A temporary Army encampment of the mid-eighteenth century. Groups of soldiers sit outside their tents, relaxing, smoking, and perhaps gambling. Some of them wear 'wings' of lace on their shoulders, indicating that they belong to a grenadier company, a body of elite troops. The central figure of the nursing mother is a reminder that women and children would have been found in almost every Army camp.

Soldiers in a garrison town would normally be billeted in alehouses and inns. When the Army was on the move, either at home or on campaign, they would usually sleep under canvas.

The scene is somewhat romanticised. Although the artist would undoubtedly have seen soldiers like this, the painting is unlikely to depict a real event.

Source: National Army Museum, UK https://collection.nam.ac.uk/detail.php?acc=2001-12-35-1

One of a set of six unsigned oil paintings on canvas attributed to Giuseppe Chiesa (d 1789). Lord George Lennox (pointing with his sword), officers and soldiers of the 25th Regiment of Foot in an encampment, Menorca. Thought to be the earliest of this series, based on the evidence of the red waistcoats which were made obsolete by the Royal Warrant of 29 December 1768. The warrant also ordered black bearskin caps for all infantry grenadier companies, although some regiments, like the 25th had been permitted them earlier. The 25th Regiment of Foot was stationed in Menorca from 6 June 1769 until 1775, one of several regiments garrisoned there to maintain British control of this important Mediterranean base, regained from Spain at the end of the Seven Years War (1756-1763). This series of paintings depicting the 25th Regiment of Foot during its service in Menorca originally belonged to Lord George Lennox, (1737-1805), who was colonel of the regiment 1762-1805.

Of particular interest the tent identifications, the guards at the end of each company street.

Source: National Army Museum, UK https://collection.nam.ac.uk/detail.php?acc=1974-02-124-1

A Perspective view of Coxheath Camp representing a Grand Review of the Army. Hand-colored engraving by W. Walker after O'Neil; mounted officers and cavalrymen in foreground, infantry formations under review, tent encampments etc. on plain in background.

The Westminster Magazine covered the events at one such camp held at Coxheath, near Maidstone, Kent, during the summers of 1778 and 1779. By all accounts, this camp was on a massive scale involving 17,000 troops as well as civilians, many representing the 700 retailers who had come from London to service the soldiers. The paper quoted a letter from an officer of militia in August 1778 to his friend: "We are frequently marched out in considerable bodies to the heaths or commons adjacent, escorted by the Artillery, where we go through the various movements, maneuvers and firings of a field of battles. In these expeditions, let me assure you, there is much fatigue, and no little danger…the most grand and beautiful imitations of action are daily presented to us; and, believe me, the army in general are becoming enamored of war, from the specimens they have seen of it."

Watching the proceedings was the celebrated Alsatian-born artist, scene painter, and creator of realistic pageants, Phillipe Jacques de Loutherbourg, who had had some successes staging theatrical reenactments of real-life events. Using sketches made on site, the artist was able to create a simulation as a back-drop for a two-act entertainment written by the renowned playwright, Richard Sheridan, entitled The Camp which premiered in October 1778 and performed on 56 successive occasions. This brought increased attention on de Loutherbourg and an important commission, possibly from the king himself, to paint another military camp, this one at Warley Common, Essex. Like Coxheath, Warley attracted its fair share of society and celebrities including the great travel writer and lexicographer, Dr. Samuel Johnson, who was not present however, when a grand review was held on October 19th 1778, before George III. The following day, the king accompanied by Queen Charlotte, proceeded to the common where he reviewed the troops of horseback, and she, seated on a specially constructed stand, observed a mock battle. The London Gazette described what happened next:

The line then went through their several firings, after which the light Infantry and grenadiers, with the artillery, marched immediately through the woods towards Little Warley (followed by the whole line in two columns,) where, as well as in the adjacent woods, several batteries were placed, and many manoeuvres of attack and defence were performed, with a continued fire of musquetry and cannon, to which the situation and variety of the ground were very favourable, and afforded much pleasure to the numerous spectators. The operations concluded shortly before 3 p.m.

Loutherbourg was able to sketch some of the scenes and delineated in fine pencil drawings members of the various units participating. No doubt he was privy to the complaints expressed by the soldiers that there was not enough food to go around! The fruits of his endeavors were displayed in two large oil paintings exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1779 and 1780 respectively, depicting the review of the 19th, and the mock battle of October 20th.

Source: Brown Digital Repository

repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:228318/ 

https://library.brown.edu/cds/askb/warley_fights.html

The camp of the 2nd West Yorkshire Light Infantry Militia at Old Montagu House, during the Gordon Riots by Samuel Hieronymus Grimm. A pen and ink and watercolour drawing showing tents of the Regiment set up in the gardens of Old Montagu House. In the distance, the high ground is the area of Hampstead and Highgate. Signed & dated: S. H. Grimm fecit 1780.

