MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OF 
m 
cannon were very small. But possibly Froissart makes use of the word cannon in 
this instance, as a generic term for tlie various warlike engines employed in the 
attack of the town.” 
We are scarcely prepared to find so large a number of cannon carried 
by one army., and the author inclines to the opinion that the number is over¬ 
stated, and also that the cannon were very small. Such guns, indeed, as 
these, and those named in the Huntercombe inventory can have been little 
if at all different from the hand guns, of later date. It may fairly be 
conjectured that these very small pieces were used as hand guns or fired 
from their carriages, as occasion might require. Many of those pieces 
which we have met with already, must, from their price and description, have 
been small enough to be so employed; and we- know from MSS. of the 
following century that the hand gun was frequently only a miniature 
cannon encased in an oblong block of w r ood, vdiich was allowed to rest on 
the shoulder of the person discharging it. 
No further accounts of this half century possessing any great importance 
have been brought to light; but several entries in the Issue Rolls of the 
Exchequer prove that cannon w r ere now in common use for the defence of 
castles. We hear of them at Carisbrook in 1379, from two different sources, 
and again at the same place in 1384 ; at Dover in 1372, and again in 1384; 
at Porchester in 1385, and at Rye in 1387 : and we have already noticed 
them at Cherbourg and at Brest. 
In 1379, the keepers of the castle of Carisbrook report the purchase of 
1001b. saltpetre at 15 cl. per lb., and 501b. sulphur at 6cl. per lb. They 
also bought gunpowder and two brass cannon which cost £6. 6s. 8 d. } early 
in the reign of Richard II. 1 The issue of the money for the above named 
saltpetre and sulphur occurs in the exchequer accounts. 2 
Another issue roll for 1384, is as follows : — 
“ To Sir Thomas de Beauchamp, knight, late Captain of Caresbrok Castle, in 
the Isle of Wight. In money paid to his own hands for so much money by him 
disbursed, viz.: to five canonniers, each having his cannon; and to one canonnier 
with three cannons, for the hire of the same canonniers and cannons, and for 
powder purchased for the same cannons late in the king’s service in the retinue of 
the said Sir Thomas for the protection of the island aforesaid against the king’s 
enemies, who in certain galleys at sea lately made an attempt to invade the island 
aforesaid. By writ of privy seal, &c., 2 61. 5s.” 3 
This discloses the remarkable fact that cannon were, on some occasions, 
the property of private individuals, wdio hired their cannon and their ow r n 
services at the same time, to the king for any special occasion. The fact 
seems clearly proved here; the words are “for the hire of the same 
canonniers and cannons.” When the danger was over, they were dismissed, 
for the same cannons are said to have been “ late in the king's service,” 
which of course implies, no longer in such service. 
1 Mr Hunter in Archaeologia. Yol. XXXII, p. 384, 
2 Issue Roll. Easter, 3 Rich. II. 
s Ibid, Michaelmas, 8 Rich. II, 
