to have occurred also in the disastrous descent made on the coast. of Brittany by the English, towards the end of the reign of George II.

A company of the Welsh Fusiliers (23rd) detached from the main body of the troops, found itself, we are told, suddenly confronted with a part of the French Regiment of St. Pol de Leon composed of Bretons, the Welshmen advanced singing one of their war songs in their own tongue, and the Bretons as the story goes, cast away their arms forthwith and fraternised with them.

We have no record of any such practice on any future occasion, and we presume it was considered desirable to discourage it-at all events the Welshmen appear soon after to have been drilled in English in place of their native tongue.

To return however to military music in its more restricted sense, we find the Drums noticed in the days of the first Crusaders, to whom many writers give the credit of their introduction in this country. Fifes we believe were first used in Switzerland, and were long known as 'Allemagne whistles.'

The English are stated in an old M.S. in the Harleian collection, to have first used fifes and drums at the rout of the Scotch at Halidon Hill in 1332.

A distinction appears to have been made by old writers between the fifes or phyphes,' and whistles,' but in what it consisted we cannot say some authorities incline to the belief that the fife as now used, the most simple form of the flauto traverso, was first introduced in England at the commencement of the 18th century, and that the phyphes' of these days, the ear-piercing fifes' of Shakespeare, were a kind of flute a bec' or pipe, now forming a component part of the bagpipes which a Scotch authority has recently asserted to have been originally an English instrument.

In whatever form they may have existed, fifes and drums appear to have formed a necessary part of military equipment down to the reign of Queen Elizabeth, from which time the former would seem to have fallen into disuse.

In the details of the army before St. Quentin and Boulogne in the reign of Henry VIII. we find one fife and one drum allowed to each company of 100 footmen, and one trumpet to each party of 100 horse. The division of the army into regiments, had not then commenced it will be remembered. Six Vifleurs or whistlers, one fife and one drum are shown as attached to the Captain General's Staff. Many curious old drums, some dating back we believe nearly if not quite to this period, were in the old Tower Armoury. By the way, some time since when visiting the valuable connection of antiquities in Colquett Street, Liverpool, formed by Mr. T. Mayer, which is we fancy not as much known as it should be, we were shown two drums, one which had been used by the Old Guard of Napoleon at Waterloo and another with a suspiciously modern look, which the person in charge of the collection assured us had been used at Crecy ?

We cannot vouch for the truth of the assertion, but repeat it as we heard it, possibly it had as much foundation as the history of many similar reliques.

In the days of the Stuarts, drums alone would appear to have been used in the English army. In an old warrant of Charles I., which was originally in Horace Walpole's collection, but which has been copied in Sir J. Hawkins' History of Music, and in Grose's Military Antiquities, it is set forth "that it hath been the custom of all nations to use one certain form of march in the wars." It then proceeds by describing in the quaint square headed notes then in use, the voluntary' which all drummers are thereby enjoined forthwith to use; old writers speak very enthusiastically of the solemnity of this march, which by the way is still used on occasions of a general salute when the rank of the officer receiving it requires a march' to be beat in the place of the ordinary ruffles.'

The Scots had a different air known as the Scots' march. The English and Scots reveilles were also distinct, and an order of James II. directs these two reveilles to be beaten on alternate mornings by the drums of the footguards at Greenwich camp.

The French music would at this time appear to have consisted of violins. A strong band of fiddlers are said to have accompanied the armies of the Grand Monarque in all campaigns, and to have been present in every engagement.* From this period until the days of George II. English Regimental Music would seem to have consisted, in the cavalry, of trumpets and snare drums, (kettle-drums were introduced later) and in the infantry of the "dry" drums only as now used in the French infantry; certain regiments had a few haut-bois also, of which we shall speak presently.

Most of the duty calls for the drum as well as the most common fife and drum tunes date back at least to the days of the Commonwealth, possibly many are far older. The Rogue's march' is a curious example; Mr. Chappel in his English Music of the olden time gives it among his earliest examples of old tunes. It is in reality a simple little pastoral melody, why it should have been devoted to its present purpose we cannot tell. Captain Grose, the earliest edition of whose work appeared nearly 100 years since, described it as the Rogues or Whores March' which had been used from time immemorial in turning improper characters out of the camp.

The British Grenadiers is another example; it is alluded to as having been a very old and popular air in the days of Queen Anne, (when grenadiers were first formed) to which was sung the broadside of the English Grenadier.'

"Come let us fill a bumper, and drink a health to those,

Who wear the caps and badges, and eke the loopéd clothes."

*In the states of the combined Royal Armies of France and Spain before Gibraltar in 1780, fifers as well as drummers are shown with each regiment. Fifes were laid aside in the French Revolutionary armies.

It is almost needless to remark that the caps and badges and looped clothes were the distinguishing costume of the newly made grenadiers, and that the broadside itself was the original of the many versions, of which the Poet Campbell's was and is the last and best known.

To return however to musical instruments, we find the Duke of Cumberland introducing fifes in his own regiment, the Coldstream's shortly before Culloden; and many critics assert that the wellknown figure of the little fife boy on the left of Hogarth's picture of the March to Finchley,' whose childish aplomb forms so strange a contrast to the disorder around, was introduced as much as a readily apprehended means of particularizing the regiment, as for the sake of artistic effect.

According to some memoranda published in the occasional papers of the Royal Artillery Institution, fifes would appear to have been adopted in the Royal Artillery at the end of the Seven Years War, when one John Ulrich, a Hanoverian fifer brought over by Colonel Belfield from Flanders, was appointed instructor. The custom seems to have been soon followed by other corps, the 19th, then known as the Green Howards, amongst the first.

