1 1 2 Yew- Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



The English long-bow seems to owe its introduc- 

 tion to the Normans, who, chiefly by its means, won 

 the battle of Hastincrs. The fio-ures of archers in 

 the Bayeux tapestry show them to have been armed 

 with the long-bow. Demmin ^ says that the Nor- 

 man bow was small, being only about a metre in 

 length, while the bow used by the English archers 

 about the thirteenth century measured two yards in 

 length, and varied according to the height of the 

 person who used it, 



' Thus thou pecuhar Engine of our Land ! 

 (Weapon of Conquest ! Master of the Field !) 

 Renowned Bow ! (that raad'st this Crown command 

 The Towers of France, and all their powers to yield) 



Thou first didst conquer us ; then raised our skill 

 To vanquish others :...'- 



Ruskin ^ points out that ' the blasted trunk on 

 the left, in Turner's drawing of the spot where 

 Harold fell at the battle of Hastings, takes, where 

 its boughs first separate, the shape of the head of 

 an arrow ; this, which is mere fancy in itself, is 

 imagination, as it supposes in the spectator an 

 excited condition of feeling dependent on the 

 history of the spot.' 



Besides Harold, two other English kings lost 

 their lives through the instrumentality of the bow, 

 viz. William Rufus, in the New Forest, and Richard 



^ Weapons of War. - Daniel, History of the Civil Wars, B. 8. 



^ Modern Painters, vol. i. p. 192. 



