The author’s design was to write the history of the Army down to the year 1870, the two present volumes carrying the story down to the Peace of Paris in 1763, and two future volumes bringing it forward to the great reforms which virtually closed the life of old Army and opened that of a new. Accordingly, the author has compressed the six hundred years of our military history from Hastings to Naseby into one-third that number of pages, endeavouring only to set down such points and incidents as were essential to a coherent sketch of the growth of our military system. This book is in two volumes covering the period to the close of Seven Years War.