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his officers dressed in the Highland garb, with broad sword, pistols and dirk."* Recruiting parties were sent to the Highlands, and, on the 28th of May following, when reviewed by General Armiger in Galway, the regiment was complete to the then establishment,† and all, except two, born north of the Tay.

* Dublin Newsman.

† At this time, the words of " the Garb of Old Gaul" were composed. Major Reid set them to music of his own composition, which has ever since been the regimental march. Peace and country quarters affording leisure to the officers, several of whom indulged their taste for poetry and music. Major Reid was one of the most accomplished fiute-players of the age. He died in 1806, a general in the army, and colonel of the 88th or Connaught Rangers. He left the sum of L. 52,000 to the University of Edinburgh, assigning the interest to his only daughter, who has no family, during her life. Then, as the will expressed it," being the last of an ancient family in the county of Perth," he bequeathed, after the death of his daughter, the sum of L.52,000, in the 3 per cents. to the Principal and Professors of the College of Edinburgh, where he was educated, and passed the happiest years of his life, to be under their sole charge and management, on condition of their establishing a Professorship of Music in the College, with a salary of not less than L.500 per annum, and of holding an annual concert in the hall of the Professor of Music, on the anniversary of his birth-day, the 13th of January; the performance to commence with several pieces of his own composition, for the purpose of showing the style of music in his early years, and towards the middle of the last century. Among the first of these pieces is the Garb of Old Gaul. He also directs that a portrait of himself shall be hung up in the hall, one painted in 1745, when he was a Lieutenant in Lord Loudon's Highlanders, one in the uniform of a general officer, and a third as Colonel of the Connaught Rangers. The song of the "Garb of Old Gaul" was originally composed in Gaelic, by a soldier of the regiment, whose name I have not been able to ascertain, and afterwards translated by one or more of the officers of the regiment. The names of three are mentioned, but I know not on what grounds; I am, therefore, unwilling to mention one in preference to another. Mr Maclagan, the chaplain, who was himself a poet, composed words of his own in the Gaelic language to the same music, as also to the quick march music of the " Highland Laddie." An intelligent officer, who, nearly sixty years ago, commenced a service of thirty years in the 42d regiment, states, "I cannot at this distance of time recollect the name of the man who composed the " Garb of Old Gaul;" but he was from Perthshire, as also John Du Cameron, who was drum

At this period, the uniform of the corps had a very dark and sombre appearance. The jackets were of a dull rusty coloured red, and no part of the accoutrements was of a light colour. Economy was strictly observed in the article of clothing. The old jacket, after being worn a year, was converted into a waistcoat, and the plaid, at the end of two years, was reduced to the philibeg. The hose supplied were of so bad a quality, that the men advanced an additional sum to the Government price, in order to supply themselves with a better sort. Instead of feathers for their bonnets, they were allowed only a piece of black bearskin; but the men supplied themselves with ostrich feathers, in the modern fashion, and spared no expence in fitting up their bonnets handsomely. The sword-belts were of black leather, two inches and a half in breadth; and a small cartouch-box, fitted only for thirty-two rounds of cartridges, was worn in front, above the purse, and fixed round the loins with a black belt, in which hung the bayonet. In these heavy colours, and dark blue facings, the regiment had a far less splendid appearance at a short distance than English regiments, with white breeches and belts; but on

major when I joined, and who sung and repeated several of this man's poems and songs. I thought his manner of singing the Gaelic words of the "Garb of Old Gaul" preferable to the English. Before my time, there were many poets and bards among the soldiers. Their original compositions were generally in praise of their officers and comrades who had fallen in battle, or who had performed some gallant achievement, but they had great stores of ancient poetry. Their love songs were beautiful; and their laments for the fallen brave, and recollections of absent friends and their distant glens and rocks, have often filled my eyes with tears. There were four sergeants of the names of Mackinnon, Maclean, Macgregor, and Macdonald, who had a peculiar talent for these repetitions and songs. They all died or were discharged before the American war. The soldiers were much attached to Colonel Reid for his poetry, his music, and his bravery as a soldier."

• Officers and non-commissioned officers always wore a small plume of feathers, after the fashion of their country; but it was not till the period of which I am now writing, that the soldiers used so many feathers as they do at present.

