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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 July 2012
As some of our most signal victories in former centuries were chiefly attributed to the English archers, it may not be uninteresting to the Society if I lay before them what I have been able to glean with regard to the more flourishing slate of our bowmen, till their present almost annihilation.
page 46 note [a] The term of butt or mound of earth on which the marks are fixed is likewise French.
page 46 note [b] By the late publication of Domesday it appears that Balistarius was a most common addition to English names, but I have not happened to meet with that of Arcitenens. See in Suffolk, Warwickshire, Gloucestershire, and some more counties. In the Bayeux tapestry indeed the Normans are represented as drawing the long bow, but it is conceived that this arras was woven many centuries after the Norman invasion, and when that weapon was used in France.
page 47 note [c] Hence the term, I have shot my bolt. This sort of arrow is now chiefly used in Norfolk, where it is useful in shooting rabbits, which do not take a general alarm as upon firing a gun.
Fitz, Stevens, who wrote in the reign of Henry the Second, says that the London skaters moved faster than telum baliste, which seems to prove that the cross-bow was most commonly used at that time.
page 47 note [d] Du-Cange cites Guiast an ancient French poet for the same fact, and Vinesauf mentions that this king killed many Turks with his own cross-bow, l. 3. c. 11. It is not from these facts presumed that neither English or French ever used any sort of long bow at this period, but only that it did not prevail so much, as to train the archers in companies, in the manner that the Arbalesters were disciplined. It is not stated from what bow the arrow issued which killed William Rufus. In Shakespear's time deer were killed by the cross-bow. See Hen. VI.
page 48 note [e] A. D. 1341. See Rymer. Before this, Froissart mentions four thousand English archers in 1327, and two thousand at the battle of Cayent in 1337.
page 48 note [f] Garbas, which Du-Cange shews to have consisted at a medium of twenty-four arrows. By another order (in Rymer) it appears that the white bows were six pence cheaper than the painted ones.
page 48 note [g] The painted bows were considered probably as smarter by this military corps, and possibly this covering might contribute to duration also. As for the white bows, it should seem that they were not made of yew, which is rather of a reddish brown, nor could the sheriff well have found a sufficient quantity of this material in his county. We find indeed by subsequent statutes that yew was imported for this purpose at a very high price. For these order to the sherives see Rymer, A. D. 1342 and 1343.
page 49 note [h] It appears by Procopius that the Persians used a bow which was drawn in the same manner that is used by our archers, 
. L. 1.
page 49 note [i] In 1373 a French ordonance makes mention of Genoese arbalestiers, as being in their service.
page 49 note [k] I hope to have proved in the first volume of the Archaeologia that the magnificent castles built by Edward the First, were similar to those of the Holy-Land.
page 49 note [l] Our long-bow also differs materially from Diana's or Cupid's bows, as well as from those of the Daci on the Trajan and Antonine columns. It is like wise called in several ancient statutes the English bow.
page 50 note [m] In both these battles the archers of England destroyed the French cavalry, and in the latter are said to have drawn arrows a yard long.
page 50 note [n] As “jactus lapidum, lignorum, ferri, pilam manualem, pedivam, et bacularem, canibucam, et gallorum pugnam.” See Rymer, A. D. 1363.
page 51 note [o] See Rymer's Fœd. A. D. 1392. In the twelfth year indeed of this king's reign, an act passed to oblige servants to shoot with bows and arrows on holidays and Sundays. See Rastell's Statutes.
