A “tattoo” in Thomas Hardy’s “The Trumpet-Major” and the annual Basel Tattoo

In Thomas Hardy's "The Trumpet-Major", the Royal Army's Dragoons show up in the village of Overcombe, and Anne Garland hears them break the silence of the night: "Louder sounds [...] came from the camp of dragoons, were taken up further to the right by the camp of the Hanoverians, and further on still by the body of infantry. It was tattoo." The "tattoo" is a military signal played on drums or bugles, but I only learned the term in 2006 with the first Basel Tattoo, a show of military bands that has taken place every summer since then (except for 2020 and 2021, when it was cancelled due to the pandemic). (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 14 November 2024)