Weather held very well, and it was decidedly hot under all the woollen attire during the battles on both Sunday and Monday.
Prince Maurice's Dragoons. A fine body of troops!
During the battles we were matched against the Scots on the Sunday (amongst others), and seemed to end up facing Essex's pike block on the Monday for much of the afternoon. Now, being Dragoons, we have no pikes, so it made for an interesting day, with us firing a shot, closing to combat (at which, despite being outnumbered, we held our own, I'm pleased to say), before both sides retired, we fired again, and then closed for combat again, and so on. This cycle was completed about three times, before we and they were ordered off to do something else. An excellent contest.
The actions were declared a Royalist victory on both days, I think, but more importantly a good spectacle for a decent crowd, and good, safe fun.
Freddie Flintlock behaved well, firing off 16 shots on day one, and 18 on day two. Just a couple of misfires on day two which I can only put down to a well-worn flint, which will be replaced before the next action - Holdenby House in Northamptonshire on 2-3 July.
Another highlight of the weekend included a fellow Dragoon, Laurie (alongside whom I had done a lot of practice drill and training shots at last year's musters) passing his musket test on Monday. Well done mate!
Finally, a picture that sums up part of the weekend...
Bob "helping" Keith to pack away on Monday, by clearing up the previous evening's leftover Madeira! That's Dragoons for you!!
