This does not, perhaps, go for very much; but it cannot be lost sight of that, as concerns Gardner, it was accompanied by a readiness to apply quotations from Popes _Iliad_ and from the _Aeneid_, sometimes in Dryden’s version, sometimes in the original. He was certainly, also, as familiar with _Hudibras_ as ever Alan Quatermain was with _The Ingoldsby Legends_. Shakespeare he does not seem to have studied; and though it is but a small thing in comparison that he should have read _Ossian_ and _A Sentimental Journey_, his knowledge of, his familiarity with, Roman history may be allowed as a makeweight, unless indeed—which is quite possible—it was drilled into him by Scott on each separate occasion. Thus, when the Berwick goes to Tunis and Porto Farino, he is reminded of the fate of Regulus (p. 136); he connects Trapani with the destruction of the Roman fleet under Claudius (p. 137), and knows that the concluding battle of the first Punic war—the battle which, as Mahan has shown, decided the result of the second Punic war—was fought off the Egades (p. 138). Incomparably more attention is nowadays paid to the instruction of our youngsters; but we are confident that very few of them could note such things in their journal unless specially coached up in them by a friendly senior. In this, again, there have been exceptions. Until recently there has probably always been a sprinkling of officers who kept up and increased the knowledge of Latin they brought from Eton or Westminster[1] or other schools of classical learning; and Hannay, the novelist, who had a personal acquaintance with gunroom life of sixty years ago, has represented the midshipmen and mates of his day bandying quotations from Horace or Virgil with a freedom which many have thought ridiculous, but which, we must admit, might sometimes be met with. We were told by an officer who served in the Hibernia under the flag of Sir William Parker, that it was easy to fit names to all the principal characters in Hannay’s novelettes; and it may be assumed that what was true for the captains was equally true for the midshipmen. Such familiarity with the Latin poets was, of course, very exceptional then; it has now, we fancy, entirely dropped out. The Latin which our present youngsters bring into the service must be extremely little, and they have no opportunity of continuing the study of it; and though English history and naval history form part of the curriculum at Osborne and Dartmouth, there is but little inducement to a young officer to read more when he goes afloat. But there are certainly many of our older officers who would say that a sound and intelligent knowledge of history is more likely to be profitable to the average captain or admiral than the most absolute familiarity with the processes of the differential or integral calculus.