Note 458 — 1844.

These particulars are chiefly collected from a paper by sergeant Hemming in the ‘Royal Engineer Professional Papers,’ i., pp. 31-39. This non-commissioned officer was pensioned at 1s. 8d. a-day, in May, 1845. Of his survey services Colonel Portlock gives an interesting outline in his prefatory remarks to the sergeant’s paper. His duties appear to have been confined chiefly to the mountains of Ireland, where in winter he was exposed to fearful inclemency and subjected to much hardship. “On one occasion,” says the Colonel, “I had to place a young gentleman, who had graduated at Cambridge, under the sergeant for instruction, to whose zeal, intelligence, and respectability the pupil warmly bore testimony. Before receiving his discharge, he was appointed clerk and storekeeper to the road department in Cape Town, and some idea of the responsibility of his office may be inferred from the fact that he expended in four years, 1844-48, upwards of 36,000l.!”