Royal Scots Greys

“ The 1st Cavalry Brigade having been broken up, General Gordon hopes that the O.C. Royal Scots Greys will be good enough to permit him to express through Regimental Orders to all ranks of the regiment his very sincere thanks for their gallantry and devotion during the six months the Brigadier has had the honour to command the Brigade. No leader could possibly have been better served, and the Brigadier will always think of the Scots Greys and other units of the 1st Cavalry Brigade with the sincerest feelings of admiration and true affection. ”

“ A tremendous cannonade was followed by volleys of musketry and charges of cavalry. The Greys supported the infantry for some time; but at length they were led forward by their Colonel, the chivalrous and daring Lieutenant-General James Campbell, against a line of French Cuirassiers. Their grey horses and grenadier caps rendered them conspicuous—their noble bearing excited admiration. Before them appeared the enemy's squadrons, formidable in numbers, and bright in polished armour ”

“ On the other hand, the Elector of Bavaria, as descendant of Ferdinand the First, claimed these countries, and was supported by the French King, Louis the Fourteenth.
On June 19th, 1742, the Greys were reviewed by King George the Second on Kew Green, and three days later marched for Dover. A publication called "The Champion" records:—
"On Tuesday, General Campbell's fine regiment of Scots Greys arrived in the Borough of Southwark on their march to Dover, where they are to embark for Flanders. ”

“ Composition of the Greys at their first recorded muster in 1683, from the original Roll in Edinburgh—pay of the regiment—account of money paid by the Greys' Quartermaster in 1688, from an original document of the Greys—List of Officers, past and present. ”

“ In 1743 the war of the Austrian Succession once more stirred up the wrathful passions of man, and plunged the European continent into all the horrors of war. The combatants were much the same as on previous occasions—France and Bavaria pitted against Austria and Britain. The Scots Greys, the Third or Scots Foot Guards, (first battalion,) the First or Royal Scots, (first battalion,) the Twenty-first or Royal North British Fusiliers, the Twenty-fifth or King’s Own Borderers, and the Forty-second or Royal Highlanders, formed the Scottish regiments embraced in the British army. ”

“ If you are a Scottish boy or girl, you will be certain to maintain that the Scots Greys are the finest cavalrymen in the world. Your English friends may not, perhaps, agree with you; but even though they may prefer the 9th Lancers or some other English regiment, they will be quite willing to give very high praise indeed to the Scots Greys. They have a glorious record, and every one remembers how famously they bore themselves at the Battle of Waterloo, where they charged down upon the French with the Gordons clinging to their stirrup-leathers, horsemen and footmen shouting, "Scotland for ever!" ”

“ The Frasers of Oliver Castle have given me two hundred men; and the brave Sir Alexander Scrymgeour, whom I met in West Lothian, has not only brought fifty stout Scots to my command, but, as hereditary standard-bearer of the kingdom, has come himself to carry the royal banner of Scotland to glory or oblivion."
"To glory!" cried Murray, waving his sword; "O! not while a Scot survives, shall that blood-red lion** again lick the dust!" ”

“ THE visit of George the Fourth to the Scottish metropolis may well be considered a remarkable event in our national annals. Certain it is, that no other event of a domestic nature could have occurred more honourable to the people of Scotland, or more gratifying to their feelings.- Edinburgh is regarded by the Scots with pride, and a veneration almost religious, of which strangers to their character can have no adequate conception. ”

“ George and St. Edward, defend us!" exclaimed I, after a moment's pause; "and that this invasion of the Scots should happen when the king and so many of his nobles are beyond the seas, might provoke every English saint in the calendar. But let us hope for the best, seeing that the Lords Neville and Percy are at home in command of the Northern counties; and fame belies them if they are not the men to give the Scots a warm reception." ”

