
arming  of  its  manhood,  as  interfering  with  the 
liberties  of  the  people.  Truly  the  nation  was  ripe 
for  a  fall ;  but  when  I  reflect  how  a  little  firmness 
and  self-denial,  or  political  courage  and  foresight, 
might  have  averted  the  disaster,  I  feel  that  the 
judgment  must  have  really  been  deserved.  A 
nation  too  selfish  to  defend  its  liberty,  could  not 
have  been  fit  to  retain  it.  To  you,  my  grand- 
children, who  are  now  going  to  seek  a  new  home 
in  a  more  prosperous  land,  let  not  this  bitter 
lesson  be  lost  upon  you  in  the  country  of  your 
adoption.  For  me,  I  am  too  old  to  begin  life  again 
in  a  strange  country  ;  and  hard  and  evil  as  have 
been  my  days,  it  is  not  much  to  await  in  solitude 
the  time  which  cannot  now  be  far  off,  when  my  old 
bones  will  be  laid  to  rest  in  the  soil  I  have  loved  so 
well,  and  whose  happiness  and  honour  I  have  so 
long  survived. 


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