Grimm's drawing records the encampment at Montagu House (now the site of the British Museum) set up in during the Gordon Riots in 1780. Over six days in June 1780, protests took place against the limited concessions of the first Catholic Relief Act, and to quell further riots, troops were stationed in St James's Park, the gardens of Montagu House, and Hyde Park, remaining in situ for several months. Despite their military function, the encampments soon became places of fashionable parade and entertainment: Lord Harcourt described that in St James's Park as 'so extremely pretty that you would be charmed with the sight of it'. Other drawings of the camps in the Royal Collection are by Paul Sandby. Grimm exhibited a work of this subject at the Royal Academy in 1781.

Source: Royal Collection Trust

https://www.rct.uk/collection/search#/2/collection/916601/thenbspcamp-of-the-2nd-west-yorkshire-light-infantry-militianbspat-old-montagu

https://www.rct.uk/collection/search#/3/collection/916602/2nd-west-yorkshire-light-infantry-militia-inspection-at-old-montagu-house-london

Original watercolor (by Eyre); soldiers with women and children cooking and washing etc. in foreground, tent encampment in background, buildings showing above trees in distance including Westminster Abbey.

Source: Brown Digital Repository https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/search/?q=bdr%3A228796

Hand-colored engraving, numbered 52; view of tent encampment in countryside, showing soldiers, lady guests, women cooking, child, laundry hanging over ridge-poles of tents. Bowles & Carver, active 1793-1832 (publisher)

Source: Brown Digital Repository https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:228321/

A pencil, pen and watercolour drawing of a row of tents in Hyde Park, with various figures milling about. On the left, a man wheeling a barrow, and a wooden hut. On the right, a woman with basket on her head, and the Serpentine in the distance. On the far right in this drawing of tents and figures, the sign outside the tent bears the name 'Pool's'. This name also appears in two aquatints by Sandby, once in full as 'Pooles Intire Butt Beer Fine Ale & Amber'.

Source: Royal Collection Trust

https://www.rct.uk/collection/914680/view-near-the-serpentine-river-during-the-encampment

A pencil, pen and watercolour drawing of the Serpentine in Hyde Park, with tents in the distance and figures in the foreground. Several carts with beer barrels, a man kicking a horse at the centre, a festive party on the left. Houses, a church and wooded hills in the distance. On a wash-line bordered mount inscribed in pencil: 'View near the Serpentine River in Hyde Park during the Encampment 1780'.

Source: Royal Collection Trust

https://www.rct.uk/collection/914681/view-near-the-serpentine-river-in-hyde-park-during-the-encampment

A pencil, pen and watercolour drawing of the Serpentine river in Hyde Park during the encampment set up during the Gordon Riots in 1780. A large mess tent on the right, with soldiers, camp followers, and passers by. On the left is a woman with a wheelbarrow, and a milk seller with two pails on the right. Inscribed in pencil on the mount, 'View near the Serpentine River Hyde Park during the Encampment (Camp) 1780' and in another hand, 'looking to Knightsbridge'.

Source: Royal Collection Trust

https://www.rct.uk/collection/451582/view-near-the-serpentine-river-in-hyde-park-during-the-encampment

A pencil, pen and watercolour drawing of the Serpentine river in Hyde Park during the encampment set up during the Gordon Riots in 1780. A large mess tent at centre back, with soldiers, camp followers and dogs by the tree-lined water. A girl with a wheelbarrow on the left, an officer on a folding chair at far right. Inscribed in pencil on the mount, 'Hyde Park during the Encampment 1780 looking towards Kensington', the last three words possibly in another hand, and in another hand known as the 'Colnaghi' hand, 'By Sandby'.

Source: Royal Collection Trust

https://www.rct.uk/collection/451583/view-near-the-serpentine-river-hyde-park-during-the-encampment

A pen and watercolour drawing of encampment in St James's Park set up during the Gordon Riots in 1780 by Paul Sandby. Soldiers, horses and figures among tents in the park, with Westminster Abbey in the background. Inscribed in pencil on the mount, possibly in the artist's hand, 'Encampment in St James's Park, 1780', and in another hand known as the 'Colnaghi' hand, 'Paul Sandby'. Sandby published an etching of the same subject in 1783.

Watercolour Source: Royal Collection Trust https://www.rct.uk/collection/451584/encampment-in-st-jamess-park

Etching Source: The British Museum https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1904-0819-733

A pencil, pen and watercolour drawing of tents in Hyde Park, with soldiers and women running and dancing, with onlookers on horseback. On a wash-line bordered mount inscribed in pencil: 'View in Hyde Park looking towards the Uxbridge Road during the Encampment in 1780'. 

