Military review at Hounslow Heath, 1686 (Hounslow Heath, Greater London, UK) 51°27'21"N 00°23'20"W

A high oblique view and diagram of the English army encamped on Hounslow Heath on 19 August 1686.

According to McKinnon (1833), a battalion of the Coldstream Guards was ordered to march to the camp at Hounslow in May 1686 in order to be present at a ‘grand review’ which was to take place on 30 June. Macaulay (1911) records that ‘[The king] formed a camp on Hounslow Heath, and collected there, within a circumference of about two miles and a half, fourteen battalions of foot and thirty-two squadrons of horse, amounting to thirteen thousand fighting men. Twenty-six pieces of artillery, and many wains laden with arms and ammunition, were dragged from the Tower through the city to Hounslow. The Londoners saw this great force assembled in their neighbourhood with a terror which familiarity soon diminished. A visit to Hounslow became their favourite amusement on holidays. The camp presented the appearance of a vast fair. Mingled with the musketeers and dragoons, a multitude of fine gentlemen and ladies from Soho Square, sharpers and painted women from Whitefriars, invalids in sedans, monks in hoods and gowns, lacqueys in rich liveries, pedlars, orange girles, mischievous apprentices and gaping clowns, was constantly passing and repassing through the long lanes of tents. From some pavilions were heard the noises of drunken revelry, from others the curse of gamblers. In truth, the place was merely a gay suburb of the capital.’

Additional text: [bottom, below view, in eight columns, a key, A-I, K, X, 1- 19, L-O, a-f, Q-T, Z, to the regiments and officers' tents.]

For further reading, see:
T.B. Macaulay, The history of England from the accession of James II, Cambridge, 2011, pp.102-103.
D. Mckinnon, Origins and services of the Coldstream Guards, 2 vols, London, 1833, vol.1, p.186.

Condition: seven old fold lines; worn, torn and dirty along old folds; heavy general surface dirt; two large areas of the title missing; small area of bottom right margin cut away, bottom right; old repairs made by laying the whole print down on paper.