six
o'clock in the morning
If disinclined for this there was the cavalry canteen , with a large concert-room attached , where entertainments were given by music-hall singers brought down from London . The trumpeters and bandsmen had a barrack-room to themselves . Edgar , who had a healthy appetite , found the food of a very different description to that to which he had been accustomed . Although up at six o'clock in the morning , even in the winter , as it was , there was nothing to eat until eight . Then there was a mug of a weak fluid called tea , and an allowance of bread . The dinner , which was at one , consisted of an amount of meat scarcely sufficient for a growing boy ; for although had the allowance consisted entirely of flesh , it would have been ample , it was so largely reduced by the amount of bone and fat that the meat was reduced to a minimum . However , when eked out with potatoes and bread it sufficed well enough .