132 Yew- Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



whereof perfite shootinge would have a bowe 

 made.' 



The common yew is no longer found either in 

 England or Europe generally, sufficiently free from 

 knots to be useful for making bows, which are now 

 mostly made of hickory or other American woods. 

 Loudon suggests that if yews were planted thickly, 

 so as to draw up the stem to a height of 8 or 10 

 feet, and cut down when 6 inches or 8 inches in 

 diameter, they might still afford wood for bows. 

 They were, in all probability, planted in this 

 manner in former times. 



The cross-bow seems to date from very ancient 

 times ; though Demmin ' appears to think other- 

 wise. He writes that M. Rodios supposes it to 

 have been identical with the gastrafetes of the 

 Greeks, but adds, it 'seemed to me to have been 

 an invention of Central Europe, and to date no 

 further back than the tenth century at earliest ; for 

 if it had been known elsewhere, the Princess Anna 

 Comnena (1083-1148) could scarcely have been 

 ignorant of it, inasmuch as M. Rodios gathers his 

 information from Byzantine mss. The Princess 

 states, however, " the tzagara is a bow unknown 

 among us." ' 



The only other weapon with which we are here 

 concerned is the Norman cross-bow, which had 

 come into favour, and was made of yew.^ As has 



^ Weapons of War, pp. 55-57- -Op. cit. 



