in ARMS. 



lock exposed them to this inconvenience, that the light from tin- 

 burning match pointed out their position, and they were unable to 

 purchase the wheel-lock from its expense. In this dilemma they 

 funned the snaphaunce from a study of the wheel-lock. A flat piece 

 of steel, furrowed in imitation of the wheel, was placed on a steel post, 

 which, being screwed beyond the pan, was made moveable. Then the 

 furrowed piece being brought to stand over it. on pulling the trigger, 

 the flint, which they substituted for the pyrites in the cock, struck 

 jsitsrt it, and the spark was produced. This was an invention of the 

 time of Elisabeth, and its comparative cheapness rendered it fashion 

 able in France, Holland, and England. The snaphaunce was a near 

 approach to the fire-lock. 



The Calirrr differed from the musquet in being lighter and shorter. 

 It was a fire-arm of a regulated standard as to the diameter of its bore, 

 which was larger than that of the arquebus. It was made to fire with 

 a match-lock. A match-lock caliver is preserved at Brancepeth Castle, 

 Durham, which bears the date of 1611. 



Of the Carabine Sir Samuel Meyrick says, ' In the extraordinaries 

 for the war in Picardie, in 1559, we first meet with the troops called 

 carabins, who were light cavalry in the service of Henry II., King of 

 Prance." M. de Montgommeri informs us that " they wore a cuirass 

 sloped off the right shoulder, that they might the more readily couch 

 their cheek* to take aim ; that they had a cabasset on their heads, and 

 their bridle-arm* protected by an elbow gauntlet. Their offensive 

 weapon* were a carabine three feet and a half in length, so named from 

 themselves and a pistol. Their manner of fighting was, to form a 

 little column deeper than wide, to discharge their pieces rank after 

 rank, each rank, after firing their pieces, wheeling off, and forming 

 immediately in the rear of the rest, and there preparing for a second 

 discharge." Now, although the origin of the word is involved in much 

 obscurity, it is more consistent with analogy to supjHwe that the cara- 

 bineer* were so named from the gun, rather than that from them. 

 The French derived this species of troops from the Spaniards ; and 

 DueUl tells us that the Calabrians, who used the carbine, gave it this 

 appellation. If so, it was probably at first used by them at sea in 

 the vessels termed carabs. M. Bellon, in ' Lee Principes de 1'Art 

 Militaire,' tells us, that " the carabines were armed with a large wheel- 

 lock arquebus, three feet or more in length, a sword, and a short ]' tol, 

 in the time of Louis XIII. ; but being suppressed by his successor in 

 1665, we know that that king formed from them his carabineers." 



The JStdopttie. " The peculiar characteristics of this fire-arm," says 

 Sir Samuel Meyrick, " I have not been able to discover. It was culled 

 in Latin tcioptla, a diminutive of tclujxii; and occurs in the ' Chroni- 

 con Estense,' under the year 1534, as well as in the decree of the 

 Council of Tarragona in 1591, who forbade the clergy to make use of 

 it. IVobably it was only the foreign name of the demihaque." 



" The name of the Futil as a fire-arm in England," says the same 

 authority, " doe* not appear to be older than the time of Charl- -II.. 

 though invented in France in the year 1630." There are in the British 

 service three regiments of fusileers or fuzileers: the Scots, now tin- 

 31st Foot, raised in 1678 ; the English, now the 7th Foot, levied in 

 186; and the Welsh, now the 23rd, formed in 1688 or 1689. The 

 Sieur de Oaya, in 1688 ("Traite" dea Annes'), describes it as of the 

 same proportions as the " mousquet," and furnished with a lire-lock ; 

 adding, that "although by couching the cheek you con take better 

 aim, yet it often misses fire from the use of the flint." It seems to 

 have been of the same length and calibre, but lighter than the musket. 

 In modern times its size ha* been diminished. 



