3-034-624 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Stampede of cavalry horses at Aldershott Camp, 1871. Horses breaking loose, '...from a sketch by Captain Fellows, of the 3rd Surrey Militia...the 2nd Dragoon Guards (Queen's Bays) arrived from Colchester and took up their quarters on Cove-common...The strength of the corps...was 23 officers, 468 men, and 370 horses. The horses were tethered according to the new system, which consists of attaching a ring to the near fore and off hind legs, each being secured by a short rope or chain fastened to a piece of wood, resembling a tent-peg, about 15 in. in length, which is driven into the ground. A few minutes after nine o'clock in the evening seventy-six horses suddenly broke loose from the right wing of the regiment, and galloped madly in all directions. The ground is intersected by the Basingstoke Canal and numerous ditches, into which many of the animals plunged or fell. The men of the regiment...lost no time in giving chase, and by half-past two o'clock in the morning many of the horses were captured and brought back to quarters...The lives of some of the pursuers were placed in great danger owing to their ignorance of the locality, and one man narrowly escaped drowning in a large reservoir in which three of the horses were found swimming about'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.