1872.) Mediaeval and Modern Ordnance. 351 
have come into fashion, smooth-bore must constitute for 
some time, if not always, a considerable portion of our 
armaments. The Woolwich gun-foundry, established 1717, 
was virtually superseded by the forge in 1859,* the date of 
the last bronze gun being cast there. The few cast-iron 
guns which are occasionally required to keep the stock in 
store up to the specified number are obtained by contract. 
The two heaviest pieces are the well-known Dundas 
68-pounder of 112 cwts., 1841, and the new pattern 13-inch 
sea-service mortar of 5 tons, 1857. These are shown for 
the sake of comparison as illustrating our heaviest pieces 
during the first half of the nineteenth century, since the end 
of which such tremendous strides in the art of gunnery have 
been made. The old r110-pounder or 7-inch Armstrong 
breech-loader is also given, and illustrates the transitional 
epoch from the heavy smooth-bores to the heavier rifled 
pieces with elongated projectiles. General Lefroy, in illus- 
trations of the guns left at Mont St. Michel, contrasts the 
68-pounder and the 110-pounder Armstrong with Michelette 
and Mons Meg, which suggested the present paper. Dr. 
Déthier also draws a comparison between the American 
20-inch Rodman and the cannons of Muhammad II. 
It should be remarked that there are still in our own 
service pieces of ordnance, not yet obsolete, in whose con- 
struction can be easily traced the ancient traditional propor- 
tions descended from the earliest cannon, the “‘ bombards”’ 
and ‘‘crakys” of war in olden days; these will readily be 
detected by anyone narrowly observing their sections ; and, 
properly speaking, a diagram showing a section should have 
appeared in the plate for the sake of comparison. I refer to 
the brass coehorn howitzers of 4% inch howitzers cast at 
Woolwich in 1738, and still retained in the service, together 
with the royal and coehorn mortars of about the same date. 
These apparently insignificant pieces, although small, are 
very useful for colonial and mountain service or in the 
advanced trenches of a siege attack, whilst the royal mortar 
is fitted for firing Manby’s life-saving apparatus. 
Whilst comparing the size of the guns and projectiles of 
modern days with those of the middle ages, it cannot have 
failed to strike the observant reader that there is much in 
common with both; but beyond this all comparison ceases; 
for instance, it would be absurd to compare the rough 
hollowed elm block in which the gun from the Mary Rose 
* Notes on Cast-Iron and Bronze Ordnance. By Captain F. S. STONEY, 
R.A., Royal Gun Factories, Woolwich. 1867. 
