284 SYLVA FL0R1FERA. 



import staves of it for making bows, and 

 sometimes at very high prices. All Vene- 

 tian ships with every butt of Malmsey or 

 Tyre wine, were to import ten bow staves, as 

 the price had risen from two to eight pounds 

 per hundred. 



By one of the ancient statutes, a bow of 

 foreign yew may be sold for no more than 

 six shillings. 



By the fifth of Edward the Fourth, it was 

 directed that every Englishman in Ireland, 

 and Irishman dwelling in with Englishmen, 

 shall have an English bow of his own height 

 made of yew, wych, hazel, ash, or auburn 

 (supposed to be alder). But " as for brasell 

 (says Roger Ascham) elme, wych, and ashe, 

 experience doth prove them to be but mean 

 for bowes, and so to conclude, ewe of all 

 other things is that, whereof perfite shootinge 

 would have a bowe made." 



The thirty-third of Henry Eighth, c. 9., 

 recites the great price of yew bows made of 

 elke (probably elbe) yew; and reduces it 

 to three shillings and fourpence. 



From the end, however, of Henry the 

 Eighth's time, archery seems to have been 

 chiefly considered as a pastime. Yet by the 

 eighth of Elizabeth, c. 10., the price of bows 

 is regulated; and thirteenth of Elizabeth, 



