GENERAL 
 SIE EDWARD BEUCE HAMLEY 
 
 K.C.B., K.C.M.G.
 
 st<i/&^<^0Ls' fT~~G<~*^**sC'C^Y
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 GENERAL 
 
 SIR EDWARD BRUCE HAMLEY 
 
 K.C.B., K.C.M.G. 
 
 BY 
 
 ALEXANDEK INNES SHAND 
 
 WITH TWO PORTRAITS 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES 
 VOL. I. 
 
 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS 
 
 EDINBURGH AND LONDON 
 
 MDCCCXCV 
 
 All Rights reserved
 
 READERS of this biography will find in its pages 
 the names of many distinguished soldiers and 
 civilians to whom I have to return heartfelt 
 thanks for time and trouble most generously 
 bestowed. More than one of the former who 
 could speak with exceptional authority on some- 
 what delicate subjects have preferred to remain 
 anonymous. But there is a friend to whom I 
 feel bound to recognise a very special debt of 
 gratitude. Colonel Gleig was the lifelong associ- 
 ate and confidant of Hamley from days of cadet- 
 ship at Woolwich. He has supplied the personal 
 recollections which could have come from no other 
 source. His acute critical faculty and his rare 
 professional knowledge have been ungrudgingly 
 exercised in a searching examination of the 
 proofs ; and to him I am indebted for guidance 
 and suggestions in the matters that are more 
 strictly military and technical. 
 
 2017698
 
 VI 
 
 Most important of all was the help of Miss 
 Barbara Hamley. The adopted daughter and 
 literary executrix of her uncle not only placed 
 freely at my disposal all his diaries, note-books, 
 and confidential papers, but, associating herself 
 with Colonel Gleig in the thoughtful revision of 
 the chapters, suggested much that was essential to 
 an intimate acquaintance with the real character 
 and innermost life of a man who had won the 
 devoted attachment of all who knew him well, 
 but who was fated to be grievously misunder- 
 stood and misrepresented. 
 
 OAKDALE, EDENBRIDGE, KENT, 
 May 1895.
 
 CONTENTS OF THE EIRST VOLUME, 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 THE HAMLEY FAMILY. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction The Hamleys of Halwyn The Ogilvys Ad- 
 miral Hamley His sons Edward's boyhood Early traits 
 Illustrating a murder trial 1 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 THE ARTILLERY SUBALTERN. 
 
 Eoyal Military Academy Cadet land Colonel Gleig's remin- 
 iscences Gazetted to the artillery Canada Dr Bent An 
 Independence Day episode Readings Res angustce The 
 north of England Turn for caricaturing First literary 
 efforts 19 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 IN GARRISON AT GIBRALTAR. 
 
 Life on the Rock First connection with ' Blackwood ' The 
 ' Legend of Gibraltar ' ' Lazaro's Legacy ' ' Lady Lee's 
 Widowhood' Letters to John Blackwood Trip to Bar- 
 bary Lady friends Funeral of Canuelo .... 39
 
 viii CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 THE CRIMEAN CAMPAIGN. 
 
 Appointed adjutant to Sir Kichard Dacres Departure for the 
 East Scutari Letters to Miss Jones An accident 
 Varna ' The Campaign of Sebastopol ' Hamley at Inker- 
 man In the trenches Literary merits of the 'Campaign' 
 Description of the Alma Crimean scenery Letters to 
 John Blackwood On the eve of the Eedan ... 66 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 Return from Crimea Crimean honours Leith Fort First 
 meeting with John Blackwood De Quincey ' The Recent 
 Confessions of an Opium-Eater ' Review of 'Bothwell' 
 Literary acquaintances The Sturgises Editing ' Tales 
 from Blackwood ' 101 
 
 CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 PROFESSOR AT THE STAFF COLLEGE. 
 
 Life at Sandhurst Hamley's lectures The Delanys Work 
 
 for 'Maga' Studies of Carlyle 118 
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 LIFE AT THE STAFF COLLEGE. 
 
 Offered a seat in Parliament Hunting The American civil 
 war' Wellington's Campaigns ' " The Fight for the Belt " 
 Criticisms on George Eliot and on Mrs Oliphant W. 
 W. Story Differences with Blackwood about Kinglake's 
 'Crimea' Death of Charles Hamley Captain Charles 
 Chesney Appointed to the Council of Military Education 133
 
 CONTENTS. ix 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 ' THE OPERATIONS OP WAR.' 
 
 Scope of the work Difficulties in the study of military history 
 Warfare in the days of chivalry Communications Con- 
 siderations preliminary to a campaign Questions of strat- 
 egy The influence of obstacles Tactics . . . .161 
 
 CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 THE COUNCIL OP MILITARY EDUCATION. 
 
 Chambers in the Albany Club-life at the Athenaeum Letters 
 from Von Moltke and American generals on ' The Opera- 
 tions of War ' Commission for the delimitation of electoral 
 districts Eeviewing Kinglake's ' Crimea ' Appointment 
 as Commandant of the Staff College . . . .179 
 
 CHAPTEE X. 
 
 COMMANDANT OP STAFF COLLEGE. 
 
 The system Changes introduced by Hamley His interest in 
 the students His recreations Friendship with the late 
 Duke of Wellington A bargain in horse-flesh . . 202 
 
 CHAPTEE XL 
 
 LITERARY RECREATIONS. 
 
 " Shakespeare's Funeral " ' Voltaire ' in " Foreign Classics " 
 
 Leaves the Staff College 222 
 
 CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 THE SYSTEM OF OUTPOSTS. 
 
 The Horse Guards and Hamley's system Trial at Aldershot 
 
 Publication of pamphlet Characteristics of the system 238
 
 x CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE BULGARIAN DELIMITATION COMMISSION. 
 
 Visit to Italy Appointed to the Turkish and Bulgarian Com- 
 mission The position of the frontier question Communi- 
 cations with the Foreign Office Arrival at Constantinople 
 The Commissioners Delimitation work Letter to the 
 Duke of Cambridge 244 
 
 CHAPTEE XIV. 
 
 THE BULGARIAN DELIMITATION COMMISSION Continued. 
 
 Travel in the Balkans Picturesque scenery Victims of the 
 war Feelings of the population Enmity between Chris- 
 tians and Mohammedans Arrival at Varna Difficulties 
 with the Russian authorities, and embarkation of the horses 264 
 
 CHAPTEE XV. 
 
 ON THE BOSPHORUS. 
 
 Life at Buyukdere Delays in the completion of the topogra- 
 phical survey Difficulties successfully surmounted Ap- 
 proval of the Foreign Office Is made a Knight of the 
 Order of St Michael and St George . . 284
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS TO THE FIRST VOLUME. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PORTRAIT OF GENERAL HAMLET .... Frontispiece 
 
 DODDINGTON FAIR .... .59 
 
 "TRYING THE TROTTING MARE" ..... 65
 
 LIFE OF Sffi EDWAED B. HAMLET, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE HAMLEY FAMILY. 
 
 INTRODUCTION THE HAMLEYS OF HALWYN THE OGILVYS 
 
 ADMIRAL HAMLEY HIS SONS EDWARD'S BOYHOOD EARLY 
 
 TRAITS ILLUSTRATING A MURDER TRIAL. 
 
 To write the Life of Sir Edward Hamley might 
 task the powers of any man. Few but himself 
 could have done satisfactory justice to his versa- 
 tile genius and to the various sides of his character. 
 We should have been glad, indeed, had he left 
 an autobiography ; yet in any autobiography he 
 would have done himself but imperfect justice. 
 We should have heard but little of the delightful 
 personal traits which give life and colour to an 
 autobiography ; and we should have learned still 
 less of the adventures and hair-breadth escapes 
 VOL. i. A
 
 2 THE HAMLEY FAMILY. 
 
 which came often enough to him in the course 
 of his campaigning. It was only incidentally, 
 and in the familiarity of unreserved conversation, 
 that he would recall the thrilling experiences 
 he seemed to have wellnigh forgotten. To do 
 him the justice he would have denied himself, 
 his biographer ought to have many qualifications 
 to which I make no manner of pretension. I 
 can only plead if I may be forgiven the in- 
 dispensable personal allusion that although in 
 later years I was privileged to enjoy his intimate 
 friendship, I shall nevertheless do my best to be 
 impartial. No one could have had less patience 
 than himself with a chronicler who should ignore 
 his failings or his foibles. 
 
 As a staff officer of artillery in the Crimea, and 
 as the commander of a division in the Egyptian 
 campaign of 1882, his services were of a very dis- 
 tinguished character. But it is as scientific master 
 of the art of war that his claims to professional 
 distinction are most conspicuous and exceptional. 
 As Professor of Military History, and subsequently 
 Commandant of the Staff College, he had the 
 charge of teaching and training the intellectual 
 elite of the army. These congenial occupations 
 were singularly favourable to the conception of 
 his great work on ' The Operations of War/ It 
 has passed through five successive editions, and
 
 SIB EDWARD'S LITERARY GIFTS. 3 
 
 has ever since it appeared been the recognised 
 authority on strategy and tactics. It is difficult 
 to overrate the military genius and position of 
 a man who writes a text-book, not for the use 
 of mere scholars and students, but for skilled 
 veterans of unrivalled practical experience. He 
 becomes the standing counsel of leaders in the 
 fields which are to decide the fate of kingdoms and 
 the future of nations. In other departments of 
 literature, light or serious, Hamley was equally at 
 home. His command of style was extraordinary, 
 and his pen was as sure as swift ; in fact, his was 
 a brain which ever sought relief in some fresh form 
 of activity, and his mental energy rose superior to 
 circumstances. So in all the horrors and hard- 
 ships of the Winter Campaign he found leisure for 
 the series of graphic letters which dramatically 
 told the story of the siege. He threw off brilliant 
 stories, which were succeeded by a delightful novel ; 
 he was a graceful poet, an admirable translator of 
 French verse, and, after he had come home from 
 the East, he was perhaps the most valued con- 
 tributor to 'Blackwood's Magazine.' 
 
 It is characteristic that, with all this variety of 
 work, we learn little of the man from his writ- 
 ings. His opinions are unmistakably expressed, 
 but his individuality is kept in the background. 
 Yet so dexterous an artist must have known
 
 4 THE HAMLEY FAMILY, 
 
 well that judicious egotism would have greatly 
 heightened the effects. I believe the truth to be, 
 that to the last, whether in person or with the 
 pen, he could never overcome a constitutional shy- 
 ness, which strangers certainly would never have 
 suspected. Reserve was often mistaken for cold- 
 ness, and did him much injustice. Only those 
 who had the privilege of his intimacy, and who, 
 moreover, enjoyed opportunities of frequent in- 
 tercourse, saw Hamley at his brightest and best. 
 He was never more fascinating than on the rare 
 occasions when he was led on to indulge in per- 
 sonal reminiscences. He had an extraordinarily 
 quick and almost nervous sense of humour, and 
 no story ever lost by his telling it. He had 
 travelled much, officially and otherwise ; and his 
 habits and pursuits had brought him into contact 
 with all manner of men. Subtle foreign diplo- 
 matists might have been surprised to learn how 
 shrewdly he had read their characters and pur- 
 poses. It is to be regretted that he was not 
 more of a letter- writer ; but with the solitary 
 exception of his friend John Blackwood, he had 
 no regular confidential correspondent. 
 
 Sir Edward Bruce Hamley, though he never 
 boasted of it, was proud of his descent from Cor- 
 nishmen and Shetlanders. He showed any latent
 
 CORNISH AND VIKING ANCESTRY. 5 
 
 pride of ancestry by the fondness with which he 
 used to allude to Bodmin and the Shetland Isles. 
 Yet he had only revisited his birthplace, since he 
 left it for Woolwich, in the course of an occa- 
 sional Cornish tour. Those who hold to the 
 doctrines of heredity might have found illustra- 
 tions to prove their case in the latest genera- 
 tion of the Hamleys. They had the stalwart 
 frames and the indomitable resolution of the 
 Cornishmen ; as, on the other hand, they had 
 something of the adventurous romance of a race 
 which had settled among the descendants of 
 Norwegian Vikings. The Hamleys there are 
 various spellings of the name had been domes- 
 ticated in Cornwall from the time of the Con- 
 quest. With the list of their Cornish lands 
 they filled a page in Domesday Book. Those 
 great possessions had gradually dwindled. But 
 even in the beginning of the present century 
 they still possessed the family estate of Halwyn, 
 in the parish of St Mabyn. Latterly the Ham- 
 leys had had ill-luck, even to the destruction of 
 their sepulchral monuments in the quaint little 
 church of St Mabyn. Unfortunately, towards 
 the end of last century the church had become 
 ruinous, and it was necessary to rebuild. The 
 restorers of that age of vandalism were even more 
 ruthless than now, and more utilitarian and eco-
 
 6 THE HAMLEY FAMILY. 
 
 nomical. At the time an illegitimate member of 
 the House of Hamley chanced to fill the offices of 
 sexton and clerk. He heard with dismay of the 
 proposed demolition of the interior of the chancel, 
 and even dared to threaten the vicar with the 
 vengeance of the knight of the shire if "he so 
 much as touched one veather of an hangel's 
 wing." However, the vicar had his own way, 
 and demolished the monuments with their guard- 
 ian angels. 
 
 Hamley was descended from the old Scottish 
 house of Ogilvy through his mother Barbara. 
 The first of the Ogilvys to settle in Shetland was 
 John Ogilvy, a surgeon in the Life Guards of 
 King James, who went there after the battle of 
 the Boyne. He belonged to the Ogilvys of Mil- 
 ton, a branch of the House of Findlater, and 
 he married Elizabeth, daughter of John Niven 
 of Luning, who brought him a dowry as a co- 
 heiress. There was no one of Scott's novels 
 and they were his favourite reading in which 
 the descendant of the refugee took greater pleasure 
 than in ' The Pirate/ although he preferred many 
 of the others as works of art. He delighted in 
 the descriptions of the roosts and voes, and of the 
 free-handed hospitality of the fiery old udaller. 
 
 Bodmin and the Hamleys have been immemori- 
 ally connected. It was their "county town" in
 
 THE OLD CORNISH HOME. 7 
 
 the reigns of the Plantagenets. Edward and his 
 brothers were born in one of the older houses, 
 though the family removed a few years after his 
 birth to a residence in the outskirts. He always 
 retained a warm affection for the picturesque old 
 borough, with the two leading thoroughfares of 
 Fore Street and Back Street, and the labyrinths 
 of steep lanes and sunless passages. A letter 
 written to an aunt from a mud-hut before Sebas- 
 topol is filled with local allusions which were sure 
 to delight the old lady. The Hamleys had 
 been dying out, as they had been losing their 
 lands, but the grandfather left a vigorous and 
 promising family. The sons, for generations, had 
 been in the habit of serving the King, and 
 Edward's father entered the navy. When he 
 married, he naturally settled at Bodmin ; but 
 during the long war he was almost constantly at 
 sea, and the visits to his Cornish home were few 
 and short. Not many months before his own 
 death, Sir Edward happened to mention to the 
 present writer all he knew of his father. Few 
 naval officers had done more useful work : he had 
 seldom to make interest about going to sea, and he 
 died a Vice-Admiral, although, as with Bittmeister 
 Dalgetty, promotion " came dooms slow." He saw 
 much dashing service in the way of cutting out 
 vessels from under batteries, and capturing priva-
 
 8 THE HAMLEY FAMILY. 
 
 teers and smugglers. For long and in successive 
 ships he was flag-lieutenant to the Hon. Captain 
 Cadogan, who was famous for putting his ship's 
 companies in the way of peril and prize-money. 
 In 1806 Lieutenant Hamley specially distinguished 
 himself at the capture of the Dalmatian stronghold 
 of Zara, which had fallen into the hands of the 
 French. He landed in command of the attacking 
 force, and hauling the ship -guns up the hills 
 with seaman-like skill, compelled the surrender of 
 the fortress. The Austrian Emperor showed his 
 gratitude by sending the Lieutenant the Cross of 
 Leopold and a medal of gold, with an autograph 
 letter couched in most flattering terms. The letter 
 was lost, but the cross and medal were treasured as 
 heirlooms, and were in the possession of Sir Edward 
 at his death. There was a sword, too, richly 
 damascened, which had been given up in token of 
 surrender by the French officer commanding the 
 fortress. It disappeared like the letter when the 
 home at Bodmin was broken up, and most unac- 
 countably. Though, indeed, " Ned " as a child had 
 done his best to lose it, for the future soldier seldom 
 missed a chance of making prize of the tempting 
 weapon when his nurse's back was turned. 
 
 The Admiral had four sons. Three of them 
 went into the service. The fourth, who bears the 
 family name of Wymond, and who still survives,
 
 MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM HAMLEY. 9 
 
 was Collector of Customs in Vancouver's Island, 
 and is now retired, living in British Columbia. 
 Of the eldest, William George, who died a Major- 
 General of Engineers in April 1893, a word or two 
 ought to be said in passing. He served much of 
 his time in the West Indies, and to his familiarity 
 with their scenery, society, and customs we are 
 indebted for some delightful novels and tales. 
 It is the opinion of the best judges that, since 
 Michael Scott gave us ' Tom Cringle ' and 
 ' The Cruise of the Midge/ there has been no 
 brighter or more picturesque book on Jamaica 
 than ' Captain Clutterbuck's Champagne.' He 
 was Acting Governor of the Bermudas in eventful 
 times. The blockade-runners of the American 
 war brought over the yellow fever in chests of 
 infected clothing. The epidemic came rapidly to 
 a head, and its ravages were frightful. Though 
 the islands were threatened by a Fenian descent, 
 the Governor got rid of all the troops he could pos- 
 sibly spare. Each day he made a regular round 
 of the hospitals, till in his turn he was stricken 
 down. He recovered, but he never altogether 
 rallied from the consequences of a prolonged and 
 severe struggle. Though his figure was command- 
 ing and his appearance robust, his constitution 
 had been already shattered as a young subaltern. 
 Exposure during a severe winter had done the
 
 10 THE HAMLEY FAMILY. 
 
 mischief. His tent was blown away night after 
 night when he was employed on the Ordnance 
 Survey in the Boss-shire Highlands, and he had 
 been left shelterless till the morning. After his 
 return from the Bermudas his life was one long 
 martyrdom from sciatica and acute rheumatic 
 pains, when restless days would succeed the 
 broken nights. But nothing could sour that 
 sweet temper or quell the irrepressible intel- 
 lectual energy. Enfeebled by pain, he would 
 pull himself together to write one of his thought- 
 ful articles for ' Blackwood ' when he was one 
 of ' Maga's ' regular contributors. We are re- 
 minded of Scott writhing on the sofa with cramp 
 in the stomach, while dictating ' The Bride of 
 Lammermoor' to Laidlaw or John Ballantyne. 
 For his contributions under those distressing cir- 
 cumstances were playful and imaginative as well 
 as grave ; and, like Scott, his serene manhood 
 would assert itself the moment the paroxysms 
 were past. 
 
 To Charles, who entered the Boyal Marines, 
 and rose to the rank of colonel, Edward seems 
 to have been specially attached. In any let- 
 ters to members of the family he is always 
 affectionately spoken of as Charley. Charles 
 Hamley was on board H.M.S. Pique at the 
 siege of Acre, and served with the Fleet in the
 
 A LATE CHRISTENING CEREMONY. 11 
 
 Baltic at the taking of Bomarsund. He was 
 the author of several articles in ' Blackwood,' 
 written from the Baltic. 1 But death cut short 
 a promising career, and of Colonel Charles I 
 shall have more to say when his sorrowing 
 brother was in attendance on the deathbed. 
 
 Edward, who was born in 1824, was the young- 
 est of the brothers. He was early addicted to 
 hero - worship, and he said he used to look on 
 those seniors of his as " tremendous fellows," 
 when they were got up for church parade in 
 gorgeous Sunday raiment. Strangely enough, 
 he was five years old at his public christening ; 
 and his brother Wymond, who was received into 
 the Church at the same time, was three years 
 older, though both boys had been privately bap- 
 tised as infants. The reason is said to have been 
 that the ceremony was deferred till their father 
 came back from one of his cruises, although that 
 is scarcely a satisfactory explanation. 
 
 1 " We have great pleasure in publishing the following graphic 
 description of the Baltic in 1855. Another admirable paper from 
 the same pen, 'Aland and the Baltic in 1854,' will be in the recollec- 
 tion of our readers. The writer seems to us a worthy brother-in- 
 arms of our gallant friend who has, month after month, with a 
 regularity which no hardship, no difficulty, no labour, could in- 
 terrupt, sent us a continuous, lucid, and often eloquent narrative 
 of all that has taken place in the Crimea since the landing at 
 Eupatoria." Editorial Note, ' Blackwood's Magazine,' August 1855, 
 in " The Baltic in 1855."
 
 12 THE HAMLEY FAMILY. 
 
 The Church of England at the time took things 
 remarkably easily, and Methodism had made good 
 its footing among the Cornish farmers and miners. 
 Ned while a mere child had the honour of being 
 made the subject of a sermon. His nurse, who 
 was a member of the communion of the Wesleys 
 and Whitefield, had taken her young charge to 
 the chapel, where a fervid cobbler held forth on 
 Sundays. The preacher had the genius of his 
 vocation, and seized on opportunities for improv- 
 ing an occasion as he saw them. Ned was wear- 
 ing one of the gold-laced and tasselled caps which 
 had moved his envy when worn by his elder 
 brothers. The orator made it the text for a pas- 
 sionate invective against the pomps and vanities 
 of this sinful world. 
 
 Hamley was always an adventurous little fellow. 
 He used to tell his niece how one day he had 
 found the horse of the family doctor hitched on 
 to the garden gate. By help of the railings he 
 scrambled into the saddle, cast loose the bridle, 
 and trotted away. Luckily the steed had been 
 sobered by age and rough exercise, and the pair 
 were overtaken and brought back before they had 
 gone very far. He had a narrower escape when 
 he was tossed by a cow " bunched," as they say 
 in the Cornish dialect. When he was landed 
 safely on his legs again, he calmly remarked that
 
 MATERNAL INFLUENCES. 13 
 
 " he had been nearer heaven than ever he was in 
 his life." Later in life he became one of the most 
 enthusiastic of anglers. No distance was too 
 great to go in search of his favourite sport ; no 
 day too long and no weather too discouraging. 
 Already it was his chief delight to accompany 
 his brother Charles in the fishing among the 
 moorland streams, though those prolonged rambles 
 overtasked his strength. 
 
 ^5 
 
 But whilst Edward was a very manly and ven- 
 turesome boy, his precocious tastes even in child- 
 hood had set strongly towards literature. It 
 is little wonder that his family thought him a 
 prodigy. Precocious intellectual phenomena like 
 Master John Stuart Mill have been forced on 
 deliberate system in an unnatural atmosphere. 
 The young Hamleys were much left to them- 
 selves ; but their mother was a woman of intellec- 
 tual ability as well as of high education, and she 
 was in the habit of helping them in their school 
 work, especially in their Latin exercises. In after 
 years they always considered they derived their 
 literary faculty from her. Though young Ned 
 read voraciously, he might indulge his caprices 
 unchecked like David Copperfield ; and, as with 
 David, all things were pure to the little boy. 
 The fresh young memory is marvellously re- 
 tentive, and he never afterwards forgot what
 
 14 THE HAMLEY FAMILY. 
 
 he had read and enjoyed when young. In those 
 days good books for children were so scarce that 
 they were carefully studied and doubly prized. 
 How he would revel in those childish recollec- 
 tions across a dinner- table at his clubs ! The old 
 simple books still came home to him more sym- 
 pathetically than the most brilliant work of the 
 hour, much as he may have admired its genius, 
 and though possibly he was a familiar acquaint- 
 ance of the author. Perhaps he had pored over 
 ' The Arabian Nights ' almost as industriously as 
 over ' The Fairchild Family ' and ' The Robins.' 
 He was barely out of the nursery before he had 
 begun to dream in the Forest of Ardennes, and to 
 disport himself in the moonlit glades of " The Mid- 
 summer Night's Dream" with the fairies of his 
 favourite Shakespeare. It may be mentioned, 
 by the way, that he was reading ' The Arabian 
 Nights' the very week of his death, and they 
 were on the table near the sofa when he was 
 lying in his shroud. From the " Nights " and 
 Shakespeare he soon passed on to Scott's novels, 
 which he devoured. He used to appeal to his 
 mother for the interpretation of the Scotch 
 phrases which puzzled him, and to the end of 
 his life he always maintained them to be the 
 best books that had ever been written. But the 
 little volume that undoubtedly was his great-
 
 " OUR POOR RELATIONS." 15 
 
 est favourite was the ' Evenings at Home/ by 
 Dr Aikin and Mrs Barbauld. There was really 
 nothing in the way of literature he so thoroughly 
 enjoyed as ' Eyes and no Eyes ' and ' The Trans- 
 formations of Indur.' As to the former, he natu- 
 rally objected, as critic and man of the world, 
 that the intelligent young observer was too 
 much of a prig, and that the listless Robert, if 
 strong enough, must infallibly have punched his 
 head. But for " Indur " he had unmitigated ad- 
 miration. And, curiously enough, in the most 
 benevolent of Brahmins Dr Aikln had painted 
 Hamley's own prototype. For we are told that 
 Indur "was distinguished not only for gentle- 
 ness of disposition and humanity towards all 
 living creatures, but for an insatiable curiosity 
 respecting the nature and way of life of all 
 animals." 
 
 Of no one could this be more truthfully said 
 than of the writer of that most humorously sym- 
 pathetic of articles, " Our Poor Relations," which 
 naturally leads to the mention of Hamley's juvenile 
 devotion to pets. Whatever may be their feelings 
 in after-life, most schoolboys, like terriers, are the 
 natural enemies of cats, and generally keep a stone 
 in readiness to shy at the tribe of which sufferance 
 is the general badge. With Hamley, on the con- 
 trary, the love of the cat was innate. The first
 
 16 THE HAMLEY FAMILY. 
 
 of his feline friends became a local celebrity. 
 Being naturally meagre and lanky, perhaps owing 
 to a depraved taste for flies and cockroaches, this 
 famous animal was christened John of Gaunt by 
 the young admirer of Shakespeare. He survived 
 so long and became so venerable of aspect, that he 
 naturally grew into " time-honoured Lancaster." 
 The Hamleys were then living in the country 
 at Curland, and John would follow his young 
 master like a dog, when he took his strolls abroad 
 or went to school at Bodmin. There was a point 
 where he would prudently turn aside into the 
 hedge, patiently waiting for any length of time. 
 There was a parrot, too, which became a valued 
 intimate, though the beginning of the acquaint- 
 ance promised indifferently, when the bird, sitting 
 bodkin in a post-chaise, stripped all the gilt but- 
 tons off the boy's jacket. 
 
 Few of Hamley's personal friends, except the 
 officers who were on his staff in his Eastern 
 missions, knew that he was an extremely clever 
 artist. No one was on terms of closer intimacy 
 with him than Sir Frederick Burton, the distin- 
 guished Director of the National Gallery, and I 
 have it on Sir Frederick's own authority that 
 he had never heard that Hamley was a brilliant 
 master of the brush. In this, as in all the other 
 accomplishments of his later life, he had shown
 
 A TRIAL FOR MURDER. 17 
 
 his strong proclivities in boyhood. In fact, he 
 might boast of having been one of the first to 
 send illustrations to the newspapers. It hap- 
 pened in this way : Bodmin was an Assize 
 town ; the state entry of the judges, with offi- 
 cials and javelin men, was a grand event, and 
 the young Hamleys always made interest for 
 places in the Court - House during the trials. 
 Sir Edward was wont to recall a trial that made 
 a wide sensation and left indelible impressions on 
 his mind, all the more so that the murdered 
 man was a special favourite of a venerable aunt 
 of his. The victim's name, which was Nevil 
 Norway, would have sounded well in a crim- 
 inal romance. He was a prosperous timber and 
 corn merchant, resident at Wadebridge. One 
 Saturday evening, after attending Bodmin mar- 
 ket, he mounted to ride home. He never reached 
 it, although his horse did ; and when search was 
 made, the body was found in a hollow a few 
 paces aside from the road. Suspicion fell on two 
 brothers : their guilt was brought home to them, 
 and they confessed all the details of the murder. 
 They had lain in wait for their victim, and struck 
 him from his horse ; but all they gained by the 
 transaction was a couple of halters. They had 
 hoped to find a large sum in his possession; but as 
 it proved, he had banked the money at Bodmin. 
 
 VOL. I. B
 
 18 THE HAMLEY FAMILY. 
 
 Young Hamley sketched the prisoners and the 
 witnesses, and sent the sketches to a local paper, 
 which published them, a very exceptional pro- 
 ceeding in those days, and which speaks strongly 
 for their merit. But he had always a pleasant 
 knack of caricaturing, and of giving the character- 
 istic traits of a face with half-a-dozen scratches of 
 a pencil.
 
 19 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE ARTILLEKY SUBALTEEN. 
 
 ROYAL MILITARY ACADEMY CADET LAND COLONEL GLEIO'S RE- 
 MINISCENCES GAZETTED TO THE ARTILLERY CANADA 
 
 DR BENT AN INDEPENDENCE DAY EPISODE READINGS 
 
 RES ANGUST^E THE NORTH OP ENGLAND TURN FOR CARI- 
 CATURING FIRST LITERARY EFFORTS. 
 
 * 
 
 LIKE his brothers, Edward Hamley was educated 
 at the Bodrain Grammar-school under the Rev. 
 L. J. Boor. He seldom spoke of his school ex- 
 periences ; but Mr Boor would seem to have been 
 an efficient master, and to have grounded his 
 pupils thoroughly. Their literary tastes came 
 naturally, but both William and Edward must 
 have been indebted to Boor for a fair knowledge 
 of the Classics. Thanks to their upbringing, 
 their surroundings, and their inclinations, the 
 vocation of both was unmistakably marked out. 
 Both went to the Royal Military Academy. 
 William was entered there at the early age of 
 fifteen. Edward for some reason had the advan-
 
 20 THE ARTILLERY SUBALTERN. 
 
 tage of two additional years of schooling. For 
 the reminiscences of his life at the Academy 
 and for some notes of Canadian scenes which are 
 quoted in this chapter I am indebted to his old 
 friend Colonel Alexander Gleig, the eldest son of 
 the late Chaplain-General of the Forces. By an 
 odd coincidence, on which medieval astrologers 
 would have put their own interpretation, Gleig 
 and Hamley were born on the same day, and 
 apparently under the same planetary influences. 
 At least, from the time of their making acquain- 
 tance at Woolwich, they gravitated together 
 irresistibly : no cloud ever came across their fast 
 friendship ; it was always to Gleig that Hamley 
 most freely unbosomed himself; and it was to 
 that lifelong confidant he bequeathed the many- 
 drawered writing-table, at which the visitors to 
 his chambers in Ryder Street have so often 
 seen him seated. The acquaintance " soon ri- 
 pened into the closest friendship, and I doubt if 
 Hamley was on such intimate terms with any 
 other man than myself, except with our common 
 friend Dr John Bent, K.A., with whom both he 
 and I were on affectionate terms from the year 
 1845 to Bent's death in 1874." 
 
 Seventeen was an unusually late age in those 
 days for cadets j oining the Academy. But Hamley 's 
 rare natural ability enabled him to make up for
 
 PUNISHMENT FOE "COOLNESS: 1 21 
 
 lost time and run rapidly through the curriculum. 
 In a year and a half he had passed out with 
 his commission. He had soon an opportunity of 
 asserting his independence and vindicating his very 
 decided individuality. At Woolwich, in those 
 days, as at all other public schools, the rule of the 
 seniors over the younger boys was autocratic and 
 tyrannical. Things in themselves perfectly inno- 
 cent were prohibited under penalty of a severe 
 thrashing. For example, it was forbidden to walk 
 arm in arm : the cadets who infringed the rule 
 were declared to be " cool "; and coolness involved 
 summary chastisement. Very soon after Hamley 
 joined, he was denounced by an old cadet for 
 " coolness," and ordered to come to his room after 
 tea and bring a stick. There was no mistaking 
 the meaning of the invitation, and there was no 
 declining it. Hamley was a tall lad as tall, per- 
 haps, as ever he was though, like his cat John of 
 Gaunt, he was decidedly lanky. But he had the 
 pluck, the determination, and the detestation of 
 anything like injustice which always distinguished 
 him. He was punctual to the appointment, and 
 asked the old cadet what he was wanted for. 
 It was a case where second thoughts would have 
 been wise and silence golden. But the senior had 
 committed himself and provoked his fate, and 
 he was very soundly thrashed for his pains, with
 
 22 THE ARTILLERY SUBALTERN. 
 
 the cane which had been carefully selected to 
 suit its intended purpose. Hamley had given 
 offence to the older lads by his independent bear- 
 ing, which showed itself, quite unconsciously to 
 himself, in many ways. He had been tried and 
 condemned in a Vehmgericht of the seniors, and 
 the executioner had volunteered, as the vindicator 
 of old cadet law, to bring the insolent novice to 
 his bearings. Now the young revolutionist had 
 literally made his mark, and thenceforth he was 
 left to his devices. He quietly followed his 
 own course, and there was no further attempt to 
 influence it. Nevertheless he was noways ag- 
 gressive ; and he always allowed to others the 
 liberty he claimed for himself. 
 Colonel Gleig writes : 
 
 He was on good terms with his companions generally, 
 but I don't remember that he particularly affected the 
 company of any of them, except myself. In the last half- 
 year of our life at the Academy, he and I occupied the 
 same room, and it was there that we became sworn allies. 
 He used to keep me awake half the night we went to 
 bed by bugle-call at ten o'clock relating the adventures 
 of " Christopher in his Sporting Jacket." I don't think he 
 knew anything more at that time about the personality of 
 Christopher than I did which was nothing. But he told 
 me how he had found some old magazines in his father's 
 house (how little he anticipated the interest which ' Black- 
 wood's Magazine ' was to have for him, and he for it, in 
 after times !), and how he had read in them those delightful
 
 AT WOOLWICH ACADEMY. 23 
 
 descriptions of Christopher North's fishing and shooting 
 expeditions. He used to repeat the adventures to me as 
 vividly as if he were describing his own. 
 
 The nights in that dormitory at Woolwich recall 
 Dickens as David Copperfield, and the nocturnal 
 readings at Mr Creakle's : 
 
 He was always fond of reading, and always remembered 
 what he read with the most astonishing accuracy. We 
 used to have great literary discussions, lying in our beds 
 in the dark. For, in a second-hand sort of way, I had 
 picked up a certain amount of familiarity with Coleridge 
 and Wordsworth, whose poetry my father used to read 
 aloud to us ; and I knew the names, and very little more, I 
 suspect, of many of the writers of the day. Among these, 
 however, Christopher North's was not one. After we 
 joined the Royal Artillery at Woolwich, we were con- 
 stantly in each other's rooms ; and I remember perfectly 
 that he read the Memoirs of Marshal Saxe, and used to 
 talk to me of that hero's methods, and compare them with 
 the little that either of us knew at that time about more 
 modern tactics and methods of warfare. 
 
 The future master of strategy was already 
 striking out a course of study for himself. It 
 reminds us of the youthful Pitt, before he had 
 sought a seat in Parliament, listening to a great 
 oration by Fox, and suggesting in an undertone 
 how each successive point might be met and 
 answered. It has been said that Hamley, and per- 
 haps not unnaturally, was comparatively indiffer- 
 ent to the more trivial details of regimental duty.
 
 24 THE ARTILLERY SUBALTERN. 
 
 Yet he never neglected them, and he could always 
 be trusted if anything serious was to be done, 
 as might sometimes be the case, even in times 
 of peace. 
 
 After leaving Woolwich, the subaltern, newly 
 gazetted to the artillery, was sent to Ireland, and 
 was quartered for a year at Charlemont. Old 
 acquaintances are still living there who can re- 
 member the bright and buoyant young soldier. 
 From Charlemont he was ordered to Canada, 
 where he almost immediately availed himself of an 
 opportunity for showing his soldierly qualities. 
 When the battery had to change its quarters, 
 and leave Quebec for London, which was then a 
 dull though thriving " location," the men objected 
 strongly. On the march up country they passed 
 from grumbling to something like mutiny, refus- 
 ing to carry their packs or even to move without 
 them. The chief responsibility happened to fall 
 on Hamley, and they were only reduced to some 
 sort of order by his firm energy and unflinching 
 resolution. 
 
 At London there was no great choice of com- 
 panions, and it was very fortunate for him 
 possibly a turning-point in his career that Dr 
 Bent was stationed there. Otherwise he might 
 have satisfied himself with his passion for field- 
 sports, or at best with the desultory reading
 
 SPORT VERSUS SCENERY. 25 
 
 in which he must have always indulged. But 
 Bent was a man of thought and cultivation, de- 
 voted to all manner of intellectual pursuits. Soon 
 they were inseparable : so when Hamley would 
 go shooting, Bent always accompanied him. They 
 agreed to differ, thoroughly understanding each 
 other. As to which there is a characteristic 
 story. Hamley was striding forward, with gun 
 on full cock, looking out keenly for the birds 
 the dogs were drawing. Bent was stalking 
 along at his elbow, absorbed in admiration of the 
 scenery. 
 
 Bent. Look, Hamley, look ! 
 Hamley (seeing nothing). Where ? 
 B. There! 
 
 H. Where ? What is it ? 
 
 B. There, don't you see it ? The sunshine on that 
 bank. 
 
 H. Damn the sunshine ! I thought it was a quail. 
 B. Damn the quails ! Look at the sunshine. 
 
 The story is the more telling that Hamley was 
 really a passionate admirer of scenery, as all his 
 friends are aware who have had the pleasure of 
 country rambles with him. He may have loved 
 sport even more dearly than landscape and light 
 effects, but it was his invariable rule to attend to 
 one thing at a time. There is another charac- 
 teristic Canadian reminiscence, which illustrated
 
 26 THE ARTILLERY SUBALTERN. 
 
 the fixed determination of purpose which always 
 distinguished him. In this instance he kept his 
 word to an obnoxious farmer ; but the chronicler 
 of " Our Poor Relations " must honestly have 
 regretted the fate of the dog who discharged his 
 duty somewhat too impetuously. 
 
 By the by, I ought to have mentioned an incident 
 which occurred at London, because, like the part he played 
 when cadet law was so emphatically repudiated, it was 
 highly characteristic. He used to ride to his shooting- 
 ground very often, and on one of his roads there was a par- 
 ticular farmhouse from which there used to dash out on all 
 who passed a large and very savage dog. The animal had 
 frequently attacked Hamley's horse, and caused him great 
 inconvenience, encumbered as he was with a fowling-piece ; 
 and he had often complained not only of the dog but of 
 his master, who, if he saw what was going on, never tried 
 to stop it or call the dog off. Hamley resolved to abate 
 this public nuisance, and when the dog attacked him again 
 in presence of his master, who was deaf as usual to 
 Hamley's appeal, he warned him that if the dog were not 
 kept in he would shoot him. The man made an un- 
 mannerly reply, and dared him to do any such thing, to 
 which Hamley answered, " Very well : now I give you fair 
 notice ; I shall shoot him." 
 
 Which he did on the very next occasion when 
 the dog had broken loose and the master was 
 looking on. Probably if it had not been a ques- 
 tion of horse v. dog, and of a favourite horse who 
 was his daily companion, he would never have
 
 BUFFALO ON INDEPENDENCE DAY. 27 
 
 committed himself to the rash threat. He was 
 a youth besides, and hot in the temper. But 
 later in life he never said what he did not mean ; 
 and when he once declared he would do a thing, 
 that thing would infallibly be done. 
 
 On another occasion we see the future soldier 
 and strategist extricating himself from a situa- 
 tion of danger and difficulty by a happy union of 
 audacity and science. He had gone with a com- 
 rade to admire the Falls of Niagara, and they 
 had crossed the river to Buffalo on the 4th of 
 July. They had forgotten that the Americans 
 were celebrating Independence Day. Buffalo, 
 like most border towns, swarmed with roughs, 
 and even early in the afternoon the patriots 
 had been celebrating the immortal memory of 
 Washington with bumpers of " Bourbon " and a 
 variety of drinks. They " spotted the Britishers," 
 who were walking up from the ferry, resented 
 the unseasonable invasion, and began to jostle 
 them. The youths of two-and-twenty were in- 
 dignant at the unprovoked assault, and soon 
 found themselves in the thick of a very serious 
 row. They succeeded in retreating into a hotel ; 
 but they were beset, like the pilgrims in "Vanity 
 Fair," by a mob that increased in numbers and 
 fury. There were pleasant suggestions of tar and 
 feathers and of riding upon rails, and it was clear
 
 28 THE ARTILLERY SUBALTERN. 
 
 that the rioters meant serious mischief. It was 
 in vain that some Americans of the better class 
 tried to persuade their countrymen to hear reason. 
 A dozen of the most violent forced their way into 
 the house, and things were looking very black. 
 Then Hamley stepped forward to speak for self 
 and friend. The speech was short, but much to 
 the purpose, and nothing could have been more 
 nervously masculine than the peroration : " Gen- 
 tlemen, it's a cowardly thing for a dozen men 
 to attack two. However, I have not the least 
 objection to fight you one at a time ; I am quite 
 willing to do that." What might have been the 
 issue of the ordeal by battle it is impossible to 
 say. Hamley, though tall, was still slightly built ; 
 and although his constitution afterwards hardened 
 so as to be only shaken and not shattered by 
 the prolonged hardships of the Crimea, at that 
 time he was far from robust. But the better- 
 minded of the Buffalo folk kept the others in 
 talk while the hotel-keeper assisted the escape 
 of the foreigners. They promptly executed a 
 movement to the rear through the back premises ; 
 and " monstrous glad we were," says his friend, 
 " when we found ourselves well out on the river 
 on our return to the Canadian shore." 
 
 Hamley's circumstances, then and immediately 
 afterwards, were singularly favourable to study ;
 
 A MORNING DIP. 29 
 
 and at an age when many men seem to try their 
 best to forget everything they may have learned, 
 his education was steadily progressing. The heat 
 of summer on the shores of Lake Erie is as intense 
 as the winters are severe. It was in one of the 
 hottest of summers that he found himself there 
 with his two dearest friends. Gleig, who was 
 quartered elsewhere, had got leave for a long visit. 
 Each morning they made a very early party to 
 bathe in the Canadian Thames, on which the 
 Canadian London is situated. Hamley was in 
 the habit of requisitioning the battery horses, 
 which they rode full gallop down to the river, 
 arrayed in little more than the airy costume in 
 which they had tumbled out of bed. Honi soit 
 qui mal y voit was their motto, and the primitive 
 inhabitants of what has since become a fashion- 
 able town saw no scandal in the practice. After 
 bath and breakfast, they were kept close pris- 
 oners by the sun. Prolonged siestas alternated 
 with private readings ; they were all three more 
 or less argumentative and critical, as heat and 
 languor would allow ; and it is easy to conceive 
 how those appreciative studies of " the best 
 authors " must have helped to develop Hamley's 
 tastes. Gleig, possibly as being the most effective 
 reader of the three, was told off pretty regularly 
 for duty. He can recall an incident and a very
 
 30 THE ARTILLERY SUBALTERN. 
 
 amusing coincidence which shows how close was 
 the attention they paid, and how indelible were 
 the impressions that were left on those fresh and 
 susceptible memories. One day he was reading 
 " The Bridge of Sighs," when he came to the 
 couplet 
 
 " Perishing gloomily, 
 Spurred by contumely." 
 
 He stretched a point in the pronunciation of 
 " contumely," in order to excite Bent, who was 
 listening to Hood's poem in his most exalted 
 mood, an amiable intention in which he was quite 
 successful. Bent, with his somewhat romantic 
 temperament, took the matter up very seriously ; 
 Hamley, who, like Childe Harold, was of lighter 
 mood, chaffed and laughed. Years afterwards the 
 old cronies had come together again one day on 
 the banks of the Tchernaya, on another party of 
 pleasure. Gleig was in command of one of the 
 field-batteries ; and Bent had come to do duty as 
 a medical officer of superior rank. Hamley, who 
 was then on Sir Richard Dacres' staff, had taken 
 out Bent to make a peaceful reconnaissance, and 
 to give him a glimpse of the Russian positions. 
 They made a long detour in walking their horses 
 out, but in returning they passed within range 
 of the enemy's works, when the Russians opened 
 fire. Naturally they turned their steps in the
 
 A DIFFICULT START IN LIFE. 31 
 
 direction that would most quickly take them 
 out of range, and after a little while Hamley 
 observed that they had been instinctively quick- 
 ening their pace more than he thought was be- 
 coming. So he pulled up, and laying his hand 
 upon Bent's shoulder to check him, said, " This 
 won't do, Bent ; they'll say we are spurred by 
 contumely." 
 
 " Well," was the retort of Bent, " that is better 
 than perishing gloomily." 
 
 The triumvirate was broken up by Bent's death 
 in 1874; but his memory was fondly cherished, 
 and Hamley would always speak of him with 
 the warmest affection, nor did he ever forget 
 or ignore the great debt of gratitude for the 
 direction his early friend had given to his studies 
 and pursuits. 
 
 Such intellectual intercourse as that, with the 
 solitary study from childhood to early manhood, 
 was to bear abundant fruit. The res angustce 
 domi was to prove a blessing in disguise. The 
 Admiral had many calls on his purse, and after 
 the expenses of education at the Military Academy 
 had been paid, Hamley was thrown on his own 
 resources. Consequently he made his start in the 
 service heavily handicapped. In those days con- 
 fiding tailors and outfitters seem to have been in 
 the habit of giving generous credit, and it may
 
 32 THE ARTILLERY SUBALTERN, 
 
 be presumed that they charged proportionately, 
 if not usuriously. It was several years before the 
 self-reliant young officer had shaken himself free 
 from his debts. They weighed upon him, and he 
 was eager to be relieved of the burden. With 
 all his resolution, and with the adaptive power 
 which was to turn his many talents to account, he 
 would never have succeeded as soon as he did had 
 he not been singularly favoured by circumstances. 
 In garrison in Ireland, in Canada, and at first in 
 England, he had compensations for having little of 
 lively military society, for he could go very much 
 his own way. There were no messes with lavish 
 entertainments, and bands playing in the ante- 
 room. By the way, to the last Hamley detested 
 music at dinner, the rather that he was some- 
 what deaf on one side of the head. It was fatal, 
 as he declared, to all pleasure in conversation ; 
 and the only occasions on which he was known 
 to seem grudging, was when an emissary coming 
 round with the plate at some public banquet or 
 hotel table d'hdte appeared to add insult to in- 
 jury. His personal habits were simple in the 
 extreme ; and although he afterwards became an 
 intelligent connoisseur in cuisine, and delighted 
 in giving little dinners and soigne breakfasts, he 
 could make himself happy after a frugal meal 
 through many a quiet evening, with his favourite
 
 A LIQUIDATION SCHEME. 33 
 
 books for the companions of his solitude. But 
 as Scott remarks in his journal, after expatiat- 
 ing on the satisfactions of solitude, no man was 
 ever meant to live alone, and even genius must 
 be stimulated by converse with its fellows, and 
 the assurance that congenial society is within 
 reach. Hamley was generally fortunate in find- 
 ing some comrade of whom he could make a 
 crony. It was at Carlisle that he formed his 
 intimacy with Gage, and I well remember that 
 his feelings almost overpowered him on the eve 
 of his going down to General Gage's funeral at 
 the romantic seat of the family, which shelters 
 under the Sussex Downs. At dinner the day 
 afterwards he indulged half-abstractedly in many 
 fond reminiscences of their long acquaintance ; 
 and during his protracted sojourn at Folkestone 
 when his health had failed, there was no one 
 whom he saw with more pleasure, or of whom he 
 spoke with more kindness, than the widow of his 
 old comrade. 
 
