Holly, Yew and Box 



beginners it may serve well enough. The plant 

 proveth many times well if it be a good and clean 

 growth, and for the pith, if it is quick enough 

 cast, it will ply and bow before it break, as all 

 young things do. The bole of the tree is cleanest, 

 without knots or pins, having a safe and hard 

 wood by reason of its full growth and might of 

 cast, and is best for a bow if the staves be even 

 cloven and be afterwards wrought, not over 

 athwart the wood, but as the grain and strength- 

 growing of the wood leadeth a man, or else by 

 all reason it must fane break, and that in many 

 shivers." 



He also tells how to select a bow, and the 

 following is the advice he gives : "If you come 

 into a shoppe and fynde a bowe that is small, 

 longe, heavye, stronge, lyinge streighte, not 

 wyndynge, nor marred with knotts, gaule, wynd- 

 shake, wem, freat, or pinch, bye that bowe on my 

 warrant." 



He moralises here and there, and uses pro- 

 verbs to point his morals. One is, "A good 

 bow twice paid for is better than an ill bow once 

 broken." In referring to archery in Scotland, he 

 says that the Scots had a proverb to the effect 

 that "every English bowman carried 24 Scotts 

 under his girdle" meaning that every English 

 arrow would account for a Scot. 



The use made of the wood for bows has caused 

 the Yew to be spoken of as the Shooter Eugh, 



i So 



