PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 81 



duced the oblique or diagonal movements, regular wheeling into 

 columns and echelon manoeuvres. 



The Cavalry mounted on heavy horses used straight swords with 

 basket hilts and too short for proper execution. Cuirasses were 

 worn by all the horse even in the English army ; and since the bat- 

 tle of Blenheim the Scots Greys, and the late Irish dragoons wore 

 grenadier caps, assumed it is said on the field of battle, from the 

 grenadiers a cheval of the French guards whom they had driven into 

 the Danube on that occasion. The cavalry, formed in three or even 

 four ranks, moved seldom out of a walk, and usually charged at a 

 trot, firing their carbines and pistols before they used the sword. 

 It is said generals Lumley and Wood first began to lead on at a 

 gallop and sword in hand at the battle of Oudenaude, when that 

 improvement was perhaps caused by the heat of the action, the even- 

 ness of the ground, and the necessity of haste, more than from reflec- 

 tion. The Austrians were in the habit of charging in whole lines, 

 without intervals of squadrons. In short the natural impulse of the 

 riders generally did more good than the system of discipline then in 

 vogue. Besides the horse there were light horse, differing from the 

 others chiefly in their want of a breast- plate. Dragoons were mount- 

 ed infantry with short swords, long muskets, and wearing gaiters 

 instead of boots ; with drums and fifes instead of trumpets. They 

 were used for rapid movements but were intended for fighting on 

 foot. Lancers were unknown, and hussars were considered irregular 

 corps, wearing no regimentals, and were so few that two or three squa- 

 drons were the whole the French possessed ; while with Marlborough, 

 there were only two regiments of Hungarians, lent him by Prince 

 Eugene. 



Vauban, in France, and Cohorn, in Holland, had then very re- 

 cently formed regularly educated engineers, and their profession had 

 now become truly scientific : the artillery also of all the continental 

 armies was trained upon scientific principles. Ricochet fires were 

 universally adopted : carcasses, shells, grape and canister firings were 

 well understood, but the guns themselves were still heavy and un- 

 wieldy, and, in consequence of the absence of the fine roads to which 

 we are now accustomed, they were machines very embarrassing to 

 move in action. England was, so far as regards these arms, inferior 

 to other nations : we had no national corps of engineers, and even 

 our artillery was in a great measure officered by foreigners. Even 

 the cannon foundry of Woolwich was not constructed till 1707. In 

 the search which I have been enabled to make, for plans and reports, 

 in the papers of the Marlborough collection, I have not found one 

 VOL. in. 1834. M 



