proffered his services as a volunteer substitute. In 1816, he was enrolled in the Northumberland Militia, instead of a William Appleby, a hind living at Togston Barns, for which he received a bounty of twelve guineas and a crown. In 1821 he went as a substitute for a Thomas Barclay, joiner, of Warkworth, and got nine guineas and a crown. Again in 1826 he joined the ranks of the Northumberland Militia for Thomas Brown, of Spy law, near Alnwick, and was paid the sum of seven guineas and a crown. This old veteran boasted that he had served under three kings of England, George III, George IV, and William IV, and he also told me that as a militiaman he got a shilling to drink the health of George IV. on his coronation day, and the same on the coronation of William IV.

Various are the schemes now being brought forward as to the best means of procuring a sufficient number of men for the purpose of increasing the strength of our army at home and abroad. Our forefathers, at a great crisis in our history, also had this same difficulty, which was much lessened by the number of volunteers from the ranks of the militia. In the county of Northumberland alone, between the years 1803 and 1814, upwards of 100,000 men of the militia were drafted into the army. About this period the militia itself was embodied, and stationed in the south of England for several years. We read in Sykes's Local Records,—‘[1813], November 15, and the following day, the Northumberland militia passed through Newcastle, on its route to Scotland. The van division of the regiment, which was headed by lieut.-colonel Coulson, was, on its entrance into the town, greeted with a salute of guns from the old castle, the bells of St. Nicholas' church rang a peal, and every demonstration of joy was displayed, in compliment to the 'Lads of the Tyne.' The crowds of people assembled to meet them were immense; Dean street was completely blocked as they marched up. The regiment had not been in Newcastle for upwards of ten years. June 24th, 1814, this regiment was disembodied at Alnwick; they had been in actual service upwards of eleven years.' How different does the following paragraph read, taken from the columns of one of our daily papers only last month :

The Militia is a force that is always neglected by the public, and gently snubbed by the officials, and no exception is made to the rule at the present time. The Militia Infantry regiments going out to South Africa are most of them splendid bodies of men, but their departure makes little stir, whereas crowds

shout themselves hoarse for the Regulars and the Volunteers.

The Militia has

always been the Cinderella of the forces, and seeing how regiment after regiment has in its entirety volunteered for the front, it is rather a reproach to us all that it should go unrecognized.15

In conclusion, I shall quote Dryden's satirical lines :

And raw in fields the rude Militia swarms:

Mouths without hands: maintained at vast expense;

In peace a charge, in war a weak defence:

Stout once a month they march, a blustering band,
And ever, but in times of need, at hand.

Whatever may have been the case in Dryden's day, I am sure those of us who witnessed the review on the town moor last year, must have been struck by the excellent physique, martial bearing, and steady marching past of the Durham Militia and of the 3rd Northumberland Fusiliers-our own County Militia.

15 The Daily Telegraph, Jan. 15, 1900.

VOL. XXII:

VI.-OBITUARY NOTICES OF DECEASED MEMBERS.

1. The late SHERITON HOLMES, a vice-president, and for many years the treasurer of the society.

By F. W. DENDY.

[Read on the 30th of May, 1900.]

On the 2nd of May, 1900, the members of the society lost by death one of their most valued and esteemed colleagues, the late Mr. Sheriton Holmes, who became a member in 1877, was elected on the council in 1883, served the society as its honorary treasurer from 1890 to 1900, and was appointed a vice-president in the year preceding his death. Sheriton Holmes was born at 35, Wellington Street, South Shields, on the 17th of March, 1829. He was the son of Ralph Holmes of that place and of Elizabeth, his wife, formerly Elizabeth Sheriton of Dinnington, whose sister, Anne Sheriton, married William Swan of Walker, and was the mother of a numerous family, including our member, Mr. Henry F. Swan of North Jesmond, and his sister, the late Mrs. Charles Mitchell of Jesmond Towers.

Mr. Holmes was educated at a private school in Wharfedale, whither he travelled by coach, the railway, at that time, having been only completed as far north as Darlington.

He was articled in 1845 to Mr. John Bourne, formerly of Newcastle and afterwards of Leeds, civil engineer and land agent, a connection of his mother's family. The growth of the railway system was at that time extending throughout the north of England and in the south of Scotland, and, during his articles, he was employed in surveying portions of the Newcastle and Berwick railway, the Caledonian line, the branch railway to Langholm, and the line from Northallerton to Stockton. After serving his time he became connected with many railway and engineering enterprises in Yorkshire, and in the north of England, and he then went to London for a time and assisted Sir George Bruce in various undertakings in different parts of England, including railways in Wiltshire and Gloucestershire. In 1863 he laid down buoys off Whitley to mark the measured knot. He was resident engineer for a portion of the Border Counties line (now the Waverley route of the North British

OF THE SOCIETY.