Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 3, Anatomy-Astronomy

ARCHERY.
Archery, siderable distance, and that yew is the best material of
which they can be made. As to the feathers, that of a
goose is preferred: it is also wished that the bird should
be two or three years old, and that the feather may drop
of itself. Two out of three feathers in an arrow are com¬
monly white, being plucked from the gander; but the
third is generally brown or gray, being taken from the
goose, and, from this difference in point of colour, informs
the archer when the arrow is properly placed. From this
most distinguished part, therefore, the whole arrow some¬
times receives its name: and this, by the by, affords an
explanation of the gray-goose wing in the ballad of Chevy
Chase. Arrows were armed anciently with flint or metal
heads, latterly with heads of iron: of these there were
various forms and denominations. By an act of parlia¬
ment made the 7th of Henry IV. it was enacted, That
for the future all the heads for arrows and quarrels should
be well boiled or brased, and hardened at the points with
steel; and that every arrow-head or quarrel should have
the mark of the maker: workmen disobeying this order
were to be fined and imprisoned at the king’s will, and
the arrow-heads or quarrels to be forfeited to the crown.
Grose on Arrows were reckoned by sheaves, a sheaf consisting
Ancient 0f 24 arrows. They were carried in a quiver, called also
Armour. an arrmv-case, which served for the magazine ; arrows for
immediate use were worn in the girdle. In ancient times
phials of quicklime, or rather combustible matter, for
burning houses or ships, were fixed on the heads of ar¬
rows, and shot from long-bows. This has been also prac¬
tised since the use of gunpowder. Neade says he has
known by experience that an archer may shoot an ounce
of fireworks upon an arrow twelve score yards. Arrows
with wildfire, and arrows for fireworks, are mentioned
among the stores at Newhaven and Berwick in the 1st of
Edward VI.
The force with which an arrow strikes an object at a
moderate distance may be conceived from the account
given by King Edward VI. in his journal; wherein he says,
that 100 archers of his guard shot before him two arrows
each, and afterwards altogether ; and that they shot at an
inch board, which some pierced quite through and struck
into the other board ; divers pierced it quite through with
the heads of their arrows, the board being well-seasoned
timber: their distance from the mark is not mentioned.
To protect our archers from the attacks of the enemy’s
horse, they carried long stakes pointed at both ends :
these they planted in the earth, sloping before them. In
the first of Edward VI., 350 of these were in the stores of
the town of Berwick, under the article of archers’ stakes :
there were also at the same time eight bundles of archers’
stakes in Pontefract castle.
To prevent the bowstring from striking the left arm,
the arm is covered with a piece of smooth leather, fasten¬
ed on the outside of the arm—this is called a bracer ; and
to guard the fingers from being cut by the bowstring,
archers wore shooting gloves. Chaucer, in his prologue to
the Canterbury Tales, thus describes an archer of his day:
And he was cladde in cote and hode of grene.
A shefe of peacock arwes bright and kene
Under his belt he hare ful thriftily.
Wei coude he dresse his takel yemanly:
His arwes drouped not with fetheres lowe.
And in his bond he bare a mighty bowe.
A not-hed hadde he, with a broune visage.
Of wood-craft coude he wel alle the usage.
Upon his arme he bare a gaie bracer.
And by his side a swerd and a bokeler,
And on that other side a gaie daggere,
Harneised wel, and sharpe as point of spere:
A Cristofre on his brest of silver shene.
An home he bare, the baudrik was of grene.
A forster was he sothely as I gesse.
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Though archery continued to be encouraged by the Archery,
king and legislature for more than two centuries after the
first knowledge of the effects of gunpowder, yet by the
latter end of the reign of Henry VIII. it seems to have
been partly considered as a pastime. Arthur, the elder
brother of Henry, is said to have been fond of this exer¬
cise, insomuch that a good shooter was styled Prince
Arthur. We are also informed that he pitched his tent
at Mile-End in order to be present at this recreation, and
that Henry his brother also attended. When the latter
afterwards became king, he gave a prize at Windsor to
those who should excel in this exercise; and a capital shot
having been made, Henry said to Barlow (one of his
guards), “ If you still win, you shall be duke over all
archers.” Barlow therefore having succeeded, and living
in Shoreditch, was created duke thereof. Upon another
occasion Henry and the queen were met by 200 archers
on Shooter’s hill, which probably took its name from their
assembling near it to shoot at marks. This king likewise
gave the first charter to the Artillery Company, in the
29th year of his reign, by which they are permitted to
wear dresses of any colour except purple and scarlet—to
shoot not only at marks, but birds, if not pheasants or
herons, and within two miles of the royal palaces. They
are also enjoined by the same charter not to wear furs of
a greater price than those of the marten. The most ma¬
terial privilege, however, is that of indemnification for
murder, if any person passing between the shooter and
the mark is killed, provided the archers have first called
out fast.
The following description of an archer, his bow, and
accoutrements, is given in a MS. written in the time of
Queen Elizabeth. “ Captains and officers should be skilful
of that most noble weapon, and to see that their soldiers
according to their draught and strength have good bowes,
well nocked, well strynged, every strynge whippe in their
nocke, and in the myddes rubbed with wax, braser and
shuting glove, some spare strynges trymed as aforesaid,
every man one shefe of arrows, with a case of leather de¬
fensible against the rayne, and in the same fower and
twentie arrowes, whereof eight of them should be lighter
than the residue, to gall or astoyne the enemye with the
hailshot of light arrows, before they shall come within the
danger of the harquebuss shot. Let every man have a
brigandine, or a little cote of plate, a skull or hufkyn, a
mawle of leade of five foote in lengthe, and a pike, and
the same hanging by his girdle, with a hook and a dagger;
being thus furnished, teach them by musters to marche,
shoote, and retire, keepinge their faces upon the enemy’s.
Sumtyme put them into great nowmbers, as to battell ap-
parteyneth, and thus use them often times practised, till
they be perfecte ; ffor those men in battel ne skirmish can
not be spared. None other weapon maye compare with
the same noble weapon.”
The long-bow, as already observed, maintained its place
in our armies long after the invention of fire-arms; nor
have there been wanting experienced soldiers who were
advocates for its continuance, and who in many cases
even preferred it to the harquebuss or musket. King
Charles I. twice granted special commissions under the
great seal for enforcing the use of the long-bow. The
first was in the 4th year of his reign; but this was revok¬
ed by proclamation four years afterwards, on account of
divers extortions and abuses committed under sanction
thereof. The second, anno 1633, in the ninth year of his
reign, to William Neade and his son, also named William,
wherein the former is styled an ancient archer, who had
presented to the king a warlike invention for uniting the
use of the pike and bow, seen and approved by him and
his council of war; whereof his majesty had granted them