458 THE GREAT SIEGE OF GIBRALTAR. 
It then suggested itself to me that many of the extracts, especially 
those dealing with the Royal Artillery, would perhaps have sufficient 
interest to bear their reproduction in the “ Proceedings” of the Royal 
Artillery Institution, hence the following pages which do not of course 
pretend to any originality but are merely a reprint of some of the more 
curious or more interesting entries in the journal. 
The writer—Captain Spilsbury—was not an artilleryman, but be- 
longed to the 12th Foot, but the great interest he evidently took in all 
artillery matters and the details he gives regarding them make it 
probable that he—like so many infantry officers—was told off to assist 
the artillery in their very arduous duties. 
One very satisfactory point about his diary is the remarkable way in 
which it almost invariably agrees with Drinkwater’s history, even to the 
smallest details—indeed I cannot help thinking that the better known 
writer may have had the advantage of perusing Captain Spilsbury’s 
account before publishing his history. 
But Drinkwater’s more sober pages do not possess the naiveté and 
sarcasm of some of Spilsbury’s remarks, and so thoroughly characteristic 
a diary is not often seen. 
It has an added attraction in the many painstaking and accurate 
drawings accompanying it, drawings which may not perhaps possess 
great artistic merit, but are certainly very faithful pictures of the bay, 
the surrounding country, the enemy’s ships, works and approaches, our 
own guns, howitzers and carriages, and many other things connected 
with the siege. 
Besides these sketches there are tables, some of great interest, giving 
heights and distances about the Rock, soundings in the bay, nature and 
number of ordnance mounted or rounds fired both by the attack and 
the defence. 
IT have not confined myself to artillery matters only but have given 
some extracts which are of general interest by reason of the importance 
of the events they narrate or of the language and sentiments of the 
writer. 
Before commencing the extracts from the diary it may be of interest 
if I give a few particulars as to the garrison of the Rock and the Royal 
Artillery at that period, and for these particulars I have drawn upon 
well known authorities, such as Duncan, Drinkwater, &c. 
The Royal Regiment of Artillery in the year in which the siege com- 
menced—1779—consisted of 82 Service and 8 Invalid companies, 
which were augmented at the end of the year by the addition of 2 more 
Invalid companies. Sixteen of the service companies were in America, 
one in Newfoundland, three in the West Indies, three in Minorca, and 
five in Gibraltar, leaving but four of the whole thirty-two at home. 
The five companies at Gibraltar were the five senior companies of the 
2nd Battalion, and were commanded by Colonel Godwin! when the siege 
commenced, but on his coming to England in 1780 the command passed 
to Colonel Tovey? who died during the night of the great sortie, 27th 
1 Kane’s List, No. 66. 
2 Kane’s List, No. 92. 
