Ah! but we had some brave corps among the Duchy Volunteers!
There was the St. Germans Subscription Troop, for instance, which
consisted of forty men and eleven uniforms, and hunted the fox thrice
a week during the winter months under Lord Eliot, Captain and M.F.H.
There was the Royal Redruth Infantry, the famous "Royal Reds," of 103
men and five uniforms. These had heard, at second hand, of
Bonaparte's vow to give them no quarter, and wore a conspicuous patch
of red in the seat of their pantaloons that he might have no excuse
for mistaking them. There was the even more famous Mevagissey
Battery, of no men and 121 uniforms. In Mevagissey, as you may be
aware, the bees fly tail-foremost; and therefore, to prevent
bickerings, it was wisely resolved at the first drill to make every
unit of this corps an officer.
But the most famous of all (and sworn rivals) were two companies of
coast artillery--the Looe Diehards and the Troy Gallants.
The Looe Diehards (seventy men and two uniforms) wore dark blue coats
and pantaloons, with red facings, yellow wings and tassels, and white
waistcoats. Would you know by what feat they earned their name?
Listen. I quote the very words of their commander, Captain Bond, who
survived to write a _History of Looe_--and a sound book it is.
"The East and West Looe Volunteer Artillery was established in 1803,
and kept in pay from Government for six years.
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