THE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
225 
Aide-de-Camp to the Emperor of Eussia, for the drawing from which Plate V, 
has been copied, and which represents it on the carriage of the present day; 
an engraving of the gun is given in a Eeport of American Officers, 1854. 
This great gun possesses also a considerable interest as an example 
of that skill in the casting and manipulation of great masses of metal for 
which the Scythian races have been famous from the times of Herodotus 
downwards. Dr E. Clarke describes it as follows :— 
“ The great gun, also among the wonders of the Kremlin, we measured with less 
facility, being always interrupted by the sentinels, one of whom pointed his bayonet 
at us, and threatened to stab us if we persisted in our intention j yet by walking 
its length we found it about eighteen feet and a half, and its diameter may be 
guessed, because it will admit a man sitting upright within its mouth. Its lip, 
moreover, is ten inches thick. This gun is merely kept for ostentation and never 
used, notwithstanding the neglect it has experienced it remains in good order, 
without injury. It was cast in 1694. According to the Voyage de Deux Franqah 
Tom. II. p. 296, its weight is 2400 ponds, and its dimensions sixteen Erench 
feet in length, and four feet three inches in diameter, deducting sixteen inches for 
the thickness of the piece. 35 —Clarke's Travels , 1800, Yol. I. p* 117* 
He adds in a note s— 
“ In Eden’s History of Travayles, as augmented by Willis, and printed by 
Jugge, in the black letter, at London in 1577, it is gathered out of Paulus Jovius, 
and proved, that they had the use of artillery in Moscow as early as the reign of 
Basil Ivanowitch (Wasilei Ivanowitch 1505-1538). ‘ Basilius dyd furthermore 
instytute a band of hargabusiers on horsebacke, and caused many great brasen 
peeces to be made by the workmanship of certayne Italians, and the same with 
thejr stokes and wheeles to be placed in the castle of Moscai* 55 —Eden’s Hist, 
p. 301. 
Major-General de Novitzky has kindly furnished a description of the 
gun in the Bussian language, from which he has extracted and translated 
the following particulars i— 
“ On the fore part of the gun there is, A likeness on horseback of the Tzal 
Theodore Ivannowitcii with the words * by the Grace of God Tzar and Grand 
Duke Theodore Ivannowitcii, Sovereign and AhtOcrat of all Great Eussia.’ 
“ On the right-hand side the words , c By order of the Orthodox and Christ-loving 
Tzar and Grand Duke Theodore Ivannowitch, Sovereign and Autocrat of all Great 
Eussia, during the life time of his Orthodox and Christ-loving Tzariza Grand 
Duchess Tzina.” 
“ On the left-hand side the words , c This gun has been cast in the most famous 
city of Moscow anno 7094 (a.d. 1586) in the third year of his reign. The gun 
was made by the gun-maker Andrea Ichochow . 5 ” 
The account proceeds to say:— 
“ This gun, the greatest of all the artillery pieces known down to this day, 
received among the common people the surname of Tzar Pooshka, either and most 
likely because of its unusual dimensions, or perhaps in consequence of the likeness 
of the Tzar being on its fore part.” 
