[582] “Annals,” &c., p. 584, for the year 1543. Stow died in 1605. The 15½″ mortar, under Firemaster Thomas Wright, which accompanied a small force sent by Cromwell in 1651 to reduce the Royalist castle of Elizabeth in Jersey, may have been one of Bawd and Collet’s. Between five and ten rounds were fired daily for several days without any damage to the piece, although the carriage broke down completely on two occasions. The range was 1540 yards, and the shooting accurate. The first round, we may feel certain, was laid with extreme care. “I proffered to lay a wager of ten pounds with Captain Dover,” says the Firemaster, “that my first shot should strike the Castle, ... and by God’s providence it did strike one side of the great Tower, where the Granado brake” (_i.e._ exploded). The second shell “brake verie kindly,” and for the third he “altered (the) degrees of elevation.” Captain Dover may have paid his bet, but the Ordnance Office forgot to remit Wright’s pay; hence the “Perfect Narrative of the Particular Service performed by Firemaster Thomas Wright,” &c. &c., 1651. The word _explode_ is not found before the seventeenth century—see Dr. Murray’s “New English Dictionary”—and was sparingly used in Wright’s time. [583] “Italus a Parmensi ad Foederatos perfugiens, inauditam artem jactabat parandi vasa, cavatosque e ferro aut lapide globos, qui in obsessas urbes adigerentur, impleti ejus naturæ materiâ, ut simul ignem concepissent, in innumeros quasi acinos dissilirent.” [584] See the accounts of the bailiffs of St. Omer in 1342, in Napoleon III., iii. 77. [585] Ib., p. 149. [586] Reinaud and Favé, p. 158. [587] Whitehorne, _c._ 25. [588] Portfires go back to about 1700. Muller’s “Treatise on Artillery,” p. 202. [589] The battle of Uddevalla in Sweden, 1677, was decided by _armes blanches_, a prolonged storm of rain having put a stop to all firing. Crichton and Wheaton’s “Scandinavia,” p. 109. [590] Père Amiot, in Reinaud and Favé, p. 183. [591] Hassan, ib., 37. [592] Nye, p. 68 _bis_, where it is called “priming.” [593] “Quickmatch,” in official “Treat. on Ammunition,” p. 430. [594] Muller’s “Treatise on Artillery,” 1768, p. 203. [595] General Sir Howard Douglas, “Naval Gunnery,” 1860, p. 458. Sir Charles Douglas also introduced into his ship (at his own expense) the quill tubes he had invented for naval use, and flannel cartridge cases which at that time were used “for artillery cartridges of all sorts.” Captain G. Smith, “Univer. Mil. Dict.,” 1779; “Laboratory.” [596] “Artillery Equipment,” Colonel F. Miller, _V.C._, R.A, Pt. II., p. 84. It is uncertain to what extent flint-locks were adopted for the Artillery. “Ammunition,” by Sir V. D. Majendie, i. 192. [597] “Naval Gunnery,” as before. [598] The above facts are chiefly taken from the “Treatise on Ammunition,” by the late Colonel Sir V. D. Majendie, R.A., 1867; and the work on “Artillery Equipment,” by the late Colonel F. Miller, _V.C._, R.A.