THE STUDY OP MILITARY HISTORY. 
409 
memory and to do this I do not think it is possible to over-rate the 
benefit to be derived from its study on the ground where the actual 
events took place. Some years ago now I spent a month with some 
officers in the Austrian army at Vienna, and I was fortunate enough to 
get leave to accompany one of the classes of field officers preparing 
for promotion in its work. 
As you know, the neighbourhood of Vienna is rich in reminiscences 
of the Napoleonic wars. There are the battle-fields of Wagram and 
Aspern and the island of Lobau with the traces of the French occu¬ 
pation still quite distinct. Landmarks of stone are placed to show 
the details of the great camp formed there in the early summer of 
1809. You can see the spot where the Emperor’s tent was placed, 
the site of the hospital, of the grave-yards, the powder-magazine, &c. 
The position of the various bridges which were thrown across the 
Danube are also commemorated, while the works thrown up to protect 
the camp and the roads made by Napoleon still remain almost in their 
entirety, 
To read history on such ground was a delightful experience, and I 
was much struck by the manner in which such advantages were turned 
to account by the staff officers who were the instructors of the course. 
We walked over the ground and listened to a lecture on the events 
which had occurred there, and subsequently groups of officers were 
sent on various errands which help to fix in their memories the pro¬ 
blems and difficulties which were presented to the minds of those 
engaged at the commencement of the century. 
One party sketched the bend of the river, another the available camp¬ 
ing grounds, a third mounted the spire of the neighbouring village of 
Enzersdorf, and brought back a report of all the country that was 
visible from thence, some meanwhile followed the passage of the French 
troops, some studied the arrangement of the camp and thus a clear im¬ 
pression of the events of 1809 were carried away. 
Another day or two was devoted to the battle-field of Wagram, and the 
tactical lessons to be drawn from that mighty struggle were considered 
on the scene where it actually took place. Such a manner of studying 
military history is undoubtedly the best, but unfortunately in England 
we have no modern battle-fields to visit. 
We are as a nation, however, much given to travel, and no very 
great effort is necessary in order to visit the ground round Metz, and 
the battle-fields of Waterloo and Quatre Bras. Foreign, or at any rate 
Austrian officers, travel but very little, and only comparatively few have 
indeed been in foreign countries at all, but jfiiey can fall-back on what 
they find at home, and have military history at their doors, so to speak. 
Not but what I think something is still to be learnt even from the 
mediaeval battle-fields which we do possess and which few people even 
go to see. Those of the Civil War, atjany rate, can still enforce a 
lesson, if only they bring home to us the genius of Cromwell and his 
ability as a leader of horse. And wandering over them during a 
holiday will set many a brain which is stored with military history 
thinking. 