“ Lady—the servant of a Scottish baron is he who regards not his own life, or that of any other, save his master. And, for the death of the woman, I had tried the potion on her sooner, had not Master George been her taster. Her death—would it not be the happiest news that Scotland ever heard? Is she not of the bloody Guisian stock, whose sword was so often red with the blood of God's saints? Is she not the daughter of the wretched tyrant James, whom Heaven cast down from his kingdom, and his pride, even as the king of Babylon was smitten? ”

“ In the best Scottish houses, even the king’s palaces, the windows are not glazed throughout, but the upper part only, the lower have two wooden shuts or folds to open at pleasure and admit the fresh air. The Scots cannot endure to hear their country or countrymen spoken against. They have neither good bread, cheese, or drink. They cannot make them, nor will they learn. ”

“ Two men above all others and everything else are responsible for the romantic fame which the bleak and largely barren Land of Scots enjoys the English-speaking world over. If Robert Burns and Walter Scott had never told the tales and sung the songs of their native land, no endless streams of pilgrims would pour to its shrines and its history and traditions would be vastly second in interest to those of England and Wales. But the Wizard of the North touched Scotia's rough hills with the rosy hues of his romance. He threw the glamour of his story around its crumbling ruins. ”

“ The history of the Scottish Reformation is an entirely different one. Instead of being originated and fostered by State authority, it was a fierce and obstinate battle with such authority. Scotland was then under one of its disastrous regencies, that of Mary of Guise, the widow of King James V., acting for her infant daughter Mary, known afterwards in history as the beautiful and unfortunate Queen of Scots. ”

“ Reaching what are now the soldiers’ barracks, we see a little room in which Mary Queen of Scots gave birth to James the Sixth of Scotland and First of England, in whom the two thrones of the island were united. It seems a rough room for a queen to live in.
The ascent of High Street is much like climbing a staircase, resting on landings at the second, third, or fourth floor. When, however, one reaches the top and scans the glorious panorama, he feels like asking, especially, as he sees that the highest and oldest building is Queen Margaret’s Chapel,—a house of worship,—“Does God live here?” ”

“ Attracted also by the high pay, the hardy men of the glens enlisted by thousands in the British army.
It was the wise and far-seeing statesman Pitt, who, acting upon the suggestion of Forbes of Culloden, saw that all that the unemployed Highlanders needed were new outlets to their energies. For over two-centuries the United Kingdom had no more loyal soldiers than the Scots, whose valor in every land has been tried and on a hundred fields190 of glory proved. ”

“ That a young Scotsman, reacting from the vast emotional assault of the late ferocious war, should have withdrawn himself into an ivory tower in Glasgow town, and there sat himself down in heroic calm to wrestle with the vexatious and no doubt intrinsically insoluble problems of being and becoming—this was surely nothing to cause, whispers among connoisseurs of philosophical passion, for that grim, persistent, cold-blooded concern with the fundamental mysteries of the world has been the habit of the Scots ever since they emerged from massacre and blue paint. ”

“ George, still looking upon his map. "That is the place where Mary, Queen of Scots, was born. Waldron, would you like to go there?"
"Why, no," said Waldron, doubtfully, "not much. I don't care much about that."
"It is a famous old ruin," said Mr. George.
"But I don't care much about the old ruins," said Waldron. "If the lords and noblemen are as rich as people say they are, I should think they would mend them up."
"And here, off in the western part of Scotland," continued Mr. George, "are a great many mountains. Would you like to go and see the mountains?" ”

“ The clan of Graeme, always numerous and powerful upon the border, were of Scottish origin, and deduce the descent of their chieftain, Graeme of Netherby, from John with the bright sword, a son of Malice Graeme, Earl of Menteith, who flourished in the fourteenth century. Latterly, they became Englishmen, as the phrase went, and settled upon the Debateable Land, whence they were transported to Ireland, by James VI., with the exception of a very few respectable families ”

“ In December 1559 Grey was constituted governor of Berwick, warden of the middle marches towards Scotland, and warden of Tynedale and Ryddesdale. He went down to the border with two thousand men nominally to reinforce the Berwick garrison, but at first with large latitude of action. He was soon made general of the English army sent 'in aid of the Scots against the French, who had made an invasion there with great forces.' On 28 March 1560 Grey, with Lord Scrope, Sir Henry Percy, and others, crossed the Tweed with six thousand foot and two thousand horse. ”

