THE EOYAL AETILLEEY INSTITUTION. 
285 
but little is said in these books that is not better said in Norton and 
Eldred. 
The following table is compiled from the tables of Norton and Eldred, 
compared together:— 
Name of gun. 
Weight of shot. 
Charge, 
(corned powder). 
Charge, 
(serpentine powder). 
length of gun. 
Weight of gun. 
Diameter of bore. 
Windage. 
Length of cartridge. 
Metal of gun. 
lbs. 
lbs. 
lbs. 
ft. 
cwt. 
in. 
in. 
in. 
Canon Eoyall . 
63 
27 
40 
12 
71*5 
8 
•25 
Iron. 
Whole Canon . 
47 
18 
34 
11 
62-1 
7 
,, 
— 
u 
Demy Canon . 
27 
16 
25 
10 
63-5 
6 
n 
— 
H 
Whole Culvering. 
15 
12 
18 
11 
41- 
5 
n 
19 
U 
Demy Culvering...... 
9 
6 
9 
10 
22*3 
4*5 
n 
17 
Brass 
Saker and Drake. 
5 
4 
5 
9 
14-3 
3-5 
a 
10 
a 
Minion. 
3-7 
3 
3*5 
8 
10*7 
3 
a 
a 
n 
Falcon . 
2-5 
2 
2-5 
7 
6-2 
2*7 
n 
7 
ii 
In addition to the above there was a legion of guns, great and small, 
called after monsters, birds, and reptiles,—such as dragons, basilisks/* 
sparrows, and rabinets,—but they were of little account and are seldom 
mentioned in the histories of the time. The guns chiefly used in the field 
were demi-culverings, minions, and drakes. Norton makes the whole 
cannon a 39-pr. and the demi-canon a 30-pr. I have followed Eldred, 
because I believe him to be in general the most accurate writer of the two. 
He says, the weight of mettal may differ much,” but so serious a discrepancy 
can only be accounted for by the carelessness of the printers, a fair sample 
of whose blunders may be seen in the paging of the books in question. 
All the guns of the time were highly ornamented, and the specimens that 
still remain are handsome pieces of ordnance. Their extreme length and 
consequently great weight were caused by the badness of the slow-burning 
powder, and necessitated a proportionally heavy carriage. 
The progress of improvement has ever been slower in the construction 
of gun carriages than in the manufacture of ordnance, and the carriages of 
the 17th century form no exception to the rule. They were rude and 
unwieldy and fulfil scarcely any of the conditions necessary for a serviceable 
carriage. They were formed of two large cheeks, or brackets, whose general 
outline was much the same as the brackets of our own bracket trails, 
connected together by four transoms, three in front of the shoulder, and 
* . ... “ TIiou hast talked 
Of Basilisks, of Cannon, Culverin.” 
First part of Henry IV. Act II. Sc. 3. 
