242 THE CALIVF.R. 



A contemporary military writer, Sir John Smythe, gives 

 his opinion that the term was derived from " the height of 

 the bullet"- i.e. the bore. He says, " The caliver is only a 

 harquebuse ; savinge, that it is of greater circuite, or bullet, 

 than the other is of ; wherefore the Frenchman doth call it a 

 piece de calibre, which is as much as to saie, a piece of bigger 

 circuite.* I would that all harquebuses throughout the field 

 should be of one caliver and height, to the intent that every 

 soldier on the lack of bullets might use his fellows' bullets." 



There are two specimens in the Tower Collection, of a 

 caliver and a musket of the sixteenth century, from 

 Penshurst Place, Kent. The length of the former (here 

 figured) is 4 ft. 10 in., the latter 5 ft. 5^ in.f 



Notwithstanding the " bigger circuite," the musket was 

 considered twice as efficient in its effects, and Sir Roger 

 Williams corroborates the fact, admitting the advantage 

 possessed by the caliver of being more rapidly discharged. 

 " The calivers may say they will discharge two shot for 

 one, but cannot denie that one musket-shot doth more hurt 

 than two calivers' shot." \ 



* "An Answer to the Opinion of Captain Barwicke." (Harl. MSS., No. 4,685.) 

 t Their numbers, in Mr. Hewitt's official Tower Catalogue, are jjj and |*. 

 J " Brief Discourse of War, 1590." 



