"Henricus Octavus; Thomas Scymoure Knighte, Receyvour of the Peel, was Master of the King's Ordynans, when John and Robert Owyn made this pese. Anno dni., 1544."
The other has the legend:—
"Henry, Earle of Derbye, Lord of this Isle of Man, being here in May, 1577; named Dorothe. Henry Halsall, Receyvour of the Peele, bought this pese, 1574."
This was the fourth Earl of Derby, a K.G., and he had named the gun from his mother Dorothy, who was daughter of Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk.
The old brass gun, popularly known as Queen Anne's Pocket Pistol, was once called Queen Elizabeth's, according to Colonel James. It was cast at Utrecht in 1544, and is a 12-pounder, twenty feet long, finely ornamented with figures in bas-relief.
Scotland, which is rich in military and historical antiquities of all kinds, can also boast of several ancient cannon, extant or in her annals.
In 1430, James I. had cast for him in Flanders a cannon of brass, called the Lion of Scotland, bearing this inscription:—
"Illustri Jacobo Scottorum principe digno,
Regni magnified, dum fulmine castra reduco
Factus sum sub eo, nuncupar ego Leo."
"This," says Balfour in his Annales, "was the first canon or bombard of any strength or bignes, that ever was in Scotland." Among several ancient guns in the armory of the Grants of Grant in Strathspey, is one of singular beauty, covered with figures of men on horseback, and animals of the chase. It is four feet two inches long, and seems to have been a Moyenne or wall piece, and is inscribed:—
"Dominus . Johannes . Grant . Miles . Vicecomes de Invernes . Me fecit . in Germania, 1434."