Source: Royal Collection Trust

https://www.rct.uk/collection/914679/view-in-hyde-park-looking-towards-the-uxbridge-road-during-the-encampment-in-1780

A hand-coloured etching of the gardens at Montagu House (the British Museum) during the encampment set up during the Gordon Riots in 1780. Tents on the right, the house on the left, and several groups of fashionable figures in the foreground. Inscribed on the mount with the supposed names of the sitters, left to right: 'Sir John Donelly [sic - presumably Sir John Dineley], Bart., Poor Knight of Windsor; Mr Gandon, Architect of Dublin and his family; Sir Thomas Rich; Archbishop Moore; Mrs Fitzpatrick, daughter of Mr Vardy, Architect; a corporal in the York Regiment, remarkable for his great strength in the arms'. A hand-coloured outline etching for an aquatint of the same subject published in 1783. A pencil drawing in the British Museum shows the same subject (1994,1105.5). 

Source: Royal Collection Trust https://www.rct.uk/collection/451585/the-encampment-at-montagu-house

A pencil, pen and watercolour drawing of Grosvenor Gate in Hyde Park during the encampment set up during the Gordon Riots in 1780. A double avenue of walnut trees, with figures in the centre, an engine house to the left and the camp in the distance. Inscribed in pencil on the mount, 'Grosvenor Gate, Hyde Park, during the Encampment in 1780'. This drawing is less finished than the others in the series, with areas left uncoloured. The drawing was possibly that exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1781, 'a view of the Encampment in Hyde Park from St George's Row', described as a sketch (no. 213 in the Great Room). The avenue of walnut trees was planted in 1724.

Source: Royal Collection Trust

https://www.rct.uk/collection/451586/view-of-grosvenor-gate-in-hyde-park-during-the-encampment

A pencil, pen and watercolour drawing of the encampment in Hyde Park set up during the Gordon Riots in 1780. A marquee and a shed under some tress, with military and civilians eating at tables and benches. A pair of horses on the right. Inscribed in pencil on the mount, 'View near the Ring in Hyde Park during the Encampment, 1780'.

Source: Royal Collection Trust

https://www.rct.uk/collection/451590/view-near-the-ring-in-hyde-park-during-the-encampment

Entitled, "The Blacksmith and Knife Grider with a distant of Sir Ricd Worsleys Pavilion &c in Hyde Park 1780. View in Hyde Park during the encampment; a knife grinder sits on his wooden frame between two trees, holding a knife to the whetstone on the right while a soldier turns a large wheel to propel it and a blacksmith works at his anvil behind them; with men and women sitting sewing to left, a mother stands with her children and a dog in the foreground and a man approaches from the right with a barrel of wood; tents in the background; plate III. 1780. Series: Ten Views of Encampments in Hyde-Park and Black-Heath.

Print Source: artuk.org

Etching Source: The British Museum https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1904-0819-581

View in Hyde Park during the 1780 encampment; a gunsmith working in a covered wagon standing under a windmill, in front of a house on Blackheath, with people buying from two merchants with baskets to right, a family in a tent in the extreme right in front of them, children playing and other figures including a sentry to left and a group gathered around a man with a laden mule in the foreground to left of centre; tents and carts in the background; plate X. 1780

Source: The British Museum https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1904-0819-582

The Encampment at Blackheath; in foreground right windmill with soldiers and other figures, in centre road with horsemen and tents beyond, in left foreground fire with fleeing child. This was engraved in the set of four large aquatints published in 1783, see 1904,0819.731. See also 1867,1214.131 and 1867,1214.132 for sketches made by Sandby of the Blackheath encampment, made around the same time.

Source: The British Museum https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1850-0810-524

View in Hyde Park during the 1780 encampment; tents with people eating and drinking, one with a sign of a lion rampant and another with a sign advertising '[?Pools Entire] Bull Beer Ale...', with a windmill to right and another in the distance to left, soldiers and two men with crutches talking on the left, a man with a cart on the right and other figures including a ballad-seller standing leaning on a crutch and walking with his daughter in the left foreground; title-page/plate I. Ten Views of Encampments in Hyde-Park and Black-Heath (second series). Formerly in a bound volume of etchings by Paul Sandby, collected by his descendent and biographer William Sandby and bequeathed by him to the British Museum. The binding was removed in 2012, but the contents (apart from a few mounted prints) have been kept in order in one box. See 1904,0819.429 for further details.

Source: The British Museum https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1904-0819-573

View in Hyde Park during the 1780 encampment; several horse-drawn carts driving through the park along a path on the right, with soldiers and other figures gathered around tents set up under trees on the left, including a man wearing an apron talking to three women in the foreground, with a gnarled, hollow tree-trunk in the right foreground and town-houses bordering the park in the background; plate III (upper left).

