Instructions to be Observed for the Formation and Movements of the British Cavalry Serving on the Continent.

First and only edition, rare, with just two institutional locations (Royal Collection Trust and Huntington). This copy has distinguished cavalry provenance: it was presented by Lieutenant General David Dundas to his fellow officer William St Leger, the binding lettered for St Leger as "Lt. Colonel Commandant the Gift of Lt. General Dundas". Dundas's effort to standardize British cavalry drill was central to the army's early 19th-century effectiveness, underpinning the reforms of the duke of York and contributing to the battlefield performance later associated with Wellington. His regulations for cavalry serving "on the Continent" were printed in Germany during the 1794-5 campaign, when Dundas commanded the cavalry in the Low Countries and northern Germany. General Sir William Fawcett described these printed regulations as "a small, but excellent Collection". These regulations became the basis for the War Office Instructions and Regulations for the Formations and Movements of the Cavalry (1796). Through that channel they informed the closely modelled North Carolina manual by William Richardson Davie, Instructions to be Observed for the Formations and Movements of the Cavalry (Halifax, 1799), issued in response to fears of war with France. Davie, a Revolutionary War cavalry commander, ensured that a copy reached George Washington via Secretary of War James McHenry. St Leger's own career was transatlantic. Commissioned in 1775, he served with the 17th Light Dragoons in five campaigns of the American War of Independence, repeatedly distinguishing himself in action. After further service in the West Indies and Britain, he raised the 31st Light Dragoons in 1794 before transferring to the 27th (later 24th) Light Dragoons for service in India (1799-1811). There he played a notable role in the Second Anglo-Maratha War, training General Lake's cavalry at Kannauj in Dundas-derived drill and in the new doctrine of mobile firepower using galloper guns. At Nelson's state funeral, Dundas commanded the attending troops, with St Leger in charge of the detachment of light dragoons. ESTC N29094. Randolph G. S. Cooper, The Anglo-Maratha Campaigns and the Contest for India: The Struggle for Control of the South Asian Military Economy, 2003; Richard Glover, Peninsular Preparation: The Reform of the British Army, 1795-1809, 1963; J. A. Houlding, Fit for Service: The Training of the British Army 1715-1795, 1981; John Philippart, The Royal Military Calendar, 1815. Small quarto (190 x 151 mm). Complete with the terminal errata leaf. Contemporary red straight-grain morocco, sometime rebacked with matching roan, original spine laid down, smooth spine divided by gilt paired fillets, foliate device in compartments, sides with concentric panels of gilt single fillets linked by laurel sprigs, gilt edges. Neat contemporary manuscript correction to one word on p. 37. Covers marked and rubbed, corners chafed through, front cover with area of worming near fore edge, title page stub-mounted, occasional foxing or finger soiling. A good copy.…