216 ARMY UNIFORMS PAST AND PRESENT 



fighting men as conspicuous as possible, exaggerating 

 their stature by fantastic headgear and setting them in 

 strong relief to every variety of natural background by 

 means of bright colours and pipeclay. The Brigade of 

 Guards landed in the Crimea without their knapsacks, 

 which followed in another ship. The men had to do 

 without them for some weeks ; but the cumbrous bear- 

 skin caps were considered indispensable, and offered a 

 fine target for the Russian defenders of the slopes of 

 the Alma. The hint was thrown away upon our military 

 authorities. It required a sharper lesson to convince 

 them of the cruel absurdity of figging out men for 

 battle in a dress that hampered the limbs and obscured 

 the eyesight. The Guards were not more absurdly 

 dressed on that occasion than the rest of the British 

 troops. The late Sir William Flower described to me 

 his feelings when, as surgeon of an infantry regiment, 

 he stepped out from a boat on the wet sands at the 

 mouth of the Alma, dressed in a skin-tight scarlet coatee 

 with swallow tails, a high collar enclosing a black stock, 

 close-fitting trousers tightly strapped over Wellington 

 boots, and a cocked hat ! 



Two years before that in 1852 Colonel Luard pub- 

 lished his History of the Dress of the British Soldier. 

 Having served as a heavy dragoon in the Peninsula, as 

 a light dragoon at Waterloo, as a lancer in India, and 

 as a staff-officer both in India and at home, he had 

 practical experience of the variety of torment inflicted 

 by different kinds of uniform. He advocated many 

 reforms in the soldier's dress, tending as much to 

 increased efficiency as to comfort, and he supported 



