330 Sir Ralph Payne-Gallivey^ Bart., [May 29, 



they were finished for service, there is not, alas, one genuine contem- 

 porary long-bow existent. The long-bow was, of course, of too 

 perishable a material to last through several centuries of neglect, 

 though the cross-bow survived, as wood forms only a small portion 

 of its construction, and that wood being, besides, of the hardest 

 and most enduring kind. 



I have fitted up and experimented with many of the large 

 windlass cross-bows, of the latter haK of the fifteenth century, and I 

 find that their average range, with an ironshod bolt of 2 oz., is from 

 350 to 360 yards, or considerably further than any long-bow, with its 

 ounce in weight war-arrow, was able to attain. With a large siege 

 cross-bow, such as the cross-l)ow man rested on a wall or battlement, 

 and which was too heavy for him to carry in the field, I have 

 obtained a range of 450 yards. As an example of the immense 



strength of the steel bows of these weapons when of large size, I may 

 mention that a very powerful cross-bow I own, necessitates a strain, 

 representing a weight of 1100 lb. to draw its string the required 

 7 inches to the catch of its lock, whilst the strain, or pull, of a 

 powerful long-bow, when its arrow is drawn to the head, is only from 

 70 to 80 lb. at most. Many and various were the mechanical 



means by which the strings of cross-bows were drawn, as, of course, 

 with steel bows manual power was out of the question. The 

 Windlass and the Crenequin, the latter being a form of ratchet, were 

 the two devices that were applied to all the more powerful military 

 and sporting weapons of the kind. 



Hand guns commenced to supersede cross-ljows about the middle 

 of the fifteenth century. At the end of the first quarter of the 

 sixteenth century, cross-bows were almost unknown in European 

 warfare, though the weapon continued to be popular on the Continent 

 and at home for killing deer till near the end of the first quarter of 

 the seventeenth century. 



For instance, in 1621, we read of the Court of twelve bishops 

 who inquired into the death of a keeper, who was slain by Archbishop 

 Abbot of Canterbury with a l)olt from his cross-bow, which he had 

 aimed at a stag. This prelate was then on a visit to his friend Lord 

 Zouche, at Bramshill in Hampshire, and, at the time of his misfortune, 

 had been ordered out-door exercise for the benefit of his health. 

 Even later than this date, the cross-boAv was employed for shooting 

 deer in England, as there is a very curious tablet in Hunsdon Church, 

 in Hertfordshire, dated 1591, on which is depicted the keeper of the 

 deer park at that place in the act of killing a stag with his cross-bow. 

 The last records of the kind I can find are in Switzerland, where the 

 Swiss and Tyrolese hunters stalked and shot chamois with the cross- 

 bow till about the year 1715. I may add, however, that many 

 Chinese soldiers and hunters are still armed with cross-bows, some 

 of these being of very ingenious construction, for they carry a store 

 of arrows in a magazine attached to the stock, which is so arranged 



