SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 



incapacitated, and allowances to widows and 

 orphans. A tournament for prizes presented 

 by The News of the World is held annually; 

 the winner and runner-up in the competition, 

 held at Richmond in October 1908, were 

 J. H. Taylor and F. Robson. 



In concluding this brief notice of Middle- 

 sex golf the Editor is glad to take this oppor- 

 tunity of offering his very cordial thanks to 

 the secretaries of the many clubs which 

 have kindly supplied him with information on 

 the subject. 



PASTIMES 



The four principal pastimes especially asso- 

 ciated with Middlesex are Archery, Tennis, 

 Rowing, and Polo, all of which may be said 

 to have originated in the county. 1 



ARCHERY 



Owing to the fact that the bow was the 

 principal weapon used both in war and in the 

 chase in mediaeval times, and the consequent 

 necessity for constantly practising its use, 

 archery may be regarded as one of the oldest 

 of our national pastimes. In its modern form 

 this sport originated in London in the last 

 quarter of the eighteenth century. 



As the archers formed an important force 

 in every army during the Middle Ages 

 sovereigns endeavoured to make training in 

 the use of the bow obligatory on the whole 

 population. In the thirteenth century every 

 person ' not having a greater interest in land 



1 Another pastime deserving of a passing notice 

 on account of its being by some regarded as the 

 origin of the modern game of croquet, is that of 

 Mall, a name derived from the French paile-maille, 

 which is described in Skeat's Etymological Dictionary 

 as ' a game wherein a round box bowle is with a 

 mallet struck through an arch of iron, and the 

 name of which is preserved in The Mall and Pall 

 Mall.' King Charles, when improving St. James's 

 Park, directed Le Notre, the gardener of Louis 

 XIV, to whom the work was entrusted, to lay out 

 ' a smooth hollow walk enclosed on each side by a 

 border of wood,' and to 'hang an iron hoop at 

 one extremity,' for the purposes of the game. The 

 original Mall as thus constructed was half a mile 

 long and bordered with lime trees. Charles was 

 very fond of the game, and Waller in his 

 poem Si. James's Park eulogizes his play in the 

 following lines : 



' No sooner has touched the flying ball 

 But 'tis already more than half the Mall, 

 And such a fury from his arm has got 

 As from a smoking culverin 'twere shot.' 



See Brailey, Hist, of Middlesex, iv, 481-2, and 

 Wheatley, London Past and Present, ii, 457-6 ; iii, 8. 



than loorf.' was required to have in his 

 possession a bow and arrow, with other arms 

 offensive and defensive, and ' all such as had 

 no possessions but could afford to purchase 

 arms' were required to have a bow with 

 sharp arrows if they dwelt without, and one 

 with blunt arrows if resident within the royal 

 forests. 2 In order to prevent the crossbow 

 from in any way superseding the long bow a 

 Statute of 1417 enacted that no one should 

 use the former weapon who was possessed of 

 less than 200 marks a year. 3 Towards the 

 close of the fifteenth century archery had 

 fallen somewhat into decay in spite of enact- 

 ments of this character, but its practice was 

 revived by Henry VIII, himself a skilful 

 bowman, and an Act was passed soon after 

 his accession, extending the qualification with 

 respect to the use of crossbows to 300 

 marks, and requiring all his subjects under 

 sixty years of age ' who were not lame, 

 diseased, or maimed, or having any other 

 lawful impediment,' the clergy, judges, &c., 

 excepted, to ' use shooting on the long bow ' 

 under penalty on default of izd. per month. 4 

 Parents were to provide every boy from seven 

 to seventeen years of age with a bow and two 

 arrows, and after seventeen he was to provide 

 himself with a bow and four arrows ; and 

 butts for the practice of archery were to be 

 erected in every town. The ' bowyers ' 

 the importance of whose calling is evidenced 

 by the fact that both they and the ' fletchers,' 

 or makers of arrows, were included amongst 

 the old City companies 5 were required, 

 under a penalty of imprisonment for eight 

 days, to make at least four bows of ' elme, 

 wiche, ... or other wode apt for the same ' for 

 every ' ewe bow ' which they made. Lastly, 

 in order to prevent other pastimes such as 

 football from interfering with archery prac- 



1 Strutt, Sports and Pastimes (ed. 1903), 63. 

 ' 19 Hen. V, cap. I. 



4 33 Hen. VIII, cap. 9. 



5 Stow, Sure, of London (ed. Strype\ ii, bk. v, 

 217. 



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