Baucher. 27 



and other modern writers broke through the conventional 

 train of thought. This is strange as regards England, con- 

 sidering how greatly instruction in the theory of musketry 

 has improved the shooting of our army. And yet some of 

 the teachers of musketry were highly finished rule-of-thumb 

 gentlemen, if we may judge by their reported questions and 

 answers ; as, for instance, ' What should always be kept in 

 the butts ? ' Answer : ' Silence.' And ' With what should 

 you clean a rifle ? ' Answer : ' Care.' From my very short 

 list of reasoners, I have purposely omitted the name of 

 Baucher ; not because I am in any way unwilling to with- 

 hold reverence to the grand franqazs as an ecuyer (a riding- 

 school horseman; ; but because his attempted reasoning was 

 hopelessly obscure. When we add to this, change of front 

 after the regrettable accident which deprived him to a great 

 extent of the use of his legs, the student may be pardoned 

 for giving him up in despair. Although Baucher was unsur- 

 passed in the practical part of his work ; no one could become 

 a Baucheriste from a perusal of his books. Baron de Vaux in 

 his charming book, Ecuyer s et Ecuyer vs, gives a very appre- 

 ciative account of this high priest of fequitation savante. 

 ' Un eleve de Baucher' describes his system in detail, with- 

 out illustrations, but with an abuse of technical phrases, 

 which would have charmed his master, had the old man 

 been alive ; but which do little to enlighten the reader. It is 

 possible that in mentioning M. Barroil's name, I may do 

 injustice to his teacher, Captain Raabe : but from reading 

 that admirable work, LArt Equestre, it is impossible to say 

 how much there is of le mattre, and how much of t eleve. I 

 may mention that when I was in F Battery iQth Brigade 

 Royal Artillery at Kamptee, our riding-master was a Mr 

 Wilkinson, who was an enthusiastic Baucheriste. He tried 

 to introduce the various ' flexions ' of the French reformer ; 

 but because those exercises were not in the drill-book, the 

 officers, as well as the * non-com.'s ' and drivers did not sup- 

 port him in this endeavour, and Baucher's name was held up 