By the 6 Hen. VIII. c. 2. all male servants must provide themselves with one bow, and four arrows, which their master is to pay for, by stopping it out of their wages.
page 51 note [p] See Grafton, who informs us also that the Prince of Wales was wounded in the face by an arrow at the battle of Shrewsbury
page 51 note [q] See Rymer's Fœd. A. D. 1400.
page 52 note [r] See an order, “De equis pro cariagio gunnorum regis capiendis,” “Pro operationibus ingeniorum”, et “De non transmittendo gunpoudre versus partes exteras,” A. D. 1413.
page 52 note [s] “Præter aucas brodoges,” which possibly means geese that were sitting or taking care of their goslings; we now say brooding.
page 52 note [t] “Magis congruas et competentes.”
page 52 note [u] I am told by an arrow-maker that these fix feathers should consist of the second, third, and fourth of each wing. It is to be observed, that his majesty was not very munificent in paying for these feathers, as in the year 1417, there was little or nO demand for pens, to which use at present they are almost solely applied. See Rymer's Fœd. A. D. 1417.
page 52 note [w] See Rymer's Fœdera.
page 53 note [x] The English statutes of Edward IV. to this purpose are those of the seventeenth ch. 3, and twenty-second ch. 4, of the same king, in the preamble to the first of which it is said, “that the defence of this land was much by archers, and “in the second,” “that victorious acts have been accomplished by archers.”
page 53 note [y] Alder probably.
page 53 note [z] See the collection of Irish statutes, Dublin, 1723.
page 54 note [a] See Rymer.
page 54 note [b] Ibid.
page 54 note [c] As also from other neighbouring ports of the Mediterranean, it is believed that there is considerable quantity of yew to be procured in Dalmatia, which lies on the eastern side of the Adriatic, and almost opposite to Venice. We were obliged to import foreign yew, as I do not recollect to have seen this tree in any part of England, with the appearance of its being indigenous.
page 54 note [d] These wines came chiefly from Creete, which at this time belonged to the Venetians. See 7 Hen. VII c. 7.
page 54 note [e] See Rymer's Fœd.
page 55 note [f] Arrows were found on this field of battle, not many years since.
page 55 note [g] Henry VII. is drawn as shooting at butts. Strat, Vol. II.
page 55 note [h] See Rastell's Statutes, 19 Hen. VII, c. 4.
page 55 note [i] Viz. 3 Hen. VIII. c. 3. which directs that every father should provide a bow and two arrows for his son, when he shall be seven years old. 6 Hen. VIII. c. 3. By which everyone (except the clergy and judges) are obliged to shoot at butts.—6 Hen. VIII. c. 13. chiefly levelled against the use of cross-bows.—25 Hen. VIII. c. 17. which inflicts a penalty of ten pounds if a cross-bow is found in the house.—33 Hen. VIII. c. 9. which recites the great price of yew bows [made of Elke * yew] and reduces it to three shillings and four pence.
page 55 note [k] See his own MS. Journal in the British Museum.
page 55 note [l] See 4 and 5 Ph. and M. c. 2. Rastell.
* I rather conceive that this should be Elbe, as 3 Eliz. c. 14. mentions bow-Slaves to be imported from the Hanse towns.
page 56 note [m] It hath been before observed that his elder brother prince Henry was so. See also Baker's Chronicle.
page 56 note [n] In the fifth year of Henry the Eighth, such inclosures were levelled by an insurrection of the archers. See Grafton's Chronicle.
page 56 note [o] Under these last clauses, a cowkeeper named Pitfield was so late as 1746 obliged to renew one of these marks, on which the Artillery Company cut the following inscription, viz. Pitfield's Repentance. I am informed also that Mr. Scott (the great brick-maker) hath been under the necessity of making his submission. I mean to annex a plan of these shooting marks in the Finsbury Fields.
page 57 note [p] See Rymer's Fœdera in the years 1631 and 1633.—In the latter, Charles grants the office of bow-bearer in Sherwood Forest.
page 57 note [q] See the Art of Archery by Gervas Markham, 1634. 12mo.
page 58 note [r] These arrows are still sometimes used, the horn work, being hollow, as also filled with holes. The air passing through these arrows makes a whistling both in the ascent and descent.—They are supposed to have been used by the piquet guards, to give notice to the camp of the enemy's approach during the night.
page 58 note [s] The Blue Anchor, Bunhill-Row.
page 58 note [t] See MS. penes the Artillery Company.
page 58 note [u] Penelope juvenum vires tentabat in arcu,
Qui latus argueret corneus arcus erat.
page 59 note [w] It revives however under the auspices of our worthy member Sir Ashton Lever.