 On his return to England, after nearly four years 
 spent in Canada, he was quartered first at Tyne- 
 mouth and afterwards at Carlisle. It was then 
 that, in City language, he contemplated a scheme 
 for the liquidation of his liabilities, and for securing 
 himself against pecuniary anxieties in the future. 
 Probably the idea had long been simmering in 
 
 VOL. i. c
 
 34 THE ARTILLERY SUBALTERN. 
 
 his brain, for he must have been conscious of his 
 intellectual gifts, and of his rare facility of ex- 
 pression with the pen. He determined to try his 
 luck in the field of literature : and half a century 
 ago that field was less crowded, and consequently 
 more inviting, than now. He devoted himself to a 
 course of incessant activity, and of almost ascetic 
 self-restraint. The activity came pleasantly, for 
 his energy was indefatigable, and there was never 
 a man who had less of the lotus-eater about him ; 
 but it must have been a sore trial in those nor- 
 thern counties to resist the seductions of sport. 
 He brought good introductions, and might have 
 made many acquaintances. He might well have 
 been tempted by the shooting on the Cheviots 
 and the Keeldar moors, by the angling in the 
 Coquet or the Eden and the upper waters of the 
 Tyne. He might have found endless historical 
 subjects for his brush in such priories as Brink- 
 burn, or such fortalices as Ford or Warkworth. 
 So far as I can learn, he never cast a fly at that 
 time, or opened a colour-box. He was set upon 
 the single purpose of making a fair literary start. 
 Still, it may be remarked in passing that if he 
 did not go abroad with colour-box and camp-stool, 
 he did sometimes dash off sketches with pencil or 
 pen and ink. As has been observed, he had a 
 pleasant gift of caricaturing, which, although lat-
 
 PORTRAITS IN CARICATURE. 35 
 
 terly he used it with great discretion, undoubt- 
 edly made him more than one unforgiving enemy. 
 There would often be a laugh over a dinner at 
 the Athenaeum, when Hamley passed an envelope 
 across the table on which he had scratched down 
 the portrait in outline of some grave ecclesiastic 
 or dignified judge. Perhaps the sketches were 
 not more than clever. But it was always note- 
 worthy that he gave prominence to the trait or 
 the feature which seemed to indicate the inner 
 nature of the subject. To use the word " victim " 
 would do him injustice, for those sketches had no 
 tinge of malevolence. He never exaggerated a 
 personal defect, and what he caricatured was the 
 character and not the man. One of the earliest, and 
 apparently not the least successful, of his efforts 
 is an excellent example of that. When he joined 
 his regiment, among the most conspicuous figures 
 at Woolwich was a colonel of Horse Artillery, an 
 old Waterloo man. The veteran passed his time 
 promenading in front of the barracks, surveying 
 the soldiers who went by, with glances that made 
 them tremble. He was the terror of the mess 
 waiters, and indeed of all save his few intimates ; 
 and he habitually indulged in language of the 
 most terrific character. No young officer would 
 have dreamed of addressing him, yet it was sur- 
 mised that his bark was worse than his bite, and
 
 36 THE ARTILLERY SUBALTERN. 
 
 that really at heart he was a kindly old fellow. 
 Hamley drew him in that double aspect, and hit 
 him off to the life ; so much so that the sketch 
 passed from hand to hand, and was shown at last 
 to its subject by one of his familiars. The colonel 
 chuckled, and was so much amused that he forth- 
 with took the artist into favour, even occasionally 
 condescending to challenge him to take wine an 
 honour he had never vouchsafed before to any 
 youngster of similar standing. 
 
 But to revert to Hamley's beginnings in 
 literature. Any intelligent aspirant begins by 
 drawing, if he can, on his personal experiences. 
 Hamley had no lack of immediate material. His 
 first article was " Snow Pictures," which was the 
 narrative of a shooting expedition from Quebec 
 into the Highlands of Maine, in the company of 
 some Indian hunters. It professes to be a letter 
 from Lieutenant Michael South, and is more real- 
 istic than imaginative. In fact, for his matter he 
 relied chiefly on his memory. Nevertheless there 
 are effective pictures of his English companion, 
 of the Indian guides, of the romantic scenery, the 
 sport, and the bivouacs beneath the pines. This 
 paper was soon followed by ' The Peace Campaigns 
 of Ensign Faunce,' and both were offered to 'Eraser,' 
 or 'Begina/ which was then at the height of its 
 popularity, and the formidable rival of ' Maga.'
 
 FIRST ESSAYS IN LITERATURE. 37 
 
 When he was busied with the biography of Faunce, 
 at Carlisle in 1849, the anxious author read the 
 opening chapters aloud, speculating with a friend 
 on the chances of their being accepted. His 
 satisfaction was immense when he knew that 
 the novel had taken the editor's fancy. And he 
 rejoiced with better reason than many of his 
 aspiring confreres in Letters, who have found a 
 first success pave the way to illusion and dis- 
 appointment. He had fallen upon a veritable 
 vocation, and had found inexhaustible sources 
 of interest. Henceforth his circumstances were 
 to be easy if not affluent, and he could write 
 with a light heart and in the fulness of agree- 
 able anticipations. In all his after work he was 
 to show rapid and steady progress. His early 
 efforts, as was natural, were crude enough. " No 
 one has read the rubbish, I am glad to say," 
 was his own subsequent criticism on the Cam- 
 paigns of the Ensign. That was of course a 
 fagon de parler, and even in the maturity of 
 his judgment he must have regarded his maiden 
 effort with a certain pride. For notwithstanding 
 looseness of construction in the plot, superfluity 
 of gratuitous digressions, the pedantry of profes- 
 sional prolixity, and not a few florid affectations 
 in the style in short, in spite of the faults which 
 are inevitable with a clever artist, at the outset
 
 38 THE ARTILLERY SUBALTERN. 
 
 the story was brightened by sparkles of wit and 
 frequent flashes of rollicking fun. There are 
 dramatic bits of description, and telling touches 
 of satire. ' Ensign Faunce ' had never the hon- 
 our of a reprint, so we can only say " Peace be 
 to his memory." But there and in the " Snow 
 Pictures " there are the unmistakable signs of the 
 excellences the writer subsequently developed.
 
 39 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 IN GARRISON AT GIBRALTAR. 
 
 LIFE ON THE HOCK FIRST CONNECTION WITH ' BLACKWOOD ' 
 
 THE ' LEGEND OF GIBEALTAB ' ' LAZARo's LEGACY ' 
 
 ' LADY LEE'S WIDOWHOOD ' LETTERS TO JOHN BLACKWOOD 
 
 TRIP TO BARBARY LADY FRIENDS FUNERAL OF CANUELO. 
 
 IN 1851 Hamley got his promotion, and had orders 
 to join his battery in Gibraltar. It was no unwel- 
 come change from the quiet of Carlisle and the grey 
 skies of " Rocky Cumberland " to the sunshine of 
 tawny Spain and the bustle of a great garrison. 
 He revelled in the picturesque scenery on either 
 shore of the Straits, and his letters show how 
 heartily he enjoyed the riding expeditions into 
 the Sierra of Ronda and through the cork-forests, 
 with the streams brawling down over the cliffs 
 which skirt the coast from Gibraltar to Tarifa. 
 There were shooting trips to Tangiers, where Sir 
 John Drummond Hay had always a welcome for 
 sporting officers from the Rock. Tangiers and the 
 neighbourhood were very different then from what
 
 40 IN GARRISON AT GIBRALTAR. 
 
 they are now. The picturesque town was only 
 accessible by the cattle-boat, which regulated its 
 sailings according to weather and freight ; and 
 there were but two small hostelries, one kept by 
 a Frenchman famous for his cuisine, and the other 
 by a cleanly Scottish woman. If the visitor had 
 not made arrangements beforehand, he might 
 have to put up with rough accommodation. But 
 the shooting was excellent : there were quail and 
 snipe in profusion, and- battues for wild boar were 
 arranged for within a short ride of the gates. So 
 at Gibraltar Hamley had both sport and scenery in 
 perfection, and whether he gave his mind to the 
 one or the other, he always had pleasant occupa- 
 tion. But these expeditions only lent occasional 
 variety to what might have been a monotonous 
 existence. As every one knows, Gibraltar is a 
 magnificent precipitous promontory, connected 
 with the mainland by -the sandy isthmus of the 
 Lines. The Calpe Hunt, established in 1817, was 
 the great excitement of the sporting soldier, and 
 well-bred fiery little barbs were cheap and plentiful. 
 But Hamley was a heavy man to mount, and, as 
 we have seen, he had little money to spare. He 
 did not care greatly for racquets, which were the 
 standing resource of those who did not devote 
 themselves to billiards and whist, cigars and 
 siestas. What perhaps pleased him most was
 
 LIFE ON THE ROGK. 41 
 
 the animated panorama of Jews, Turks, and here- 
 tics, mingling with the Christians in a babel where 
 every language was spoken. Nothing could be 
 more interesting to the student of man and man- 
 ners than the sun-burned types of all the races 
 from Cairo to Fez, and Tetuan to Timbuctoo. 
 Then there was something more than a colour- 
 ing of romance in the venturesome audacity of 
 the smugglers who did lucrative business with the 
 "scorpions" of the Hock. " The free port, which 
 supplied all southern Spain with contraband goods, 
 was perpetually being watched by the guarda 
 costas from Algeciras, and sea-fights sharply con- 
 tested and captures threatening international com- 
 plications were incidents of continual recurrence. 
 All this Hamley carefully noted as matter for 
 immediate literary inspiration, and long after- 
 wards a scene from the turmoil in the market- 
 place was brought in most effectively by way of 
 illustration in the scathing review of ' Lothair.' 
 For it was now that he fairly launched out 
 on the literary career. The comparative seclu- 
 sion of his successive quarters served him well 
 in laying broad and solid foundations. In those 
 days there were no circulating libraries, and the 
 man who desired the newest books must borrow 
 or buy. There was an excellent garrison library, 
 which received, as we learn from one of Hamley's
 
 42 IN GARRISON AT GIBRALTAR. 
 
 letters, a monthly box from Longmans. But the 
 earnest student cannot read comfortably in pub- 
 lic ; he must live in familiar companionship with 
 his volumes, however few they may be. So it 
 was that Hamley came to ground himself thor- 
 oughly in Shakespeare and the old dramatists ; 
 in Milton, Dryden, Pope, and the modern poets ; 
 in .Richardson and Fielding, and the classical 
 novelists ; in such unrivalled biographies as those 
 by Boswell and Lockhart. He read again and 
 again, mused and inwardly digested ; and such 
 was the remarkable tenacity of his memory, 
 that had he been struck blind he might have 
 been left poor, but by no means destitute. 
 Alexandre Dumas boasts in ' Mes Bdtes ' that 
 the fidelity of his recollections spared him the 
 necessity for references ; and he proceeds to 
 prove the point by making three egregious 
 blunders. Hamley might have made the boast 
 with better reason, and he might have ventured 
 to transfer whole passages to his own writings 
 without the trouble of verification. Moreover, 
 he had the advantage of being always in admir- 
 able intellectual training. The Rock was wont to 
 be renowned for unbounded hospitality, and the 
 messes, to say the least, were extremely con- 
 vivial. But Hamley was temperate almost to 
 abstemiousness : he would pride himself on din-
 
 THE EARLY DAYS OF 'BLACKWOOD? 43 
 
 ing with half a pint of light claret even in 
 the depressing London fogs. If he drank the 
 less, perhaps he ate the more, and, thanks to 
 his excellent digestion, his powerful and muscular 
 frame was always well nourished. When he 
 was bracing himself for a severe literary spurt, 
 he would put himself for the time on short 
 allowance. So at Gibraltar, although his atten- 
 tion to duty recommended him to the special 
 notice of his chief, who selected Hamley for his 
 aide-de-camp in the Crimean campaign, he got 
 through a great deal of writing as well as read- 
 ing. It was the more to his credit, that the 
 climate is enervating and relaxing for eight 
 months of the twelve, and that he resisted the 
 seductive example of a society that let the world 
 slide when not actually on duty. 
 
 In those days the monthly periodicals of any 
 note might almost have been told off on the 
 fingers of one hand. No one among them was 
 more powerful or more popular than ' Black- 
 wood,' which had gone forward, increasing the 
 prestige it had gained through the versatile 
 talents of Wilson and Lockhart, with a host of 
 more or less able contributors. The rollicking 
 ' Noctes Ambrosianae,' with their exuberance of 
 fun and frolic, had their faults the faults chiefly
 
 44 IN GARRISON AT GIBRALTAR. 
 
 of the exhilaration of youthful spirits, and of an 
 impetuous fancy that was hard to bridle ; but 
 with their brilliant blending of wit and eloquence, 
 pathos and humour, satire and tenderness, with 
 their picturesque and Burns -like delineation of 
 Scottish scenes and character, they had made a 
 wide and deep impression. 
 
 As we have seen, " Christopher in his Sporting 
 Jacket " had been the favourite of Hamley's boy- 
 hood. ' Blackwood ' had early established a repu- 
 tation for dramatic stories and bright social 
 sketches and essays, as many of the most popular 
 novels by celebrated authors had first appeared 
 in its pages. Hamley's youthful admiration for 
 ' Blackwood ' had doubtless been deepened during 
 his residences at Tynemouth and Carlisle, for 
 ' Maga, ' with its northern and national tenden- 
 cies, was doubly a power to the north of the 
 Trent. So we find him writing to John Black- 
 wood in the spring of 1851 : "As a boy it was 
 my great ambition to be a contributor to ' Maga,' 
 whose pages I used delightedly to study whilst 
 yet in corduroys." We know not why he did not 
 carry out his original intention of offering Black- 
 wood ' The Peace Campaigns of Ensign Faunce ' : 
 possibly his innate modesty held him back. Be 
 that as it may, he was now to make ventures 
 which more than realised his young dreams of
 
 DELANE AT PRINTING-HOUSE SQUARE. 45 
 
 ambition, for neither he nor his editor could have 
 foreseen how long, how close, and how mutually 
 advantageous this new connection was to prove. 
 ' Blackwood ' owed much to the brilliancy of its 
 contributors ; but the most brilliant of the con- 
 tributors were the foremost to acknowledge how 
 much contributions and Magazine owed to the 
 editor. The late John Blackwood was so unas- 
 suming that few beyond his immediate circle recog- 
 nised his rare and remarkable qualities. He and 
 John Delane of the ' Times ' had lived together 
 as young men in London, in one of the houses 
 between St James's Square and Pall Mall. After 
 the death of Barnes, one afternoon Delane burst 
 into their sitting-room with a " By G ! John, 
 what do you think ! I'm editor of the ' Times.' " 
 To outsiders, the selection seemed hazardous, 
 for Delane was as yet a lad. As he said long 
 afterwards, with justifiable pride, in answer to 
 a question as to whether he had not shrunk 
 from the responsibility, " Not I : and that is 
 the worst of you young fellows of this genera- 
 tion ; you are scared by the very shadow of 
 responsibility ! " Delane went to be dictator in 
 Printing-House Square ; and never, according to 
 universal consent, was self-confidence more amply 
 justified. His hastily scratched notes were models 
 of pregnant brevity. He could give a lead in
 
 46 IN GARRISON AT GIBRALTAR. 
 
 a couple of lines, and there was a witty or 
 weighty suggestion in each hurried sentence. 
 Time was more than money, and never a second 
 went to waste. Blackwood, who had gone back 
 to Edinburgh to conduct the Magazine, was in 
 some things Delane's double, and in many his 
 antithesis. But as the one was the prince of 
 English journalists, so the other was par excel- 
 lence the model magazine editor. He loved to 
 take life leisurely he had no reason to do other- 
 wise and he wrote his letters deliberately and 
 methodically. But no point of importance was 
 ever overlooked, and as he made the feelings 
 and interests of his contributors his own, they 
 knew that their work was sure to be gener- 
 ously appreciated. They believed, besides, so 
 firmly in the sincerity of his friendship that 
 they forgave him any amount of frankness. He 
 was the centre of what was in the best sense 
 a select literary ring. It was not in any way an 
 unlimited mutual -approval society : the art of 
 log-rolling was as yet non-existent ; but all the 
 members felt themselves united by a common 
 interest and a common bond of loyalty. Anon- 
 ymity was as yet strictly observed. But if one said 
 anything discriminatingly appreciative of another, 
 either the letter or an extract was duly forwarded. 
 And whether in his Edinburgh home, at Strath-
 
 A MODEL MAGAZINE EDITOR. 47 
 
 tyrum near St Andrews, or on his visits to Lon- 
 don, Blackwood was the most genially hospitable 
 of men. At breakfast, luncheon, or dinner when 
 in town, he was always bringing two or more 
 contributors together, so that the seeds of future 
 friendships 'were being sown broadcast, and affin- 
 ities came to be closely attracted by their common 
 sympathies and tastes. All who have been habit- 
 ually connected with the Magazine will own that 
 they have been indebted to that connection for 
 lifelong friendships and delightful intimacies, 
 although the survivors have been paying the 
 inevitable penalty for death has of late years 
 been busy in the companionship. Consequently, 
 what has been said is no digression : on the 
 contrary, it is essential to estimating Hamley's 
 relations, not only with his old intimate and cor- 
 respondent " the Editor," but with many others 
 of his most cherished friends. 
 
 It is curious to note how quickly the relations 
 with John Blackwood passed from the begin- 
 nings of ceremonious formality through successive 
 stages of growing geniality, into terms of the 
 most warm and cordial unreserve. Years were 
 to go by before they met ; 'but when they did 
 meet, there were no barriers to be broken down 
 between men who seemed superficially to have 
 little in common. It was a pleasant sight to see
 
 48 IN GARRISON AT GIBRALTAR. 
 
 them when they came together latterly in Lon- 
 don after a separation. If they talked but little 
 at first, both were brimming over with content- 
 ment. The twinkle in Blackwood's eye from 
 beneath his shaggy eyebrows, and the puckering 
 of the corners of his kindly mouth, were answered 
 by the beaming smiles that softened Hamley 's 
 somewhat stern features. As they committed 
 themselves to the glow of recollections, they were 
 fairly carried away, till the listener might almost 
 fancy himself assisting at a revised and modern 
 edition of the " Noctes." So many of their com- 
 mon friends were, or had been, celebrities ; each 
 had his store of illustrative reminiscence ; and 
 there were the memories besides of many lively 
 literary symposia between archi - episcopal St 
 Andrews and the Staff College at Sandhurst. 
 
 The first letter to Blackwood was a formal 
 communication as to some contribution of William, 
 the eldest of the brothers, who was then in the 
 West Indies ; and so little did the editor then 
 know of the Hamleys, that he confounded their 
 personalities and Christian names. But the ice 
 being broken, Hamley soon wrote again on his 
 own account, sending the poem of " Michael 
 Angelo and the Friar" on approval. The poem 
 duly appeared ; but it seems strange that Hamley,
 
 "MICHAEL ANGELO." 49 
 
 knowing that the special attractions of the Mag- 
 azine lay in travel, adventure, and sparkling 
 fiction, should not have followed up the earlier 
 contributions to ' Fraser ' with something in 
 similar vein. Nevertheless, " Michael Angelo " 
 was appreciated as it deserved to be. The dia- 
 logue is a really noble conception, and must 
 have been suggested by the spirit of lofty 
 ambition which always animated the writer. 
 The minds of both painter and monk are 
 alike set on immortality ; but the friar is con- 
 tent to pursue the quiet tenor of his way, con- 
 soling himself for self-denial upon earth with 
 the blissful assurance of a happy eternity. He 
 ought, on conventional principles, to have had 
 the best of the argument, when he asks why 
 the layman, bound by no vows, should sac- 
 rifice the shadow for the substance, and barter 
 contentment for fame. But in a fine climax he 
 must bow his head and listen in reverential 
 silence to the impassioned speaker, who has veri- 
 tably seen in visions of the night that Judg- 
 ment and the appalling dies irce of which the 
 pious recluse had but vaguely dreamed. 
 
 The poem was printed, but Blackwood, with 
 his instinctive perceptions, had recognised in the 
 new recruit possibilities that might be turned 
 to more practical purposes. No doubt he had 
 
 VOL. I. D
 
 50 IN GARRISON AT GIBRALTAR. 
 
 been referred to 'Regina,' and had looked back 
 over the pages of 'Fraser' for the " Snow Pictures" 
 and ' Ensign Faunce.' There is a letter dated 
 Gibraltar, llth August 1851 : 
 
 DEAR SIK, In your note to me you observed that a 
 story of Gibraltar life ought to be amusing. I send you 
 one, a " pretty slight drollery," illustrative of the scenery 
 and the garrison life, pretty much as they now appear, 
 though I have cast my tale at a more picturesque period. 
 If you like it, and it suits your Magazine arrangements 
 to publish it at once, the MS. is, I believe, ready for 
 printing, but if the publication is deferred, I should be 
 glad to see a proof. 
 
 For Hamley had one great advantage in for- 
 warding articles from distant quarters, which 
 were often written under all manner of diffi- 
 culties. His handwriting was admirably firm and 
 clear, so that the arrival of one of his manuscripts 
 was never the signal of a stampede in the printing- 
 office with the compositors, as the irritated man- 
 ager protested was the case with more slovenly 
 contributors. And when once a piece of work 
 had taken shape in his brain, he would dash it 
 off with glowing facility. For example, his 
 ' Diary of the Egyptian Campaign ' is a model 
 of lucid simplicity. The " Legend of Gibraltar " 
 was the first response to Blackwood's request, 
 and he says in one of the letters that it was 
 thrown off in three evenings. Yet the thought
 
 THE "LEGEND OF GIBRALTAR." 51 
 
 and care which were given are evidenced in a 
 hasty note : 
 
 GIBRALTAR, 8th September. 
 
 DEAR SIR, Thinking over the story I sent you, the 
 " Legend of Gibraltar," it struck me that the catastrophe 
 was rather too sudden that I had married my grand- 
 father rather too unceremoniously. I now send another 
 scene to throw it into better perspective. This will reach 
 you in time for insertion if you are going to publish 
 it in the September number as I hope to learn from 
 you by the mail that has just left England. Believe me, 
 yours faithfully, EDWARD HAMLEY. 
 
 Whether the suggested alteration was made or 
 no, I cannot say : it is clear that he followed with 
 thoughtful anxiety the fortunes of the little story. 
 His mind was speedily relieved. "The Legend" 
 delighted the editor, and made a great hit with 
 the public. The present writer can remember, 
 when it appeared, the shouts of laughter it pro- 
 voked in a country-house, and the eagerness with 
 which it was passed from hand to hand. In fact 
 it was a capital piece of genially satirical comedy, 
 and one cannot help suspecting that the char- 
 acter of Major Flinders had been taken in some 
 measure from the chronicler himself. The major 
 is an ardent devotee of Shakespeare : the major 
 takes a personal interest in the cookery of the 
 savoury Spanish dishes : the major is loath to 
 hurt a wasp : and when the horses are gored in
 
 52 IN GARRISON AT GIBRALTAR. 
 
 the bull-ring of Algeciras, his feelings get alto- 
 gether the better of him. Indeed the major 
 seemed so realistic to one prosaically minded 
 soldier that, as his creator writes gleefully in 
 the letter acknowledging the cheque, 
 
 " Fancy the Governor, a very matter-of-fact old gentle- 
 man, going out into the picture-gallery with ' Maga ' in 
 one hand and a candle in the other to look for my grand- 
 father Major Flinders, and expressing his wrath at not 
 finding him. He imagined the whole thing to be really 
 a veracious narrative." 
 
 Apropos to the portrait - gallery, there is a 
 charming touch as to a larger canvas, the master- 
 piece of an artist of the olden school, " representing 
 a council of officers held during the siege, where, 
 notwithstanding the gravity of the occasion and the 
 imminence of the danger, not a single face in the 
 intrepid assembly wears the slightest expression 
 of anxiety or fear, or indeed of anything else." 
 " The Legend " was quickly followed by " Laz- 
 aro's Legacy," and in this case the sequel was 
 certainly not inferior to its predecessor. The 
 writer recommends special attention to the Span- 
 ish phrases, and the " vulgarious talk " put in the 
 mouths of the inferior personages, " for dreadful 
 are the pangs of an author when a pet sentence is 
 turned into nonsense or deprived of the point by 
 the alteration of an important letter." That " vul-
 
 "LAZARO'S LEGACY." 53 
 
 garious talk," which caused natural anxiety, was 
 the most ludicrous and characteristic part of the 
 story. Our old acquaintance, the major, is lively 
 and entertaining as ever, and the matrimony into 
 which he was rather shabbily betrayed has in 
 no way staled his infinite jest. But surely the 
 private broken loose from discipline was never 
 better drawn than in the respectable Mr Bags and 
 his worthy comrade Bill. Multiply them by 
 many, and magnify their opportunities for evil, 
 and we can realise the worst scenes of the Pen- 
 insular war after the storming of Badajoz and 
 Ciudad Rodrigo. In the Gibraltar story there 
 are no horrors, but only the ludicrous side of 
 licence, although it was no joke to the unlucky 
 victims. But the climax of cleverness is in the 
 comically artistic way in which just retribution 
 is finally distributed. The grasping old usurer 
 is shelled and burned out of the stores he had ac- 
 cumulated against the extremities of the famine : 
 and Mr Bags, who has invested his portable pil- 
 lage in a cannon's mouth, sees the fruits of his 
 industry scattered to the winds when the gun is 
 discharged at the Spanish gunboats. 
 
 Sending off " Lazaro's Legacy," Hamley wrote : 
 " We will now, I think, have done with my grand- 
 father, for fear he should get tiresome." We can 
 avouch that there were readers who sincerely
 
 54 IN GARRISON AT GIBRALTAR. 
 
 lamented the major's premature decease ; but 
 Hamley dismissed him with the more com- 
 placency, that already he was engaged on a 
 more ambitious piece of work, and soon his 
 novel of ' Lady Lee's Widowhood ' had taken 
 complete form in outline. The author was im- 
 petuous and the editor was cautious. Hamley, 
 adopting a dashing strategy, hoped to carry the 
 Magazine by assault. He despatched a couple of 
 parts of a story that would probably extend to 
 ten, and sanguinely suggested that they should 
 be printed forthwith if there were an opening. 
 Blackwood admired and approved, but naturally 
 hesitated to give his promising recruit carte 
 blanche. Indeed, even when the fifth part of the 
 story was forwarded, he writes as if the decision 
 was still in suspense. In reality the novel was prac- 
 tically accepted, but the editor was frank and out- 
 spoken in his criticisms, and took exception to 
 some of the details. It is interesting to follow 
 the course of the correspondence, which shows, 
 besides, the decision and foresight of Hamley's 
 manner of working. Scott declares repeatedly 
 that he could never stick to a plan : that his plot 
 would change with the inspiration of the moment, 
 and that his most disreputable characters invari- 
 ably ran away with him. Hamley sends twice a 
 minute description of the development of the plot
 
 AT EUROPA POINT. 55 
 
 and its incidents, and it did not undergo any 
 substantial alteration. All was mapped out as 
 methodically as any novel of Wilkie Collins or 
 Charles Keade. Most men would have found their 
 surroundings singularly unfavourable to light and 
 sparkling work, for the imaginative tempera- 
 ment is generally stimulated by the bustle of 
 active life and the society of congenial spirits. 
 But Hamley congratulates himself on the ample 
 leisure that was given by solitude and com- 
 parative isolation. In the midsummer of 1852 
 he says, 
 
 I am now stationed with my company, in our turn, at 
 Europa Point a part of the Eock removed by a couple cf 
 miles from the town and very lonely which is favourable 
 to work. It is, moreover, much cooler here than in the 
 city something like ten degrees of difference and there- 
 fore a far healthier spot in the summer, so that I am much 
 pleased with the change, although my society consists 
 chiefly of monkeys and rabbits, the aborigines of Europe. 
 
 Yet although he could easily dispense with the 
 ordinary mess company, he sadly missed such 
 familiars as Gleig and Bent, with whom he could 
 have discussed his work and consulted. More- 
 over, he was fretted and hampered by the distance 
 from literary headquarters. The mails were few 
 and precarious ; the rates of postage were heavy, 
 and often important packets were forwarded by
 
 56 IN GARRISON AT GIBRALTAR. 
 
 private opportunities, with considerable doubt as 
 to the ultimate delivery. 
 
 GIBRALTAR, 14th Sept. 1852. 
 
 MY DEAR SIK, I was very glad to get your long- 
 expected note this morning, for it was exactly what I 
 wanted. I have no literary friend here with whom to 
 discuss my projects, for most of my companions in arms 
 are, to say the truth, much better judges of brown sherry, 
 black eyes, and Cuba cigars than of composition. This is 
 unfortunate ; because talking over characters and incidents 
 gives them a reality, which they want so long as they are 
 confined to the brain that imagined them. I will now 
 give you a sketch of the design, and I am glad to observe 
 that your objections are such as would disappear in the 
 course of the story. 
 
 Two main features in the plot are taken from real life. 
 A certain peer was lately here in his yacht, who, in youth, 
 for some offence noways dishonourable, as I believe, was 
 turned adrift by his father. He enlisted in the Life or 
 Horse Guards, and served as a trooper for some time under 
 a feigned name; afterwards a commission was procured 
 for him by his mother's friends in a regiment serving in 
 India ; and now, by his father's death, he enjoys a title 
 and estate. 
 
 From this I took the idea of Corporal Onslow. I 
 thought I had sufficiently indicated, from his first appear- 
 ance at the Heronry, that he was by chance in a position 
 below his station. 
 
 Finish it I certainly shall, because so much being done, 
 the idea would haunt me till completed ; and, moreover, I 
 think the capabilities of the design such, that, if well exe- 
 cuted, it would have certainly an original, perhaps a strik-
 
 "FULL-FLAVOURED" PASSAGES. 57 
 
 ing, appearance. And if, as I said, you will take the pains 
 to give me the benefit of your opinion, I shall take it as a 
 great favour. Meantime I shall look at the whole by the 
 light you have already thrown out. The Corporal seems 
 particularly to stick in your throat: but besides the instance 
 I have given, where truth is stranger than any fiction, I 
 could name others, where gentlemen have served in the 
 
 ranks. What would you say to the Honourable Mr C 
 
 being flogged at Chatham for some blackguardism he had 
 committed, while serving in a line regiment in which he 
 had enlisted? 
 
 Mr Black wood's objections to the dashing scape- 
 grace, who had enlisted and received promotion in 
 the Light Dragoons, must have been overruled, 
 for Onslow figures as he was originally conceived. 
 It may be remarked, by the way, that Lever paid 
 Hamley the compliment of transferring him to 
 his ' Davenport Dunn ' as Conway " the Crusher." 
 Hamley bowed more submissively to minor pro- 
 tests. Living a garrison life, he would appear 
 to have forgotten that ' Maga ' lay on the tables 
 of manses and parsonages, and that the decorous 
 classes were its most valued patrons. For in 
 his next note is this paragraph : 
 
 You shall not have to complain any more of " full- 
 flavoured " passages. I remember one in the first part, in 
 Bagot's interview with the Squire, which I thought at the 
 time you might object to : at the same time it was char- 
 acteristic, and gave reality to the scene. I hope you will 
 not require much to be blotted out.
 
 58 IN GARRISON AT GIBRALTAR. 
 
 Nevertheless he possessed the susceptibilities 
 without which neither novelist nor poet is likely 
 to attain distinction. He writes in another letter : 
 
 I shall be very glad to get proofs of the early Nbs., and 
 will carefully correct them; but I hope that the alterations 
 you speak of will be as few as possible, as I have a great 
 horror of tooth-drawing and amputations. However, many 
 things will strike you as reader that may have escaped me 
 as writer. 
 
 Thackeray may be quoted as a distinguished 
 exception, but very few novelists, whether soldiers 
 or civilians, have been capable of illustrating their 
 own works. Hamley himself sketched the illus- 
 trations to the first edition of ' Lady Lee,' and 
 very deeply was he interested in having them 
 satisfactorily rendered by the engraver. As a 
 characteristic specimen of Hamley's sketches in 
 comical vein, we reproduce here the humours of 
 " Doddington Fair," and give at the end of the 
 chapter, " Trying the Trotting Mare," which 
 formed the vignette on the title-page of the 
 novel. This is one of several letters on the 
 subject of the illustrations : 
 
 GIBRALTAR, 9th Dec. 1853. 
 
 MY DEAR BLACKWOOD, The etching is extremely well 
 copied in every part, except the principal one the lady's 
 face. Besides the fault in the mouth you notice, and have 
 requested him to alter, the line of the nostril goes too much 
 upward to the eye, aiding the downward turn of the mouth
 
 RECEPTION OF 'LADY LEE'S WIDOWHOOD. 1 59 
 
 in giving a disdainful look. The eyes are two blots, and 
 should be made lighter. These alterations the engraver 
 could easily make. An additional line outside Julius's 
 right shin to make the leg thicker, and another ear to 
 the cat, wouldn't cost him two minutes' work, and would 
 be an improvement. All the rest is excellent, and so the 
 engraver seems to think from the prominence he has given 
 to his name, which would have been better placed at the 
 bottom of the page. The two faces I feel most doubtful 
 about his rendering are Orelia's in " the Eestoration " and 
 Kitty's when Bagot is holding her chin : both are mixed 
 expressions, requiring much nicety to catch. 
 
 By that time, and, indeed, considerably earlier, 
 the "Dear Sir" had passed into the "Dear 
 Blackwood," and thenceforth the letters multiply 
 in something like arithmetical progression, and 
 the friends, indulging in much playful badinage, 
 speak their minds with the utmost freedom. The 
 care, the thought, and the correspondence be- 
 stowed on ' Lady Lee ' were amply rewarded. The 
 novel was warmly received : it has gone through 
 five editions, and the writer had the satisfaction 
 shortly before his death of seeing it renewing its 
 youth in a cheaper and more popular form. The 
 success it won was so well merited, that we must 
 always regret that Hamley did not follow it up 
 in a field in which he excelled. Often latterly, 
 when the time hung wearily on his hands, he 
 thought seriously of occupying himself with 
 another novel. But with him, unfortunately, it
 
 60 IN GARRISON AT GIBRALTAR. 
 
 was a case of ce riest que le premier pas, and he 
 stood hesitating over the trouble and drudgery 
 of thinking out a satisfactory scheme. Had he 
 followed Scott's great example, and dashed boldly 
 in medias res, he would have fallen back into 
 a pleasant pursuit, and novel - readers would 
 have been great gainers. For all the critics, 
 with the solitary exception of the ' Spectator/ 
 were agreed that in ' Lady Lee ' there was won- 
 derful freshness with a rare lightness of touch. 
 Nothing can be more ludicrously dramatic than 
 some of the scenes, such as the free fight in the 
 streets of Doddington which was Bodmin 
 or the mess dinner at " the Bush." Possibly 
 Lady Lee herself and her dignified friend Orelia 
 have some of the stiffness of lay figures, though 
 there are life and nature enough in the third 
 of his feminine triumvirate. But the soldiers, 
 and especially the sporting soldiers, are hit off 
 to the life, which is the more noteworthy 
 that Hamley's habits had never taken him to 
 Tattersall's, and that he had been quartered far 
 away from Newmarket and the Shires. Bagot 
 Lee is a masterpiece in his way, and yet the 
 jovial old reprobate is so cleverly and pleasantly 
 drawn that we cannot withhold a sneaking sym- 
 pathy, when his sins have at last found him 
 out and landed him in the depths of despair. 
 Yet here again, as in the " Legend of Gibraltar,"
 
 A DISASTROUS TRIP. 61 
 
 we see Hamley vindicating himself, when he 
 asserts the dignity of his profession in the nobler 
 military types. We doubt not that the novel 
 was all the more appreciated by Blackwood for 
 the buoyant vivacity and the perennial flow of 
 fun by which it is distinguished. No man had 
 more profound faith in the literary judgment of 
 " the Editor " than the late Colonel Laurence 
 Lockhart. But the humorous author of ' Doubles 
 and Quits ' and ' Fair to See ' used always to say 
 that he mistrusted " the Editor's " passion for light 
 comedy. " He will laugh," Lockhart would declare, 
 " till he forgets to criticise : but it is lamentable 
 when jokes chance to miss their mark and then 
 the public don't care to be always grinning." 
 
 Hamley seems to have stuck very steadily to 
 the desk in the intervals of duty when in garri- 
 son, nor did he indulge much in social frivolities. 
 But he frequently took short leave one spring 
 he spent several weeks in the Sierras of Granada 
 and there is a characteristic description of a 
 shooting expedition to Barbary, which came off 
 in the Christmas week of 1853. 
 
 GIBRALTAR, 12th Jan. 
 
 MY DEAK BLACKWOOD, . . . Our trip to Barbary was 
 rather disastrous. In the first place, we were roused a 
 morning or two after our arrival by a report that our 
 cutter, which we had left snugly moored to the river's 
 bank the night before, was in danger of being swept away 
 by a flood, and rushing out half -naked we had the pleasure
 
 62 IN GARRISON AT GIBRALTAR. 
 
 of seeing her borne down the current to the sea, where 
 she sank. Luckily there were no stores on board except 
 most of our shot. Then we had infamous weather and 
 bad sport. Christmas day we spent in a tower belonging 
 to the Bashaw, unable to move for the weather. Our 
 stores were almost exhausted, for we had intended to be 
 back by Christmas, and we had the prospect of remain- 
 ing all night without fire, light, or anything to drink. 
 Luckily somebody groping about discovered a candle-end, 
 with the assistance of which we fished out a bottle of 
 brandy, so we made a festive evening rather dismal, I 
 must say, but that is not unfrequently the case even with 
 Christmas parties at home, with all appliances and means 
 to boot, which we had not. To crown our misfortunes, 
 we started in a trading vessel for Gibraltar, which first 
 went aground and was afterwards becalmed, so that we 
 spent three days and nights getting across (tho' the dis- 
 tance is little more than thirty miles), and had very little 
 to eat, nothing to drink, and never took our clothes off 
 the whole time. Letters which we found on our return 
 wishing us " a merry Christmas " we could afford to laugh 
 at then, being comfortably established in our quarters ; 
 but such compliments at the proper time would have 
 sounded like very cutting irony. I'm afraid there were 
 very few merry Christmases this year in Gibraltar, for 
 our supplies being cut off in great measure from Spain, 
 the poorer classes are in great distress, painfully short 
 both of fuel and food, and the troops have salt provisions 
 four days in the week. 
 
 At Gibraltar he appears to have had few male 
 friends and no intimates. It was eminently 
 characteristic of him that, next to the children, 
 who were irresistibly attracted to him, he took
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF HAMLEY. 63 
 
 most readily to sympathetic women. He always 
 delighted in feminine society, though his confi- 
 dence was not given very readily. But it is 
 evident from his letters that he unbosomed him- 
 self with more unreserve to ladies than to any 
 man, with perhaps the exceptions of John Black- 
 wood and Colonel Gleig. I am indebted to two 
 of the good friends he made on the Bock for 
 sketches of the unassuming and studious young 
 captain. Miss Jones, now Mrs Harry Smith, 
 knew him well, and afterwards they kept up a 
 desultory correspondence. These are her rather 
 abridged recollections : 
 
 Captain Hamley was very thin and angular, and looked 
 much taller than he was. He was a very reserved, quiet 
 man, and though liked had few if any intimates. He 
 went out into society a good deal, but always as a 
 looker-on rather than taking part. He did not dance 
 much, though he went to every ball, and he did not 
 dance well. He came to the Rock with the reputation 
 of being very clever, satirical, and given to drawing 
 caricatures. I never saw but two one of himself and 
 one of me. He spent a great deal of his time in writing, 
 and largely availed himself of the garrison library. He 
 had at one time very pretty quarters high above the 
 town, and took great pride in his garden. Most people 
 stood in awe of him, owing to his silent ways and stiff 
 manner, and from his taking but little part in things 
 around him, and never taking the trouble to talk, except 
 to a few. He was, however, much thought of for his 
 talents, and acted as judge-advocate on more than one im-
 
 64 IN GARRISON AT GIBRALTAR. 
 
 portant court-martial. His constant companions in the 
 town were his cats, and out of the town his dog Canuelo 
 (Spanish for cinnamon), a brave setter. He rode much, 
 alone with his dog. He was a good horseman, fearless, 
 but with a perfect understanding with his horse. He 
 joined all the large riding - parties that were a feature 
 in Gib. life in those days. He had a most tender heart 
 behind his stiff manner, and many were the kind acts 
 he did to the wives and children of his company. 
 
 Mrs Stopford, a daughter of Sir John Bur- 
 goyne, says very much the same, remarking that 
 she always refused Hamley for round dances, as 
 he danced them indifferently, and there was an 
 awkward disparity in their heights. But when 
 she sat out with him, as she was always delighted 
 to do, he made himself extremely agreeable ; and 
 young as she was at the time, she saw how much 
 there was in him. As for Mrs Smith's por- 
 traiture, it is Hamley himself in course of evo- 
 lution as Gleig had sketched him at the College 
 and in Canada, and as we knew him afterwards, 
 even when he had mixed much in the world and 
 had attained the highest ranks in his profession. 
 And Mrs Smith relates one eminently character- 
 istic incident, which would have made a capital 
 subject for one of his own stories of Gibraltar. 
 
 One night there were strange noises on the 
 heights, and mysterious lights were seen flitting 
 about one of the upper batteries, which were left
 
 FUNERAL OF A FAITHFUL DOG. 
 
 65 
 
 unsentinelled. The drums beat to arms, the gar- 
 rison was alarmed, and a search expedition was 
 sent out to scale the rock. It came upon a 
 funeral. The faithful Canuelo had died sud- 
 denly, and his mourning master with his servant 
 were laying the departed to rest in a spot be- 
 lieved to be safe from disturbance. 
 
 TRYING THE TROTTING MARE. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 E
 
 66 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE CRIMEAN CAMPAIGN. 
 
 APPOINTED ADJUTANT TO SIR RICHARD DACRES DEPARTURE FOR 
 
 THE EAST SCUTARI LETTERS TO MISS JONES AN ACCIDENT 
 
 VARNA 'THE CAMPAIGN OP SEBASTOPOL' HAMLEY AT 
 
 INKERMAN IN THE TRENCHES LITERARY MERITS OF THE 
 
 ' CAMPAIGN ' DESCRIPTION OF THE ALMA CRIMEAN 
 
 SCENERY LETTERS TO JOHN BLACKWOOD ON THE EVE OF 
 
 THE REDAN. 
 
 IN noticing the years that Hamley passed on the 
 Rock, I have dwelt almost exclusively on the 
 beginnings of his literary work, partly because 
 evidently it greatly preoccupied him, and partly 
 because his letters to his friend and publisher are 
 chiefly concerned with the literary pursuits into 
 which he had thrown himself with characteristic 
 enthusiasm. But it would be doing him gross 
 injustice to suppose that he was in any way 
 neglectful of his professional duties. Literature 
 only occupied his leisure : and throughout his 
 life his indomitable determination of purpose
 
 SIGNS OF WAR IN THE EAST. 67 
 
 was directed to the attainment of military dis- 
 tinction. The best of his brilliant intellect was 
 given to subjects which were to serve as a pre- 
 paration for the great work on which his repu- 
 tation as a consummate master of strategy is 
 solidly established. There are many passages in 
 the letters in which he apologises for the delay 
 of promised contributions on account of the ex- 
 igencies of military service. Then he will con- 
 gratulate himself on the immediate prospect of 
 " ample leisure," and write more industriously than 
 before, in the excitement of exchanging one form 
 of activity for another. But there was no more 
 earnest soldier in the garrison, as assuredly there 
 was none more intelligent. He was to receive a 
 very flattering proof of the way in which his ser- 
 vices had been regarded by his superiors, from the 
 man who was most capable of appreciating them. 
 For months the storm-warnings in the North had 
 become more threatening, and the Mediterranean 
 garrisons had been excited by anticipations of 
 stirring times and of an expedition to the East. 
 Hamley had more than once written, with the 
 natural impatience of a young and aspiring officer, 
 on the vacillating and dilatory policy of Lord 
 Aberdeen. Subsequently, in the exercise of 
 more deliberate judgment, he shows very clear- 
 ly, in the first chapter of ' The War in the
 
 68 THE CRIMEAN CAMPAIGN. 
 
 Crimea/ that it was Russia and not England 
 which had been drifting into the war. But 
 whether the Czar or the English Premier was 
 to accept the responsibility, in the beginning of 
 1854 war with the Russians was a foregone con- 
 clusion. Colonel Dacres, afterwards Sir Richard 
 Dacres, was the Commandant of Artillery at 
 Gibraltar. He had been informed that he was 
 to command a division of artillery in the expedi- 
 tionary force, and apparently he lost no time in 
 offering the adjutancy to Hamley. The first 
 notice of it is in a letter to Blackwood, dated 
 8th March: 
 
 GIBRALTAR, 8th March. 
 
 MY DEAR BLACKWOOD, This must be a short and hur- 
 ried note, for I am in a great bustle at present. Two 
 prospects present themselves to me. First, Colonel Dacres, 
 who is to command a division of artillery in Turkey, 
 wishes me to accompany him as Adjutant, and has written 
 both officially and privately applying for me in the strongest 
 terms. As he ought, according to all precedent, to appoint 
 his own Adjutant, there would seem no doubt of my suc- 
 cess but for a private hint that another man had been 
 talked of at Woolwich, where nothing is done without a 
 job ; but we hope the other man is only meant to come in 
 in case of Colonel Dacres not wishing to take an officer 
 from here, which the official notification of his appoint- 
 ment authorised him to do. 
 
 To-day's mail brought me the chance of another ad- 
 jutancy, at Woolwich. This I have accepted in case of
 
 APPOINTED ADJUTANT TO COL. D ACRES. 69 
 
 not getting the other ; but whether the end of the month 
 will see me on my way to Constantinople or to Woolwich, 
 it is impossible to foresee. I hope the former. 
 
 There is no direct correspondence as to the 
 appointment, but his niece, Miss Barbara Ham- 
 ley, happens to remember a conversation when 
 Sir Richard Dacres, then well stricken in years, 
 recalled the circumstances with a significant de- 
 tail. What Sir Richard said was to the fol- 
 lowing effect : " I had been struck by your uncle's 
 abilities, and at that time I sent for him. I said, 
 ' Hamley, I should like to take you with me to the 
 Crimea, if you know French well.' The answer 
 was, ' If you will only take me, sir, I shall set 
 to at once and learn.' " Dacres was satisfied with 
 the assurance : Hamley went to work next day, 
 and his subsequent translations of the verses of 
 Voltaire show how thoroughly he had inspired 
 himself with the spirit of the language. 
 
 But it would seem to have been his destiny to 
 find obstacles cropping up on each occasion when 
 advancements or appointments were offered him, 
 however conspicuously his qualifications might 
 mark him out for some special post. Now, his 
 suspense was relieved in little more than a fort- 
 night ; and while actively occupied over the 
 urgent business of kit and outfit, he is already 
 changing front in bis literary schemes, and snap-
 
 70 THE CRIMEAN CAMPAIGN. 
 
 ing his strategy according to the change in his 
 circumstances. 
 
 GIBRALTAR, 25th March 1854. 
 
 MY DEAR BLACKWOOD, To-day's mail decided my 
 movements. I am to go to Turkey as Colonel Dacres' 
 Adjutant. We have received no intelligence as to the 
 day of our departure for the East ; but as private letters 
 say the Artillery were embarked on the 18th, we shall 
 probably see them here before long. In the meantime I 
 am busied with preparations. 
 
 Will it be asking too much if I beg you to strike a 
 rough balance of the edition of ' Lady Lee,' supposing it to 
 be not yet all sold ? Horses, and equipments, and bills on 
 leaving Gibraltar will demand more ready cash than I 
 have, and if you could conveniently, during the month of 
 April, put 100 or thereabout to my credit with Messrs 
 Cox & Co., Craig's Court, I should take it as very kind. 
 I am ashamed to talk of money matters to you, who have 
 always been so liberal, and would not now do it on any 
 account but that I think the sale of the 1000 copies you 
 spoke of will already have secured me more than the 
 sum I mention ; and considering the exigency, you will, I 
 know, excuse my saying anything on the subject. 
 
 I shall let you know of our movements in Turkey ; and 
 if I can write in an extended form on the subjects of in- 
 terest which will present themselves, without overstep- 
 ping the bounds of official reserve, you shall have some 
 letters from the field and incidents of the campaign for 
 ' Maga.' I had projected and commenced some papers, 
 which were to have taken the form of a biography of an 
 imaginary hero, with some discussions on art ; but of 
 course my present prospects put an end to all ideas re- 
 quiring time and thought to develop them. I hope I
 
 PROMISED NEWS FROM SEAT OF WAR. 7l 
 
 shan't lose the thread of the design before I come back ; 
 but at any rate I shall get a fine supply of new ideas on 
 active service, which will come in with good effect here- 
 after, so that, even in a literary point of view, I expect 
 the campaign will be not without profit to me. On other 
 accounts I have every reason to congratulate myself on 
 the field which opens to me ; and my position on the Staff 
 will be more agreeable and advantageous than that of a 
 regimental officer. I shall see service against enemies 
 more creditable to contend with than Chinese or Caffres, 
 and, in fact, think myself very lucky. The selection 
 itself is flattering. My friends in England will, I fear, be 
 much disappointed, for they expected me home immedi- 
 ately to take the Woolwich adjutancy ; but that of course 
 I did not allow to weigh with the appointment I have been 
 so fortunate as to get. 
 
 Before he embarks on the transport which 
 was to take him to the East, I may go back 
 to a playful letter which explains his views 
 as to matrimony views which, perhaps unfor- 
 tunately for him, he was never to realise. At 
 any rate, his immediate prospects confirmed him 
 in his previous resolutions ; though he had 
 reason to envy his friend's matrimonial happiness, 
 when he had made the acquaintance of the lady, 
 to whom some of the most lively of his more 
 confidential letters were to be addressed. 
 
 GIBRALTAR, 1st February. 
 
 MY DEAE BLACKWOOD, First let me congratulate you 
 warmly on the event you apprised me of in your last. By 
 the time this reaches you, you will have made some pro-
 
 72 THE CRIMEAN CAMPAIGN. 
 
 gress in your honeymoon, and will have realised the first 
 bloom of the happiness you promised yourself. That it 
 may go on increasing steadily in permanent qualities after 
 the novelty is worn off is my sincere wish and expectation. 
 Thanks for the hope that I may some time join the ranks 
 of you married men. I hope so too ; but it is scarcely de- 
 sirable while I am knocking about the world with no more 
 prospect of settling than the Wandering Jew. Bardolph, 
 you know, was of opinion that " a soldier is better accom- 
 modated than with a wife," and I am inclined to agree with 
 him. At the same time I have observed that old bachelors 
 in the army are generally miserable and not very respect- 
 able beings : this you will easily understand, as the ex- 
 perience of the last week or two will have caused you to 
 look on bachelors with great compassion. 
 
