AL'DERSHOTT CAMP. When England and France declared war against Russia in 1854, in relation to Turkish affairs, the British army was known to be in an unsatisfac tory state ; 39 years of peace had allowed many important elements in military organi zation to fall into a state of inefficiency. Among others, the power of acting well together in brigades and divisions had scarcely been taught to our soldiers, who had been familiar with little more than the discipline and tactics of battalions and companies. To remedy in part these defects was the object held in view in establishing the camp at A. It was to be a permanent camp, with barracks and huts, instead of mere canvas tents; and was to be provided with all the appliances for a military school, valuable to officers as well as to privates. A dreary waste, on the confines of Surrey, Rants, and Berks, called A. heath, was purchased by the government as the locality for the new camp. The area was 7063 acres, and the purchase-price about £130,000. The spot was deemed suitable as being distant from any thickly inhabited district ; as being within easy reach of three or four stations on the South-western and South-eastern railways; and as being con veniently placed for the quick transmission of troops to any part of the southern coast. The camp was ready for the reception of troops in 1855. At first, no brick structures were attempted. The soldiers were accommodated in wooden huts, each furnishing living and sleeping room for about 25 men. When the camp was inaugurated, in April of the year last named, by a review at which the queen was present, there were 18,000 troops, regulars and militia, temporarily stationed there. The huts for each regiment were grouped apart, for the better maintenance of regimental discipline. Each hut had a range of iron bedsteads on either side, capable of being doubled up ; and a long table through the middle, in a line with two doors at the ends of the huts. The officers' huts, though of course superior in construction and convenience, were as simple as they could well be. The cooking was performed in huts especially set apart for that purpose, provided with efficient cooking apparatus. The wooden huts have gradually been superseded by brick barracks, at a cost of more than a quarter or a million sterling. These will be briefly de
scribed in a future article (13Altaxmcs), as examples of the finest barracks hitherto construct ed in this country. The Basingstoke canal, running directly across the heath, has occasion ed a division into north camp and south camp ; but each of these is susceptible of a good deal of extension. Reviews and sham-fights are frequently held, at sonic of which the queen has been present, and there are various important operations carried on daily, and known to very few besides those immediately concerned. There are many square in. of plain, heath, shrub, morass, valley, and bill surrounding the camp, on which soldiers, and especially the militia regiments, are exercised in the various evolutions and strategic movements connected with the battle field and siege-works. It is no child's play ; the men are often severely worked, and gain a foretaste of some of the fatigues of military life. On other days, they arc exercised in various quiet duties of tents and huts, bar racks and kitchens, intended to teach them many of the useful knacks in which French soldiers are acknowledged to be more skilled than the English. Different regiments, regulars as well as militia, artillery as well as cavalry and infantry, take it in turn. to experience camp-life at A. There are usually about from 10,000 to 15,000 troops at the camp, comprising infantry, cavalry, artillery, and militia. The war authorities some years ago purchased or leased a portion of forest-land between A. and Winchester ; camping arrangements of a temporary kind are made, and the troops are occasionally exercised with a tough march of a dozen miles. A thriving t. (pop. in '71, 11,613) has sprung up near the camp. An unfortunate circumstance is that the barracks have been built at the very edge of the ground belonging to the government ; as a consequence, private speculators built beer-houses and haunts of dissipation close to the barracks, greatly to the demoralization of the soldiers ; and it is not easy to buy up these people, owing to the rise in value of the land. Some alleviation has arisen from the operation of the contagious diseases acts of 1866 and 1869.