ry, made at the very
beginning, the original scheme was prosecuted to the end, with
enormous outlay and useless result, for an entirely new system of
river defences had to be formed and carried out at a later period.
But for these errors Gordon was in no sense responsible, and they
would not have been committed if his advice and representations had
been heeded.

Mr Arthur Stannard, who was assistant to the manager of the firm which
had been intrusted with the contract for the building of these forts,
gave in the _Nineteenth Century_ for April 1885 the best account we
possess of the manner in which Colonel Gordon discharged his official
duties at Gravesend.

Colonel Gordon's headquarters were at a quaint-looking, old-fashioned
house with a good-sized garden, close to the site on which the New
Tavern fort was to be erected. He considered himself to be on official
duty from eight o'clock in the morning until two o'clock in the
afternoon; and during these six hours he not only worked himself
without intermission, but expected all those under him to work in the
same untiring spirit. He was a severe and unsparing taskmaster, and
allowed no shirking. No other officer could have got half the work out
of his men that he did. He used to keep them up to the mark by
exclaiming, whenever he saw them flag: "Another five minutes gone, and
this not done yet, my men! We shall never have them again."

Another instance of his unflagging energy and extreme activity was
furnished in connection with the boat in which he had to visit the
different parts of the defences. A two-oared, slow-moving boat was
provided for the purpose, but Gordon soon grew tired of this slow
means of locomotion, and he started a four-oared gig. He trained these
men according to his own ideas, and expected them to row with all
their might and main, and to lose not a minute in casting off their
boat on his arrival. So fond was he of rapid motion, or so impressed
with the value of time, that he would continue to urge them on,
whenever any signs of slackening appeared, with exclamations: "A
little faster, boys, a little faster!" and Mr Stannard states that he
has seen the boatmen land after such a row as this in as limp a
condition as four strong men could be. All his own movements were
carried on at the run, and his activity was such that few younger and
taller men were able to keep up with him. I well recollect myself my
first interview with General Gordon in 1881