 There are some amusing notes to Miss Jones 
 from Scutari and Varna. He had one special 
 reason for writing to her, for he had bought her 
 favourite riding-horse, and Jim was one of his 
 chargers through the campaign. Jim had been 
 sent to bid farewell to his mistress, the evening 
 before he was shipped for the East. The first of 
 the letters is from Coolali Barracks, on the Asiatic 
 shore of the Bosphorus. Hamley sends by way of 
 souvenir a flower he had gathered from the grave 
 of Achilles on the plains of Ilium, and then he 
 passes from classical sentiment to the common- 
 place in a lively description of his quarters : 
 
 We are in a huge cavalry barrack that the Turks have 
 vacated to make room for us, leaving it perfectly bare and
 
 AN UNFORTUNATE ACCIDENT. 73 
 
 empty, except of fleas and cats, both of which swarm in 
 every room. Of course the society of the latter visitors 
 quite compensates me for the annoyance of the others. 
 
 There is a Turkish commandant who is to have his head 
 cut off, without judge or jury, in case the building is burnt ; 
 so whenever we want anything, we set fire to some straw 
 in the passage, and the old gentleman, rushing in, followed 
 by his pipe-bearer, in a dreadful fright, immediately com- 
 plies with all our demands. But the straw is all burned 
 now, so we must devise some other means of persuasion. 
 I am writing on a table made out of a door which I pulled 
 down in the passage, which is the only article of furniture 
 except a chair I brought with me, and a hammock hung 
 in the corner, which has broken down three nights suc- 
 cessively. But I have spent little time in my room, for 
 the Colonel and myself have been fully occupied with 
 looking after the force here about 700 men and the same 
 number of horses : splendid animals they are, and deserve 
 all our care. 
 
 It is lamentable to turn to the pages of his 
 Crimean Narrative, where the tender-hearted 
 writer deplores the fate of those " splendid ani- 
 mals," as they died by inches of starvation and 
 overwork in lingering agonies. 
 
 He was unexpectedly detained in the Coolali 
 barracks by a mishap which he describes in an 
 affectionate letter to an old relative at Bodmin. 
 The accident was an awkward one, and might 
 have had more serious consequences, had it not 
 been for the sufferer's robust constitution. As 
 it was, it troubled him in the Crimea from time
 
 74 THE CRIMEAN CAMPAIGN. 
 
 to time, although never actually incapacitating 
 him : 
 
 I was enjoying capital health, when on the 8th of this 
 month [June] I met with a most unfortunate accident. 
 The division had gone out for a march, and as I was riding 
 past some infantry in a narrow lane, General Adams' horse 
 struck out and kicked me on the shin, breaking the bone. 
 I was lifted off my horse and laid down by the roadside 
 for the surgeons to examine my leg, and the Prince [the 
 Duke of Cambridge] sent his servant to the camp for a 
 party of the Guards to carry me home, which they did on 
 a garden-door. My leg was set, and is now doing uncom- 
 monly well. I have never had much pain nor any fever, 
 and my health and appetite are as good as before. The 
 worst of it is that the army is on the move for Varna, so 
 that I shall be left almost alone here and miss the opening 
 of the campaign. In six weeks more I hope to be with 
 them again, and many people think that there will be no 
 fighting before that. Sir De Lacy Evans told me he did 
 not think we should see the Eussians these two months. 
 I hope not, as then I shall not lose any of it, and shall 
 not regret my accident so much. 
 
 Sir De Lacy Evans' prognostications were more 
 than realised, and the invalid's convalescence was 
 not delayed by any worry as to missing oppor- 
 tunities of distinction. In little more than the 
 six weeks he was out of the hands of the surgeons, 
 and had gone on to Varna to join his chief. For 
 a letter from Varna Bay of the 26th August 
 describes the fearful outbreak of cholera which 
 had fallen like a Black Death on the camp and
 
 BEFORE SEBASTOPOL. 75 
 
 the fleet, and which he has dramatically described 
 in his volumes on the war : 
 
 Whatever befalls, it is better that the fine army should 
 fall in the field than be destroyed by sickness and climate. 
 I don't observe any great enthusiasm among the troops ; 
 but that will come, no doubt, with the first sight of the 
 enemy. 
 
 That he kept his own health so well must be 
 attributed in great measure to the cheerfulness 
 with which he accepted inevitable hardships. 
 A letter from the lines before Sebastopol, writ- 
 ten in mid-winter, gives a humorous account of 
 the subterraneous luxury in which the writer was 
 living : 
 
 The Colonel and myself are now underground in what 
 you would consider a very inferior kind of cellar, but 
 which we look upon as a very superior residence. It is 
 made by digging a deep trench and roofing it with poles 
 and branches. It has a chimney, which is a comfort when 
 it does not smoke, and a nuisance when it does. This we 
 prefer to living in tents, especially as tents are liable to 
 be blown away, an event which happened at daybreak on 
 the morning of the 14th, in the great hurricane, when in 
 every camp might be seen a multitude of wretches sitting 
 up in bed half-naked, holding their fluttering bed-clothes, 
 while their effects were borne away on the tempest to- 
 wards Sebastopol. This cannot happen to us now: the 
 only thing to apprehend is, that as our roof is nearly on a 
 level with the ground, some runaway horse or drunken 
 soldier may blunder through it on to our table or beds.
 
 76 THE CRIMEAN CAMPAIGN. 
 
 We get on pretty well, though the Colonel frets a good 
 deal after his wife, and clean shirts, and cream in his coffee. 
 I have an uncommonly nice cat, and it is a great addition 
 to our circle. 
 
 It was fortunate for the ardent reader that, 
 in the fulness of occupation, he was compara- 
 tively indifferent to books. Literature of any 
 kind was even more hard to come by than the 
 delicacies which were sometimes within reach of 
 a well-filled purse. He talks of feting his birth- 
 day and the arrival of his friend Bent with 
 turbot, turkey, and champagne, and he goes 
 on : 
 
 Mr Wright, the senior chaplain, of whom I see a good 
 deal (owing probably to my serious turn and reverential 
 demeanour), has a great number of books which have been 
 sent to the army from home ; but on looking at the backs 
 of them, I suspect some old ladies and gentlemen have 
 been weeding their libraries, and getting a reputation for 
 benevolence at small expense. 
 
 Finally, though in defiance of chronology, 
 another letter to Miss Jones may be quoted, 
 written from Leith Fort after his return, show- 
 ing the trouble and cost he incurred for his 
 furry favourites, and the staunchness of his 
 friendship for his " poor dependants." It proves, 
 too, how firmly he could attach women to him, 
 for Lady Dacres did him a troublesome piece of 
 service, which few men so self-contained would
 
 'THE CAMPAIGN OF SEBASTOPOL.' 77 
 
 have dreamed of asking, unless in the assurance 
 that the trouble would really be a pleasure : 
 
 My cat Topsy has had some marvellous adventures. 
 She was left in Lady Dacres' charge, and was put in a box 
 with a small family to be conveyed on board ship at Bala- 
 klava. On the way the cart was upset, the box broke, the 
 family dispersed, and Topsy in a panic ran up a drain, 
 and could not be got out before the ship sailed. Lady 
 D. came home inconsolable. The subject was still too 
 painful to both of us to be dwelt on, when I saw her and 
 Sir Eichard during my late visit to town. Judge of my 
 surprise at receiving a note from her, to say that Topsy 
 and all her family were safe, and just about to arrive in 
 England. 
 
 But for a time, with such exceptions as these, 
 the personal narrative is merged in the letters 
 regularly despatched from the Crimea, which ap- 
 peared in ten successive numbers of ' Blackwood's 
 Magazine,' and were republished as ' The Cam- 
 paign of Sebastopol.' Notwithstanding that he 
 wrote more deliberately in ' The War in the 
 Crimea' in 1890, it is to be regretted that the 
 earlier volume has long been out of print. Even 
 now one can read with all the excitement of a 
 romance what Kinglake has styled that soldier- 
 like narrative. Nothing can be more impres- 
 sive or more picturesquely dramatic than those 
 rapid pictures dashed off on the spot, of the ter- 
 rors of a war and the horrors of a slow siege. No
 
 78 THE CRIMEAN CAMPAIGN. 
 
 detail escaped him which can give life and vivid 
 colour to the story : the general situation with 
 its shifting scenes is seized and indicated with 
 rare lucidity ; and the predictions he hazarded 
 as to the course of events are wonderful examples 
 of scientific prescience. When he wrote on the 
 subject again after the lapse of a generation, he 
 could declare that he had nothing to correct or 
 explain away. He was one of the first of the 
 modern war correspondents and certainly one of 
 the most remarkable. There is no need for 
 drawing contrasts or comparisons. But it is to 
 be remembered that writers of unsurpassed bril- 
 liancy like Russell were specially sent out to the 
 Crimea for the purpose, and the letters to their 
 journals were their sole business. Hamley, in the 
 brief and precarious intervals of active duty, 
 dashed off his flying despatches under the most 
 unfavourable and depressing conditions. They 
 were penned after long days in the saddle, under 
 breezy canvas or in dripping mud-huts by the light 
 of a flickering candle, when fatigue was getting the 
 better of him. These letters were carefully pre- 
 served and bound in a volume by Mr Blackwood. 
 They are closely written on either side of sheets 
 of letter-paper. Yet there is scarcely an erasure 
 and seldom an alteration. It is the same in his 
 Diaries of the Egyptian Campaign, and nothing
 
 HAMLEY AND KINGLAKE AS AUTHORS. 79 
 
 demonstrates more conclusively that he had the 
 genius of authorship. The thoughts shaped them- 
 selves in his brain, and the words flowed from 
 his pen with scarcely sensible effort. In that 
 respect he was the antithesis of his friend King- 
 lake. Though their styles were so widely different, 
 each valued the remarkable qualities of the other. 
 Kinglake, though he had some slight contempt 
 for any workmanship at all hasty or superficial, 
 would often speak with hearty admiration of 
 Hamley's intuitive perception, and the instinctive 
 precision with which he arrived at satisfactory 
 results ; as Hamley, in ' The War in the Crimea,' 
 bears honourable testimony to the indefatigable 
 industry of Kinglake, and the care with which 
 he arranged his information, so as to make battle 
 details intelligible as they had never been before, 
 even to those who had fought or commanded in 
 the actions. Kinglake would polish and revise, 
 till proof-readers and compositors were driven to 
 the verge of lunacy : Hamley needed barely to 
 revise at all, and we read his work, like the 
 Waverley Novels, almost as originally written. 
 
 It is perhaps not surprising that the author of 
 the "Legend of Gibraltar" and of 'Lady Lee' 
 should describe picturesquely, even when writing 
 under difficulties. But we are specially struck in 
 the third of the letters by the acute intelligence
 
 80 THE CRIMEAN CAMPAIGN. 
 
 with which the future author of ' The Operations 
 of War ' indicates the novel features of the cam- 
 paign on which the Allies were about to enter. 
 He explains how the old conditions of warfare had 
 been modified by the presence of steam. It was 
 possible now to advance with a floating base of 
 operations which accompanied the march, and 
 to dispense with the drain of guards for long- 
 drawn lines of communication, liable to be cut at 
 any point by the enemy. Of course some appre- 
 ciable risk is inseparable from the most carefully 
 planned operations, and had a reverse in the field 
 been followed by such a hurricane as sank the 
 vessels in Balaklava harbour, the transports 
 would have been scattered, embarkation would 
 have been impossible, and a mishap might have 
 resulted in disaster. So, when things were ap- 
 proaching a crisis, he discusses and criticises the 
 various designs attributed to the chiefs of the re- 
 spective armies, which, as the adjutant of Dacres, 
 he had exceptional opportunities of learning. He 
 sets forth the arguments urged, as was supposed, 
 by Niel and the French Emperor, by Pelissier and 
 Lord Raglan : he gives them impartial considera- 
 tion, and, so far as may be, he is confirmed by 
 actual history, by Kinglake and Todleben, in the 
 opinions expressed, on the spur of the moment, 
 with modest confidence. Latterly he had lost
 
 OUTSPOKEN CRITICISMS. 81 
 
 faith in Lord Raglan. There can be no indiscre- 
 tion now in quoting a passage from a private 
 letter, dated 28th May 1855, when he may have 
 been suffering from liver, and was apparently out 
 of temper. At least he speaks as disrespectfully 
 of the policy of the Premier as of the strategy of 
 the Commander-in- Chief : 
 
 My Lord E. goes on in his old careless fashion. He is 
 a most courteous old gentleman, with an extraordinary 
 faculty of letting the most important affairs slip off his 
 mind like water off a duck's back, without any uneasiness. 
 I hope fortune will befriend him and us in our future 
 enterprises, for he is past mending as a General. 
 
 As to Lord Palmerston, he remarks : 
 
 I am disappointed in old Palmerston. He seems to 
 meet every difficulty with a joke, replying like Jack Fal- 
 staff "with a fool-born jest," as if Grimaldi had taken 
 Kemble's place in a tragedy. 
 
 Generally, however, he made the most generous 
 allowance for the difficulties of the Ministers, and 
 of the high military and naval officers who were 
 responsible for the conduct of them, whatever 
 may have been his own views as to the right 
 method of conducting the war or of the wis- 
 dom or unwisdom of particular operations. 
 Writing deliberately for the public, he never 
 loses his head amidst the hardships and horrors 
 of the campaign. He may incidentally blame 
 
 VOL. i. F
 
 82 THE CRIMEAN CAMPAIGN. 
 
 Lord Kaglan for being influenced by Sir Edmund 
 Lyons in his unfortunate preference of Bala- 
 klava to Kamiesch, when the French general 
 had offered him freedom to choose. But the 
 choice once made, Ministers, generals, and soldiers 
 were alike the victims of circumstances, or at 
 least of that sudden change of plan which had 
 transferred the war from the banks of the Danube 
 to the Tauric Chersonese. Everything, as he 
 repeatedly points out, turned upon a sufficiency 
 of forage. He does not even blame Commissary- 
 General Filder, who was given up as a scapegoat, 
 when the Commissary's forethought was subse- 
 quently impeached by the M'Neill Commission. 
 Filder had been making his arrangements to 
 supply an army upon the Danube. The decision 
 to make the descent on the Crimea took him 
 and every one else by surprise. A stream of 
 transports began to set towards Balaklava, and 
 great quantities of supplies, most of them prac-. 
 tically unavailable, were either landed or in the 
 holds. For after the beginning of the rains 
 there were seven miles of mud between the 
 harbour and the front. The horses were dying 
 of starvation or disease ; transport was being 
 brought almost to a standstill ; and conse- 
 quently the troops had to do terribly severe 
 duty on short rations, and wellnigh in rags. As
 
 WINTER HORRORS. 83 
 
 the numbers dwindled rapidly from day to day 
 with disease and exposure, the strain on the 
 survivors became more exhausting. Yet in a 
 letter written in the depth of the winter, Hamley 
 maintains that even had all the horrors been 
 foreseen, that winter campaign would still have 
 been wise. For though Sebastopol lay open to 
 the north, the losses of the Russians in their 
 efforts to relieve it were immensely out of pro- 
 portion to those of the Allies. English prisoners 
 sent into the interior had reported that at one 
 time the road from Sebastopol to Simpheropol 
 was literally strewn with corpses. Hamley, on 
 the strength of authentic returns quoted by 
 Lord Lansdowne in the House of Lords, esti- 
 mates the total Russian losses at 240,000 men. 
 In a summer siege we must have fallen into 
 Niel's plans and invested the place, with unknown 
 masses of the enemy pressing on the rear of the 
 besiegers. In fact, the conclusion is that the 
 game of war is always a calculation of chances, 
 and at best a choice of difficulties. In this case, 
 though the soldiers at one time were dying like 
 rotten sheep, and although Hamley has described 
 with vividly painful realism the scenes in the over- 
 crowded hospitals at Scutari to which sufferers 
 were looking forward as an earthly paradise, he 
 holds, nevertheless, that our strategy was amply
 
 84 THE CRIMEAN CAMPAIGN. 
 
 justified by the results. Essentially a soldier, 
 and never sparing either himself or his subordin- 
 ates, as will be seen when he was commanding a 
 Division in Egypt, he had no notion of making 
 war with rose-water. So he quotes with appro- 
 bation the speech of Marshal Vaillant on the 
 respective qualities of Canrobert and Pelissier 
 as commanders, as he sympathetically appre- 
 ciated Pelissier's sturdy independence and iron 
 resolution : 
 
 Pelissier will lose 14,000 men for a great result at once, 
 while Canrobert would lose the same number by driblets, 
 without obtaining any advantage. 
 
 As he sums up in ' The War in the Crimea ' : 
 
 The army once before Sebastopol and dependent on a 
 military system so deficient in much that is essential, no 
 arrangement or forethought within the scope of human 
 intelligence could have averted the disasters which 
 followed. 
 
 Apparently a few years before his death, for 
 the notes are on paper stamped with the address 
 of his rooms in Ryder Street, he drew out some 
 memoranda which may have been intended as 
 material for a memoir. They are only too brief, 
 but at least they give a list of the engagements 
 at which he was present, and make exceptional 
 mention of his remarkable escape at Inkerman,
 
 A MARVELLOUS ESCAPE. 85 
 
 when, as he says, he had given himself up for 
 lost : 
 
 At the beginning of the Crimean war, Colonel (now 
 General Sir Eichard) Dacres, being appointed to the com- 
 mand of a division of artillery in the field army, selected 
 me to accompany him as his adjutant. In that capacity I 
 served (in the 1st division of the army, commanded by 
 the Duke of Cambridge) at the landing in the Crimea, in 
 the action on the Bulganac, at the battle of the Alma, 
 where my horse was wounded under me by a cannon-shot ; 
 at the action of Mackenzie's Farm, at the battle of Bala- 
 klava, and at the battle of Inkerman, where my horse was 
 first shot by a musket-ball and then killed by a cannon- 
 shot passing through him and throwing him on me a 
 sergeant who extricated me had his leg carried off in the 
 act and a second cannon-shot passed through my horse 
 on the ground. It was at this time that, passing on foot 
 along what Mr Kinglake in his History calls " the Kitspur," 
 a ridge thrown out from our position towards the enemy, 
 I found myself suddenly almost enclosed by a large 
 Eussian force, before which our men, whose ammunition 
 was exhausted, were retreating out of the Sandbag Battery. 
 Being very lame from a recent accident, I almost gave 
 myself up for lost ; and after a vain attempt, in which the 
 late Lord Balgonie of the Guards joined me, to rally some 
 of our people, I succeeded with great difficulty in getting 
 past the enemy and regaining our position. Subsequently 
 I caught in succession two masterless French horses, both 
 of which were wounded in the course of the battle. In 
 the brevet given for this engagement, I was promoted to 
 the rank of Major. 
 
 The commanding officer of the artillery of the army, 
 Colonel Strangways, having been killed in the battle,
 
 86 THE CRIMEAN CAMPAIGN. 
 
 Colonel Dacres succeeded him, and I became his first 
 aide-de-camp. In that capacity I continued to serve 
 throughout the campaign, being present in the actions in 
 the trenches and at the French battle of the Tchernaya, 
 where I rode with the Sardinian cavalry. 
 
 Neither in the memoranda nor in ' The Cam- 
 paign of Sebastopol' does he mention and it 
 is characteristic of his modesty the part he 
 played in the battle of Inkerman. Fortunately 
 his friend Kinglake, in gathering up the inci- 
 dents of the protracted struggle, gives him his 
 due meed of praise. For when he brought up 
 the guns which formed the half of Paynter's 
 battery, he showed his tactical skill by acting 
 promptly on his own initiative, and bringing 
 them to bear with telling effect : 
 
 Captain Hamley had come up with three guns, and he 
 now so placed them in battery on the eastern slope of 
 Mount Head, that, whilst commanding a great sweep to- 
 wards the front, their left was well covered from the fire 
 of the enemy's artillery by the crown of the hill. When 
 our soldiery had so far drawn off as to leave a clear front 
 for the gunners, it appeared that the troops which had 
 fought against Adams were more or less hanging back, for 
 none, or scarce any of them, as yet could be seen moving 
 up towards Mount Head. Therefore bending his mind 
 for the time to a column 600 yards off on the farther side 
 of the Quarry, Captain Hamley plied it with round-shot, 
 and presently saw the force break, then turn to its left, 
 and drop hurriedly down into the shelter of the Eavine ; 
 but after a while, troops supposed to be part of the same
 
 HAMLETS TACTICS AT INKERMAN. 87 
 
 force came climbing up on the right bank of the Ravine, 
 and at length also some of the men who had combated 
 Adams began to appear on the slopes. They moved cau- 
 tiously, and hung in the brushwood, undertaking to skir- 
 mish a little, but attempting no decisive advance. Upon 
 such of the enemy's people as were near enough to be 
 worthy of fire Hamley opened with " case," and they were 
 quickly repressed. 
 
 Preceded, as it was, by the withdrawal of our troops 
 from the Kitspur, this happy use of three guns placed the 
 contest for a moment on exactly that kind of footing 
 which was desired by men basing their tactics on the 
 strength of the Inkerman ground. With the means of 
 extending their batteries to the Fore Ridge after the 
 manner just shown them by Hamley, and some 4000 in- 
 fantry either guarding already or else close approaching 
 their heights, our people had resources enough for the 
 defence of their natural stronghold in front of the Isth- 
 mus ; and, if only they had resisted the lure of the Sand- 
 bag Battery now loved more than ever, because in the 
 enemy's hands they must have been henceforth secure 
 not, of course, against the chances of war, but against 
 the necessity of having to fight under desperate con- 
 ditions. 
 
 Except as regards the brief and successful operation 
 thus conducted with three pieces of cannon by Captain 
 Hamley, the commanders of all the three batteries which 
 had been newly brought up found berths for their guns 
 on Home Ridge, and there kept them in action alongside 
 of the other artillery. 
 
 Necessarily the soldier who was perpetually 
 under fire had many other narrow escapes, which 
 are not recorded in his letters ; and, indeed, it is
 
 88 THE CRIMEAN CAMPAIGN. 
 
 a striking illustration of the chances of war that 
 he was never seriously wounded. 
 
 On one occasion he was attending Sir Richard 
 Dacres on an official visit of inspection to the 
 trenches. The sergeant who guided them took a 
 wrong turning in the dark, when, as they were 
 retracing their steps, a shell exploded in the 
 gallery they ought to have followed. The gallery 
 collapsed, and had it not been for the sergeant's 
 mistake the party would assuredly have been 
 buried in the debris. No writer ever gave a 
 more vivid idea of the dangers and difficulties of 
 driving parallels towards a fortress of the ex- 
 citement of men plying their tools in the dark, 
 who know that they may be mining over the 
 matches in counter-mines, or piercing the thin 
 partition which separated them from their listen- 
 ing enemies. Yet even these subterraneous scenes, 
 where death came to the labourers in the most 
 appalling shapes, he enlivens with a certain grim 
 drollery. There is a good story of a gallant British 
 general of Engineers who had gone to examine the 
 Russian works from the nearest French parallel. 
 As he peeped over the gabions and sandbags, all 
 went tolerably pleasantly for a time. Then a 
 concentration of Russian bullets made things more 
 lively. The Briton heard the Frenchmen chuck- 
 ling, and began to suspect something. Look-
 
 PRINCE WORONZOFF.'S CHAMPAGNE. 89 
 
 ing up, he saw a bottle on the parapet behind. 
 The French had been in the habit of enlivening 
 the monotony of trench-work by setting up empty 
 bottles to draw the Russian fire, and now the 
 marksmen in the rifle - pits were responding to 
 the usual challenge. 
 
 Hamley himself had reminiscences of amusing 
 interludes, which recalled the rollicking Penin- 
 sular experiences of Charles Lever's Hibernian 
 heroes, of Old Monsoon and the capture of the 
 King of Spain's sherry ; as when a flying expedi- 
 tion of light cavalry and mounted gunners made 
 a casual raid on the cellars of Prince WoronzofF. 
 The Prince's celebrated Crimean champagne had 
 become the prize of the war : each man had 
 ballasted his holsters with a couple of long-necked 
 flasks, and the expeditionary force, as it with- 
 drew at a trot in the moonlight, might have been 
 followed up by the fire of exploding corks and a 
 trail bestrewed with empty bottles. 
 
 Before passing from ' The Campaign of Sebas- 
 topol,' it may be worth while to call further atten- 
 tion to it, as evincing the writer's remarkable 
 literary skill. Indeed, had Hamley been less 
 versatile, he would certainly have left a deeper 
 and more lasting mark in lighter literary work 
 than that of the professional strategist. Apart 
 altogether from its value as a sketch-history of
 
 90 THE CRIMEAN CAMPAIGN. 
 
 the war, from the picturesquely dramatic point 
 of view ' The Campaign ' is admirable. No trifle 
 escapes the author which can assist the reader's 
 intelligence, and as the panorama of the siege 
 rapidly unrolls itself, we see each of the shifting 
 scenes enacted. No scene is more impressive 
 than that in the tragic prologue to the piece, 
 in the gloom of the plague -stricken camp when 
 the cholera had broken out at Varna. The 
 man who, seeking relief from depressing thoughts, 
 saunters forth for a stroll in the twilight, 
 sees silent groups in all directions, digging 
 shallow graves within musket - shot of the 
 tents. On the land, at least, the living could 
 bury their dead out of sight. But where the 
 vessels were moored in Balchick Bay, the corpses 
 too hurriedly committed to the deep would come 
 up again in a ghastly resurrection, and float and 
 decompose beneath the gangways. There is the 
 welcome relief when the ships have their sailing 
 orders. Then when the shores of the Crimea 
 have been sighted, there are the nocturnal 
 attempts at disembarkation in overloaded craft 
 and stormy weather through the heavy surf. 
 Had the Russians been prepared to meet the 
 descent in force, it can hardly be doubted the 
 attempts must have been a disastrous failure : 
 At night the rain came down in torrents, and the troops
 
 DIFFICULTIES OF DISEMBARKATION, 91 
 
 on the beach were drenched. Bad as their situation was, 
 I envied it. At eight in the evening I had left the trans- 
 port with another officer in a man-of-war's boat, which, 
 assisted by two others, towed astern a large raft, formed 
 of two clumsy boats boarded over, on which were two 
 guns, with their detachments of artillerymen, and some 
 horses two of my own among them. The swell from the 
 sea was now considerable, and made the towing of the 
 raft a work of great labour. As we approached the shore, 
 a horse swam past us, snorting, and surrounded by phos- 
 phorescent light as he plashed rapidly by. He had gone 
 overboard from a raft which had upset in attempting to 
 land. The surf was dashing very heavily on the sand, 
 though it was too dark to see it. Fires made of broken 
 boats and rafts were lit along the beach, and a voice hailed 
 us authoritatively to put back and not attempt to land, or 
 we should go to pieces. Unwillingly the weary oarsmen 
 turned from the shore. The swell was increasing every 
 moment, and the raft getting more and more unmanage- 
 able. Sometimes it seemed to pull us back, sometimes it 
 made a plunge forward, and even struck our stern, while 
 the rain poured down with extraordinary violence. It 
 was a long time before we reached the nearest ships, which 
 were tossing on the swell, and not easily to be approached. 
 The first we hailed had already a horse-boat alongside, 
 with Lord Eaglan's horses, and needed assistance, and two 
 or three others which we passed were unable to help us. 
 By this time the raft was fast filling with water, and the 
 men on it were much alarmed ; and our progress was so 
 slow that we took at least ten minutes to pull from the 
 stern to the stem of the Agamemnon. At length a rope 
 was thrown us from a transport near, whose bows were 
 rising on the swell like a rearing horse ; and, getting the 
 artillerymen who were on board her out of bed, we hoisted
 
 92 THE CRIMEAN CAMPAIGN. 
 
 in our horses and guns ; but the gun-carriages, too heavy 
 for our small number of hands, were lashed down to the 
 raft, which was allowed to tow astern of the ship, and 
 which presently sank till the water was up to the axles, 
 when the Agamemnon sent a party and hoisted them on 
 board, and the raft shortly after went to pieces. A horse, 
 which had been swimming about for two hours, was also 
 got safely on board. It was a grey, said afterwards to 
 have been given by Omer Pasha to Lord Eaglan. 
 
 After the victory of the Alma, when the jubila- 
 tion was tempered by regrets for fallen comrades, 
 follows the description of a field of battle. We 
 see the dead lying in swathes as they had fallen, 
 cut down by the cannon-shot or mutilated by the 
 shells : 
 
 Where the struggle was hottest on the part of the 
 French, our allies left a stone inscribed "Victoire de 
 1'Alma," with the date. The English left no monument 
 on their fatal hill; but it needs none. The inhabitants 
 will return to the valley, the burnt village will be rebuilt, 
 the wasted vineyards replanted, and tillage will efface the 
 traces of the conflict ; but tradition will for centuries con- 
 tinue to point, with no doubtful finger, to the spot where 
 the British infantry, thinned by a storm of cannon-shot, 
 drove the battalions of the Czar, with terrible slaughter, 
 from one of the strongest positions in Europe. 
 
 The advance over the Katcha and the Balbek 
 tells the sad story of a peaceful population sud- 
 denly surprised by the unfamiliar miseries of a 
 hostile occupation. At that time, after the long
 
 MORTALITY AMONGST THE HORSES. 93 
 
 peace, those incidents for readers in England had 
 the painful sensation of novelty. But certainly 
 no war correspondent except Hamley would have 
 dwelt sympathetically on the troubles of the do- 
 mestic favourites. He admired the cats who 
 clung with " feline tenacity " to the forsaken 
 hearths, calmly suckling their kittens in the sun- 
 shine, and indifferent, so long as mice were plen- 
 tiful, whether the village was held by Russians 
 or English. Amid his graver preoccupations, he 
 stopped to pick up one abandoned orphan, and 
 carried a small black kitten on his holsters, 
 feeding it with biscuits ; but during one of his 
 temporary absences the little creature gave its 
 benefactor the slip. So nothing can be more 
 pathetic than the picture of the sufferings of the 
 starved and overtasked horses when the siege 
 was dragging out its weary length : 
 
 Perhaps the most painful feature in the dreary scene 
 was the number of dead and dying horses scattered, not 
 only round the cavalry and artillery camps, but along the 
 various roads which traversed the position. Some had 
 fallen and died from fatigue, some perished from cold, 
 some from starvation. Once down, a horse seldom rose 
 again. After a few faint attempts he lay still, except for 
 a feeble nibbling at the bare ground ; then he would fall 
 over on his side, and, stretching out his legs, would so end 
 his career, leaving a smooth space in the mud where his 
 head and neck had moved slowly to and fro, or where his 
 hind-leg had scratched convulsively before he died. Some-
 
 94 THE CRIMEAN CAMPAIGN. 
 
 times an ownerless horse, probably too lame and unser- 
 viceable to be worth inquiring after, would linger about 
 the neighbourhood of an encampment. Day after day he 
 would be there, waiting patiently, wondering perhaps why 
 no hay nor corn came, getting thinner and thinner nobody 
 could relieve him without robbing his own horse, on whose 
 strength and condition his own efficiency depended un- 
 til, after wandering to and fro over the barren spot, if no 
 friendly hand could be found to send a bullet through his 
 head, he would drop and die there a lingering death. It 
 was impossible to traverse the position in any direction 
 without seeing many carcasses some swollen and bloated, 
 some mere skeletons. Here and there would be seen the 
 curious spectacle of a horse's bones covered only with his 
 loose, collapsed hide, all the flesh, muscles, and even ribs, 
 having disappeared which would be explained presently, 
 when, on passing the next carcass, a gorged dog would put 
 his head out from the hollow arch 4 of the ribs, and, after 
 looking lazily at the comer, return to his horrible feast. 
 These spectacles never ceased to be painful, though custom 
 diminished their effect; for, a few months before, the sight 
 of a dying horse would have haunted me for days. 
 
 These sights, and others that are described, on 
 the skeleton -strewn plateau, remind us of Alp's 
 walk round the walls of beleaguered Corinth, for 
 Hamley in his faithful and literal descriptions 
 always showed no little of the imagination of 
 the poet. There is a terribly realistic chapter 
 on the disposal of the invalids, and the lament- 
 able state of the ambulance transports and the 
 Scutari hospitals. We are told how those of the
 
 THE HOSPITALS AT SCUTARI. 95 
 
 sick who were in the worst extremity were sent 
 from the front to the ships, tied on to broken- 
 down cavalry horses, which could ill be spared 
 from the provision and ammunition trains : 
 
 Few sights can be imagined more melancholy than 
 that of a troop of cadaverous, feeble, suffering beings, 
 wrapped up in their blankets, swaying to and fro in the 
 saddle, or crouching on the necks of the horses which bore 
 them slowly towards the longed-for haven, where they 
 might hope for some remission of their misery. 
 
 That haven was in the distant hospitals at 
 Scutari ; and as to what they were, before Miss 
 Nightingale with her corps of ministering angels 
 revolutionised the overcrowded wards and the 
 kitchens, it will be best shown by an extract 
 from ' The War in the Crimea.' It would be 
 difficult in a few concise sentences to make us 
 more sympathetically realise the fate of those 
 who had thought themselves most fortunate : 
 
 Scutari, the longed-for haven, was for weeks the very 
 climax and headquarters of suffering crammed with 
 misery, overflowing with despair. In those large cham- 
 bers and long corridors lay thousands of the bravest and 
 most miserable of men. Standing at the end of any of 
 the galleries, one looked along a deep perspective, a long 
 diminishing vista of woe. . . . The tenant of each bed 
 saw the pain reflected in the face of his comrade opposite ; 
 fronting each was another victim of war or cold, starva- 
 tion or pestilence. Or frequently the sick must read in 
 the face before him, not the progress of fever or the
 
 96 THE CRIMEAN CAMPAIGN. 
 
 leaden weight of exhaustion, but the tokens of the final 
 rest to which he was himself hastening. With each 
 round of the sun nearly a hundred gallant soldiers raved 
 or languished out their lives. 
 
 The writer's irrepressible sense of humour will 
 break out in these pathetically graphic letters ; 
 but besides that, there are rifts in the gloom and 
 occasional gleams of brightness. Hamley, in his 
 single-minded attention to his immediate purpose, 
 might have shown himself indifferent to scenery 
 when shooting quails in Ontario with his friend 
 Bent ; but the horrors around Sebastopol gave 
 infinitely enhanced charm to the rare enjoyment 
 of the beauties of nature. He describes with the 
 enthusiasm of an artist, when defining the Allied 
 positions, the rosy-coloured cliffs which buttress 
 the domed roofs and the minarets of the Monas- 
 tery of St George ; he paints in lurid colours a 
 stormy sunset seen on the eve of an impending 
 assault, when the fast-repeated flashes from the 
 opposing batteries were mingling with the lumin- 
 ous glare of the blazing tints on the horizon. 
 Superstition might well have taken the menac- 
 ing vision for an omen of the carnage that was 
 to come off on the morrow. But we may turn 
 for relief to the more cheerful recollection of a 
 spring ride along the verdant downs to the east- 
 ward of Balaklava. Doubtless, as he says, the
 
 DESERTED VILLAGES. 97 
 
 long suffering and deadly monotony on the dreary 
 heights of Sebastopol enhanced the beauties of 
 the view. A smiling May, within the last week 
 or two, had been scattering flowers broadcast over 
 the landscape : 
 
 Below us lay the valley of Baidar, stretching from the 
 edge of the sea-cliffs on our right to the distant mountain- 
 range, where it wound round out of sight. Like the fabled 
 vale of Avilion, it was "deep-bowered, happy, fair with 
 orchard - la wns "; flowery meadows, sprinkled with trees 
 and groves, reminded me, in their fertility and expanse, of 
 the Vega of Granada, as seen from the mountains behind 
 the city. Two red-roofed villages, embowered in trees, 
 stood at some distance apart in the midst of the valley, 
 but no inhabitants, nor cattle, nor any kind of moving 
 thing, gave life to the scene, it was beautiful as a dream, 
 but silent as a chart. No corn had been sown for this 
 year's harvest ; the only tokens of agriculture were some 
 farm- waggons discernible through the glass at a distant 
 point of the valley. The villages were not only deserted, 
 but, as some visitors had ascertained a day or two before, 
 quite denuded of all tokens of domestic life. 
 
 As that brilliant narrative of the war not only 
 appeared in ' Blackwood/ but was subsequently 
 republished, I have only endeavoured to indicate 
 its most impressive features. But extracts from 
 two of the rare private letters may perhaps be 
 appropriately introduced by way of supplement. 
 The first of them is dated from Eupatoria, on 
 the 13th September 1854:- 
 
 VOL. I. G
 
 98 THE CRIMEAN CAMPAIGN. 
 
 Mr DEAR BLACKWOOD, The combined forces left Bal- 
 chick for the Crimea on Thursday the 7th, and to-day at 
 3 P.M. we have anchored off Eupatoria, which either has 
 or of course will surrender forthwith and no great con- 
 quest either without firing a shot. 
 
 We have had capital weather across the Black Sea. 
 . . . The coast is low and level, and easily swept by the 
 ships' batteries, so that there is no doubt of our effecting 
 our disembarkation without loss ; but I don't think 'twill 
 be commenced this evening, as 'twill be dark in less than 
 two hours, and a small part of the army, if landed, would 
 be liable to be overwhelmed by the Russians in a night 
 attack, supposing them to have a force on the march to 
 oppose the landing. We were visible yesterday from 
 Sebastopol, and perhaps forces from there or about there 
 may be now on the way to contest the disembarkation. 
 I sincerely hope they will do so, as on a flat beach like 
 this we should meet them at an immense advantage, 
 backed by the heavy guns of the ships, which could throw 
 a far greater weight of shot than anything they could 
 bring by land to oppose us in the way of artillery. Late 
 though it is in the season, I see no difficulties in the way 
 of an advance on the fortress : whether we shall be able 
 to take that by assault is another matter, but I hope and 
 think we shall. 
 
 Our right, I should suppose, would rest throughout the 
 march on the sea, thus securing that flank of our com- 
 munications with the ships, on which we rely for pro- 
 visions and stores, and their support in case of a battle. 
 I should suppose there would be at least one great action 
 in the open field before we invest the town, which is 
 thirty miles from here, and in the field 'twould be heresy 
 to doubt of success. The English three-deckers and part 
 of the rest of the squadron French, Turkish, and Eng-
 
 ANTICIPATIONS OF SPEEDY VICTORY. 99 
 
 lisli sailed past us last night to keep the Eussian fleet 
 in Sebastopol from molesting our landing. . . . We are 
 weak in cavalry, having only, I believe, brought four 
 light regiments and the French none. To-morrow we 
 shall be on Eussian soil, and shall commence what must 
 be, I should think, a most remarkable and bustling cam- 
 paign. If I get safely through it, you shall have fullest 
 particulars for ' Maga ' at the earliest moment. 
 
 The next passage proves that at that time 
 neither Ministers at home nor the best-informed 
 men in the expeditionary force had contemplated 
 the possibility of protracted operations : 
 
 One way or another, it must terminate soon, for the 
 weather is already cold, and winter will be upon us in 
 earnest with the end of October. But to beat the Eussians 
 in the field, to invest and storm Sebastopol in spite of 
 the forces doubtless assembled around it, and to destroy 
 the fleet in the harbour there, 'twill be a glorious business 
 if well carried out, and if any troops can do it ours can. 
 
 His opinion of the quality of the troops was 
 more than justified ; yet almost exactly a year 
 afterwards we come on another note written from 
 the camp before Sebastopol. It is dated Sep- 
 tember 7, and most men in the circumstances 
 would have been preoccupied with their own 
 affairs, and probably deferred their correspond- 
 ence. Hamley begins by quietly and pleasantly 
 congratulating his friend on the birth of a 
 daughter, and goes on :
 
 100 THE CRIMEAN CAMPAIGN. 
 
 MY DEAE BLACKWOOD, . . . This is the eve of the 
 assault : at noon to-morrow the French go at the Malakoff, 
 and as soon as their success is evident we attack the Redan, 
 and the French on the left enter the works before the town. 
 The task of the French is much easier now than on the 
 18th June, as they are only a few yards from the ditch 
 either of the Malakoff or the bastions before the town; 
 but we are pretty much where we then were, owing to the 
 stony nature of the soil. But this time we shall have a 
 fierce cannonade from daybreak to shut up the Russian 
 guns, and as we shall not advance till the French are in 
 the Malakoff, I have great hopes that to-morrow will see 
 us in possession of the south side, or at any rate of some 
 of the most formidable works. My place will be with 
 General Dacres in the trenches. I wish the garrison 
 would quietly slip off in the night and save the butchery. 
 I believe the poor devils have been suffering a good deal 
 lately from want of provisions, and this tremendous can- 
 nonade must have made the town a great shambles. I 
 don't quite see our way when we have got the south side, 
 as their formidable batteries on the north side will render 
 the occupation of it unpleasant, but hope that the Czar 
 will no longer think it worth while to prolong the contest 
 here, and either make peace like a wise man or leave the 
 Crimea.
 
 101 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 RETURN FROM CRIMEA CRIMEAN HONOURS LEITH FORT FIRST 
 
 MEETING WITH JOHN BLACKWOOD DE QUINCEY ' THE 
 
 RECENT CONFESSIONS OF AN OPIUM -EATER* REVIEW OF 
 
 ' BOTHWELL ' LITERARY ACQUAINTANCES THE STURGISES 
 
 EDITING 'TALES FROM BLACKWOOD.' 
 
 HAMLEY came back from the Crimea in January 
 1856 with a high reputation. Except when de- 
 tached on a brief mission to Constantinople, he had 
 never been absent for a day from active duty, and 
 he had been present in every engagement, even 
 in that of the Tchernaya, where he rode as an 
 amateur with the Sardinian cavalry. As he has 
 told us in the memorandum already quoted, after 
 Inkerman he got the brevet majority, and the 
 Duke of Cambridge, who commanded his division, 
 made honourable mention of his services in a 
 special letter to Lord Raglan.
 
 102 IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 Various honours were awarded him on the 
 conclusion of the war. He received the brevet 
 of Lieut. -Colonel, the Crimean medal with four 
 clasps, the Sardinian and Turkish war medals, and 
 the orders (Companion) of the Legion of Honour 
 and the Medjidie. General Dacres, who was his 
 staunch friend as well as his immediate chief, 
 pressed his claims repeatedly for a Companionship 
 of the Bath, which would appear to have been 
 unreasonably and inexplicably delayed, but which 
 was eventually bestowed for those Crimean ser- 
 vices. On the whole, he had come off well. He 
 might deem himself happy in having escaped 
 death or mutilation, and his constitution had 
 stoutly resisted the incessant strain of hardships 
 and privations. Probably that was owing to 
 habitual temperance, and to the admirable diges- 
 tion which could accommodate itself to rough 
 and scanty fare. Yet he carried away one 
 unpleasant souvenir of the campaigning in the 
 sleeplessness which often troubled him in after 
 years. 
 
 It might have been supposed that in the 
 Crimea his rare hours of leisure would have been 
 amply occupied by the war-letters which regularly 
 appeared in 'Blackwood.' Nevertheless he con- 
 trived to find time to contribute two other 
 articles. One of these came in naturally enough.
 
 "NORTH AND THE NOOTES." 103 
 
 It was a review of the ' Poetry of the War/ a 
 little volume which he had welcomed in his hut 
 on the plateau. But the other was on a subject 
 altogether apart : it was a revival of the old 
 literary recollections which have been alluded to, 
 and a tribute to the memory of one of his boyish 
 idols. John Wilson had died, and the death 
 suggested to his ardent admirer a delightful 
 essay on " North and the Noctes." Had the 
 Professor been spared for a few months longer, 
 the two men who had so much in common in 
 their love of literature and their passion for 
 sports would have met. For by a somewhat 
 singular and very fortunate Providence, the bat- 
 tery Hamley commanded on his return was 
 ordered to Leith Fort. Then the editor and 
 contributor for the first time came together, and 
 the regard which had been rapidly strengthen- 
 ing through their correspondence quickly ripened 
 into closely affectionate intimacy. Their subse- 
 quent letters increased in number, as has been 
 said, year after year, and Blackwood could have 
 given no more conclusive proof of the value he 
 attached to Hamley 's friendship and judgments. 
 For few of his contributors had reason to com- 
 plain of his troubling them with any superfluity 
 of communications. Meantime, however, nothing 
 passed between them in the way of correspond-
 
 104 IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 ence but frequent invitations to dinner, and even 
 these speedily ceased. Blackwood had more than 
 his share of the old Scottish hospitality, and 
 Hamley knew he was sure of a welcome at all 
 times and seasons in the house in Randolph Cres- 
 cent. Then Professor Aytoun, who lived hard by, 
 was wont to drop in on a similar footing ; and De 
 Quincey was also an occasional guest, although at 
 that time the intimacy with that strange, eccen- 
 tric, and capricious genius had cooled down to a 
 certain extent. De Quincey was then residing in 
 a suburban village to the south of Edinburgh ; 
 but though his family affairs were under affec- 
 tionately careful management, he was by no 
 means free from the pecuniary troubles which 
 Burton has humorously described in ' The Book- 
 Hunter.' Nor did he ever hesitate to seek from 
 his friends the assistance in any shape which he 
 would readily have given had their respective sit- 
 uations been reversed. William Blackwood, the 
 present head of the publishing House, remembers 
 his first introduction as a boy to De Quincey. 
 He chanced to be at his lessons in the bathroom 
 of his uncle's house, Randolph Crescent, which 
 was fitted up as a small sitting-room, when one 
 of the servants introduced an odd-looking little 
 gentleman, who was far too excited to stand on 
 ceremony. With unlooked-for agility, he sprang
 
 THE OPIUM-EATER. 105 
 
 into the empty bath, begging that the cover might 
 be drawn over him. It was De Quincey with the 
 bailiffs at his heels, and he lay perdu in the bath 
 till the quest was over. It seems odd that Aytoun 
 did not make use of the incident in one of his 
 humorous ' Tales from Blackwood,' which used to 
 delight the editor. Perhaps the author of " The 
 Glenmutchkin Railway" and the creator of the 
 impecunious Dunshunner shrank from violating 
 the sanctities of that hospitable roof-tree. But 
 the humorous side of the Opium -Eater must 
 have struck Hamley forcibly and at once, for 
 it suggested the first of his contributions from 
 Leith Fort. It took shape and form in the in- 
 imitable parody which appeared as " The Recent 
 Confessions of an Opium -Eater." The "Con- 
 fessions," with their pleasantly incisive satire, 
 should be read in connection with the thoughtful 
 and serious essays on the philosophy of Carlyle, 
 with his mannerisms and affectations. For 
 Hamley could wield with versatile address the 
 various weapons of wit, ridicule, or mockery, 
 whether in kindly play or in sober earnest. Here 
 the local colouring is exquisitely apposite, for the 
 scene is laid in a garret in those crowded rookeries 
 
 o 
 
 of the Old Town which always impressed Hamley 
 as powerfully as Scott. A practitioner in the 
 out-of-doors medical school of Burke and Hare
 
 106 IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 stumbles across the dreamy philosopher, and in- 
 vites him in all good-fellowship to come in and 
 partake of refreshments. The generous host, under 
 the guise of port, fills a flowing bumper of lauda- 
 num ; his seasoned visitor, draining it, awakens to 
 the suspicion that he has fallen into a trap, but 
 finds his faculties wonderfully brightened. There 
 is an exchange of glasses and liquors while the 
 entertainer has stepped aside, and it is the acolyte 
 of the anatomical theatre who drops beneath the 
 table. A line before he threw off the sparkling 
 story shows the thought and care Hamley 
 bestowed on his lightest work, rapidly as it 
 was written : 
 
 Thanks for the loan of the 'Opium-Eater' and 'The 
 Selections, Grave and Gay,' with a view of catching the 
 old gent's style and executing the little j'eu tf esprit we 
 planned over the poldowdies. That little note you sent 
 me of his was quite characteristic, and I shall preserve it. 
 
 When he had left Leith for Woolwich in the 
 spring of 1859, the letters became frequent. 
 There are warm thanks for all the kindnesses 
 he had received, and many pleasant allusions 
 to the friends he had made in Scotland. There 
 was no one of them whom he liked and admired 
 more than Aytoun, and many are the references, 
 more or less intelligible, to lively evenings with
 
 A PRINTERS' FAREWELL ADDRESS. 107 
 
 the Professor. There is a note written after- 
 wards, accompanying a review of ' Bothwell ' : 
 
 Sunday Night. 
 
 MY DEAR BLACKWOOD, Here is a short review of 
 'Bothwell,' all of which I have written for publication. 
 The fun is of a sort that Aytoun himself will smile at, 
 and it will probably attract readers more than grave 
 eulogy. 
 
 The Cavalier himself asked me to notice the perpetual 
 fixing of the Editorship on him. 
 
 It appears that the staff in Blackwood's print- 
 ing-office had presented him with an address on 
 the occasion of his leaving. He writes in 
 March : 
 
 I regret that I omitted to mention how obliged I felt 
 for the assistance which those charged with the printing 
 and correction of my manuscript have always rendered 
 me. Despatched as the sheets generally were at the last 
 moment when it was possible they could arrive in time 
 to be printed, they were nevertheless given to the public 
 with scarcely the displacement of a comma. 
 
 The praise was undoubtedly well deserved, for 
 the compositors and readers in that office can 
 do nearly as much for the most crabbed hiero- 
 glyphics. But Hamley's handwriting, under all 
 circumstances, was so remarkably clear that even 
 novices could scarcely have taken serious liberties 
 with it.
 
