164 MEMORIES OF MY LIFE
be done by myself towards removing this extraordinary and culpable ignorance, I offered to give lectures on the subject, gratuitously, at the then newly founded camp at Aldershot. As may be imagined from what is otherwise known of the confusion of the War Office at that time, no answer at all was sent to my letters, until I ventured to apply personally to the then Premier, Lord Palmerston, who at once caused me to be installed. It is evident from my old notebooks that I worked very hard to frame a suitable course of practical instruction and of lectures for those who cared to profit by them.
General Knowles (1797-1883) was then in com
mand, and he gave me both moral and material help. He assigned me two huts, and made arrangements about hours. My second brother, Erasmus, was in camp as Captain in the 2nd Warwickshire Militia, and his presence was most grateful to me. I myself took a small house about two miles from my hut, and walked there and back each day. Several officers came, and not a few of them showed interest. A lecture was also given by me at the United Service Institution, and the newspapers warmly backed the attempt. The War Office requested that ten (I think) reproductions should be made of a cabinet with four drawers, containing models of what was exhibited in my lectures. One of the cabinets was sent to the South Kensington Museum, and may be there still. One was sent to Woolwich. The others were distributed elsewhere. I do not think that my lectures had much other result, because the rude teachings of the Crimean War soon superseded mine, and the army generally became expert in
