THE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION, 
289 
reduction of Basing House in 1645.* Cromwell in his letters speaks of 
fire-balls,f and Milton had heard of chain shot— 
tc Chained thunderbolts, and hail of iron bolts.” 
Paradise Lost , VI. 
Cartridges, made of paper or canvas, were occasionally made use of. 
They were sometimes pricked through the vent; but as a rule, when required, 
the tied end was opened and the cartridge was then placed in the bore, 
open end first, to ensure against a miss-fire. On the whole, however, the 
ladle was preferred, and cartridges were looked on with that suspicion which 
sometimes, even in the 19th century, attaches itself to military innovations 
however useful.J The ladle, when filled with powder and pushed well 
home to the bottom of the bore, was turned upside down, and it required 
some skill to withdraw it without carrying down with it some of the powder— 
“ a foule fault for a professed gunner to commit. . . Let the gunner,” 
says Eldred, p. 42, “ endeavour to set forth himself with as comely a 
* Carlyle’s “Letters and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell,” Vol. I. p. 253. I have purposely avoided 
entering into a description of mortars in a paper on Field Artillery. Fig. 6 may supply the 
deficiency. 
f Ibid. Vol. I. p. 257. 
X Smith’s “Art of Gunnery,” 1600, p, 81. Norton, p. 128. Eldred, p. 25. 
