e banners have
come to have a real meaning with me. Homer hath, I remember, a chapter
or book wherein he records the names of all the Grecian chiefs and
whence they came, and how many men they brought to the common muster. It
is pity that there is not some Western Homer who could record the names
of these brave peasants and artisans, and recount what each did or
suffered in upholding a noble though disastrous cause. Their places of
birth at least shall not be lost as far as mine own feeble memory can
carry me.

The first foot regiment, if so rudely formed a band could be so called,
consisted of men of the sea, fishers and coastmen, clad in the
heavy blue jerkins and rude garb of their class. They were bronzed,
weather-beaten tarpaulins, with hard mahogany faces, variously armed
with birding pieces, cutlasses, or pistols. I have a notion that it
was not the first time that those weapons had been turned against
King James's servants, for the Somerset and Devon coasts were famous
breeding-places for smugglers, and many a saucy lugger was doubtless
lying up in creek or in bay whilst her crew had gone a-soldiering to
Taunton. As to discipline, they had no notion of it, but rolled along in
true blue-water style, with many a shout and halloo to each other or to
the crowd. From Star Point to Portland Roads there would be few nets
for many weeks to come, and fish would swim the narrow seas which should
have been heaped on Lyme Cobb or exposed for sale in Plymouth market.
Each group, or band, of these men of the sea bore with it its own
banner, that of Lyme in the front, followed by Topsham, Colyford,
Bridport, Sidmouth, Otterton, Abbotsbury, and Charmouth, all southern
towns, which are on or near the coast. So they trooped past us, rough
and careless, with caps cocked, and the reek of their tobacco rising
up from them like the steam from a tired horse. In number they may have
been four hundred or thereabouts.

The peasants of Rockbere, with flail and scythe, led the next column,
followed by the banner of Honiton, which was supported by two hundred
stout lacemakers from the banks of the Otter. These men showed by the
colour of their faces that their work kept them within four walls, yet
they excelled their peasant companions in their alert and soldierly
bearing. Indeed, with all the troops, we observed that, though the
countrymen were the stouter and heartier, the craftsmen were the most
ready to catch the air and spirit of the