A Plan of Discipline for the Use of The Norfolk Militia.

In Three Parts. Part I. Containing the Manual Exercise, with Explanations. The Officers Exercise and Manner of Saluting, and the Halbert Exercise. Part II. Method of Teaching the Exercise. Rules and Directions for Marching and Wheeling. The Prussian and Oblique Steps. Marching, Counter-Marching, and Wheeling by Platoons. Exercise in Single Companies. Part III. Reviewing, Forming the Battalion, Firings, Evolutions, Mounting and Relieving a Guard, Standing Orders, &c. With an Introduction from Ælian, Vegetius, Folard, K. of Prussia, M. Saxe, Wolfe, and the Most Celebrated Ancient and Modern Authors... The Second Edition, Greatly Improved. To which is now added, The Present Manual Exercise for the Army, as ordered by His Majesty and the Adjutant General. With Encampments for Infantry and Cavalry.

Small 4to. Fifty-two plates, three of them folding, five folding tables. Small 4to. Three plates with some, later, hand-colour, a little light browning throughout, otherwise very good in contemporary full calf, rebacked. xxxviii, 60pp. 2 addenda leaves, [iv], errata leaf, 98pp. J. Millan,

"The reform of the English militia and the new vigour introduced into its affairs after the passage of the Militia Acts of 1757-8 was reflected in the appearance of drillbooks devoted to that service; but the best of these books were of use to the officers of the regular army in the basic training of their men too, since the militia drills (on paper) tended to differ very little from the practice of the regular army. Without doubt the most useful and popular such work in the army was William Windham's Norfolk Militia, which dealt at length with all five elements of the drill. Addressing itself especially to the procedures by which men could best be trained, it contained over fifty plates illustrating the manual and manoeuvres; and these were the best plates yet to have appeared in any English drill book." [Houlding Fit for Service p.207.]

This influence of this revised edition was to spread widely, forming the basis for drill books produced in America for the militia of Massachusetts Bay later in 1768, with further Boston editions down to 1774, and in New Hampshire, Connecticut 1771 and 1772 respectively, see Sabin 104749-104755.

Stock Code: 88199