BIRD-BOLTS. 1 63 



" bolts," or " quarrels " as they were sometimes called, 

 which were shot from the cross-bow, or " stone-bow," 

 Twelfth Night (Act ii. Sc. 5). The latter was simply a 

 cross-bow made for propelling stones or bullets, in con- 

 tradistinction to a bow that shot arrows. Sir John 

 Bramston, in his Autobiography (p. 108) says : — " Litle 

 more than a yeare after I maried, I and my wife being 

 at Skreenes with my father (the plague being soe in 

 London, and my building not finished), I had exercised 

 myself with a stone-bow, and a spar-hawke at the bush." 



There were two denominations of cross-bows — latches 

 and prodds. The former were the military weapons, and 

 were bent with one or both feet, by putting them into a 

 kind of stirrup at the extremity, and then drawing the 

 cord upward with the hands ; the latter were chiefly used 

 for sporting purposes. They were bent with the hand, by 

 means of a small steel lever, called the goat's-foot, on 

 account of its being forked or cloven on the side that 

 rested on the cross-bow and the cord. The bow itself was 

 usually made of steel, though sometimes of wood or 

 horn* 



The missiles discharged from them were not only 

 arrows, which were shorter and stouter than those of 

 the long-bow, but also bolts {bolzen, German ; quarrcaux, 

 or carricaitx, French ; qitadrelli, Latin, corrupted into 



* Sir S. D. Scott, "The British Army : its Origin, Progress, and Equipment," 

 vol. ii. pp. 80, 81. 



