"THE COTTESMORE IN 1826." 31 



observation in days long past and gone. I have 

 little doubt but there have been, and may still 

 remain, many of these thrusting members of the 

 Church Militant who would not have disgraced any 

 other profession militant, either by sea or land, and 

 who would have stormed the Redan, or taken 

 Sebastapol single-handed, had they been called 

 upon to perform such an enterprising feat. And it 

 has often been a matter of wonder to me why, in 

 any time of war, the commander-in-chief has not 

 raised a regiment of gentlemen in black, many of 

 whom might doubtless be found amongst the poor 

 curates as well as the sporting parsons, to volunteer 

 for such a noble purpose ; and, as at the present 

 time we have a regiment of volunteers who go by 

 the name of the " Devil's Own," so we might also 

 have a regiment going under the denomination of 

 the " Devil's Blacks." For I do truly believe, that 

 where the smell of gunpowder is there he would 

 delight to be. His love of the pig-skin, and his 

 delight at the smell of gunpowder, are unbounded. 

 No schoolboy, on the Fifth of November, ever 

 revelled in the smell of squibs and crackers as he 

 does in the fumes that are emitted from the crack 

 of his gun. You may positively see his nostrils 