The first book on the drum, we have been able to find is, the Drummers Instructor' by Drum-Major Spencer of the Guards, publithed in 1767. The English and Scotch duty is here shown separately. The book appears to have suggested the treatise more recently in use-Potter's. In the reigns of George II. and George III., drums seem to have been allowed at the rate of two per company, save in Invalid Regiments, which had one only. Fifes were in most cases supplied to the grenadier companies only. When Highland Regiments were first formed, one piper was allowed who was attached to the Lieutenant-Colonel's Company.* The number has since been increased to one per company in addition to a Pipe Major.

When light companies were first added to regiments (1775), two very small bugles in C were added for their use, but when light and rifle regiments were formed, larger bugles in G somewhat similar to those now in use were supplied to them.

We may add that when light dragoon regiments were first formed, they appear for a time to have used a kind of hunting horn in lieu of trumpets.

The earliest attempts at a band in the English service, would appear to have consisted in attaching a few hautbois players to certain corps, chiefly the Guards and regiments of Horse.

The hautbois closely resembled the modern oboe, but was blown through a very large reed in place of a small one, it is said to have been a favourite instrument with the com

* Up to the close of the last, the Field Officers of regiments had companies which were commanded by Captain-Lieutenants. The non-effective allowance to Field Officers now issued is in lieu of the contingent for these companies.

poser Handel in his leisure moments, and solos on the instrument figure occasionally in the programmes of the entertainments at Ranelagh and other similar places in the last century. It was doubtless a more powerful instrument than the modern oboe. In the beginning of the 18th century, two hautbois were allowed to each regiment of horse, but the money thus given frequently, it would seem, found its way into the colonel's pocket. Grose relates an anecdote of the 2nd Duke of Malborough, that being asked at a Royal Review where the hautbois players of his regiment were, he replied by jocosely slapping his hand on his pocket.

A certain number of hautbois were also allowed to the Footguards, and a warrant of Charles II. provides for their receiving state liveries from the Lord Chamberlain's Department, a practice which in the bands of the Household Cavalry at least continues to this day.

When bands were first established on their present footing we

cannot ascertain.

Very little information respecting them is given in Simes and James' Military Dictionaries, but they were doubtless at first very small compared with those of the present day. Many regiments finding it impossible on service to keep up a supply of band instruments, appear to have substituted Kentish bugles for thein, which played alternately with the drums and fifes; this was in the old Peninsular days.

The costly but indispensable addition of a professional bandmaster would, in service regiments, seem to be also an innovation of the present century.

A few other points respecting military musicians demand a brief concluding notice.

Military musicians appear at nearly all periods of history, to have possessed more importance than might have been anticipated.

Among the various cavalry hordes that have existed at different periods from the left bank of the Danube to the plain of Hindostan, the person of the kettle drummer has been we believe invariably held sacred. So in later times, the days of the Thirty Years War the fact of drums being a necessary addition to all parleys and flags of truce would seem to have imparted some of the consequence of the heralds of preceding times to those who performed on them. Smith's Military Dictionary quoted by Grose, and other military works of the days of the Commonwealth, lay great stress on the necessary qualifications of, and the conduct expected from drummers. A Drum-Major-General of the forces was appointed by Charles I. as an officer of the Royal Household,† without whose warrant no person was authorized to beat the drums within the three kingdoms; *In the Egyptian remains the musicians all appear unarmed.

This office was held as a sinecure by officers of rank as late as the commencement of the present century.

possibly to those causes we may trace the practice, until of late years existing in most regiments, of marking the Drum-Major by a variety of gorgeous additions to his uniform and equipments.

King George III., with whom there lingered much of the etiquette of earlier times, (Colonel Landmann tells us in his amusing Recollections) was notorious at reviews for taking more notice of the Drum-Majors' salutes than of those of any other person.

According to Colonel James' Military Dictionary, musicians were first dressed in plain blue coats, and he adds that as it was found impossible to distinguish them from civilians, the various extraordinary costumes in use at the beginning of the present century were adopted. No allowance was then given for the clothing of bandsmen. In these days the coats were usually of the colour of the regimental facings, and the facings and sleeves of the colour of the regimental coatee, in some cases the sleeves were parti-coloured, and the varieties of lace and head-gear were innumerable. The practice we suppose really sprang out of that love for tailoring, that prevalence of millinery taste and military folly' as old Dr. Robert Jackson causticly defined it, which was a trait of the period, and which has happily now disappeared. The present regulations as to the strength, dress and support of regimental bands date back about forty years, but as our object has been to notice times past, we shall here bring our notes to a close.

EUGENE'S SURPRISE OF CREMONA.

This name, Eugene, is one that recalls to the old soldier pleasant reminiscences, it is surrounded with a halo of chivalry quite independant of its purely military consequence and, strange to say, has been borne by two Princes who much resembled each other in this respect, although the times in which they lived, the circumstances under which they appeared as actors, and the sides they embraced in politics were very different indeed.

It is with the elder Eugene we have to do here; that glorious scion of the princely House of Savoy, who devoted his sword, that had been so unwisely rejected by the French monarch of the period, to the service of the House of Hapsburg, and to whom a beautiful equestrian statue has just been erected at Vienna, in grateful remembrance of the many important services he rendered to Austria, strange to say, too, at a moment when the present representative of his house has been converted by the course of events into the bitterest opponent of the Imperial power and policy; with that Eugene, the mention of whose name immediately recalls that of Marlborough, one of England's greatest sons, and with them both the remembrance of one of the rarest instances of perfect unity

* Economy and Formation of Armies, by Dr. R Jackson.