History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery, Vol. 1. Duncan Francis
stores were assembled at Chester, for ready transit to that country if required. A large issue of mortars for that service was also made, the calibres being 14¼, 10, and 7 inches, and the diameters of the shells being respectively a quarter of an inch less. Among other guns which occur by name in the Ordnance lists of this year, and which have not yet been mentioned, are culverin drakes of 8 feet in length; saker-drakes of the same; and saker square guns also 8 feet long.
In the spring of 1688, his fatal year, King James was advised by Lord Dartmouth to send a young Gentleman of the Ordnance to Hungary to the Emperor's camp to improve himself in the art military, "to observe and take notice of their method of marching, encamping, embattling, exercising, ordering their trains of Artillery, their manner of approaching, besieging, or attacking any town, their mines, Batteries, lines of circumvallation and contravallation, their way of fortification, their foundries, instruments of war, engines, and what else may occur observable; and for his encouragement herein he was allowed the salary of 1l. per diem, besides such advance as was considered reasonable."
A long and difficult lesson was this which Richard Burton had to learn, and ere it should be mastered the Sovereign who encouraged him should be gone from Whitehall.
It was on the 15th of October, 1688, that undoubted advice reached the King that "a great and sudden invasion, with "an armed force of foreigners, was about to be made, in a hostile manner, upon his kingdom;" and although it is not contemplated to describe the campaigns of the pre-regimental days, a description of the train of Artillery with which he proposed to meet the invasion, and which was prepared for the purpose, cannot fail to be interesting. It is the most largely officered train which we have as yet met; and it was announced that, should the King accompany it at any time himself, it should be further increased by the presence of the Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance, the Comptroller-General, the Principal Engineer, the Master-Gunner of England and his Clerks, the Chief Firemaster and his Mate, the Keepers and Makers of the Royal Tents and their Assistants. Exclusive of these, whose presence was conditional, the following was the personnel of
The reader will observe that in this train the Master-General is not included, even in the contingency of the King's accompanying it himself. Lord Dartmouth had another duty to perform. He had been appointed Admiral of the Fleet which was to engage, if possible, the immense number of vessels which accompanied William to England. The winds fought against Dartmouth. First, he was kept at the mouth of the Thames by the same east winds that wafted the enemy to their landing-place at Torbay; and when, at last, able with a fair wind to follow down the Channel in pursuit, just as he reached Portsmouth, the wind changed: he had to run into that harbour, and his opportunity was lost – an opportunity, too, which might have reversed the whole story of the Revolution, for there was more loyalty to the King in the navy than in the army, – a loyalty which was whetted, as Macaulay well points out, by old grudges between the English and Dutch seamen; and there was in James's Admiral an ability and an integrity which cannot be doubted. Had the engagement taken place, and the King's fleet been successful, it does not require much experience of the world's history to say that the Revolution would have been postponed for years, if not for ever, for it is marvellous how loyal waverers become to the side which has the first success. Nor is this the first or only case on which a kingdom, or something equally valuable, has hung upon a change of wind. How history would have to be re-written had James Watt but lived two centuries earlier than he did!
The Lieutenant-General who was to command the train was Sir Henry Shore, who had been appointed an Assistant and Deputy at the Board to Sir Henry Tichborne. The latter was, doubtless, the Lieutenant-General, whose presence would also have been required had the King in person accompanied the train.
A List of the proper Persons, Ministers, and Attendants, of the Trayne of Artillery, viz. —
(Signed) Dartmouth.
The reader will observe that the position of the medical officers of a train was still a very degraded one, relatively speaking, in point of pay. The surgeon ranked with the ladle-maker, the chief artificers, and the messenger; while his assistant received the same remuneration for his services as did the servants of the master wheelwright and master cooper. The presence, in this train, of an Adjutant and a Battery Master, is worthy of note, and also the intimation that then, as now, on service, the Artillery had to take their share in the transport of the small-arm ammunition of the Army.
History moved rapidly now. After James's flight and a brief interregnum, the Ordnance Office moves on again with spirit under the new Master-General, the Duke de Schomberg. Judging from the vigorous conduct displayed by him during his brief career at the Board, one cannot but regret that it was so soon cut short. One little anecdote reveals the energy of the man's character, and enlists the sympathy of that part of posterity – and the name is Legion! – which has suffered from red tape and routine. There was naturally a strong feeling in Scotland against the new King. Presbyterianism itself could not dull the beating of the national heart, which was moved by the memories of the old line of Monarchs which had been given to England, whose gracious ways almost condoned their offences, and whose offences were easily forgotten in this their hour of tribulation.
Men, guns, ammunition, and transport were all required for Edinburgh and Berwick; but between the demand and the supply stood that national buffer which seems to be England's old man of the sea – a public department. For transport the Master-General had to consult the Admiralty, who, being consulted, began to coil the red tape round the Master's neck, and nothing more. He entreats, implores, and prays for even one ship to carry special engineers and messages to the Forth; but the Admiralty quietly pigeon-holes his prayers in a style worthy of two centuries later. The Duke will have none of it: he writes to the Board to give up this useless correspondence with a wooden-headed Department; to take his own private yacht, and carry out the King's service, without delay. Would that, to every wearied postulant, there were a private yacht to waft him out of the stagnant pool which officialism considers the perfection of Departmental Management, and in which he might drift away from the very memory of pigeon-holes and precedents!
As might be expected, volumes of warrants, at this time, reveal the changes made among the officials of the Ordnance. The preparing of a warrant implied a fee; it is not to be wondered at, therefore, that they were many. No office under the Ordnance was too low to escape the necessity of a warrant. There were chimney-sweeps to the Ordnance who have been made immortal by this necessity, paviours, druggists, messengers, and labourers. All must be made public characters, because all must pay. Sex is no protection. Candidates for Ordnance appointments who belong to the fair sex cannot plead shyness and modesty in bar of their warrants. So that Mary Pickering, who was reappointed cooper at the Fort of Upnor, near Chatham, and Mary Braybrooke, appointed turner at the same time, have come down to posterity for the fee of ten shillings, when fairer and nobler maidens have been forgotten.
There are many Dutch, German, and even French names among the new officials appointed for the Board's service. But reappointments are, by no means, rare, if the old incumbents would but change their allegiance. Among the changes introduced by the Duke de Schomberg was one by which not merely were there gentlemen of the Ordnance for the Tower and the various trains, but also "for the out parts: " and if there were no heavier duties for them to perform than those specified in their warrants, they must have had a very easy time of it, and earned their forty pounds a year without much labour. According to their warrants, their duty was to see that "all ye aprons, beds, and coynes belonging to their Majesties' Traynes of Artillery at ye outposts do remain upon the guns and carriages." If this were really all they had to do, the old gunners of garrisons might have done it quite as well for half the money.
The difficulty of getting arms for the troops which were being raised for service in Ireland alarmed the Board greatly. Very strong measures had to be taken: penalties were threatened on every one who kept arms concealed, or failed to bring them to the Board; and a house-to-house search was authorized. Gunsmiths were forbidden to sell to private individuals, and commanded to devote all their energies to manufacturing arms for the Board, and yet the need was sore. Horses, also, had to be bought, and could with difficulty be obtained; and such as were procured could not bear the test of examination.