ARCHERY. 267 



with target, and bows and arrows, prepared for this pleas- 

 ant and invigorating diversion. 



844. This exercise is peculiarly advantageous, and prop- 

 er for females, on account of the reason already given 

 why they ought to employ every means for invigorating 

 the chest in early life, and were these recreations generally 

 adopted, we have no doubt, but many a slender one, who 

 would otherwise occupy an untimely grave, might long be 

 preserved to herself and society. 



845. Nor is this exercise at all deficient, when properly 

 carried on, in that excitement which gives vigor to the 

 muscles and buoyancy to the mind. But for this purpose 

 there must be preparations, and circumstances attending it, 

 which it is necessary to describe. 



846. It is well known that the bow and arrow was 

 anciently the most efficient means of defence among civi- 

 lized men, and that before, and even after the invention of 

 gun-powder, it was the chief weapon employed in the wars 

 of Europe. 



847. In England, in the time of Henry VIII. every 

 man in the kingdom was obliged by law to have in his 

 house a good bow and three arrows. Charles II. was an 

 archer himself, and once knighted a man for having beat 

 Sir Wm. Wood, a famous bow-man, in a game of shooting. 

 Such was the love of this sport in England, that particu- 

 lar spots of ground were appropriated to the archers, 

 by the law of the land; but these being gradually en- 

 croached upon, by tenements and gardens, the people 

 assembled, and without authority, cleared and levelled 

 the grounds without reference to trees, ditches, or other 

 obstacles, until they opened the space of the archery- 

 fields agreeably to the ancient landmarks. Such impor- 

 tance did the people attach to this sport; and at that 

 period, on account of their athletic exercises, men were 

 much stronger in all their limbs than we are at the present 

 day. 



848. This fine exercise afterward gradually declined, 

 and for a long time was little practised except by boys ; 

 but has recently been revived, particularly in England, 

 where every year meetings of archers, of both sexes, 

 frequently occur. These meetings are attended by many 



