The German conquest of England in 1875, and battle of Dorking; or, Reminiscences of a volunteer, by an eyewitness [sir G. T. Chesney. Also publ. under the title The battle of Dorking].Porter, 1871 |
Common terms and phrases
adjutant Aldershot army artillery bank battalion battle BATTLE OF DORK began Blackwood's Magazine Box Hill brigade brought cloth colonel column confusion couple cried crowd Danvers Dorking drawn ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWN enemy enemy's Epsom face falling back feeling fellows felt fire flank fleet front full Turkey gilt gone ground Guards Guildford guns halted Harwich heard hill horse Horsham ironclad Kingston lane Leatherhead little Arthur London look ment minutes morning musketry nation nearly never night o'clock ourselves passed piled arms poor position railway rear regi regiment regular Reigate ridge riding rifle road rode scene seemed sent ships Shoreditch shot skirmishers slope smoke soon staff officer standing station stood stop stream Surbiton station Surrey tell thought told town train Travers Travers's troops turned valley volunteers Waterloo station whole Wood wounded
Popular passages
Page 6 - Fools that we were ! We thought that all this wealth and prosperity were sent us by Providence, and could not stop coming. In our blindness we did not see that we were merely a big workshop, making up the things which came from all parts of the world ; and that if other nations stopped sending us raw goods to work up, we could not produce them ourselves.
Page 36 - I'll tell you what ; if all you gentlemen were just to go back, and leave us to fight it out alone, it would be a devilish good thing. We could do it a precious deal better without you, I assure you. We don't want your help, I can tell you. We would much rather be left alone, I assure you. Mind I don't want to say anything rude, but that's a fact.
Page 4 - tis true; but its coming was foreshadowed plainly enough to open our eyes, if we had not been wilfully blind. We English have only ourselves to blame for the humiliation which has been brought on the land. Venerable old age! Dishonourable old age, I say, when it follows a manhood dishonoured as ours has been. I declare, even now, though fifty years have passed, I can hardly look a young man in the face when I think I am one of those in whose youth happened this degradation of Old England - one of...
Page 62 - ... by wasting public money on bloated armaments. The rich were idle and luxurious; the poor grudged the cost of defence. Politics had become a mere bidding for Radical votes, and those who should have led the nation stooped rather to pander to the selfishness of the day, and humoured the popular cry which denounced those who would...
Page 56 - Ja, ja," replied a comrade, who was lolling back in his chair with a pair of very dirty legs on the table, and one of poor Travers's best cigars in his mouth ; " Sie so gut laufen konnen." " Ja wohl," responded the first speaker ; " aber sind nicht eben so schnell wie die Franzosischen Mobloten.
Page 56 - Freiwilligen," said a broad-shouldered brute, stuffing a great hunch of beef into his mouth with a silver fork — an implement, I should think, he must have been using for the first time in his life.
Page 5 - Providence sent them that number of babies; and if they couldn't always marry off all the daughters, they used to manage to provide for the sons, for there were new openings to be found in all the professions, or in the government offices, which went on steadily getting larger. Besides, in those days young men could be sent out to India, or into the army or navy; and even then emigration was not uncommon, although not the regular custom it is now. Schoolmasters, like all other professional classes,...
Page 25 - ... was to be defended. A large force was concentrating at Guildford, another at Reigate, and we should find supports at Dorking. The enemy would be awaited in these positions. Such, so far as we privates could get at the facts, was to be the plan of operations. Down the hill, therefore, we marched. From one or two points we could catch a brief sight of the railway in the valley below running from Dorking to Horsham. Men in red were working upon it here and there. They were the Eoyal Engineers, some...
Page 64 - W. GRISWOLD. Illustrated with Portraits of Edwards, Irving, Audubon, Story, Wilde, Prescott, Kennedy, Emerson, and Hoffman. 1 vol. royal 8vo, cloth, gilt $3.00 " It will be an important and interesting contribution to our national literature. The range of authors is very wide, the biographical notices full and interesting. I am surprised that the author has been able to collect so many particulars in this way.
Page 4 - You ask me to tell you, my grandchildren, something about my own share in the great events that happened fifty years ago. Tis sad work turning back to that bitter page in our history, but you may perhaps take profit in your new homes from the lesson it teaches. For us in England it came too late.