Page:Archaeologia volume 38 part 2.djvu/208

424 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."

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,

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. When this was first adopted does not appear; but it was clearly resorted to by the forces under Mackay in the Scottish