(28) HISTORY of the SOCIEtT. 



Account of the Scldenian archieves in the Bodleian library at Oxford, was, 



W Tytler, Et'q; 



in confequence of a diligent fearch made at Mr Tytler's infti- 

 gation, happily recovered, and by him now for the firft time 

 given to the public, with explanatory, critical and hiftorical notes. 

 The poem of Chriji's Kirk on the Green was well known to the 

 public, and had long been admired for its wit and humour ; 

 but it had been afcribed, even by antiquarian writers, to James 

 the Fifth of Scotland, the author of The Gaberltinzie Man, and 

 other ludicrous compolitions. It occured to Mr Tytleb, that 

 the piiblic was in a twofold error refpecfling this favourite poem ; 

 firft, in confidering it merely as a jeu d'efprit, or fanciful dif- 

 play of the author's imagination and powers in the ludicrous ; 

 and fecondly, in attributing the compofition to James the Fifth. 

 * In the Differtation on the Life of James the Firft, he has ar- 

 gued, with much ingenxiity, that the fcope and view of the 

 work was political and patriotic ; its end, the beft purpofe of a 

 Sovereign's writings, the improvement of his people. The En- 

 glifli at that time excelled all other nations in the ufe of the 

 bow. James, on his return to his kingdom, was mortified by 

 the ftriking inferiority of his own fubjedls in that particular to 

 their warlike neighbovirs. The pra(!ilice of archery, and of 

 weapon-fchaw!7ig, a military exercife, had gone into fhameful 

 neglecfl during the weak adminiftration of the Regents of the 

 kingdom. To remedy this defecfl, a more regular difcipline 

 was enforced by the young Monarch, by ftatutory regulations ; 

 who tried at the fame time the efiicacy of ridicule in compo- 

 fing this ironical fatire (for fuch, according to the ingenious 

 fuppofition of Mr Tytler, is Cbrijl's Kirk on the Green) on the 

 awkward management of the bow, and the negledl of archery 

 among the Scots. In the age of James the Fifth, the vulgarly 

 reputed author of the poem, the ufe of fire-arms had completely 

 fuperfeded the bow as an engine of war. The laws of James 

 the Fifth required, that everv man fhould arm himfelf with a 

 hackbut or mufquet. In that era, therefore, the fatire on the 



want 



