ARMS. 



ARMS. 



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tion of the pistol, in the first instance, was by permission. The 

 manual exercise of this weapon is detailed and exhibited in several 

 plates in Captain Cruso's ' Military Instructions for Cavalry,' published 

 in 1632. Sir James Turner, in his ' Pallas armattf,' published in 1670, 

 says, the French then used locks with half-bends (snaphauuces), as 

 well as for the most part the English and Scots ; the Germans, rose or 

 wheel-locka ; the Hollanders used both. 



The Trickerlocl: " A match tricker-lock compleat " occurs in a 

 schedule of the year 1629. This was the adoption of what is now 

 termed a hair-trigger, which was added to' the former one, and gives a 

 more instantaneous discharge. A tricker wheel-lock of the reign of 

 Charles I., a tricker match-lock of that of Charles II., and a tricker 

 fire-lock of that of James II., upon this principle, are preserved in 

 Colonel Meyrick's collection of arms and armour at Goodrich Court, in 

 Herefordshire. 



The Fire-luck. Colonel Meyrick is in possession of a portrait of 

 a republican officer, said to be that of Colonel Joyce, which proves 

 that the modern firelock is an invention as early as the middle of the 

 1 7th century, for he has a firelock pistol in his hand. This is im- 

 portant evidence, for it has been shown that the name had been 

 equally applied to the wheel-lock. The firelock was evidently suggested 

 by the snaphaunce. It originated with the French about the year 

 1635. The steel post on which the furrowed piece had been placed 

 was got rid of, and the furrowed piece set upright and fixed on the 

 cover of the pan. The cock was moved sufficiently near to permit its 

 owning the pan, by the sudden impulse on striking this furrowed 

 piece ; performing this operation, and giving fire at th# same time. 

 i firelock of the time of Cromwell will be found among Skelton's 

 engravings. The term firelock was no longer applied to the fire-arm 

 with the wheel, which was now termed " the rose or wheel-lock." 



The fidf-loadiH'i Gi'n originated in Italy about the close of the 

 English Protectorate. The butt was made to answer the purpose of a 

 flask, and a small touch-box was attached to the pan. At the breach 

 was a cylinder, with a hole to receive the bullet. To the axle of this 

 cylinder was affixed a lever, on turning which the bullet was conveyed 

 to its proper place : sufficient portions of charge and priming were cut 

 off, and the piece cocked at the same time. This, therefore, rendered 

 the firelock pint described as expeditious as the long-bow ; but the 

 ci mtrivance was attended with great danger, and occasioned the sub- 

 sequent inventions of a moveable or revolving breach composed of 

 several cylinders, each containing a charge ; or a small barrel to be 

 brought to the breach when requisite to load, Ac, Though none of 

 these contrivances were ever adopted by infantry regiments, yet some 

 of them were extremely ingenious, being a very close approach to our 

 modern revolver pistols. 



In 1712, a brass fire-arm called the Fancy ipm was invented. It 

 was in the shape of a walking-cane, and might be used as a gun or 

 pistol ; but it was never used for military or even general purposes. 



MuAel-Arrmci, sometimes called fire-arrows, are at least as old as 

 the time of Queen Elizabeth. They occur in the inventories of the 

 re iyal arsenals. Sir Richard Hawkins, in the account of his voyage to 

 tin' Smith Se.i in the year 1591, speaks of using them with great 

 success. In Elizabeth's time, these arrows, which carried combustibles, 

 were of wood; at a subsequent period they were made of iron. 

 Arrows of this latter kind were used in the Civil Wars, at the siege of 

 Lyme. Lord Bacon says the arrows shot by muskets were called 

 spright*. 



The Match-l*i.r. One great inconvenience, says Sir Samuel Meyrick, 

 of the burning match was, that it discovered the soldier on guard, and 

 counteracted the necessary secrecy for enterprises by night. To 

 remedy this defect, small tubes of tin or copper, pierced full of holes, 

 were invented by a Prince of Orange, apparently Prince Maurice. 

 They are thus described by Walhuysen, a captain of the town of 

 Danzig, in his ' Art Militaire pour 1'Infanterie,' printed in 1615 : " It is 

 necessary that every musqueteer should know how to carry his match 

 dry in moist or rainy weather, that is, in his pocket or in his hat, by 

 putting the lighted match between his head and hat, or by some other 

 me.uia to guard it from the weather. The musqueteer should also 

 hav a little tin tube, of about a foot long, big enough to admit a 

 match, and pierced fujl of little holes, that he may not be discovered 

 by bis match, when he stands sentinel, or goes on any expedition." 

 This was the origin of the match-box, till lately worn by our grenadiers 

 on one of the cross belts in front of their chests. 



The Pmrdfr-hi/rn and Plwik. The convenient form of the horn to 

 hold gunpowder, one end being broad, into which it might be conveyed 

 with ease, and the other with a small aperture by which it might be 

 discharged int/> the Ijarrels of fire-arms, naturally suggested it as best 

 adapted for the purpose. But it was not long before the narrow end 

 was entirely closed, and the broader one furnished with a tube that 

 might contain junt sufficient power for one charge. In this state it 

 appears suspended in front from the necks of the arquebusiers in the 

 triumph of Maximilian I. This modification of the powder-horn sug- 

 gested the more capacious flask, which, with its name, in reference to 

 its resemblance to a bottle, is of German origin. The flask was known 

 in England as early as the reign of Henry VIII., and appears on a 

 hackbutter of that date in one c,f Strutt's engravings, taken from an 

 original drawing in the British Museum, suspended like the horn, but 

 at the hip, imtvad of on the breast. So in the inventory, taken 



AKTS AND SCI. DIV. yol,. I. 



