WITH NOTES. 431 



In the second volume of &quot; Bibliotheca Gloucestrensis : 

 a collection of scarce and curious tracts, by John Wash- 

 bourn, jun. Gloucester. 4to. 1825,&quot; there is a reprint 

 of &quot; Corbet s Historicall relation of the Military 

 Government of Gloucester, 1645,&quot; which contains this 

 passage : u Wherefore besides their mine and battery, 

 they framed great store of those unperfect and trouble 

 some engines to assault the lower parts of the city. Those 

 engines ran upon wheels, with planks musket-proof 

 placed on the axle-tree, with holes for musket-shot and 

 a bridge before it, the end whereof (the wheels falling 

 into the ditch) was to rest upon our breast works.&quot; 

 Page 54. 



And in the reprint of &quot; A briefe and exact diurnall 

 of the siege before Gloucester, by John Dorney, Esquire, 

 1643,&quot; we meet with the following: &quot;Munday, Sep 

 tember 4. We understood likewise that the enemy had 

 by the direction of that Jesuitticall Doctor Chilling- 

 worth, provided great store of engines after the manner 

 of the Romane Testudines cum Pluteis,&quot; with which 

 they intended to have assaulted the parts of the city, 

 between the south and west gates. These engines ran 

 upon cart wheeles, with a blinde of plankes musquet 

 proofe, and holes for foure musquetiers to play out of, 

 placed upon the axeltree to defend the musquetiers and 

 those that thrust it forward, and carrying a bridge 

 before it ; the wheeles were to fall into the ditch, and 

 the end of the bridge to rest upon our brest-workes, 

 so making severall compleat bridges to enter the city. 

 After the raising of the siege, we tooke all these engines, 

 and brought them into the towne.&quot; Page 225. 



In the first volume of this work there is a note on the 



two preceding passages, in which the editor observes : 



u The plan of these machines was borrowed from 



the ancients. Various contrivances of this kind were 



also employed in the middle ages, before and for a con- 



