mastered by men who begin after the age of twenty-one, or even at a
later period of life. It was only about the middle of the seventeenth
century that the British military and naval services were kept distinct.
Previous to that epoch the king's officers commanded indifferently
either by sea or by land.

Robert Blake, perhaps one of the most accomplished, and certainly
one of the most successful Admirals that ever hoisted a flag, was
more than half a century old (fifty-one years) before he entered
the naval service, or had aught to do, professionally, with a
ship. He was of a studious turn, and, after leaving Oxford,
resided quietly on his estate, a country gentleman, till his
forty-second year, soon after which he became connected with the
Parliamentary army.

The historian Clarendon says of him, "He was the first man that
made it manifest that the science (seamanship) might he attained
in less time than was imagined." And doubtless it was to his
shore sympathies that the well-known humanity and kindness which
Blake evinced in his intercourse with the sailors is in a large
degree to be imputed.

Midshipmen sent into the Navy at a very early age are exposed to
the passive reception of all the prejudices of the quarter-deck
in favour of ancient usages, however useless or pernicious; those
prejudices grow up with them, and solidify with their very bones.
As they rise in rank, they naturally carry them up, whence the
inveterate repugnance of many Commodores and Captains to the
slightest innovations in the service, however salutary they may
appear to landsmen.