232 



ARCHERY. 



employed from the earliest times. If the descriptions 

 of buttles pi ven by Homer, are to be admitted as 

 genuine representations of the mode of fighting in 

 the heroic ages, we must conclude that the archers 

 were interspersed among the other troops ; and lliat, 

 -hehering themselves behind the shields of their 

 companions, they took their aim deliberately and 

 securely. In later times, the archers formed part of 

 the ^<&, or light armed troops, who were not. held 

 in such estimation as the <rAjru. The Athenians, 

 however, were indebted for some of their greatest 

 victories to the feats of the archers ; and particularly 

 for the success of the bloody engagement with the 

 Lacedaemonians, near Pylos. Tiie guards of the city 

 of Athens were archers. There is no early account 

 of bows having been used in the Roman armies. In 

 the time of Scipio Africanus, they were applied with 

 great effect against the Numantines in Spain. Tibe- 

 rius owed his success in the war with Arminius and 

 Inguiornerus chiefly to the great execution done by 

 the archers, some of whom tought on foot, and others 

 were mounted on horseback. After his time, the 

 practice of archery was not discontinued; but it 

 would require a great sliare of credulity to admit the 

 narratives of Suetonius and Herodian, concerning the 

 surprising expertness of Domitian and Commodus, to 

 be faiUiful reports of facts given by eye-witnesses. 

 The Roman Sagittarii were part of the Velites, com- 

 posed of pauperes etjuvenes, often also of auxiliaries. 

 Their service was peculiarly dangerous ; they were 

 sometimes placed in front, sometimes in the wings, 

 sometimes in the rear; and the chief purpose tor 

 which they were employed was to liarass the enemy, 

 by attacking the weakest parts of their lines, before 

 the general attack com- 

 menced. The subjoin- 

 ed cut represents the 

 costume of a Roman 

 archer. In the middle 

 ages, the Goths, Van- 

 dals, and Huns, gained 

 their victories chiefly by 

 the use of the same de- 

 structive weapons. The 

 Swiss were famous arch- 

 ers. The English claim 

 to be considered the 

 best of modern archers, 

 and their claims have 

 scarcely been disputed. 

 Edward HI. was at 

 great pains to provide 

 bows and arrows. In 

 the cattle of Cressy, his archers cut off the flower of 

 the French nobility. The French had as many arch- 

 ers in the field as the English ; but the former are 

 understood to have used the cross bow, which is not 

 easily protected from the rain ; and, it is said, their 

 bows or their strings were so completely soaked as 

 to be altogether unfit for use. The victory gained 

 by the Black Prince at Poictiers, when the French 

 king and the dauphin, and almost all the peers of 

 France, were taken prisoners, was also ascribed to 

 the archers, very few of whom fell, though the 

 slaughter of the French was enormous. The battle 

 of Agincourt, still more fatal to the French, and 

 more glorious to the English, was gained by the same 

 mode of fighting. The advantages from time to 

 time obtained over the Scots were chiefly owing to 

 the strength and skill of the English archers. The 

 great example which Robert the Bruce set at the 

 battle of Bannockburn, of dispersing the archers with 

 his cavalry at the commencement of the conflict, was, 

 unfortunately for Scotland, too seldom followed. 

 Notwithstanding the encomiums which ancient and 



modern writers have lavished on archery, it must be 

 admitted, that., in many respects, it was not worthy of 

 being compared with (lie use of fire-arms. In some 

 stateaof theatmosphere itcould not beapplied with any 

 effect ; moisture not only impairs the elasticity of the 

 bow, but relaxes the strings, and soon renders them 

 unfit for use. The direction and intensity of the 

 winds must often have been still more disconcerting ; 

 except in a calm, or in a very moderate wind, the 

 best marksman cannot shoot stniiu lit. and when the 

 wind is very boisterous, especially if it either be op- 

 posite or a side wind, it is impracticable to shoot far. 

 Another disadvantage under which the archers must 

 have laboured, was oeing attacked in the night, or 

 in a fog, in either of which rases they might have 

 been cut off before they found time to bend their bows. 

 In modern times, this weapon is used by the Asiatic 

 nations, by the tribes of Africa, by the Indians, 

 &c. In 1813 and 1814, irregular troops, belonging 

 to the Russian army, particularly the Ilushk 

 appeared in Paris, armed with bows and arrows, 

 and made surprising shots. Concerning archery as a 

 pastime, or a healthful exercise, it has the sanction 

 of Galen, as being sufficiently active and not too vio- 

 lent ; in addition to this salutary and moderate exer- 

 tion of the muscles, it possesses two other advantage-. 

 It leads to pure air, and it is also abundantly inter-' 

 esting to the mind, especially when it is attended by 

 competition. For more than two hundred years after 

 fire-arms were introduced, attempts were made by 

 the English government from time to time to en- 

 courage the practice of archery. Charles I., in the 

 fourth year of his reign, granted a commission under 

 the great seal for enforcing the use of the long bow ; 

 and though this was revoked a few years afterwards, 

 another was granted in the year 1033, to two persons 

 of the name of Meade, authorizing them to teach an 

 invention for uniting the use of the bow and the pike. 

 Ten years afterwards a precept was issued by the 

 earl of Essex, calling upon all well-affected persons 

 to assist in raising a company of archers for the ser- 

 vice of the king. Since that time, and, indeed, long 

 before, archery can claim only to be considered as a 

 recreation. In Great Britain, a number of societies 

 have contributed to preserve the exercise from falling 

 into total disuse. The archers of Finsbury are now 

 extinct, but their society is incorporated with the 

 archers' division of the Artillery Company of London, 

 founded by royal cliarter in the twenty-ninth year of 

 the reign of Henry VIII. ; who were permitted to 

 shoot not only at marks, but birds, except pheasants 

 or herons, and to wear dresses of any colour, except 

 purple, or scarlet. The only other companies still 

 subsisting in England, are the Kentish Bowmen, the 

 jyoodmen of Arden, and the Toxophilites. The 

 Royal Company of .Archers in Scotland is said to 

 have arisen in the time of James I. The commission- 

 ers appointed by that prince to superintend the, exer- 

 cise of archery in different districts, selected the most 

 expert archers, and formed them into a company, to- 

 act in the capacity of the king's principal body 

 guards ; a distinction which the Royal Company still 

 claim within seven miles of Edinburgh. In 1677, we 

 find them recognised by an act of the privy council, 

 as his Majesty's Company of Archers ; and at the 

 same time a king's prize, consisting of a piece ot 

 plate valued at 20 sterling, was ordered to be given 

 annually to be shot for at their weapon shawingi. 

 Their attachment to the unfortunate family of Stuart 

 subjected them, at different periods, to fluctuations of 

 bad fortune, and occasionally threatened their entire 

 dissolution. In the year 1703, they obtained a royal 

 charter from queen Anne, confirming and multiplying 

 their privileges. The royal prize, which had been 

 withdrawn by king William soon after the revolution, 