The Motuyuttoom, or musketoon, was also of French origin. The 

 same author describe* it, in 1688, a* not so long as the fusil, nor 

 capable of carrying a ball so far by one- third ; its barrel not rifled, but 

 differing from the carabine in being furnished with a fire-lock instead 

 of a wheel-lock, and from the carabine a Fcxtruanlinairt not onlv in 

 tlii.. but in iu fluted bore. 



The Fnxiiny-pien, tb"n-.-h pro^-Hy speaking a fabrication for the 

 :-'irpose of killing game, is entitled to a place in the history of 

 military weapon*, from the circumstance of the Earl of Albemarle 

 noticing it for the soldiers' use, in his ' Observations,' compiled about 

 the year 1646, and published in 1671. He says, " It is very fit, like- 

 wise, thai you have in each company aix good fowling-pieces, of such 

 a length as a soldier may well be able to take aim, and to shoot off at 

 ease : twelve of them being placed in a day of battel, when you bring 

 a division of foot to skirmish with an enemy, on the flanks of a 

 division of foot, and six on the other flank, as you shall see ih.-m 

 placed in these three battels following. Those soldiers that cany tin- 

 fowling-piece* ought to hare command when they come within din- 

 tance of shot of that division of the enemy that they are to eiirount.-r 

 with, that they shoot not at any but at the officer* of that diviion." 

 We have ben plainly the origin of riflemen. 



The President Fauchet, who lived in the time of Francis I., and that 

 of his (accessor* till the time of Henry IV., introduces to our notice a 

 piece called a I'tlnmrl or /^Urinal, because it was rested on the ]iitrine 

 or chert, after the old manner, and thence fired. It was the medium 

 between the arquebus and the pistol, and differed from the long dog 

 merely In having iu butt made broader, so as to rest in iU position 

 with projwr firmness. Fauchet says, It was believed that this arm 

 was the invention of the bandouliera of the Pyrenean mountain*.' 

 Mention is made of it in 152, at the siege of Rouen by Henry IV., 



AKMS 



611 



and in the Hengrave Inventory of 1603 we have, " Item, iij pethernels." 

 Nicot, in his dictionary, asserts that " it was of large calibre, and, on 

 account of iU weight, carried in a broad bnudrick over tin- shoulder." 



The KlamlrrliHt. This is a fire-arm shorter than the carbine, out 

 with n wide barrel. Sir James Turner, in his 'Pallas anuata,' p. 137, 

 thus describes it : " The carabineers carry their carabines in bimdileent 

 of leather about their neck, a far easier way than long ago, when they 

 hung them at their saddles : some, instead of carabines, carry Mnndei - 

 busses, which are short hand-guns of a great bore, win-rein' tln-y may 

 put several pistol or carabine balls, or small slugs of iron. ' I do 

 believe the word is corrupted, for I guess it is a German term, ontl 

 should be donderbucks, and that is, thundering guns, dander signi- 

 fying thunder, and bucks a gun." Sir Samuel Meyrick remarks, that 

 Sir James Turner is right in his etymology, except that " bus " and not 

 " bucks" is the term for a gun, a name that became general after its 

 introduction in the word arquebus: the modern German woid i^ 

 biichse. l!l under) HIS being called in the Dutch language dmiilirlnir, 

 in all probability it was from Holland that the English derived it : 

 it does not appear to have been much known before the tiuic of 

 Charles II. 



The Drayim. The troops called dragoons have been most absurdly 

 said to have been so denominated from the Draconarii of the Humans. 

 They were raised about the year 1600 by the Mareschal de Brisac, iu 

 order to be superior to the German Keiters, who used tin- pistol to 

 so much advantage. On this account they had a more formidable 

 weapon, like a small blunderbus, the muzzle of which being orna- 

 mented with the head of a dragon, gave it its denomination, and from 

 this weapon those who used it were called dragoneers and dragoons. 

