Note 73 — VIII. GENERAL MATTERS IN THE PERIOD OF THE FRENCH WARS.

There were those who accepted weevils in ship’s biscuits as mites in Gorgonzola cheese are accepted to-day! Unpalatable as ship’s biscuit is, there is a certain acquired taste about it. In the later nineties I have frequently seen it handed round as a species of dessert in the wardroom, every senior officer taking some and enjoying it. In the 1890 manœuvres the wardroom officers of “C fleet” did three weeks on “ships” only, in quite a casual way, though the quality even then left something to be desired.