The early days of that July had their pleasant festivities, such as a dinner, with Alice, at Lady Londonderry’s (she who was our mother’s godmother on the occasion of her reception into the Catholic Church) and the Academy _soirée_, where Mrs. Tait invited me and Dr. Pollard to a large garden party at Lambeth Palace. There I note: “The Royalties were in full force, the _Waleses_, as I have heard the Prince and Princess called, and many others. It was amusing and very pleasant in the gardens, though provokingly windy. I had a curiously uncomfortable and oppressed feeling, though, in that headquarters of the--what shall I call it?--Opposition? The Archbishop and Mrs. Archbishop, particularly Mrs., rather appalled me. But dear Dr. Pollard, that stout Protestant, must have been very gratified.”
On July 4th Colonel Browne, C.B., R.E., who took the keenest interest in my “Quatre Bras,” and did all in his power to help me with the military part of it, had a day at Chatham for me. He, Mrs. B. and daughters called for me in the morning, and we set forth for Chatham, where some 300 men of the Royal Engineers were awaiting us on the “Lines.” Colonel Browne had ordered them beforehand, and had them in full dress, with knapsacks, as I desired.
They first formed the old-fashioned four-deep square for me, and not only that, but the beautiful parade dressing was broken and _accidenté_ by my directions, so as to have a little more the appearance of the real thing. They fired in sections, too, as I wished, but, unfortunately, the wind was so strong that the smoke was whisked away in a twinkling, and what I chiefly wished to study was unobtainable, _i.e._, masses of men seen through smoke. After they had fired away all their ammunition, the whole body of men were drawn up in line, and, the rear rank having been distanced from the front rank, I, attended by Colonel Browne and a sergeant, walked down them both, slowly, picking out here and there a man I thought would do for a “Quatre Bras” model (beardless), and the sergeant took down the name of each man as I pointed him out very unobtrusively, Colonel Browne promising to have these men up at Brompton, quartered there for the time I wanted them. So I write: “I shall not want for soldierly faces, what with those sappers and the Scots Fusilier Guards, of whom I am sure I can have the pick, through Colonel Hepburn’s courtesy. After this interesting ‘choosing a model’ was ended, we all repaired to Colonel Galway’s quarters, where we lunched. After that I went to the guard-room to see the men I had chosen in the morning, so as to write down their personal descriptions in my book. Each man was marched in by the sergeant and stood at attention with every vestige of expression discharged from his countenance whilst I wrote down his personal peculiarities. I had chosen eight out of the 300 in the morning, but only five were brought now by the sergeant, as I had managed to pitch upon three bad characters out of the eight, and these could not be sent me. We spent the rest of the day very pleasantly listening to the band, going over the museum, etc. I ought to see as much of military life as possible, and I must go down to Aldershot as often as I can.