ABSTRACT
The farewell dinners to the commanders of the British expedition continued during a period of six weeks in the early spring of 1854. By way of accompaniment, there were scenes of fervent popular support for the war as the most famous names among British regiments, the heroes of the Peninsula and Waterloo, marched off to battle. ‘Never such enthusiasm seen among the population’, wrote Charles Greville despondently in his diary. ‘Cold I am as a very stone to all that; seems to me privately I have hardly seen a madder business.’
