upon the spot1. In the time of Edward I. we find warlike engines made by Thomas de Bamburgh, Monk of Durham 2, and a payment to Henry de Sandwich, Capellane, "pro duobus magnis BALANCIS [leather springs for an engine, or the beam, by which it was poised] de corio emptis ad ponderand' lapides pro ingeniis in guerrá Scotia 3" Thus it appears, that Clergymen were then the engineers. Hogsheads full of stones were used in the same reign as a protecting rampart to defend the workmen in sieges4. As to Pioneers, Du Cange says, that they were the fossores Castrenses of the thirteenth century. 8 FIRE-ARMS. ARTILLERY. The word Artillery (Ars Telaria, meaning bows, arrows, and all implements of war 5, first occurs, according to Du Cange 6, in Rymer 7.) Grose is certainly correct in assigning the introduction of Artillery to the fourteenth century, as Dr. Meyrick thus confirms it, saying "there is reason to conclude that it was known as early as the time of Edward II." Cannon called Dolia Ignivoma, or fire-flashing vessels, in Spain, were known in Italy, as early as the year 1351, were used by our Edward III. and were termed by the French Gunnæ. They appear to have consisted at first of two kinds, a large one for discharging stones, called a Bombard, and a smaller sort for discharging darts or quarrels. The following order proves this distinction. In 1377, 1 Richard II. Thomas Norbury was directed to provide from Thomas Restwold of London, two great and two less engines, called cannons, 600 stone shot for the same, and salt-petre, charcoal, and other ammunition, for stores to be sent to the castle of Bristol. At the first invention of cannon, darts and bolts were shot from them; but before these stones were used instead, for, in 1388, a stone bullet which weighed 195 lbs. was discharged from a Bombard, called the Trevisan 9. Bombard, whence Howitzer and Mortar. This piece of ordnance was so called from the Greek Boubos, which expressed the noise made by it in the firing, and which seems to point out what country first invented this kind of cannon. As the bombard was a Greek invention, there is some reason to conceive that gunpowder owed its origin to the same nation. It seems to have been first adopted merely to recreative fire-works, whence probably its discovery is involved in obscurity, as it did not obtain celebrity, till applied to the purpose of war, which appears to have been about the commencement of the fourteenth century. It was from a tract on Pyrotechny by Marcus Græcus that Friar Bacon, in 1270, learned that its composition was two pounds of charcoal, one of sulphur, and six of salt-petre, well pulverized and mixed 10. The first bombards were made of bars of iron, strengthened with hoops of the same metal welded together. They were short pieces with large bores; and in imitation of the tubes which ejected the Greek fire, were also made with chambers. These chambers consisted of the lower half of the cylinder; the upper being open for the admission of the Can, or Canister, which held the charge (see the Vignette, p. 815), from whence probably arose the term cannon. Others derive it from resemblance to a cane, canna. One of these may be seen in the Tower of London, and there is another at Rhodes, of the sixteenth century, on its original carriage, and a stone ball to fire from it. It is 19 feet in length, 2 feet 8 inches in diameter, its calibre 2 feet, and its thickness 4 inches. About it was not corned, but remained in its mealed state. It was then called Serpentine Powder. Id. iii. 71. half the length, however, is of a less diameter, and in this, as in a chamber, was placed the powder, while the ball was in the larger part. [This, had it been for throwing shells, and not so long, would be an absolute mortar.] (See also the Vignette, p. 815.) The carriage is made of timber, placed lengthways and cramped together, on which the gun is laid, while a portion is raised higher behind the piece. It has not any wheels. The precise purpose for which Bombards were used was to throw, on the principle of the Balista, balls of lead or stone over the walls, to ruin the roofs of houses, parapets, and other defences of a town. The ranges described parabolick curves of little more than three hundred yards radius. There was as yet no necessity for the invention of trenches; and the slender protection of the pavisers was deemed sufficient to shield the gunners against the quarrels, arrows, and stones of the besieged. In a manuscript of the Royal Library, is an illumination of a large mortar, raised to a very high elevation, in a frame of wood, and held in its position by being fastened to two upright posts. In short, when gunpowder was first discovered to possess a projectile power, its military application was confined to a kind of mortar or bombard, intended as a substitute for the enormous battering machines then usually constructed. None of the countries of Europe having convenient roads, and all many strong castles, engines of war less bulky and more portable had long been desirable for invading armies. These bombards were therefore the only kind of cannon employed in the fourteenth century, and were Grose's howitzer kind in use before mortars. Bombs, he says, on the authority of Valturius, were invented in the fourteenth century, and were at first of brass, and opened by hinges. Dr. Meyrick admits this origin1, and therefore thinks the pretended invention by Peter Von Collen in 1543, to have been only borrowed. After this invention of bombs, that of carcases of different kinds soon followed. The former, according to Strada, took place in 1588. The Grenades are said to have been first used in 1594, in which year the howitzer was invented by the Germans. The bomb being intended to beat down buildings in its fall, or to break and destroy every thing