the
_glacis_.

On the Hodson bastion stands the old mess, now an officers' quarter,
where in bygone stormy days they used to sit at dinner with revolvers
handy, and swords stacked in the corner, alert and ready for sudden
alarm or excursion. A strange imprint of those old times remained for
many years, a bullet-mark high up in one corner of the dining-room; and
this bullet, according to tradition, was fired at dinner by Sir Sam
Browne, who was a deadly shot, and nailed to the wall the tail of a
cobra which was disappearing into a crevice.

Passing near the Hodson bastion and running to the present mess is
Godby-road, named after General C.J. Godby, who after nearly losing his
head from a sabre stroke in the Sikh War, again well-nigh lost it near
this spot at the hands of a ghazi. The incident affords an early
instance of the ready resource which has always been one of the typical
characteristics of the Guides. When Godby was cut down by a treacherous
blow there happened to be two or three men within hail, and these at
once dashed to the rescue; but they were disarmed, while the fanatic
brandished a razor-edged Afghan blade, and was prepared to sell his life
dearly. Sharp eyes and ready wit, however, came to aid. Close by was a
tent pitched, the guy ropes tied to long heavy wooden pegs such as are
used in India. As quick as thought the tent was struck, the pegs
wrenched from the ground, and the ghazi surrounded, overpowered,
secured, and incidentally in due course hanged.

The present mess is full not only of historical mementoes, as is only
natural, but also of archaeological treasures of great value and
antiquity. On the walls captured banners, swords and daggers, guns and
pistols, share the honours with portraits of old commanders and of the
mighty dead with their swords beneath them. Over the anteroom
mantelpiece is a very gracious picture of Queen Victoria, presented by
her Majesty in 1876; and this is flanked by pictures of King Edward the
Seventh, who is Colonel-in-Chief of the corps, and Queen Alexandra, both
presented by their Majesties when they were Prince and Princess of
Wales. Over the mantelpiece in the dining-room is an excellent oil
painting of Sir Harry Lumsden, who raised the corps.

One of the most interesting relics is one leaf of a mahogany table,
captured at the siege of Delhi and used in camp on the Ridge; the other
two leaves were taken by the 60th Rifles and the 2nd Gurkhas, who lay
alongsid