THE GUNS
On the side hill near the site of the fort now stand two ancient cannon; they were presented to Plymouth Oct. 4, 1921, by the British Government, through the good offices of the Honorable Artillery Company of London (chartered in 1537) and the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts (chartered in 1638).
Col. Sidney Hedges, speaking at the presentation of the guns, said:
“While we are not sure that they are the original pieces, which stood on the spot in 1621, they certainly are of the same type and age: one is called a Minion, manufactured in 1557, and the other a Sackeret, manufactured in 1550.”
Bradford and Winslow mention such guns.
“The master came on shore with many of his sailors, and brought with him one of the great pieces, called a minion, and helped us to draw it up the hill, with another piece that lay on shore, and mounted them, and a saller (saker, or sackeret) and two bases (very small pieces).”
At the presentation ceremony, Oct. 4, 1921, Mr. Joseph Smith read an original poem which contained these lines:
“Minion and Sackeret, bravely done.
Guns of a king and queen,
Brazen and bold in the autumn sun,
Mute on the hill grass-green,
Moulded in strength by skillful hands,
Fashioned in beauty for war’s demands,—
The terrible beauty that Death commands,—
And the nod of king and queen.
Here will they stand at the dead man’s gate
Where the Pilgrims sleep and dream and wait
For the day when the lowly and the great
Are as one at the throne serene.
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The land that holds the bones of all their sires
The land they loved despite their hapless lot,
Has kindled once again ancestral fires
And tells these dead they have not been forgot.
And here she sends to her dead exiled sons
To guard their sanctuaries, these ancient guns.”