hours of instruction. At half-past nine the men go to their field duties, and continue till twelve; go again at one, and remain till half-past five. We dine at six, so that there is little or no time left for other occupations; besides that we have plans, &c., &c., to do." These are such details as would be communicated from a new station. It is probable that in July 1815, after getting his commission, he returned to Scotland on a visit to his relations; that he was thereafter stationed with a company of the Engineers at Plymouth, where there were the means of military instruction; and that he joined the head-quarters at Chatham for the first time in March or April 1817.

"At Chatham," says General Larcom, "a new world opened on him; the practical application of varied and almost universal knowledge brought by Colonel Pasley to the aid of military science offered the highest attraction to a mind like Drummond's. It was here also that he first became acquainted with Major, now LieutenantColonel, Reid, whose talent and services he regarded with admiration, with whom acquaintance soon ripened to intimacy, and whose friendship he cherished to the last. The writer of this notice has seen him in Ireland in later years, and, amid other cares, dwell with animation and delight on the movements of the British Legion, in which Lieutenant-Colonel Reid then held a command in Spain, and apply to the campaign the strategic rules and precepts he had gained from his early military reading."

Colonel Reid, who afterwards became Colonel Sir William Reid, Governor of Malta, was a Scotsman, and had been educated at the same school with Drummond's brother James. "He was all through the Peninsular war," says Drummond in one of his letters, " and has

gained for himself a brilliant reputation." The reputation was not merely military; he was devoted, like his youthful admirer, to scientific inquiries, and was the first to propound, though not in a fully developed shape, the circular theory of storms.

In the autumn of 1817, Drummond made a journey to France. "His military fervour," says General Larcom, "led him to obtain leave of absence for the purpose of visiting the army of occupation, and attending one of the great reviews. Many humorous adventures and difficulties in this first visit to a foreign country formed the subject of amusement afterwards; but he always remembered his tour in France, because it first brought him into acquaintance with his future friend. and colleague, Major-General Sir John Burgoyne, then commanding engineer, with a division of the army." During the visit he made a copy of a work by Sir John Burgoyne, then in manuscript, "Memoranda on some of the Practical Operations of a Siege." This was no holiday amusement. The manuscript is a long one, and illustrated by numerous carefully-drawn diagrams.

On his return from France, he settled to the routine of the Chatham course of instruction. He studied with enthusiasm the literature of his profession. "Jomini and Bousmard," says Larcom, "were his favourite authors, and often has the morning light surprised him in deep discussion on the details of Waterloo and the strategy of the recent campaigns." He also began again to indulge his taste for "making things," which he could now do without being troubled by considerations of cost.

His first invention seems to have been a pontoon, which he designed in the spring of 1818. There is a description of it in the Larcom Memoir, communicated

by his friend, Captain, afterwards Lieutenant-Colonel, Dawson :-"The various inventions to supersede the use of the old pontoon led Drummond to consider the subject, and he made a model of a form like a man-ofwar's gig or galley, sharp at both ends, and cut transversely into sections for facility of transport, as well as to prevent it from sinking if injured in any one part. Each section was perfect in itself, and the sections admitted of being bolted together, the partitions falling under the thwarts or seats. The dockyard men and sailors to whom he showed it said it would row better than any boat except a gig; and it was to be light, and capable of being transported from place to place on horseback."

I am unable to say what was the fate of this invention. On the 27th of March 1818, he writes to his mother that he is busy on the model and a memoir, which is to be sent with it to the head office. "I shall let you know," he says, "what success my memoir meets with. But there is no wish at the office to bring forward anything of that kind." What he saw there a few days later, deepened the feeling that the InspectorGeneral was indifferent to the inventiveness of his officers. "When I was at the Engineer Office, a few days ago, I found Major Blanchard's model with his memoir, and a letter addressed to General Mann, in the anteroom. The box had been opened, only one of the models taken out; his memoir apparently had not been looked into, for within the first leaves was the letter I have just mentioned unopened."* At this time he expected to have his own model finished within a week. By the end of May he had finished both it

* Letter to Mrs Drummond, April 4, 1818.

and the memoir, been to London with them, and returned to Chatham. From a letter dated May 31, 1818, it appears that on presenting his model he had "experienced a gracious reception;" that there were altogether four models to be submitted, of which one, by a Major Lewis, was not yet prepared; and that a board of officers was to be appointed to consider the four plans. One of the models was by Major Blanchard. Whoever the fourth competitor may have been, it was a distinction for a subaltern to be able to compete with a reasonable prospect of success with officers so old in the service as Major Lewis and Major Blanchard. That Drummond had such a prospect appears from the fact that a high opinion of his design was entertained by his friend Colonel Reid, a man of great ingenuity. "If the plan is not approved," says Drummond, "I may safely say it will not be laughed at. Whatever, then, may be the result, it may be for good-it cannot do me harm." It undoubtedly advanced his reputation.

"Several other inventions," says General Larcom, "are remembered as belonging to this time, which show the activity and readiness of his mind, and the interest with which he addressed himself to his new duties. But in reference to bridge-making, an anecdote may perhaps be preserved which brings out other qualities of the man. He was charged with the construction, for practice, of a bridge of casks, in the rapid current of the Medway at Rochester Bridge, and having previously made piers of the casks in the still water above the bridge, it was necessary to move them through the rapids to get them below the bridge. The piers were, as usual, lashed two and two for security; but one remained, and as its removal was likely to involve some danger, Mr Drummond determined to go on it himself.

There were two soldiers on the pier, one of whom showed a little apprehension at setting off. Drummond placed this

man next himself, and desired them both to sit quite still. They passed through the arch in safety, when the man who had previously shown apprehension, wishing by activity to restore himself to his officer's good opinion, got suddenly up to assist in making fast to the buoy; in an instant the pier upset; all hands were immersed in the water, and the man who had caused the accident, being on his feet, was thrown from the pier and drowned. Mr Drummond and the other man clung to the pier, and Mr Drummond afterwards described his sensations, when finding his body swept by the current against the underside of the pier. His last recollection was a determination to cling to one side of it, in hopes the depression of that side might be noticed. This presence of mind saved him and his comrade; for, as he expected, a brother officer (Fitzgerald), noticing the lowness of one side, sprang from a boat upon the other, and immediately the heads of poor Drummond and the sapper appeared above the water. Drummond was senseless, with the ropes clenched firmly in his hands."

Having sent in his memoir and model pontoon, and arranged his affairs at Chatham, he proceeded to Woolwich, where his old college friend Dawson was established. By this time Drummond had been appointed to the company of the corps stationed in Edinburgh, and only waited near London lest he should be called to give explanations before the board of officers appointed, or that was to be appointed, to consider the pontoons. It does not appear whether the board ever met or came to a decision. By the beginning of July, when he proceeded to Edinburgh, nothing whatever had been done.

His duties at Edinburgh," says General Larcom, "offered nothing to engage his attention, relating merely to the charge and repair of public works; but he was happy in being again thrown among his family and friends, and more, in the opportunity again afforded