Source: The British Museum https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1904-0819-629

View of a row of tents and temporary shelters, one with the sign "Lloyds Coffee House",  in Hyde Park by Paul Sandby during the 1780 encampment; several horse-drawn carts driving through the park along a path on the right, with soldiers and other figures gathered around tents set up under trees on the left, including a man wearing an apron tawlking to three women in the foreground, with a gnarled, hollow tree-trunk in the right foreground and town-houses bordering the park in the background; plate III. Ten Views of Encampments in Hyde-Park and Black-Heath (first series).

Source: The British Museum

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1904-0819-576

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1880-1113-1915

View in Hyde Park by Paul Sandby during the encampment; a building of wooden slats with barrels ranged near the corner to right, from which a stout man emerges on the right and a woman carrying a platter on the left, with soldiers, men and women gathered on benches in front, two men carrying platters of food walking past them to trestle tables on the right, men drink in tents to left and three dogs run after three children in the right foreground; tents in the background; plate V. Part of The British Museums "Ten Views of Encampments in Hyde-Park and Black-Heath (second series)."

Source: The British Museum

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1904-0819-577

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1904-0819-621

Another view of a kitchen in Hyde Park by Paul Sandby during the encampment; a house of wooden slats with many baskets and barrels lined up in front of it and a woman working under an awning spread from the eves, a man wearing an apron standing by a brick over outside on the left; a man carrying pails on a halter from a tent with a water butt in the left foreground, where women sit watching their children play and gesturing towards a boy riding past them on a poney, while a man drives a cart along the path in the opposite direction. This is also from the "second series" and is labeled V in the upper left corner.

Etching Source: The British Museum https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1904-0819-631

BW of Watercolour Source: najecki.com

https://www.najecki.com/repro/reporimages/Current%20S%20Images%20page/Special-Images.html

View of a Sutler's Tent, by Paul Sandby, near the Serpentine River in Hyde Park, during the encampment; a voluptuous lady stands in foreground to left, holding up a glass to a soldier on horseback, to the right a mother sits with her child on her lap, two more children on grass, a washing line and more tents behind; plate VI.

Source: The British Museum

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1904-0819-622

View in Hyde Park by Paul Sandby during the 1780 encampment; men and women drinking in a tent next to a ramshackle slatted structure with a sign inscribed 'Cary', on the right, with a soldier walking arm-in-arm with a woman across the foreground, laughing at a stout gouty man who sits sleeping in the extreme left, children playing on the right including a boy riding a broom, chased by a dog, while a man plays a pipe for a woman sitting beside him on a bank behind; plate IX.

Source: The British Museum https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1904-0819-625

Entitled, "View of the late Encampment in St. James's Park, August 1780., 1 December 1780". Engraved by James Fittler after Paul Sandby.

Source: The British Museum

https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/work-of-art/view-of-the-late-encampment-in-st-jamess-park-august-1780

View in Hyde Park during the encampment, with a small portable shelter on wheels to the left, with stairs down from the entrance, a few men at entrance; a soldier standing guard in the foreground, many tents can be seen in the distance behind the trees on the right.

Source: The British Museum https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_G-4-175

Camp in Hyde Park, London, after Paul Sandby. Soldiers in right foreground talking with each other, others in background left and right, tents in centre and benches beyond, to left woman carrying child, with another beside her.

Source: The British Museum, UK https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1944-1014-172

Camp in Hyde Park, London, after Paul Sandby. Tent in right foreground and centre, with benches set up with tables inside, figures sit at tables, as woman in tent carries bowls, donkey to right with baskets on saddle and figures surrounding, to left three children play.

Source: The British Museum, UK https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1944-1014-171

View in Hyde Park during the encampment, looking towards St George's Row; in foreground a number of small tents erected, the first on the right with a washing line extending to the centre of the image, on the right a child has her hair combed, a dog begs near the entrance to the tent, on the left a man grimaces while having his hair combed, a woman washes clothes near to soldiers dressing, buildings and gate in background, a large tree on the right behind tents. The original uncolored etching by Paul Sandby is plate IIII. 1780.

Watercolour Print Source: The Yale Center for British Art https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:46495

Uncolored Etching Source: The British Museum https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1880-1113-1913

Camp in Hyde Park, London, after Paul Sandby; tree in right foreground, with figure sleeping in shade of branches, in centre woman irons sheets on grass, another stands behind with basket on her head, another sits beside them, two soldiers stand by watching, a drummer boy to left, tents to left in distance. Inscription content: Verso: inscribed and dated: "Drawn January 1785 by James Malton." The original Sandby etching entitled "The Laundress" is plate VIII, 1780.

Watercolour Print Source: The British Museum, UK https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1944-1014-173

Uncolored Etching Source: The British Museum, UK https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1904-0819-624