T. baccata 



fhoters and the best bowmen in warre." Ascham 

 became very wrathful at this, and took up the 

 cudgels for the English, saying that if Texter 

 had looked no further than Kent he would have 

 found better archers. The Scotts, he says, are 

 surely good men of war in their own way ; but 

 as for shooting they can neither use it with any 

 use or profit. He goes on to say that James the 

 First of Scotland, at the Parliament held at 

 St John's town, or Perth, commanded under pain 

 of a great forfit that every Scot should learn to 

 shoot ; yet neither the love of their country, the 

 fear of their enemies, punishment, or the receiving 

 of any profit that might come of it, could make 

 them to be good archers, which they may be 

 unapt and unfit for by God's providence and good 

 nature." In one place, when sounding the praises 

 of the bow, he says that, "although he knows 

 that God is the only giver of victory, and not the 

 weapons, for all strength and victory come from 

 heaven ; yet surely strong weapons be the instru- 

 ments wherewith God doth overcome the part 

 which he will have overthrown, for God is well 

 pleased with wise and wittie feats of war." 



In his description of the making of bows he 

 says : " Every bow is made either of a bough, of 

 a plant, or of the bole. The bough commonly is 

 very knotty and full of pins, weak, of small pith, 

 and fane will follow the string, and seldom weareth 

 to any fair colour, yet for children and young 

 M 179 



