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LETTER XIII. 
[White to Marsham.] 
Selborne : Aco* T 7. 1792. 
Dear Sir, 
While all the young people of this neighbour- 
hood arc gone madding this morning to the great last day’s review 
at Bagshot; 1 I am sitting soberly down to write to my friend in 
Norfolk ; almost forgetting, now I am old, the impulse that young 
men feel to run after new sights ; & that I myself, in the year 1756, 
set-off with a party at two o’ tho clock in the morning to see the 
Hessian troops reviewed on a down near Winchester." While I was 
writing tho sentence above, my servant, & some neighbours came 
down from the hill, & told me that they could not only hear tho 
discharges of the ordnance & small arms, & see tho volumes of 
1 “The Diary or Woodfall’s Register” for Wednesday, August 8th, 1792, 
contains the following paragraphs : — 
“ Bagshot Camp. Tuesday, Four o’Clock — P.M. 
“ The spectacle of this day exceeded any public exhibition in this kingdom. 
At six at least a hundred thousand persons were upon the ground. At eight 
the King and Queen, with the Prince, the Dukes of York, Richmond, 
[Commander-in-Chief], &c., and their attendants. At nine the Review began 
in the hollow, below CiesaPs Camp. * * * * At one the concourse was so 
immense, that at least one hundred and fifty thousand horsemen, (exclusive 
of the army) were upon the field. The Pedestrians were innumerable.” 
* • • ***** 
“ Yesterday being the grand Review of the troops encamped on Bagshot 
Heath, the King went from Windsor in his Post-chaise soon after Eight 
o’Clock. * * The manoeuvres began soon after the King’s arrival, at 
half-past nine”— A. N. 
* These were doubtless the forces who have left so ill a name in the United 
States of America. They landed at Southampton on the 15th May, 1756, 
(Gentleman's Magazine, 1756, p. 259) and went under canvas. Towards 
autumn when it was time to move them into winter quarters, there was a 
strong feeling on the part of the licensed victuallers against receiving them 
into their houses and it was doubtful how far the law allowed the billetting 
of foreign troops. Accordingly on the 5th November huts were ordered for 
them {tom. cit. p. 544,) but an Act of Parliament being passed compelling 
the same treatment to be shown to them as to British troops, the Hessian 
camp began to break up on the 23rd December, and otficera and men were 
distributed amongst the various towns in the south of England (tom. cit. p. 
592).— A. N. 
Q 
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