2086

ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM.

PART ill

experience of trees I had cut down, and used myselt in that way. He addsthat this very material quality is not mentioned by any writer, so far as heknows.

Manufacture of Bows . The principal use for which the yew was cultivated,before the introduction of gunpowder, was for making bows, which were formany centuries the principal weapons of the English . Bows are mentionedin Holy Writ; and according to the poem of Archery Revived, published in1676,—

“ ’T was with a shaft that Lamech murdered Cain .”

The bows mentioned in Scripture , however, appear to have been composed ofmetal; and many of those of the ancients were made of two goat’s hornsjoined together with a piece of wood for the handle. The first account wemeet with of yew bows is in Homer; Virgil also speaks of “bows of thetough yew.” In English history, bows are not mentioned till the time ofthe Saxons ; when yew bows, the height of a man, were brought over byVortigern, and soon became general; till, according to one of the versifiersof the 15th century, the enemies of the English in every country, —

By shafts from bows of bending yew,

In streams of crimson gore paid Nature’s due.”

Shotterel and Durfey’s Archery Revived.

The battle of Agincourt , and those of Cressy and Poictiers, were chieflygained by the skill of the English with the bow; and it was the principalweapon in the wars of York and Lancaster. There is also an edict ofEdward IV., relating to the use of the long bow by the Irish. Prince Arthur in the reign of Henry VII., and after him Henry VIII. , held sports of archeryat Mile End ; when there was created, in jest, a duke of Shoreditch , and twomarquesses of Clerkenwell and Islington, and an earl of Pancras. The dukeof Shoreditch was the best archer in the king’s guard; and the others thenext best. These dignitaries played their parts like the king and queen onTwelfth Night; and a full detail of the ceremonies will be found in Wood’sBowman’s Glory, p. 41. Henry VIII . afterwards passed several statutes infavour of archery, of which he was a warm patron; and in his reign “ MasterCheke” published the translation of a work from the Greek on the subject.In 1544, Roger Ascham published his Toxophiles, a work replete with thequaint learning and involved sentences of the time. After thus employingtwo thirds of his book, at last he begins to give directions, as he says, “ ingood sadnesse,” for choosing a bow, and practising the art. He first statesthe instruments required ; viz., the bracer, shooting gloves, thong, bow, andshaft. The bracer was to save the arm of the bowman “ from the strype ofstrynge, and his doublet from wearyng;” and also that “the strynge glydyngesharpley and quickleye off the bracer, may make the sharper shoote. For itthe strynge should lyte upon the bare sieve, the strengthe of the shooteshould stoppe and dye there.” ( The Schole of Shootyng, 2d booke, p. 3.,edit. 1544.) The shooting glove was to save the “ manne’s fyngers fromhurtynge” when he drew the string, and it had a purse attached to put somefine linen and some wax in. The string Ascham advises to be made ofbullock’s entrails, or therms, as they were called, twined together like ropes,to give “ a greater twang.” He then enumerates the different kinds of woodof which bows may be made (see p. 2070.), but gives the preference decidedlyto the yew. The next division is headed “ Ewe fit for a howe to be made on,”in which he informs us that “ every howe is made of the boughe, the plante,or the boole, of the tree. The boughe is knotty and full of pruines; theplante is quicke enough of caste,” but is apt to break; and “ the boole” is thebest. He adds, “ If you come into a shoppe and fynde a bowe that is small,longe, heavye, stronge, lyinge streighte not wyndynge, not marred withknotte, gaule, wyndshake, wem, freat, or pinch, bye that bowe of my warrant.. . . The beste colour of a bowe is when the backe and the bellye in work-ynge be much what after one maner; for such oftentymes prove like virgin