3-008-523 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Volunteer Field-Day at Brighton: people on the Downs, 1862. 'Nothing could be finer than the approach of something like 12,000 men in close column, at quick march, up the steep hill leading to the racecourse...The whole aspect of the field, as seen from the Grand Stand, was magnificent in the extreme...On each side, as far as the racecourse extended, was a dense body of spectators, which appeared to stretch away for miles...a few artillery troops could by the aid of a good glass be seen unlimbering two or three guns...the furthermost brigade [offered], in the bright scarlet uniform of two its battalions, a splendid contrast to the more sober tints of the grey and dark green uniforms of the rest of the brigade. Again, in the fourth brigade of the second division...was a broad streak of scarlet, caused by the uniforms of the 3rd City of London and the 32nd Middlesex, under Major Richards, so that the dark mass of compact troops was banded as it were at each end with a bright scarlet band, giving a most picturesque effect and finish to the whole. Behind the brigades were two lines of cavalry of the 18th Hussars, under Colonel Knox, in their gay uniform, supported by a small body of the 1st Hants Light Horse'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.