Statute of Elizabeth 125 



pounds . . ., and for every bowe and sheaf 

 of arrows, etc., ten shillings." One half of these 

 penalties went to the King and Queen, the other 

 half to the parties suing for the same.' * 



Even so late a Statute as the 8th of Elizabeth, 2 

 an ' Act of Bowyers ' provides that every bowyer 

 shall have in his house fifty bows made of elm, 

 witch-hazel, or ash, thus showing the amount of 

 destruction which the favourite yew had undergone. 



The last Statute that appears respecting the use 

 of yew for bows is the i3th Elizabeth, cap. 14, 

 which directs that bow-staves shall be imported 

 into England from the Hanse towns and other 

 places. In the above-named Act of Elizabeth the 

 price of bows is fixed : * Bows meet for men's 

 shooting, being outlandish Yew of the best sort, not 

 over the price of 6/8 ; bows meet for men's shoot- 

 ing of the second sort, 3/4 ; bows for men, of a 

 coarser sort, called livery bows, 2/0 ; bows being 

 English Yew, 2/0.' 



Yew at length became so scarce, that to prevent a 

 too great consumption of it, bowyers were directed 

 to have four bows of witch-hazel or elm to one of 

 yew. And no person under seventeen, unless 

 possessed of moveables worth forty marks, or the 

 son of parents having an estate of ten pounds per 

 annum, might shoot ' in a yew bow.' 3 



1 Grose, pp. 316, 319. 2 Cap. x. p. 7. 



3 Grose, Milit. Antiq.^ v. i. p. 142. 



