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A Complete System of
BAYONET EXERCISE by Richard F. Burton William Clowes & Sons ~ 1853 
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Exact Facsimile Print Limited Edition of 750 Numbered Copies Cost: $160 To Order call: 1-888-656-2006 |
This is Richard F. Burton’s rarest Book with less than 10 copies believed to be in existence today. This production mirrors the original in exacting detail. The book is almost completely hand made. It is printed on acid-free, vellum paper with maroon dutch comb endpapers, smyth-sewn in the traditional way and bound in morocco textured red gilt cloth. Only 750 numbered copies will be produced of this work. Market acceptance has been excellent as virtually no Burton collector has this book. Read the complete story behind Burton and this book.
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We are grateful for the support and advice received from the British Library which allowed us to produce BAYONET EXERCISE to the exacting standard of its time. |
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A portion from the sale of each book will be donated to the Burton Tomb Restoration Fund to help restore the Mausoleum of Sir Richard F. Burton in England. www.burtonfund.org |
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Burton was awarded the Brevet de Pointe in France for the excellence of his swordsmanship. It has been observed of Captain Burton, that as horseman, swordsman, and marksman, no soldier of his day could surpass, and few equaled him.
In 1853 he published a “System of Bayonet Exercise” (Clowes, London), which, although undervalued at the time, has since been made use of by the Horse Guards.
Even the late Colonel Sykes, who was Burton’s friend, sent for him and sharply reproached him with printing a book which would do far more harm than good.
All the old Waterloo officers seemed to fancy that bayonet exercise would make the men unsteady in the ranks, so that official “wigging” was the principal award Burton got. And yet every European nation, not to speak of the American army, was at the time engaged in perfecting its bayonet exercise. Thus, a few years afterwards, the much-abused book was liberally used by the Horse Guards, in order to form an official system.
One day the author received an immense letter from the Treasury, with a seal the size of a baby’s fist. He opened it, with high expectations, and found, not a compliment nor a word of thanks, the only thing he would have valued, but gracious permission to draw one shilling. This is the usual custom when military authorities borrow from professional works by officers on full pay, and then there is no infringement of authors’ rights.
Poor Captain Blakeley, the inventor of Blakeley’s guns, calculated his losses in this way at several hundred thousand pounds. However, Burton was not a loser, except in time and disappointment. He went to the War Office and was sent to half-a-dozen different rooms, to the intense astonishment of as many clerks, and, after three-quarters of an hour’s hard work, succeeded in drawing his shilling, which he gave to the first beggar.
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