Chapter 20: Hounslow

The time spent in Lincoln was shorter than anticipated because the 10th Foot, the senior Lincolnshire regiment, returned from India in February of 1816. Their Colonel in Chief was a Royal Duke, and ours was not, and so the 2nd/69th was evicted from Lincoln Castle, to make room for the returnees. Nonetheless, my stay in Lincoln, although truncated, was pleasant, and not without incident.

The first reason for my pleasure was that I reacquainted myself with the lubricous girls of the Temple. Since the battalion left Lincoln, in 1809, there had been an entirely new batch of acolytes, who were even more wanton, and inventive than the previous residents. The second reason was that I was able to visit my family, and in fact spent a very happy Christmas at Greenaway's Farm. I enjoyed the manual labour when helping out with the farm work, and the knowledge that I was once again part of the family. However the main reason for enjoying my time in Lincoln was the absence of Jarvis Braxton-Clark.

Sir Thomas Picton had been killed at Waterloo; a musket ball had pierced his brain as he was leading his division into the attack, a fitting end for a valiant warrior. His death allowed the Braxton-Clarks to redouble their attempts at getting Jarvis into the Life Guards, as in a way Picton's death had endorsed Braxton-Clark's request. It now would be over Picton's dead body, should Jarvis succeed in joining the regiment.

The Colonel of the Wiltshire Yeomanry had asked that a regular army officer be attached to the regiment, and as the colonel was the sitting MP for Devizes, and a close crony of Cornelius Braxton-Clark, it will come as no surprise to you that Jarvis Braxton–Clark was the officer chosen. He joined the Yeomanry, with the acting, and temporary, rank of Major, as the second in command, with the added task of overseeing the training of new recruits to the regiment.

What Jarvis knew of cavalry tactics would be even less than he knew of infantry tactics, so what use he would be to the Wiltshire Yeomanry I leave to your imagination. Of course having the experience of acting as second in command of a regiment, even of a part time Yeomanry regiment, would help his application to the Life Guards. The real reason for his transfer, however, was for Jarvis to get his wife with child — up to now he had been singularly ineffective in reaching that objective. However, the gossip was that Jarvis, who had arrived at the Yeomanry headquarters in Salisbury in July of 1815, was still being thwarted in his attempts of fathering a child. His wife had escorted her father to London a bare two days after Jarvis had arrived back at Braxton Hall. The lady, it appeared, spent as few days as she could at her new home, favouring her former home of Hungerford House, or her father's town house in London.

As for incidents while at Lincoln; well I suppose the best was the return of Frederick Bywaters to the battalion. He had come close to dying of camp fever, and it was only due to the skill of the nuns who nursed him, and to his own obstinate obdurate character, that he had pulled through. Black Fred had been convalescing at Syston Grange, and as soon as he could mount a horse he had ridden over to Lincoln.

There was a vacancy for a Major in the battalion; the former holder of that rank, Boothby Graffoe, was now a Colonel in the Hanoverian army, the former acting Major, Peter Tavy, had drowned crossing the River Dart on his way home on furlough. I had the money to purchase a Major's commission, but not the inclination, and had not made a claim for the rank. Fortunately Frederick Bywaters purchased the vacant commission and was now our new Major. He soon proved that his ability in the new position was equal to that of his skill as adjutant. We had managed to retain the services of Newton Ferrers, the Adjutant who had been attached to us just before Waterloo, and he turned out to be nearly as good as Frederick Bywaters at the job. Sir Edmund had persuaded Ferrers to remain with the battalion when we returned to England.

On the 10th March 1816, the 2nd/69th was ordered to Hounslow barracks, which is about twenty miles to the west of London, on the edge of Hounslow Heath. It was an odd place for an infantry battalion to be posted, as it was a cavalry establishment. The barracks could house up to three regiments of horse, and had been built fifty years ago, in an effort to rid the area of bands of footpads and highwaymen. Two main highways crossed the Heath: the Great West Road, that linked London and Bristol, and an equally important road that led southwest to Portsmouth, linking that great naval base with London. The highwaymen and footpads had been eradicated, and the Heath was now used by the cavalry to perfect their evolutions, as it was mostly undulating terrain, unimpeded by buildings or rocky outcrops, and consisting mainly in scrub and gorse, with here and there stands of larch, spruce, and silver birch.

We shared the Hounslow barracks with the 8th Light Dragoons, who had returned from India the previous September. I became very friendly with a Captain Compton Bassett -- 'Call me Billy' -- a hard drinking, hard riding, broth of a boy from Ulster. He told me tales of India, and I related my adventures in Spain, France, and Flanders.