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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 June 2012
In undertaking to submit to the Society of Antiquaries a notice of the ancient pieces of ordnance, and other relics, lately discovered in the Island of Walney, I am influenced by the wish you have so kindly expressed, rather than by any sense of fitness, on my part, for the task.
page 376 note a These chambered pieces, called Patereros, were considered the most efficient of all the ancient artillery, and continued to be employed down to a comparatively late period. Indeed, even in the present day, they are in use amongst some of the Eastern Nations; and there are now in the repository at Woolwich several pieces of this description, which were captured from the Burmese during the late war. Through the kindness of Mr. Gould, of Tavistock Square, I have been favoured with a sketch of a cannon of this construction found, in the year 1826, in the small river Jacques Cartier, which falls into the St. Lawrence, about 30 miles above Quebec. This river derives its name from the famous French circumnavigator, who discovered this part of Canada, and wintered there in 1535; and this piece of ordnance must have been left behind by him. It is now in the Museum at Quebec.
The two chambers (3 and 4) were found charged with a quantity of pulverulent ochreous matter, which gave out a strong sulphureous smell, and was supposed to be gunpowder. Upon a hasty examination, made by Mr. Brande at the Royal Institution, it was found to contain a small quantity of sulphur and organic matter mixed up with oxide and muriate of iron, sand, and other foreign substances. My friend Dr. Ure has kindly favoured me with the result of a careful analysis of a portion of the contents, from which it appears that he discovered evidence of the existence of the three constituents of gunpowder, but in very minute quantity. The ancient gunpowder contained a much less proportion of nitre than is now employed in the manufacture; and the combustion would consequently be incomplete, so that a few explosions would leave a sufficient residuum adhering to the chamber to account for all the traces which Dr. Ure has been able to detect.
page 380 note b “Twa noweltyeis that dai thai saw
That forouth in Scotland had been nane,
Tymmris for helmys were the tane.
That t'other ‘crakys wer of war,’
That thai before heard never er,
Of thai tua things thai had ferly
That nycht thai walkyt stalwartly.”
Book 19.
page 381 note c Artillerie, l. viii.
page 381 note d v. Bombarda.
page 381 note e Decliquerent contre eux canons et bombardes qui jettoient grands carreaux.—Froissart, i. 55.— Père Daniel.
page 382 note f Sismondi, the elegant historian of Liberty in Italy, pays this tribute to Villani: “L'Histoire était écrite avec bonne foi, avec une recherche scrupuleuse de la verité, avec une naïveté pleine de grace, par Jean Villani et son école.” And again: “Les deux Villani ecrivirent l'histoire avec autant de jugement, d'elevation d'âme, et de philosophie, que l'avait fait Polybe.” John Villani died of the plague, at Florence, in 1348, and must therefore have written his account of the battle of Crecy immediately after it took place, and when all the circumstances were well known; whereas Froissart was at that time a boy of only nine years. Villani also mentions that the English had iron cannons before Monsegur, in the preceding year (1345).
page 382 note g Rapin, Mezerai.
page 382 note h Ch. 131.
page 382 note i Ch. 138.
page 382 note k Froissart, ch. 116. Hume.
page 382 note l Suritædus Ara.
page 382 note m Dialogue, 99.
page 383 note n Technol, des Armes à feu.
page 383 note o Tech. des Armes à feu.
page 383 note p Froissart, ch. 332.
page 383 note q Guicciardini considers this the first introduction of cannons into Italy; but he is in error. See Petrarch, ante. Corrazzano, lib. 3, ch. 2.
page 383 note r Rot. Fran. 1 R. II.
page 384 note s Walsingham, 327.
page 384 note t Père Dan. i. 477.
page 384 note u Wals. 323. 398.
page 385 note x Technol. des Armes h. feu.
page 385 note y Chron. de Dunstable.
page 385 note z Rymer's Fœd.
page 385 note a Capo Bianco.
page 385 note b Rym. xii. 140.
page 376 note c The first cannons cast in England are said to have been executed by John Owen in 1521 ; but the art appears to have been introduced in a state of high perfection. There are now at Woolwich several guns lately recovered from the wreck of the “Mary Rose,” which was sunk at Spithead in 1545, and amongst them two large brass cannons, the one a 68, the other a 24 pounder, which in beauty of design and workmanship are equal to any thing that could be produced in the present day. I must not omit to mention, however much it may interfere with my subsequent conjectures, that there are also two pieces of hammered iron which were raised from the same spot. The one of them is of great length, formed of bars and hoops of iron, and is firmly imbedded in a large and heavy piece of timber. It must at all times have been an unwieldy and inefficient engine, and I cannot imagine that it could have co-existed, for purposes of active service on shipboard, with those highly finished pieces just mentioned. The gunpowder which would be suitable for the one would blow the other to pieces, and the gunners accustomed to the former would hardly be persuaded to run the risk of discharging the latter. It occurs to me, therefore, that these rude pieces of the olden time, if indeed they ever were on board the Mary Rose, must have been used for ballast or some other illegitimate purpose.
page 388 note d note d Archaeol. vi. 315.
page 388 note c Hume.
page 388 note f At the battle of Newburg, the Swiss captured “400 fortes pièces de batterie, 800 arquebuses à croc, et 200 barils de poudre.”
page 390 note g Rym. vii. 187. “Duo magna et duo minova ingenia vocata canones; sexcentas petras pro eisdein ingeniis et aliis ingeniis—300 libras de saltpetre; 100 libras sulphuris vivi; uniim dolium carbonuin dc salugh * * * pro stanro et munitione castri nostro de Brest.”
page 390 note h Holinshed, Chron.