Up right now on ebay is the original incarnation of the Britains 4.7in Naval Gun. this was a model of a Boer War naval gun, and this toy is the early version with a broad flat spring that gave it tremendous shooting power, it was greatly reduced in the later versions with a coil breech spring so as to minimize the physical destruction the gun wrought on metal figures. In this version it often knocked heads off figures, and of course this is the precise toy that H.G.
I have read many great books in my life; but I used to think War and Peace was probably the greatest novel...better than "the Thousand Hour Day", and much better than "Song of Fire and Ice", or "Lord of the Rings", not to take away from them, they are great books, but as much as I like them both, they are pale glimmers from a tarnished candlestick next to the supernova of literature that is the great Sienkiewicz Trilogy. With Fire and Sword is bar none, the best novel I've read yet.
