PENINSULAR WAR Illustrated diary kept by Charles Manners-Sutton, Judge-Advocate-General to the Forces, while on campaign with his brother, Colonel Francis Sutton of the Coldstream Guards, commanding the 21st Portuguese Regiment, dating from January to April 1811, the majority written on rectos only, illustrated with 18 line drawings (landscapes, views from their positions, peasants with oxen, etc.), beginning with his voyage aboard the Dannemark, his first impressions of Lisbon ('...The filthiness of the streets is indescribable...'), attending the carnival ('...throwing oranges, lemons, water & hair powder from their windows... my head was nearly crushed by a flower pot...'), meets with his brother ('...An Order for Marching in Pursuit of the French arrived at 11 o'clock...'), travelling through the countryside ('...Olive gardens & Vineyards in a State of Desolation, dead Horses, Mules and Donkies, House Furniture in Fragments... ...'), various billets along the way ('...billeted in a collection of Pig-Sties...'), the Combat of Guada, 29 March 1811 ('...swarming with Baggage, Horses, & French-men. Our Division was instantly formed in Columns of Attack... some of the Cavalry skirmished with the Enemy's Rear Guard, taking about 100 Prisoners...'), the battle of Sabugal on 3 April ('...the enemy took to their heels after suffering a heavy loss. During the heat of the Action I observed Signor Valados ducking his head, while the Balls whistled about his Ears, & holding his Hat before his Face...'), his view of Ciudad Rodrigo ('...the amphitheatrical Mountains by which that City is surrounded...'), the arrival of Wellington ('...Never was there a General who had more perfectly the Confidence of his Soldiers...'), news that '...Buonaparte has peremptorily commanded... to put his Force in Motion against us for the Relief of Almeida, & has ordered both that Fortress & Cuidad Rodrigo are to be defended to the utmost extremity...', Fuentes de Onoro, ('...A shell very nearly killed the greatest soldier of his life, having nearly sticken Lord Wellington... showers of shot, shells & musquetry... now increased to an absolute Tempest... Never did Soldiers of any Nation behave with more Gallantry than the Portuguese in this hard fought action...'), the last entry on 25 April ending '...our Division marches for Badajos to-morrow...', 137 leaves, some leaves excised, dust-staining, marks, edges frayed with some loss to later leaves, original ruled vellum with clasp, discoloured, marked and worn, oblong 8vo (138 x 185mm.), Iberian Peninsula, January to April 1811 Footnotes: 'NEVER DID SOLDIERS OF ANY NATION BEHAVE WITH MORE GALLANTRY THAN THE PORTUGUESE IN THIS HARD FOUGHT ACTION': A CIVILIAN'S IMPRESSION OF THE PENINSULAR WAR CAMPAIGN WITH AN ANGLO-PORTUGUESE REGIMENT. The author and artist of our entertaining journal Charles Manners-Sutton, 1st Viscount Canterbury (1780-1845), served as Judge Advocate General under Spencer Perceval and Lord Liverpool from 1809-1817 when elected Speaker of the House of Commons in 1817, holding the post for the next eighteen years. Here he relates his experiences with '...the 21st Portuguese Regt under the command of my Brother...', Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Manners-Sutton (1783-1825). The 21st Regiment played a part in most of the major battles of the Peninsular War under Harvey Champlemon and our account gives a rousing description of the battle of Sabugal, a notable Anglo-Portuguese victory. In comparison to a soldier's view of the war with its preoccupation with troop movements and the blood and thunder of battle, this account reads more like a travel journal in places, with the writer taking on the role of an interested onlooker: '...witnessed a beautiful skirmish...' he writes. Whilst giving precise details of the route of his journey, Sutton also gives evocative descriptions of a land at war, a regiment sweeping through the countryside in the wake of the French with '...the attendant horrors of a retreating enemy...', and experiences seemingly unexpected hardships ('...Our quarters are very warlike... dinner consisted of a Tenth Part of a Biscuit & a few very bad olives but appetite endowed them with an exquisite flavour...'). Whilst he witnesses the horrors of war ('...a very considerable number of drowned French...'), it is not without humour. After the battle of Sabugal he notes the plunder taken from the French includes, in addition to the usual pocket books and watches, '...the chief prize... a French Cook of most brilliant talents, with complete kitchen apparatus, viands, wines, liqueurs...' and a '...curious volume of love letters between a German Baroness & a French Officer...'. All this is interspersed with commentary on the weather ('...equal to severe Weather in England at Christmas...'), people, architecture, art, and food he encounters ('...tasted some sweet lemons, an experiment I never wish to repeat...'). He bathes with his brother in the Alva ('...the most frigid stream in Europe...'), and takes time out from observing the French on an opposite mountain ('...a solid column of Infantry flanked by Cavalry & Artillery...') to find a '...very beautiful sardonyx...' before rejoining the regiment. Sutton's account is a juxtaposition between the horrors of war and the landscape through which he travels ('...The jonquils with the Lavender carpeting the road... afforded the most delicious Perfume... the Desolation committed by the French had only in Part visited this Place...'), and is illustrated with some charming en plein air drawings. Provenance: William Allen Potter, bookplate. 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