RECOLLECTIONS OF FORTY YEARS' SERVICE. CHAPTER I. EARLY DAYS AND SANDHURST. My first recollections of soldiering were in the year 1844 or 1845, when I was taken to see the Queen's birthday parade at Edinburgh Castle. I have a particularly distinct remembrance of seeing, from where I stood above the Half-moon battery, a solitary artilleryman walking from gun to gun and firing them by means of a red-hot poker. Although the Royal Artillery gunners in those days were few and far between, infantry battalions still continued to exist, the garrison of the Castle being, as I afterwards learnt, the Royal Regiment, to whom the ancient title of Royal Scots, of which they are so justly proud, has since been restored. As I commenced my service in the service in the Royal Regiment, its ancient history became well known to me, and, oddly enough, I found it was also known to several officers in the French army, with whom Scott's novels, and especially 'Quentin Durward,' were such A favourites. The Scotch Garde du Corps of the French monarchs really dates farther back than the time of Louis XI.-viz., to John II., 1360. The Guard was 360 in number, of the best blood in Scotland. It took precedence of all other corps, even of the celebrated regiment of Picardy, who were naturally rather jealous of the privilege. There is a regimental tradition that on one occasion a Picardy officer wished to make out his regiment was the oldest, saying, "We admit the Scots are very ancient, and were Pontius Pilate's guards at the crucifixion, but we were marines on board Noah's Ark." To which the Scot replied, "That is really not worth mentioning; it was a subaltern's guard of the Scots which turned Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden." In the book kept in the orderly-room the record giving the history of the regiment begins as follows: "In the reign of Achaius of Scotland, in the year 800." Some one considering that date not sufficiently ancient added the letters B.C. Celtic Scot a pedigree which cannot be traced back to the Flood, and any trade but that of annexing his neighbour's property, is unworthy of consideration, so perhaps I may be excused for stating that I cannot, even in name, go farther back than Le Moygne de Tulloch, whose son Walter is said-but on doubtful authority-to have married one of the many daughters of Robert II. Walter in 1363 was Keeper of the Castle of Kildrummy, and subsequently had a charter of Bonnington from Robert II. In 1399 Robert III. granted to John, son of William Tulloche, the keepership of Montrewmouth Moor, and this remained with his descendants, the Tullochs of Hilcarnie, for nearly two centuries. To a BISHOPS IN FORMER DAYS. 3 The most celebrated members of the family in former days were the two statesman bishops, Thomas de Tulloch, Bishop of Orkney, and his cousin William, also Bishop of Orkney and afterwards of Moray. Thomas was in great favour with Eric, King of Denmark, from whom he obtained the administration of the Orkney Islands in 1422 and 1427. He was a younger son of Tulloch of Bonnington, in Forfar. He obtained from King Henry VI. of England letters of safe-conduct for himself and eight persons of his retinue for the space of a whole year, dated at Westminster, 18th November 1441. William Tulloch, cousin of the former, was bishop of the same see in the reign of King James III., and, with other "illustrious" persons, was sent by him into Denmark in the year 1468 to negotiate a marriage between the king and the Princess Margaret of that nation, which they had the good fortune to effect. In 1471 he was appointed one of the Administrators of the Exchequer; he was likewise made Lord Privy Seal, March 26, 1473; he was one of the ambassadors sent to England 1471-72. In 1477 he was translated from the see of Orkney to that of Moray, and died at Spynie, 1482. A gold cup with the Tulloch arms, three cross crosslets fitché, presented to him by the King of Denmark, is still in existence. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the name often appears in official documents in Moray. In 1480 Alexander Tulloch is a witness to a deed of arbitration with regard to the marches of the Thane of Cawdor and the Baron of Kilravock. Tulloch is also referred to in another. Sir Martin From those |