1 Edward VI., we have " One home for gonne-powder, garnished with 

 silver. Three grete flaskes covered with vellet, and three lytle touch 

 boxes." And in that at Hengrave, " xxiiij flaskes, and as many tootche 

 boxes." M. Montgommeri Corbosson, in his ' Treatise on the French 

 Army ' in the time of Henry IV., informs us that " the captain of a 

 company, mounting guard, ought to carry an arquebuse and a powder- 

 flask, and wear on his head a great plume of feathers." Varieties of 

 powder-horns and flasks will be found in Skelton's engravings. 



The Toaclif-box. Gunpowder was at first not corned; when, how- 

 ever, it had been manufactured into granules, such as were considered 

 proper for the charge, it was discovered that the finer these were made 

 the quicker would they ignite. This was the origin of priming or 

 serpentine powder, and consequently of a small case to hold it, which 

 is in reality a flask on a smaller scale, to which the name given was 

 touche-box. 



Bandoliers. To enable the soldier to load his piece with greater 

 rapidity, small cylindrical boxes, each containing one charge of powder, 

 either of wood or tin, and covered with leather, were suspended to a 

 belt or band, put either over the shoulder or fastened round the waist. 

 They seem to have been first introduced in the reign of Henry III. of 

 France. The earliest instance which Sir Samuel Meyrick met with o 

 the bandolier was in Montfau9on's ' Monarchic Francoise,' pi. ccxciv. ; 

 Davis, in his ' Art of War,' he says, would induce the belief that the 

 English received them from the Walloons in the neighbourhood of 

 Liege. Sometimes six were placed before, and six behind the person, 

 when slung over the shoulders ; sometimes more. Nine are suspended 

 to a waist-belt in Col. Meyrick's collection. Immense numbers still 

 remain at Hampton Court. Sir James Turner, who published his 

 work in 1670, says they were first laid aside about thirty years before 

 by the Germans. Soldiers who were without cloaks could not keep 

 them from snow and rain, which soon spoiled them and made the 

 powder useless ; and in surprisals, the noise which they made betrayed 

 those who carried them. 



The Cartridge. Sir James Turner, speaking of the pistol, says, " all 

 horsemen should always have the charges of their pistols ready in 

 patrons, the powder made up compactly in paper, and the ball tied to 

 it with a piece of packthread." In this description we have evidently 

 the cartridge, though not expressed*by name. It is a curious fact that 

 these were first confined to the cavalry, and that the general adoption 

 of the cartridge was not earlier than the common use of the modern 

 firelock. Lord Orrery, in his ' Treatise on the Art of War,' says, " I 

 am, on long experience, an enemy to the use of bandeleers, but a great 

 approver of boxes of cartridges, for then, by biting off the bottom of 

 the cartridge, you charge your musket for service with one ramming. 

 I would have these cartridge-boxes of tin, as the earabiners use them, 

 because they are not so apt to break as the wooden ones are, and do 

 not in wet weather, or lying in the tents, relax. Besides, I have 

 often seen much prejudice in the use of bandoleers, which, being worn 

 in the belts for them above the soldiers' coats, are often apt to take fire, 

 especially if the matchlock musket be used ; and when they take fire, 

 they commonly wound and kill him that wears them, and those near 

 him ; for likely, if one bandoleer take fire, all the rest do in that column ; 

 they often tangle those which use them on service, when they have 

 fired, and are falling off by the flanks of the files of the intervals to 

 get into the rear to charge again." 



The Patron was an upright semi-cylindrical box of steel, with a 

 cover moving on a hinge, filled with a block of wood with five perfora- 

 tions to hold as many pistol-cartridges. Skelton has engraved some of 

 Elizabeth's time, and in the ' Diversarum Gentium Armatura Eques- 

 tris,' printed in 1617, the German cavalry are represented with a brace 

 of pistols in the same holster at the saddle-bow, and patrons at 

 their hips. 



The Sweynts-feather, and Musket-reit. To remedy the inconvenience 

 of a musketeer's being compelled to draw his sword, and to defend 

 himself after the discharge of his piece, and to render him more com- 

 petent to act against the pikemen, a long thin rapier blade, fixed into a 

 handle, and carried in a sheath called a sweynes-feather, that is, hog's 

 bristle, the invention of which is by its other name attributed to the 

 Swedes, was given him instead. This, after a discharge, he drew out of 

 its scabbard, and fixed into the muzzle of his gun, which gave him a 

 weapon of great length ; but as the soldier had then more to carry in 

 his hand than previously, an attempt was made to unite the sweyues- 

 feather with the rest. This latter, instead of having a wooden shaft 

 simply, was made of a thin tube of iron, covered with leather, which 

 held within it the feather. Thus it was preserved from rain, and when 

 wanted, it could be ejected by a jerk. The sweynes-feather was in- 

 vented in the reign of James I. During the civil wars, its name was 

 sometimes corrupted into swan's feather. One of the musket-rests, 

 armed with a projecting pike from one of the prongs of its fork, is 

 represented in Grose's ' Treatise on Ancient Armour,' pi. xl. fig. 6. 

 The Duke of Albemarle, in his ' Observations upon Military and Poli- 

 tical Affairs,' written in 1646, and printed in 1675, recommends 

 arming musketeers and dragoons with muskets and sweynes-feathe.ru, 

 with the heads of rests fastened to them. The rests themselves were 

 apparently disused about the middle, or toward the latter end of the 

 civil wars, the weight and incumbrance of the musket and its apparatus 

 being probably found too great for the active service inseparable from 

 campaigns carried on by small detachments. 



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