A silver arrow used still within these-few years to be shot for by the young gentlemen, of Harrow School. Annual prizes are also still given at Edinburgh to those who excel in this exercise.
page 60 note [x] Sometimes perhaps in sieges.
page 60 note [y] The bow used by the natives of George's Sound N. Lat. 50 on the N. W. coast of America is in form very similar to the Roman bow. See a specimen at Sir A. Lever's Museum.
page 61 note [z] In 1444 an establishment in France was at least intended, of no less than four thousand archers, and every parish was obliged to furnish one. See Pasquier's Recherches de la France, p. 133.
page 61 note [a] See the statute of James the First of Scotland, A. D; 1424. The title of which is “That ilk man busk them to be archeres.” They are therefore to begin this exercise at twelve years old. See likewise other Scotch acts, viz. in 1457. 1474 and 1491.
page 61 note [b] By one of the ancient statutes a bow of foreign yew may be sold for no more than six shillings.
page 63 note [c] 
.
page 63 note [d] Unum execta latus pugnæ, pharetrata Camilla.
page 64 note [e] Viz. from the mark of Lambeth to that of Westminster Hall.
page 64 note [f] “He'll clap you in the clout at twelve score,” Shakespear. This however seems to be mentioned as an extraordinary feat.
It must be admitted however that by 33 Henry VIII. no one aged twenty-four is to shoot at any mark under eleven score.
page 64 note [g] He is supposed to have sat on a stool, the middle of his bow being fastened to one of his feet, to have elevated that foot forty-five degrees, and drawn the string of a strong bow with both his hands.
page 65 note [f] They generally speak indeed of an arrow's weighing so many shillings.
page 65 note [g] Edward the Third indeed directed the sherives to pluck the proper feathers from the geese in every county. His majesty however wanted these upon the spur of an occasion, and could not wait till the feathers dropped.
Ascham in his Toxophilus breaks out into the following panegyric on a goose, because this bird supplies feathers for arrows.
“How well does she make a man fare at his table, how easily does she make “a man lye down in his bed, how fit even as her feathers be for shooting, so “be her quils only fit for writing.”
Julius Scaliger hath also given us “Laudes Anseris.”
page 65 note [h] Lord Herbert observes, that in 1544 Henry the Eighth had himself invented small pieces of artillery to defend his waggons as also that he took an account of all the ordnance then in the tower, and sent much of it to Tilbury, Gravesend, Dover, and Portsmouth. That he availed himself of the artillery destined for the last of these places, appears by an engraving lately published by the Society.
page 66 note [i] See Stowe.
page 66 note [k] Bowman's Glory.
page 66 note [l] In the time of Charles the First the gunners styled those who contended for the use of archery, king Harry's captains. See the List of Archery by Gervas Markham 1634, 12mo.
page 66 note [m] This title together with that of marquis of Islington, earl of Pancridge, &c. were kept up even so late as 1683, these being all villages in the neighbourhood of the Finsbury Fields.
page 66 note [n] Many statutes of this reign restrain expence and colours of the dress.
page 66 note [o] Though we hear that Indians shoot both birds and beasts, it is believed that this is effected by the archers stealing very near to them. Nor are animals so shy of man in an American wilderness, as they are in countries better inhabited. In the Falkland Islands therefore, when first settled by the English, the birds suffered themselves to be knocked down with sticks. De Pagés also informs us, that the birds between Surat and Bombay, do not avoid man, because the country is peopled by Hindoos, who never molest them. A horse or cow is larger, and therefore would probably be more formidable to the feathered creation, did not they soon experience that they are liable to more attacks from man.
page 67 note [p] Possibly an abbreviation stand fast. It appears that Dr. John Rainolds was nearly killed by such an accident. See. Holland's Herolagia, part 11. p. 229.
page 67 note [q] Toxophilus 29. B.
page 68 note [r] This county hath long been famous for this exercise, as appears by the following line to be found somewhere in Leland's Collectanea.
“Lancasheere saire archere.”