"Firing into the Brown" #88 - Blues and Royals, expenses and stuff..

"So Carnehan weeds out the pick of his men, and sets the two of the Army to show them drill and at the end of two weeks the men can manoeuvre about as well as Volunteers. So he marches with the Chief to a great big plain on the top of a mountain, and the Chiefs men rushes into a village and takes it; we three Martinis firing into the brown of the enemy".

Kipling "The Man Who Would Be King"

Time for another update..

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Day in the smoke last week (London Dungeons and Shreks World, since you ask..  neither with a single wargaming or historical significance, but both fantastic fun.. err.. since you ask.. 😁) but also no visit to London is complete without some pomp and pageantry..

The Blues and Royals were on duty this time on Whitehall.. second-most senior regiment in the British Army, and along with the Life Guards they form the Household Cavalry Division.

..these guys can date one of their antecedent regiments back to 1650, with a regiment raised by Haselrig (yes, he of Lobster fame) by a commission from Cromwell..

Their Colour Party was spotted outside Buckingham Palace making their way back to Hose Guards..

..nice view of the cartridge boxes..

It's not all horses, big boots and breastplates by the way - the regiment is fully mechanised and has seen service in Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan.. either way a magnificent sight.. "big men on big horses" indeed..

Further reading here [clicky]on their history...

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I'm a member of the Palmerston Forts Society [clicky] mostly as a result of how much I enjoyed that little project on the Hilsea Lines 

Anyway - as I mentioned in some of the posts on the Lines, the western end is on private ground (it's the school playing fields for one of the local independent schools) so is not accessible - unless, however, you volunteer for a work party for the Society there!

Have had a couple of hugely enjoyable days so far clearing ivy/brambles/vegetation (and being ripped to shreds by same 😁) from the various buildings and emplacements, and I'm getting some more bramble time next week but at a different site...

Expense magazine for storing ready use ammunition - the door/arch design dates this to the 1850's apparently, as later in the Palmerston fortification period the door arches became squared off...

There is also a fantastic example of a surviving Moncrieff gun position - because it's protected behind fencing it really is in immaculate condition

They really were an amazing thing, and so typically Victorian/War of the Worlds..

Fantastic - very much recommend the society b.t.w, as they have a huge quantity of study documents on various aspects/forts dating from the period...

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 Laters, as the young people are want to say...