around it, by the pieces of broken iron, scattered in all directions by its explosion, the end proposed by the carcase and grenade was to burn the town by means of fire-balls 3. The Petard for forcing gates was invented in France, a short time before the year 1579, and soon after introduced into England 4. Cannon. By the term Bombard I have designated battering and mortar kinds; but the word is also applied to cannon of a lighter kind. Accordingly Dr. Meyrick calls a cannon engraved by Strutt, a Bombard on a carriage, light in proportion to the bulk of the piece. Its trail consists of a prolongation of the cascable, which rests on the ground, a block of wood serving as a quoin for the purpose of depression 5. Admitting that cannon were not used in the field till the fifteenth century 6, this gun, for it is very small, is the kind to which Froissart 7 alludes, when he mentions two hundred carts loaded with cannon and artillery; cannonades with bars of iron and quarrels headed with brass, and cannon mounted on walls and battlements. The balls were of stone adapted to the calibre 8. In 1434, it is said that the English had many kinds of projectiles, cannons, culverines, and other vuglaires," more properly vulgaires, the ordinary kind. The Scorpion was another sort9. In an illuminated copy of the Roman de la Rose, done at the commencement of the reign of Edw. IV. (1461) is a delineation of an iron cannon. The piece is placed in a kind of trough, or bed of wood, which is continued to the earth, not unlike a modern horse-artillery trail. The whole rests on a pintle, or moveable pivot, fixed in a strong upright, erected on a square timber frame. This apparatus is sufficiently distinct to prove that the powder used for such artillery must have been very feeble. In a manuscript of the Royal Library is another cannon lighter than this, and such were used towards the latter part of this reign. It was wide near the mouth, but the longer part is of much smaller diameter. It is embedded in a flat piece of timber, the end of which is so shaped as to form a cascable or handle. It rests on four legs, when in an horizontal position, which legs stand on a platform of wood. Attached to the hinder ones are two long levers, by which the piece could be lowered or elevated at discretion. In another MS. is a piece of ordnance fixed on the swivel principle, being suspended between the arms of an enormous fork of iron, shaped at top like a pruning hook, or hedger's bill. The cascable is perforated by a large iron bar, in the form of a scythe, standing in a vertical position, and terminating at top in a kind of hook, by means of which it is connected with the afterpart of the fork. Upon this bar, the elevation or depression of the gun is regulated by means of holes made at certain distances, through which passes a pin or stopper. The whole apparatus is fixed in a strong iron plate, fastened down upon a heavy bed of solid oak 1. Grose therefore very properly says, that most of the earliest cannons were mere cylinders, fixed on sledges, and being often composed of iron bars, iron plates rolled, or even jacked leather hooped, could be fired, because they were loaded by chambers, fixed in at the breech. Yet he seems to have confounded the two in our Vignette, p. 815. At this time they were purchased from abroad; and though Henry VII. and VIII. had Flemish gunners to teach the art, yet they did not understand it upon mathematical principles; and in the sixteenth century the ordnance rarely made more than one discharge, the cavalry being able to charge them before they could load again. Aliens were employed in 1543 in casting great brass ordnance, though one John Owen was said to have so done in 1521. In 1626, 2 Charles I. one Arnold Rotespen had a patent for making guns in a manner before unknown in this kingdom 3. Culverines have been before mentioned as a very early denomination of a species of large cannon; and when the distinction between battering-pieces (all above twelve pounders) and field-pieces commenced, according to Dr. Meyrick, temp. Henry VIII. the appellations were numerous. These names were derived from the tubes which had been used to eject the Greek fire, being fashioned so as to represent the mouths of monsters. The Basilisk, the largest, shot stones of 200 pounds weight 4. It was so denominated from a basilisk sculptured upon it 5. The shot in this reign consisted of iron, lead, and stone balls 6; and ladles and sponges were used 7. Different proportions were given by various nations to pieces of the same denomination; but the following table of Ordnance in the reign of Elizabeth, applies in the main to the times immediately preceding: Remarks. Elsewhere we have the whole Cannon a 48 pounder. See Milit. Dict. 12mo. 1704. There also we have the largest Demi-cannon 36 pounder, the Demi-cannon ordinary 32 pounders, the Demi-cannon lowest, 30 pounders. Cannon perriers, unde pierriers, pedreros, pattereroes, were chambered pieces for throwing stones.-Grose. Elsewhere we have the large Culverin 20 pounder, ordinary Culverin 17, smallest Culverin, called in Capt. Crusoe's Art Militarie, the great Culverin, 15 pounds (p. 118.); the large Demi-culverin or whole Culverin, 12, the Demiculverin or small Culverin 6, the bastard Culverin 8. Largest 8 pounders, ordinary 6, smallest 5.-Milit. Dict. 1 Crusoe, p. 120.-3, Milit. Dict. 4lb. Crusoe, 121.