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MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OF 
I know not on what authority the above statements rest. The instruc¬ 
tions delivered 1st June, 1787, to Major General Pattison by the Duke of 
Richmond, Master-General to the Ordnance, specify that, te You are to take 
the command at Woolwich Garrison: You are to take the command at 
Woolwich in the Warren as well as in the Barracks, &c. &c. : You are 
to inspect the Civil and Military Departments of the respective Officers, 
Laboratory, Repository, Inspector of Artillery, and Military Academy.” 
In another work, the “ Environs of London, 1796,” by the eminent 
antiquary, the Rev. D. Lysons, the Woolwich Warren is thus mentioned :— 
“ The gun wharf at Woolwich is of very ancient date: it formerly occupied 
what is now the site of the market place. When removed to the warren, 
where it now is, it acquired thence the name by which it is' now called. 
The warren at Woolwich is the grand depot of the ordnance belonging to 
the Navy : Within this warren is a foundery for brass canon; a laboratory 
(under the direction of a comptroller, a chief firemaster, and other officers) 
for making fireworks for the use of the Army and Navy, and a repository 
for military machines, both for the land and sea service, in which are also 
various models of bridges, fortifications, &c. All ordnance for the use of 
Government, as well the iron cannon made by contractors at various 
places, as the brass cannon cast at the foundery here, must be proved in 
Woolwich Warren. The chief officers of the warren are a Storekeeper 
(John Cockburn, Esq.) clerk of the Cheque, clerk of the Survey, &c.” 
On the 25th March, 1779, there was exhibited before the Society of 
Antiquaries (see Arc/iaologia, Yol. VII.) “ an elegant brass weapon dug up 
the last summer in the great marsh adjoining to Woolwich Warren, on 
making a boundary canal to the ground purchased for enlarging the Warren. 
This weapon is very perfect and in fair preservation, tapering to a point, 
being broad at the haft, into which it was let in, and fastened by two rivets 
of the same metal.” 
A writer in the Gentleman’s Magazine of August, 1798, rapturously 
describes the Warren as “an immense repository of military arts, the 
palladium of our empire, where one wonder succeeds another so rapidly that 
the mind of a visitor is kept in a continual gaze of admiration!” 
On the occasion of a second royal visit to Woolwich—that of George III. 
(accompanied by the Queen and Princesses) on the 9th April, 1805—the 
title of “ Royal Arsenal ” was conferred upon the ordnance establishment 
in the Warren. 
In the Gentleman’s Magazine of July, 1805, the incident is thus re¬ 
corded. “ Thursday, June 27. The Ordnance Board have signified to 
Gen. Lloyd who commands the artillery at Woolwich, that the Warren at 
that place is no longer to bear that name; but from this time to be denomi¬ 
nated the f Royal Arsenal V The old name had its origin from the place 
having actually been a rabbit warren , but the name of one of the tamest of 
all animals was certainly ill-suited to the nature of the place. On the 
recent royal visit to what is called the Warren, where all ordnance, stores, 
ammunition, &c. are lodged, his Majesty noticed how little appropriate the 
name was to the place, and suggested the propriety of changing it to that 
of ‘ ArsenalThe Master-General admitted the justice of the idea, and 
instantly adopted it; henceforward, therefore, in compliment to his Majesty's 
suggestion, the Warren is to be called ‘The Royal Arsenal/ ” 
