Aldershot
On the open space outside, an amount of apparatus was set up. Near the gymnasium itself was a machicolated wall which could be scaled by means of shelves near at hand, or by inclined poles leaning against it. The more intrepid could take a running jump at it in the modern manner. Some twenty yards away was a structure much like the most modern outdoor apparatus with ropes and ladders, but without the wall-bars. This appears to have been used for a balancing exercise by men in full equipment, who ascended the ladders and proceeded along the beams about fifteen feet from the ground-ropes hanging at convenient intervals, as a means of descent for the giddy or faint-hearted.
Some fifty yards to the west could be seen a delicate and beautiful piece of architecture, which to the uninitiated might have appeared to be a French architect's idea of a Burmese temple. But to those of us who are so much better acquainted with gymnasia it will be obvious that these ascending and diminishing platforms, supported on Doric columns, were to be scaled by squads of soldiers carrying packs and rifles, and anything else that could be loaded on to them. The ultimate winner would then ascend to the top of the single pole surmounting the structure, and there sit in the manner of St. Simeon Stylites in acute discomfort, to the admiration of the spectators below and the envy of his comrades. In the late war, 1939-1945, "tough tactics" in full kit were revived, especially in Commando training. It makes for guts, nerve and morale as did the training on the Doric column.