3& REPTON CHURCHWARDENS ACCOUNTS. 



it was enjoined that " viewe of armour be made every yere two 

 times, and in all hundredes and fraunchises two constables shal be 

 chosen to make the view of armour, and the constables aforesaide 

 shal present before Justices assigned such defautes as they doe see 

 in the countrey about armour." This explains the taking of the 

 Repton armour to Derby, as entered in i6or, where it was 

 doubtless officially " viewed." 



X. The caliver was a fire-arm, so called from the calibre being 

 according to a standard regulation. It was lighter than the un- 

 wieldy musket, and could be fired without a rest. It had a wheel- 

 lock, was three feet two inches long, and usually had a magazine 

 for bullets in the butt. The large flasks were for the powder, and 

 the touch-boxes were diminutive flasks that held the priming 

 powder. 



XI. A Train-Band soldier was equivalent to a volunteer, and 

 was thus styled to distinguish him from " y e prest souldiers " men- 

 tioned in 1601. These Train (or Trained) Bands were generally 

 formed throughout the kingdom in 1588, on the approach of the 

 Armada. They were for the most part trained to the use of fire- 

 arms, but seem to have been occasionally equipped with the long or 

 cross bow. It is interesting to note the supply of implements of 

 archery to the Repton volunteer, which looks as if the Derbyshire 

 volunteers of that date were for the most part thus furnished. But 

 the use of the bow in warfare was then rapidly approaching ex- 

 tinction ; a foreigner, visiting the armoury of the Tower in 1598, 

 expresses his surprise at finding some bows in that arsenal. The 

 last serious use of them in Great Britain, and that to a very partial 

 extent, was in the guerilla warfare carried on against Cromwell in 

 certain remote parts of the Scottish Highlands. 



XII. The Act of 35 Elizabeth, cap. 4, was the first to place the 

 relief of maimed soldiers and mariners on the parochial assess- 

 ments. It was continued, with certain modifications, by several 

 later Acts. The soldiers relieved this year were probably those 

 who had received their wounds in our wars with Ireland. Glover 

 gives the following incident relative to the conduct of troops 

 setting out for Ireland, when passing through Derby this year : — 

 " 1 60 1, January 2. A great number of soldiers that came from 



