3-065-809 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Sketches at the Volunteer Sham-Fight on Easter Monday, 1874. The British Army on training manoeuvres. 'Uxbridge Yeomanry Barnes Common; Under the lee of the trees; A Squirrel Hunt, Richmond Park; Giants & Pigmies; Lining a Hedge; Too hot for 'em; A little Pandemonium; The Enemy makes it warm for us; A Skrimmage at the Butts, Roughs v. Riflemen; Racing for Cover; In a Bog; In long Grass...The Easter Monday display of field manoeuvres on Wimbledon-common by 12,000 men of the Volunteer Rifle Corps, with some of the Guards, Royal Artillery, and Carabiniers of the regular Army, was a holiday entertainment for nearly 100,000 London people. As a military performance it was less remarkable, since the crowd of spectators rather interfered with the manifest execution of a tactical plan...several fires were blazing away at different parts of the common, the furze having been ignited, and immense pillars of smoke rolled over the combatants, partially obscuring some and altogether concealing others...[however] it was a great occasion of popular interest...[as well as an] exhibition of volunteer soldiership...[and] mimic warfare in the neighbourhood of London'. From "Illustrated London News", 1874.