Account of 

 W. Tytler, Efq; 



(28) HISrORT of the SOCIElT. 



the Seldenian archie ves in the Bodleian Hbrary at Oxford, was, 

 in confequence of a diHgent fearch made at Mr Tytler's infti- 

 gation, happily recovered, and by him now for the firfl time 

 given to the public, with explanatory, critical and hiftorical notes. 

 The poem of Chrijl^ s Kirk on the Green was well known to the 

 public, and had long been admired for its wit and humour ; 

 but it had been afcribed, even by antiquarian writers, to James 

 the Fifth of Scotland, the author of The Gaberlunzie Man, and 

 other ludicrous compofitions. It occured to Mr Tytler, that 

 the public was in a twofold error refpecfling this favourite poem ; 

 firft, in confidering it merely as a jeu d'efprit^ or fanciful dif- 

 play of the author's imagination and powers in the ludicrous j 

 and fecondly, in attributing the compofition to James the Fifth. 

 In the Diflertation on the Life of James the Firft, he has ar- 

 gued, with much ingenuity, that the fcope and view of the 

 work was political and patriotic ; its end, the beft purpofe of a 

 Sovereign's writings, the improvement of his people. The En- 

 glifli at that time excelled all other nations in the ufe of the 

 bow, James, on his return to his kingdom, was mortified by 

 the ftriking inferiority of his own fubjeifls in that particular to 

 their warlike neighbours. The pra(!^ice of archery, and of 

 weapon-fchawing, a military exercife, had gone into fliameful 

 neglect: during the weak adminiftration of the Regents of the 

 kingdom. To remedy this defeat, a more regular difcipline 

 was enforced by the young Monarch, by ftatutory regulations ; 

 who tried at the fame time the efficacy of ridicule in compo- 

 ling this ironical fatire (for fuch, according to the ingenious 

 fuppolition of Mr Tytler, is Cbrijl's Kirk on the Green) on the 

 avv'kward management of the bow, and the negledl of archery 

 among the Scots. In the age of James the Fifth, the vulgarly 

 reputed author of the poem, the ufe of fire-arms had completely 

 fuperfeded the bow as an engine of war. The laws of James 

 the Fifth required, that ever^r man fhould arm himfelf with a 

 hackbut or mufquet^ In that era, therefore, the fatire on the 



want 