*

a closer view, the line was more imposing and warlike. The men possessed what an ingenious author calls "the attractive beauties of a soldier, sun-burnt complexions, a hardy weather-beaten visage, with a penetrating eye, and firm expressive countenance, sinewy and elastic limbs, traces of muscles strongly impressed, indicating capacity of action, and marking experience of service." The personal appearance of the men has, no doubt, varied according as attention was paid to a proper selection of recruits. The appointments have also been different. The first alteration in this respect was made in the year 1769, when the regiment removed to Dublin. At this period, the men received white cloth waistcoats, and the colonel supplied them with white goatskin and buff leather purses, which were deemed an improvement on the vests of red cloth, and the purses made of badgers' skin.

The officers also improved their dress, by having their jackets embroidered. During the war, however, they wore only a narrow edging of gold-lace round the borders of the facings, and very often no lace at all, epaulets and all glittering ornaments being laid aside, to render them less conspicuous to the Indians, who always aimed particularly at the officers. During their stay in Ireland, the dress of the men underwent very little alteration. The officers had only one suit of embroidery: this fashion being found too expensive, was given up, and gold-lace substituted in its stead. Upon ordinary occasions, they wore light hangers, using the basket-hilted broad-sword only in full dress. They also carried fusils. The serjeants were furnished with carbines, instead of the Lochaber axe or halbert, which they formerly carried. The soldiers were provided with new arms when on Dublin duty in 1774. The serjeants had silver-lace on their coats, which they furnished, however, at their own expence.

At this period, the regiment was held in such respect in the Highlands, and young men so readily enlisted into it,

• Dr Jackson's European Armies.

that recruiting parties of other regiments, in order to allure the Highland youth, frequently assumed the dress of the old Highland regiment, for which they affected to be recruiting. While the regiment lay in Dublin, a party of recruits arrived from the Highlands to join the 38th regiment, then in Cork. When the recruits saw their countrymen, they refused to go any farther, saying they had engaged to serve in the Black Watch. The officer who had them in charge ordered several of the men to be confined, and reported the business to Major-General Dilkes, who commanded in Dublin Castle, and likewise to the late Lord Blaney, Colonel of the 38th. The Lord-Lieutenant, Lord Townshend, ordered a court of inquiry, and, after a full investigation, it was found that the officer and party had gone to the country in the Highland dress; that it was the general belief, that they were recruiting for the 42d regiment, and that, although the 38th was inserted in the attestations, no explanation was made to the recruits, who, ignorant of the English language, considered that their engagement was to serve in the regiment of their own country, and not among men whose language they did not understand, and whose dress they so much disliked. On a clear proof of the circumstances being led, they were all discharged, when they immediately re-enlisted in the 42d regiment.

This was one of many deceptions practised on these people, who, originally open and unsuspicious, are now said to be frequently distrustful. Were I to judge from my own experience, I should not credit the reality of such a change; for in the course of twenty-one years' service in the Highland corps, and in my different transactions with soldiers, of whom I recruited a very considerable number in the North, many of them left their bounty-money and other sums in my hands, till they should have occasion for the money, or till it could be remitted to their relations. In a variety of little pecuniary transactions of this kind, I

was never asked for a receipt for money so lodged; and when I offered an acknowledgment, it was declined.

The regiment being removed from Dublin to Donaghadee, Belfast, and other towns, was actively employed in different parts of the country in aid of the civil power. Four companies were afterwards removed to the Isle of Man. On the 21st of September 1771, orders were issued for adding a company to each regiment on the Irish establishment, the officers to be taken from the half pay. Captain James Macpherson, Lieutenant Campbell, and Ensign John Grant, were, in consequence, appointed to the 42d.

In 1772 the regiment was stationed in Galway. At this period, fresh disturbances had broken out in the county of Antrim, and other quarters, owing to disputes between the Catholics and Protestants, and between landlords and tenants. In this delicate service, the Highlanders were found particularly useful, both from their knowledge of the language and from their conciliating conduct towards the Irish, the descendants of the same parent stock with themselves.

Nothing worthy of notice occurred till the year 1775. The regiment was then embarked at Donaghadee, and landing at Port-Patrick, marched to Glasgow, after an absence from Scotland of thirty-two years, since the march to Finchley in 1743.*

The following notice of the conduct of the regiment, and its mode of discipline, during a residence of eight years in Ireland, is extracted from the communication of a respectable and intelligent friend, who served in it at that period, and for many years both before and afterwards. He describes the regiment as still possessing the character which it had acquired in Germany and America, although

Many of the old soldiers on this occasion evinced the force of that attachment to the country of their birth, which is attributed to Scotchmen in general, and particularly to Highlanders. They leaped on shore with enthusiasm, kissing the earth, and holding it up in handfuls.

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