]64 DANA— NOTES ON CANNON. [Ap"' 2°. 



At the siege of Caen, in 1450 — this is aU quoted from an account 

 in very bad Latin — the town was ringed about with twenty-four 

 bombards, horrible to behold, for they were of such immense size 

 that a man could sit in any one of them without bending his head ! 

 Possibly this old chronicler's account was intended to fall into the 

 the hands of the besieged — though of course, cannon of that size 

 would make very comfortable quarters for at least 48 men. 



The preceding is but a dip into the doings of bombards; we have 

 not touched on that most interesting one, " Mons Meg," at Edin- 

 borough Castle ; nor the " Michelettes," at Mont St. Michel, which 

 are of unique value ; the " Faule Mette," was a cast bombard, a resi- 

 dent of Brunswick, but alas she has disappeared. 



Wooden guns are of great interest, not only on account of the 

 frequent tendency to burst which must have been theirs, but also 

 on account of the very unreliable descriptions of them that we 

 possess. 



About 1450 trunnions appear (not the first, by any means) on 

 some of the Burgundian guns, adding, of course, greatly to their 

 efficiency, both in permitting more exact aiming and as a help to 

 resist the recoil. Omitting all other technical details it may be of 

 interest to take a look at the Burgundian, and afterwards at the 

 French artillery. 



The town of Neuss, near the Rhine, and not far from Duessel- 

 dorf, was unsuccessfully besieged by Charles the Bold, 1474/5- The 

 Burgundian artillery, then the best in Europe, was well represented 

 there, and. more or less careful accounts of it have come down to 

 us. The following list is taken from Napoleon's " Etudes " ; un- 

 fortunately the calibers are omitted. 



Nine large bombards. Eight bronze bombards, 8 to 11 ft. long; 

 these had lions' heads at the muzzle. Ten courtaux, 4 feet long, 

 on wheels. These were a little like the carronade of just before 

 1800. to forty or fifty years after; there are accounts of courtaux 

 which carried 60-lb. balls and were used as siege pieces. 115 Ser- 

 pentines, one of which was 13 feet long. Six serpentines of bronze, 

 with dragon heads at the muzzle, one of these guns was 8 feet long. 

 Sixtv-six serpentines 6 to 9 feet long. Fifteen others of <-he same 

 caliber weighing 4,000 pounds. 



