Bayonet-Fencing and Sword-Practice

Captain Alfred Hutton's 1882 fencing-room manual, revised from his earlier treatises on swordsmanship, bayonet-fencing, and the cavalry sword. Written for practice in the salle rather than on the parade-ground, it teaches the small-sword, the bayonet, the sword-bayonet, and the sabre as one connected system. Hutton begins with the seven guards of the small-sword. The bayonet lessons cover the guard, the points, the four parries, beats and feints, the return, and strokes with the butt. The sword-bayonet is taught in five cuts, with the guard that answers each one. The second part takes up the sabre through the singlestick and the practice-sword: the seven cuts and points, the guards, the feints, and the double-rank lessons. It closes with rules for independent practice with sabre or stick, and a note on sword against bayonet. This edition is transcribed from the public-domain text of 1882 and edited by Andy Taylor. Scanner and library boilerplate has been removed, a small number of misreadings corrected, and a short list of archaic spellings in Hutton's own prose modernized. Historical quotations keep their original spelling. The text is set in continuous paragraphs.