In that warrant Nicholas Merbury is distinctly mentioned as the Master of the Ordnance; yet, notwithstanding the existence of that document, and of another which will be afterwards referred to, of 22nd Edward IV., Mr. Grose, in his _Military Antiquities_, vol. i. page 198, states that the first Master of the Ordnance that he could find on record was only in the first year of the reign of Richard III.; and it is strange that, in a note in vol. i. page 401, he afterwards mentions Nicholas Merbury as having been Master of the Ordnance in the 2nd year of Henry V., but he does not allude to the existence of any such officer in the reign of Edward IV. 1414, 26th September.—Warrant of the 2nd Henry V. to the Collectors of the customs and subsidies, and keepers of the passages of the port of London, &c., prohibiting the exportation of gunpowder without a special permission, “aliquod Gunpoudre versus partes exteras, in portu prædicto, absque speciali mandato nostro, transmitti permittatis.”—9 _Fædera_, fo. 160. 1415.—The army of Henry V., on landing in France, is stated to have been composed of “environ six mille bacinets et 24 mille archiers sans les Canoniers et autres usans de flondelles et engins, {224} dōt ils avoiēt grād abondance.”—_Monstrelet_, vol. i. fo. 218. It appears very difficult to ascertain the kind of instrument meant by “flondelles.” It seems far-fetched to consider it as a corruption of the words “frondes” (slings), besides which, there is not, as far as I am aware, any authority for supposing that the English used slings in battle. A word nearly similar (“fondeffles”) also occurs in 1 _Monstrelet_, p. 27, and is used in conjunction with “eschelles,” which is evidently scaling ladders, which raises the presumption that it was some engine used in sieges. Same year.—At the siege of Harfleur the English “asseirent leurs gros engins {224} les lieux plus convenables entour la dicte ville, et prestement icelle moult travaillerent par grosses pierres et dammageans les murs,” &c. &c. * * * “le Traict et pouldre de canons envoyez a iceux [the Besieged] par le Roy de France furent rencontrez et prins des dits assiegeans.”—_Monstrelet_, vol. i. p. 218. 1418, 10th February.—Warrant in 5th Henry V. to John Louthe:—“Clerico operationum Ordinationis nostræ;” and to John Benett, of Maidstone, mason, to press workmen to make “septem milium Lapidum pro Gunnes de diversis sortibus.”—9 _Fædera_, fo. 542. John Louthe, clerk of the Ordnance, and this warrant, in which he is named, are noticed by Grose, vol. i. p. 198.