They said we were coxcombs - they said we were born
In the sunshine of peacetime like insects to fly;
The jester and the novelist made us his scorn
And lecturing hypocrites joined in the cry.
They said we were heroes - best fitted to shine
In the barracks and ballroom, the ring and parade;
That the source of what courage we boasted was wine
And women the prize of what conquests we made.
That slander has melted like mists from the sun;
It veils not the grave where its objects repose
On the limber of many a Muscovite gun;
They have scored the rebuke in the blood of their foes.
E'er their own was exhausted - alas for their number
Too scanty to conquer, too many to fall;
Of those whom no trumpet can wake from their slumber
No leader can rally, no signal recall.
Not even that leader, in whose gallant bearing
As he rose in his saddle the mandate to give;
None could mark as he gave it, one symptom declaring
That none could accomplish that order and live.
It was hopeless! All knew it! Yet onward they bounded
With the order and speed of some festival day,
When with kings to behold them, by gazers surrounded,
They have mimicked the features of battle array.
Oh! Well may the remnant which shattered and broken
Returned from that onset accept of the fame
Which wherever the word of Balaklava is spoken
Shall blend its sad glory with Cardigan's name.
And in Beaudesert Hall when the Yule log is lighted
And the tale of high deeds makes its rounds by that fire,
It shall tell how a son of that house has requited
The lessons of valour he learned from his sire.
Oh! Would he had lived one short year to have noted
As the tide of red slaughter foamed over that plain;
'Twas the plume of a Paget above it that floated,
It was Anglesey charged in his offspring again.
"They said we were coxcombs...born/in the sunshine of peacetime... / ...best fitted to shine / In the barracks and ballroom, the ring and parade /...the source of what courage we boasted was wine / And women the prize of what conquests we made". Why is Ellesmere so
[Continue commentary, if useful.]
"Beaudesert" - Beaudesert, Longdon, Staffs - one of the homes of the Paget family, largely demolished 1935, after which they retreated to their other seat, Plas Newydd, in Anglesey. What ruins remain were protected with Grade II listed building status in 1953.
There are well-illustrated articles about Beaudesert ("beautiful wilderness"> at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaudesert_(house), and at http://www.lostheritage.org.uk/houses/lh_staffordshire_beaudesert.html.
"...a son of that house has requited/ The lessons of valour he learned from his sire.../It was Anglesey charge in his offspring again" - The Marquessate of Anglesey was a title created in 1815 for Henry Paget, 2nd Earl of Uxbridge, a hero of the Battle of Waterloo. He died in 1854, shortly before [date?] the Charge. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Paget,_1st_Marquess_of_Anglesey
His youngest son, George , rode in the Charge. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_George_Paget). See also http://www.victorianweb.org/history/crimea/paget.html
The present Marquess [name] is the author of History......, a invaluable resource.