3-043-779 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Autumn Campaign: divine service in the Race Down Camp, Blandford, on Sunday last, 1872. '...religious service was held by divisions in the various camps of the Southern force. Each division formed three sides of a square. In the centre of the blank side stood the officiating chaplain, with a drum for a desk. Behind him stood a band and a choir, and the inclosed space in front of him was occupied by the divisional and brigade generals with their staffs, the regimental officers, as on parade, forming a line in front of the ranks. The singing of the choirs...was remarkably good, and it was a subject of surprise that such efficient choirs could so easily be obtained. Last Sunday was by far the dreariest and wettest since the troops assembled. On the downs there was a thick, watery vapour which prevented one from seeing clearly more than one hundred yards ahead, and there were heavy driving showers. Church parades were, notwithstanding, held as usual under the shelter of the plantations...the Duke of Cambridge, whom no weather daunts, and who made an inspection of the cavalry camps early in the morning...stands between two ladies at the back of the Chaplain...For a few minutes all went well...[but then] the rain descended with great violence'. From "Illustrated London News", 1872.