floating batteries, the beautiful chapel built by Mr. G. G. Scott, and a passing look into the various workshops, will afford ample opportunity to indulge and gratify curiosity. Henri Grace à Dieu and the unfortunate Royal George were both built here.
Leaving convicts and policemen, we may now ascend the steep hill, on one side of which, among the trees, rise the imposing new buildings of the hospital, and pass the fine barracks of the Marines, capable of containing fifteen hundred men. A short walk further, and we enter through a wicket near the guard-house. In front we have, as a pleasant change from the miserable shabby town, the open breezy common, with the Royal Military Academy for the cadets on the east, and crowned with the woods of Shooter’s Hill; to the left is the long range of the barracks of the Royal Artillery; while to our right is a park of artillery, gun-carriages, waggons, and limbers, divided by a road leading down to a pretty picturesque hollow, containing a small sheet of water, on which pontooning practice, passage of troops, diving, and transport of artillery, are carried out; while above it, on the opposite side, over the broken undulating ground, diversified by clumps of fir-trees, is seen the tent-like building known as the Rotunda, in front of which is an earthwork, green with turf, but having the dark muzzles of guns peeping through the grassy embrasures of the Repository Ground.
A monument to Sir Alexander Dickson stands in the enclosure, which is entered by a field-wicket, and near some French cannon captured by Marlborough at Malplaquet; the gun that burst at Moorfields, and so proved the cause of the foundation of the Arsenal; a grenier that threw stone-shot, and various culveryns, falcons, demi-falcons, and other strange old-world ordnance. The Rotunda itself was removed from Carlton Gardens, where George IV., then Prince Regent, entertained in it the Allied Sovereigns, in 1814: it now contains models of dockyards, fortifications, every arm used by artillery, and every conceivable specimen of bomb-ships, kettle-drums, tilting-lances, shields, armour, all kinds of weapons, and all sorts of ordnance; trophies won in every quarter of the world; a cinder that represents what was once fifty-six millions of one pound bank notes, burned by the Bank of England when they were called in; and the armour of the Great Bayard, sans peur et sans reproche.
A visit to the Royal Military Academy, with which the establishment of Addiscombe will be amalgamated, will repay those who take an interest in observing the drill ground, studies, and method by which cadets are trained up as officers of Artillery. The dining-hall, which is also used as a chapel, is extremely pretty, and fitted up with stained windows and pieces of armour in extremely good taste. On turning back to the barracks, we observe that the range, 1200 feet in length, is broken by a central gateway of stone and four porticoes: to the right are those of the chapel and guard-house, and to the left those of the mess-house and Brigade offices. The mess-room, 60 feet by 50, contains a fine statue of Armed Science; in it weekly concerts are held during the spring, and three annual balls are given by the officers.
Archæologists have fiercely debated the origin of the term artillery, whether it means the bowyer or the art of fortification. The Flemings were probably the earliest European cannoniers, although the Moors actually employed them first in the fourteenth century, at the sieges of Ronda and Algesiras. In 1544, small pieces of artillery were employed to defend the English baggage train. The Royal Regiment of Artillery now includes a horse brigade, brigades of field-batteries, and garrison artillery, and a coast brigade.
Somewhat more than a century since, the officers of the Royal Artillery carried fuzees without bayonets; the sergeants, corporals, and bombardiers, were armed with halberds; the gunners carried field-staffs, terminating in a spear-head; and the matrosses, who assisted in sponging and loading, had only common muskets, with bayonets and cartouche-boxes. The regiment consisted of ten companies. In January, 1745, a company of gentlemen cadets was added to the regiment; and in 1741, the Royal Military Academy was established by the Duke of Montague, then Master-General. The first fifers in the British army were established at the termination of the war in Flanders, in the Royal Artillery, being taught by a Hanoverian, named John Ulrich. In 1754, corporals and bombardiers were deprived of their halberds. In 1756 the regiment consisted of sixteen companies, and a company of miners was attached to the force. So late as 176.3, one lieutenant-firemaster, another form of the German fire-worker, was attached to each company. The fourth battalion, in 1771, established a band, which was continued for the regiment by the Master and Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance.
In Flanders, in America, in Portugal, in Germany, on the heights of Quebec, at Ticonderago, in the West Indies, this superb regiment first earned their proud motto of “Ubique,” confirmed by their subsequent exploits in the Peninsula, at Waterloo, before Sebastopol, and in India.
Gunners and drivers, until 1826, when attached to field-guns, wore the old Spanish pattern hanger. In 1845 the Victoria carbine was introduced, as the arm of artillerymen not attached to guns, with a sword having a steel scabbard and brass handle, while the horse-artillery received a light cavalry sword. The Victoria carbine has been since replaced by the Artillery carbine, to which is attached a sword-bayonet; the gunners attached to field-guns use this arm.
In 1819 the Artillery were reduced to 8881, in place of the imposing number of 23,085, of which it consisted in the great struggle of 1815. Since 1822, every artilleryman has been enlisted as a gunner and driver. The force now includes ten troops and a depot troop of horse-artillery, six brigades of field-batteries, each consisting of seven, eight, or ten batteries, nine brigades of garrison-artillery, and a depôt brigade. A troop of horse-artillery, forming a 9-pounder battery on the war establishment, includes four 9-pounder guns and two 24-pounder howitzers, 249 officers and men, and 272 horses: on the peace establishment it comprises 220 officers and men, and 180 horses.