 108 IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 If he had been given a choice of stations after 
 Leith, he could not have pitched on more agreeable 
 quarters than Woolwich, and afterwards Dover. In 
 the one he was almost resident in London ; at the 
 other, within easy reach of it. The writer of the 
 narrative from before Sebastopol would for many 
 reasons have been welcomed by distinguished men 
 of letters. But introductions from his friend 
 Blackwood landed him at once among the old 
 connections of the house, and in the inner circle 
 of contributors. One of his first visits was to 
 Delane, " when the great man gave me far more 
 time than I could reasonably have expected." In 
 fact, Delane took a strong fancy to him, and their 
 relations never ceased to be cordial. It is the 
 more remarkable that he never became a contri- 
 butor to the ' Times,' although latterly his letters 
 on military and political matters had the honour 
 of leaded type. Some years afterwards Mow- 
 bray Morris, who then managed the journal, was 
 so delighted with the humour of " Our Poor 
 Relations," that he eagerly inquired as to the 
 anonymous writer, saying that he would be worth 
 any money to the paper. Morris and Hamley 
 knew each other well ; but the inquiry led to 
 nothing in the way of business. 
 
 One of his first visits in London was to Samuel 
 Warren, who received him " with such cordiality
 
 LITERARY FRIENDSHIPS. 109 
 
 as I had no right to anticipate," and having given 
 him an exceedingly agreeable dinner, insisted on 
 his coming back to dine again next day. ' Ten 
 Thousand a-Year,' although some of the senti- 
 ments are satirised by Thackeray in the Snob 
 Papers, as it is one of the longest, was one of the 
 most brilliant novels that ever were written. It 
 makes law proceedings light, and party politics 
 entertaining. Hamley laughs genially in his con- 
 fidential letters at the humorous traits in the 
 character of the clever novelist, whom he always 
 styles the Q.C. Once he mentions that he has 
 been obliged to decline an invitation because he 
 has engaged himself for two or three days to Sir 
 Edward Bulwer Lytton. That was the first of 
 many visits to Knebworth, and Sir Edward used 
 to drop in frequently on Hamley when he had 
 established himself in chambers in the Albany. 
 Then there is a lively note, telling how he made 
 the acquaintance of Katie Stewart (Mrs Oli- 
 phant). Mrs Oliphant said that Hamley had 
 been charged with ' Katie Stewart/ as she had 
 been taxed with ' Lady Lee's Widowhood ' ; where- 
 upon he politely remarks that the exchange of 
 roles would have been all to his advantage. 
 There are numerous allusions to pleasant dinners 
 with Thackeray, to whom Hamley was indebted 
 for his fortunate introduction to the Sturgis
 
 HO IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 family, in which he always found a second home, 
 and where he was at once adopted as one of the 
 circle. There is mention in a letter to Blackwood 
 of an exceptionally successful dinner given at 
 Greenwich by Hamley, at which the great novel- 
 ist was in his most genial mood, and the life and 
 soul of a lively company. Indeed guests and host 
 were so loath to part, that the symposium was 
 prolonged into the summer morning. The ac- 
 quaintance ripened into mutual esteem, and 
 Thackeray's surviving daughter has a grateful 
 remembrance of Hamley coming as the first 
 visitor, with simple and heartfelt condolences, 
 upon her father's sudden and lamented death. 
 Hamley had the most cordial admiration for 
 Thackeray's genius, although it never appears 
 to have influenced his own style, or rather the 
 forms of his humour, like some of the best and 
 earlier of the novels of Dickens. In fact, as Scott 
 had been the passion of his boyhood, so Dickens 
 was the delight of his maturer years. He would 
 dramatically repeat whole scenes and pages with- 
 out misplacing a word ; and when he threw him- 
 self into the parts and characters with enthusi- 
 asm over the dinner-table, you might fancy that 
 Bob Sawyer or Micawber had come to make one 
 of the party. Highly respectable members of 
 the Athenaeum might be named whom Hamley
 
 THE STURGIS FAMILY. Ill 
 
 insisted on identifying with the portraits by the 
 master, and the comical illustrations of Cruik- 
 shank or Phiz. With Dickens likewise he was 
 on terms approaching intimacy, and references to 
 their social intercourse will be found in some re- 
 collections of Hamley by his friend Mr Locker 
 Lampson, which have been kindly placed at my 
 disposal. 
 
 About this time are the first allusions to the 
 Sturgises, through whom he had the privilege 
 of making the acquaintance of some of the most 
 distinguished Americans, for Mr Sturgis had been 
 the American partner in Barings' house. In 
 Mount Felix, "their beautiful place on the 
 Thames near Walton," he was carefully nursed 
 through an anxious illness ; and the elder son 
 of his earlier friend was left one of his executors. 
 
 Mr Julian Sturgis writes that there is little 
 to say of the days at Mount Felix, simply be- 
 cause they passed pleasantly and uneventfully. 
 But what he does say gives a most engaging 
 picture of the genially-minded soldier who was 
 so steadfast in his friendships, and who was never 
 so thoroughly happy himself as when making 
 the happiness of animals or children : 
 
 His visits there were times of rest. He came often, 
 and was amusing and amused ; and I remember him once 
 saying, with a moment's regret, that he was always very
 
 112 IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 idle there. His friendship for my parents was very true 
 and strong. In his last letter to me he reminded me that 
 my father had said to him that their friendship had 
 endured for thirty years without a shadow. He was 
 introduced to them when he had just come back from 
 the Crimea by Thackeray, who spoke of his rare union 
 of conspicuous gallantry and cleverness. Many years 
 later he introduced my father to Dickens, to their mutual 
 satisfaction, giving them a dinner at his club. The friends 
 he made at Mount Felix, and whom he would not be 
 likely to meet elsewhere, were eminent Americans Mr 
 Motley, Mr Charles Francis Adams, Mr W. Story, and 
 others. One may suspect that his friendship for Mr 
 Motley and Mr Story, whom he knew best, was a distinct 
 gain to him, modifying a certain prejudice against Ameri- 
 cans, more common in his youth than now. 
 
 He always came at Christmas, and entered with zeal 
 into the business (it was characteristic of him to treat it 
 with more apparent gravity than the serious business of 
 his life) of amusing the children. One Christmas he ap- 
 peared as Father Christmas himself, disposer of gifts ; 
 another, he invented the character of Mincepie, " grandson " 
 of Father Christmas, who was represented by the youngest 
 son of the house. Mincepie delivered a long rhymed ad- 
 dress which Hamley had taught him. 
 
 For all the children, as for all the dogs and cats of the 
 place, he had names of his own, so that new acquaint- 
 ances waiting for words of wisdom from him or comments 
 on some great battle lately fought, would be surprised by 
 very grave inquiries for the " Good Excellent " or the 
 " Hodiglio." In the book which I made from my father's 
 papers there is the story which Hamley often told of 
 Thackeray's wiping his eyes at the sight of Howard's 
 delight at his first Christmas-tree.
 
 EDITING 'TALES FROM BLACKWOOD: 113 
 
 Writing playfully, as he always wrote to Mrs 
 John Blackwood, in July 1857, he says : 
 
 At Monckton Milnes' I made the acquaintance of Lady 
 Morgan, a very singular and highly diverting old person, 
 who used formerly to get frightfully abused and called 
 shockingly unparliamentary names in the Magazine, but 
 she don't seem to bear malice. 
 
 That he fancied the elderly " wild Irish girl " 
 might have owed him a grudge, shows how 
 thoroughly he had identified himself with the 
 Magazine. Next day he entertained a party 
 at Greenwich in honour of Mr Stephens, author 
 of ' The Book of the Farm,' who, owing probably 
 to some association with turnips, is always styled 
 the Swede, and who " conscientiously tasted and 
 compared twenty-two different sorts of British 
 fishes." There was an illustrious novelist in 
 " a state of great hilarity, who affectionately 
 took leave of me eight times on parting." 
 
 But notwithstanding social distractions and 
 military duty, he found time not only for literary 
 work, but for something like literary drudgery. 
 He had undertaken to select and edit the stories 
 which formed the first series of the ' Tales from 
 Blackwood/ and he resolutely bestowed infinite 
 thought and trouble on the selection. He had 
 mapped out the whole programme of the twelve 
 numbers, and carefully weighed the rival attrac- 
 
 VOL. I. H
 
 114 IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 tions of an embarrassment of claims. Had he 
 been bred a publisher he could not have discussed 
 more practically considerations of length and 
 the wisdom of variety. He goes on : " Some 
 good papers which are of doubtful tone, like 
 ' Charles Edward/ it will be better to postpone 
 till the prestige of the series is assured." And 
 on reference to the arrangement of the tales in 
 the volumes, we see that his advice was almost 
 implicitly followed. He received substantial 
 proof of his labours being appreciated. He 
 writes on March 26 a characteristic letter of 
 thanks, which indicates that as yet he had no 
 superfluity of riches : 
 
 March 26, 1859. 
 
 MY DEAR BLACKWOOD, Your too generous estimate of 
 my small services reached me yesterday as I was starting 
 for my cottage, and on getting there I found myself des- 
 titute of writing materials, or I should have acknowledged 
 your kindness at once, as I much desired to do. To say 
 truth, the supply was very welcome, as I don't know how 
 I should else have come down with the ready on starting 
 as a householder. I sincerely hope that a magnificent 
 success for the speculation will quite justify your liberal- 
 ity, for which, as for all your warm and constant friendli- 
 ness, I feel more your debtor than I can well say. 
 
 The first number is very prepossessing outside and in. 
 The only additions I can think of as desirable are very 
 slight, and such as I am no better judge of than the mul- 
 titude of your readers such as Aytoun's name after the 
 " Glenmutchkin " on the outside cover; and a fly-leaf
 
 A COUNTRY GENTLEMAN. 115 
 
 with the name of the next tale interposed between the 
 stories, which would have the effect of the white table- 
 cloth with the empty and clean plates between the courses, 
 keeping the fish from treading too closely on the heels of 
 the joint, and the latter from being too familiar with the 
 pastry. I drank success to the series and its projectors at 
 dinner to-day, which meal I took at the club, having re- 
 turned to town after my lecture to make some few last 
 purchases before finally settling to rustic life. I feel 
 quite like a country gentleman already, and shall hardly 
 be surprised to find myself Justice of the Peace commit- 
 ting poachers to prison and lecturing rural Lotharios on 
 the heinous offence of getting trustful young women in 
 the family-way. I am rather pleased with the cheerful 
 though somewhat quaint aspect of my abode, but shall 
 withhold my self-congratulations till they are authorised 
 by the seal of Mrs Blackwood's approbation, as I trust 
 they shortly will be, for I shall consider all my arrange- 
 ments incomplete till you and she have come under the 
 roof. 
 
 I will revise a set of lectures forthwith as for publica- 
 tion, and send them to you. I rounded off the first set 
 to-day, and they have been very well received. 
 
 Puck's constancy to my memory in recognising my por- 
 trait after an interval which to her immature ideas must 
 seem longer than the time Penelope waited for Ulysses, 
 is honourable to the sex and touching to me. 
 
 There is another letter on the 10th April, 
 which proves that the series had been eminently 
 successful from the start ; and indeed it has made 
 the most sparkling of the tales as familiar as the 
 most popular novels which have been passed
 
 116 IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 through the Magazine. Yet the strategist was 
 alive to the advantages of advertising, and in sub- 
 sequent notes he reverts to the propriety of push- 
 ing the series in all directions, and enlisting the 
 sympathies of an interested press. Possibly the 
 opening paragraph in the following communica- 
 tion may refer to some other piece of work : 
 
 IQth April 1859. 
 
 MY DEAR BLACKWOOD, I am most agreeably surprised 
 at the result of the division of plunder, and not the least 
 element of my satisfaction is to think that our past en- 
 terprises are not altogether unprofitable to you. I hope 
 we may yet make many more successful forays with still 
 more brilliant results. 
 
 I return Mr Hardman's x capital letter, and shall do my 
 best when next in his neighbourhood to become acquainted 
 with so eminently agreeable an old gentleman as I expect 
 to find him. It will be a good move to put what he says 
 of Coleridge at the head, as you propose. I shall be very 
 curious to see the sonnet. Do you think the English 
 public are sufficiently aware of the publication of the 
 series ? Scarcely any advertisements of it have caught 
 my eye. I should like to make a few corrections of my 
 tales, what do you think of a few prefatory remarks ? 
 
 From the quantity of reading necessary for exactness, 
 some of it not very easily attainable, and the difficulty of 
 writing and reading coherently while unsettled just before 
 I came here, I find myself still going on in a hand-to- 
 mouth sort of way with my lectures. I can't endure the 
 
 1 Author of " The Student of Salamanca," and some admirable 
 Spanish stories all published in the Magazine.
 
 STAFF COLLEGE LECTURES. 117 
 
 idea of offering anything to my class which is crude or 
 flimsy, and therefore they are not evolved so rapidly as I 
 could wish. But as soon as I have got a fair breathing- 
 space I will revise a set of lectures exactly as I should 
 wish them published, which will be a little different in 
 parts from what I address to my class, and send them to 
 you, unless you are here in the meantime with Mrs Black- 
 wood, an event I am looking forward to with the greatest 
 pleasure. I think you will find me pretty snug for a 
 wretched outcast of a bachelor in fact, I'm afraid Mrs 
 Blackwood will look on it as a piece of impertinence for 
 one in my forlorn condition to presume to get on so 
 smoothly. . . .
 
 118 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 PROFESSOR AT THE STAFF COLLEGE. 
 
 LIFE AT SANDHURST HAMLEY's LECTUEES THE DELANYS- 
 
 WORK FOR 'MAGA' STUDIES OF CARLYLE. 
 
 THE last letters are explained by their being 
 dated from Sandhurst. The early spring of 1859 
 saw the commencement of Hamley's connection 
 with the Staff College. It had been established 
 as a separate institution in the previous year. It 
 had taken the place of the Senior Department of 
 the Royal Military College, which had been lat- 
 terly carried on under the superintendence of Sir 
 Patrick MacDougall, and it was to be conducted 
 in the new building with similar objects namely, 
 to qualify exceptionally capable officers for Staff 
 duties. The change was effected on the recom- 
 mendations of a commission, sent to examine and 
 report on similar institutions on the Continent. 
 The commissioners were Colonel Yolland, R.E., 
 Colonel Smythe, R.A., and the Rev. Mr Luke,
 
 PROFESSORSHIP OF MILITARY HISTORY. 119 
 
 who was subsequently Dean of Durham. They 
 visited the Ecole Polytechnique of Paris and the 
 military colleges of Berlin and Vienna, and Mr 
 Luke, after parting from his colleagues, paid a 
 visit to Turin. The report spoke so strongly of 
 English deficiencies, and its recommendations 
 were so sweeping, that the Secretary at War 
 hesitated to accept it ; but its recommendations, 
 in the end, were substantially adopted. At the 
 suggestion of friends, Hamley, with some hesita- 
 tion, applied for the Professorship of Military 
 History. Although he had made his mark with 
 intelligent soldiers by the ' Letters on the Crimean 
 Campaign,' he had not as yet turned his par- 
 ticular attention to the systematic study of 
 scientific soldiering. And we fancy only the few 
 who were in the secret knew that some re- 
 markable military articles in ' Blackwood ' were 
 from Hamley's pen though the review of De 
 Bazancourt's ' Narrative of the Campaign ' had 
 been so highly esteemed in the War Depart- 
 ment at Berlin that it had been promptly 
 translated into German. 
 
 Strangely enough, Military History had been 
 only then introduced as a subject of study. In 
 fact, the College seems to have hitherto occupied 
 itself with anything rather than the science of 
 war. General Napier, who was commandant
 
 120 PROFESSOR AT THE STAFF COLLEGE. 
 
 when Hamley received the appointment, writes 
 with regard to that : 
 
 Military History being a subject to which the attention 
 of officers had not generally been much directed at that 
 time, including, as it does, a knowledge of strategy and 
 tactics, it was necessary to select an officer of talent and 
 of more than ordinary acquaintance with the subject, able 
 also to point out to the students the objects of the various 
 campaigns on which he was delivering the lectures, as well 
 as the manner in which these operations were conducted, 
 showing when and why they were successful, and where 
 and why they failed. 
 
 Such an officer was found in Lieut.-Colonel Hamley, 
 who was accordingly appointed Professor, and who filled 
 the post for six years with the greatest advantage to the 
 officers, as will be allowed by all who studied under him, 
 and who listened to his lectures with rapt attention and 
 interest. How well he was qualified for such an appoint- 
 ment will be evident to every one who reads his work on 
 ' The Operations of War/ which is still the text-book for 
 the College, and is acknowledged to be the best work upon 
 the subject in the English language. 
 
 I am sorry I have no record of the various campaigns 
 upon which Hamley lectured, but they embraced all the 
 most important campaigns of Napoleon, Wellington, and 
 others. He visited many of the fields in person. I my- 
 self, when commandant of the College, had the advantage 
 of going over with him the fields of Napoleon's campaigns 
 of 1814, one of the most remarkable campaigns of that 
 great soldier. 
 
 No appointment could have suited him better. 
 At Sandhurst he was again established within
 
 A TRUE SPORTSMAN. 121 
 
 pleasant reach of London, and of the society on 
 which he began to be more dependent. His 
 attention was not only directed but compelled 
 to those professional studies in which he always 
 took the keenest pleasure, and in which he 
 must have had the consciousness of superior 
 insight, although assuredly he did not foresee 
 the methodical development his genius was 
 destined to give them. Moreover, although 
 essentially a London man, and a man of society 
 who loved the sharp contact of flint and steel 
 in the flashes of sparkling conversation, he was 
 inclined, as he says in one of his letters, to be 
 the dilettante country gentleman. The sur- 
 roundings of Sandhurst are singularly charming. 
 He was never happier or more content than 
 among the sights and sounds of the country. 
 He was in sympathy with the whole animal 
 creation ; he watched their habits and studied 
 their idiosyncrasies. But he was no mawkish 
 sentimentalist, and he delighted in shooting, 
 fishing, and hunting. He shot well, and, with 
 the characteristic determination which defied bad 
 weather and ill-luck, had always been a skilful 
 and successful fisherman : with the rod he beguiled 
 many an hour that might otherwise have been 
 very weary, in the wilds of Asia Minor and the 
 Highlands of Albania and Macedonia. As he
 
 122 PROFESSOR AT THE STAFF COLLEGE. 
 
 sketched and painted besides, his out-of-doors 
 resources were endless. And with his many-sided 
 character he made himself thoroughly happy in 
 the company of his country neighbours. He hated 
 fools, he had no tolerance for presumption, and he 
 could never endure self-complacent bores. But 
 no one so intellectually gifted had so little of in- 
 tellectual pride ; and as for personal vanity, or 
 the arrogance of official position, he had nothing 
 of either. Like Dr Johnson, he could talk runts 
 on occasion, and indeed he had found a sympa- 
 thetic affinity in the jovial author of ' The Book of 
 the Farm.' He was always at home with each 
 sporting and hospitable squire, in the farm, the 
 stable, the cookery, the cellar ; and his interest in 
 all these matters was far from affected, for there 
 was no mistaking his uncompromising frankness. 
 With the bookish parson he was still more in his 
 element, and all the more if, like Love Peacock's 
 Dr Opimian, the parson prided himself on his 
 port, so as to show that he had Christian charity 
 for the foibles of the flesh. It is not to be 
 doubted that he was the scholarly Captain Fane 
 who beat up the quarters of the Rev. Josiah in 
 ' Lady Lee's Widowhood/ nor that he had been 
 as a subaltern the original of the light-hearted 
 Bruce who entertains the venerable bookworm 
 at mess.
 
 A CHARMING LETTER-WRITER. 123 
 
 As more than enough has been said by way of 
 preliminary, Hamley may be left for a time to 
 go on very much with his own story. His life 
 as the Sandhurst lecturer was uneventful. He 
 did not help to make history, as at Tel-el-Kebir ; 
 nor was he laying out the lines of future political 
 geography, as when he was tracing the new fron- 
 tiers of the shrunken Turkish empire. But the 
 letters written in sequence to the same trusted 
 friend are really autobiographical. Their charm is 
 that they are the easy letters of a modern school, 
 without the elaboration and polish of a Walpole 
 or De Sevigne. Their style is the man : they 
 are dashed off without reserve, without arrange- 
 ment, and it might almost be said without 
 thought, for the thoughts had been matured 
 and came intuitively. In their way they are all 
 the brighter reading on that account, and they 
 show the writer in a clearer and pleasanter light 
 than any amount of formal biography. Those 
 who called Hamley cold and cynical will see 
 reason to change their opinion. He did not 
 wear his heart on his sleeve, yet he laid it 
 very open to his intimates. Some of his free 
 remarks on his contemporaries must in prudence 
 be suppressed, lest they should ruffle unneces- 
 sarily the susceptibilities of survivors. But the 
 satire is genial and never ill-natured. And what
 
 124 PROFESSOR AT THE STAFF COLLEGE. 
 
 can be more humorously delightful than the 
 picture of celibate domestic bliss when the 
 student and "cynic" is at home with his dogs, 
 his cats, his owl, and his squirrel ? He had the 
 magnetic touch that makes all the animated 
 creation akin ; and had he chanced to have been 
 born in a different sphere, he might have rivalled 
 Van Amburgh in the education of lions, or made 
 a competency by winning the affections of per- 
 forming dogs. With it all, he might have taken 
 Strafford's " Thorough " for his motto. 
 
 Two things must strike one especially in his 
 letters the zeal he brought to his professional 
 work, and the infinite pains and labour he be- 
 stowed even on anonymous and fugitive articles 
 in a periodical. Unfortunately, the Blackwood 
 correspondence for six months is missing. So the 
 first allusion to the new appointment is incidental. 
 " The opening lecture went off very well, and was 
 extremely well received by the authorities. The 
 class was interested and attentive." 
 
 The next note, which must have been written 
 afterwards, has no date. It contains the first 
 notice of the three Essays on Carlyle, to which 
 he devoted immense attention the matter is 
 roughly drafted in his commonplace-book and 
 of which he perhaps thought more highly than 
 of anything he ever did, 'The Operations of
 
 RURAL DELIGHTS. 125 
 
 War' scarcely excepted. He had been reading 
 much and writing rapidly, as was his custom. 
 Blackwood had been urging him to send an 
 article for a particular number. " I had no time 
 to read over the article, which you will see was 
 finished in great haste, as the matter rather grew 
 on me, and there were several screws in it which 
 would have been the better for tightening, so 
 that I quite tremble to see it in print." 
 
 SANDHURST, 22d April 1859. 
 
 When are you and Mrs Blackwood coming to see me ? I 
 wish you were here to enjoy the beautiful weather, which 
 I am basking in under my own fig-tree. I have been 
 putting flower-seeds in the ground, an operation which 
 has been watched with great interest by all the numerous 
 small birds in the neighbourhood, who will probably 
 promise themselves petunias and sweet-peas for breakfast 
 to-morrow. 
 
 I am surrounded by rural sights and sounds : a strong 
 band of nightingales performs every night, a cuckoo is 
 hard at work just now, and I have just been obliged to 
 leave this to help in driving out a sow with a young 
 family that had made an inroad into the kitchen-garden. 
 So domestic have I become that I haven't been in London 
 these three weeks. . . . 
 
 Mr and Mrs Delany will take the greatest care of you 
 and Mrs Blackwood when you appear. 
 
 Mr and Mrs Delany were a worthy couple who 
 superintended the Professor's bachelor establish- 
 ment, and there are many friendly references to
 
 126 PROFESSOR AT THE STAFF COLLEGE. 
 
 them in subsequent letters. Hamley was a kind 
 and most indulgent master, and he had always 
 the happy art of attaching his servants. He 
 reaped his reward, as we shall see, in his last 
 lingering illness. The Delanys would seem to 
 have deserved his regard. Mr Delany got on in 
 the world : he speculated in house property to 
 advantage ; and ultimately he became the pro- 
 prietor of his master's cottage ornee. 
 
 20th May 1859. 
 
 Cayley has been very sultry this past week. The grass 
 field in front has been cut, and added greatly to the 
 general fragrance. I took out the squirrel to show my 
 governor last Sunday, and he bolted in among the laurels, 
 and while I was in pursuit of a frog, which I mistook for 
 him in the shade of that retreat, he made off and was 
 lost for some hours, creating general consternation Mr 
 Delany distracted, Mrs Delany in tears, Eebecca a small 
 Niobe, Earey wringing his hands, and Tabitha apathetic : 
 finally he descended from the summit of an oak on Mr 
 Delany's outstretched arm, and restored calm to the 
 household. 
 
 By that time the Blackwoods had paid their 
 promised visit, and made acquaintance with his 
 family in fur and feathers, and with his servants. 
 " Earey wringing his hands" was a figure of 
 speech, for he and Tabitha were a pair of favourite 
 cats whose flirtations were to lead to a family 
 scandal.
 
 REVIEWING 'THE DUTCH REPUBLIC,' 127 
 
 In the next note we may accept as a pleasant 
 fancy sketch his representation of himself as the 
 voluptuous lotus-eater. We are reminded of Scott 
 protesting to Morritt that he was the most in- 
 dolent of mortals, when he was driving half-a- 
 dozen horses abreast, and bewildering the critics 
 by his phenomenal velocity. His remarks as to 
 reviewing ' The Dutch Republic ' are among the 
 innumerable proofs of the scrupulous conscientious- 
 ness he brought to his undertakings. Most men 
 with the half of his reading and capacity would 
 have dashed off the article incidentally in the 
 ordinary course of business. 
 
 My place is still most pleasant in fact, pleasanter 
 than before, as the flowers are luxuriant ; the may in the 
 hedges is replaced by honeysuckle. I don't do much else 
 than bask and enjoy myself. 
 
 We will think over the Carlyle parody when the 
 weather changes. At present I am a kind of clean and 
 unverminous lazzarone, and consider basking to be the 
 correct way for an intellectual and responsible being to 
 spend his time. 
 
 Sturgis asked me the other day if I thought you would 
 review his friend Motley's 'Dutch Eepublic.' Probably 
 the subject would suit well. I haven't read the book 
 myself, and don't know how I should like it ; besides, I 
 don't know that I am at all a judge of historical subjects : 
 but if you haven't any one at hand to do it, I'll read it if 
 you wish, and see what's to be done. However, you have 
 many much better up to that special work, and it is not 
 exactly what I would choose.
 
 128 PROFESSOR AT THE STAFF COLLEGE. 
 
 There is nothing of "log-rolling" in the fol- 
 lowing letter, for the relations of Hamley with 
 the Parson of Eversley were by no means in- 
 timate. Probably "the atrocities" have refer- 
 ence to the philanthropic Radicalism, or Christian 
 Socialism, of 'Alton Locke' : 
 
 SANDHURST, 16th Juiy 1859. 
 
 MY DEAK BLACKWOOD, I hope you have so far for- 
 gotten the atrocities of Kingsley as to publish the en- 
 closed : besides, it is not all eulogistic, and rather an 
 essay on classic poetry than an encomium on Andromeda ; 
 and if there is too much praise, you can with all the better 
 grace serve him out on another occasion without seeming 
 prejudiced or bloodthirsty. 
 
 I am extremely obliged to you for your kind efforts 
 about the terrier, but don't give yourself too much trouble 
 about it. 
 
 I have read a vol. of Motley, and think with you 'tis 
 most readable and entertaining. I don't know if I have 
 much faculty in appreciating history (very necessary to a 
 reviewer), but will see if the ideas for a paper on the 
 subject suggest themselves. 
 
 I'm afraid I'm hardly sufficiently up in contempo- 
 rary politics for the parody you speak of. At any rate, 
 as my class returns on Monday after their brief holiday, 
 I shall be too much on lecturing thoughts intent to 
 have a minute to bestow on more amusing topics just 
 now. 
 
 The Editor was propitiated, and the article 
 pleased :
 
 ADMIRATION FOB LORD TENNYSON. 129 
 
 22d July. 
 
 I'm very glad you like the paper. ... It needed no 
 sacrifice of honesty to put in a compliment to Tennyson, 
 of whom I am a warm admirer ; and if a notice of his 
 poems should at any time be desirable for the Magazine, 
 I would gladly undertake one which his best friends would 
 consider laudatory. 
 
 For the conductors of ' Maga ' had long before 
 reconsidered the hasty judgment which North 
 in the ' Noctes ' had put in the mouth of the 
 Ettrick Shepherd, that Alfred would always 
 remain a promising lad. As for Hamley, in his 
 later relations with the Laureate he had many 
 opportunities of expressing his heartfelt admira- 
 tion ; nor did he deem it the least of his hon- 
 ours that Tennyson should have addressed him 
 in the Prologue to " The Charge of the Heavy 
 Brigade." 
 
 MY DEAR BLACKWOOD, I haven't been so lucky as to 
 hit upon any idea likely to work into a light paper for the 
 present month. This I regret very much, as I should have 
 liked above all things to respond to your wish; but I 
 fancy that I can no more speak " upon compulsion " than 
 Jack Falstaff could, and must be content to take the ideas 
 on their own terms when they choose to visit me. . . . 
 
 I doubt if Motley's book is at all in my line, as I have 
 never been quite able to appreciate the peculiar merits of 
 an historian. Still I like the book very much, and on 
 closer perusal may discover food for a paper ; but if you 
 have anybody ready and able to do it handsomely, I 
 should advise you to set him to work. 
 
 VOL. I. I
 
 130 PROFESSOR AT THE STAFF COLLEGE. 
 
 The terrier is in high favour at Monte Felice. He 
 seems of a reserved and shy disposition, and is always cut- 
 ting away to the farm across the road ; so at meal-times 
 he is tied to the Commander-in-Chief s chair, and in the 
 intervals is picketed on the lawn. He is delightfully 
 
 ugly- 
 
 Mrs Sturgis requests you will send by an early oppor- 
 tunity his third pair of legs. He is called " Bruce," greatly 
 to my disgust, intended as a compliment to me, and at 
 the same time an allusion to his Scottish extraction. I 
 propose to change it to " Centipede," as more appropriate 
 to his figure. 
 
 The "Commander-in-Chief" was Mrs Sturgis, 
 for it was always a sign of love or of affectionate 
 regard when Hamley called any one " out of their 
 name." 
 
 15th September 1859. 
 
 MY DEAR BLACKWOOD, Bulwer is a trump of the first 
 magnitude. He wrote to my brother last week, offering 
 him the Collectorship of Customs in the new colony of 
 British Columbia, which he accepted. 
 
 Uth October. 
 
 I have been reading Carlyle not without disgust. He 
 is an incorrigibly bad boy, and I think we shall have to 
 birch him for his present offence. 
 
 18th October. 
 
 The Commander-in-Chief and Sturgis came down on 
 Saturday evening to pass Sunday with me. We drove to 
 hear your friend Kingsley preach: the Commander-in- 
 Chief has a certain mysterious admiration for him. 
 
 I thought he did not particularly distinguish himself. 
 We had a pleasant little dinner-party last evening, at
 
 REVIEWING CARLYLE'S WORKS. 131 
 
 which I heartily wish you and Mrs Blackwood could have 
 assisted. This morning they departed, to the grief of the 
 household Delany's dog, cats, squirrels, and owl, not to 
 mention mine. 
 
 The children four-footed and two-footed were 
 brought in after dinner, and excited great interest. One 
 of them, the owl, is much more like a cherub than most 
 people's children, consisting almost entirely of head and 
 wings. Earey is an immense cat, and has taken advantage 
 of his intimacy with Tabitha to seduce her. 
 
 SANDHURST, 12th November 1859. 
 
 MY DEAR BLACKWOOD, You were right in ascribing my 
 neglect in not immediately answering your letter to an 
 intention to send a paper. I had begun one on Carlyle, 
 but I find that to do it justice, and treat him as a writer 
 of so much notice should be treated if any effect is to be 
 produced, I must read the previously existing biographies 
 of Frederick, and also some of Carlyle's former produc- 
 tions, which I have seen nothing of this long while, in 
 order to show that by acquaintance with his writings and 
 mode of thought I am qualified to do him justice. I can't 
 get the books here, and must therefore go up to live in 
 town for a few days and read them ; and to do this so 
 hurriedly as would be necessary for next number, would 
 be probably to produce a paper which I should regret to 
 find afterwards might have been much better. . . . 
 
 You will say (with an appeal perhaps to the infernal 
 powers), Why didn't I read the necessary books before ? 
 But up to a few days ago I worked night and morning 
 finishing my half-year's course of lectures, reading students' 
 notes, and preparing questions all against the approach- 
 ing examination. For every lecture I write I have to 
 read twenty rtsumfe or parodies of it, and read them care-
 
 132 PROFESSOR AT THE STAFF COLLEGE, 
 
 fully too, as the credit affixed to each tells on the writer's 
 place in the class. . . . 
 
 As to a story, I wish I could say I had one so far 
 hatched, or even warm in the egg, as to be likely to flap 
 its wings when Bulwer has done crowing in January. 
 
 It would be in vain to promise that ; but this I will 
 promise, to look up materials and try for a good subject 
 immediately. These once arranged, I shouldn't be long 
 doing something. 
 
 I wish I was fairly into it : the conception is much more 
 bother to me than the gestation or accouchement. 
 
 The confession about the story is unfortunately 
 significant. If he had gone forward as resolutely 
 with works of the imagination as he did when he 
 was riding to hounds, or when leading the 2d 
 Division at Tel-el-Kebir, he would have added 
 alike to his income and reputation, and the novel- 
 reading world would have been so much the richer. 
 But, as was said before, he had never patience 
 to woo the fancies, which seldom come unsought, 
 and still more rarely conform themselves to the 
 exigencies of. attractive fiction, without the sys- 
 tematic and laborious thought which is irritating 
 or repugnant to the romantic temperament.
 
 133 
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 LIFE AT THE STAFF COLLEGE. 
 
 OFFERED A SEAT IN PARLIAMENT HUNTING THE AMERICAN 
 
 CIVIL WAR 'WELLINGTON'S CAMPAIGNS' "THE FIGHT FOR 
 THE BELT" CRITICISMS ON GEORGE ELIOT AND ON MRS 
 
 OLIPHANT W. W. STORY DIFFERENCES WITH BLACKWOOD 
 
 ABOUT KINGLAKE'S ' CRIMEA ' DEATH OF CHARLES HAMLET 
 
 CAPTAIN CHARLES CHESNEY APPOINTED TO THE COUNCIL 
 
 OF MILITARY EDUCATION. 
 
 SOON afterwards he was engrossed by graver 
 preoccupations. It appears that already he was 
 entertaining the ambition of a parliamentary 
 career ; and had he broken himself to public life 
 in 1860, there can be no doubt that his success 
 at Westminster would have been greater. Over- 
 tures were made to him, through his brother, 
 from the electors of his native town. The sit- 
 ting member for Bodmin intended to retire, and 
 for the next election had promised Hamley his 
 support. He was tempted, and hesitated ; but 
 after weighing the matter deliberately, he came
 
 134 LIFE AT THE STAFF COLLEGE. 
 
 to the conclusion that it would be wiser to de- 
 cline. The chances at the time were bad or 
 doubtful ; and, moreover, he was engaged in 
 preparations for his lectures and in mastering 
 the professional subjects which he had hitherto 
 studied desultorily. Consequently he decided to 
 wait for the more convenient season which was 
 not to come till time hung more heavily on his 
 hands and he was seeking some fresh outlet for 
 his superabundant energy. 
 
 That energy would always find vent in one way 
 or another. In February there is the first men- 
 tion of his hunting, and very characteristic it is. 
 He had made the acquaintance of the Mileses 
 of Bristol, through his friend Lady MacDougall, 
 a daughter of the family, and had gone on a visit 
 to their beautiful place near Clifton. No one 
 enjoyed more heartily the luxuries of country 
 life, with fair sport and congenial company, and 
 in that house he was thoroughly at home : he 
 found " splendid scenery, fine pictures, and a 
 very pretty notion of comfort and hospitality." 
 " One object in going was to hunt with the Duke 
 of Beaufort's hounds. I took Laurel, who went 
 over the stone walls as if he had been used to 
 them all his life, though I don't know that he 
 ever saw one before, except that which bounds 
 my front garden." He was a heavy - weight ;
 
 MILITARY OPINIONS OF THE AMERICAN WAR. 135 
 
 he had a soldier-like seat, but he was a singularly 
 bold rider. Weight or no weight, he would do 
 his best to be well to the front ; and his courage 
 would have been rash, and almost reckless, had he 
 not been in the habit of considering his horses. 
 About midsummer the Professor of Military 
 History began to occupy himself over the Ameri- 
 can civil war. The playful passages in his 
 familiar letters are interesting, as expressing, in 
 free and unconventional fashion, the opinions de- 
 liberately expressed in his lectures. Many of the 
 chapters in ' The Operations of War,' which led to 
 correspondence with the most distinguished Ameri- 
 can generals, show how carefully he had looked 
 into the matter ; and it is but fair to remark, 
 that afterwards he bestowed high praise on the 
 subsequent strategy of the Northern leaders. For 
 in the beginning science was on the side of the 
 South. And there was nothing he despised and 
 detested more than the bounce and bluster of 
 civilian journalists seeking to explain away mis- 
 takes and mishaps after a premature chorus of 
 jubilant crowing : 
 
 The Manasses business certainly was the greatest joke in 
 the world. Taken with the swagger beforehand, there is 
 nothing in farce equal to it. I hope the Cavalier [Aytoun] 
 will indite a ballad on the subject. The Confederates seem 
 to be aware that they might possibly, if they were to at-
 
 136 LIFE AT THE STAFF COLLEGE. 
 
 tack a position, find no better enemies than the Federals. 
 In fact, with such troops, the odds are immensely in favour 
 of the side which awaits the attack. 
 
 Grave as were the issues involved, and although 
 the losses on either side were already appalling, 
 he hesitated to treat the subject seriously. On 
 12th December he answers Blackwood's sugges- 
 tion of an article : 
 
 It appears to me that the calm judicial style is alto- 
 gether unsuitable to the discussion of American affairs. 
 If their proceedings civil, military, and popular met the 
 derision they deserve, they might come to a more correct 
 estimate of their own position ; and when they saw they 
 were making themselves ridiculous, they might cease this 
 absurd war. 
 
 And in more than one letter he proposes that 
 Aytoun should throw off a set of American ballads 
 a la ' Bon Gaultier ' : 
 
 "The Battle of Bull's Cousin's Eun," "The Song of 
 the Pennsylvanian Patriot," &c., ought to be as good as 
 "The Snapping Turtle." 
 
 That only indicates that, like some of our 
 shrewdest soldiers and most far-sighted states- 
 men, he had failed as yet to gauge the strength 
 and earnestness of the Americans of the North. 
 As for their dash and courage, Laurence Oliphant, 
 who had been present as a correspondent in both
 
 "WELLINGTON'S CAMPAIGNS." 137 
 
 wars, used to compare them with the Germans in 
 the French campaign, and to the disadvantage 
 of the latter. Hamley felt the contempt of the 
 professional strategist for the ill-directed efforts 
 of heterogeneous masses of undisciplined levies. 
 Nor, as Julian Sturgis remarks, was he alto- 
 gether free from the popular prejudices against 
 our American friends. Long before the ter- 
 mination of the war, he had come to the con- 
 clusion that the Northern American, like the 
 Gascon, could plan and fight as well as swagger ; 
 and he learned to distinguish more dispassion- 
 ately between types and classes when he had 
 been privileged to enjoy the friendship of some 
 of the most illustrious Americans resident in 
 England. 
 
 In the spring of 1860 he found a more sympa- 
 thetic subject in two articles on "Wellington's 
 Campaigns." They were the outcome, of course, 
 of synchronous lectures at the Staff College, and 
 of another which was the first he delivered at the 
 United Service Institute. They were intended to 
 give a bird's-eye view of the campaigns as a guide 
 to the intelligent perusal of the bulky military 
 histories, and they are models of masterly an- 
 alysis and condensation. The pains the writer 
 bestowed on their revision was extraordinary. 
 With a view to their republication he directs
 
 138 LIFE AT THE STAFF COLLEGE. 
 
 attention to the most trivial mistakes ; and if 
 some unimportant word fails to convey his exact 
 shade of meaning, he insists on having it altered. 
 That is worth noting, to prove that although 
 opinions may be disputed, in all his work on 
 military subjects he is thoroughly reliable in the 
 most minute details. The criticisms on the 
 Waterloo campaign, which are repeated with 
 striking effect in ' The Operations of War, display 
 his invariable independence of judgment, and must 
 have been something of a surprise and a shock to 
 idolaters of the Iron Duke who had been educated 
 in the profound belief in his infallibility. Segur 
 and others have told us that the elan of Napo- 
 leon's genius had been broken by long strain and 
 confirmed ill health ; but in the chorus of praise 
 on Wellington's generalship, perhaps no English 
 writer of serious reputation had hitherto struck a 
 discordant note. Blackwood seems to have been 
 startled by the audacity of Hamley's strictures, 
 and his letter elicited this answer : 
 
 SANDHURST, April 1860. 
 
 MY DEAR BLACKWOOD, I have studied everything that 
 is recorded of any consequence about the Waterloo cam- 
 paign, and you may rely upon the correctness of what I 
 have written. The truth is, that neither the Duke nor 
 Napoleon appeared at their best in it. The Duke's mis- 
 takes have always been glossed over by English writers,
 
 "THE FIGHT FOE THE BELT." 139 
 
 but the only effect of that is to diminish the value of the 
 authority of those writers. Napoleon's want of vigour at 
 several points of the campaign was remarkable in one 
 usually so wonderfully prompt and active. 
 
 The same letter adverts to another famous in- 
 ternational combat. The Professor of Military 
 History regrets that he had no early intelligence 
 of the movements of the combatants in the great 
 battle between Heenan and Tom Sayers. 
 
 I am very sorry indeed that I missed the fight. Though 
 it was known in London the night before that it would 
 take place, yet no one was aware of it in the country. I 
 reached Farnboro' about an hour after it was over. I 
 would have given anything to see it. Motley and I were 
 very nearly having a combat last night on the merits of 
 the national champions. 
 
 Nevertheless, in mock heroics, he celebrated " The 
 Fight for the Belt," and the courage of the cham- 
 pions, though deploring " the impotent conclusion 
 which left the laurel in suspense." 
 
 About the same time he sends his comments on 
 George Eliot's last novel. We fancy many people 
 will be inclined to differ from him and the editor, 
 or the editor's critic, on the comparative interest 
 of 'Adam Bede' and ' The Mill on the Floss,' and 
 not a few may dispute the dictum as to the in- 
 feriority of the aunts and uncles to Mrs Poyser.
 
 140 LIFE AT THE STAFF COLLEGE. 
 
 For, as to the very best of Mrs Poyser's sayings, 
 it generally strikes one that something of the sort 
 has been said before. 
 
 SANDHURST, 2d May 1860. 
 
 I agree with your critic in thinking ' The Mill ' superior 
 in interest to ' Adam Bede,' and Maggie Tulliver a more 
 captivating personage than any in the former. 
 
 If George Eliot knows the original, I should be glad of 
 an introduction. 
 
 Bob Jakin is first-rate, especially as a boy ; but none 
 of the Dodsons come up to Mrs Poyser. Unlike most of 
 the critics, I like the last volume best. It would never 
 have done to let Maggie marry young "Wakem; but I 
 think she might, after a decent interval, have been allotted 
 to Mr Guest. The flood scene strikes me as dreamy and 
 unreal wanting a few literal touches to make the reader 
 thoroughly enter into its vicissitudes. Compared with the 
 distinctness of the rest, it seems to me vague and fleeting. 
 However, a second reading may alter my opinion. 
 
 At that time our military authorities were seri- 
 ously alarmed as to the intentions of the French 
 emperor. They feared that the war-frenzy of his 
 army might force his hand, and that a declara- 
 tion of hostilities in the following year was more 
 than possible. There is a curious notice of a visit 
 by a French admiral to Portsmouth, who had 
 come over ostensibly to inspect the Queen's yacht, 
 as Louis Napoleon intended to build a similar one. 
 That gallant officer was hospitably entertained, 
 and, apparently in a moment of expansion after
 
 THE ARMSTRONG GUN. 141 
 
 dinner, he had confided to his hosts that France 
 would assuredly attack us in the spring. Con- 
 sequently, the invention of the Armstrong gun 
 attracted special attention in military circles. 
 Hamley went with his friend MacDougall after- 
 wards General Sir Patrick MacDougall, since, 
 unhappily, dead then the Commandant of the 
 College, to witness the trials of the new weapon 
 at Shoeburyness. They were conducted by Gor- 
 don, the brigade - major the elder brother of 
 Gordon of Khartoum who had been Hamley 's 
 fellow aide-de-camp in the Crimea. 
 
 We had the gun thoroughly explained to us, and saw a 
 number of shots fired. The performance exceeds what I 
 expected ; so does the simplicity of construction ; and I 
 feel pretty confident that no other Government could turn 
 out a similar article, or one equally formidable. I wish 
 both army and navy were thoroughly supplied with it, 
 and then I think we might snap our fingers at our dear 
 friend over the way. 
 
 The year 1862 and those immediately succeed- 
 ing were uneventful. He was watching with keen 
 interest the vicissitudes of the American war, 
 which suggested subjects for the lectures and a 
 succession of articles for the Magazine. But 
 from the many letters in 1862, two interesting 
 passages may be extracted. The first refers to 
 Mrs Oliphant, of whom he was almost as warm
 
 142 LIFE AT THE STAFF COLLEGE. 
 
 an admirer as the author of ' Eothen/ who, to the 
 very last days of his life, was always eagerly 
 looking out for the latest of her innumerable 
 novels. 
 
 ' Salem Chapel ' struck me as very like George Eliot's 
 style, and I see many critics ascribe it to her. But the 
 former story of Carlingford appeared to me indubitably 
 Mrs Oliphant's, and as I suppose both your lady novelists 
 would not write under one title, I conclude that this is 
 not George Eliot's, but a very successful imitation, of 
 which, indeed, I think I see traces in the story. If so, it 
 is an additional proof of Mrs Oliphant's cleverness and 
 ability for producing something much more popular than 
 anything she has yet achieved. 
 
 As to the last sentence, it may be observed 
 that, though Hamley had Scotch blood in his 
 veins, he never seemed adequately to appreciate 
 the early Scotch novels by which Mrs Oliphant 
 first gained a reputation. Yet there were a fresh- 
 ness, a brilliancy, and a pathos in ' Mrs Margaret 
 Maitland ' and ' Adam Graeme,' which have surely 
 never been surpassed in any of her subsequent 
 work, save possibly with the exception of ' The 
 Minister's Wife.' By a letter of 29th Septem- 
 ber, we learn that it was he who introduced Mr 
 Story to 'Maga,' he usually styles Mr Story 
 " the stone-cutter," of which the versatile Amer- 
 ican sculptor was soon to become a valued con-
 
 W. W. STORY. 143 
 
 tributor. Although at first, strangely enough, 
 the connection hung in suspense, and might have 
 been abruptly severed, had Story been less per- 
 severing. Perhaps because the brilliant author 
 of the ' Roba di Roma/ like Hamley himself, had 
 broken ground in poetry in place of prose. In 
 subsequent letters Hamley reminds Blackwood 
 that Story is still awaiting an answer to offers 
 of a tale or other articles : 
 
 29th September 1862. 
 
 MY DEAR BLACKWOOD, Mr Story, the American 
 sculptor, who is here, read to me yesterday a poem of 
 his which I thought very good, and likely to suit the 
 Magazine ; and finding that he would like much to offer 
 it to you, I volunteered to submit it. He has written a 
 good deal, I fancy, for the ' North American ' and other 
 Transatlantic periodicals, and would like to send you a 
 contribution now and then from Eome, where his studio 
 is, having a proper respect and admiration for 'Maga.' 
 He is a very clever and very good fellow, the artist of 
 the Cleopatra and Sibyl, the two most successful statues 
 at the International ; but he is a red-hot Northerner. 
 
 We may imagine that the two friends had 
 many a warm argument at Mount Felix, for 
 Hamley was then a red - hot Southern sym- 
 pathiser. In his letters his hopes and wishes 
 were fathers to his thoughts, and he is frequently 
 predicting that the drain of men and money in 
 the North must dash the enthusiasm of the
 
 144 LIFE AT THE STAFF COLLEGE. 
 
 dollar - loving Yankees, or drive the Western 
 States to follow the South into secession. On 
 that subject he was in cordial agreement with the 
 line taken by the Magazine ; and, indeed, most of 
 the articles on American affairs, whether political 
 or military, were written by him. But in January 
 1863 there was a passing difference of opinion 
 with the Editor on a subject on which the soldier 
 was specially well informed, and in which both 
 were deeply interested for various reasons. Black- 
 wood had brought out the first volume of King- 
 lake's great work. It was natural it should be 
 sent to Harnley for review, for he was not only 
 the most competent of possible critics, but being 
 an intimate friend of the writer, had frequently dis- 
 cussed the Crimean campaign with him. Never- 
 theless he saw objections to undertaking the work, 
 for, with all the admiration he was willing to 
 express, he could not indulge in unrestricted 
 eulogy. As a master of strategy he differed 
 from Kinglake on many essential points ; and 
 setting aside the honesty of conviction with 
 which he could never be persuaded to tamper, 
 he had too much regard for his professional rep- 
 utation to let opinions from which he dissented 
 pass uncontradicted. Moreover, as a man of the 
 world, he suggested that, even in regard to the 
 financial aspects of the matter, the feelings in
 
 KINGLAKE'S ATTACK ON FRENCH EMPEROR. 145 
 
 well-informed military circles ought to be taken 
 into account, and as to these he could speak 
 from personal knowledge. The correspondence, 
 from which I give various extracts, which have 
 as much interest now as then, does equal credit 
 to both parties. Hamley stood manfully to his 
 guns, at the risk of making some trouble with 
 Kinglake ; and Black wood, who was nothing if 
 not straightforward, had the sound sense to give 
 the reviewer carte blanche. But the passages 
 from the correspondence speak for themselves ; 
 and, besides, they give such a revue intime as 
 even Hamley did not think it necessary to sub- 
 mit to the public. 
 
