"The old 72nd," Inverness Courier, Sept. 12, 1905, p. 3b.   "The publication of the list of veterans of the Crimea and Indian Mutiny who are to appear at the Royal Review on September 18th has prompted some recollections of the old 72nd from "G.W.S.", who has written as follows:   'The list contains the names of four men of the 72nd Highlanders, who were in the Crimea and Indian Mutiny, a famous regiment to which I officiated as chaplain at Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1851, and till they left for Sebastopol. Whether any of the four were at Halifax in my time or not I cannot say, though I once knew almost every man and boy in the regiment. The only surviving officers who were there, so far as I know, are Captain Hay Newton, of Newton Hall, East Lothian, and Captain Stewart of Fasnacloich, Appin. Sir Archibald Alison was in the regiment at the time, but he was not in Halifax when I went out, but his younger brother, whom I had known at Glasgow College, was there and was a great favourite as he continued to be till his early and much lamented death. The men were all born in Scotland, but there were about fifteen who were called Glasgow Irishmen, an epithet which explains itself. With the exception of those who were marched to the Roman Catholic Chapel, and one or two stalwart Aberdonian Episcopalians, the whole regiment attended the Scottish churches in the city, and chiefly old St Matthew's, where they packed the galleries, the officers having seats in the front pews below. Some of them were Englishmen, but, as they said, they were still officially Presbyterians. All told, they were a very fine looking body of men, and the non-commissioned officers were the picked men of a thousand or near by, and good looks went for a good deal with the colonel. They were remarkably well behaved, and their countrymen in the city were very proud of them, to say nothing of their countrywomen. A handsome sergeant captured, or was captured by, a good-looking young lady of a higher social grade, and they were married. Soon after a young officer on a moose-hunting expedition fell in with a country schoolmaster, who had some acquaintance with the lady, and asked him if he knew Colour-Sergt. F. 'Oh, yes,' he replied, 'I know him well.' The next question was, 'Is he higher up in the regiment than you are?' This was rather a difficulty, but he was equal to the occasion, and answered, 'Yes, we are in different lines, but he is much higher in his line than I am in mine.' Many of them were from Inverness and its neighbourhood, and the Quartermaster, John Macdonald, from the parish of Croy, was a splendid specimen of a Highlander and a great help to the chaplain by telling him all about the men and his duties towards them. Macdonald's only regret in leaving for the Crimea was that he could not stand in the fighting line with the men, and as he said, pitch the Russians over his head with his bayonet, as he had pitched hay in the north. Alas, he was killed before Sebastopol, one of the last who fell there. I well remember Macdonald's Bible, in which every step of his promotion from private to commissioned officer was entered with the date. He went over the army list of the Highland regiments one day when I was present, pointing out the names of old acquaintances who had risen from the ranks. 'I remember so-and-so in a draper's shop in Inverness.' 'I remember so-and-so driving a milk-cart into the town,' and so on. There were, perhaps, as many 'rankers' in the army then as now, and more sons of gentlemen of limited means than in this plutocratic age. The 72nd had come to Halifax from Frederickton, New Brunswick, whom they had been ministered to by a fine old Scottish clergyman, 'all of the olden time,' Dr Brooke, who with his excellent wife had made themselves greatly beloved by officers and men. They all joined in subscribing for a very handsome service of plate, which Dr Brooke came to Halifax to receive, and with it he received a perfect ovation from his old friends. Colonel (afterwards General) Parkes was then in command of the regiment, who was a thorough soldier, and perhaps something of a martinet. I remember a young officer, who had just joined, appearing at mess in a buttoned up jacket. When the colonel's eye spotted him, he was furious, and said to those near him, 'what can he mean by coming to dinner in that rig-out? Does he suppose that our mess-room is a pot-house?' His ruling passion was a sense of duty, and he could not fail to inspire all with whom he came in contact with something of the same spirit. I do not suppose that he was then considered a very religious man, but I know that he spoke to me, then newly ordained, about my calling as few others have done, and that for more than fifty years, duty and duty doing always been associated in my mind with remembrance of General Parke."