-2, Milit, Dict. Besides these the Base (5oz.) Port-pieces, Stock-fowlers, Sling-pieces, Portingalebases, and Murtherers, were about the time of Edward VI. much used in small forts, and on shipboard. Several of these were hung like swivels 1. The latter seem to have been suggested by the Hange-guns of the reign of Edward IV. which were simple barrels furnished with trunnions, and hung like a cannon in wood, by which it was held in the hand 2. PORTABLE FIRE ARMS. The word gun, says Dr. Meyrick 3, seems to have been a general term for the barrels of all fire-arms which had not locks. Great Guns, as applied to cannon, but not Small Arms, occurs in the Military Dictionary of 1704. I have therefore used the word Portable Fire Arms, though it is not professional, because Small Arms is only a word of yesterday's birth. Billius, a noble and learned Milanese, who lived at the time, says, that hand-guns were first used at the siege of Lucca in 1430. The Florentines were provided with artillery, which, by the force of gunpowder, discharged large stones; but the Luccanese, perceiving that they did very little execution, came at last to despise them, and every day renewed their sallies to the great slaughter of their enemies by the help of small fire arms, to which the Florentines were strangers, and which before this time were not known in Italy. Billius explains this by saying, that besides darts and balistas for arrows, they invented a new kind of weapon. They carried in their hands a club, a cubit and a half long, to which were affixed iron barrels. These they filled with sulphur and nitre; and by the power of fire, iron balls were thus ejected. At this time, about the year 1440, the Scorpion (afterwards a piece of ordnance) was a tube for firing gunpowder, held in the hand, and called by the English Hand Cannon 5, and also, according to Grose 6, Hand Culverine. That they were not introduced into England in 1471, by the Flemings, as Grose affirms 7, is plain from a roll of purchases, made for • Grose. 2 Meyrick, ii. 205. 3 iii. 13. 4 ii. 158. 7 Ubi supra. It is certain, that in the year 1471, King Edward IV. landed at Ravenspurg, in Yorkshire, and brought with him, among other forces, three hundred Flemings, armed with "hange-gunnes," upon which Dr. Meyrick (ii. 205) has the following note: "MS. in the Brit. Mus. cited by Grose, who supposes this to be the first introduction of them. I have seen a hange-gun, being a simple barrel, furnished with trunnions, and hung like a cannon on wood, by which it was held in the hand." Holy Island, in which is the following item, "A. D. 1446, bought ii handgunnes de ere," from whence we learn that they were made of brass. Nor were they, as Grose further says, at least exclusively, mere barrels placed upon a kind of tripod, by which he probably means those upon tressels, hereafter mentioned. Billius mentions stocks; but some had none, for, in an illuminated manuscript of the time of Edward IV.1 are figures of soldiers with long tubes, which rest upon their shoulders, and which they hold up by both hands. These appear to be the hand-cannons or rather hand-guns, and the men who are holding them seem to be taking their aim. These tubes are bound round at different distances of their length, being probably composed of two or more pieces, and thus held together. Dr. Meyrick observes, that as these tubes are without stocks, there is some reason to conceive, that they may have been for the Greek fire, which had not altogether become disused 2. I, however think, that the tubes for the Greek Fire originally suggested fire-arms of every kind. At the close of this reign (Edward IV.) we learn from Philip de Comines that the Harquebuse was invented. This seems to have been an improvement on the handgun. The barbarous Latin word was arcusbusus, evidently derived from the Italian arcabouza, i. e. a bow with a tube or hole. To this people therefore are we to ascribe the application of the stock and trigger, in imitation of the cross-bow. Hitherto the match had been applied by the hand to the touch-hole, but the trigger of the arbaleste suggested the idea of one to catch into a cock, which having a slit in it, might hold the match, and, by the motion of the trigger, be brought down on a pan, which held the priming, the touch-hole being no longer at the top, but at the side. (See Plate, p. 815, fig. S.) Accordingly a corps of harquebusiers occurs in 14763. During the reign of Henry VII. the harquebuss received an improvement. Hitherto, in imitation of the arbaleste, it had only a straight stock to hold the barrel, but now it was formed with a wide butt-end, which might be placed against the right breast, and thus held more steadily. To render this object more effectual a notch was made in the butt for admitting the thumb of the right hand. When the butt was bent down, or hooked, which it was at a later period, it was called from the German word hake, a hackbutt, haggebut, or hagbut, the smaller sort being denominated demi-hags. In 1512 the harquebuses are match-locks (the soldiers carrying the match-cord in their hands); the pieces are short, and therefore without rests, a contrivance of later date. In the time of Henry VIII. we find that the small arms consisted of the hand-guns, the harquebuss or hagbuss, or haquebut, the demi-haques, and the pistol. By the Statute of the 33d Henry VIII. it was enacted that no hand-guns should be used of less dimensions than one yard in length, gun and stock included. This could do but little execution on men mostly in armour; and this circumstance, in some measure, accounts for small arms being so slow towards general adoption. By the same Statute the haquebut or hagbut might not be under three quarters of a yard long, gun and stock, as before, included. The demi-haques were still smaller, and gave occasion to the origin of Pistols, which were invented during the latter part of this reign at Pistoia, in Tuscany, according to Sir James Turner, by Camillo Vitelli 4. Here is an evident distinction between small arms, according to their length; but, notwithstanding authors confound them, Grose says, that the demi-hags or hagbutts had barrels, about three quarters of a yard, and Fauchet makes them synonimous |