 MOUNT FELIX, 28th Jan. 1863. 
 
 MY DEAR BLACKWOOD, I was on the point of writing 
 you about Kinglake's book. I think it the most enter- 
 taining history I ever read the style brilliant, and every 
 page interesting. A great deal of the matter, especially 
 the military part, is worthy of all praise. But there are 
 some of the opinions with which I cannot agree, and 
 which, as a reviewer, I could not pass by without seeming 
 very partial or very blind. The historian's dislike to the 
 French Emperor, as we knew before, amounts to a craze, 
 and it has led him into numerous inconsistencies, and 
 rendered a great deal of the portion of his book in which 
 he accounts for the motives of the war quite incorrect. 
 The chapter, too, in which he describes the Coup d'ttat, 
 besides being unnecessary to the history, is a lampoon. 
 But at the same time it is quite as piquant and amusing 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 146 LIFE AT THE STAFF COLLEGE. 
 
 as the rest, and I should do full justice to the literary 
 merits, though bound to except against some of the 
 reasoning and conclusions. With this exception I should 
 have nothing but praise to bestow. 
 
 Now, as you have published the book, I do not know 
 how far you would consider yourself bound to maintain 
 its opinions in the Magazine. It certainly would not 
 have suited the Magazine, I imagine, to launch out in 
 that personal and bitter way against the Emperor, nor do 
 I think he deserves it; and had the book issued from 
 another house, I should have had no doubt of producing 
 a notice in which you would have concurred. As it is, I 
 should think a perfectly fair review might be perhaps 
 better for the book than a purely eulogistic one, con- 
 veying an impression of candour, without in the least 
 checking curiosity about it, rather, in fact, piquing it. 
 If, then, this would suit you, I shall be very happy 
 indeed to write the review, and should indeed regret not 
 to do so. 
 
 Hamley, speaking according to what was known 
 at the time, is severe on the famous chapter on 
 the Coup d'etat. After the confessions of De 
 Maupas and other authoritative revelations, it 
 certainly cannot be characterised as a lampoon, 
 although the scenes have doubtless been coloured 
 by Kinglake's picturesque imagination. But the 
 author always maintained its substantial accuracy, 
 and there was nothing he had written ' Eothen ' 
 not excepted which he regarded with greater 
 complacency, as nothing used to gratify him more 
 than to lead him to discuss it ; and it may be
 
 MILITARY OPINIONS OF KINGLAKE'S 'CRIMEA.' 147 
 
 true that an old grudge against the Emperor, 
 dating from the days when they used to meet in 
 Lady Blessington's salon and elsewhere, gave an 
 agreeable piquancy to his serene self-satisfaction. 
 
 16th Feb. 1863. 
 
 MY DEAR BLACKWOOD, Since I despatched my MS. to 
 you I have had an opportunity, which I had not before, 
 of hearing what people are saying of Kinglake's book. 
 The feeling about the attack on the French Emperor is 
 very general : it is considered out of place, absurdly ex- 
 aggerated, and mischievous. People say that he has been 
 a faithful ally to us, and that it would be a misfortune to 
 alienate him or the feeling of the French people, as these 
 personalities are calculated to do. 
 
 Military people are also objecting in many cases to what 
 is said about themselves. The Duke of Cambridge, I hear, 
 is furious. The Scots Fusiliers have called a meeting to 
 consider how best to contradict the statement of their 
 conduct at the Alma. Everybody, however, admits the 
 cleverness of the book. 
 
 As a narrative, I think, as I have stated, that it is ex- 
 cellent ; as a history, violently prejudiced, and by no means 
 reliable. 
 
 The article seems to have been held over for 
 very deliberate consideration. There is a final 
 letter the longest Hamley ever wrote to Black- 
 wood which deserves to be quoted. It assures 
 us that in cases where he appears to be unduly 
 severe, at least he gave conscientious expression 
 to deliberately matured convictions.
 
 148 LIFE AT THE STAFF COLLEGE. 
 
 Blackwood was as firm in opinion as himself: 
 neither one nor the other was free from strong 
 prejudices, but both would give way gracefully on 
 sufficient cause being shown. 
 
 MOUNT FELIX, 20th February 1863. 
 
 MY DEAR BLACKWOOD, When you desired me to take 
 my own line in reviewing Kinglake's book and if I had 
 not done so I could not have honestly done it at all I 
 made it my first consideration to write what would suit 
 the Magazine. I was not aware that your opinions about 
 the French Emperor were so nearly like Kinglake's as 
 they appear to be. At any rate, I had never seen any- 
 thing in the Magazine which seemed at all to coincide 
 with his views. I therefore wrote what I considered a 
 perfectly just review in this particular inclining, indeed, 
 so far to the author, that nothing I have said at all ade- 
 quately expresses what I believe to be the general feeling 
 respecting that part of the book. But while wishing to 
 write what would suit the Magazine, I also considered 
 that it was perfectly right and reasonable that you should 
 wish to have all the praise given to a book which you had 
 yourself introduced to the world that it fairly deserved, 
 and I therefore bestowed it in such measure as is not, I 
 daresay, exceeded in any other critique. I now see by 
 your remarks that your opinion of the merits of the work 
 is much more unqualified than mine. I perfectly recog- 
 nise its animation and entertaining quality and excellence 
 as a composition and narrative. But I do not see how 
 any one can avoid concluding that it is violently preju- 
 diced, and that it is deficient in some of the essentials of 
 history. 
 
 As to the attacks on Louis Napoleon, to call them unfair
 
 REVIEWING KINGLAKE'S 'CRIMEA.' 149 
 
 expresses but feebly what seems the general verdict. In 
 accounting for what seems the personal feeling that dic- 
 tated them, people talk of grounds of animosity, which are 
 no doubt mere absurd rumours, but which serve to show 
 that there is necessity felt to account for them in some 
 way. . . . What your grounds are for supposing that he 
 means to sell us I don't know. I daresay if our interests 
 and those of France were in conflict, he would not hesitate 
 to sacrifice ours. But hitherto there is no instance of bad 
 faith that anybody can point to. If he wished to injure 
 us, what opportunity like the time of the Indian Mutiny, 
 when we had not a soldier in England ? and in this 
 American business it would have been easy for him to 
 make political capital at our expense, but he has not done 
 so. What would follow if he were unseated nobody knows, 
 but it is extremely unlikely that in the state of things 
 that would ensue we should be more secure from the 
 hostility of France or on better terms with her than we 
 now are, while France herself would indubitably suffer. 
 If this be admitted, it is impossible to see the good policy 
 of exciting the dislike and distrust of the Emperor, as 
 such a course, if generally taken, could not fail to do. 
 
 But I do not consider this the only fault of the work. 
 For so clever a man, Mr Kinglake appears to me singu- 
 larly deficient in judgment and logical power. His opin- 
 ions are no doubt often strongly and clearly expressed, 
 but then they very often contradict each other. There is 
 hardly any positive view which he takes of an important 
 point which might not be refuted from his own book. 
 Moreover, he gives to many personages and incidents an 
 importance quite disproportionate. Look, for instance, at 
 the biography of General Airey, given at a length and 
 with a minuteness which would be almost extreme in the 
 case of a great historical personage. . . .
 
 150 LIFE AT THE STAFF COLLEGE. 
 
 These being my views, I dropt out of sight when I 
 wrote the review all those which, while unfavourable, were 
 not in my opinion absolutely essential to the justice of 
 the estimate, and I was therefore in hopes that the paper 
 would be approved by you throughout, as it was carefully 
 considered throughout and carefully written. 
 
 There is no part of it which I should of myself have 
 wished to cancel ; but I am most desirous that we should 
 be in accord, and of course we have in common the 
 desire of making the paper as suitable as possible to the 
 Magazine, and I will therefore consider your marginal 
 suggestions seriatim. . . . 
 
 I have quoted the first part of the letter at 
 length, merely omitting unimportant sentences. 
 Such temporary disagreements left no shade of un- 
 pleasantness behind, for only a month or two after- 
 wards came another amicable controversy which 
 places both the correspondents in a singularly 
 favourable light. It is an agreeable episode in 
 the "amenities of literature" to see editor and 
 contributor bandying a handsome cheque back- 
 wards and forwards ; and the motive which led 
 Hamley to lay himself under a pecuniary obliga- 
 tion is but another of the innumerable proofs 
 that the most kindly and affectionate of hearts 
 was beating under a cold exterior. Former letters 
 are full of references to his brother Charles. 
 Captain Charles Hamley had contributed, like 
 William and Edward, to the Magazine ; and I
 
 CAPTAIN CHARLES HAMLEY. 151 
 
 have been told that John Blackwood used to say 
 that, had he lived, he would have equalled, or 
 even excelled, his brothers as a writer. I believe 
 that from boyhood he had been Edward's favour- 
 ite brother. He had served at sea with great dis- 
 tinction, but his dash and courage were combined 
 with a singularly sensitive nature ; his constitu- 
 tion had never been strong, and latterly his health 
 had been failing. It is delightful to see how his 
 brother always says for him what he was too 
 modest to say for himself; how habitually the 
 friendly editor is reminded that Charlie is dis- 
 posed to self-depreciation, but only needs encour- 
 agement to do admirable work. Now he was lying 
 on his death-bed at Plymouth, and Edward Hamley 
 had hurried from Sandhurst to assist in nursing 
 him. Till he had breathed his last, his devoted 
 brother threw all business aside, and was always 
 within call of the sick-chamber. The sad circum- 
 stances that drew them closely together strength- 
 ened the ties with his brother's widow, whom he 
 had always regarded with much affection. Cap- 
 tain Charles had married Miss Hanbury Williams, 
 whose cousin subsequently served as Hamley's 
 aide-de-camp in Egypt ; and whether he gave the 
 dying man a promise or not, from that day he 
 virtually adopted the little orphan daughter. He 
 writes from Plymouth on May 14 to say that his
 
 152 LIFE AT THE STAFF COLLEGE. 
 
 brother, knowing the end was near, was anxious 
 to set his affairs in order for the sake of his 
 wife and child. For himself he was desirous that 
 his brother's last moments should be soothed by 
 the consciousness that all his worldly affairs were 
 in order. So he asked whether further use was 
 likely to be made of the tales and articles which 
 had been published in the Magazine. As a 
 rule, such contributions are of little or no further 
 value. But Blackwood, though often a negligent 
 correspondent, never dallied when it was a ques- 
 tion of serving a friend or evincing his regard 
 for an esteemed contributor. 
 
 PLYMOUTH, 18th May. 
 
 MY DEAR BLACKWOOD, I cannot sufficiently thank you 
 for your prompt and friendly reply. It will greatly con- 
 tribute to set my poor brother's mind at ease. He bids 
 me thank you warmly, and say how liberal and generous 
 he thinks your offer to be, and begs you to consider every- 
 thing he has written your own ; and in his thanks for your 
 most friendly generosity I wish warmly to join. 
 
 The remainder of the letter shows how entirely 
 the writer was preoccupied by his brother's ill- 
 ness, and how thoughtfully and affectionately he 
 was endeavouring to lighten the trouble of his 
 sister-in-law. The next announces the death : 
 
 22d May 1863. 
 
 Nothing could surpass the devotion of his wife to the 
 last, and she now shows no less admirable good sense than
 
 A GENEROUS CHEQUE. 153 
 
 feeling. It must be a great consolation to her to receive 
 the sympathy that the event has called forth from all 
 classes with whom my poor brother had any relation. 
 The men and officers of his division, and all his acquaint- 
 ance, and those any way connected with him, high or low, 
 all testify the same feeling of uncommon regard. He was 
 a thoroughly noble character, and I wish you could have 
 personally known him. Some of his latest sentences were 
 to beg me to convey to you the feelings which he was 
 unable to express himself, for your ready and generous 
 response. 
 
 In the autumn Hamley wrote again and at 
 length, to explain that he had regarded the 
 money received as a loan rather than a business 
 transaction, that his single thought at the time 
 was to ease the mind of a dying man, and that 
 now his brother's affairs had been settled and 
 sums had been unexpectedly received from other 
 quarters, it was his own anxious desire and 
 that of the widow that the advance should be 
 repaid. 
 
 He sends a message from Mrs Charles 
 Hamley : 
 
 It has often dwelt upon my mind, and I always in- 
 tended when the sum should be mine, to speak to you on 
 the subject of repaying it. I shall be glad to hear that 
 Mr Blackwood's ready generosity (the kindness of which 
 I can never forget) had not resulted in loss to him. 
 
 Accordingly a cheque is enclosed for the amount
 
 154 LIFE AT THE STAFF COLLEGE. 
 
 with interest. The cheque came back by return 
 of post ; and there, it may be presumed, a trans- 
 action equally honourable to both was closed, so 
 far as the mere pounds and shillings were con- 
 cerned. 
 
 As Hamley had the interests of the Magazine 
 warmly at heart, he was in the habit of exercis- 
 ing his sagacity in detecting the literary promise 
 of writers who had still their spurs to win. 
 Blackwood was indebted to him for not a few 
 invaluable introductions. We have seen that 
 he had stood sponsor to Mr Story, and in the 
 years 1864 and 1865 successively he was the 
 means of opening communications with two sol- 
 diers of genius who were both to make them- 
 selves names in literature. Hozier, the historian 
 of the Franco-German war, belonged to a Lanark- 
 shire family, and was not unfrequently to be seen 
 in Edinburgh ; so Hamley writes : 
 
 19th Feb. 1864. 
 
 MY DEAK BLACKWOOD, If you meet a man named 
 Hozier, formerly in the Artillery, now a lieutenant in 
 the 2d Life Guards, I should be glad if you become 
 acquainted. He is a pleasant fellow, passed through the 
 Staff College lately with great 6dat, and might become a 
 useful contributor, especially as war correspondent. 
 
 The forecast was fully realised, and the Maga- 
 zine was indebted to him for many valuable con-
 
 "THE BATTLE OF DORKING." 155 
 
 tributions. Shortly afterwards his services were 
 engaged by the ' Times ' as its war correspondent 
 with the Prussians, when they crossed the Biesen- 
 gebirge into Bohemia, and the result was his 
 history of the Seven Weeks' War. 
 
 In the following spring Hamley gave the second 
 introduction, which placed" the Magazine in con- 
 nection with the Chesneys : 
 
 I enclose a letter from Captain Charles Chesney, E.E., 
 my successor in the Professorship at Sandhurst, who, I be- 
 lieve, wants to become a contributor. He has written a 
 very good account of the war in Virginia, has very clear 
 and sensible views, and doubtless would be a very useful 
 auxiliary. 
 
 Captain Charles had won Hamley's warm ap- 
 proval as the author of various important works 
 on military topics. Two or three years after- 
 wards his gifted brother now General Sir George 
 Chesney enrolled himself among the contribu- 
 tors. It may be interesting, although perhaps 
 slightly irrelevant, to advert to the episode 
 which at once placed Sir George among the 
 first in the foremost rank. The answer to the 
 suggestion that he should send a military story 
 was " The Battle of Dorking," which, as I have 
 reason to know, was thrown off with extraor- 
 dinary rapidity. A new generation has risen 
 up since it was written, but Blackwood and
 
 156 LIFE AT THE STAFF COLLEGE. 
 
 his Magazine seldom made a more happy hit. 
 The brilliant jeu d'esprit was read and talked 
 about by thousands who scarcely appreciated 
 the rare dramatic power, but were irresistibly 
 impressed by its vigorous realism. It brought 
 home to a nation of peaceful and money-getting 
 islanders the domestic and pecuniary risks they 
 ran in the event of a successful invasion ; it did 
 much to revive the dormant military spirit of a 
 people who are essentially a warlike race ; and it 
 gave an extraordinary impulse to the volunteer 
 movement. Besides that and many anonymous 
 articles, Sir George Chesney passed three of 
 his novels through the Magazine, and experts 
 have pronounced that the best pictures of the 
 Indian Mutiny are to be found reflected in the 
 scenes in the first volume of ' The Dilemma.' It 
 was pleasant to see the pleasure and pride which 
 Blackwood took in his pet contributors. He 
 seemed to regard them affectionately as indulged 
 members of his family ; but I never remember his 
 face beaming more brightly than one forenoon at 
 the Burlington Hotel, when the author of " The 
 Battle" had dropped in, and was of course im- 
 pressed for luncheon. He stole look after look at 
 the man he admired, and the liking was blended 
 with gratitude and admiration. So at another 
 quiet luncheon at the "Garrick" he had wel-
 
 RETIREMENT FROM STAFF COLLEGE. 157 
 
 corned and regaled Sir Garnet Wolseley on his 
 return from the Red River Expedition, which its 
 commander had chronicled in contributions to the 
 Magazine. But on that morning at the Bur- 
 lington, Blackwood had a double reason for being 
 in high spirits. For he had triumphantly pro- 
 duced the first part of ' Daniel Deronda,' bought 
 at a price which he did not regret, for he was 
 sanguine as to the reception of the novel. 
 
 From the passage recommending Captain Ches- 
 ney, it will be seen that Hamley had ceased at 
 that time to be Professor at the Staff College. 
 It was retirement, not resignation. In the pre- 
 vious year he had written : 
 
 15th April. 
 
 MY DEAR BLACKWOOD, I am sorry to say that I have 
 been told officially that on my promotion to regimental 
 Lieutenant-Colonel, which will be immediately, I am to 
 join the regiment. I knew there was a regulation to that 
 effect, but I did not think it would be acted on, because 
 there are already more lieutenant-colonels of Artillery 
 than they know what to do with. 
 
 The authorities here have made pressing application 
 that I should be allowed to remain ; but the same request 
 having been refused in another similar case, it could not 
 be granted in mine. They have now applied to keep me 
 here till the end of this term (June), and as it would be 
 very inconvenient for the College that I should leave in the 
 middle of a course of lectures, it will perhaps be allowed. 
 
 I am just going to town to learn what my destiny is to 
 be Woolwich, I imagine, in the first instance.
 
 158 LIFE AT THE STAFF COLLEGE. 
 
 He was gratified to know that the military 
 authorities were reluctant to part with him, nor 
 could he foresee the flattering circumstances under 
 which he would be recalled. His destination, as 
 it proved, was Dover, and he hoped he should 
 like his new quarters. 
 
 As it turned out, he found more leisure there 
 than he had expected, and, consequently, threw 
 himself with redoubled energy into his work on 
 ' The Operations of War.' Doubtless it gained 
 greatly by being thought out assiduously while the 
 recollections of the Sandhurst lectures were still 
 fresh in his mind. There is much correspondence 
 about the arrangement of the book indicating 
 how carefully the most minute details had been 
 considered and especially as to the choice of an 
 attractive title, to which he attached no little 
 importance. He talks of hunting two days in 
 the week, but otherwise he seems to have lived 
 as much in seclusion as when writing ' Lady Lee ' 
 at Europa Point. 
 
 The citizens would be little flattered by his 
 impressions of their venerable Cinque Port, and 
 he found nothing to tempt him down from the 
 heights in the well -intended overtures of its 
 society. But the period of his probation was 
 limited to the time that was needful for the 
 completion of the magnum opus. In a letter of
 
 APPOINTED TO MILITARY EDUCATION COUNCIL. 159 
 
 December 1865, intimating the despatch of the 
 concluding chapters, he also announces that new 
 prospects were opening. The Duke of Cam- 
 bridge, without application, had nominated him 
 to fill an impending vacancy in the Council of 
 Military Education. " It would be a great ad- 
 dition to my means, as the pay is made up to 
 800 a-year, which is high as military appoint- 
 ments go." 
 
 There was some vexatious delay, but Colonel 
 Elwyn having decided to retire, Hamley received 
 the appointment. 
 
 23rf March 1866. 
 
 MY DEAK BLACKWOOD, I am sure you will share my 
 satisfaction at being appointed member of the Council of 
 Military Education. It is a better position in every way 
 than my present one, and quite doubles my income. I 
 must live in or near town. The Duke had a levde to-day, 
 which I attended for the purpose of inquiring about the post, 
 and was told very graciously that I had been selected. The 
 Duke nominated me of his own accord, which was kind. 
 
 Nothing could be more antipathetic to his 
 energetic temperament than illness or inactivity. 
 But he always acquiesced in the inevitable with 
 cheerful resignation, and before his death he was 
 to have signal opportunity for proving the temper 
 of his passive courage. So in the autumn he 
 writes an amusing letter, making characteristic 
 fun of a doleful state of things, and full of allu-
 
 160 LIFE AT THE STAFF COLLEGE. 
 
 sions to the book he studied as a second Bible 
 and unfailing source of inspiration. Doubtless he 
 had sought consolation in Shakespeare through 
 the weary days of slow convalescence : 
 
 SQth October 1866. 
 
 MY DEAR BLACKWOOD, I have been humiliatingly ill 
 unable to do anything in my own behalf except swear, and 
 given over body and limbs, and what small portion of soul 
 I had left, which is scarce worth speaking of, to a lady of 
 the Gamp persuasion, without whose concurrence I could 
 perform no function whatever beyond breathing. I am 
 now, however, beginning to take notice, as they say of 
 lively infants, can walk across the room in quite a respect- 
 able totter, and dine on fowl and mutton, instead of lemon- 
 ade administered through a spout. I seem to be reversing 
 the process of Shakespeare's seven ages ; for whereas a few 
 days ago I was very like the usual representative of the 
 " last scene of all," I have now rejuvenated into the lean 
 and slippered pantaloon, my youthful hose exceedingly 
 baggy, and my shrunk shanks like anatomical preparations. 
 Under Mount Felix diet I expect to get back ere long the 
 fair round belly of the Justice, and when I have once more 
 retrieved my position as a soldier full of strange oaths, I 
 shall there remain.
 
 161 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 'THE OPERATIONS OF WAR.' 
 
 SCOPE OP THE WORK DIFFICULTIES IN THE STUDY OF MILITARY 
 HISTORY WARFARE IN THE DAYS OF CHIVALRY COMMUNICA- 
 TIONS CONSIDERATIONS PRELIMINARY TO A CAMPAIGN QUES- 
 TIONS OF STRATEGY THE INFLUENCE OF OBSTACLES TACTICS. 
 
 No soldier need desire a nobler monument to his 
 memory than ' The Operations of War.' No man 
 could have written it who was not endowed with 
 a very rare combination of qualities. It can only 
 be adequately appreciated if we consider the wide 
 range of the field and the vast scope of the sub- 
 jects. We are amazed at the firm grasp of mem- 
 orable facts and suggestive points, at the effective 
 grouping, the assimilation, and the consolidation. 
 The powerful intellect has seized on each happy 
 illustration that suits the immediate end in view, 
 and the tenacious memory is ready with every 
 fact that may serve the purpose of comparison 
 or contrast, for enforcing an argument, for praise 
 VOL. i. L
 
 162 'THE OPERATIONS OF WAR: 
 
 or for condemnation. The whole progressive 
 science of the modern art of war is comprehended 
 in the great work, not chronologically, which 
 would have been far easier for the writer, although 
 puzzling and confusing to the student, but throw- 
 ing clear light upon each consecutive stage, so as 
 to make principles and practice pleasantly intelli- 
 gible. Intricacies and complications arising out 
 of changing circumstances are disentangled, and 
 everything falls so naturally into methodical 
 arrangement that we may be almost inclined to 
 underestimate the literary adroitness. Yet the 
 chapter on " Outposts," of which, apropos to a 
 field trial at Aldershot, a cursory sketch is given 
 later on, may suffice to indicate the variety of 
 conditions and incidents presented by campaign- 
 ing in a single aspect. This comprehensive and 
 exhaustive military history embraces everything 
 to be considered in working out strategical or 
 tactical problems, from the temperament of the 
 hostile commander and the moral and quality of 
 his troops to the topography of the country, 
 the state of the weather, and even the farming, 
 the forestry, and the manner of fencing the 
 enclosures. 
 
 In other words, the writer impresses on his 
 readers that matters apparently the most trivial 
 may influence or decide momentous issues, and
 
 PLAN OF 1 THE OPERATIONS: 163 
 
 that nothing can be unimportant to a responsible 
 soldier. Consequently ' The Operations ' illus- 
 trate the combination of gifts and acquirements 
 which, when leavened by the instincts of genius, 
 makes a great general. But Hamley dwells on 
 the due distribution of responsibility, descend- 
 ing through successive degrees, so that each 
 officer in charge accepts his share of the burden ; 
 and the whole machine is working smoothly 
 and harmoniously, making the nearest possible 
 approaches towards arriving at perhaps an un- 
 attainable ideal. 
 
 A great feature of the work is that it is 
 divested of professional pedantry : it investigates 
 the science of MODERN WAR, as it has been 
 evolved and developed by the progress of civilisa- 
 tion, of industrial enterprise and scientific inven- 
 tion. Yet the preliminary glances at the mode 
 of warfare under the feudal system, when Ed- 
 ward III. and the chivalrous Black Prince were 
 carrying fire and sword into France and Castile, 
 are so picturesque, that we are somewhat tan- 
 talised by the necessity for dismissing the subject 
 in a few brief sentences. 
 
 In a biography of Hamley it is perhaps advis- 
 able, if not indispensable, to give some faint idea 
 of the work on which his reputation is solidly 
 established. Fortunately an incompetent civilian
 
 164 'THE OPERATIONS OF WAR.' 
 
 is spared much embarrassment by referring to his 
 own eloquent and pregnant introduction, which 
 elucidates his method with masterly precision. 
 The preface to the fourth edition modestly in- 
 dicates his special qualifications for the task. He 
 mentions, though it seems superfluous, that he 
 had carefully followed, with a view to revision 
 in later editions, the course of all operations in 
 recent campaigns. " The American Civil War, the 
 Austrian War of 1866, the Franco-German War of 
 1870, have all in their turn furnished illustrations 
 and subjects of comment." If little notice had 
 been taken of the Turkish and Armenian cam- 
 paigns, it was only because they suggested little 
 new matter. For many years, he reminds us, as 
 Commandant of the Staff College, he had enjoyed 
 an advantage which, to the expositor of military 
 operations, could scarcely be overrated. " It has 
 been a most important part of the Commandant's 
 duty to direct the exercises of officers studying at 
 the College, on actual ground, and on a supposed 
 plan of continuous operations, as if they were 
 acting under a general in a campaign." So we 
 may presume that he seized opportunities of 
 rehearsing deliberately on a field of peace the 
 operations which interested him in contemporary 
 war. 
 
 The introduction begins by exposing the diffi-
 
 ADOPTION OF NEW METHODS. 165 
 
 culties which had hitherto attended the study of 
 military history. Such standard works as those of 
 Napier and Jomini presuppose an amount of pre- 
 liminary knowledge which the reader in all proba- 
 bility does not possess. Nor would he be greatly 
 helped if he turned to elementary treatises, which 
 are for the most part obscure in attempting to be 
 scientific. " The earnest student is then in this 
 dilemma, that he requires a knowledge of theory 
 to understand the facts, and a knowledge of facts 
 to understand the theory." From that dilemma 
 it is Hamley's object to extricate him, explaining 
 the principles and theories by presenting illus- 
 trative facts. He has succeeded so well that not 
 a few of the chapters are most fascinating reading 
 for intelligent civilians. He merely makes cursory 
 allusion to obsolete systems. Organisation and 
 discipline have now been brought to a high pitch 
 of perfection ; the improvement of communica- 
 tions and the introduction of rapid and assured 
 means of transport have revolutionised all the 
 old conditions of campaigning in fact, the field 
 of observation, though still embarrassingly broad, 
 has been cleared for professional and even popular 
 study on definite and recognised principles. In a 
 few lines he supplies a key to his programme : 
 
 Taking our stand, then, on modern military history, 
 let us suppose that the field were not trackless. Let us
 
 166 'THE OPERATIONS OF WAR.' 
 
 suppose that paths were traced on it which should all 
 lead to a result. Let us suppose, in fact, that from amidst 
 the mass of records certain campaigns and battles should 
 be selected which should be representative operations, each 
 involving and illustrating a principle or fact, which, when 
 elicited and fully recognised, will serve for future guid- 
 ance. Here we should have the matter at once greatly 
 simplified; and this is what has been aimed at in the 
 present work. The reader will be required to take no 
 opinions on trust: certain operations will be selected, 
 detailed, explained, and what lessons they afford deduced, 
 till in this way a theory shall be formed on facts and 
 experience which the student may confidently use for 
 general application. And these comments and selections 
 are intended to follow each other in such order that, with 
 each step, footing may be gained for a further advance. 
 
 He begins the work by fixing a starting-point. 
 Allusion has been made to his brilliant sketch of 
 the merciless mode of warfare in the days of 
 " chivalry." Drawing on the romantic pages of 
 Froissart, he describes how war used to be made 
 to support itself by rapine, so that while the 
 victims of the ruthless inroads were reduced to 
 misery and starvation, the troops of the con- 
 querors scarcely suffered less when operating in 
 districts already devastated. Consequently, in 
 the absence of magazines and of regular sup- 
 plies from a base, the operations were necessarily 
 crippled and limited. There could be no cohe- 
 rence, either in the defence or attack. Beyond
 
 ORIGIN OF STANDING ARMIES. 167 
 
 the walled cities, which formed so many centres 
 of resistance, the strongholds of the nobles were 
 in the most inaccessible situations, and, where 
 possible, on isolated or impracticable heights. 
 The army was not an integer, bub an aggre- 
 gation of discordant or incongruous units, which 
 seldom formed effective combinations except when 
 mustered for a pitched battle, and which fell to 
 pieces on slight provocation. When each peasant 
 was in the habit of carrying weapons, and the raw 
 levies were drawn from an agricultural tenantry, 
 discipline, as we understand it, could scarcely 
 exist. With the strengthening of the power of 
 the Crown and the subjugation of the great 
 feudatories, we have the origin and the nucleus 
 of standing armies. It was to the soldiers en- 
 gaged for fixed periods and receiving regular pay 
 that Edward I. and his grandson were indebted 
 for the battles they won in France and Scotland. 
 As the countries were tranquillised, and some 
 protection was extended to industry and com- 
 merce, communications were opened up. When 
 efficient artillery could be transported along 
 practicable roads, the walled towns ceased to 
 be places of refuge. Then the engineer had 
 come to the front. The great cities were con- 
 verted into formidable fortresses, and other posi- 
 tions began to be selected for fortification which
 
 168 1 THE OPERATIONS OF WAR: 
 
 might impede an invader's advance or shelter a 
 retreating army. Then we have the days of 
 leisurely campaigning and long sieges, when the 
 artilleryman was playing the deliberate war-game 
 against the engineer ; when armies, according to 
 rule, would withdraw into winter quarters, and 
 when the capture of a single commanding fortress 
 was considered the satisfactory result of a season 
 in the field. Next there was another stage, 
 " as the military machine grew more manage- 
 able": 
 
 It was discovered that it was more profitable to occupy 
 an enemy's territory than to devastate and plunder it, and 
 that the readiest way to bring him to terms was to beat 
 his armies. Improved roads and vehicles enabled large 
 bodies to move more freely improved cultivation gave 
 them more abundant means of subsistence. Fortresses 
 were watched, or " masked," by detachments ; and Fred- 
 erick and Napoleon, preferring manosuvres in which they 
 were confident of their skill, to the tedious process of 
 sieges, moved deep into the heart of the theatre of war. 
 
 Napoleon, in the height of his prestige, owed 
 his career of unexampled success to the unprece- 
 dented celerity of his movements. He reverted, 
 so far as practicable, to the old plan of making 
 the war support itself, and when advancing with 
 scarcely a check, through rich and fertile coun- 
 tries, he could dispense with the cumbrous trains
 
 NAPOLEON'S MILITARY TACTICS. 169 
 
 of provision-waggons. A system which set pru- 
 dence at defiance and ignored the possibilities of 
 defeat, could only have been carried out by that 
 daring and self-confident genius who succeeded 
 in inspiring his soldiers with his own faith in his 
 star. In fact, it fatally broke down when he 
 sustained reverses, and when his troops were 
 campaigning under inferior leaders in the rugged 
 sierras of Spain. But even Napoleon established 
 magazines at the base of his rapid operations, and 
 at certain important positions on the lines of his 
 advance. As a general rule, " the first prepara- 
 tion for war was the establishment of great 
 depots and magazines, and these were collected 
 in places that were secured from the enemy's 
 attacks, either by natural defence or artificial 
 fortifications." 
 
 Many of the most suggestive illustrations are 
 drawn from the great wars of the Consulate and 
 French Empire, and even from the campaigns 
 of Marlborough, in which unrivalled military gifts 
 anticipated modern ideas or inventions. Indeed 
 some of the most generally interesting pages are 
 on the fighting in Flanders, on the Danube, and 
 in the Peninsula. But all is arranged so as to 
 elucidate the revolution that has been brought 
 about by the multiplication of roads and railways, 
 and the improvements in cannon and small arms.
 
 170 'THE OPERATIONS OF WAR: 
 
 Bringing figures and close arithmetical calcula- 
 tion to bear, Hamley impressively explains the 
 reason for the adoption of a particular strategy 
 which is somewhat puzzling at first sight, or 
 seems to run counter to accepted rules. As, for 
 example, had Napoleon, when advancing on 
 Brussels to interpose between Wellington and 
 Blucher, concentrated his forces on a single road, 
 we are told that the interminable column would 
 have covered nearly fifty miles, altogether irre- 
 spective of its baggage and stores. Moreover, 
 the calculations, so carefully worked out, are 
 instructive, as they show the exactness of the 
 premisses from which he reached his conclusions, 
 and they give force to his remarks as to the 
 influence of steam in simplifying and facilitating 
 operations by sea and land. 
 
 The effect of railways in modifying the condi- 
 tions of war is made manifest in ways we are apt 
 to overlook. Not only are they available for for- 
 warding troops, as they have wellnigh superseded 
 the unwieldy transport trains ; but they relieve 
 an army of its sick and wounded, and so "the 
 commanders are lightened of some of their 
 heaviest cares." The importance of assuring 
 communications and supplies, and of everything 
 that facilitates freedom of movement, is admir- 
 ably expressed in a striking simile, which should
 
 MAINTENANCE OF COMMUNICATIONS. 1"71 
 
 be borne in mind as a commentary on many of 
 the subsequent chapters : 
 
 It is extremely difficult to persuade even intelligent 
 auditors that two armies are not like two fencers in 
 an arena, who may shift their ground to all points of the 
 compass ; but rather resemble two swordsmen on a narrow 
 plank which overhangs an abyss, where each has to think 
 not only of giving and parrying thrusts, but of keeping his 
 footing under penalty of destruction. The most un- 
 practised general feels this at once on taking a command 
 in a district where his troops are no longer supplied by 
 routine; or, if he does not, the loss of a single meal to 
 his army would sufficiently impress it on him. While 
 distant spectators imagine him to be intent only on 
 striking or parrying a blow, he probably directs a 
 hundred glances, a hundred anxious thoughts, to the 
 communications in his rear, for one that he bestows on 
 his adversary's front. Perhaps no situation is more piti- 
 able than that of a commander who has allowed an enemy 
 to sever his communications. He sees the end of his 
 resources at hand, but not the means to replenish them. 
 Is he to spread his troops to find subsistence for them- 
 selves ? How then shall they be assembled to meet the 
 enemy ? Shall he combine them for a desperate attack ? 
 How, if that attack fails, are they to be fed ? He will 
 then have no alternative but to make the best terms he 
 can, or see his army dissolve like snow. 
 
 Part II. deals with the considerations which 
 must precede the opening of every campaign, 
 and these are often far from being purely mili- 
 tary : with the arguments that must be weighed
 
 172 'THE OPERATIONS OF WAR: 
 
 before deciding to assume the offensive or to 
 stand on the defence : with the relative advan- 
 tages of railroads to the invading and defending 
 forces : with the selection of the governing object 
 of the war and the choice of the most favourable 
 theatre of operations. As usual, the writer's in- 
 timacy with history supplies copious illustrations. 
 Even in the case of Continental nations the alter- 
 natives in selecting the theatre are sure to be 
 sufficiently embarrassing. But with English sea- 
 power the difficulties are immeasurably increased, 
 and " much more," says Hamley, "is it incumbent 
 upon England to summon her most sagacious 
 chiefs to council before committing herself to 
 one of the numerous avenues which her maritime 
 ascendancy will offer for her choice." 
 
 In Part III., and in the subsequent sections, 
 principles and theories are reduced to practice, 
 and we come to the study of complicated questions 
 of strategy. The writer lays down the general 
 laws which should regulate operations in the 
 manifold relations of opposing armies. He not 
 only analyses the conduct of the commanders in 
 memorable campaigns or engagements, praising 
 or blaming, as the case may be ; but he indi- 
 cates and discusses the various alternatives that 
 were open to them. Nothing, for example, can 
 be more interesting than his strictures and 

 
 STRATEGICAL MOVEMENTS. 173 
 
 speculations on the Waterloo campaign ; on the 
 movements, actual or possible, of the French 
 marshals, MacMahon and Bazaine, after the first 
 German victories ; : and of the fighting in Amer- 
 ica, when North and South were being schooled 
 in warfare by bitter experiences. In a couple 
 of paragraphs, he concisely describes his plan 
 of arrangement, which is equally systematic and 
 comprehensive : 
 
 Strategical movements will be considered as having the 
 following objects : 1st, To menace or assail the enemy's com- 
 munications with his base ; 2d, To destroy the coherence and 
 concerted action of his army, by breaking the communications 
 which connect the parts ; 3d, To effect superior concentrations 
 on particular points. And as, whichever mode a general 
 may adopt, it is essential that he should always maintain 
 his own communications with his base, so the part of the 
 subject first discussed will be the circumstances by which 
 the security of those communications will be specially 
 affected. . . . 
 
 The circumstances which it is necessary to know in 
 order to understand the position of the opposing armies at 
 the outset of a campaign, are first briefly recounted ; 
 then the fronts, the bases, and the lines connecting them 
 are defined ; next the plans of the generals on each side 
 are discussed. Then the operations of the campaign are 
 related in the simplest and most methodical form, with- 
 out comment ; for not only is the course of the operations 
 rendered clearer by keeping the commentary separate, but 
 the student is thus at liberty to exercise his own faculties 
 
 1 Criticised in the fourth edition of ' The Operations of War.'
 
 174 'THE OPERATIONS OF WAR: 
 
 in accounting for the movements. Lastly, the situation at 
 each stage is commented on ; and as every campaign fur- 
 nishes examples of many points of war besides that which 
 it has been specially selected to illustrate, these are noted 
 and discussed. Deductions, which seem to be of par- 
 ticularly wide application, are presented in a definite form 
 for future use ; but nothing is offered in that shape, unless 
 it is so far supported by fact and argument as to have a 
 title to the reader's assent. 
 
 Take, as a single example of his vigorous and 
 pointed method, an illustration of concentration, 
 as virtually multiplying numbers and increasing 
 striking power : 
 
 So long as there is constant communication between the 
 supreme directing authority and his dispersed subordinate 
 leaders, so long may a coherent impulse be given to all the 
 portions of an army. But when the intervention of a 
 hostile force destroys this communication, the action of 
 every part is checked. Combined action is the aim of a 
 commander-in-chief, and combination is impossible when 
 concert is destroyed. Nor is the apprehension which 
 paralyses a commander who is thus separated from his 
 colleague the result merely of uncertainty. For had 
 Beaulieu from Voltri, or the Archduke from Teugen, 
 advanced boldly on the enemy, each would have en- 
 countered a victorious and superior army. It would seem, 
 therefore, that, under such circumstances, the only prudent 
 course is to effect a reunion with the utmost promptitude, 
 and that the advantages of the concentric position of the 
 interposing army are substantial, and are only augmented, 
 not altogether caused, by the moral effect of the situation.
 
 FEATURES OF FAMOUS BATTLE-GROUNDS. 175 
 
 The importance and interest of Part V., on 
 " The Influence of Obstacles," may be appreciated 
 by a glance at the first chapter, which is intro- 
 ductory to the rest. It summarises, from the 
 military point of view, the geographical con- 
 figuration of some of the most famous battle- 
 grounds in the world of Northern Italy, Spain, 
 and the Central States of the American Republic. 
 To a great extent that configuration invariably 
 confines operations to certain lines and certain 
 definite limits ; yet it is shown that this re- 
 striction offers rare opportunities, which may 
 be turned to signal account by the instincts of 
 genius and by prompt decision, as in the 
 memorable campaign of 1814, in Champagne, 
 when Napoleon, withdrawing before overwhelm- 
 ing forces, nevertheless carried off the honours 
 of the war. The natural obstacles, the moun- 
 tain - ranges, the rivers and the forests, with 
 the means and opportunities of using or over- 
 coming them, are discussed from every conceiv- 
 able point of view. But perhaps the most in- 
 teresting and thoughtful of the chapters is that 
 on the changing value and employment of for- 
 tresses, which is a summary of the history of 
 modern fortification. It is explained how the 
 strongholds, which from time immemorial had 
 been the fiercely contested pivots of international
 
 176 'THE OPERATIONS OF WAR: 
 
 warfare, began to lose their value, when invading 
 armies with facilitated transport could pass them 
 and press forward to decisive battles. After a 
 Marengo or a Jena, all the enveloped fortresses 
 would surrender to the victor without a blow, 
 and their garrisons would be sacrificed as pris- 
 oners of war. Yet we are reminded that the 
 scientific fortification of frontiers is still indis- 
 pensable as ever, and the principles are care- 
 fully expounded on which modern defences must 
 be devised : 
 
 The student will find it an excellent lesson in strategy, 
 and one taxing his acquirements, to take a map of any 
 country France, Spain, Turkey and devise for it an 
 efficient and economical system of fortresses, always re- 
 membering that these must be placed where they combine 
 the conditions of security from attack with the command 
 of those points in the theatre which are of chief strategical 
 importance. For to place the fortresses in the most 
 effective situations, he must know well the features of the 
 country, and be able to recognise and deal with the many 
 problems it may suggest, under various circumstances, as 
 a possible theatre of war problems such as it has been 
 the object of this work to state and discuss. 
 
 The latter part of the work is devoted to Tactics. 
 Tactics which go necessarily into technical detail 
 may be supposed to be less attractive matter than 
 the strategy, which is often the romance of sensa-
 
 IMPORT ANGE OF MOUNTED RIFLEMEN. 177 
 
 tional history. Yet the writer's literary skill is 
 nowhere shown to greater advantage than when 
 he indicates how old and well-approved methods 
 had to give way to the irresistible forces of inven- 
 tion. Infantry, cavalry, and artillery were all 
 constrained to recast their parts in an action, 
 when the range of field-guns was being steadily 
 increased, and the fire of the quick-loading rifles 
 became murderous. If a general persisted in 
 attacking in the old column formation, his steadi- 
 est troops took the matter into their own hands 
 by scattering and seeking for shelter, if indeed it 
 was not decided for them by virtual extermination. 
 Under pressure of stern facts, venerated traditions 
 gave way, and the solid columns were dissolved 
 into swarms of skirmishers. Battalions, when 
 broken up into scattered sharpshooters, offer no 
 fair mark to isolated batteries. Cavalry, although 
 horse must be opposed to horse, have fewer deci- 
 sive opportunities than formerly on a battle-field ; 
 but they are of more service than ever as scouts, 
 for requisitioning, and for drawing an impene- 
 trable veil around the movements of the army to 
 which they are attached. 
 
 Hamley strongly advocates the multiplication 
 of corps of mounted riflemen, capable of perform- 
 ing the duties both of cavalry and infantry, while 
 
 VOL. i. M
 
 178 'THE OPERATIONS OF WAR.' 
 
 combining the swift mobility of the one with the 
 formidable fire of the other : 
 
 The nature of the service would render it especially 
 popular with the active, the enterprising, and the am- 
 bitious ; and (supposing we were desirous for once of 
 devising something in war, instead of copying foreign 
 examples in the way that Chinese artists copy Italian 
 pictures) it would not be easy to lead the way more 
 effectively than by organising a force of mounted rifle- 
 men.
 
 179 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE COUNCIL OF MILITARY EDUCATION. 
 CHAMBERS IN THE ALBANY CLUB-LIFE AT THE ATHENAEUM 
 
 LETTERS FROM VON MOLTKE AND AMERICAN GENERALS ON 
 ' THE OPERATIONS OP WAR ' COMMISSION FOR THE DE- 
 LIMITATION OF ELECTORAL DISTRICTS REVIEWING KING- 
 
 LAKE'S ' CRIMEA ' APPOINTMENT AS COMMANDANT OF THE 
 STAFF COLLEGE. 
 
 THE Council of Military Education had been 
 established in 1857. It consisted of the Com- 
 mander-in- Chief as ex afficio President, a Vice- 
 President, and four members, of whom one was 
 a civilian. Of its numerous duties the principal 
 were, the appointment of Examiners for the 
 Military examinations, and Professors and In- 
 structors at the Military Colleges ; the conduct 
 of examinations of officers for the Staff College, 
 general Staff, and the advanced class at Wool- 
 wich. Reports of progress were to be laid be- 
 fore the Council. It was abolished in 1880, when 
 the present Military Education Department was 
 formed.
 
 180 THE COUNCIL OF MILITARY EDUCATION. 
 
 Hamley had established himself in comfort- 
 able chambers in the Albany, and for the first 
 time he was living in London society. He took 
 very kindly to the new life, and his rooms soon 
 were the favourite resort of a few familiar 
 and congenial friends. He had barely settled 
 into his new quarters before he was elected 
 to the Athenaeum by the committee. He was 
 highly gratified by the compliment, for which, 
 he says modestly, he was greatly indebted to 
 the good offices of his friend the Chaplain- 
 General. He could hardly have foreseen at 
 the time how much the Club was to be to 
 him. Self-condemned to celibacy, he made it 
 his home, and thenceforward it influenced and 
 modified his habits. It has at least the excep- 
 tional advantage of bringing together distin- 
 guished men of every profession, or of no profes- 
 sion, who meet upon absolutely neutral ground, 
 irrespective of wide differences of opinion. The 
 mingling of castes, callings, and creeds exactly 
 suited the new member. He might be ultra- 
 Conservative in certain of his convictions, but 
 he was catholic in tastes and sympathies. He 
 was soon on pleasant and easy terms with ac- 
 quaintances in all circles. His soldierly frank- 
 ness recommended him to everybody with whom 
 he had anything in common. Radical Ministers
 
 AT THE ATHENE UM CLUB. 181 
 
 and members of Parliament smiled at his good- 
 humoured abuse of themselves and their measures. 
 In the billiard -room or smoking-room (though 
 he did not smoke, he was constantly in the 
 smoking-room) he would indulge in humorous 
 licence of speech with the solemn philosophers 
 whose writings were held in reverence all over 
 the civilised world, but when he happened to 
 take them seriously they listened to him respect- 
 fully. The truth was, he was fond of treat- 
 ing playfully the men whose genius and in- 
 tellectual acquirements he most admired, and 
 the subjects in which he was most deeply in- 
 terested. His company at dinner was eagerly 
 sought after. Hayward, and his old ally and 
 strategical antagonist Kinglake, Chenery the 
 accomplished editor of the ' Times/ the late Sir 
 William Gregory, and the gifted Sir Edward 
 Bunbury, were among his familiars. Of these, 
 with perhaps the exception of Kinglake, there 
 was no man he appreciated more highly than 
 Bunbury. He was a frequent guest at Barton, 
 the family seat of the Bunburys, famous for 
 its Reynoldses and the collection of the Dutch 
 masters, and it was always a rare intellectual 
 treat to hear Hamley arid Bunbury discussing 
 the fine arts. He used his friend, besides, as a 
 classical dictionary of reference ; and Bunbury 's
 
 182 THE COUNCIL OF MILITARY EDUCATION. 
 
 unrivalled memory was an unfailing resource in 
 verifying a quotation from Homer or Horace. 
 After dinner he loved to take a lounge round 
 the tables. Now he would be talking dogma 
 or, possibly, the contemporary drama with a 
 liberal - minded divine ; now he would be dis- 
 cussing politics or sport with a member of the 
 Cabinet ; and again he would get so seriously 
 interested with anybody over anything, that 
 they would sit absorbed in conversation till the 
 lights were turned down and the silence in the 
 deserted dining-hall was otherwise unbroken. 
 
 In that and the following year he had more 
 than one very gratifying proof of the widespread 
 popularity and success of his ' Operations of War.' 
 There are sundry interesting and flattering let- 
 ters from American generals ; and, in especial, 
 his somewhat severe strictures on Sherman's 
 campaigning in Georgia led to a correspondence, 
 and afterwards to what would have ripened into 
 friendship had the soldiers lived within reach 
 of each other. Hamley writes : 
 
 I have received a letter through the Secretary of the 
 American Legation from Sherman, in which he thinks I 
 might be induced to modify my chapter on his operations, 
 for reasons which he gives. That was a very handsome 
 way of meeting objections, for most men who have at- 
 tained to such eminence are content to wrap themselves
 
 LETTER FROM VON MOLTKE. 183 
 
 in their dignity and make no reply not even "D n 
 your eyes ! " to their critics. 
 
