THE SQUIRE AND HIS VOLUNTEERS. 159 



AYenlock Loyal Yolunteers, commanded by Major 

 Forester, dined at tlie Rayen Inn, Much Wenlock, 

 in honour of their much-respected major's birthday, 

 when the eyening was spent with that cheerful 

 hilarity and orderly conduct which always charac- 

 terised this respectable corps, when embodied for 

 the service of their king and country. In the 

 morning of the day the officers, deputed by the 

 whole corps, waited on the Major, at Willey, and 

 presented him, in an appropriate speech, with a 

 most elegant bowl, of one hundred guineas yalue, 

 engrayed with his arms, and the following inscrip- 

 tion, which the Major was pleased to accept, and 

 returned a suitable answer : — ' To George Forester, 

 of Willey, Esq., Major Commandant of the Wen- 

 lock Loyal Yolunteers, for his sedulous attention 

 and unbounded liberality to his corps, raised and 

 disciplined under his command without any expense 

 to Goyernment, and rendered essentially seryiceable 

 during times of unprecedented difficulty and danger ; 

 this humble token of their gratitude and esteem is 

 most respectfully presented to him by his truly 

 faithful and yery obedient servants, 



"*The Wenlock Yolxjnteers. 



" * Major Forester.' " 



