THE GREAT SIEGE OF GIBRALTAR. 479 
“ Afterwards the streets were Lined and the Procession went from 
the Convent to the Collonade on the King’s Bastion, General Boyd as 
King’s Commissioner, and after the Ribband was put on, The Grenadiers 
that followed the Procession fired, and then the Guns from right to left 
of the Bastion, from Hesse’s Batty. to the Flat Bastion Included. The 
Field Officers, &c., and Staff dined at the Convent, and the Soldiers, 
&c., have a Bottle of Wine and a Pound of Fresh Beef each, gratis, so 
that the Captains and Subalterns are the only ones not taken notice of 
in this day’s Hntertainment. At about Dusk the Lamps were lighted 
in the Colonade, but were blown out in general except those in the 
Center Arch, and there being no musick all seemed extremely dull, or 
like Ranelagh or some of the publick Places deserted. About 9 P.M. 
the Fireworks were exhibited, but 1t rained at times very hard and of 
course did them no service, but they were too much of a sameness to 
have been good at any Rate, except the Sun and the Rockets that 
answered very well. At last the rain coming through the Canvas the 
Spectators were obliged to seek shelter in the best manner they could, 
and to conclude, the Gates at Southport being shut, and the wickets 
left open, such a mob gathered there that some Lives were in danger of 
being lost, there being nothing but a scene of confusion, fighting, &c., 
till the Gates could be got open and the whole dispersed, it seems the 
Guard threatened to fire at them but were only laughed at, in short some 
of the C—” (? Colonels or Captains) “ had made a little too free with 
the Bottle, and were hardly able to manage themselves much less a mob 
they had so perfectly contrived to set together by the Hars, but it 
turned out to be all of a Piece. Never was a worse salute performed 
by Artillery; they not being able to fire a salute of 21 Guns, 
from 6 they had in the Field, two of them being so neglected as to have 
a shot in each left at the bottom before the Loading was put in, and 
their Tubes were in General too long. A worse Feu de Joye fired 
by Troops, worse weather, worse musick, worse fireworks, or worse 
Entertainment.” 
It is quite evident that General Hlott made a great mistake when he 
omitted to feed the Captains and Subalterns, and no doubt had he been 
aware that one of the former was taking notes in so adverse a spirit, and 
that they would eventually be published more than a century later he 
would have taken steps to propitiate his Chronicler, whose entry is at 
once so amusing and so characteristic. 
We may take this ceremony as fitly closing the Great Siege of 
Gibraltar which lasted three years, seven months, and twelve days from 
the commencement of the Blockade to the Cessation of Arms. There 
are no more entries in Captain Spilsbury’s diary which very directly 
concern the Siege save an account of a visit he paid to the Spanish Lines 
which may be noted here: 
“29th April, 1783.— Having the Governor’s leave, which is now asked 
for by the Commanding Officers, who did not venture to ask it before, 
to go out at Land Port, stroled to the Spanish advanced works, from 
one end to the other they have a Sergt’s Guard and some Centries who 
hesitated at our going in. They are from 9 to 12 Fascines high well 
faced with sand sandbags etc., and full of Travesses, but the ‘limbers 
