THE BROME FAMILY. 
297 
musquett, and half-pike : the dagger (forerunner of the bayonet) was 
screwed into the muzzle of the musquett at close quarters (specimens 
are in the Tower)—-for the bayonet proper was adopted in England 
between 1690 and 1715 1 2 —and the half-pike served also for musquett 
rest, when firing. 
Disciplinary punishments during the same period were severe, and 
sometimes brutal—although the first Mutiny Act of William III. 
enacted that such must not involve loss of life or limb, save by sentence 
of court-martial; 3 the army, formerly the “ King’s Men” or Guards 
to the Sovereign, 3 being under that Act henceforth National. 4 
On 1st October, 1715, Gunner Robert Hughes petitioned the Board 
for pension because Captain Briscoe, at Gibraltar, had broken the 
gunner's arm and knocked out one eye: 5 the Board directed that Capt. 
Briscoe be court-martialPd; but the Captain was not tried, and must 
have justified his philistinism. Minor offences were generally punished 
by the lock-up (with bread and water), or the black hole (with irons) : 
but for non-capital crimes the Wooden Horse for infantry, and the 
Picket for cavalry and artillery were the favorite modes of enforcing 
court-martial sentences, until flogging by drummers came into vogue 
in Flanders, 1742. For offences affecting the character of the corps, 
running the gantelope was universally practised until 1742. 6 The 
“ Wooden Horse ” (one remained on the parade at Portsmouth about 
the year 1760) is described in the 1786 Pd. of Grose’s “Military 
Antiquities ” as having a ridged back, on which the infantry prisoner 
was mounted, with his hands tied behind him, and a musket tied to 
each leg (to prevent his falling off). In the “ Picket,” the cavalry or 
artillery prisoner, while standing on a low stool, had drawn up, to its 
utmost limit, and fastened by noose to a post (picket), that right hand 
which on enlistment he had voluntarily held up on attestation of his 
being a good and loyal soldier: the stool being removed, a stump of 
same height, with rounded blunt point remained, on which the bare 
heel of the sufferer rested in torture, generally for 15 minutes. In 
“ running the gantelope,” the corps or regiment, formed in varying 
depth, opened and faced inwards, each man being furnished with a 
1 In 1686 drill-book, balled dagger; in tliat of 1690, bayonet. So that in latter year Colonels of 
Infantry may have procured private supply of the M.P. Bayonet Musquett. The drill-book of 
1728 shows the bayonet fixed so as not to prevent loading and firing, after the manner of the 
French bayonet d manche. Grose (Vol. II., pp. 340-1). Grose is “at sea” in attributing the 
bayonet to French origin, and owned to having failed to discover the date of Qflicial adoption in 
England of the bayonet. (Vol. II., pp. 341-2). The first supply (20,000) of “Musquetts with 
Bayonets ” was purchased in Holland by the Board of Ordnance, in 1716, to replace the Snap- 
hance (dagger) musquetts— vide p. 18 of B. of O. “Significations,” dated 6/12/1715; and other 
books record the names of the Holland firms, with the prices. Lieut.-Col. Hime (“ Proceedings” 
R.A.I., Vol. VII., Ho. 3, p. 128) names 1693; but does not quote authority, and probably meant 
the introduction on the Continent. 
2 Clode, p. 49. 
3 Hence the term “Regiment,” i.e. Begis-men or the King’s men. On 30th August, 1643, 
"Warrant of Earl of Essex directed the Surveyor of y e Ordnance to “ deliver to my own Regiment 
“ 120 musketts, &c.” Yet Grose, writing in 1786 (Vol. I., p. 242), asserts. . . “Hor is this 
word (Regiment) one hundred years old ; nor do I know of what language it is ! ” 
4 Military and Martial Law. (Clodo) pp. 7 and 8. 
5 B. of O. letter book, 1/10/1715, p. 12. 
6 Grose’s “ Military Antiquities,” Vol. II., pp. 106 to 109. 
