20S6 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART 111 



experience of trees I had cut down, and used myself in that way." He adds 

 that this very material quality is not mentioned by any writer, so far as he 

 knows. 



Jfa/mfactitrc of Bows. The principal use for which the yew was cultivated, 

 before the introduction of gunpowder, was for making bows, which were for 

 many centuries the principal weapons of the English. Bows are mentioned 

 in Holy Writ ; and according to the poem of Archery Revived, published in 

 167(3,— 



" 'T was with a shaft that Lamech murdered Cain." 



The bows mentioned in Scripture, however, appear to have been composed of 

 metal ; and many of those of the ancients were made of two goat's horns 

 joined together with a piece of wood for the handle. The first account we 

 meet with of yew bows is in Homer; Virgil also speaks of "bows of the 

 tough yew." In English history, bows are not mentioned till the time of 

 the Saxons ; when yew bows, the height of a man, were brought over by 

 Vortigern, and soon became general ; till, according to one of the versifiers 

 of the loth century, the enemies of the English in every country, — 



" By shafts from bows of bending yew, 



In streams of crimson gore paid Nature's due." 



Shotterel and Durfey's Archery Revived. 



The battle of Agincourt, and those of Cressy and Poictiers, were chiefly 

 gained by the skill of the English with the bow ; and it was the principal 

 weapon in the wars of York and Lancaster. There is also an edict of 

 Edward IV., relating to the use of the long bow by the Irish. Prince Arthur 

 in the reign of Henry VII., and after him Henry VIII., held sports of archery 

 at Mile End ; when there was created, in jest, a duke of Shoreditch, and two 

 marquesses of Clerkenwell and Islington, and an earl of Pancras. The duke 

 of Shoreditch was the best archer in the king's guard ; and the others the 

 next best. These dignitaries played their parts like the king and queen on 

 Twelfth Night ; and a full detail of the ceremonies will be found in Wood's 

 Bowman's Glory, p. 41. Henry VIII. afterwards passed several statutes in 

 favour of archery, of which he was a warm patron ; and in his reign " Master 

 Cheke" published the translation of a work from the Greek on the subject. 

 In 1544, Roger Ascham published his Toxophiles, a work replete with the 

 quaint learning and involved sentences of the time. After thus employing 

 two thirds of his book, at last he begins to give directions, as he says, " in 

 good sadnesse," for choosing a bow, and practising the art. He first states 

 the instruments required ; viz., the bracer, shooting gloves, thong, bow, and 

 shaft. The bracer was to save the arm of the bowman " from the strype of 

 strynge, and his doublet from wearyng;" and also that "the strynge glydynge 

 sharpley and quickleye off the bracer, may make the sharper shoote. For if 

 the strynge should lyte upon the bare sieve, the strengthe of the shoote 

 should stoppe and dye there." (The Schole of Shootyng, 2d booke, p. 3., 

 edit. 1544.) The shooting glove was to save the "manne's fyngers from 

 hurtynge" when he drew the string, and it had a purse attached to put some 

 fine linen and some wax in. The string Ascham advises to be made of 

 bullock's entrails, or therms, as they were called, twined together like ropes, 

 to give " a greater twang." lie then enumerates the different kinds of wood 

 of which bows may be made (s^e p. 2070.), but gives the preference decidedly 

 to the yew. The next division is headed " Ewe fit for a boweto be made on," 

 in which he informs us that "every bowe is made of the boughe, the plante, 

 or the boole, of the tree. The boughe is knotty and full of pruines ; the 

 plante is quicke enough of caste," but is apt to break; and " the boole" is the 

 beet. 1 [e adds, " If you come into a shoppe and fynde a bowe that is small, 

 konge, heavye, stronge, lyinge streighte not wyndynge, not marred with 

 knOtte, gaule, wyndshakc, wem, freat, or pinch, bye that bowe of my warrant. 

 . . . The bette colour of a bowe is when the backe and the bellye in work- 

 ■ be UUCfe what after one maner; for such oftentymes prove like virgin 



