Indeed, the only anxiety evinced at all, was to appear at the meet in something like jockey fashion, and I must confess that this feeling was particularly conspicuous among the infantry.

Happy the man whose kit boasted a pair of cords or buck skins; thrice happy he who sported a pair of tops.

I myself was in that enviable position, and well remember with what pride of heart I cantered up to cover in all the superior _eclat_ of my costume, though, if truth were to be spoken, I doubt if I should have passed muster among my friends of the "Blazers." A round cavalry jacket and a foraging cap with a hanging tassel were the strange accompaniments of my more befitting nether garments.

Whatever our costumes, the scene was a most animated one.

Here the shell-jacket of a heavy dragoon was seen storming the fence of a vineyard; there the dark green of a rifleman was going the pace over the plain.