SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 



mayor, sheriffs, and aldermen used at Bar- 

 tholomew-tide to ' shoot at the standard for 

 bow and flight arrows for games ' in Finsbury 

 Fields, ' where the citizens were assembled ' 

 for several days. 20 When he wrote, however, 

 their practice had become limited to three or 

 four days after the festival ; 21 and he 

 frequently laments the decay of archery under 

 James I and Charles I. The first of the 

 Stuart kings had indeed, in direct violation 

 of the Statute of Henry VIII, above men- 

 tioned, 22 granted permission in 1620 to 

 Clement Cottrell, groom porter of his house- 

 hold, to license in London and Westminster 

 and their suburbs twenty-four bowling alleys 

 and fourteen tennis courts, besides taverns for 

 dice and cards, and also a similar licence with 

 respect to any other game thereafter to be 

 iavented. 83 



Charles II, who was, as has been said, 

 himself a keen bowman, effected a partial 

 revival in archery after the Restoration. A 

 company of 400 archers, under Sir Gilbert 

 Talbot as colonel and Sir Edward Hungerford 

 as leutenant-colonel, took part in ' a splendid 

 and glorious show in Hyde Park' in 1661 ; 

 and in 1681 the London archers marched to 

 Hampton Court to shoot before the king 

 for 30 worth of prizes at eight-score 

 yards. 24 Archery, appears, however, to 

 have ceased to be a national sport when the 

 bow was abandoned as a military weapon, 

 but prior to this two 26 notable archery 

 societies had been established in Middlesex in 

 the sixteenth century, through which the 

 connexion between ancient and modern 

 arehery has been in some measure pre- 

 served. 



The first of these was founded by Henry 

 VIII, who in 1539 ty Letters Patent 

 appointed Sir Christopher Morris, his master 

 of ordnance, and Arthur Unwyt and Peter 

 Mewtas, gentlemen of his privy chamber, 

 ' overseers of the science of artillery ' i.e. 

 long bows, crossbows, &c. 23 with subor- 

 dinate ' masters and rulers of the same 

 science,' and empowered them with their 



" Stow, Sum. (ed. Strype), i, bk. i, 257. 



" Ibid. " Ante, pp. 283, 284. 



n Rymer, Foedera, vii, 238. 



M Strutt, Sports and Pastimes (ed. 1903). 



14 There was also another ancient society called 

 'The Ancient Order and Society and Unity of 

 Prince Arthur and his knights ' of which no 

 records have been preserved. Stow, Surv. (ed. 

 Strype), i, bk. i, 280 ; Archery (Badminton 

 Library), 167. 



" Ascham, Toxophilus (ed. 1864), 55, says that 

 'artillery nowadays is taken for two things, guns 

 and bows.' Cf. The Governour, i, 297. 



successors to establish a perpetual corporation 

 to be called the Fraternity of St. George, 

 and to admit such persons as they found to be 

 eligible. 27 This Fraternity of St. George, 

 the members of which were authorized 'for 

 pastime's sake to practice shooting at all kinds 

 of marks, and at the game of popinjay in the 

 city of London and its suburbs as well as in 

 other convenient places,' used to practise in 

 Finsbury Fields. 23 After the abandonment 

 of the bow in war and the introduction of 

 firearms, a part of these fields was inclosed 

 by a wall and used for practice by the gunners 

 of the Tower, and since the early part of the 

 nineteenth century has been called the 

 Artillery Ground, while the Fraternity of 

 St. George was converted into the Honourable 

 Artillery Company. 29 



The other society is that of the Finsbury 

 Archers, which appears to have been founded 

 by certain members of the Honourable 

 Artillery Company, who being fond of the 

 bow practised with it as a pastime after they 

 had discarded it as a martial weapon, 30 and 

 it may thus be regarded as indirectly repre- 

 sentative of the Fraternity of St. George. 

 To this society, which is first mentioned in 

 I 59 31 belongs the honour of having by the 

 establishment of three several competitions 

 called the Easter Target, the Whitsuntide Tar- 

 get, and the Eleven Score Target, initiated in 

 some sense the Grand National Meetings, 

 which have been held since the institution of 

 the Grand National Championship in 1844. 

 Records exist with lists of the captains and 

 lieutenants of the Easter Targets from 1617 

 to 1757, and of the Whitsun Targets from 

 1692 to 1761, and the rules of the Eleven 

 Score Target, the winners' names of which 

 are not given, are dated ij6i. 3 ' 2 In 1696 a 

 bequest of 35, to be divided in prizes, was 

 left under the will of Elizabeth Shakerley 33 

 to the society, which then appears to have 

 shot in Finsbury Fields. One of the most 

 notable events in its history was the presenta- 

 tion in 1676 to one of its members, Sir 

 William Wood, as ' Marshal of the Queen's 

 Majesty's Regiment of Archers,' of a silver 

 badge, subscribed for by the officers and others 

 of the Society of Archers within the cities of 

 London and Westminster, 34 with an archer 



" Strutt, op. cit. 44, 46, 57. 



18 Ibid. 



19 Stow, Surv. (ed. Strype), i, bk. ii, 96 ; ii, 

 bk. v, 457. Cf. Brayley, Hist, of MM. i, 124, 

 and ii, 153. 



80 Archery (Badminton Library), 167-8. 



" Ibid. " Ibid. 



" Strutt, op. cit. 57. 



" Archery (Badmi^^n L>htary), 168. 



285 



