70 THE FRUITS OF THE COUNTRY-SIDE 



generations, required to exercise the art of shooting, and it 

 was on public holidays the great recreation. The warlike 

 Edward III. would, in fact, recognise no other, and by royal 

 proclamation all were instructed to " learn and exercise 

 the art of shooting, forbidding all and singular that they 

 do not after any manner apply themselves to the throwing 

 of stones, hand ball," etc., a long list being given of " such- 

 like vain plays which have no profit in them." Those 

 who failed to obey the king's command had no alternative 

 but imprisonment during the king's pleasure. Every man 

 was required to have a bow, and with this he wended his 

 way with his neighbours to the butts that were built in 

 the outskirts of every town. King after king issued such 

 commands as were needful to maintain the English skill 

 in archery, and to fit all able-bodied men to take their 

 place in the national defence. Would that we, a great 

 Imperial race, of vast responsibilities, could nowadays, 

 emulate the zeal and patriotism of our forefathers, and, 

 thinking less of " sport " and vain plays without profit, 

 become a nation in which every man was familiar with the 

 handling of a rifle and proficient in its use. With all 

 respect to King Edward III., we think that monarch did 

 not perhaps sufficiently realise that Waterloo was won on 

 the playing-fields of Eton — if, indeed, he ever heard that 

 well-worn remark. The victory, however, was to the 

 players, and not to the lookers-on. There is considerable 

 moral and physical difference between struggling for one's 

 side on the football field, and being in these latter days 

 one of forty thousand mill hands, or colliers, who surround 

 the enclosure, roaring their approbation or yelling their 

 disgust at the play in which they take no part. 



