228 ARMY UNIFORMS PAST AND PRESENT 



the fighting men of Old Japan. The first were designed 

 to overawe the enemy by making soldiers look taller 

 than they were, the second to render them fiercer 

 in aspect; devices equally futile in days when the 

 primary object of commanders is to keep their men 

 out of sight till the order is given ' Over the top ! ' 



While it is hardly possible to imagine any dress 

 better calculated to impede a soldier's movements than 

 the uniforms inflicted upon all arms of the service 

 during the early years of the nineteenth century, one 

 should not overlook the relief that was ordained in a 

 detail that was a source of constant unnecessary trouble 

 to the soldier. Clubbed pigtails had been transmitted 

 as an irksome legacy from Maryborough's army, until 

 in 1808 the Horse Guards decreed their abolition. 

 When Sir Arthur Wellesley landed in Mondego Bay on 

 August 1-5 in that year, one of his first orders was that 

 these senseless, dirty appendages were to be cut off. 

 Never, one may believe, was an order more cheerfully 

 obeyed. A counter-order was issued shortly after from 

 the Horse Guards, requiring the retention of pigtails, 

 but it was beyond the power of man to comply with 

 it. It was easy to cut off pigtails, but they could not 

 be replaced ; and now the only vestige of a barbarous 

 fashion in the army remains in the 'flash' of black 

 ribbon worn by officers of the Welsh Fusiliers at the 

 back of the collar of the tunic. 



Unfortunately, the irrational fashion of tight cloth- 

 ing for the army instituted by the Prince Regent 

 endures to this day. It is true that a sensible field- 

 dress of khaki was devised and worn during the South 



