The Guides have been, from a soldier's point of view, somewhat
fortunate in seeing much service during the past sixty years; and thus
their history lends itself readily to a narrative which is full of
adventure and stirring deeds. The story of those deeds may, perchance,
be found of interest to those at home, who like to read the gallant
record of the men who fight their battles in remote and unfamiliar
corners of the Empire across the seas.
To Sir Henry Lawrence, the _preux chevalier_, who died a soldier's death
in the hallowed precincts of Lucknow, the Guides owe their name and
origin. At a time when soldiers fought, and marched, and lived in tight
scarlet tunics, high stocks, trousers tightly strapped over Wellington
boots, and shakos which would now be looked on as certain death, Sir
Henry evolved the startling heresy that to get the best work out of
troops, and to enable them to undertake great exertions, it was
necessary that the soldier should be loosely, comfortably, and suitably
clad, that something more substantial than a pill-box with a
pocket-handkerchief wrapped round it was required as a protection from a
tropical sun, and that footgear must be made for marching, and not for
parading round a band-stand.
Martinets of the old school gravely shook their heads, and trembled for
the discipline of men without stocks and overalls. Men of the Irregular
Cavalry, almost as much trussed and padded as their Regular comrades
(who were often so tightly clad as to be unable to mount without
assistance), looked with good-natured tolerance on a foredoomed failure.
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