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HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

on no better authority, appears as vague as one that should be formed two cen-turies hence, from the works of the ingenious village artist, and his curious wellpreserved delineation of the Royal George, on the alehouse sign by the wayside *.

It is certain, that very little improvement was made in the form of the hulltill long after the commencement of the reign of Charles the First. T heRoyal Sovereign, built at Woolwich, and launched in the year 1637, was, ifwe credit the prints affixed to Heywood’s description of it, in appearance, tomodern shipwrights, extremely uncouth, little less so than the Harry Grace aDieu herself; but of this hereafter.

On the accession of Henry the Eighth, that wise and politic prince imme-diately applied himself, with the utmost earnestness, to improve and augmentthat inconsiderable naval force, which his father had lived long enough to seethe necessity of, but of which he had been able to lay only the foundation.An event, which took place in the third year of his reign, fully proved thenecessity of the measure ; and the complete success which closed it, appearedas an earnest of that glory which never fails to attend similar exertions.

“ In June,” says Grafton, “ the king beyng at Leycester, tidynges wasbrought unto him, that Andrewe Barton, a Scottishe man, and a pirate of thesea, saiying, that the Scottes had warre with the Portingales, did rob everynation, and so stopped the kings streames, that no marchaunt almost couldepasse. The king beyng greatly moved with this craftie pirate, sent Sir EdmondHaward, lorde admiralle of Englande, and lord Thomas Haward, sonne andheyre to the erle of Surrey, in all haste to the sea, which hastilye made redietwo shippes, and without any longer abode, tooke the sea, and by chaunce ofweather were severed. The lorde Haward liyng in the Downes, perceyvedwhere Andrew was makyng towards Scotland, and so fast the sayd lord chasedhim, that he overtooke him, and there was a sore battaile. The Englishe menwere fierce, and the Scottes defended themselves manfully, but in the ende thelorde Haward and his men entered the main decke, and in conclusion Andrewwas taken, beyng so sore wounded that he dyed there, and the remnant of theScottes were taken with their shippe called the Lion.”

* Would not the inquisitive examiner, at that remote period, who should compare such a perform,-ance with the slightest and least laboured sketch of the same vessel, from the pencil of a Serres, or aPocock, be very apt to insist, they never could have been intended to represent the same object, or wereeven the productions of artists living in the same age ?

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