[
    {
        "id": 211814,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1989",
        "page_number": 229,
        "title": "RAS-1989",
        "content_text": "204\n\nPique delighted to honour, Marvellous is the ingenuity of Jack. Difficulties which would appal the ghost of Richardson* — that prince of theatrical improvisers, he makes nothing of it. Whether it be to prepare a great banquet hall or to erect a theatre, it is all the same to him and comes to his hands as readily as the marlin-spike. Huge guns disappear and hatchways vanish from the sight and are replaced by draperies and benches with all the quickness of enchantment. We sat looking around us at the proscenium, the footlights and the drop scene, representing a view on the late of Como, and fell difficult to remain in the belief that we were on board of one of H.M. 'ships of war' and not seated in a neat little theatre\". Thus far the impression of the surroundings.\n\nAbout the acting qualities the reviewer was equally in high spirits: in the Birthday, Captain Bertram R.N. proved to be “a gouty, choleric old gentleman, a very positive, perverse individual to boot and more than becomingly addicted to the occasional use of strong language\". All these little eccentricities were him forgiven, however, when \"we saw him yield to the impulses of nature and even felt a degree of alarm when he well nigh became smothered in the affectionate embrace of his loving and pretty — but somewhat bulky niece. (...) The songs of Dibdin appear to be no longer the prime favorites afloat they were half a century ago; and although we cannot but regret this, we were glad to find, from the specimens we listened to, that they have been superseded by not unworthy successors.\n\nThe trill of \n\nI've heard of foreign countries.\n\nThat are very fair to see\n\nBut England! dear old England!\n\nIs quite fair enough for me\n\nwas ringing in our ear, when it was joined in by notes of a different kind — the cheering notes, to wit, of the Dustman's Bell. We are quite converts to the doctrine that believes, for the moment, in the mimic scene which is enacting before us. How could we do otherwise at the sight of such a Dustman and such a Sally! It did one's heart good to look upon such a fresh, comely and good-looking face as Miss Sally's, and to hear the praise of it sung with such evident gusto by her honest lover in the lines:\n\nOf all the girls that dress so smart\n\nThere's none like pretty Sally\n\nShe is the darling of my heart\n\nAnd she lives in our Alley.\"\n\nRaising the Wind the reporter found not \"so brilliantly successful but not without its merit\".\n\nSumming up, his **still aching sides\" testified sufficiently to the \"care and trouble which the performers had taken to entertain their numerous audience'' (NCH 13.2.1858)\n\n10.2.1858 (Wedn)\n\nPELHAM HARDWICKE (= C. MATHEWS): \"A Bachelor of Arts\" (1853) T: Comic drama (2 acts)\n\nJ.M. MORTON: \"Done on Both Sides\" (1847)\n\nT: Farce (1 act)\n\nC: Amateurs\n\nF: Music by \"Messrs Phu & Mor\"\n\nTh: Theatre Royal (C)\n\n+\n\n* An allusion to John Richardson (1767?-1837), nicknamed \"the penny showman\"; in his performance of J.S. Knowles' (?) \"Virginius\" the ghost was the great effect (Dict. of Nat. Biogr., Vol. 48, p. 230-231).",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 213320,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1994",
        "page_number": 142,
        "title": "RAS-1994",
        "content_text": "123\n\nCasualties suffered by the Chinese were estimated at some twelve to fifteen hundred, with a powder factory and several arsenals destroyed.\n\nThe incident which has left its mark in regimental histories is now known as the Battle of the Joss-house. A small detachment of the Royal Irish were held up by some three hundred Manchu Tatars who, having seen their retreat cut off by the Naval Brigade, had taken cover in a small Buddhist temple, the Temple of Reverence for Heaven, between two hills, one of which was Kuan Yin Shan, with a single entrance guarded by an internal 'spun wall'. The stubborn valour of the Tatar soldiers cost the Royal Irish dear. After an initial sortie, their detachment commander, Lieutenant A. Murray, drew off his men to wait for reinforcements. The next assault by a small number of men from both the Royal Irish and the 49th (Hertfordshires) had already been repelled with at least one killed and several wounded. A company of the Royal Irish, commanded by Captain Edwards, was intercepted in its advance and, accompanied by