BIRDING-PIECES. 



I6 5 



detection ; and the wheel-lock was an article too expensive 

 for them to purchase, as well as being liable to get out of 

 order ; so this lock was devised, and was suggested, no 

 doubt, by the wheel-lock. It consisted in the substitution 

 of flint for pyrites, and a furrowed plate of steel in lieu of 

 the wheel. When the trigger was pulled, it brought this 

 jagged piece of steel in collision with the flint, which 

 threw down its shower of sparks into the open pan, and 

 lighted the priming. This improvement apparently took 

 place about the close of the sixteenth century. 



There is a very early " snap-hance " in the Tower 

 Collection, numbered \^. It is a " birding-piece " of 

 Prince Charles, afterwards King Charles I., date 1614, and 

 furnishes a good illustration of the form of gun in use in 

 Shakespeare's day. It is engraved both on lock and 

 barrel. The butt is remarkably thin ; the length of the 



whole arm is four feet two inches, and was consequently 



