76 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



the Englishmen by their policy had fortified them. 

 And, because the entry was so narrow, there was 

 great press, and great mischief to the assailants; for 

 such English archers as were there shot so wholly 

 together that their arrows pierced men and horses, 

 and when the horses were full of arrows they fell 



upon one another There were many of the 



Lords and Knights of France and Beam taken and 

 slain, and all their companies that were entered 

 within the strait ; their horses were so hurt with the 

 archers that they fell on their masters, and one upon 

 another. There these Frenchmen were in great 

 danger, for they could not help one another, for 

 they had no room to enlarge themselves or to fight 

 at their will."* 



It is to be observed that long after the introduc- 

 tion of fire-arms hi the fourteenth century, the bow 

 continued to be a principal instrument of war. The 

 bow was used at Agincourt and at Flodden. 



The use of the bow as a weapon of war, or of the 

 chase, has ceased in this country; but archery is still 

 followed as an amusement; and though some of the 

 foreign woods have more elasticity, the best bows of 

 native growth are certainly those made of the yew-tree. 

 The yew has often attained a very great size in 

 each of the three kingdoms, though the specimens 

 now remaining in Scotland and Ireland be but few. 

 In the first of those countries, Queen Mary's yew at 

 Crookstone was much celebrated, though probably 

 more on account of the princess with whose history 

 it was connected, than any peculiarity in its own 

 magnitude. The trunk of a large yew, found by 



* Lord Berners' Froissart : Ed. 1812. Vol. ii. chap. 34. It 

 is singular that Mariana does not notice the presence of an 

 English or French force, but states the negociation with John 

 of Gaunt to have been subsequent to the battle. Historia de 

 Espana, lib. xviii. cap. 9. 