 The letters may perhaps be most appropriately 
 introduced in this place, with no strict regard 
 to chronology. 
 
 A communication from Von Moltke may claim 
 precedence. It was forwarded through Colonel 
 Walker afterwards General Sir Beauchamp 
 Walker, since dead who had been our military 
 attache at Berlin during the Franco - German 
 war, and had accompanied the staff of the 
 Crown Prince during the march on Paris : 
 
 Saturday. 
 
 MY DEAK HAMLEY, I enclose you a letter from General 
 Moltke. At the Foreign Office you will find a roll of 
 maps, of which he begs your acceptance, so please send 
 for them before they are lost in the all-devouring maw 
 of that most ill-regulated office. I am particularly de- 
 sired to tell you that they are as yet quite in the rough. 
 Those published with the official account of the campaign 
 will be lithographed, and will also contain the positions 
 of the troops. Yours truly, BEAUCHAMP WALKEK. 
 
 The enclosure might have been written by an 
 Englishman, and indeed the writer had married 
 an Englishwoman : 
 
 BERLIN, March 15, 1867. 
 
 MY DEAR SIK, I have received from Col. Walker 
 a copy of your work on 'The Operations of War,' for
 
 184 THE COUNCIL OF MILITARY EDUCATION. 
 
 which I beg you to accept my very best thanks, and at 
 the same time my sincere congratulations as author of 
 so valuable and interesting a work. 
 
 It may not be uninteresting to you to have accurate 
 maps of our late battle-fields : I have therefore sent a 
 copy of all we have as yet published to Col. Walker, 
 with a request to forward them to you through the 
 British Embassy. I beg you to accept of them as a 
 token of the pleasure your work has given me, and of 
 respect for its author. I remain, my dear sir, your 
 obedient servant, V. MOLTKE. 
 
 There is an undated letter from Colonel Wal- 
 ker, apparently written previously, but which 
 was suggested by the correspondence on the 
 ' Operations ' : 
 
 MY DEAR HAMLEY, You are quite right in what you 
 remark about the reserves at Koniggratz. The only use 
 to which they were put was to attempt to retake Chlum 
 and Eosberitz with them. 
 
 If you like to send me the proofs of your additional 
 chapter, I will do what I can to correct them; and if 
 you want any information which I can supply, just note 
 the points and you shall have it. General v. Moltke is 
 very much pleased with your attention in sending him 
 the work, and begs that I will give you his best thanks. 
 You have done well to establish a good relation with this 
 thinking man. He told me last night that the official 
 account of the campaign would soon be ready. 
 
 Could you not get leave to see my despatch No. 96, of 
 the 2d Nov. 1866 ? I really believe (with some errors) 
 it to be as clear and nearly as correct an account as has
 
 LETTERS FROM GENERALS LEE AND SHERMAN. 185 
 
 yet been written of the events of 2d-3d July 1866. 
 Don't scruple to write if you want information. Believe 
 me, my dear Hamley, very truly yours, 
 
 BEAUCHAMP WALKER. 
 
 Would you like Benedict's ordre de "bataille for the 3d 
 July ? I sent a translation of it last week to Cooke. 
 
 On 14th June 1866 General Lee wrote to Mr 
 John Sturgis requesting that a copy of the work 
 might be forwarded to him. 
 
 His subsequent letter to Hamley is remarkable, 
 as coming from that illustrious and dashing com- 
 mander, who had played his conspicuous part in 
 the war from the most purely patriotic motives. 
 After some preliminary civilities he goes on : 
 
 The subject of your book is one full of difficulties. 
 Whatever can lessen or remove them will be of service 
 to those who resort to the arbitrament of arms. Man- 
 kind would greatly gain if nations would refer to the 
 judgment of reason, rather than the decision of the sword, 
 the settlement of disputes. With great respect, your 
 obedient servant, R E. LEE. 
 
 The first communication from General Sherman 
 was indirect. It was addressed to Mr Benjamin 
 Moran, the United States Minister in London : 
 
 HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSOURI, 
 
 SAINT Louis, Mo., March 16, 1867. 
 B. MORAN, Esq. 
 
 DEAR SIR, I take the liberty of mailing to you five 
 copies of a report of mine recently printed by order of
 
 186 THE COUNCIL OF MILITARY EDUCATION. 
 
 Congress, which will be found in the series of the Eeports 
 of the Committee on the Conduct of the War, but a few 
 copies were bound separate, of which I send you five: 
 one for yourself ; one for George Hooper, Esq., who sent 
 me his volume through you ; one for Col. Hamley, whose 
 volume I received from you ; one for the U.S. Club, and 
 a spare copy. This is not a real report, but is a com- 
 pilation of letters selected out of my letter-books, and 
 designed to show how and when ideas and plans origin- 
 ated. The time is not yet ripe for History, but in time 
 enough data will be collected convenient for the hands of 
 our Napier when he turns up. 
 
 A good many of the English commentaries and criti- 
 cisms err, because it is impossible for them to see why 
 well-established principles of war had to be modified to 
 suit the peculiar geography and forest nature of our 
 country. Thus, I think, if Colonel Hamley were to 
 visit the ground about Dalton and Eesaca, he would 
 modify his chapter treating of my dispositions there. 
 Though I divided my force (generally, but by no means 
 always, a violation of a rule of war), Johnston could 
 not have fallen on M'Pherson without doing just what 
 I wanted viz., let go forts and parapets, and a natural 
 position that might have cost me 20,000 men to have 
 dislodged by a direct attack. Johnston could not make 
 a detachment large enough to endanger M'Pherson, who, 
 on the defensive, would have had the woods and range 
 of hills at Snake Creek in his favour, and I had good 
 roads by the rear to reinforce M'Pherson in one march. 
 
 I like to see these criticisms, however, as they show 
 that the rest of the world is interested in our youthful 
 imitations of their grand games of war. I am, with great 
 respect, your friend, W. T. SHERMAN, 
 
 Lt.-Genl. UJS.A.
 
 HAMLEY AND GENERAL SHERMAN. 187 
 
 Hamley answered and acknowledged it on 
 12th April 1867:- 
 
 GENEKAL, Permit me to thank you for your courtesy 
 in sending me your report, which receives great additional 
 value as coming from yourself and bearing your auto- 
 graph. Permit me also to express my satisfaction, in 
 the interests of military science, at finding that a com- 
 mander so eminent is willing to discuss with critics his 
 own successful operations. 
 
 The chapter in my book on the campaign in Georgia 
 was written at a time when it was very difficult to obtain 
 in this country accurate information of its details, and I 
 became aware, soon afterwards, that some of these were 
 erroneous. 
 
 Nevertheless, the errors were not of a character to 
 prevent it from remaining an example (all the better for 
 being recent and unhackneyed) of what I wanted to illus- 
 trate namely, the case of dislodging an army by operat- 
 ing with a detachment against its rear. 
 
 Nor were these errors of detail, so far as I knew them, 
 such as to affect the general estimate of the operations. 
 
 After having the pleasure of seeing your report, and 
 also your letter to Mr Moran relative to it, I find that 
 you had made dispositions on the 10th May to direct an 
 attack through Snake Creek Gap with an overwhelming 
 force. This is the course which, in my comments, I 
 ventured to indicate as the right one. I shall in a future 
 edition record this, and with great satisfaction, as showing 
 that my opinion was supported by the practice of so great 
 an authority. 
 
 With regard to the remarks which you have done me 
 the honour to convey through Mr Moran, 1st, that it was 
 not a fault to divide your force ; 2d, that Johnston could
 
 188 THE COUNCIL OF MILITARY . EDUCATION. 
 
 not have fallen on M'Pherson without letting go his hold 
 of his position ; 3d, that a front attack on Johnston was 
 inexpedient, I venture to observe that, freely admitting 
 all these points, I do not see how they invalidate the 
 general conclusions. 
 
 It was said of Caesar that " it was difficult to argue with 
 the master of thirty legions." So I should find it hard 
 to dispute the opinions or object to the practice of a 
 general who has commanded a great army with such 
 brilliant results. 
 
 I beg again to thank you for the great favour you have 
 done me in sending your letters on the campaign, which I 
 shall study with great attention, and I am sure with great 
 profit. I have the honour to be, General, your most obe- 
 dient and obliged, E. B. HAMLEY, Colonel. 
 
 General Sherman replied in due course : 
 
 HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OP THE MISSOURI, 
 
 SAINT Louis, Mo., May 10, 1867. 
 Colonel E. B. HAMLET, 
 
 British Army, London. 
 
 DEAR SIR, Mr Moran of the U.S. Embassy at your 
 Court did me the favour to transmit your most acceptable 
 letter of April 12, and I assure you that it gave me 
 pleasure, as I did not expect the matter would engage 
 more than a passing thought to you. In common with 
 some of our best officers I had read your most valuable 
 work, to which my attention was called last summer by 
 some of the officers at the mess in Quebec, and Mr Moran 
 soon after transmitted me a copy. I beg you will under- 
 stand me as really complimented by treating our American 
 campaigns as worthy of being grouped with those of your 
 European world; and if ever I expressed a qualified 
 opinion, it was because you had at that early date been
 
 HAMLEY AND GENERAL SHERMAN. 189 
 
 compelled to use statements of facts derived from our 
 current newspapers, instead of waiting for the slower but 
 more exact official papers. 
 
 I have no doubt you in England appreciate the situa- 
 tion of our military officers. Our education at West 
 Point resembles that at the Ecole Polytechnique of 
 France, and after graduation we serve as lieutenants in 
 some small garrison, taking the chances of very slow 
 promotion by seniority. It is seldom we see assembled 
 under arms a full battalion ; and before our war of rebel- 
 lion I had never commanded, save on parade, more than 
 four small companies. After thirteen years of continuous 
 service in an artillery company I had reached the rank of 
 captain of the staff, the pay of which was so inadequate 
 to the support of a small family that I was in a measure 
 forced to resign and attempt their support by other means. 
 So that when war was upon us and had to be met, most 
 of us had only theoretical knowledge of " grande guerre." 
 
 I don't think any of us claim to be great generals, in the 
 strict sense of that term, or to have initiated anything new, 
 but merely to have met an emergency forced on us, and to 
 have ceased war the very moment it could be done. 
 
 I beg you will consider me as one who fully accords to 
 you the right to criticise strictly anything that will illus- 
 trate the principles of our art, which we, as military men, 
 must claim to be based on principles as everlasting as 
 Time. Your work shall always have a place in my 
 library, along with those of Napier, Jomini, and others 
 of all nations who have afforded us, a new people, with 
 models for imitation. With great respect, 
 
 W. T. SHERMAN, 
 Lt.-Cfenl. U.S. Army. 
 
 In the summer of 1869 is the acknowledgment
 
 190 THE COUNCIL OF MILITARY EDUCATION. 
 
 of the receipt of the second edition of the book, 
 with its revisions and corrections : 
 
 HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES, 
 
 WASHINGTON, D.C., July 29, 1869. 
 Colonel E. B. HAMLEY, 
 
 British Army, London. 
 
 DEAR SIR, I had the honour to receive yesterday your 
 valued favour of June 30, with a copy of the second 
 edition of your volume on ' The Operations of War,' &c. 
 I beg to assure you of my sincere thanks for this act of 
 courtesy, and am much pleased at the manner in which 
 you have received my former letter. The change you 
 have made in the text is more than satisfactory to me, 
 and I shall be pleased to bring to the notice of the officers 
 of our army a book that, in my judgment, is worthy its 
 title and of our profession, which I am pleased to see you 
 place among the highest. I agree with you perfectly 
 that the modern improvements in the railroad system, 
 in the telegraph, &c., in no manner qualify the great 
 principles of war, but make their application the more 
 important, and impose on all military officers the positive 
 duty of studying these principles the closer, because by 
 their means war will be more rapid in its inception and 
 execution, leaving no time to study up after the event. 
 
 It occurs to me, and I mention it in your interest, that 
 so valuable a book ought to be put in a smaller compass 
 as to size of volume, without omitting a paragraph, or the 
 least part of it ; also, the leaves should be cut before 
 binding; also, the maps should be bound in leaves the 
 same as the text, even if you have to put two or three 
 leaves where you now have one map. 
 
 It is the case with our officers, and I believe with yours 
 on foreign stations, that the weight of baggage is limited, 
 so that many line officers would be unable to carry with 
 them so large a book.
 
 TRIBUTE FROM GENERAL BARRY. 191 
 
 Again tendering you my thanks, and offering to re- 
 ciprocate in case you suggest anything subject to my 
 control, I am, &c., W. T. SHERMAN, 
 
 General U.S. Army. 
 
 Finally, in 1870 there came a gratifying tri- 
 bute from General Barry, Commandant of the 
 Headquarters, Artillery School, U.S.A. : 
 
 FORT MONROE, VA., May 27, 1870. 
 
 Colonel E. B. HAMLEY, Royal Artillery, 
 London, England. 
 
 COLONEL, Without the pleasure of a personal acquaint- 
 ance with you, but simply as an act of professional comity, 
 I take the liberty of addressing this note to you to say 
 that, after mature consideration and previous experience 
 with the works of Jomini, Dufour, and Mahan, it has been 
 determined to adopt the second edition of your work on 
 the Art of War as a text-book in the department of Mil. 
 Hist., Art of War, &c., &c., as taught at this institution. 
 
 Discussing, as your work does, the salient military 
 events of modern times, and from a more modern stand- 
 point, discarding most of the useless trammels of the 
 ancien regime, it possesses unusual elements of excel- 
 lence, and commends itself as being altogether better 
 suited to our purposes here than any other work. 
 
 I have caused to be ordered from your London pub- 
 lisher about thirty copies for the use of the young offi- 
 cers who compose the class at the Artillery School for this 
 year; and hereafter I presume we will require about 
 twenty copies annually. With high respect, I remain, 
 Colonel, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 WILLIAM F. BARRY, 
 
 Colonel 2d Rerjt. Artillery, 
 
 Bvt. Maj. Gen. U.S.A. Comdy.
 
 192 THE COUNCIL OF MILITARY EDUCATION. 
 
 What General Barry calls a " formal note " was 
 accompanied by another, thanking the author of 
 the ' Operations ' for a friendly and respectful 
 notice. He expresses " the gratification which it 
 is natural for a soldier to feel on finding his views 
 and labours appreciated by a professional brother 
 albeit a stranger, and of another country. 
 
 Then Haraley writes to Blackwood in mid- 
 summer : 
 
 Prince Frederick Charles, the Commander of the Second 
 Army, has been here incog. I dined with him one day 
 at the Junior, where he was Hozier's guest very affable, 
 flattering, and communicative, so far as imperfect English 
 would allow. 
 
 A more ambiguous compliment, which gave him 
 considerable annoyance, was paid by his colleagues 
 of the Education Council. The authorities of 
 the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich had 
 petitioned the Council for the institution of a Pro- 
 fessorship of Military History, and suggested that 
 Hamley's 'Operations' should be the principal text- 
 book. The Council, apparently after some hesita- 
 tion, assented to the professorship, but declined to 
 approve the adoption of the ' Operations.' Both 
 their objections seem unreasonable enough, and, 
 naturally, Hamley was satisfied with neither. The 
 first was, that it would be improper or indiscreet 
 to recommend the work of a colleague ; the second,
 
 A PLEASANT OCCUPATION. 193 
 
 that it was beyond the capacity of the cadets. 
 Hamley sent in a protest against the decision, 
 which, privately, he professed himself unable to 
 understand, adding, however, that he suspected no 
 unfriendly motives. But though a firm believer in 
 the power of the press, and although he had re- 
 course to it on future occasions as a last resource 
 against what he considered injustice which 
 could not be otherwise redressed, now he resolved 
 to move no further in the matter. The Directors 
 of the Woolwich Academy were still insisting, so 
 his case would have been a very strong one. But 
 he said that letters in the papers would be un- 
 pleasant to himself; they would probably annoy 
 the Commander-in-Chief, to whom he was grateful 
 for his appointment ; and above all, it " would be 
 detrimental to the public service of the depart- 
 ment, which requires free and constant com- 
 munication among us." 
 
 In a letter written from Bridport in October, 
 we find him enjoying an autumn holiday at the 
 public expense. He had been nominated one 
 of the Commissioners for the delimitation of 
 electoral districts under the provisions of the 
 recent B-eform Bill, and he would often talk after- 
 wards of that pleasant outing in the western 
 shires, when, with sketch-book and fishing-rod as 
 parts of his luggage, he made acquaintance with 
 
 VOL. I. N
 
 194 THE COUNCIL OF MILITARY EDUCATION. 
 
 
 
 much enchanting English scenery, and had hospi- 
 table welcome in many a picturesquely situated 
 mansion : 
 
 BRIDPOHT, 3d October. 
 
 MY DEAR BLACKWOOD, It's an ill wind, &c. ; and 
 certainly I did not expect, when we were canvassing and 
 abusing the New Eeform Bill in Burlington Gardens, that I 
 should personally derive any benefit from it. Benefit it is, 
 however, so far, that I am getting air, exercise, occupation, 
 and a pleasant holiday, and am paid for it to boot. My 
 colleague, Ollivant, is a crony of your friend Skene. . . . 
 
 We spend about two days in each town, exhaust the 
 information about the borough, and then move on. When- 
 ever we get a chance we walk from place to place, and 
 have footed it through some very pretty scenery. There is 
 remarkable apathy in all the places we have visited (Wilts 
 and Dorset) on the part of the new householders to be 
 admitted to their rights. 
 
 Although frequent applications are made for the exten- 
 sion of boroughs, they never come from those who would 
 thus become part of the constituency, but are always made 
 by other people from local party reasons. 
 
 The year 1868 was a somewhat idle one so far 
 as literature was concerned : with a single excep- 
 tion, the only contribution to ' Blackwood ' was a 
 review of George Eliot's ' Spanish Gypsy.' He 
 says in his letters, after touching upon minor 
 defects : 
 
 All the writer's power of thought and style is put forth 
 in the poem. A great deal of the verse is excellent, 
 though, judging from the songs, I should say that blank
 
 " DREAMS IN THE INVALIDES." 195 
 
 verse was not her strong point the versification is not 
 always good, but the songs are most musical. 
 
 The story I think open to some objections, though I 
 shall not allude to them in the review. Several charac- 
 ters are elaborately introduced, but have no influence on 
 the plot. Further, Isidor, who seems to promise to be a 
 powerful agent, is not so, and the cast of thought and 
 dialogue is essentially modern. 
 
 The other contribution was what he calls an 
 " unlucky " poem of his own, which seems to have 
 received sharp criticism from Blackwood. The 
 poet may have been annoyed, but he took the 
 criticisms in good part, and " Dreams in the 
 Invalides " appeared in due course. 
 
 There is a good deal of interesting correspond- 
 ence on the second instalment of Kinglake's 
 ' Crimea.' Hamley expresses warm admiration of 
 the style, but he took exception to some import- 
 ant statements. Especially, he said that " the 
 Flank March " conveyed a false impression, owing 
 to the desire to exalt Lord Raglan. He refers to 
 his own letters on the campaign, which the his- 
 torian seemed to contradict, although without 
 actually naming them ; and he adds, " I shall cer- 
 tainly not correct the testimony of my own senses 
 by the light of his theories." 
 
 Again, read my account of the charge of the Heavies, 
 which I saw, and you will find he omits the whole episode 
 of the Turkish guns firing on part of the Eussian cavalry
 
 196 THE COUNCIL OF MILITARY EDUCATION. 
 
 force. Yet it was surely as important a matter for a 
 chronicler as the question whether a cut or a thrust was 
 given by a particular swordsman. My idea of his method 
 of work is that, with the assistance of strong prejudices 
 and queer crotchets, he forms an arbitrary enough concep- 
 tion of any particular event, and accepts what coincides 
 with his own view, rejecting all other testimony. 
 
 These objections were strongly expressed, with 
 reference to the proposal that he should review 
 the volumes in ' Maga.' The upshot was that, 
 after intimation of his intention, and obtaining 
 Blackwood's assent, he responded to the over- 
 tures of Henry Reeve, and undertook the work 
 for the ' Edinburgh.' Subsequent articles on 
 the History, with the exception of that on 
 vol. vi., appeared in the same periodical. Very 
 noteworthy articles they are, and Mr Reeve ap- 
 preciated them highly as examples of incisive 
 criticism, with exceptional knowledge of the facts. 
 For Hamley was nothing if not thoroughly hon- 
 est, and neither friendship nor self-interest would 
 deflect him by a hair's-breadth from the straight 
 path of conscientious duty. With regard to the 
 first article, he felt that Blackwood might natur- 
 ally be annoyed by its frankness not only as 
 clashing with his own opinions, but as likely to 
 check the sale of the book. 
 
 I felt the strongest desire to find that I had nothing 
 but praise for it. ... But sorry as I was, on reading the
 
 APPOINTED COMMANDANT OF STAFF COLLEGE. 197 
 
 book, to find so many things I dissented from which, had 
 I seen them earlier, might probably have deterred me from 
 writing the review, yet I could not but in conscience 
 express my disagreement with many of the military 
 views. 
 
 The following autumn (1869) brought an un- 
 pleasant change in his prospects. The Report of 
 an Education Commission had recommended the 
 supersession of the Council by the appointment of 
 a Director-General. No doubt Hamley's feelings 
 were strongly against a change which must oust 
 him from a desirable post ; but he likewise ob- 
 jected on public grounds, believing that it would 
 open a door for jobbery, by transferring all the 
 patronage of appointments to the War Office. 
 That reason made him philosophically resign 
 himself to the inevitable, as the step was sure 
 to find favour with the military authorities. 
 Early in the spring of 1870 the Council ceased 
 to exist ; but just as that door was closed, 
 another and a more inviting one fortunately 
 opened. He was ruefully contemplating the 
 prospect of rejoining his brigade in a worse posi- 
 tion than when he left it, when he learned that 
 he had been recommended to the Duke of Cam- 
 bridge, by the new Director- General and by the 
 Secretary at War, as Commandant of the Staff 
 College. Nothing could, of course, have coin-
 
 198 THE COUNCIL OF MILITARY EDUCATION. 
 
 cided more pleasantly with his inclinations, but 
 for some little time he was kept in suspense. The 
 Commander-in-Chief, who had always been his 
 very good friend, was understood to be hesitating 
 lest the appointment of an artilleryman should 
 give umbrage to the linesmen, though it seems 
 only natural that such a post should be bestowed 
 on a member of one of the scientific corps. Inde- 
 pendently of his scientific recommendations for it, 
 the arguments in Hamley's favour were strong. 
 His seat at the Council had familiarised him with 
 the systems of military education in their details, 
 and as he had already filled a chair at the College, 
 he could enter immediately on the duties with the 
 knowledge which the most able outsider must 
 take months to acquire. The press spoke out 
 unhesitatingly in his favour, and he was always 
 grateful to Mr Cardwell, who strenuously urged 
 his claims. 
 
 Notwithstanding professional anxieties, that 
 year he sent two notable contributions to the 
 Magazine. The one was " Our Poor Relations," 
 to which reference has already been made. With 
 his affection for the brute creation, he put his 
 whole heart into it, and a brighter jeu d' esprit 
 has seldom been thrown off. One might say 
 that every sentence sparkles : if the essence of 
 wit is humorous surprise, the little book is witty
 
 HAMLETS REVIEW OF 'LOTHAIR.' 199 
 
 in the extreme ; and whether the passages are 
 humorous or pathetic, we are struck by the 
 quaint originality of the fancies. The article 
 having had an extraordinary success, it was 
 republished in book form, with grotesque illus- 
 trations by Ernest Griset. One or two were 
 by Hamley himself, although he modestly ex- 
 pressed a fear of provoking invidious comparisons. 
 The other contribution was the scathing review 
 of ' Lothair,' which, as it clashed with a very 
 general chorus of praise, excited all the greater 
 sensation, the rather that the great chief of the 
 Conservatives was scarified in the staunch old 
 Tory Magazine. Possibly dispassionate judges 
 will be of opinion that this was a case of the two 
 sides of the shield. The reviewers, who wrote 
 currente calamo in the morning and weekly 
 papers, were on the look-out for the beauties, 
 of which there were very many, and were eager 
 or willing to praise the Conservatives from 
 loyalty, the Liberals from a sentiment of chiv- 
 alry. In the monthlies and the quarterlies, 
 which more deliberately weighed the book, praise 
 and censure were more impartially distributed. 
 Froude admired it heartily. 1 The late Lord 
 
 1 See " Eeminiscences of James Anthony Froude," by John 
 Skelton, C.B., LL.D., in ' Blackwood's Magazine' for December 
 1894 and January 1895.
 
 200 THE COUNCIL OF MILITARY EDUCATION. 
 
 Hough ton's review in the ' Edinburgh ' was a 
 model of judicial severity tempered with genuine 
 admiration. But Hamley evidently had been 
 chafed by the affectations of the style and the 
 Arabian Nights' extravagances, which he deemed 
 to be strangely and grotesquely misplaced in a 
 social novel of the period. He gave free rein to 
 his satirical fancy, and having dipped his pen 
 in vinegar or gall, was greatly pleased with 
 the results of his efforts. He had written before- 
 hand : 
 
 ' Lothair ' seems to me such horrid trash that it cannot 
 be taken seriously, and the only way to treat it is by jeers. 
 I have just met Lord Lytton at the Athenaeum. He has 
 not read it, but he says that people who have spoken 
 to him of it, friends of Disraeli, all talk of it as I did 
 viz., the gaudiest trumpery that was ever printed. 
 
 Delane at least, who was no bad judge, differed 
 from these gentlemen ; and Disraeli though they 
 were then bitterly opposed in politics seized the 
 opportunity to write him a letter of warm thanks, 
 not only for the favourable notice in the ' Times,' 
 but for the opinions conveyed in a private note. 
 But whether one agreed with Hamley or not, 
 it was impossible to help laughing over the ar- 
 ticle, or admiring the easy play of wit, and the 
 bitter mockery which reminds one of Voltaire.
 
 RECEPTION OF REVIEW OF 'LOTHAIR' 201 
 
 It is certain that the novelist smarted under 
 the stings, and Hamley writes Blackwood on the 
 6th July: 
 
 As to the 'Lothair' paper, I never dine anywhere 
 without hearing it talked of, and it is mostly ascribed to 
 Lever.
 
 202 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 COMMANDANT OF STAFF COLLEGE. 
 
 THE SYSTEM CHANGES INTRODUCED BY HAMLEY HIS INTEREST 
 
 IN THE STUDENTS HIS RECREATIONS FRIENDSHIP WITH 
 
 THE LATE DUKE OP WELLINGTON A BARGAIN IN HORSE- 
 FLESH. 
 
 IN 1870, with a lightened heart, he went back to 
 the Staff College as Commandant instead of Pro- 
 fessor. There he passed seven of the happiest 
 and not the least useful years of his life. When 
 the obstacles which had opposed the appointment 
 had been smoothed away, he had no cause for 
 complaint. The authorities gave their confidence 
 generously, and he had practically a free hand. 
 He entered upon the duties of his command under 
 exceptionally favourable circumstances. It had 
 been understood that there was ample room for 
 reform in the system, and that radical changes 
 were highly desirable. His commission was 
 signed in July, only three months after the 
 issue of revised Regulations for the College,
 
 IMPROVEMENTS EFFECTED AT STAFF COLLEGE. 203 
 
 which had been framed to give effect to the 
 recommendations of the Royal Commission of 
 1868-69, on the education of officers. The Com- 
 mission was at first presided over by Lord de 
 Grey, and afterwards, from February 1869, by 
 Lord Dufferin. One of the changes introduced 
 was an increase in the number of students from 
 thirty to forty. The experiences of the past 
 had shown the necessity for an extension of the 
 practical exercises of the officers on the ground, 
 and it was at the instance of the Koyal Com- 
 mission that the Commandant was charged with 
 himself directing these exercises. As to the 
 manner in which he availed himself of his oppor- 
 tunity, I am enabled to quote an authority who 
 can speak with special knowledge of the facts : 
 
 This duty [that of superintending the field exercises] 
 he accepted as a most important one, and under his guid- 
 ance and personal direction the fullest development was 
 given to this part of the instructions. Various improve- 
 ments were introduced by him into the course of small 
 reconnaissances made in the vicinity of the Staff College ; 
 and the system of extended reconnaissances, which had 
 been somewhat curtailed from a reduction of the sum 
 voted for their execution, was re-established. In one and 
 all of these most valuable experiences for soldiers being 
 trained to be practical staff officers in the field, Colonel 
 Hamley (as he then was) brought to bear his thorough 
 and practical grasp of the subject. The advantages that
 
 204 COMMANDANT OF STAFF COLLEGE. 
 
 resulted, not only to the officers themselves but also to 
 the public service, can hardly be over-estimated, and they 
 are still in operation. In 1871 we find him employed at 
 the head of his officers, sketching ground, reconnoitring, 
 and taking notes of the operations in connection with 
 the campaigning during the autumn manoauvres of that 
 year. But it was not alone the training of the officers 
 in these more practical portions of their duties as staff 
 officers that underwent a lengthened development during 
 Hamley's term of office. As a past professor at the 
 College (of Military History) he took a special interest 
 in, as he had a special knowledge of, this branch of 
 study, which he largely extended. He gave, indeed, 
 to all the work a personal impress, which was of the 
 greatest benefit to all concerned to professors as well 
 as students; and good work or honest endurance was 
 recognised by him, as surely as careless or indifferent 
 work. A man of reserved character and few words, he 
 but seldom gave expression to commendation, but where 
 blame was in his opinion attributable for careless or bad 
 work, he did not shrink from awarding it. If in passing 
 such strictures upon officers his manner of address was 
 sometimes blunt and even severe, this was attributable to 
 manner alone, which seemed to be aggravated by the 
 necessity for the performance of an unpleasant duty 
 which he would far rather have avoided. Behind it was 
 a nature that never failed to be appreciated and admired 
 by those who knew Hamley sufficiently well to get behind 
 his reserve. The short period of residence at the Staff 
 College two years did not render this practicable for 
 many at the time ; but few can have failed to recognise 
 the ability and practical nature and force of character of 
 the Commandant under whom they were privileged to 
 receive their training.
 
 IMPROVEMENTS EFFECTED AT STAFF COLLEGE. 205 
 
 The Commandant's hands were strengthened 
 by the fact that the students, for the most part, 
 were zealous officers eager to learn, and they 
 readily fell into the new ways, none the less that 
 the revolution enlivened the monotony of their 
 residence. I am indebted to General Montague, 
 who was one of the number, and who was subse- 
 quently to distinguish himself in South African 
 warfare, for another account of the former system, 
 with the alterations then introduced : 
 
 Prior to 1870 candidates passed through the College by 
 means of marks given, first by the professors for the 
 essays set by themselves ; second, by the College for work 
 done in class. When a minimum of 1800 was gained, 
 the pass was secured. This led to two evils. First, there 
 was no incentive to further work when the 1800 marks 
 were gained, except among the more ambitious, when a 
 fierce competition ensued for first place among the chosen 
 men. Second, many of the marks being dependent on 
 the professors, men took to writing essays which they 
 hoped would fall in with their views, rather than the 
 more original work which was asked for. Eiding was 
 taught in a perfunctory manner, and those officers who 
 did not wish to keep horses could hire for the day when 
 the work was essential. This was essentially a false sys- 
 tem for men educating for the Staff, a mounted service. 
 
 Colonel Hamley at once instituted many changes. 
 Among others 
 
 1. System of marks being published was abolished, men 
 merely being noted as passing out in order of seniority 
 of regiments.
 
 206 COMMANDANT OF STAFF COLLEGE. 
 
 2. Students could now pass " with honours," or simply 
 pass. 
 
 3. The course consisted of four terms, each winding up 
 with an examination on the whole of the subjects which 
 had been taught during the previous term. A man failing 
 to qualify at any of these examinations was dismissed. 
 
 4. The commandant took personal charge of the senior 
 division in certain subjects out of doors. 
 
 5. Each student was obliged to keep a charger, to be 
 passed by the commandant. 
 
 6. Students attended riding-school daily, to be passed 
 by a cavalry officer, instead of twice a-week, during the 
 whole two years. 
 
 7. Colonel Hamley met professors and students to fix the 
 minimum necessary to secure the " pass " and " honours." 
 This was much appreciated by all concerned. 
 
 8. Hunting was encouraged, leave from most classes 
 being easily obtained for the purpose. The change in the 
 riding-school method was excellent, officers exerting them- 
 selves to learn and get out of the school. After six months 
 of the new system, four officers were dismissed as incom- 
 petent for Staff duties one for his inability to ride, an 
 event I believe never to have happened before. 
 
 Hamley's manner was unquestionably brusque, 
 and sometimes he might have made a disagree- 
 able communication more pleasantly than he did. 
 But he expected to find in others the same in- 
 flexible sense of duty which actuated all his own 
 conduct, and, as has been very justly remarked 
 in the memorandum I have quoted, from sheer 
 kind - heartedness he was in haste to despatch
 
 PERSONAL INTEREST IN STUDENTS. 207 
 
 any unwelcome piece of business. There can be 
 no question that, as Commandant, he was highly 
 popular with all zealous students. As has been 
 said, they knew that he spared no pains : they 
 found him an entertaining and most instructive 
 companion on flying expeditions ; and they ap- 
 preciated the inestimable value of his practical 
 teaching in the field. The facility with which 
 leave was granted when the hounds met, shows 
 the wise administration of a man of the world, 
 who knew that while books were all very well, 
 the students of the College were being educated 
 for action. And there is a passage in one of 
 his letters which indicates the sincerity of his 
 attachment, and how anxiously he followed the 
 fortunes of his proteges d 'elite. He complains 
 sadly of some of his best men being used up in 
 the malarious jungle warfare with the savages 
 of Ashanti. A letter to Blackwood, written in 
 the midsummer of 1871, expresses his feelings 
 as to the work he initiated and thoroughly 
 enjoyed : 
 
 I am full of business just now, for the time is at hand 
 for taking my flock on various expeditions. Towards the 
 end of this month we ride in parties to the Thames, for an 
 imaginary warlike operation. Then I shall be out with 
 them under canvas in the September campaign, and after 
 that into Suffolk on a military sketching expedition of ten 
 days or so. The D. of Wellington talks of giving me some
 
 208 COMMANDANT OF STAFF COLLEGE. 
 
 shooting, but I shan't have much opportunity of enjoying 
 it, certainly not in September. 
 
 Again in the autumn : 
 
 You might have observed in the papers that I had a 
 busy time of it in the autumn manoeuvres, having to play 
 the double part of umpire and director of my young men 
 who accompanied me into camp and were exercised in 
 practical Staff business. We had a not disagreeable and 
 very improving time. A few days afterwards we set off 
 to Suffolk on our annual reconnaissance, and had dreadful 
 weather returning here a fortnight since. I am now at 
 work again cutting down trees, planting, turfing, &c., as if 
 I were a country gentleman with a proper desire of hand- 
 ing down his estate in good condition to his children. 
 
 But however much he was engrossed by his 
 duties, material comfort was by no means ne- 
 glected. The Commandant had an excellent 
 house near the 'College, and the veteran cam- 
 paigner bestowed much care on the selection of 
 his personal staff. He had a housekeeper and 
 cordon bleu who received liberal wages, and who 
 must have rather resembled Mrs Greene in ' Lady 
 Lee's Widowhood/ save that she never got the 
 
 o 
 
 upper hand of her master. He declared that he 
 was lapped in luxury, and by way of constant 
 companions, beyond his books, he had the dogs 
 and cats that cumbered the hearthrug. He took 
 infinite pleasure in his garden, and in many pas- 
 sages of his correspondence he talks of acquisi-
 
 SELECT BREAKFAST-PARTIES. 209 
 
 tions to his territorial domains, measured by roods 
 or yards, and of the extensive improvements he 
 was carrying out on the property. In fact, as 
 few men had so many resources, he was never at a 
 loss for occupations that interested him, and so, in 
 the sympathy of common pursuits, he made friends 
 in all classes of the community. If his manner 
 to some may have seemed austere or reserved, 
 in reality he was the most sociable and unassum- 
 ing of mortals. At Sandhurst and off duty, he 
 led the happy life of a country gentleman. He 
 was always a welcome guest at many of the neigh- 
 bouring houses, and he delighted in arranging 
 pleasant little dinners himself, at which the wines 
 could invariably be relied upon, and where the 
 menus had been carefully thought out. Breakfast- 
 giving was rather a specialite of his especially 
 when he had chambers in London. Notwithstand- 
 ing the illustrious examples of Rogers and Lord 
 Houghton, we hold it an uncomfortable form of 
 hospitality, and it is to the credit of any middle- 
 aged wit if he can be animated over tea or coffee 
 at 10 A.M. But a tete-a-tete breakfast with Ham- 
 ley was a pleasant beginning to the day, even in 
 November fogs or December frosts. The host, 
 fresh and radiant from bed and bath, was always 
 at his brightest and best. The dishes were as 
 good and original as the talk. For the enter- 
 VOL. i. o
 
 210 COMMANDANT OF STAFF COLLEGE. 
 
 tainer prided himself, with reason, on a system 
 of spirit-lamps, &c., by which the plats he had 
 elaborated or invented were transferred to the 
 table at the moment of perfection. He was a 
 master in the manipulation of oysters, anchovies, 
 &c., and Mr Micawber could not have surpassed 
 him in the seasoning of a devil. Knowledge of 
 any kind is sure to come in usefully sooner or 
 later, and his staff found the advantage of those 
 culinary studies over bivouac fires when employed 
 on delimitation commissions, and detached from 
 the cook. None of the neighbours seem to have 
 taken more cordially to him than the late Duke 
 of Wellington ; and when at a later period his 
 Grace offered a prize for the best essay on a 
 military subject, he requested Hamley to under- 
 take the duty of umpire a responsibility which 
 he accepted. A letter of llth June indicates the 
 interest the Duke took in the publication : 
 
 MY DEAR DUKE OF WELLINGTON, I have compared Mr 
 Hildyard's corrections with his paper a they are all such 
 as will be at once made by the printer. I think, therefore, 
 it will be well to send the whole of the Essays forthwith 
 to Messrs Blackwood, with instructions to forward a proof 
 of each individual paper to its writer for final revision, 
 except Mr Hildyard's, which has already been revised by 
 
 1 Mr Hildyard, now Colonel Hildyard, the present Commandant 
 of the Staff College.
 
 INVITATIONS TO STRATHFIELDSAYE. 211 
 
 him in proof, these revised proofs to be returned direct 
 to Messrs Blackwood to save time, and to spare your 
 Grace unnecessary trouble. I will write a short paragraph 
 descriptive of the circumstances under which the pub- 
 lication was undertaken, and send it to your Grace for 
 insertion, if you approve, as a notice to the reader, it 
 will be too short to be called a preface. 
 
 Mr Blackwood, writing to me a few days ago, inquired 
 what had become of Mr Maurice's Essay, which he had 
 expected weeks ago. The delay, therefore, is due entirely 
 to the writer, not the publisher. If he does not make 
 despatch, the other essays will tread on the heels of his 
 which will serve him right. 
 
 I was going to take my niece to Ascot to-day, but the 
 weather has defeated that project, and no doubt many 
 similar ones. I am, your Grace's most sincerely, 
 
 E. B. HAMLEY. 
 
 He was asked to Strathfieldsaye to shoot out- 
 lying pheasants in the hedgerows in the opening 
 days of October an invitation he was compelled 
 to decline, as he was engaged in Sussex for the 
 wedding of his friend Mr Harry Sturgis with 
 the Speaker's daughter. But the Duke, who was 
 fastidious and capricious in his friendships, had 
 come to entertain a great affection for Hamley, 
 whose humour he heartily appreciated, and thence- 
 forth the invitations and visits to Strathfieldsaye 
 became more and more frequent. Hamley, for 
 the most part, found himself tete-a-tete with his 
 Grace, or in such select company as that of the
 
 212 COMMANDANT OF STAFF COLLEGE. 
 
 Lord Chief- Justice Cockburn. Many a good story 
 he had to tell of those symposia, and of the shoot- 
 ing and the al fresco luncheons which preceded 
 them. The Duke had an infinite fund of drollery ; 
 he was fond of dwelling upon a joke which hit 
 his fancy, and would write Hamley a series of 
 notes, elaborating it through a succession of 
 stages. Sir Patrick MacDougall was good 
 enough to supply amusing reminiscences of what 
 he calls their jolly companionship : 
 
 The Duke's whimsical nature made him very congenial 
 to Hamley, who used to return from his frequent visits 
 to Strathfieldsaye full of the latter's stories. I here 
 select a virtuous specimen. The Duke speaks : " At one 
 time my father's extreme popularity was rather em- 
 barrassing. For instance, on leaving home each day he 
 was always intercepted by an affectionate mob, who in- 
 sisted on hoisting him on their shoulders and asking 
 where they should carry him. It was not always con- 
 venient to my father to say where he was going ; so he 
 used to say, ' Carry me home, carry me home ; ' and so he 
 used to be brought home half a dozen times a day a few 
 minutes after leaving his own door." 
 
 Some of the Duke's remarks about his heroic 
 father may be discreetly suppressed, but there 
 is another and characteristic anecdote which is 
 worth repeating, though I rather think it has 
 been published before : 
 
 The great Duke had appointed a sitting for his picture 
 for the morning of the day on which his brother, Lord
 
 THE CHAPLAIN-GENERAL. 213 
 
 Wellesley, died. The artist appeared at the appointed 
 time, saying he was not sure if he ought to have come. 
 The Duke soon set him at his ease. "Yes," he said, 
 alluding to his brother, " he is gone. An agreeable man 
 when he had his own way." 
 
 No little inducement in going to Strathfield- 
 saye was that the good old Chaplain - General 
 was established in a house in the neighbourhood. 
 The Duke, like his father, had a sincere affection 
 and admiration for him. On the 26th November 
 there is a lively account of a visit they paid to 
 the Commandant at the College. He writes to 
 Blackwood : 
 
 I have had two of your correspondents namely, the 
 Duke of Wellington and the Chaplain-General here from 
 Saturday to Monday. The Duke is well pleased, quite 
 elated in fact, by the success of the two volumes. I hope 
 the second is doing well. He is a most cheery old gentle- 
 man, and very easy to amuse. The first day we dined at 
 the Mess ; the Sunday I had a little party for him here, 
 and he was quite happy. He went to the College chapel 
 to hear his particular friend the Chaplain-General preach, 
 and slumbered throughout the sermon in full sight of the 
 congregation. The Chaplain-General is looking wonder- 
 fully strong and well, and is as young in his mind and 
 ways as ever. They saw the Kriegspiel played at the 
 College. I asked Maurice and his wife to dine, and the 
 Duke was much pleased with the winner of his prize. 
 
 Probably the Duke's last correspondence was 
 with Hamley. He wrote him five notes in a
 
 214 COMMANDANT OF STAFF COLLEGE. 
 
 single week, and the last came little more than 
 a fortnight before the invitation to the funeral. 
 The friendship with Sir Patrick MacDougall 
 began with the establishment of the Staff Col- 
 lege in the new building. It soon became 
 close as it was constant, and some of Ham- 
 ley's last letters were addressed to one of his 
 most cherished companions. Beyond strong per- 
 sonal sympathy, they were drawn together by 
 common tastes soldiering, fishing, and broad 
 culture. Many were the trips they made in 
 company ; many the fishing excursions at home 
 and abroad ; and together they had gone over 
 many of the European battle-fields. Sir Patrick 
 wrote : 
 
 Our first acquaintance was when I had been appointed 
 first Commandant of the College, and Colonel Hamley, 
 just home from the Crimea, and even then with a literary 
 reputation, was my first Professor of Military History. 
 From that day to the day of his death, our close friendship 
 never suffered a moment's interruption. He took a house 
 near the village of Sandhurst, where he used to assemble 
 very agreeable dinner-parties. He was a perfectly ideal 
 travelling companion, as I frequently experienced. One 
 indispensable qualification of such a companion is that he 
 must be unselfish, and Hamley had not an atom of self in 
 his composition. We visited Antwerp with its pictures 
 and history, and of course the field of Waterloo ; afterwards 
 Heidelberg, the Black Forest, carrying our fishing-rods 
 and knapsacks to Wildbad. At this place Hamley, while
 
 SIR PATRICK MACDOUGALL. 215 
 
 engaged with a good trout, shouted out suddenly, " Bring 
 me the landing-net," when a German, who was looking on, 
 but did not understand a word of English, smartly picked 
 up the net and gave it. Another excursion we made to 
 Yorkshire ; and I shall always preserve a fond memory of 
 a walk from Keighley over the moors, when we talked 
 Shakespeare the whole time, convincing me that he had 
 entered more into the mind of the poet than most of the 
 commentators an opinion he amply justified when he came 
 to write " Shakespeare's Funeral." Whatever the subject, 
 he so informed it with instruction that it was a pleasure 
 to listen to him. During these many journeyings to and 
 fro, I had ample opportunities of observing how fortunate 
 I was to have such a companion, with a sense of the 
 ridiculous so acute that it made him delightfully entertain- 
 ing, and with serious knowledge so various and extensive 
 that it was a privilege to hear him lecture privately on 
 painting and Shakespeare. Of modern writers, I think 
 Dickens was his favourite, because his writings lent them- 
 selves to his sense of fun more than others. 
 
 Both Sir Patrick and Hamley were connoisseurs 
 in horseflesh otherwise the latter could never 
 have described to the life the turf experiences of 
 Bagot Lee and his sporting Mephistopheles ; and 
 one of Sir Patrick's recollections as to an un- 
 fortunate bargain is both amusing and illustra- 
 tive, for Hamley cared little what he rode. In 
 1869 MacDougall was living at Winchester when 
 Hamley was at Sandhurst. 
 
 The Commandant used to pay me frequent visits, either 
 to try horses or to have a gallop with Mr Dean's harriers.
 
 216 COMMANDANT OF STAFF COLLEGE. 
 
 At that time the very celebrated character of the name of 
 Mr John Tubb owned a splendid range of stabling at the 
 back of the barracks, and his stables were always full of 
 splendid horses to look at, but few of them were fit to ride 
 on account of some trick of temper. " The vicious Eogue," 
 called by Hamley Diogenes because he came from, a " Tub," 
 was bought by Tubb at Tattersall's for 16, and afterwards 
 sold to Hamley for 60. I was much struck with the quiet, 
 sensible expression of the Eogue's face, and I was told by 
 a vet. whom I employed to look at the Eogue, that he 
 was the most genuine horse he had ever known Tubb to 
 possess. Having got so far, I resorted to a method I have 
 always employed since I attained powers of discretion in 
 making acquaintance with a new horse, by having some 
 pieces of sugar and apple in my pocket to give him. The 
 Eogue met my advances most affably ; then I proceeded to 
 mount him. I rode him over some small fences, and 
 brought him back quite delighted. I sent for Hamley, 
 who was greatly pleased; but he told Tubb, unless the 
 horse would go in harness he would not suit. Tubb's ex- 
 pressive features showed some signs of dismay. However, 
 he assured Hamley he went like a lamb in single harness. 
 The horse was tested then and there : he really went like 
 a lamb, and was passed and purchased. 
 
 The subsequent correspondence may serve as 
 a useful warning to novices who fancy they have 
 been exceptionally fortunate in picking up a good- 
 looking horse for a trifle : 
 
 MY DEAR MAcD., I am going to tell you a little 
 history about our friend Diogenes, because experience in 
 horseflesh is always worth acquiring. 
 
 As I told you, I rode him several times, reconnoitring
 
 A SAD BARGAIN. 217 
 
 with the class, and he always went capitally. But one 
 day I started alone ; and he began, as soon almost as I left 
 the stable, to stop short, and when touched with whip or 
 spur, to become restive and show symptoms of fighting, as 
 if it were a habit. Inquiring of the groom, I found that 
 the equine philosopher had reared several times, as he 
 expressed it, " frightful." Since then I rode him in the 
 school, and at a field-day among rifle-popping and big 
 guns, when he behaved perfectly well. His style of going 
 seemed to improve, and I got more and more pleased with 
 it, but the doubt about temper caused me to inquire at 
 Tattersall's. I found he was sent up under the name of 
 " Oxford " from Lord Macclesfield. I wrote to his lordship; 
 and his note being pretty and to the point, I transcribe it : 
 
 " Lord Macclesfield presents his compliments to Col. 
 Hamley, and begs to say that the horse ' Oxford ' is the 
 most vicious rogue that he ever met with, and that he very 
 nearly killed one of his sons, and he would strongly advise 
 him not to keep him.". 
 
