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NATURAL HISTORY OF SITNNLNGHILL 



BY 0. S. ROUND, ESQ. 

 C Continued from page 200.) 



Chapter V. 



Few of the English monarchs of the last few centuries hav 

 addicted to war; if they engaged in it, it was usually from compulsion and 

 not from choice. At all events, although, even as in the case of William 

 the Third, they actually led their armies in person, it was not from a 

 mere love of arms. This was not the case with George the Third; of 

 indomitable bravery and restlessness of spirit, he was a promoter and ad- 

 mirer of warlike achievements for their own sake, and would willingly, 

 nay, was with some difficulty dissuaded from taking an active share in 

 it. Hence the accounts which were constantly reaching England of our 

 conquests and actions abroad were a goad to his valiant nature, stimula- 

 ting a military ardour which it was impossible for him to satisfy. Reviews, 

 military pageants, and such exhibitions were his delight, and a happy 

 expedient was at length hit upon, which, at the same time that it kept 

 in constant practice the household troops, indulged him to the utmost in 

 his darling propensity. This was no other than the sham-campaign that 

 kept up during the summers of 1795-6, the spot selected being that 

 very district which I have now been describing, upon which twenty-five 

 thousand men, horse, foot, and artillery, were encamped. The ground, 

 from its undulating nature, was every way suited for the purpose, and 

 as the court was resident chiefly at Windsor, it was most convenient for 

 his majesty. Regular plans were laid out beforehand as to the future 

 movements of the army; tents were pitched and positions taken with as 

 much care as" if the fate of nations, instead of the pastime of a single 

 individual depended upon the issue; in short, what we have lately seen 

 take place at the camp at Chobham, which is within a couple of miles 

 of the spot, was there enacted on a larger scale, and I have heard a 

 veteran officer, who had witnessed the serious original, say that nothing 

 could be more like an actual field of battle. 



During this time the king and royal family came daily to view the 

 proceedings, and a spacious marquee was erected upon King's Beech Hill, 

 one of the highest points of the country. This spot, which is well-known 

 to every one who has ever resided in the neighbourhood, for the extent 

 of the prospect to be seen from its summit, and the consequent beauty 

 of its situation, lies on the very verge of the parish of Old Windsor; 

 indeed the northern half of it is in Sunninghill. At the time I speak of 

 it was crowned by six beech trees, then perhaps a hundred years old, and 



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