3-028-154 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Guards' Band in St. James's Park, [London], 1870. '...the tramp of magnificently-drilled soldiers is heard approaching...; the Guards are coming to play on the Parade! They come, in the next minute, with a mob of followers...Our readers will at once recognise, without need of verbal comment, the unmistakable types of the London populace in this passing throng, which hangs so fondly to the skirts of a fine band of military music. The colour of scarlet has been compared to the sound of trumpets; few women or boys can resist the combined fascinations of their blare and glare. These features of the Royal Army, with charms more potent than anything else in "the pomp and circumstance of glorious war," must endear the monarchical constitution of this realm, so long as its brigade of Guards is kept up, to the juvenile and female portions of the metropolitan folk. An inspiring influence is felt even by the sulky "rough," from his den near Strutton-ground, who rises with a filthy oath and puts his short pipe in his pocket, to walk beside the martial array of noble red-coats, stepping out in time with their measured strains of melodious noise. For the moment, he seems to himself almost a man. He might possibly be made a soldier'. From "Illustrated London News", 1870.