With Abercrombie and
Moore in Egypt

Daniel Nicol

THE soldier to whom we are indebted for the graphic details which follow was Daniel Nicol, a native of Crossford in Lanarkshire, his grandfither being tenant of the farm of Nemphlar under Lockhart of Lee. Young Nicol was caught by Lord Douglas's gamekeeper while poaching in the Clyde, and was to have been brought before the sheriff at Lanark. To avoid this exposure he made his way to Edinburgh and enlisted on the 12th March 1784, in the regiment of Highlanders then being raised by the Marquis of Huntly. He mentions that, after being taken to the Council Chambers and passed by a surgeon, he received a red jacket turned up with yellow facings, white trousers, and three ostrich feathers stuck in his hat.

It was not till he reached Aberdeen that he received his full uniform, a short jacket faced with yellow, a kilt and bonnet, in time for King George's birthday on the qth June; and shortly afterwards the whole town was en Rte when the news arrived of Lord Howe's great victory gained on the Ist June over the French fleet off Ushant. A treat was given to the soldiers in town, who paraded over the links'where a bullock was roasted and twelve hogsheads of porter set abroach. Dancing and sports were kept up to a late hour, while the Freemasons, with the trades in town, walked in procession with their emblems, etc.' He adds: 'Some fine looking men were brought for our regiment by Captain Cameron of Fassifern, and on Tuesday, 24th June, the regiment was embodied by General Sir Hector Munro.

The test of fitness set by the General was that each man should run past him for fifty paces, when only one man was rejected being too old.' The Gordons then numbered seven hundred and sixty men, of whom seven hundred and fifteen were Scotch, chiefly from the northern counties, many speaking only the Gaelic language; there were also thirty-two Scots-Irish, twelve English, and one was a Welshman.

Nicol saw service of a most interesting kind in the suppression of the rebellion in Ireland; and after engaging in the expedition to Holland, where he took Part in the battle of Egmont op Zee, he passed throuthe whole campaign in Egypt fiom Aboukir to Cairo. a spell of garrison-work in Ireland and in Glasgow, the corps was sent to Denmark and Sweden in 1807 and in the following year on its return to England, was despatched to Portugal.

E. B. L.

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