 The worthy Tubb, no doubt, had an inkling of his char- 
 acter hence his keeping him idle in the stable, and tak- 
 ing so many precautions about putting him in harness. 
 Question is, what to do with Diogenes ? Do you suppose 
 the respected Tubb would buy him back ? at a low price, 
 of course ; or shall I send him to Aldridge's ? Or is it 
 justifiable to sell him at all, or to prolong his valuable life 
 at the risk of others ? Meanwhile I am like Mr Pickwick 
 after the gig was knocked to pieces, " with a dreadful 
 horse that I can't get rid of." Yours ever, 
 
 E. B. HAMLEY. 
 
 The difficulty and the questions of casuistry 
 were solved by what looked like a special inter- 
 position of Providence. The eccentricities of
 
 218 COMMANDANT OF STAFF COLLEGE. 
 
 Diogenes grew upon him, and his character 
 became notorious in military circles in the dis- 
 trict. Whereupon a daring young subaltern of 
 Horse Artillery wrote from Aldershot, with an 
 offer of 30, made in full knowledge of the offen- 
 der's misdeeds. He and Hamley went together to 
 Beading, where the horse was standing at livery. 
 The livery-stabler was only too eager to get rid 
 of him. He said he had nearly killed his best 
 rider, and that no man in England could sit 
 him, if he wished to throw him off. "Thus far 
 Tompkins ! " Hamley faithfully repeated the tale 
 to the would-be buyer, saying that he would not 
 sell, but would send the animal to Tattersall's. 
 " The V. R. was then brought out by my groom, 
 from whom, after several rears and kicks, he 
 broke away, and went trumpeting about the 
 public thoroughfares with the bridle trailing, and 
 his tail not merely erect, but curling like a pug 
 dog's over his back, with all the hair on it falling 
 the wrong way." Notwithstanding, the venture- 
 some lieutenant was pleased with his looks, and 
 lowering his bid by a fiver, persisted in desiring 
 to possess the horse. He said that if Hamley 
 declined to sell, it would give him the trouble of 
 attending the auction. " His ambition is to hunt 
 him : if he fails, he says he will sell him at Tatt's, 
 and lose nothing ; and as he seems a knowing
 
 A BLIGHT MISTAKE. 219 
 
 youth, this is likely enough." So, remembering 
 that there were rough - riders and brakes at 
 Aldershot, Hamley salved his conscience, and 
 somewhat reluctantly got rid of the "dreadful 
 horse." 
 
 Another story of that period Sir Patrick re- 
 lates, and Hamley's niece remembers how her 
 uncle used to delight in it. Perhaps he had 
 embroidered it in the manner of his friend the 
 Duke of Wellington, and it is a pity it was 
 not turned into a " Tale for Blackwood." Briefly, 
 Captain Brook, " a dear friend and comrade," 
 was then the riding-master at the Cadet College. 
 Hamley had christened him the Murmuring 
 Brook, on account of his incessant complaints 
 to the War Office. Desiring to enter one of his 
 sons at Wellington College, and before he had 
 made acquaintance with the localities, starting 
 one day to walk to the College from the station, 
 Captain Brook caught sight of the Broadmoor 
 Criminal Lunatic Asylum on an adjacent height. 
 Confounding one establishment with the other, 
 he walked up and rang the bell. As Hamley 
 used to tell the story, 
 
 He asked the porter if he could see the Principal. 
 When the latter appeared, Brook thought him a queer- 
 looking figure for an instructor of youth. Brook said, 
 "I wish to put my boy under your charge, if you can
 
 220 COMMANDANT OF STAFF COLLEGE. 
 
 take him." " Oh yes," said the man ; " is he a bad case ? " 
 " Bad case ! " said Brook ; " what the devil do you mean ? 
 There's not a better boy in England ; the only thing I fear 
 is, he may be too old." " Why, how old is he ? " " He is 
 eighteen." " Pish ! we take them up to eighty." " Why," 
 says Brook, again in high dudgeon, " if he does not come 
 here till eighty, what time do you suppose he is going to 
 get his commission ? " 
 
 A reminiscence in different vein relates to a 
 dinner some years later at Hamley's chambers 
 in Ryder Street : 
 
 I had the pleasure of meeting Kinglake and Count 
 Strele'cky, when the conversation turned on the resem- 
 blance between French and English fiction-writers, taking 
 Daudet for the French, Dickens and Thackeray for the 
 English examples. For instance, we may feel convinced 
 that Daudet in 'Fromont Jeune,' when he wrote a de- 
 scription of the scene where Eisler discovers his wife's 
 guilt, must have had in his mind the scene in 'Vanity 
 Fair' where Eawdon Crawley surprises Lord Steyne. 
 Similarly, it is probable that Daudet in his charming 
 creation of little Desiree had in his thoughts Dickens's 
 Doll's dressmaker. In discussing the comparative merits 
 of the three, I think Kinglake gave the pas to Thackeray ; 
 Hamley supporting Dickens, for the reason that his pe- 
 culiar fun lent itself more readily to Hamley's humorous 
 instinct than the other; while I held that Daudet was 
 the equal of either. 
 
 Hamley had happened to remark on the num- 
 ber of French atheists always present in London, 
 when Count Strelecky mentioned his experience
 
 A MEETING OF FRENCH ATHEISTS. 221 
 
 of a meeting he had attended from curiosity in 
 Leicester Square. After listening for more than 
 an hour to several speakers, all of them launch- 
 ing out in furious tirades against the Almighty, a 
 mild old gentleman with quavering voice meekly 
 asked leave to say a few words in favour of " le 
 bon Dieu" The cry was immediate and unan- 
 imous, "A laporte!"
 
 222 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 LITERARY RECREATIONS. 
 
 " SHAKESPEAKE'S FUNERAL " ' VOLTAIRE ' IN " FOREIGN 
 CLASSICS" LEAVES THE STAFF COLLEGE. 
 
 ALTHOUGH he was engrossed by his official duties, 
 and with all the distractions of field-sports, horti- 
 culture, and friendly visits, in these years litera- 
 ture was by no means neglected. In the way of 
 his professional work was a new edition of ' The 
 Operations of War,' which was imperatively de- 
 manded by contemporary events. He had fol- 
 lowed with the closest attention the Franco- 
 German campaigns, with the latest developments 
 of scientific strategy. The knowledge he had 
 been imparting to his " young men " suggested 
 new and important chapters, and notably that 
 upon " Sedan and Metz." As he sat in his chair, 
 or while carrying on the field practice at Sand- 
 hurst, he had been playing a single-handed Krieg- 
 spiel, and imagining how he would have directed
 
 BAZ AINU'S RETREAT EXAMINED. 223 
 
 matters had he been on the spot and in command. 
 He was fond of relating how, during those critical 
 days when the German armies were closing in 
 upon Metz, he gave his ideas to two friends who 
 were dining with him one was Mowbray Morris 
 of the ' Times/ and I believe the other was Gen- 
 eral Hozier as to how Bazaine might have con- 
 ducted a retreat with comparatively little loss. 
 Afterwards he found his suggestions confirmed by 
 no less a person than Yon Moltke in the official 
 narrative of the war, published at Berlin. 1 
 
 1 The Franco-German War of 1870-71. By Field-Marshal Count 
 Helmuth Von Moltke. Translated by Clara Bell and H. W. Fischer. 
 Battle of Vionville, Mars-la-Tour (Aug. 16). 
 
 The 6th Division of the Prussians had been sent forward to Etain, 
 by Mars-la-Tour, to obstruct, if possible, the northern road to Ver- 
 dun, on the supposition that the French had begun the retreat. 
 The underlining of " if possible " is mine. The Prussian forces were 
 then facing the East. 
 
 " The position of the French was one of great advantage. Their 
 left flank was protected by the fortress of Metz, the right by for- 
 midable batteries and a strong force of cavalry. They might safely 
 await an attack on their centre. 
 
 " Of course the march to Verdun, even under cover of a strong 
 rear-guard, had to be abandoned. If the Marshal had been resolved 
 to proceed, he would have had to engage and get rid of the enemy 
 in front of him. 
 
 " It is difficult to decide, from a purely military point of view, 
 why this alternative was not taken. There was hardly a doubt that 
 only part, and probably only a small part, of the German armies 
 could as yet have passed the Mozelle, and when, in the course of the 
 day, the Divisions which had remained at Metz arrived, the French 
 were decidedly the stronger. But it seems that the Marshal's first 
 object was not to be forced away from Metz almost his entire con- 
 cern was for his left wing. By constantly reinforcing the flank, he
 
 224 LITERARY RECREATIONS. 
 
 Among other things he had written his " Shake- 
 speare's Funeral," which is not only, perhaps, his 
 most brilliant piece of work, but is the expression 
 of his intense poetical sympathies and of the pro- 
 found thoughtfulness of his literary temperament. 
 He worshipped Shakespeare's transcendent genius, 
 though he did not scruple to criticise him freely 
 in " False Coin in Poetry " ; and, as Sir Patrick 
 MacDougall has remarked in his ' Recollections,' 
 he had steeped himself in his own interpretation 
 of the inner meanings of the plays. Each of the 
 creations was a veritable individuality to him, 
 which he sought to realise and analyse. In short, 
 he had searched his Shakespeare as we are told 
 to search the Scriptures, and no one need under- 
 take a pilgrimage to Stratford who does not 
 admire and delight in " The Funeral." In brier 
 space, and in indirect fashion, all the catholic 
 characteristics of the bard are brought out, 
 his intuitive penetration, his broad and sympa- 
 thetic appreciation, the flow of his genial humour, 
 and the simplicity of the pathos. To the grand 
 artist nothing was common or vulgar that might 
 serve to illustrate the manifold types of humanity. 
 The originals of the Shylocks and Dogberrys were 
 
 massed his Guards part of the 6th Corps in front of the Bois des 
 Ognons, from whence no attack was made. We are tempted to 
 fancy that political reasons alone induced Bazaine, thus early in the 
 game, to attach himself to Metz."
 
 "SHAKESPEARE'S FUNERAL." 225 
 
 to be seen within a stone-throw of New Place. 
 So Hamley fell in with the master's humours, arid 
 gave prominence to the humble countrymen and 
 town's folk who, irrespective of clime or speech, 
 had furnished him with many an immortal subject. 
 Genius had made us forget the almost ludicrous 
 incongruity of transferring the uncouth Warwick- 
 shire rustics to Greece or the enchanted isle of 
 the Tempest, as the dewberry, with its purely 
 local name, was made to blossom and bear fruit 
 in the hedgerows of Attica. There is an interest- 
 ing letter, in which Hamley defends his own con- 
 ceptions, in answer to certain objections : 
 
 9th March 1873. 
 
 MY DEAR BLACKWOOD, It would have pulled the idea 
 to pieces sadly, and have taken some of the pith out of it, 
 to have omitted them. Bearers are not, I imagine, chosen 
 commonly for their respectability funeral entertainments, 
 like all others in those days, generally ended in a carouse 
 and it seemed to me a kindly notion, and suited to our 
 idea of the poet, that he should name for the office (in- 
 stead of leaving it to the choice of the sexton) those poor 
 townsmen of whom he had already taken so much note as 
 to put them in his works. The omission of this trait, as 
 well as others touched on in the last scene, would have 
 been, in my view, a dead loss. That last scene, too, was 
 necessary to the rounding off of the idea as I had con- 
 ceived it. I am therefore much pleased that on reconsider- 
 ation you agree with me that it should stand. Except as 
 bearers, there was no way in which these additional Shake- 
 spearian personages could have come into the paper. 
 
 VOL. I. P
 
 226 LITERARY RECREATIONS. 
 
 But Hamley happily illustrated, with a cynical 
 humour of his own, the circumstances which the 
 poet had cheerfully accepted. Nothing can be 
 more comically clever, or more touchingly true to 
 the facts, than the picture of that sublime genius 
 living apart in the unsympathetic atmosphere of 
 the everyday world. Sir Thomas Lucy, the Justice 
 Shallow of Charlecote, rides in to grace the burial 
 of a man of decent estate, and who had a right 
 to quarter the arms of Arden. His worthy son- 
 in-law, "good Master Hall," confesses that he 
 cares little for the fond extravagances of his well- 
 meaning father-in-law, whom he regards with the 
 contemptuous affection of a practical man ; and 
 even his loving daughter, like the good vicar of 
 Stratford, is sorely exercised over the condition of 
 the poet's soul. He had not only squandered time 
 and talents on the plays that were but vanity, or 
 worse ; but, in his indiscreet charity, he gave alms 
 indiscriminately, and was never neglectful of the 
 vicious and the ungrateful. And apropos to the 
 Kit Slys and the Bardolphs the parish gossips, 
 the paupers, and the loungers what can be more 
 Shakespearian than the scenes at the funeral, with 
 the parade and simple self-revelation of selfishness, 
 greed, and petty ambitions ! 
 
 In the spring of 1874 he expresses his opinion 
 as to the great Conservative victory at the elec-
 
 LIBERAL AND CONSERVATIVE COALITION. 227 
 
 tions. He always maintained that Lord Derby, 
 as a statesman, and even as a party leader, made 
 a fatal mistake when he took his " leap in the 
 dark," and he held with Mr Lowe that no move 
 in that direction should have originated with the 
 Conservatives so long as the bulk of the new 
 electorate was uninformed and uneducated. The 
 dissolution had come as a surprise, and I believe 
 Disraeli was the only leader of the Tories who 
 had anticipated the probability. Coming up 
 to town one day from Hughenden a few weeks 
 before, he had declared emphatically that it was 
 quite on the cards that there might be an im- 
 mediate appeal to the country. Hamley writes 
 on 1 3th February : 
 
 What an astounding series of political events from 
 Gladstone's coup to Benjamin's majority ! It certainly 
 looks as if the Caucasian had been justified in descending 
 to look for his " residuum," but I don't believe in it for all 
 that. Much of the reaction against the Liberals is terror 
 at the warnings given us in France and Spain. 
 
 It seems to me that there is so much to separate Lib- 
 erals and Eadicals, foolishly classed hitherto as of the 
 same party, and so little difference between Liberals and 
 Conservatives, that a coalition of the latter is the right 
 thing to give a strong Government and to discredit demo- 
 cracy and demagogism. The chief obstacle is in the lead- 
 ers who could scarcely be brought together with cart- 
 ropes after blackguarding each other on the hustings in 
 the discreditable way they have done. It is a great pity
 
 228 LITERARY RECREATIONS. 
 
 that my little plan of putting them in a bag together and 
 dropping them over Westminster Bridge is not altogether 
 feasible. 
 
 Thus he had already forecast the coalition of 
 the Conservatives with patriotic Liberals, though 
 no man could have foreseen the particular evolu- 
 tion which was to be the proximate cause of the 
 alliance. 
 
 Again he says, on February 2d : 
 
 The best thing about the Ministry is, not that we shall 
 get better administration, for that may or may not be, 
 but that it shows a change of feeling in the people, and is 
 a guarantee that the shooting of Niagara is postponed. 
 
 Personally, the only man he regretted in the 
 outgoing Cabinet was Mr Cardwell, to whom he 
 was not only greatly indebted for his position at 
 the Staff College, but for support and encour- 
 agement in enlightened reforms. A letter of 12th 
 March refers to the Ashanti Expedition, which 
 he had followed with interest, although the strat- 
 egist had rather a contempt for semi -barbaric 
 warfare. But not a few of his pupils had gone 
 to Africa, and several of the most promising were 
 on the General's staff. He pays a graceful com- 
 pliment to Sir Garnet Wolseley : 
 
 Most of my officers have written me their experiences 
 from time to time. "Wood, who came with despatches, 
 is already in England. Maurice, who was considered of
 
 THE ASHANTI EXPEDITION. 229 
 
 too weak constitution to stand the work, has passed 
 through the ordeal almost better than anybody, being 
 the only one who never was ill. The conduct of the 
 Expedition is meeting with the praise it deserved, as 
 being altogether excellent. It is the end of it, from the 
 first battle to the march back, that specially signalises 
 Wolseley's quality as a commander, resolute as well as 
 careful. 
 
 He goes on to condemn the burning of Coo- 
 massie as a political mistake, if not a positive 
 crime : 
 
 Acts of destruction are dangerous precedents, and 
 may easily become very inconvenient. The charges of 
 treachery against the Ashanti king are simply childish: 
 there is no evidence of any deceit except such as has 
 always been considered praiseworthy in the case of one 
 defending his country and capital from invasion. 
 
 In a letter of the following week he says 
 again : 
 
 It is pleasant to see the unanimity with which the 
 press praise Wolseley, whose conduct of the business 
 was as good as possible. They got away just in time 
 there was a deal of sickness at the end. I met one 
 of my late officers the other day. He went out a strong 
 young fellow, and has come back an elderly cripple. 
 
 Another letter touching upon a friend's tragedy 
 which he was naturally inclined to view with 
 favour shows that he had reflected on the prin- 
 ciples of dramatic criticism, and formed decided 
 opinions of his own. It may be remarked, by the
 
 230 LITERARY RECREATIONS. 
 
 way, that afterwards, when an involuntary idler 
 in London, he was not disinclined to accept the 
 position of dramatic critic to one of the leading 
 journals, for he was a regular frequenter of the 
 theatres, and loved to assist at first nights. 
 
 My notions about a tragedy are, that the subject and 
 personages should command sympathy that the situa- 
 tions should be striking that the story should appear 
 in the most vivid light and that it should afford ample 
 scope for poetry. At any rate, some of these conditions 
 appear indispensable. It is hardly necessary to say a 
 
 word as to the subject and personages of " " ; and if 
 
 my friend has made a bad choice, what shall we say of the 
 setting ? 
 
 On the other hand, he gives warm praise to 
 Sir George Chesney's novel of ' The Dilemma ' : 
 
 I don't know that any novelist has ever before made 
 the course of true love run over such obstacles. The 
 whole work strikes me as superior to all of the day. 
 
 At that time he was bringing the whole 
 strength of his conscientious energy to bear 
 upon a little work of his own. Seldom has more 
 scrupulous care or more anxious thought been 
 bestowed on so small a volume. Blackwood had 
 been following up his series of the Ancient 
 Classics a novel idea which has since been ridden 
 to death by a similar series devoted to the clas- 
 sical writers of the Continent. He asked Hamley
 
 A STUDY OF VOLTAIRE. 231 
 
 to undertake ' Voltaire,' nor could he have made a 
 better selection. Hamley's ' Voltaire ' must strike 
 one as a masterpiece of comprehensive condensa- 
 tion. Though necessarily and tantalisingly brief, 
 the interest is marvellously sustained. The writer 
 holds the balance steadily between the fanatical 
 abusers of the misunderstood sceptic and his still 
 more extravagant devotees. His own intellectual 
 tendencies were severely analytical, for he was 
 slow to receive on faith what was not susceptible 
 of material proof. I would not be misunderstood, 
 for Hamley accepted the great doctrines of the 
 Christian creed ; and I know that he always 
 earnestly desired that his faith and hopes in the 
 future might be strengthened. Latterly, nothing 
 interested him more than the works of dispassion- 
 ate and logical divines which treated with broad 
 liberality that all -important subject. But he 
 admired the brilliant audacity of the champion of 
 free thought and frank speech. His own indig- 
 nation was excited by the flagrant social and 
 judicial abuses against which Voltaire waged 
 unsparing war. He points out that the philo- 
 sopher of Ferney was a sound Conservative so far 
 as all things secular were concerned. He attacked 
 neither the Crown nor the State as institutions. 
 And in his assaults on the Church, as Hamley 
 remarks, his earlier writings, if unorthodox, are not
 
 232 LITERARY RECREATIONS. 
 
 irreligious. His theistic views were less pro- 
 nounced than those of Mr Mill. He set out by 
 fiercely assailing the superstition, fanaticism, and 
 corruption of the clergy, in an age when profligate 
 laymen engrossed the richest benefices, and when 
 members of the Sacred College and princes of the 
 Church gave the worst possible example to the 
 feudal autocrats in the provinces. As the struggle 
 waxed warmer and his power was recognised, his 
 bitter sarcasm became more and more envenomed : 
 he launched out recklessly in blasphemous 
 ribaldry, and so gained, not undeservedly, his 
 reputation as the prince of mockers and scorners. 
 All that is brought out with striking effect ; and 
 Voltaire is, besides, sketched successively as the 
 man of the world, the dramatist, and the philo- 
 sophical historian. Hamley prided himself, with 
 reason, on the poetical translations, which reflect 
 the spirit and sense of the original with a suffi- 
 ciently close if not literal rendering. Voltaire's 
 cynical humour had much in common with his 
 own, and he undertook the volume as a labour 
 of love, being already tolerably familiar with the 
 Frenchman's innumerable writings. But he un- 
 hesitatingly declined a similar proposal as to Ra- 
 belais ; for, strange to say, he never appreciated 
 the wittily grotesque extravagances of the jovial 
 Cure of Meudon :
 
 A SHOAL OF LETTERS. 233 
 
 It is very difficult to understand either his language or 
 his wit in the degree necessary to do him justice. I never 
 read any of his French, except so much as is quoted in the 
 translations, but that shows how idiomatic and peculiar 
 it is; and I should scarcely think that any but a born 
 Frenchman would be competent to make him thoroughly 
 intelligible. In fact, even with translations that exist, I 
 have never succeeded in appreciating the humour which 
 has made his name so famous. 
 
 1th December 1876. 
 
 MY DEAR BLACKWOOD, You asked if I liked the notion 
 of doing Voltaire. I have been working at it with great 
 interest. I have made a good many translations of speci- 
 men passages ; and if these are reasonably done, he ought 
 to be recognised as a really good poet, of a type different 
 probably in many respects from the popular English idea 
 of him. ... It will be better not to put in a sketch of his 
 life complete, but rather to let it run on with his works. 
 
 No doubt publishers like zeal in an author, 
 especially in so distinguished a specialist as 
 Hamley, who might well be disposed to take 
 things easily and trust much to his name and 
 verve. But Blackwood, who had as little love 
 for letter - writing as Johnson for clean linen, 
 while the ' Voltaire ' was in deliberate course 
 of incubation must have been inclined to curse 
 his friend's earnest enthusiasm. The letters 
 with regard to the matter, and to emendations 
 in the proofs, might have made up half-a-dozen 
 similar volumes. He had taken infinite pains
 
 234 LITERARY RECREATIONS. 
 
 with a subject that suited his taste, and his hopes 
 of a favourable reception were high. The pub- 
 lication only brought disappointments and mor- 
 tifications. He had forgotten that one small 
 member of a numerous family has little chance 
 of respectful notice. Not a few of the papers 
 ignored him ; others disposed of him in a para- 
 graph among the minor critiques. It is more 
 surprising that some of the reviews were " slight- 
 ing " and others " insulting," for the book not 
 only sold remarkably well, but, as I have en- 
 deavoured to argue, may safely stand on its 
 merits. The reasonable conclusion is, that busy 
 reviewers merely skimmed the pages, and wrote 
 rather with regard to the Deist's popular repu- 
 tation, than to this novel and intelligent concep- 
 tion of his real character and the veritable scope 
 of his work. 
 
 In the summer of 1877 Hamley's time at the 
 Staff College had expired : he was only continued 
 as Commandant till his successor should be nom- 
 inated, and he had the cheerless prospect of 
 evacuating his comfortable quarters and quit- 
 ting a congenial occupation. About this time, 
 when the Russian army had failed again and 
 again to carry the position of Plevna, so stub- 
 bornly defended by the Turks under Osman 
 Pasha, Hamley was sounded as to his readi-
 
 REMOVAL TO LONDON. 235 
 
 ness to take service under the Russian Govern- 
 ment. But his sympathies were not with the 
 Russians in their attack upon Turkey, and for 
 this and other reasons he declined to consider 
 the proposal. 
 
 Promotion to the rank of Major -General did 
 not console Hamley much for want of employ- 
 ment though, as he carelessly remarks, it did 
 him no harm. ".I have no prospect of an ap- 
 pointment " (22d October), " and scarcely expect, 
 or indeed wish, for the Military Educational one " 
 (for which several of the leading journals had ad- 
 vocated his exceptional claims) " though I could 
 not afford to refuse it. But there may be one on 
 the cards before long that would suit me better." 
 The post alluded to was that of Chief of the Mili- 
 tary Intelligence Department, to be vacated by 
 his friend General MacDougall in the following 
 spring. " Most of the officers employed there 
 have been trained by me, and my rank now quali- 
 fies me for it." The appointment was bestowed 
 elsewhere. He broke up his home at Sandhurst, 
 and sorely against his will came to London as a 
 soldier in involuntary retreat. He writes Black- 
 wood, from the Athenaeum, on New Year's day : 
 " Yesterday I exchanged my country mansion for 
 a humble bedroom in this neighbourhood. My 
 family is dispersed Dandy gone to Gleig's from
 
 236 LITERARY RECREATIONS. 
 
 whence he came, the pug to a lady at Sandhurst, 
 and my horses to Wokingham. The cat, Mr 
 Ruffle, remains in Lady Alison's charge." For 
 his friend Sir Archibald Alison had succeeded 
 him as Commandant, and he had the satisfaction 
 of knowing that the College was not likely to 
 deteriorate under the new direction. As it hap- 
 pened, Colonel Alison only remained there for 
 six months though, in the expectation that he 
 would serve his full time, he had relieved Hamley 
 of his furniture. In the autumn Hamley made a 
 flying trip to the Highlands, wandering about with 
 knapsack, sketch-books, and fishing-rod ; and in 
 the winter he delivered a lecture on the defence 
 of the Afghan frontier at the United Service 
 Institution. Things have greatly changed since 
 then, on the initiative and under the direction of 
 Lord Roberts and Sir George Chesney ; but few 
 who heard him will forget the lucidity with which 
 he demonstrated the complex problems of the 
 situation, and indicated the comparative advan- 
 tages of three possible lines of defence, finally 
 falling back upon a concise exposition of the only 
 plan which at the time was practicable. " I 
 much dislike," he said, " any kind of public ad- 
 dress ; but being pressed by the Committee, I felt 
 I could not refuse the challenge : if I call myself 
 a strategist, I ought to behave as such." And
 
 AFGHAN FRONTIER DEFENCE. 237 
 
 in the brief discussion which followed the lecture, 
 his views were generally accepted by experienced 
 Indian generals, more or less familiar with the 
 ground, and who had made a special study of the 
 question. The manner of the delivery was singu- 
 larly impressive : nothing was advanced without 
 conclusive or plausible reason, and it was evident 
 that the lecturer was giving expression to the 
 deliberate convictions that had been carefully 
 thought out.
 
 238 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE SYSTEM OF OUTPOSTS. 
 
 THE HORSE GUARDS AND HAMLEY's SYSTEM TRIAL AT ALDER- 
 SHOT PUBLICATION OF PAMPHLET CHARACTERISTICS OP 
 
 THE SYSTEM. 
 
 BUT there had been an episode in the autumn of 
 1876 which demands something more than a pass- 
 ing notice among the comparatively unimportant 
 incidents of the year. There had been many ref- 
 erences in his letters to his ideas as to a better 
 system of instruction in outpost duty, to which 
 he necessarily attached extreme importance, as 
 ensuring the safety of armies when on the de- 
 fensive in the field, and contributing greatly to 
 the success of offensive operations. He had 
 been elaborately explaining the system in his 
 lectures, and had given a very lucid outline of 
 it in ' The Operations of War/ The Aldershot 
 authorities had arranged to give it a regular 
 trial on a certain day. That was brought to
 
 TRIAL OF NEW OUTPOST SYSTEM. 239 
 
 the knowledge of the Commander-in-Chief, who 
 intimated his intention of being present. Subse- 
 quently came a telegram from the Horse Guards 
 to change the day. 
 
 Had I been consulted, as in fairness I should have 
 been, I should have chosen different ground for the test, 
 and should have liked a rehearsal, as neither troops nor 
 officers had ever tried it before. Nevertheless, the result 
 was to convince me and everybody else who understood 
 my system that it had proved its efficiency. Not so, 
 however, the authorities of the Horse Guards, who did 
 not understand it, never having even heard of my 
 pamphlet. 
 
 With the Duke of Cambridge's ejaculation, 
 overheard on the ground, Hamley would pro- 
 bably have cordially agreed. " If this is right, 
 Airey, what we have been doing all our lives 
 is wrong ! " But he complained that at the 
 close of the manoeuvres, when men had gathered 
 round the Duke to hear the usual comments, 
 the opinions of the umpires were never called 
 for. That was an altogether exceptional de- 
 parture from the custom, but his Eoyal High- 
 ness spoke out with his habitual frankness, 
 pronouncing strongly against the innovation. 
 " Only in such a way as to show that he did 
 not half understand what had been done. I 
 was allowed, at Airey 's instance, some words 
 afterwards, and gave my view very decidedly,
 
 240 THE SYSTEM OF OUTPOSTS. 
 
 but that will hardly set the matter right." 
 His system, as has been said, is fully explained in 
 one of the most instructive and fascinating chap- 
 ters in ' The Operations of War.' Although it had 
 been practised to some extent in recent campaigns, 
 and notably by the Germans in their invasion of 
 France, yet, as he explains elsewhere in ' The 
 Operations,' the conditions of even the Franco- 
 German war had only necessitated its partial 
 adoption. It excited so much interest among 
 soldiers, that it was subsequently republished 
 in pamphlet form under the title * Outposts,' 
 and the pamphlet passed immediately through 
 two editions. It is at once so lucid and pic- 
 turesquely illustrative of the various operations 
 in modern campaigning, that it may be read with 
 advantage and interest by any civilian who is 
 interested in the study of military history. It 
 graphically depicts the position of an army feeling 
 its way and guarding against surprise or attack 
 when advancing through hostile territory in face 
 of a formidable enemy. 
 
 Though the work is strictly technical, there is 
 nevertheless a suggestion of the romance of war 
 in the presentation of the scenery of countries 
 the most diversified in character, with the ex- 
 planations of the various military advantages or 
 drawbacks of hill and dale, woodland and marsh,
 
 MODIFICATIONS IN OUTPOST WORK. 241 
 
 or of highly cultivated districts, with their vil- 
 lages, farmhouses, and enclosures. In showing 
 how outpost work may be modified by changing 
 circumstances, the writer brings his own know- 
 ledge and strategical insight within the compre- 
 hension of the most inexperienced subaltern. 
 First, he indicates the functions of the triple line 
 of outposts, the sentries, the pickets, and the 
 supports. Theoretically all are supposed to be in 
 ready touch, so that any pulsation in the outly- 
 ing feelers is transmitted directly to headquarters. 
 It is shown how by ready calculation on well- 
 ascertained principles, and by rapid examination 
 of the ground to be guarded, theory may be 
 promptly translated into practice. Hamley points 
 out how the available men may be economised, 
 by making the most of natural obstacles. There 
 is much in the choice of ground, and in the skil- 
 ful use of the cover, which may be advantageous 
 or the reverse, according to circumstances. He 
 indicates when cavalry and field-guns may be 
 profitably employed. He explains under what 
 circumstances the outposts should fall back, and 
 when it may be well to offer resistance, remem- 
 bering always that the army must not be drawn 
 prematurely into an engagement on ground dif- 
 ferent from that selected by the general. 
 
 These remarks merely give some idea of the 
 VOL. i. Q
 
 242 THE SYSTEM OF OUTPOSTS. 
 
 circumstances to be considered, and of the num- 
 erous difficulties to be grappled with. The 
 essentials to maintaining an efficient guard 
 are concert, coherence, and an intelligent direc- 
 tion, embracing the whole wide circle of opera- 
 tions. Under the old system these conditions 
 were too generally ignored or neglected. The 
 troops told off for duty were taken almost at 
 haphazard from detached battalions, and the 
 command of parties and pickets was intrusted 
 to officers who took their turn of duty in the 
 ordinary routine. Hamley held that, on the con- 
 trary, " the men and officers for the duty cannot 
 be too much accustomed to work together. A 
 line of suitable extent (say, two miles) would be 
 best confided to an entire battalion, with its own 
 colonel for commander. ... In the case of large 
 armies, each battalion should be taken from the 
 corps or division placed in rear of the space to 
 be covered by it." Each of the supports should 
 furnish its own pickets and from different com- 
 panies, so that the picket would rally on its own 
 company. When the advanced-guards are over- 
 fatigued, they should be relieved by a fresh 
 battalion or other homogeneous body the troops 
 so replaced falling back into the reserve. Re- 
 sponsibility should be distributed among capable 
 officers, selected for their special qualifications.
 
 DRAWBACKS IN ALDERSHOT EXPERIMENT. 243 
 
 So the commander of outposts would only have to 
 issue general instructions : for himself, he should 
 occupy a fixed post, where he could always be 
 found to give special orders ; and " he should 
 establish the most rapid possible communication 
 with the main position, either by signals, tele- 
 graph, or relay." In fact, the dispositions are to 
 be as the radiating threads of a spider's web, 
 with the controlling force established in the 
 centre. It will be clear from this brief resume of 
 the system that an impromptu trial at a camp 
 like Aldershot, even if made with all due de- 
 liberation, could scarcely be a fair one. From 
 the nature of things, such an experiment could 
 not be satisfactorily conducted except with forces 
 which had already been in harmonious training, 
 and so, as we read between the lines of the 
 pamphlet, we see that the materials were non- 
 existent at Aldershot. It is but natural that he 
 should have felt and expressed himself strongly 
 on a hasty experiment foredoomed to failure, 
 from circumstances he might foresee but could 
 not control.
 
 244 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE BULGARIAN DELIMITATION COMMISSION. 
 
 VISIT TO ITALY APPOINTED TO THE TURKISH AND BULGARIAN 
 
 COMMISSION THE POSITION OF THE FRONTIER QUESTION 
 
 COMMUNICATIONS WITH THE FOREIGN OFFICE ARRIVAL AT 
 
 CONSTANTINOPLE THE COMMISSIONERS DELIMITATION WORK 
 
 LETTER TO THE DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE. 
 
 IN January 1879, having no immediate prospect 
 of employment, he took advantage of his enforced 
 idleness to pay what he intended to be a pro- 
 longed visit to Italy. He had long desired to 
 visit Rome, and he hoped to pass the spring in 
 Naples and Sicily. But man proposes and Pro- 
 vidence disposes, and all his plans were suddenly 
 upset. 
 
 Before leaving England, Hamley had heard 
 with regret that Colonel Home, the English 
 Commissioner for the delimitation of the Turkish 
 and Bulgarian frontier, was dangerously ill. At 
 Genoa he saw the announcement of the Commis- 
 sioner's death, but he had no idea at the time
 
 HASTY RECALL FROM ITALY. 245 
 
 that the event immediately concerned him. He 
 had gone on, and had spent a month in Rome 
 under circumstances singularly unfavourable to 
 enjoyment and sight -seeing. He wrote rather 
 dolefully that the weather was phenomenally 
 cold and wet, that the galleries were gloomy, 
 and the Campagna miry. 
 
 The climate did not suit him, and altogether 
 he felt ill and out of sorts. Then he got a stimu- 
 lant he did not expect, and we hear no more of 
 languor or indisposition. On the 5th of March, 
 as he was sitting down to dinner at his hotel, a 
 telegram w r as handed to him. It was a despatch 
 from the War Office, proposing that he should 
 succeed Colonel Home, and asking for an imme- 
 diate answer. The telegram had been accident- 
 ally delayed, and the answer was sent immediately. 
 That same night he started for England, and on 
 the morning of the 8th he was in London. A 
 few days later he wrote to Blackwood : "I would 
 rather have gone to Zululand or Afghanistan, but 
 I am glad to get any professional employment of 
 a respectable nature, and to have the offer of 
 what is not distasteful I consider lucky." Cer- 
 tainly the authorities could not have made a 
 more fortunate choice ; and beyond the nattering 
 testimonials he received, the best proof of their 
 appreciation of his services was, that he was con-
 
 246 THE BULGARIAN DELIMITATION COMMISSION. 
 
 tinued in a similar capacity on two subsequent 
 Commissions. His talents and his distinction in 
 his special studies recommended him ; and he had 
 an iron will, indomitable energy, a keen eye, and 
 unrivalled aptitude for recognising the strength 
 and weakness of positions. He had many oppor- 
 tunities of exhibiting his readiness of resource 
 and his cool-headed promptitude in awkward 
 emergencies. Yet he could be patient when 
 necessity arose, and control himself under pro- 
 vocation. All that is said in these sentences is 
 borne out by Colonel Everett, now the head of 
 the topographical section of the Military In- 
 telligence Division, to whom I am indebted not 
 only for invaluable information, but for many 
 good stories of the adventures of the Commis- 
 sions. For Colonel Everett, like his late chief, 
 is an excellent raconteur, and both had the happy 
 knack of making the best of things and finding 
 amusement in situations sufficiently serious. Col- 
 onel Everett says that Hamley's straightforward 
 character soon asserted an ascendancy over his 
 colleagues, and even over the Russian, who was 
 practically commissioned to oppose him. Had 
 he sought to meet subtlety with subtlety he 
 would undoubtedly have been out - manoeuvred. 
 Occasionally, in the actual details of the delimi- 
 tation, he might resort to a ruse de guerre, but
 
 RUSSIAN DESIGNS ON BULGARIA. 247 
 
 that was all fair warfare. At the Council Board, 
 or in consultation, he always spoke his mind, 
 kept the purpose of the Commission before his 
 colleagues which was to assure Turkey a de- 
 fensible frontier and supported his suggestions 
 with arguments which it was exceedingly difficult 
 to refute. His position was a strong one, and he 
 held to it tenaciously and with success. The Turk 
 was naturally willing to be guided by him. The 
 neutral Commissioners were honestly anxious to 
 despatch their task quickly to the best of their 
 ability ; and Colonel Bogulaboff, who represented 
 the Czar, could hardly avow that his veritable 
 purpose was to keep a practicable road to Con- 
 stantinople. 
 
 At that time neither the Czar nor any one else 
 could foresee the subsequent development of events 
 in Bulgaria. The Emperor Alexander made sure 
 of the gratitude of the emancipated Bulgarians : 
 he counted on their future ruler as the Governor 
 of one of his own provinces, and regarded the 
 country as a Russian outpost. Nor was it then 
 surmised that Eastern Roumelia would be joined 
 to Bulgaria in a few years by the force of patriotic 
 or popular sentiment. Consequently, the neutral 
 European Powers were inclined to strengthen a 
 fortified natural barrier which would tend to 
 assure European tranquillity. Consequently, too,
 
 248 THE BULGARIAN DELIMITATION COMMISSION. 
 
 the memorandum which Hamley drew up on the 
 situation has lost much of its value. Still there 
 are some points of permanent interest which 
 I shall endeavour to select. In fact, he had 
 begun and carried on to considerable length a 
 narrative apparently intended for publication. 
 It is continued to the end of the proceedings by 
 a rough diary of daily incidents. As no one 
 could describe better than himself, there is a 
 strong temptation to transfer to these pages the 
 fragment as it stands ; but on the whole, and 
 with regard to the sense of proportion, it seems 
 more advisable to single out the more character- 
 istic passages. Some of these tell the connected 
 story of the mission, or indicate the difficulties 
 that were successfully surmounted. Others give 
 graphic and vivid descriptions of the Turks, and 
 their relations to the subject races ; of the con- 
 dition of Bulgaria immediately after the War ; 
 of the scenery, from the picturesque and the 
 strategic point of view, through which the Com- 
 mission travelled ; and of the romantic or ludicrous 
 incidents which lent variety to monotonous work. 
 Above all, the writer sketches with his habitual 
 acuteness the notable dignitaries with whom he 
 was brought in contact, and contrasts the fighting 
 and sterling qualities of the Turks of the lower 
 orders with the apathetic indifference of the ruling
 
 THE TREATY OF SAN STEPHANO. 249 
 
 classes and the corruption of the Government. 
 As to the abuses of the Turkish administration, 
 his strictures were still more severe when he was 
 sent to delimit boundaries in Asia. 
 
 The preliminary memorandum indicates the 
 circumstances which induced the Powers to agree 
 to the Commission : 
 
 When Eussia had advanced through the Balkan penin- 
 sula in 1877-78, destroying or driving back the Turkish 
 armies and enclosing Constantinople in her lines, she 
 forced on her defeated antagonist the Treaty of San 
 Stephano. By this instrument only a small strip of 
 European territory was left to Turkey, hardly a sixth of 
 that she had possessed at the beginning of the war ; and 
 this strip, with her capital, would be at the mercy of the 
 enemy in another war. 
 
 Not only the ancient traditions of the balance of power, 
 but the instinct of self-interest, caused the Great Powers to 
 meet in Congress at Berlin, in order to prevent Eussia 
 from gaining the vast accession of power and influence 
 which the execution of the treaty would have bestowed 
 on her. 
 
 When the Congress had roughly redistributed 
 the conquered territories, skilled topography was 
 essential for defining the new frontiers, and a 
 committee of military delegates was constituted. 
 New maps were to be made, for there was no 
 reliable and official map of Turkey. The best in 
 existence was by the Austrian cartographers, 
 and as it only marked five miles to an inch, it
 
 250 THE BULGARIAN DELIMITATION COMMISSION. 
 
 was impossible to lay on it anything more than 
 an approximate frontier line. That was the map 
 used by the delegates, but the different frontiers 
 were still subject to determination on the ground, 
 so that they gave perpetual matter for dispute. 
 Then the different frontiers to be traced are 
 described ; but that with which we are concerned 
 had special importance, as it was to be regularly 
 fortified for the defence of Turkey. 
 
 By the first article of the Treaty of Berlin, 
 Bulgaria was constituted an autonomous princi- 
 pality, subject only to the payment of tribute, 
 and the sovereignty was purely honorary. The 
 Bulgarian Commission must be military, because 
 the boundary was to be capable of defence. 
 What it had to delimit was (1) the frontier 
 on the side of Boumania, from Bakovitza on 
 the Danube to a point east of Silistria, and 
 thence by the shortest line to a given point on 
 the Black Sea. (2) The northern and north- 
 western boundaries of Eastern Boumelia along 
 the Balkans. (3) The boundary of Boumelia to 
 the new frontier of Servia. The Commission 
 had met at Constantinople in September 1878, 
 and Colonel Home of the Engineers was then 
 the English delegate. Preliminary difficulties 
 brought the proceedings prematurely to a stand- 
 still. As Hamley puts it, and no doubt he
 
 LETTER TO LORD SALISBURY. 251 
 
 writes feelingly, for he had to face the same 
 trouble himself, 
 
 To the Eussian diplomatic and military mind, it 
 seemed that Bulgaria might be made almost as useful 
 in a future invasion as if it were Eussian ; that the hos- 
 tility of the races, being judiciously fomented, will always 
 be ready to fructify into convenient quarrel ; that when 
 Eussian troops should again cross the Danube, they would 
 find themselves in the territory of a humble and devoted 
 ally ; and that it was therefore expedient by all means to 
 conciliate and aggrandise Bulgaria. 
 
 When the delegates at last went slowly to 
 work, they were obstructed by the fluctuating 
 policies of the Powers, as well as by the objections 
 gratuitously raised by the Russians. So the de- 
 limitation was little more than begun when the 
 Commissioners agreed to go into winter quarters. 
 It was to reassemble on the 15th April 1879, and 
 then Colonel Home had been replaced by General 
 Hamley. 
 
 On 20th March he received an official communi- 
 cation from Lord Salisbury, enclosing the Eoyal 
 Commission. In acknowledging it, he made the 
 following suggestions : 
 
 Major-General HAMLEY to the MARQUIS OF SALISBURY. 
 (Received March 20.) 
 
 LONDON, March 20, 1879. 
 
 MY LORD, I have the honour to inform you that I 
 have considered, with due reference to the information
 
 252 THE BULGARIAN DELIMITATION COMMISSION. 
 
 received from Commandant Lemoyne respecting the work 
 done by the Eussian topographers on the Bulgarian fron- 
 tier, what number of officers it will be necessary to take. 
 Being informed that I cannot count upon having the 
 services of Lieutenant Chermside for the Commission, 
 I recommend that four officers, in addition to Major 
 Ardagh, 1 should be appointed for the work of verifying 
 the Eussian map, and of making good any defects or 
 omissions in it. The difficulty and extent of the frontier 
 render this number the smallest with which the work 
 could be done with reasonable despatch. 
 
 It seems to me most desirable that the party, which 
 with its servants, drivers, &c., will be of some strength, 
 should be accompanied by an assistant-surgeon, who, by 
 prompt attention to slight feverish or other climatic com- 
 plaints, might keep the whole party in working condition, 
 and obviate the sickness or invaliding of some of its 
 members. I have, &c., E. B. HAMLEY. 
 
 The Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary 
 gave him several interviews. 
 
 Lord Salisbury was particularly and personally in- 
 terested in the success of the Commission, having been 
 one of our plenipotentiaries at the Congress. I received 
 all the encouragement I could gain from frank confidence 
 and assurances of support, but he did not conceal that he 
 thought the situation dubious and unpromising. He 
 spoke of the difficulties of dealing with Eussia in this 
 business, of which the course of her representative on the 
 Commission gave sufficient evidence. He understood she 
 was about to assert the pretensions of Bulgaria to the 
 
 Major Ardagh. was already chief of the Topographical Staff.
 
 SELECTION OF BRITISH STAFF. 253 
 
 whole southern slope of the Balkans. The disturbed state 
 of the country might cause serious obstacles ; and, in fact, 
 the Eastern Eoumelian Commission had been compelled 
 to desist from its work by armed Bulgarian mobs. The 
 physical difficulties of country and climate were also 
 looked on as formidable. Indeed all the conditions were 
 so unsettled that he must leave me to do the best with 
 them I could, after better acquaintance on the spot, for 
 executing the provisions of the treaty. 
 
 In an interview with Colonel Stanley, the Secretary for 
 War, he observed that he had always considered it expedient 
 to have as Chief Commissioner an officer of higher rank 
 than that of colonel, and who would consequently possess 
 an influence more commensurate with the interest our 
 Government felt in obtaining fair terms for Turkey. . . . 
 I was treated with great liberality. All officers that I 
 applied for were given me, and all necessary expenses 
 were sanctioned. 
 
 It was known that Kussia was making for her own 
 purposes a survey of the new frontiers, and that the maps 
 would probably be available for the purposes of the 
 Commission. But whether they were such as would be 
 serviceable to us, we had no means of knowing. I there- 
 fore asked for a staff sufficient to undertake a considerable 
 amount of work in the absence of assistance from the 
 other Powers, and which would in any case, if needful, 
 serve to verify and correct the work of the Eussian 
 topographers. 
 
 The staff selected was strong and efficient. 
 
 Major Ardagh, who had resumed his employment at 
 the Intelligence Department of the War Office, was to 
 return as head of my topographical staff. He brought 
 from that department Lieutenant Hare, a very accom-
 
 254 THE BULGARIAN DELIMITATION COMMISSION. 
 
 plished interpreter, who spoke French thoroughly. Both 
 these officers had been under me during my command of 
 the Staff College, as well as Captain Douglas Jones, E.A., 
 who now accompanied me as aide-de-camp. To avoid the 
 objection of choosing none but officers of Artillery and 
 Engineers, I was glad to be able to apply for Captain 
 Everett, an excellent topographer, who had also been at 
 the Staff College in my time. Being still in want of an 
 officer, I applied to my successor at the College, and 
 Captain Elles, E.A., a student there with whom I had no 
 previous acquaintance, joined me at Constantinople. 
 
 As it seemed extremely probable that the 
 services of a doctor might be in requisition, 
 the party was completed at Constantinople by 
 Dr Exham, a young assistant - surgeon from 
 Netley. 
 
 Accompanied by Major Ardagh, Hamley left 
 London, and their steamer anchored in the Bos- 
 phorus on the 4th of April. Off the plains of 
 Troy they were boarded by Dr Schliemann, who 
 came to fetch a fellow-labourer in archaeological 
 research. That visit, with its associations, may 
 have suggested to Hamley the classical reflection 
 in one of his letters, that in his ignorance of local 
 feeling, and even of the physical features of the 
 Balkans and the bordering districts, he was 
 plunging like the Argonauts into the unknown. 
 
 Strange changes were visible in Constantinople 
 since he had seen it twenty -four years before.
 
 CHANGES IN CONSTANTINOPLE. 255 
 
 There were the same miscellaneous and vociferous 
 mobs in the filthy and ill -paved streets; the 
 population had been increased and the squalor 
 aggravated, for the long war had left famine 
 behind, filling Stamboul with troops of homeless 
 fugitives. But cheap steamers were hurrying 
 to and fro on the Bosphorus, to the imminent 
 peril of the frail caiques, and the true believers 
 had taken to travelling by tramcars drawn by 
 steam-engines. " Perhaps the most interesting 
 visit was to the English cemetery at Scutari, 
 now a beautiful spot and carefully tended. Large 
 grassy mounds marked the spots where I remem- 
 bered to have stood by open graves, where the 
 corpses of those who had died in the great hos- 
 pital hard by were brought up by the cartload 
 and buried wholesale." The Mosque of St Sophia 
 in its dilapidation and decay seemed to have 
 shared the fallen fortunes of the shattered em- 
 pire. Sir Henry Layard was at the British 
 Embassy, with Mr Malet (now Sir Edward) for 
 first Secretary. General Sir Collingwood Dick- 
 son was military attache, specially sent out dur- 
 ing the war. But the high official with whom 
 Hamley's mission brought him into more im- 
 mediate relations was the British member of the 
 International Commission for the Organisation of 
 Eastern Boumelia. Few Englishmen can boast a
 
 256 THE BULGARIAN DELIMITATION COMMISSION. 
 
 more distinguished record, or have done more to 
 deserve well of their country, than Sir Henry 
 Drummond Wolff, who, after having made a 
 brilliant reputation at home as a Conservative 
 politician and statesman, has filled the most im- 
 portant diplomatic posts in Europe and the East, 
 distinguishing himself by rare tact and ability in 
 bringing to a successful issue the most delicate 
 international negotiations. From the first, his 
 intercourse with Hamley was cordial in the ex- 
 treme. His counsels and oriental experience were 
 of infinite utility, and as he warmly appreciated 
 the value of Hamley's work, so he urged his 
 claims for adequate recognition on the Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 Hamley had gone from the great Mosque to 
 pay visits of ceremony to some of the Turkish 
 ministers : 
 
 I observed the same tokens of decay in some of the 
 public offices. There was evidently no money to spare 
 for paint, plaster, glazing, and wall-paper. The ablest 
 public servants of Turkey are for the most part either 
 Greeks or Armenians. They, as a rule I should say, are 
 rather subtle than wise rather shifty than foreseeing. 
 The Foreign Secretary, Carathcortory Pasha, thin, some- 
 what pinched of aspect, had not the presence or manner 
 of a strong administrator, but was quite conversant with 
 the business I had come upon, having represented Turkey 
 at the late Congress. ... He begged me to discuss the
 
 MEMBERS OF COMMISSION. 257 
 
 subject [that of arranging a defensible frontier] with 
 the Grand Vizier and the War Minister (Osman, the 
 defender of Plevna) ; but interviews with them convinced 
 me that they had never thought of the matter, and had 
 no views to impart. Osman, thick-featured, short-necked, 
 heavy-shouldered, dull of expression, and changeless of at- 
 titude as the automatic chess-player, was the personifica- 
 tion of an immovable Turk. His immobility may have 
 served him well when it caused him to hold on so gal- 
 lantly to the defence of Plevna, but showed its other side 
 when he delayed his retreat so long that he lost his 
 army. 
 
