YE 11^ 69 



means exhausts the list.^ In fact, if our readers will fix 

 upon the most outrageous orthography they can imagine, 

 doubtless time and due research would make its discovery 

 possible in some old volume. 



When the yew furnished the long bow, the weapon 

 so formidable in the skilled hands of our English archers, 

 the weapon that gained for England the proud victories 

 of Crecy, and Poictiers, and Agincourt, its growth and 

 preservation were of essential national importance, so that 

 statute after statute was passed in succeeding reigns to 

 keep unimpaired the supply. Even after the introduction 

 of gunpowder, villainous saltpetre, the long bow long held 

 its ground, and so late as Flodden Field was a potent 

 aid to victory. The home supply was by no means 

 sufficient, and while the exportation of yew was strictly 

 forbidden, its importation was encouraged in every way, 

 and at length it was made obligatory that merchants 

 trading abroad should bring back not only the wine, or 

 silk, or furs, or whatever cargo formed their lading, but 

 with these a certain amount of suitable yew wood for the 

 making of bows. Roger Ascham, in his quaint Toxophilus, 

 declares that "As for elme, wych, and ashe, experience 

 dothe prove them to be but meane for bowes ; ewe of 

 all things is that whereof perfite shootinge would have a 

 bo we made." 



All Englishmen who were physically fit were, for 



' So far as eughen bow a shaft may send. 



Spencer. 



Fyn evv, popler and lindes faire. 



Chaucer. 



The warlike yewgh, by which, more than the lance, 

 The strong-armed English spirits conquered France. 



Sir Thomas Browne. 



