I9"-] DANA— NOTES ON CANNON. 155 



France, July, 1346, the month before Crecy. We have too the 

 King's Privy Wardrobe Accounts, as they were termed, giving Hsts 

 of guns, ammunition, gunners and other details of the ordnance sent 

 from the Tower of London to be used at the siege of Calais, which 

 followed the battle of Crecy. 



At this siege of Calais only leaden projectiles are mentioned, and 

 from the very moderate amount of ammunition required for their 

 propulsion, the guns although called " great " must have been ex- 

 ceeding small. The main reliance of besiegers and besieged contin- 

 ued to be in the huge engines for hurling masses of rock and other 

 unpleasantnesses. 



The derivation "of the word gun is not without interest. Consult- 

 ing both Murray and Skeat, we find that GuniiJuldr was an Ice- 

 landic, female, proper name, once applied to war engines. As Gunn 

 (Icel. Gunnr) signified zi'ar, and hildr a battle, it was certainly ap- 

 propriate. An account of the munitions in Windsor Castle, 1300/01, 

 mentions a large ballista named " Domina Gunilda." As there does 

 not seem to have been any great lady, famous or infamous, so called 

 in the fifteenth century, this is quite probably a survival of the old 

 Scandinavian name. The M. E. word gunne, is, of course, but a 

 shortened pet name for the fearsome lady. 



Here is one of the early tragedies connected with cannon. In 

 1346, the year of Crecy, Peter of Bruges had established a high 

 reputation for the making of " connoiles." The word may come 

 from " tonnoiles," which in its turn, may have come from " tuyaux 

 de tonnoire," or tubes of thunder. In September of that year the 

 consuls of the city of Tournay hearing that connoiles were useful 

 to be let ofif in a good town when besieged, desired the aforesaid 

 Peter to make them one as a sample, and if it proved satisfactory 

 they would give him an order for more. Peter, the thrifty burgher, 

 did make one and then proceeded to show the worthy consuls what 

 it would do. The connoile was placed with great care, outside the 

 gate " Noire aux Champs." Peter states in his own account that he 

 loaded the connoile with a quarrel, meaning in this case a heavy bolt, 

 not an altercation. To the quarrel Peter affixed two pounds of 

 lead. From the subsequent happenings there is reason to suppose 

 that he did not omit powder. Peter " laid " the connoile so that it 