“ Yet the foundation of Scotland’s prosperity was laid by John Knox and his successors. Hamerton,239 who wrote that charming book, “A Painter’s Camp in the Highlands,” said in one of his works that, in proportion to their small numbers, the Scots are the most distinguished little people since the days of the ancient Athenians, and the most educated of the modern races. “All the industrial arts are at home in Glasgow, all the fine arts in Edinburgh, and as for literature it is everywhere.” ”

“ I have heard it in their deep whispers, and seen it in their dark and angry glances, when Lindesay or Montrose, Gray, Ruthven, Grahame or Maxwell, Wood of Largo, Falconer, or Barton—any who are the king's known friends—are mentioned."
"And what matters it to us if all these high-born brawlers cut each other's throats? The peers of Scotland are her curse, and in all ages have been her betrayers, and will be so until the detested brood are rooted out. A few names less on the peerage roll will better enable the grain to ripen in harvest, and the people to live in peace. ”

“ The Scottish philosophy of realism and common sense dominated largely our infant colleges. It swayed the thinking and shaped the conduct of our public men in bar and pulpit. It was translated into action by the leaders of the Revolution.
So long as the Scots were able to hold their own against the tyrannical Stuart kings of England, and even while they were pouring by the tens of thousands into Ulster, making a new272 nation in northern Ireland,—the old land of the Scots,—there were but few emigrants, from Scotland direct, to the Atlantic Coast colonies. ”

“ Since that time the tartan plaids have come into fashion on an international scale. These are no longer thought of as a thing purely Scottish, yet the credit of such a notable contribution to the taste, the fashion, and the joy of the whole world belongs to Scotland. It is one of the many gifts which this land and people have made to the race at large. In the Empire’s struggle for life in 1914–16, among the first, most valorous, most numerous, and most efficient, were the Scots. Even for a “service” uniform, the modified Highland dress holds handsomely its own. ”

“ The dream of him who loved Scotland best would lie not so much in the direction of antiquarian revival, as in the hope that his country might be pointed out as one that in spite of rocks, and rigor, and poverty, could yet teach the world by precept and example, could lead the van and point the moral, where greater nations and fairer states had failed. Those who believe the Scots to be so eminently vain a race, will say that already we are in our opinion the tenth legion of civilization. ”

“ Leaping and running are favourite pastimes in Fife, as in every Scottish county, and none could run better than the light, boyish figure that held aloft [143] the colours of the Royal Welsh, and pressed forward before all the others. He was the first who gained the redoubt, and, planting the butt-end of the colours in the centre of the parapet, he stood for a moment clutching it in his arms, breathless and silent, as if surprised at his own audacity. There were hundreds of hearts beating high with admiration as they saw the slim figure of the Scottish youth on the summit of the parapet. ”

“ There would neither be wanting Scottish parasites to beg the lands of the foundation, nor an army from England to burn and harry the Halidome. The men of Scotland were once Scotsmen, firm and united in the love of their country, and throwing every other consideration aside when the frontier was menaced—now they are—what shall I call them—the one part French, the other part English, considering their dear native country merely as a prize-fighting stage, upon which foreigners are welcome to decide their quarrels.”
“Benedictine!” replied the Abbot, “they are indeed slippery and evil times.” ”

“ Grey and I are prisoners in the inn. Send Edward on to London instantly with Croft. If necessary, use force to keep the King, and then mark well the Dukes. I may not write more; time is precious. I trust in your discretion.
"Rivers."
"It will go ill with the Earl when Richard sees these words," thought De Lacy, as he mounted and returned to the road, where Dauvrey was patiently standing guard over the other prisoner.
"Come, Giles," he said, "secure his bridle rein. We will drop him at the next guard post, and in the morning he can return and bury the squire." ”