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THE “OUTLINES OF QUATERNIONS.’’ 1 
BY 
LIEUT.-COLONEL H. W. L. HIME, late R.A, 
COMMUNICATED BY 
THE SECRETARY. 
It is many years since Colonel Hime’s first contribution, “Rough notes 
on the History of Field Artillery,” appeared in the pages of this journal. 
It was a short and unpretending paper, but, slight as it was, it proved 
that its writer might fairly hope to reap literary laurels outside the field 
of mere professional journalism, and, more important still, it contained 
the hit motif of valuable work that was to follow. In these days Colonel 
Hime was an enthusiastic field gunner and he was not the least success¬ 
ful of those, to whose continued efforts is due the place of pride the 
Field Artillery now holds. Okehampton had not been dreamed of, but 
there were men, and he was one of them, who fully realised what were 
the proper functions of their arm. The papers on the Mobility of Field 
Artillery, brilliantly written, but terse withal and ever to the point, 
stand as a literary landmark that future regimental historians will not 
willingly pass by; while the essay on the Tactics of Field Artillery, the 
first and also the best of the series, is a model of what a prize essay 
should be. 
All Colonel Hime’s contributions have had one common character¬ 
istic ; they are eminently readable. If an incident had a humorous side, 
it never escaped him; whether he found it in the serious quaintness of 
Eldred’s aphorism, in the history of the unfortunate Godless gunner, or 
in the fate of him who defied the accuracy of the Seventeenth Century 
Gun, and, when vapouring on the battlements in his shirt, was slain 
there for his temerity. 
After five years of singular success as the secretary of the R.A. In¬ 
stitution, Colonel Hime's contributions ceased when he put the corner 
stone to his work by the valuable “ compilation ” known as the “ War 
Services of the Royal Artillery. ” 
We do not know how far the periodical press has been indebted to 
his trenchant pen, but there are two publications that bear his name 
that may well be taken as proof of his versatility. The musical criticism 
on Wagner entitled “Wagnerism : a Protest” and the essay on Con- 
1 Longmans, Green, & Co., London and New York, 1894. 
6. vol. xxi. 
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