THE OLDEST CHARGER IN THE ARMY.

West Coast Times, Issue 3217, 17 January 1876, Page 2

THE OLDEST CHARGER IN THE ARMY.

Colonel Kent, 77th Regiment, has favored Land and Water with the following particulars of his fine old charger, which excited such attention at the Balaklaya anniversary at the Alexandra Palace: — The history df my fine gallant old charger is io' ve"ry" remarkable ■' a one, that it deserves to be known, as he is probably the most travelled horse in the world, and cannot possibly be less than twenty-five years old, and I am glad of this opportunity of Baking"' ft public through:' the medium of your excellent paper.^ He is a high caste Arab, and came up with the 10th Htosarir from'Bonibay, through' Egypt and Constantinople, to the Crimea, wHere thY late Colonel Stratton, of my regiment, b'ongtit him",' arid rode l hitn all' thr"otigh n tfie latter part of tfie ' war. Hb 'theft" ace'dfifpanied the regiment this country, and was for some time at Aldershot and Dublin, where Me embarked with the 1 tegrnient in 1857, and went ou~t with~ it rouad the Cape to Australia, a distance of, 15,0,00 miles. He then went out with the regiment during the mutiny in India, ano'tner 5000 miles, ' and has* marched 'with it all the' w&s from Calcutta"'-^ PrisHov^ &t one extremity, and to Bombay at the pth,er extremity of India. Finally, in 1870, he came home through the Suez Canel to Liverpool, Portsmouth, Portland, Aidershot, Chatham, and Woolwich, where he was until the ■ other day, when, at the request of the directors of the Alexandra Palace, I sent him to the Bal'alda'va/eie, a distinction of which he may well be" proud* There is not a sign ot age about him, and he carries just as fine a coat now as he did in his young days, when he was' ridden by Lord Strathna'irn, and other officers of distinction. I rode him myself the other day when His Royal Highness the FieldMarshal Commauding-in-Chief was at Woolwich, and he never carried me better, or looked more Bhowy," — Home correspondent Q.tago T, imes.