THE EOTAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
25 
In an indenture relating to the stores of Dover Castle in 1372, we find 
among the munitions of the fortress “ cc. garbas sagittarum, vi. gonnes.” 1 
The following bears date 1st May 1384 :— 
" To Sir Simon de Burley, Knight, constable of Dover Castle, for the price of 
12 guns, 2 iron patellae, 120 stones for the guns, 100 lb. of powder, and 4 stocks 
of wood, purchased of William, the founder of London, and delivered to the said 
Simon by the hands of William Hanney, clerk, for fortifying and strengthening of 
Dover Castle, 97 1. 105.” 2 
These guns projecting stones, with their shot, powder, and stocks, were 
bought from a London founder. Did he make the guns, or buy them from 
abroad in the course of trade, and then resell them to the king ? It seems 
strange that it should nowhere be mentioned who was the maker of any of 
these English guns, and certainly as yet we are unable to state that any of 
them were either forged or cast at home. 
On the 15th May of the following year there is an entry of money paid 
“for carriage of cannon &c. from the Tower of London to Porchester 
Castle for its defence;” 3 and two years later, 27th Nov. 1387, “wages of one 
canonnier, lately residing in the fortification of the king's town of La Bye.” 4 
In the year 1400, uiyder date 3rd May, occurs an item 
“ To Henry Boberts, Sergeant, dwelling near Guildhall, in the city of London 
£8. 85. for 24 *quarell gunnes,’ at 75. each; to William Olliver, grocer of Boklers- 
bury, for 3001b. saltpetre price 4sd. per lb., and 100Jib. pure sulphur at 4 \d. 
per lb. &c. &c”5 
Thus the small guns still threw arrows, or as elsewhere seen, lead; while 
stone shot and large guns were employed for fortresses. In England, as we 
see, the word “gunne” or i( gonne 33 is more frequently employed than 
canon , though the latter does sometimes appear. Walsingham illustrates 
this curiously; he says “et illic figere vel locare gunnas suas, quas Galli 
canones vocant; ” and indeed the gonne had in this half century become so 
common an engine of w-arfare as to furnish Chaucer with a simile, evidently 
intended to appeal to the common understanding. In the “ House of 
Fame,” 6 written during the period of which we are treating, he says, 
“ As swifte as a pillet out of a gonne 
When fire is in the pouder ronne.” 
Italy presented to our notice the first unquestionable voucher for the 
employment of cannon, and in Italy their manufacture was more rapidly 
developed than elsewhere. Iron shot were mentioned at Elorence in 1326, 7 
and brazen globes were named by Petrarch as early as 1344. 8 Judging 
by the price paid for projectiles at Bavenna in 1358, brass or bronze appears 
to have been the material employed. This information we obtain from some 
extracts out of the registers of accounts of Bavenna during the war with 
i 
i 
3 
4 
Sloane MSS. 335 and 795, printed by Mr Hewitt. Ancient Armour, &c. Vol. II. p. 293. 
Issue Roll. Easter, 8 Rich. II. 6 Issue Roll. Easter, 1 Henry IV. 
Ibid. Easter, 9 Rich. II. 6 Book iii. Ed. Chalmers. 
Ibid. Michaelmas, 11 Rich. II. 7 Vide Vol. IV. p. 289. 
[VOL. V.] 
8 Ibid. p. 296,- 
4 
