Soyer's Culinary Campaign: Being Historical Reminiscences of the Late War.: With The Plain Art of Cookery for Military and Civil Institutions

body alone remained--General Garrett having to the last maintained his head-quarters upon the memorable spot. The loss most felt upon Cathcart’s Hill was the departure of Lord Alexander Russell’s brigade of Rifles, who were in the habit of parading and exercising daily upon the plateau. A parting dinner given to his lordship by General Garrett, and to which I was invited, closed merrily enough; but the day after their departure the camp was as desolate as a desert; only one regiment, the 20th, remained. General Garrett and myself were the only proprietors on that far-famed spot, Cathcart’s Hill, though no end of new tenants were arriving in shoals; I mean the rats from deserted camps, who boldly took possession of our head-quarters. All around had in a few days assumed such an aspect of desolation, that it appeared to me like a sudden exile from a lively and brilliant capital to a deserted rock: the beating of drums, sounding of trumpets, and the harmony of the bands; as well as the eternal morning parade catechism of the drill-serjeant, shouting with all his might, “Fall in! eyes fifteen paces to the front!”--or occasionally, as the French would say, “Les yeux fixes et la tête à quinze pas!” “Shoulder arms! slope arms!” Now and then, an awkward fellow would be thus apostrophized by the witty Serjeant: “Now, my man, has not your country been generous enough to present you with a musket? Then, do your country justice by learning the use of it.” The profound silence which succeeded the tumult of camp life would have depressed the greatest philosopher. Stuart’s celebrated canteen, attached to the theatre, and which appeared in the series of engravings already published, was on the move; and Stuart’s head man, Joe, was at his last score of bottle-breaking, when I called and ordered half-a-dozen of pale ale. “You may boast,” he exclaimed, “of being the last served here, for we are going off to Kadikoi immediately.” I then walked into the theatre. The stage offered a singular _coup-d’œil_: the figure of a child, as well as a black