The new manual and platoon exercises

description below

A military-drill aid, dissected into twelve panels, providing a step-by-step pictorial guide to basic infantry exercises ‘as practised by His Majesty’s Army’. The whole consists of two separate evolutions: ‘Manual Exercise’ in eight steps, which involves the fixing and use of bayonets but with no firing or reloading; and ‘Platoon Exercise’ in ten steps, including the firing of muskets and subsequent reloading. Each dissected panel features two steps, with the three remaining panels containing the ‘Position of an Officer’ and ‘3 Ranks. Make Ready’, the decorated title vignette, and ”3 Ranks. Present – Fire’ alongside a detailed schematic of a musket, in both assembled and disassembled forms. Engraved after the work of English artist and printmaker Robert Dighton, this guide was issued at the beginning of the most acute stage of the first Napoleonic invasion scare and sold folded in a slipcase.

  • Title: The new manual and platoon exercises, as practised by His Majesty’s Army [graphic] / Dighton del.
  • Publication: London : Printed for Bowles and Carver, No. 69 St. Paul’s Church Yard, published 2 Jan 1795.

Catalog Record

795.01.02.01+

Acquired July 2023

To the most noble George Marquis of Townshend

description below

“A mounted officer of the Norfolk rangers, his blued sword drawn, a Tarleton helmet on his head, in green uniform with black facings and silver lace, a sword-belt across his chest and a sash about his waist, other members of the corps exercising in the fields beyond, the colours of the regiment below.”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • Printmaker: Tomkins, Charles, 1757-1823, printmaker, artist.
  • Title: To the most noble George Marquis of Townshend, the officers and gentlemen of the Norfolk Rangers, this portrait and representation of their uniform is inscribed by the proprietors [graphic] / drawn & engrav’d by Chas. Tomkins.
  • Publication: [London] : Pubd. as the act directs, Decr. 1, 1799, for the proprietors by Egerton, Whitehall, [1 December 1799]

Catalog Record

799.12.01.01

Acquired June 2021