Colonel Tomlinson, who had heard what was passing, proceeded to the valley and joined the small body blockading the joss house. While the platoon of the Royal Irish waited for the rest of the battalion to come up, Lieutenant Murray was approached by the Hertfordshire's battalion commander who, having been warned that the temple was strongly manned, was understood to have made \"an injudicious and undeserved remark\" which was overheard by Colonel Tomlinson. They were now a force considered strong enough by Tomlinson to carry the building at the point of the bayonet, and Tomlinson's reaction to what he must have taken as a slur on Irish courage, his regiment or himself, was immediately to call for the men of the Royal Irish and the Hertfordshires to follow him and storm the temple. He rushed in at the temple door where he was shot dead with two bullets through the neck and all who had accompanied him were either killed or wounded. After Tomlinson had fallen, it became almost impossible to prevent the Royal Irish from rushing madly at the temple, for the men burned to avenge their Colonel, whom they described as \"the best officer who ever said 'Come-on' to a grenadier company\". In more formal language, General Gough recorded the same opinion, saying in his despatch that Tomlinson fell \"in full career of renown, honoured by the troops, and lamented by all\". The defenders, who were determined to fight to the bitter end, held out against assaults by the Royal Irish and part of the Naval Brigade, until Sappers under a Captain Pears finally used a 50-pound bag of powder to bring down the thick walls, after a party of Gunners commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Knowles who had brought...",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 214290,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1998",
        "page_number": 148,
        "title": "RAS-1998",
        "content_text": "111\n\nthough they also had some on their war junks. The war junks were of much smaller size than the large men of war of the British navy. Generally they only had one gun deck although they were beginning to realise that they needed to have better ships and Mackenzie1 records that a start had been made as early as 1841. The batteries of the various forts were not short in numbers of guns, and Mackenzie records that the North Wangtung fort mounted 167 guns ranging in size from 3 to 64 pounders. What they did lack was the ability to aim them efficiently. Their accuracy was not good, and Mackenzie notes: \"The carriages are also most clumsy, and owing to this they are unable to train the piece to bear on any particular object, but fire it off point blank\"17. It is, therefore, no surprise that they were no match for the European ships, or even the gun boats such as the Nemesis which only mounted a couple of 32 pounders.\n\nOne would have expected the shore batteries to have given a better account for themselves; however, even the batteries at the Bogue Forts were not well directed. Ouchterlony said of their efforts to dislodge a battery of howitzers set up in the middle of South Wangtung, an island well within range of the fort: \"...it will convey some idea of their miserable deficiency in gunnery, to remark that during all that time, although many guns in the southern horns of the half-moon batteries on Wangtung bore upon it, not a single casualty occurred amongst Captain Knowles' party.\"\n\n# 18\n\nAs regards field guns, the Chinese did not have much use for them as they were generally on the defensive. However, they did have an interesting variety that was mounted on a form of wheelbarrow, but these were only found in an arsenal and not in service. They also used gingals (also spelt gingall or jingal, from the Hindustani jangal), which is a large musket about twenty pounds in weight and when fired is supported either on a swivel mounting or by a second man. A photograph taken around 1910 by Leone Nani20 shows a large matchlock musket being supported on an assistant's shoulder, and specimens of similar dimensions, probably dating from the early twentieth century, were seen in the New Territories of Hong Kong in the 1970s by the author. Weapons of similar size (about eight feet long) but of more modern design were also in use at the time of the Boxer uprising (1900)21. The size of its shot varied. Loch22 observed gingals that required three men to operate and which fired a ball of about 2 pounds. However,",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794",
        "rank": 0
    }
]