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In Guernsey Paget got down to as much training as the place would permit and laments that the "uncommonly fine recruits" which the Earl continued to find had to sleep on the transports and only come on shore for exercise presumably drill and maybe musketry. Obviously accommodation on the Island was limited and full. The fact that the Band were all gentlemen in appearance and behaviour would be some consolation to Paget's father for having to provide them with "Scarlet Cloath (superfine)." It was not all work at Guernsey, the Islanders being very friendly and hospitable and Harness mentions one party to celebrate a British naval victory, during which the senior officers of the 80th consumed an incredible amount of wine, which was cheap and good.
Paget accused the Governor, who feared invasion, of trying to keep the Regiment on the Island and there may have been some reason for the complaint. When Lord Moira sailed for Flanders the 80th did not accompany him and its Commanding Officer's indignation was inflamed by the fact his younger brother was in the thick of the fighting. At last orders came. , but there was a further delay before they could be implemented and meanwhile Paget was on a cruise in a ship lent by the navy and was very lucky to be landed in Holland about the same time as his men. As a regiment the 80th was almost consistently unfortunate in its sea voyages and this was certainly no exception. Leaving Guernsey on 3rd September 1794, the convoy was delayed for two weeks by contrary winds in the Downs and did not reach Flushing until the end of the month. The transports, which had recently visited the West Indies, had not been fumigated and the result of this neglect was that soon after disembarkation the 80th was stricken with a form of yellow fever and lost, from sickness or death, over a third of its strength.
In Flanders at this time the British Army had withdrawn behind the Dutch frontier. The lack of co-operation between the Allies has been mentioned and much of the reason for the failure of the campaign was the unreliability of the Austrians and Dutch, both of whom were subsidised by Britain with money which ought to have been spent on her own miserable troops. Apart from being unwilling to fight, the Dutch would not even go to the trouble and expense of fortifying their own towns and the Austrians were badly led and lacking in enterprise. With such Allies the Duke of York was in a most difficult situation; he himself had no experience as a commander and it is likely that much of his future fame as a first-class administrator was the result of the lessons learnt in Flanders.
