as the dragoons wear."—Miège, Great French Dict., London, 1688. "Bayonette, a long dagger, much in use of late, and carried by the grenadiers."—Phillips's World of Words, 1696. "Bayonette (Fr.), a broad dagger, with a round taper handle, to stick in the muzzle of a musket."—Dictionarium Anglo-Britannicum; or, a General Eng. Dict., by John Kersey, 1715. "Bayonette, a broad dagger, without a guard, made with a round taper handle, to stick in the muzzle of a musket, so that it may serve instead of a pike, to receive the charge of horse."—New World of Words, by Edwd. Phillips, fol. 1720. We do not learn much from these descriptions; but in the "Travaux de Mars," by M. Manusson-Mallet, published in 1685, we find, not only a description, but also an engraving of the bayonet then in use. It appears to have been formed on the model of that mentioned by Puysegur, and is thus described: "Une bayonette, ou une petite lame montée dans un manche de bois; le soldat s'en sert dans quelques occasions comme une demipique, en mettant son manche dans le canon de son mousquet ou son fusil."[1]
The accompanying engraving (plate xxi. fig. 3) exhibits this weapon without a guard, and of the simplest form, as described in the "Treatise on English Military Discipline," above mentioned.
In the following year, the form of the bayonet appears to have been changed, and, in this country at least, a uniform or regulation pattern to have been adopted. An example of one of superior execution and finish is exhibited, which has inscribed on the blade, in four lines, GOD . SAVE . KING . IAMES . 2 : 1686.[2]
This new species of arm, the introduction of which soon led to the disuse of the pike, was found most effective; but it was attended with inconvenience, which led to the adoption of a contrivance whereby the soldier could discharge his musket, and retain his bayonet fixed.[3] When this was first adopted does not appear; but it was clearly resorted to by the forces under Mackay in the Scottish
- ↑ Les Travaux de Mars, ou l'Art de la Guerre. Par A. Manusson Mallet. Amst. 1685. Tome iii. p. 80.
- ↑ This bayonet was kindly sent for exhibition by Mr. Joseph Clarke, of Saffron Walden, who states that it was found on the demolition of an old house in that town. An example is preserved in the Tower Armoury. (See No. 1 in our plate.) Mr. John Hewitt informs me that 2,025 plug-bayonets were destroyed in the Great Fire at the Tower in 1841. I believe all the bayonets of this pattern to have been made in Germany. The greater part of them bear the Solingen forge-mark,—a crowned head in profile.
- ↑ In a communication with which I have been favoured by Mr. W. J. Bernhard Smith, he remarks: "When I was at Rome, in 1835, it was the fashion to have plug-shaped handles for the knives used in boar-hunting, so as to fit into the muzzle of the rifle; a very injudicious arrangement, as a very slight thrust will often set the knife so firmly into the barrel as to render its removal by the hand alone impracticable."
