3-053-626 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Christmas Watch - drawn by H. Petherick, 1873. 'Few persons, having their own free choice, would like on this night of the year to be in the place of Mr. Petherick's Highland sentinel, pacing the lofty ramparts of a fortress in the north country, with the flakes of snow whirling dizzily before his eyes, and with cold blasts of wind now and then cutting his flesh beneath the kilt...It is quite certain that Donald, or whatever be his name,...is content to be on guard and on duty; the sharp wind and thick-falling snow are his old playfellows, from the earliest years of a hardy boyhood...The even pace of his silent steps on the soft white surface which he treads is favourable to a prolonged meditation; and this may either lead his mind to dwell among those whom he loves, in the home that he left when called to serve his country as a soldier...Men of this race and character, in several well-known regiments of the British Army, have given proofs of their valour and fidelity wherever the flag has been carried. If it were not for them, who knows but that some foreign enemy might come to spoil our peaceful Christmas?' From "Illustrated London News", 1873.