 The etiquette is for the newly arrived to make 
 the ceremonial calls, and as his colleagues came 
 dropping in, he received a succession of formal 
 visits. But Commandant Lemoyne, the French 
 delegate, had wintered in Constantinople. Ham- 
 ley lost no time in paying his respects, and 
 thenceforth they were always on excellent 
 terms. 
 
 He was a Frenchman of the thin keen-featured type, 
 and a painstaking, clear-headed man of business. . . . 
 Baron de Ptipp presently came from Vienna. Englishmen 
 are always prepared to find in Austrian officers agreeable, 
 courteous, cultivated men, and I esteemed him throughout 
 the expedition a good comrade. . . . Major Count 
 Wedel, the military attach^ of Germany at Vienna, was 
 a new member. When our proceedings began, he was seen 
 to be more restricted than the rest by the instructions 
 of his Government, according to which he was to support 
 the Eussian as a rule, except when the opinion of the 
 
 VOL. I. B
 
 258 THE BULGARIAN DELIMITATION COMMISSION. 
 
 majority might be against him, when he was to conform 
 to it. This caused him to venture on few expressions of 
 opinion, to reserve his vote frequently, and to refer often 
 to Berlin. 
 
 Colonel Orero, the Italian, was a quiet and 
 sensible man, who said little, and kept himself 
 in the background, but was inclined to back 
 Hamley. For the consultations generally turned 
 on the conflicting views of the Englishman and 
 the Russian. 
 
 The two members who, by common consent, were re- 
 garded as representing the chief opposing interests, 
 Colonel Bogulaboff and myself, though often of neces- 
 sity in disagreement in debate, always remained excellent 
 friends. He was young for his rank, probably under 
 thirty, had served in the late war and in Circassia, and 
 had done a great deal of that diplomatic work to which 
 Eussian officers take so kindly. He was of a shrewd 
 rather than a powerful intellect, with an expression of 
 countenance more energetic than refined, and his tone in 
 our discussions was often aggressive, owing to the con- 
 fidence he felt in the support of his Government. But 
 his object was always too clearly revealed, and he arrived 
 at it rather by insistence than by finesse. 
 
 The Pasha did not take a part in our debates commen- 
 surate with the interests he represented. He was a 
 plump, good-natured man, of grave aspect, had served 
 under Osman Pasha at Plevna, spoke a little French, 
 and had been in Paris. He was decidedly dull, but 
 good-tempered and not bigoted. Stolid and inoffensive, 
 he appeared to have been instructed to support my views, 
 at least by voting for them.
 
 THE PASHA AND HIS STAFF. 259 
 
 With regard to the Pasha, Hamley has a good 
 story which tells pleasantly against himself. 
 Yet in circumstances when another man would 
 probably have given serious cause of offence, 
 few were inclined to take offence with him : 
 
 Observing him sign his name as"M. Tahir," I said, 
 " Quel est votre nom Chretien, Excellence ? " " Comment ? " 
 said the Pasha, with a look of surprise. I perceived my 
 mistake, but did not mend it by changing the form of the 
 question, " Je veux demander quel est votre nom de 
 l>aptme, ? " " Comment ? " said the Pasha again, more 
 gravely than before, I then recollected that I was as 
 much out of time with my hearer as Portia when she talks 
 to Shylock of the Lord's Prayer, and at length elicited by 
 a question more aptly framed what his first name was 
 Mehmet. 
 
 The Pasha was attended by several officers 
 for topographical purposes, and by a handsome 
 and highly accomplished Armenian gentleman, 
 who spoke French like the most refined Parisians, 
 and was in the habit of thinking in that lan- 
 guage. There were long and wearisome pre- 
 liminary discussions as to how far the frontier 
 might be settled, previous to actual inspection 
 of the ground. Finally, unanimous assent was 
 given to the resolution proposed by the Austrian 
 delegate, that the general tracing of the boun- 
 daries should be discussed, in order to deter- 
 mine what the disputed points might be, so that
 
 260 THE BULGARIAN DELIMITATION COMMISSION. 
 
 these might be referred to their several Gov- 
 ernments by the Commissioners who had only 
 restricted powers. On Hamley's proposition, 
 communicated to Lord Salisbury by a despatch 
 of 18th April, and concerted in an informal 
 conference with his Turkish, Austrian, German, 
 and Italian colleagues, general principles of the 
 delimitation were agreed to. Briefly the partage, 
 des eaux, or watershed, was to be followed : 
 the questions in dispute were likely to arise in 
 including on the northern side of the southern 
 boundary certain salient positions effective for 
 defence. 
 
 Although snow still lay deep upon the hills, on 
 the 29th April the English topographical party 
 was despatched to complete the survey of the 
 Balkans to the west of Samakow. Major Ardagh 
 was in charge, and Hamley had found an invalu- 
 able interpreter in Mr Cullen, son of an English 
 physician in Constantinople, who already knew 
 the country well, and had been an eye-witness of 
 some of the worst of " the Bulgarian atrocities." 
 " I had purchased horses in Pera small and 
 strong for the whole party, and I sold them at 
 the end of the business at no great loss." Before 
 leaving Constantinople himself, he found time to 
 visit Baker Pasha, who was then engaged with 
 nearly 40,000 Turkish troops on the lines of
 
 LETTER TO THE DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE. 261 
 
 Tchatchaldja, intended to protect the capital from 
 invading forces passing the Balkans. That visit 
 is described at length in a letter to the Duke of 
 Cambridge, who had expressed a desire to receive 
 occasional communications. It is unnecessary to 
 give the letter in full, and I shall merely select 
 some extracts as to the strategical and political 
 importance of the lines, and the qualities of the 
 men employed in constructing them : 
 
 MAJOR-GENERAL EDWARD B. HAMLEY to H.R.H. the 
 DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE. 
 
 CONSTANTINOPLE, 12th May. 
 
 SIR, At Tchatchaldja the position is viewed from the 
 side of the enemy, who, having reached from Adrianople 
 a long line of high and steep heights, crossed by very few 
 roads and very difficult of passage, would then see it 
 before him, across a flat valley from three to four miles 
 wide. 
 
 As the heights on each side recede considerably from 
 the valley, the defensive line is for the most part, in this 
 portion of it, quite beyond extreme cannon-range from the 
 heights reached by the enemy. The road from Tchat- 
 chaldja to the position runs across the valley through 
 a marsh, which, according to the season, is from half a 
 mile to a mile in extent, and is impassable. 
 
 The position, which, as the crow flies, is at an average 
 distance of 35 miles from Constantinople, traverses a 
 peninsula, which from the Sea of Marmora to the Black 
 Sea is at this point about 26 miles wide. But as the 
 flanks of the position rest on two lakes, each separated
 
 262 THE BULGARIAN DELIMITATION COMMISSION. 
 
 from one of those seas only by a sandbank, its actual 
 fortified extent is thereby narrowed to about 16 miles. 
 . . . From the main ridge parallel to the valley, a number 
 of spurs run out into the valley : the position lies along 
 the crests of the spurs, the lower parts of which form each 
 an uncommonly perfect glacis. The general principle of 
 the defence is to place a work on the crest of each spur, 
 sweeping the glacis and the valley, and another farther 
 back, where it can command the part of the valley which 
 runs up between the spurs. 
 
 Describing the positions and armaments in 
 detail, he pronounces the lines virtually impreg- 
 nable, the points which nature had left compara- 
 tively assailable being strongly defended by triple 
 works. As to the troops : 
 
 These works have been constructed by the troops under 
 the direction of Baker Pasha, who planned and traced them. 
 The battalions are chiefly 'mustafiz,' or men of the last 
 reserve, who, taken from their homes for the war, have 
 been detained to labour on the defences. Nothing could 
 have been more deplorable than the condition of these men 
 during the winter, in miserable tents on those bleak hills, 
 the country everywhere deep in mire, rations and clothing 
 very scanty, firewood fetched by the men from a great 
 distance through the mud, and no hospital ; and nothing 
 could have been more admirable than the cheerfulness 
 with which they continued their labours in these circum- 
 stances. In fact, their patience, energy, discipline, and 
 uncomplaining spirit surpass what would have been dis- 
 played under such conditions by any other troops. Nor 
 is their physical inferior to their moral excellence : 
 although shabbily clad, they are now well fed, and a finer
 
 LETTER TO THE DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE. 263 
 
 body of men it would be impossible to find, immensely 
 broad and deep in shoulder and chest, far above average 
 stature, manly of bearing, and intelligent of aspect. 
 
 It would appear that beyond the mere military result, 
 the existence of such a line of defences must exercise an 
 immense influence on the affairs of Europe. An impreg- 
 nable line of defence at that distance from Constantinople 
 assures the existence of Turkey as a European Power. It 
 may also be expected to produce a beneficial effect on in- 
 ternal affairs by affording that guarantee for national 
 existence which is a necessary condition of national 
 development.
 
 264 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE BULGARIAN DELIMITATION COMMISSION continued. 
 
 TRAVEL IN THE BALKANS PICTURESQUE SCENERY VICTIMS OP 
 
 THE WAR FEELINGS OF THE POPULATION ENMITY BETWEEN 
 
 CHRISTIANS AND MOHAMMEDANS ARRIVAL AT VARNA 
 
 DIFFICULTIES WITH THE RUSSIAN AUTHORITIES, AND EMBAR- 
 KATION OF THE HORSES. 
 
 THE Commission set out on the 13th of May. 
 With the attendants, equipments, and train of 
 baggage animals, it made a formidable party. 
 
 O^5 ^J i V 
 
 In one of his lively letters to his niece he de- 
 scribes an amusing incident de voyage: 
 
 We slept at Adrianople not in the city, however, but 
 in the train. I saw somebody in red-striped trousers 
 extend himself on the opposite sofa of the carriage, and, 
 being half asleep, concluded it was Captain Jones. I 
 thought his legs very short, and could not account for 
 his head in relation to them. I also came to the conclu- 
 sion that nobody ever snored so loud, and wondered how 
 Mrs Jones could stand it. In the morning light, however, 
 I discovered that my companion was the Pasha. 
 
 The second night was passed at Philippopolis,
 
 TALE OF TURKISH ATROCITIES. 265 
 
 the capital of the new province of Eastern Rou- 
 melia. " The singularity of this town is that it is 
 built round the sides of a high steep rock, which 
 crops up abruptly through the wide flat valley 
 of the Maritza." Hamley had his lodging on the 
 summit of the rock, in comfortable quarters placed 
 at his disposal by Sir Henry Drummond Wolff. 
 He looked down on the Maritza, which reminded 
 him of the Thames, though storks in place of 
 swans and the herds of shaggy buffaloes tended 
 to dispel the fond illusion. 
 
 This city had been in the preceding year the scene of 
 great cruelties practised by the Turkish governor. My 
 interpreter, Mr Cullen, told me he had seen a procession 
 of Bulgarians marched along the street under Turkish 
 escort, and on arriving at a sign, lamp-post, or other con- 
 venient projection, a halt was made, a prisoner hung on 
 the extemporised gibbet, and the march resumed to the 
 next one. He described the Bulgarians as submitting 
 absolutely without complaint or resistance, and had re- 
 marked that each was run up motionless like a stuffed 
 figure, a grey shade which presently came over the un- 
 covered face showing when life was extinct. A hundred 
 and five had been thus dealt with at once. He had 
 remonstrated with the Pasha, representing that all these 
 men could not have been guilty of offences worthy of 
 death, to which the Pasha simply replied that to be a 
 Bulgarian was a sufficient crime. 
 
 The strong cavalry escort was furnished by the 
 Russians, and the real start was made on the
 
 266 THE BULGARIAN DELIMITATION COMMISSION. 
 
 18th May for Tatar Bazardjik, where there was 
 a large Russian camp. In fact, the Russians in- 
 sisted on taking excessive care of the delegates, 
 considerably to Hamley's annoyance. There was 
 a guard of a dozen men in the courtyard of the 
 house he occupied ; sentries were posted before 
 and behind, and he could not saunter out into 
 the street without having an armed party at his 
 heels. 
 
 As the Russians supplied the escort, so a 
 Bulgarian official was charged by the Russian 
 authorities with providing transport. 
 
 His zeal in our service was so great as quite to extin- 
 guish any sympathy he might have had for his Bulgarian 
 brethren, whom he impressed most ruthlessly, along with 
 their oxen and ardbas, carrying them off from their labours 
 in the fields, sometimes for days, while their families 
 were left in ignorance of what had become of them. 
 These arabas were often drawn by black and hideous 
 buffaloes, with enormous flat curled horns and colossal 
 limbs, and the picturesque procession moved slowly 
 onwards to the melodious screeching of innumerable 
 wheels. A squadron of Eussian dragoons, headed by 
 the band with trumpets and kettle-drums, led the ad- 
 vance, and the rear of the cumbrous baggage-train was 
 brought up by mounted Bulgarians. 
 
 Now that Eastern Roumelia has been annexed 
 to Bulgaria, it is superfluous to follow closely 
 the military itinerary, or to dwell on the defen-
 
 AN EXCITED POPULACE. 267 
 
 sive positions in detail. Nothing is less likely 
 than that the Russians in our time will again 
 march on Constantinople by the overland route, 
 though it is certain that the Shipka Pass may 
 still be of importance should there be trouble 
 between Turkey and the liberated populations ; 
 so I shall chiefly confine myself to those in- 
 cidents in the military promenade which have 
 some personal reference to the subject of the 
 memoir. It may be mentioned that the mem- 
 bers of his staff often found their duties suffi- 
 ciently arduous. On one occasion, for example, 
 Captains Everett and Elles rode fifty miles 
 over the roughest country, making a variety 
 of topographical sketches in course of the ride. 
 In some of the towns where the Commission was 
 expected, though the escort held them in awe, the 
 people were very menacing, and at Ichtiman, " a 
 most filthy place," there was imminent danger of 
 an emeute. For once, and as it happened when he 
 needed them most, none of the escort was bil- 
 leted in Hamley's quarters. He and his aide-de- 
 camp dined with pistols on the table, listening to 
 the uproar below the windows. The population 
 were anxious to be included in Bulgarian territory, 
 and believed that the English Commissioner, in 
 especial, was opposed to their wishes. As for the 
 peasants, they had no reason to like the Russians,
 
 268 THE BULGARIAN DELIMITATION COMMISSION. 
 
 who continued to carry matters with a high hand. 
 One evening arrangements had been made for an 
 early start, but in the morning all the enforced 
 waggoners were missing, and had taken their 
 arabas with them. Forthwith the dragoons were 
 sent out to scour the country, and they impressed 
 a sufficient number of unfortunates, who were put 
 under stricter guard. 
 
 We rode over breezy downs, along the watershed to- 
 wards a village bordering a stream. Here Major Ardagh 
 and I, with one servant, pitched our tents in a meadow, 
 procured some meat, and late at night supped upon it as 
 cooked by the servant. Towards morning I was awoke 
 by a young bull stumbling over the tent-ropes. The re- 
 mainder of my party had encamped four miles from me. 
 A waggon, loaded with baggage of the Italian officers, had 
 rolled in the dark down a ravine, and Colonel Orero ex- 
 pressed to me much gratitude for the aid my officers had 
 afforded in rescuing the articles and setting the araba 
 again on the road. 
 
 Next day the road led up a deep gorge ; the 
 broken path kept crossing from side to side, and 
 some twenty times they forded the Topolnitza, 
 which flowed swiftly in the bottom. Emerging 
 on the broad plain, they had left the lesser range 
 beyond the Rhodope behind, and were in presence 
 of the principal chain of the Balkans. 
 
 At the foot of the Great Balkans we were met by a 
 deputation of Bulgarian notables, bringing a petition for
 
 A CHARITABLE GIFT. 269 
 
 respecting the boundaries of some village lands. They 
 invited us to halt in a grove, where they had spread rugs 
 and cushions for us, had cooked fine trout netted in a 
 neighbouring stream, and roasted a lamb whole, by en- 
 closing it in the hollow trunk of a tree. The animal 
 looked somewhat grisly, but nevertheless tasted excellent ; 
 so did the trout. 
 
 Taking leave of our entertainers we passed on, and 
 pausing beside a small mountain-stream to await our train, 
 I got out my fly-rod, and caught a few brook-trout. My 
 colleagues testified great interest in this small sport, espec- 
 ially the Pasha, who, usually apathetic, bustled officiously 
 round me, and several times put me in terror for my 
 tackle by assisting the landing of the fish. Next morning 
 we ascended the Trojan Pass by a path zigzagged up the 
 steep mountain - side, slippery with stones, and far too 
 narrow for wheels, or for anything but a single horse. 
 
 Then he records an incident strikingly signifi- 
 cant of his kindly generosity. He also alludes 
 to it in a letter to his niece, characteristically 
 saying nothing of his charitable gift. Every- 
 where he was painfully impressed by the pitiable 
 condition of the victims of the war. For there 
 was little to choose between Turkish and Bul- 
 garian atrocities, and whether the Christian or 
 Mohammedan Bulgarians had the upper hand, 
 they ruthlessly avenged long - cherished griev- 
 ances against the neighbours of a different creed. 
 
 When the Commission marched for Karlovo, I stayed 
 with my Russian orderly and my interpreter to ride
 
 270 THE BULGARIAN DELIMITATION COMMISSION. 
 
 round the village of Teke. Being altogether Turkish, 
 it was entirely deserted and completely ruined. When 
 the Eussian armies were approaching the Balkans, the 
 Turkish inhabitants, expecting no mercy, took to flight. 
 Their property, left unprotected, was immediately pillaged 
 by their Bulgarian neighbours. Their flocks were driven 
 off, their crops plundered, their houses pulled down and 
 the woodwork carried off. These proceedings were not 
 altogether inspired by hatred or cupidity, but partly from 
 a desire to prevent the Turks in any case from returning 
 to their homes by leaving them no homes to return to. 
 Mr Cullen, making a foray, as usual, in search of lambs, 
 fowls, and bread, which the owners might be willing to 
 sell, had found in this place some starving Turkish women, 
 still haunting their ruined houses and fields, because they 
 had no other refuge, and endeavouring to subsist on what 
 they could glean in their devastated lands and gardens. 
 Some of these veiled and black-robed forms were flitting 
 furtively between the walls, and Mr Cullen learned that 
 they could possibly subsist if they had a cow, which 
 could be fed on the pastures round. I therefore left with 
 them the few pounds necessary and rode onward. Our 
 way now lay through immense tracts of roses, at this 
 time in full bloom. Everywhere women were gathering 
 them, and cart-loads were conveyed to the distilleries, 
 established on the banks of suitable streams for the manu- 
 facture of the attar. Here enormous earthen jars in rows 
 stood each over a charcoal furnace, and were connected 
 by pipes with lesser jars, and these, sheltered by rough 
 sheds in which lay vast heaps of gathered roses, with 
 groups of peasants tending the furnaces, while ardbas 
 with fresh freights came in from the fields and forded the 
 streams, lent singular interest and picturesqueness to the 
 solitary valleys of the Balkans.
 
 TROUT-FISHING IN THE BALKANS. 271 
 
 At a village beyond Kalofer, examination of 
 the map showed a stream flowing from the moun- 
 tain, and Hamley rode forth to reconnoitre. 
 
 Its aspect was most promising, and Mr Cullen awaited 
 my return with a native, whose occupation was to scoop 
 out trout with a hand-net. This functionary said there 
 was an excellent spot about two miles up the stream, to 
 which he would take me in the morning, proposing' to 
 bring his net, which he imagined to be indispensable. 
 The interpreter assured him that if he disappointed us, 
 and above all, if he brought his net, the Pasha (myself) 
 would certainly hang him. Events had lent too much 
 reality to a threat of that kind, and the fisherman, net- 
 less, wondering, and possibly somewhat frightened, punc- 
 tually awaited me next morning. 
 
 In three hours he had caught upwards of five 
 dozen trout, many above a pound weight. Many 
 were killed in a deep gorge, where he was sur- 
 prised by the bursting of a terrific thunder-storm, 
 which brought down the river suddenly in a flood, 
 much in the manner of the Morayshire Findhorn. 
 Before the interruption of his sport, in 
 
 wending round a corner, I surprised a swarm of frogs 
 sunning themselves on the stony margin, brilliantly 
 attired, as Turkish frogs are, in green and gold and rose 
 colour. Alarmed at my appearance between them and 
 the stream, they threw themselves off, taking headers like 
 schoolboys bathing, hands joined in front, heels in the air, 
 so hurriedly that many struck against me before lighting 
 in the water. ... I sent all my largest trout to my
 
 272 THE BULGARIAN DELIMITATION COMMISSION. 
 
 colleagues for dinner, who, in return, bestowed upon me 
 some bottles of beer which they had somehow become 
 possessed of. 
 
 That stream had its source in a spur of the 
 Shipka, and next day they ascended the famous 
 pass, where Suleiman Pasha had sulked on the 
 defensive, and which he very probably sold to the 
 General of the Tsar. 
 
 The pass goes up from the village, and was traversed 
 by a good road, twenty feet wide, made by the Kussians, 
 and now being improved by Bulgarian labourers. The 
 summit of San Nicholas, the high point of the pass, is 
 visible from the plains. We reached it in two hours and 
 a half, and, from the summit of the peak, saw the road 
 going steeply down along narrow crests till it vanished 
 round a hill a mile off. Around were other craggy peaks, 
 parted from us by deep and steep ravines ; and all their 
 rugged sides had been thickly strewn with Eussian and 
 Turkish dead in the long struggle for the pass. Below 
 us was the Eussian cemetery, so completely enclosed and 
 commanded, that we made no difficulty of acceding to 
 Colonel BogulabofFs request that this graveyard should 
 be left in Bulgarian territory, so strong a frontier being 
 here assigned to Turkey as would, if suitably occupied, 
 secure the pass. 
 
 In the altered political circumstances, the capa- 
 bilities of the Balkans as a defensive line may be 
 briefly dismissed in an extract from a letter to 
 the Duke of Cambridge reporting generally on the
 
 A GENEROUS COMMISSARIAT. 2*73 
 
 work of the Commission. It was written from 
 Buyukdere on the 7th July : 
 
 The only passes where preparations for defence need be 
 made are those of the Shipka, Hankivi, and Kotel. That 
 these should be defended would appear a very proper 
 measure, because the Balkans, being so difficult of passage, 
 everywhere form a real and strong line of defence. But 
 no expensive fortifications are needed. Earthworks would 
 amply suffice both for infantry and artillery. 
 
 Beyond the Balkans the Commissioners were in 
 a rich and fruitful country, with vineyards, rose- 
 gardens, and fields of waving corn. Now there 
 was no difficulty as to the commissariat, and 
 supplies of all kinds poured in. Dr Exham 
 went out with his gun, and with Don, the 
 pointer, who had become an esteemed member of 
 the Commissioner's staff, and he came back with 
 bags of partridges and hares. The English mem- 
 bers of the expedition stuck to their national 
 habits, making a solid breakfast and a frugal 
 lunch. 
 
 But our colleagues preferred their usual practice of 
 beginning the day with coffee or bread and fruit, and at 
 the mid-day halt a Bulgarian cook or steward, said to have 
 been a captain in the army, would arrive on a horse, bear- 
 ing all the materials for a substantial ddjedner cold meat, 
 cold fowls, salads, potted fish, and wines ; and while we 
 despatched the trifling matters which our saddle-bags con- 
 tained, the foreigners, spreading a huge tablecloth in a 
 
 VOL. I. s
 
 274 THE BULGARIAN DELIMITATION COMMISSION. 
 
 woody glade or on a grassy meadow, would make a meal 
 which was followed by hot coffee, and liqueur, and by 
 some period of repose. The rest in the hot time of the 
 day was welcome, for the sun now poured his rays as from 
 a furnace. . . . 
 
 There was one mitigating feature in the sultry rides 
 namely, the fountains which were so frequently to be 
 found by the roadsides, generally the grateful offering, as 
 the inscription on a tablet mostly records, of some pious 
 hadji or other devout Mussulman. Out of these always 
 gushes cold, pure water, falling into a trough for beasts. 
 These structures are of some size, and often very pictur- 
 esque, the votive inscription in white or gold on a green 
 tablet. 
 
 We had now left the rose-fields, and were journeying at 
 the foot of slopes clothed in vines. A good well-flavoured 
 red wine is produced, but the manufacture is rough and 
 ready. Baron Ripp, who seemed to understand the sub- 
 ject practically and from a proprietor's point of view, 
 observed to me that the conditions of soil and climate 
 were excellent, and that by planting suitable vines and 
 exercising the same care as in France or Germany, wines 
 surpassing even the famous growths of these countries 
 might be produced. 
 
 A few days afterwards they rode into a village, 
 after a forced march of twenty-five miles. At 
 nine o'clock, after weary waiting, they heard the 
 screeching of the wheels of the belated baggage 
 train, when it was too late to encamp, and when 
 arrangements for supper were impossible. Next 
 morning, and notwithstanding their fatigue, all 
 the disgusted peasants had again disappeared,
 
 BULGARIAN VILLAGERS. 275 
 
 taking cattle and carriages along with them. 
 So Hamley appears to have disposed of the 
 time by noting down his general impressions of 
 Bulgarian villages : 
 
 A Bulgarian village differs from ordinary European 
 villages in this, that it appears to be composed altogether 
 of one class of persons, the tillers of the soil. There is 
 nothing to be called a street, no small shopkeepers, no 
 inns, no shoemakers or tailors, nor anything to distinguish 
 some of the agricultural population as superior to the 
 rest. Of course there must be diversities in degrees of 
 opulence, but these do not make themselves apparent 
 in greater comfort, better houses, or better living. Every- 
 body lives in squalor: washing is, I should think, 
 quite unpractised, and I concluded that men and women 
 kept on their clothes day and night, for some indefinite 
 period. Both men and women are destitute of good looks. 
 Their houses are separated by spaces of ground not for 
 gardens, for I never saw the slightest attempt at cultiva- 
 tion : the wild weeds, generally tall camomile, grow up to 
 the doors, and must in the decay of autumn be very un- 
 wholesome. The wide tiled eaves of the houses are sup- 
 ported on posts enclosing a balcony which is reached by a 
 broad ladder. The ground-floor is reserved for horses, 
 cows, pigs, and stores. In the room I used as a temporary 
 habitation there was a large hole in the floor, through 
 which the sweepings were cast into the regions below. 
 All fare alike on the bread and cheese of the country, 
 both, to our taste, disgusting the bread clammy, the 
 cheese soft, discoloured, and of horrible odour. Where 
 each family makes its own food and drink, there is no 
 opening for the shopkeeper.
 
 276 THE BULGARIAN DELIMITATION COMMISSION. 
 
 The camomile spreads over the whole country, and 
 our tents were often pitched on ground covered by it, 
 so that my recollections of the expedition are always 
 associated with the odour of the plant. 
 
 The special product of Bulgarian industry is embroidery. 
 They have all the gift of colour and of fanciful design 
 with which the people of the East are endowed, and the 
 towels and coverings which the women adorn with their 
 needle-work are now well known in England, owing to 
 the distress of the Turkish population, who, crowding into 
 Constantinople after abandoning their property, were 
 driven to sell whatever they still possessed, in order to 
 keep body and soul together. The Government lodged 
 them, so far as possible, in great empty houses, such as 
 are always to be found on the Bosphorus. 
 
 The Turks who remained, unwilling to abandon 
 houses or lands, held their lives, like their pro- 
 perty, on a most precarious tenure. One day, 
 after camping near a lonely cemetery, and pitch- 
 ing the tents close to a new-made grave covered 
 with thorns to keep off the jackals and hyenas, 
 the Commission crossed a desolated tract of 
 country to Verbitza. 
 
 I was lodged in the detached villa of a young Bey, 
 about eighteen or twenty years old, whose father, a Pasha, 
 was lately dead. Here was a lively illustration of the 
 condition of Turkish proprietors who remained in the new 
 Principality. The Bey's steward, an old servant of the 
 family, told us that a fortnight before, as he was journey- 
 ing with his master from a town at some distance, they 
 were waylaid by a party of brigands, among whom they
 
 SCENERY OF THE BALKANS. 277 
 
 recognised many of their own neighbours and townsmen 
 and were thrown to the ground. The Bey, with a knife 
 at his throat, was compelled to pay a heavy ransom. 
 They had been menaced by notice with fresh violence, 
 the Russians afforded no protection, and they quite ex- 
 pected to be murdered after our departure. I saw in the 
 streets many loungers who looked quite capable of that or 
 any other crime. 
 
 In the Verbitza pass the Commission separated, 
 to meet again in Constantinople. A part of the 
 delegates turned westward, to complete the de- 
 limitation in that direction, each Commissioner 
 sending his adjutant to represent him where he 
 was not personally present. 
 
 The division of duty was matter of friendly 
 arrangement, and Hamley preferred to join the 
 eastern party, as the eastern frontier embraced 
 the issues directly leading from the north 
 to Constantinople. The marches led through 
 singularly romantic scenery : 
 
 Tor days we had seen the chain of the Balkans, clothed 
 in immense forests of beech, oak, chestnut, and pine, 
 through the shady parts of which our road for the most 
 part lay, emerging now and then into an open space 
 whence we could survey the undulating woods as they 
 covered hill and dale, pierced at the highest points by 
 pinnacles of crag. From Dobral we again crossed the 
 Balkans, at the pass of that name, halting at the Bairam 
 dere. (Dere signifies valley of a stream, and may be the 
 same termination as that of Scamander, Mseander, and
 
 278 THE BULGARIAN DELIMITATION COMMISSION. 
 
 other classical streams.) While our baggage next day 
 took the road by the valley, we plunged into the woods, 
 riding in deep shade, sometimes stooping under the 
 boughs. 
 
 At the next camping-place Hamley invited the 
 captain of the Russian escort to dinner on the 
 following day. He desired the cook to make 
 hospitable preparation, and accordingly a lamb 
 and a goose were purchased, and hung up in the 
 alfresco larder. 
 
 That night there was tremendous excitement among the 
 village dogs, which had made a battle-ground of our green, 
 with savage snarling and growling. One animal made 
 himself specially obnoxious by sitting apart and plain- 
 tively howling. In the morning we discovered that the 
 nocturnal engagement had been waged over lamb and 
 goose, only a foot of the one and the bill of the other 
 remaining to explain it. The dog that had howled was a 
 stranger, debarred from a share in the feast. 
 
 Two days afterwards, from Petreo on the 
 heights, they saw the Euxine shimmering in the 
 sunshine beneath them, and following the ridge 
 of downs bordering the water, after a ride of 
 about 620 miles, drew bridle at last in the streets 
 of Varna, sadly familiar to Hamley in the cholera 
 time before the Crimean campaign. Two charac- 
 teristic incidents marked the brief stay there. 
 Prince Dondakoff Korsakoff, subsequently of Trans-
 
 AN UNGRACIOUS RECEPTION. 279 
 
 Caucasian celebrity, was directing affairs in Bul- 
 garia, and had his residence in Varna. The Com- 
 missioners thought it but courteous to call : their 
 Russian colleague, who must otherwise have pre- 
 sented them to the Prince, had gone with the 
 other party. The courtesy was indifferently re- 
 ciprocated. The Commissioners duly announced 
 their names and functions. The reply of the 
 officers in the antechamber was that the Prince 
 was sitting down to breakfast, and they had 
 better call again. Hamley was the last man to 
 put up with a slight of the kind, especially when 
 he was representing the British Government. He 
 spoke for the rest, and sharply told the aide-de- 
 camp that their purpose of calling on the Prince 
 was fulfilled, and for himself, he would be unable 
 to pay a second visit. The officer turned on his 
 heel, and left the room without any form of 
 leave-taking. The foreign envoys were loud in 
 their indignation at what they styled the inso- 
 lence of master and man. However, the Prince 
 so far made the amende that in the course of 
 the day Hamley found his card on the table. 
 Had he shown himself more friendly, some 
 trouble and embarrassment might have been 
 saved. Hamley, who wished to get rid of his 
 horses, had hoped to sell some of them in Varna, 
 embarking the rest. He learned rather late that
 
 280 THE BULGARIAN DELIMITATION COMMISSION. 
 
 no horses could be shipped without a special per- 
 mission from the Russian Government. This 
 the shrewd Bulgarian horse-dealers knew, and 
 as the steamer was to start at a given time, 
 they thought they had the Englishman and his 
 animals at their mercy. 
 
 He had successfully shipped the horses on 
 lighters, but the lighters were intercepted by a 
 revenue boat and compelled to put back. He 
 hurriedly despatched messengers to obtain the 
 requisite permission. The dealers were triumph- 
 ant, and made a modest bid for the lot of much 
 less than the value of a single horse. Hamley 
 was not to be victimised if he could in any way 
 help it. 
 
 It was dusk, and close to the hour of departure, when 
 the permission came. I had requested the captain to 
 send the steamer's boats, which he did ; but the shallow 
 water would not permit them to approach within some 
 forty yards of the shore, and they would only hold half 
 the number. The joy of the horse-dealers was great : 
 they saw me in extremity, and expected me to capitulate 
 on their own terms. I selected at once the horses I 
 intended to take, had them led into the water to the 
 boats' sides, when our grooms and servants, eight or ten 
 in number, seized each horse, two or three to each leg, 
 and by main strength lifted and tumbled them in. The 
 interpreter's pony they carried the whole way, and pitched 
 him in so abruptly that he got his legs scarred in a way 
 which he still bears the marks of, if he still exists.
 
 DREAD OF THE SEA. 281 
 
 The remaining animals were brought on in another 
 steamer in charge of Captain Jones, and so the 
 grasping dealers were effectually baffled. 
 
 Retributory justice overtook another Bulgarian, 
 whose sufferings were more acute, and Hamley, 
 in very charity for his fellow - creatures, re- 
 garded and narrates them with a grim sense 
 of humour : 
 
 The sea was nearly motionless there was an almost 
 imperceptible heave in it. But this was too much for 
 Tchitchagoff, who had never before seen the sea. He 
 retired at once, in extreme distress, to his cabin, where 
 he lamented, screamed, and even wept all night. The 
 Bulgarian peasantry could hardly have desired a com- 
 pleter vengeance on their persecutor. Next day he stag- 
 gered across the deck to the doctor, to whom he announced 
 that he was dying, and then disappeared. Shortly after- 
 wards, he returned with the information that he was not 
 dying but actually dead and, in fact, he fell below the 
 binnacle in a motionless heap, and so remained till we 
 landed. But the poor man was really so ill that I heard 
 he never got out of his bed at the hotel, except to go 
 straight back to his home in Bulgaria. 
 
 The story of the labours of the Commission 
 may appropriately conclude with the last of the 
 letters to the Duke of Cambridge. The first 
 part is omitted, as its substance has been antici- 
 pated in the extracts from the diary. The rest 
 is curious and interesting, as evidence of how
 
 282 THE BULGARIAN DELIMITATION COMMISSION. 
 
 the subtle Muscovite policy overreached itself, 
 and of how entirely the Russians had deceived 
 themselves as to their future relations with the 
 co-religionists whose affections they had done 
 much to alienate by arbitrary proceedings and 
 an overbearing demeanour. The writer was more 
 clear-sighted : 
 
 MAJOR-GENERAL E. B. HAMLEY to His Royal Highness the 
 DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE. 
 
 BUTXJKDERE, lith July 1879. 
 
 SIR, I have the honour to offer to your Royal High- 
 ness some observations on the condition of the provinces 
 through which the route of the Commission has lain. 
 
 [After remarking that in his opinion the pastoral 
 wealth and fertility of the country, even previous to the 
 war, must have been greatly exaggerated in official reports, 
 he goes on : ] 
 
 At the same time, the country has all the elements of 
 riches in its soil and climate, and wants nothing but a 
 period of tranquillity to develop them. 
 
 Whether such a period will be granted to it is now the 
 problem. The Russians have done a good deal to prevent 
 it by the political ideas they have been inspiring, by 
 organising and drilling a kind of national army, and by 
 large presents of arms. In every town armed bodies were 
 being drilled, and in every cottage a breech-loader and 
 bayonet might be seen. Numbers of men were sometimes 
 to be met with on the roads thus armed, and wearing a 
 badge to show that they belonged to the militia. These 
 arms were left by the Russian troops, who were to receive 
 others of a newer pattern on getting home. Large quanti-
 
 CONCLUSIONS ARRIVED AT. 283 
 
 ties of ammunition have also been distributed, we met a 
 long train of waggons near Sliven which had been im- 
 pressed at Bourgas, all loaded with ammunition -boxes. 
 The Eussians, I believe, justify this by saying that the 
 Turks in Eoumelia and Bulgaria have quantities of arms 
 hidden away, which they only wait the withdrawal of the 
 Eussians to use. However that may be, there evidently 
 exist in this armed and organised population sufficient 
 elements of disturbance. I think, however, there is fair 
 ground for hoping that quietness may prevail. Much of 
 the excitement may cease with the withdrawal of the 
 Eussians, whose treatment of the Bulgarians has not been 
 of a kind to make them popular. The population are 
 naturally industrious and not naturally warlike, and may 
 quickly come to see that they have everything to lose and 
 nothing to gain in further troubles. 
 
 Instead of instilling political ideas, the people should 
 be taught to cultivate the conveniences and decencies of 
 civilised life. . . . The best government will be that 
 which takes the best way to raise the country to the 
 present European level and to develop its natural advan- 
 tages. I hear from various sources that the new Governor 
 of Eoumelia is not likely to take the lead in any policy 
 requiring vigour or capacity. 
 
 I have been emboldened to offer so many remarks by 
 the kind encouragement of your Eoyal Highness; and 
 trusting that the length of my letter may find excuse, I 
 have the honour to be, &c., E. B. HAMLEY.
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 ON THE BOSPHORUS. 
 
 LIFE AT BUYUKDBRB DELAYS IN THE COMPLETION OP THE 
 
 TOPOGRAPHICAL SURVEY DIFFICULTIES SUCCESSFULLY SUR- 
 MOUNTED APPROVAL OF THE FOREIGN OFFICE IS MADE A 
 
 KNIGHT OF THE ORDER OF ST MICHAEL AND ST GEORGE. 
 
 NOTHING can be more enchanting than the banks 
 of the Bosphorus in the spring and early summer, 
 and Hamley passed the time very agreeably while 
 awaiting the arrival of the other section of the 
 Commission. Following the example of the Em- 
 bassies and the wealthy residents, he preferred 
 the country or rather the suburbs to the city, 
 and took up his quarters with his aide-de-camp 
 in the hotel at Buyukdere. There he was glad 
 to rest from his active labours, and found pleasant 
 occupation in boating expeditions to visit the 
 palaces and romantically situated villages that 
 fringe the shores of the Straits ; in rides, or long 
 excursions on foot over the bordering hills, when
 
 A MEETING WITH LAURENCE OLIPHANT, 285 
 
 the sketch-book was never left behind; and in 
 joining picnic - parties which were got up im- 
 promptu. Within doors and on wet days he 
 was busied in methodically embodying the results 
 of his late observations in memoranda which 
 were duly transmitted to the War Office. He 
 and Captain Jones happened to be the only Eng- 
 lishmen in their hotel, the rest of the company 
 consisting of Eussians and Americans ; but the 
 delightful residence of the British Ambassador at 
 Therapia was within easy reach, and there he 
 had always a warm welcome. As he writes to 
 his niece, he met his old acquaintance Laurence 
 Oliphant, who, although he had only arrived a few 
 days before, was already as much at home in the 
 house as if he had been the oldest member of the 
 family. With regard to that meeting, Hamley 
 would sometimes speak rather enviously of Oli- 
 phant's extraordinary faculty of ingratiating him- 
 self with all and sundry. Though he himself 
 possessed it in a wonderful degree in the case 
 of bright and clever women, when his manner 
 would soften insensibly and his face would light 
 up with smiles. But if Oliphant carried all before 
 him in society, he was less successful elsewhere 
 and in his immediate objects. Like Hamley, 
 he had also come on a mission; but he was 
 not clothed with official authority, nor did he
 
 286 ON THE BOSPHORUS. 
 
 represent the dignity of the English War Office. 
 He had come to obtain certain concessions with 
 regard to colonisation and land sales in the 
 
 o 
 
 Jordan valley. He used to give most ludicrous 
 accounts of incidents more amusing in the retro- 
 spect than in the reality, of his dancing attend- 
 ance in the Turkish antechambers ; of his being 
 bandied about from one minister to another ; of 
 free-handed distributions of backsheesh, by which 
 he was never to benefit. He would ruefully 
 confide to Hamley how his suave diplomacy was 
 powerless against the apathetic courtesies of the 
 Pashas, and how his patience was only sustained 
 by his being prepared for the worst, and conse- 
 quently fortified against delays and disappoint- 
 ments. Hamley soon had somewhat similar ex- 
 perience of his own. In respect to the Turks, as 
 he was doing his best to help them, he naturally 
 found them complacent enough and willing to 
 assist him in their dilatory fashion. But he had 
 to play out the parti with his subtle Russian 
 antagonist, who fancied he had a card in reserve 
 that should win the final trick. Hamley played 
 the game in his own manner, with firmness, 
 promptitude, and no little astuteness, and had 
 good reason to pride himself on the result. 
 His purpose all along had been to push the
 
 A HITCH IN THE SURVEY. 287 
 
 arrangements through ; the Russian's desire had 
 been delay, and, if possible, to settle nothing 
 definitely. The incident, important as it was, 
 had only passing interest ; but it illustrates 
 Hamley's indomitable energy, and his readiness 
 to accept responsibility. In brief, an extent of 
 thirty-five miles still remained to be surveyed 
 on the Macedonian frontier. Colonel Bogulaboff 
 had undertaken that his topographers should do 
 the work. On the reassembling of the Commis- 
 sion he calmly announced that the promised work 
 was still undone, owing to the failure of the 
 Turkish authorities to facilitate it, and he fixed 
 two months as the time indispensable for the 
 completion of the plans. 
 
 His colleagues were in consternation at the 
 unexpected delay, and the discussion became 
 stormy. They came to Hamley after the debate, 
 in which he had taken a lead, expressing unani- 
 mously their indignation and despondency. Thus 
 he was assured of their support in any steps he 
 might take. As he says : "I had been sent out 
 expressly to oppose the arrogant pretensions 
 which the Russian Commissioner too often dis- 
 played. . . . The present blow, long delayed, had 
 been resorted to as a safe and certain compensa- 
 tion for the many concessions which the Russian
 
 288 ON THE BOSPHORUS. 
 
 had been compelled to make. There seemed no 
 possible way of averting it." For his own staff 
 had been detached on a different piece of duty, 
 and in particular he had to regret the loss of 
 Captain Everett, who had been summoned away 
 to his vice-consulate at Erzeroum. Moreover, the 
 Russian added insult to injury, by pleasantly 
 recommending Hamley to go on a two months' 
 tour, when he might return to see how matters 
 were progressing. Had anything been necessary 
 to stimulate the sense of duty, it would have 
 been a sneer of the kind. Hamley resolved on 
 moving heaven and earth to make an effective 
 practical retort, and Fortune favoured him in an 
 unexpected fashion. 
 
 Just then he heard that Captain Everett, on 
 his way from England to Trebizond, was actually 
 in the hotel. He asked Everett if he would stop 
 and do some work for him. " Certainly, sir," 
 was the answer, " if you will get me author- 
 ity." He immediately started to walk to the 
 Embassy, and saw Sir Henry Layard going out 
 for his ride. He had begun to run when the 
 Ambassador heard himself accosted, and drew 
 bridle. He preferred his request, but Sir Henry 
 hesitated. He declared there was urgent neces- 
 sity for Everett going to his post. " I observed
 
 DIFFICULTIES OVERCOME. 289 
 
 that the occasion was an important and urgent 
 one, and that on my getting Captain Everett 
 depended whether I should or should not defeat 
 the Eussian plan for stopping the business of the 
 Commission. It was certain that any step tending 
 to defeat Russian designs against Turkey would 
 have a charm for Sir Henry." Sir Henry asked 
 if he would undertake to answer any further com- 
 plaints from Everett's chief at Trebizond. The 
 answer was unhesitatingly in the affirmative, and 
 
 O / 
 
 Sir Henry telegraphed to Lord Salisbury that the 
 Vice-Consul was detained. 
 
 Simultaneously came a second stroke of good 
 fortune, which gave him the services of Lieutenant 
 de Wolski, R.E., a skilled topographer. Major 
 Ardagh was put in charge of the party ; Cap- 
 tain Jones, R.A., was to accompany it to arrange 
 for the camps, commissariat, &c. ; a Turkish officer 
 was attached at the request of the Turkish 
 authorities ; and a suitable interpreter was found. 
 All this was the work of a day or so. The next 
 step was to obtain the formal assent of the Com- 
 mission, and though greatly disappointed and 
 annoyed, even Bogulaboff could not decently re- 
 fuse. He expressed his vexation in no measured 
 terms, but was suavely answered by Hamley that 
 he was surprised at the spirit in which his offer 
 
 VOL. i. T
 
 290 ON THE BOSPHORUS. 
 
 had been received, being persuaded that the sole 
 desire of the Russian was to facilitate the labours 
 of the Commission. 
 
 Then came the consideration of how the topo- 
 graphers were to get to their ground. The 
 Russian control of the country was so complete, 
 that neither escort nor transport could be 
 reckoned upon for the land route. The alter- 
 native was to send the Englishmen to Salonica 
 by sea ; but there seemed to be no possibility of 
 starting for a week, and then by a slow coasting 
 steamer. He hurried back to the Embassy to 
 ask for one of the three English gunboats lying in 
 the Bosphorus. The upshot was that he obtained 
 the Bittern, on the understanding that he should 
 again relieve the Ambassador of responsibility 
 and bear Captain Pusey out with the Admiral. 
 
 At the stance of the 2d August the window of the room 
 in which we sat overlooking the Bosphorus was darkened 
 by a passing ship. This was the Bittern returning from 
 her mission. I observed that this was the vessel which 
 had taken the topographers of the Commission to Salonica, 
 and the fact that she had been so employed evidently 
 made a deep impression. In my despatch on the subject 
 I observed, " The Commission cannot fail to contrast the 
 manner in which the English Government endeavour to 
 facilitate their work with the attitude taken towards them 
 by the Eussian." Consistent in his official attitude of
 
 HAMLEY MADE K.C.M.G. 291 
 
 obstruction to the last, Bogulaboff made a final attempt 
 to have the work of his own topographers, when completed, 
 substituted on the map for that of the Englishmen. But 
 the other Commissioners unanimously refused to consent 
 to what could only be regarded as a gratuitous affront. 
 
 The following is the letter from the Foreign 
 Office expressing approval of the work of the 
 Commissioner and his subordinates : 
 
 FOREIGN OFFICE, October 23, 1879. 
 
 SIR, I have to acknowledge receipt of your despatch 
 No. 91 of the llth instant, announcing your return to this 
 country upon the completion of the operations of the In- 
 ternational Commission formed under article 11 of the 
 Treaty of Berlin for the delimitation of the frontiers of 
 Bulgaria; and in so doing I gladly avail myself of the 
 opportunity to convey to you the cordial thanks of her 
 Majesty's Government for the valuable services you have 
 rendered to the Commission, and their high appreciation 
 of the tact and judgment which have characterised your 
 proceedings. 
 
 At the same time I request that you will convey to the 
 members of your staff my acknowledgments of the zeal 
 and efficiency with which they have severally discharged 
 the duties intrusted to them. I am, sir, your most 
 obedient humble servant, SALISBURY. 
 
 By way of recompense he was made a Knight 
 Commander of the Order of St Michael and St 
 George. In private interviews he had the oppor- 
 tunity of reporting to his Lordship on the condi-
 
 292 ON THE BOSPHORUS. 
 
 tion of the districts he had visited, the capabilities 
 for defence, and the feelings of the population. 
 Moreover, he was cordially thanked in less con- 
 ventional terms ; but the most satisfactory evi- 
 dence of the appreciation of his work, as has 
 been already remarked, was in his being selected 
 on two future occasions for the discharge of sim- 
 ilar duties. 
 
 END OF THE FIEST VOLUME. 
 
 PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACK\VOOD AND SONS.