CHAP. CXII.

TAXA'CE-ffi. Ta'xUS.

2087

waxe or golde, having a fine Ionge grayne even from one end of the bowe tothe other; the short grayne, although such prove well sometimes, are for themost parte brittle.” (p. 6.) “ Of the makinge of the bowe” he continues, “ Iwyll not greatly meddle, leste I shoulde seeme to enter in another manne’soccupation, whych I can no skill of.” Though Ascham does not enter intoparticulars respecting the making of the bow, it is clear, from other authors,that in his time it consisted of a single piece of wood, commonly yew, from4 ft. to 6 ft. long, without any felt wrapped round the middle of it to stay thehand, as is done at present. There were, however, two pieces of horn, oneat each end, to retain the string, which resembled those now in use. Thestring was made of the sinews or entrails of animals; and the shaft or arrowof a light and yet strong wood, headed with iron, and trimmed with feathers.

(See Oldfield’s Anecdotes of Archery , p. 20.) The best wood for the arrowsis ash, and the next best birch or hornbeam. Willow is too light, and is aptto make a quavering uncertain flight; as are arrows of deal, and also of thedifferent kinds of poplar, except the aspen and the abele. There are twenty-four arrows in a sheaf or quiver. The manufacturers of bows were calledbowyers, and the arrow-makers fletchers. These trades, with the stringersand arrow-head makers, petitioned Queen Elizabeth in 1570, to enforce intheir favour a statute of Henry VIII., enjoining every man to have a bow inhis house. She did so, and butts were erected in different places, such asNewington Butts, &c., at which every able-bodied man was enjoined to prac-tise the art. Foreign yew, however, began to grow scarce; and it was thoughtso superior to English yew, that a bow of it sold for 6«. 8 d., when the bow ofEnglish yew cost only 2s. The Venetians, who were the chief importers,having exhausted the stock in Italy and Turkey, procured yew staves fromSpain ; till at last the Spanish government disliking the trade, ordered alltheir yew trees to be cut down. When yew could no longer be obtained ofsufficient size to make an entire bow, it struck a bowyer of Manchester ofthe name of Kelsal, about the end of the 16th century, that he might makethe back of the bow of another kind of wood, retaining the belly of yew.Ash, elm, and several other woods, were used for this purpose; and at lastbacked bows became so common as almost to supersede the use of self bows,as those were called, which were made of a single piece. Sometimes theywere made of three, and sometimes even of four pieces of wood ; but the bestare of two. Gradually also yew came to be disused; and ornamentalforeign woods, particularly fustick, lancewood, and partridge-wood were em-ployed. For the best account of archery, and every thing relating to bows,up to the commencement of the present century, we may refer to Roberts’sEnglish Bowman, or Tracts on Archery, published in 1801; and for able his-torical researches on the subject, to Moseley’s Essay on Archery, and Grose’sTreatise on Ancient Arms and Armour. Mr. Waring, the first bow-manufac-turer in England, and perhaps in Europe, informs us that the common yew withsufficiently clear and knobless trunks is no longer to be found, either in Eng-land, or in any other part of Europe; and though English yew is occasionallyused by manufacturers, yet that bows are now almost entirely made of dif-ferent kinds of wood from South America. He showed us, indeed, one ortwo bows, in which the belly was made of English yew, and the back ofhickory, but these he considered of a very inferior description. Perhaps ifyew trees were planted in masses, and drawn up to the height of 10 ft.,with clear trunks, and cut down when they were of 6 in. or 8 in., in diameter,they might still be used for this manufacture.

The fruit of the yew is applied to no use in Britain, though the kernel ofthe nut may be eaten; and it is said to afford, by expression, an oil which isgood for fattening poultry. The dried leaves have been given to children forkilling worms; but it is a dangerous medicine, and has often proved fatal.An infusion of the leaves is said to be used, in some parts of Hampshire,for sponging the bodies of the dead, under the idea of its retarding putre-faction. Mr. Knight, finding that wasps prefer the fruit of the yew to that