An Archer s Equipment 129 



musketry, with their greater length of range. It is, 

 however, singular that the bows should have been 

 held in such esteem for so long a period after the 

 introduction of gunpowder. No doubt in its early 

 period the musket was an unwieldy weapon, re- 

 quiring to be fired from a rest, and taking much 

 time to load, while the bow was much more handy, 

 and could be discharged more rapidly. Camden 

 says:^ 'Among the English artillery, archery 

 challengeth the pre-eminence as peculiar to our 

 nation ' ; and Alleyne (Henry vii.) — 



' The white faith of hist'ry cannot show 

 That e'er the musket yet could beat the bow.' 



An archer's equipment is thus given by Chaucer^ 

 in his description of the ' squyers yeomen ' : — 



' He was clade in cote and hode of grene, 

 A shefe of peacock arrowes bright and shene 

 Under his belt he bare full thriftely. 

 Well coude he dresse his takel yewmanly ; 

 His arrowes drouped not with fethers lowe, 

 And in hande he bare a mighty bowe.' 



And again, in an old ballad of Robin Hood, 

 which says of him and his followers — 



' With them they had a hundred bowes. 

 The strings were well ydight ; 

 An hundred shefe of arrows good, 

 With hedes burnish'd full bryght ; 



^ Britannia. - Canterbury Tales, Prologue. 



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