Archery for the purposes of war, had not been altogether abandoned in this country, even at the breaking out of the civil war, in the reign of Charles I. It has been correctly remarked by Mr. Grose, in his _Military Antiquities_, {215a} that there is amongst old soldiers, a great dislike to innovations, because, by adopting new weapons, and, consequently, a new exercise, the old and expert soldiers find themselves in a worse state than new recruits, as they have not only a new exercise to learn, but also the old one to forget. Indeed, as late as the year 1557, so evenly did the public opinion run, between the comparative efficacy of the ancient and new systems, that in that year, by an act of Parliament (of the 4th and 5th of Philip and Mary), {215b} respecting the providing of armour and weapons, various persons, in Wales, Lancashire, and Cheshire, were required to provide and keep a haquebut; or, in lieu of one, the alternative was given to each of them, to keep a long bow and sheaf of arrows, in such instances, where he was required by that act, to provide himself with the former. Some interesting and curious examples may be found of the use of cannons of various kinds, by the English, in their wars with the French, in the fourteenth century, in the reign of Edward III.; {215c} but although it is indisputable that they were then made use of in sieges, and in the defence of fortified places, there does not appear to be any evidence, that they were made use of in that century, in the field, by the English; {216a} and the defective construction of the cannons of the time of Edward III., and the silence of the English and French historians, raise very strong doubts, whether they ever were so used at that period.