Should this work meet with the approbation of the public, I hope at
a future time to publish an additional one, as my memory still serves
me with sufficient materials for another volume of a similar kind.

R. H. Gronow.





MY ENTRANCE INTO THE ARMY


After leaving Eton, I received an Ensign's commission in the First Guards
during the month of December, 1812. Though many years have elapsed,
I still remember my boyish delight at being named to so distinguished
a regiment, and at the prospect of soon taking a part in the glorious
deeds of our army in Spain. I joined in February 1813, and cannot but
recollect with astonishment how limited and imperfect was the instruction
which an officer received at that time: he absolutely entered the army
without any military education whatever. We were so defective in our
drill, even after we had passed out of the hands of the sergeant, that
the excellence of our non-commissioned officers alone prevented us from
meeting with the most fatal disasters in the face of the enemy. Physical
force and our bull-dog energy carried many a hard-fought field. Luckily,
nous avons change tout cela, and our officers may now vie with those
of any other army in an age when the great improvements in musketry,
in artillery practice, and in the greater rapidity of manoeuvring, have
entirely changed the art of war, and rendered the individual education
of those in every grade of command an absolute necessity.