raining, gun and rifle
practice, and manoeuvring. The camps at Aldershot, Colchester, Shorncliffe
and Curragh were accordingly started between 1856 and 1860, and the same
policy has since been continued by the acquisition of Strensall Common,
near York, Kilworth domain, near Fermoy, the lease of a portion of Dartmoor
and a large area at Glen Imaal in Co. Wicklow, and the purchase of the
Stobs estate in Scotland and of a large part of Salisbury Plain.

_Barrack Construction_.--The history of barrack construction in Great
Britain is an interesting study, but can only be touched on briefly. As
long as operations in the field were carried on by troops levied especially
for the war in hand, no barracks apart from fortifications were required,
except those for the royal bodyguard; and even after the standing army
exceeded those limits, the necessity for additional barracks was often
avoided by having recourse to the device of billeting, _i.e._ quartering
the soldiers on the populations of the towns where they were posted. This,
however, was a device burdensome to the people, subversive of discipline,
and prejudicial to military efficiency in many ways, while it exposed the
scattered soldiers to many temptations to disloyalty. Hence barracks were
gradually provided, at first in places where such an arrangement was most
necessary owing to the paucity of the population, or where concentration of
troops was most important, owing to the disaffection of some of the
inhabitants. The earliest barracks of which there is any record as regards
England, were those for the foot guards, erected in 1660. Among the
earliest of those still existing are the Royal Barracks at Dublin, dating
from 1700, and during the 18th century barracks were built in several parts
of Ireland; but in England it was at the end of the 18th and beginning of
the 19th century that most of the earlier barracks were constructed. So
long as barracks were mainly in connexion with fortresses their
construction naturally fell to the duty of the King's Engineers, afterwards
the Corps of Engineers, working under the master-general of the ordnance.
About 1796, however, a special civil department was formed under the
commissioners for the affairs of barracks, to deal with barracks apart from
fortifications. In 1816 we find a warrant appointing a civilian comptroller
of the barrack department to deal with the erection and upkeep of barracks
and barrack hospitals not within forti