 Other, but lesa satisfactory, explanations of the term dragoon (with no 

 reference to the fire-arm called a dragon) will be found in Sir James 

 Turner's ' Pallas armaU,' in Pere Daniel's ' Milice Francaise,' and in 

 Count Bism.irk. The dragon will be found among Skelton's engraved 

 ' Illustrations.' 



The Ilainl-mnrtar was used for throwing small shells and grenade*; 

 though grenades which are said to have been first used in 1594, were 

 also thrown by the hand, and thence gave origin at a later date to 

 the troops denominated grenadiers. Like the dragon it appears to 

 have been fired from the shoulder. 



The Dag. In pursuing the inquiry into the origin of this term, 

 says Sir Samuel Meyrick, nothing could be more |>erplexing than to 

 find, that while dog implied a kind of pistol, pintolese, in the Italian 

 language, signified a great dagger, or wood-knife. The wea|>on appears 

 to have been suggested by the demihaque, and differs from the pistol 

 solely in the form of the butt end, that being invariably term 

 by a straight oblique line instead of a knob. In this respect it greatly 

 resembled a petronel, and that it gave the distinction is clear, tV-iii 

 what is wrongly called a Highland pistol being by the Highland, -i - 

 themselves termed a tack, and its having its butt made flat and termi- 

 nated slant-wise. The dag was of various sizes, and hence in inven- 

 tories of arms we meet with long, short, and pocket dags, and daga 

 with different kinds of locks. It appears to have been almost coeval 

 with the pistol, which is known to have been invented in the reign of 

 Henry VIII.; for in the inventory, taken in 1647, of stores in the 

 different arsenals in England, " one dag with two pieces in one stock " 

 occurs, with " a white tacke with tier locke graver, and all the stocke 

 white bone ; two tackes, after the fashion of a dagger, with lier locke* 

 vcruished with redde stockes, ghethes covered with blocke vellet gar- 

 nished with silver and KIM It. \\itli purses, flaskes, and touch boxes of 

 black vellet garnished with iron guilt; two tackes hafted like a knitf 

 with fier lockes and double lockes," &c. The snaphaunce dag seems to 

 be alluded to in the play of Jack Drum's entertainment 



" ll<- would show one how to bold the dag, 

 To draw the cock, to charge and t the flint." 



The Plttol, according to Sir James Turner, was invented at 1 ' 

 in Tuscany, by Camiilo Vitelli, and in the reign of Henry VIII. 

 M. de la Noue says, " the reiters first brought pistols into general use, 

 which ore very dangerous when properly managed." These rait- 

 more properly ritters, were the German cavalry, who ^.m sm-h 

 ascendancy to the pistol as to occasion in France, and subsequently 

 in England, the disuse of lances. We leant this interesting fact from 

 Davila, who, speaking of the battle of Ivry, iu 1590, takes occasion to 

 extol the use of lances, and express his regret that the French cavalry, 

 composed of gentlemen volunteers, had, in the revolutions of the civil 

 wars, ceased to use them. He tells us, that in consequence of tln-ir 

 having adopted pistols as more ready, in imitation of the German 

 reiters, the king was obliged to oppose the lances of the en- 

 cavalry by dividing his own into small bodies, that they might 

 leg* resistance to the charge, and more easily get out of the way. Pere 

 D.iniel informs us, that the horsemen who were armed with pistols, 

 in the time of Henry II.. <],> tin in.- c.illrd pi.-t.ilicrH, a term subse- 

 quently introdin.-cd into England. John Bingham, in his 'Notes on 

 the Tactics of ..-Elian,' published in 1616, gives us an engraving of the 

 arnin and armour of this species of troojm at that time, from which a 

 correct knowledge may be obtained of their form. The first ordon- 

 nance of Henry II., king of France, respecting the pistol, is di>- 

 to the men at arms, and dated 1649 ; the regulations of Mary, Queen 

 of England, were of a similar character ; both implying that the adop- 



