Review of Scottish Volunteers

£45.00

SKU: 001896 Categories: , ,

Description

[001896] [Review Ticket]. Review of Scottish Volunteers By Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen. Edinburgh: No Publisher, 1881. First Edition. 48mo (Oblong). Unbound. Ticket. Good+. Double sided ticket for the Review of Scottish Volunteers, approximately 140mm x 95mm in size.

Slightly soiled, but generally fairly bright.

A ‘grand stand’ ticket for Section C (shown on the map to the reverse). The review was a massive event, with some forty thousand troops marching and a rumoured four hundred thousand spectators.

However, it rained heavily, and is known as the ‘Wet Review’, with Queen Victoria noting in her journal that “down it came! There was a perfect sea of umbrellas. The sky became white & grey, with mist in the distance, & the ground where the march past was to take place, which could be seen from the windows, & which had partially recovered from yesterday’s rain, became like a lake of muddy water, too distressing. There was nothing for it, but to start with waterproofs & umbrellas, but the gentlemen & servants, & all the poor volunteers, had to remain without any of these protections … The marching past then began, in a sea of mud, most despairing to witness … At 6, we got back, coming in, through the garden, & scrambled into the house, by a lower passage, close to the kitchen, everyone, soaked but I, only partially so, down the side, from which the wind came, & where I sat in a pool of water. I had to change many under garments” (Queen Victoria’s Journal, Thursday 25th August, 1881 – Accessed online)