Page:The tourist's guide to Lucknow.djvu/212

Rh

It was just three years ago, when the 1st Battalion Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry arrived in Lucknow to be quartered once more, after an absence of nearly 40 years, that all of us who visited the Historic Grounds of the Residency, and gazed with awe and reverence upon the carefully preserved remains of buildings, the battered evidences of its glorious and never to be forgotten defence, were struck with a feeling of disappointment that no memorial stone was there to be found, recording the important part borne by the 32nd Foot during those terrible 87 days. It was at once decided to start a fund, to which all ranks, past and present, of the Regiment should be invited to subscribe in order to erect a memorial in the grounds of the Residency, which should be a lasting witness, and a fitting Monument, to the bravery and devotion to duty of our gallant predecessors in the Regiment. Time has passed, subscriptions have ﬂowed in, plans of the memorial have been made, the great blocks of Cornish granite have been laborious wrested from their native beds in the Bosahan Quarry, they have been carved into shape, despatched by rail, road and sea, until they have at length arrived at their final resting-place in the beautiful Residency Grounds of Lucknow, and we have attended the ceremony of their inauguration at the hands of the one person most fitted of all others to perform it, the brave and devoted Lady Inglis, who shared with her noble husband, the gallant Sir John Inglis, the Colonel of the 32nd, all the dangers and trial of those memorable days.

What scene could be more impressive? What occasion more momentous?

The Regiment which, in their white hot weather uniform, has marched in from their barracks some three miles away, and has entered the grounds by the Baillie Guard Gate to the stirring strains of "Trelawnoy," is drawn up in hollow square, the Colours facing the position of the Memorial which is gain draped with flags, and the base built round with a platform covered with red cloth. At the base of the Memorial is a magnificent wreath presented by Mr. E. H. Hilton, on behalf of the Survivors of the defence, bearing the following inscription: "From the Survivors of the Garrison. In deep reverence and aflectionate remembrance of the gallant deeds of the Officers and Men of the 32nd Regiment who fell during the memorable siege of the Residency, 1857." At the back and sides are many spectators, both Civil and Military, and friends of the Regiment, and on the right are grouped and seated in chairs some gallant old pensioners of the native army covered with medals, who fought so gallantly side by side with their British brothers in arms, "true to their salt" though their dearest friends or relations might be on the other side. It may be appropriately mentioned here that a telegram was received by the Commanding Officer, just before the ceremony, from the officer Commanding 16th (Lucknow Regiment) now stationed at Cawnpore, expressing from all ranksrespectful homage to Lady Inglis, and congratulations to all ranks of the old 32nd on the auspicious occasion. This Native Infantry Regiment, helped to defend the Residency.

Here we see Mr. Hilton, well known for his history of the Residency, who was present in the Defence, himself a Martiniere boy at the time, here too Mr. Lincoln, who bore his part in all the fighting as a gallant volunteer, and Mrs. Lincoln, who, with their little boy,