THE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
109 
towards the terrepleine at its natural inclination. In this way, a work could 
be built infinitely more quickly, more simply, and more economically than at 
present. By increasing the lateral range of our guns, we do away with the 
necessity of having so many as we have in our modem fortresses to cover 
every point of the surrounding country by which the enemy might approach; 
and this dimunition of the armament would compensate for the additional 
expense of the cupola. 
Some of our fortresses have cavaliers with guns on the top. Let these be 
placed under cupolas, and two would be as efficient as ten are at present. 
Our last mentioned advantages “ durability and invulnerability ” apply 
more to the armament than to the work. The invulnerability of the cupola 
has been ably insisted on by its talented inventor, and proved by experi¬ 
ments; and the durability which the gun and carriage would attain from 
their shelter from the weather would be very great. The constantly recurring 
expense of lacquering guns and carriages would be greatly avoided; and in 
a kingdom whose forts are so numerous, even this consideration is one not to 
be despised. 
But if in regular fortifications the cupola could be introduced with 
advantage; how much more would this be the case in such works as our 
Martello towers. By a judicious arrangement, these towers might attain a 
dignity in fortification little dreamt of. Let the cupola be placed on the top 
of, and coinciding with the circumference of, the tower; surround it by a 
deep ditch, and throw the whole of the earth excavated from it so as to form 
a steep glacis round the tower, whose slope if possible should be a prolonga¬ 
tion of the angle of the cupola itself, and we have at once a circular fort of 
singular strength and simplicity. A line of such towers along a coast or 
round a harbour, each perfectly self-acting, would form a serious obstacle to 
an invading force. And in a country with so large a coast line, as Great 
Britain, these might be found at once an economical and an efficient means 
of connecting our larger works, and so keeping up a continuous and formid¬ 
able line of resistance. 
