Page:Memorials of Capt. Hedley Vicars, Ninety-seventh Regiment by Marsh, Catherine, 1818-1912.djvu/20

14 ther than to the prescribed form of drudgery. At one school, then newly formed, where he was placed for a year or two, the contagion of his high spirits often carried off the master — himself a young man — from graver pursuits to join in the wild adventures and pranks of his gay and reckless pupil, somewhat to the scandal of their sober neighbours.

This determination not to study followed him to Woolwich, and prevented him from acquiring the distinction necessary to secure a commission in the Engineers or Artillery. All this was seriously regretted by him in after life, not alone because he thus deprived himself of a more advantageous branch of the service, but also on account of time wasted, which had been given him so to use that he might finally render his account of it with joy.

On Christmas day, 1843, his mother received a letter, announcing that her son had obtained a commission in the line, written by the same hand which on Good Friday, 1855, informed her how faithfully unto death that commission had been fulfilled.

Early in the following spring he commenced his military career by joining the depot of the 97th Regiment in the Isle of Wight. He was an ardent lover of his profession, and from first to last was devoted to its duties. In writing to his mother an account of his first review, with its fatigues of marching, skirmishing, and firing, he adds with boyish pride, "But my zeal for the service kept me up."

In the autumn of 1844 he returned home to take leave of his family at Langford Grove, in Essex, before sailing for Corfu. His eldest sister well remembers his joyous bearing as he first exhibited himself to them in the Queen's uniform, and her own admiration of the bright, intelligent countenance, broad shoulders, and well-knit, athletic figure of her young soldier-brother. A few weeks afterwards he sailed