London and Its Environs Described, vol. 6 (of 6): Containing an Account of Whatever is Most Remarkable for Grandeur, Elegance, Curiosity or Use, in the City and in the Country Twenty Miles Round ItAnonymous
History
London and Its Environs Described, vol. 6 (of 6): Containing an Account of Whatever is Most Remarkable for Grandeur, Elegance, Curiosity or Use, in the City and in the Country Twenty Miles Round It
Anonymous
London (England) -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800; London (England) -- Gazetteers -- Early works to 1800
12. A fine representation in carved work, of the star and garter,
thistle, rose and crown, ornamented with pistols, _&c._ and very
elegantly enriched with birds, _&c._
13. The arms taken from Sir William Perkins, Sir John Friend, Charnock,
and others concerned in the assassination plot, in 1696; among which
they shew the very blunderbuss with which they intended to shoot King
William near Turnham Green, in his way to Hampton Court: also the
carbine with which Charnock undertook to shoot that Monarch, as he rode
a hunting.
14. Lastly, the Highlanders arms, taken in 1715, particularly the Earl
of Mar’s fine piece, exquisitely wrought, and inlaid with mother of
pearl: also a Highland broad sword, with which a Highlander struck
General Evans, and at one blow cut him through the hat, wig, and iron
skull cap; on which that General is said to have shot him dead; others
say he was taken prisoner, and generously forgiven for his bravery.
Here is also the sword of justice, with a sharp point, and the sword
of mercy, with a blunt point, carried before the Pretender on his
being proclaimed King of Scotland, in 1715. Here are likewise some of
the Highlanders pistols, the barrels and stocks being all iron; also
a Highlander’s Loughabor ax, with which it is said Col. Gardner was
killed at the battle of Preston Pans.
A discerning eye will discover a thousand peculiarities in the
disposition of so vast a variety of arms, which no description can
reach, and therefore it is fit that every one who has a taste for the
admirable combinations of art, should gratify it with the sight of the
noblest curiosities of this kind in the whole world.
_The Royal Train of Artillery._ Upon the ground floor under the small
armoury, is a large room of equal dimensions with that, supported by
twenty pillars, all hung round with implements of war. This room which
is twenty-four feet high, has a passage in the middle sixteen feet wide.
At the sight of such a variety of the most dreadful engines of
destruction, before whose thunder the most superb edifices, the noblest
works of art, and numbers of the human species, fall together in
one common undistinguished ruin, one cannot help wishing that these
horrible inventions had still lain, like a false conception, in the
womb of nature, never to have been ripened into birth. But when, on
the other hand, we consider, that with us they are not used to answer
the purposes of ambition; but for self defence and in the protection
of our just rights, our terror subsides, and we view these engines of
devastation with a kind of solemn complacency, as the means providence
has put into our hands for our preservation.
1. You are shewn two large pieces of cannon employed by Admiral Vernon
before Carthagena; each of which has a large scale driven out of their
muzzles by balls from the castle of Bocca Chica.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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