Sketches of Young Gentlemen | Page 8

and odd inches of gold lace it takes to make an ensign
in the Guards; is deeply read in the comparative merits of different
bands, and the apparelling of trumpeters; and is very luminous indeed
in descanting upon 'crack regiments,' and the 'crack' gentlemen who
compose them, of whose mightiness and grandeur he is never tired of
telling.
We were suggesting to a military young gentleman only the other day,
after he had related to us several dazzling instances of the profusion of
half-a-dozen honourable ensign somebodies or nobodies in the articles
of kid gloves and polished boots, that possibly 'cracked' regiments
would be an improvement upon 'crack,' as being a more expressive and
appropriate designation, when he suddenly interrupted us by pulling out
his watch, and observing that he must hurry off to the Park in a cab, or
he would be too late to hear the band play. Not wishing to interfere
with so important an engagement, and being in fact already slightly
overwhelmed by the anecdotes of the honourable ensigns
afore-mentioned, we made no attempt to detain the military young

gentleman, but parted company with ready good-will.
Some three or four hours afterwards, we chanced to be walking down
Whitehall, on the Admiralty side of the way, when, as we drew near to
one of the little stone places in which a couple of horse soldiers mount
guard in the daytime, we were attracted by the motionless appearance
and eager gaze of a young gentleman, who was devouring both man
and horse with his eyes, so eagerly, that he seemed deaf and blind to all
that was passing around him. We were not much surprised at the
discovery that it was our friend, the military young gentleman, but we
WERE a little astonished when we returned from a walk to South
Lambeth to find him still there, looking on with the same intensity as
before. As it was a very windy day, we felt bound to awaken the young
gentleman from his reverie, when he inquired of us with great
enthusiasm, whether 'that was not a glorious spectacle,' and proceeded
to give us a detailed account of the weight of every article of the
spectacle's trappings, from the man's gloves to the horse's shoes.
We have made it a practice since, to take the Horse Guards in our daily
walk, and we find it is the custom of military young gentlemen to plant
themselves opposite the sentries, and contemplate them at leisure, in
periods varying from fifteen minutes to fifty, and averaging twenty-five.
We were much struck a day or two since, by the behaviour of a very
promising young butcher who (evincing an interest in the service,
which cannot be too strongly commanded or encouraged), after a
prolonged inspection of the sentry, proceeded to handle his boots with
great curiosity, and as much composure and indifference as if the man
were wax-work.
But the really military young gentleman is waiting all this time, and at
the very moment that an apology rises to our lips, he emerges from the
barrack gate (he is quartered in a garrison town), and takes the way
towards the high street. He wears his undress uniform, which somewhat
mars the glory of his outward man; but still how great, how grand, he is!
What a happy mixture of ease and ferocity in his gait and carriage, and
how lightly he carries that dreadful sword under his arm, making no
more ado about it than if it were a silk umbrella! The lion is sleeping:
only think if an enemy were in sight, how soon he'd whip it out of the
scabbard, and what a terrible fellow he would be!
But he walks on, thinking of nothing less than blood and slaughter; and

now he comes in sight of three other military young gentlemen,
arm-in-arm, who are bearing down towards him, clanking their iron
heels on the pavement, and clashing their swords with a noise, which
should cause all peaceful men to quail at heart. They stop to talk. See
how the flaxen-haired young gentleman with the weak legs-he who has
his pocket-handkerchief thrust into the breast of his coat-glares upon
the fainthearted civilians who linger to look upon his glory; how the
next young gentleman elevates his head in the air, and majestically
places his arms a-kimbo, while the third stands with his legs very wide
apart, and clasps his hands behind him. Well may we inquire-not in
familiar jest, but in respectful earnest-if you call that nothing. Oh! if
some encroaching foreign power-the Emperor of Russia, for instance,
or any of those deep fellows, could only see those military young
gentlemen as they move on together towards the billiard-room over the
way, wouldn't he tremble a little!
And then, at the Theatre