button to main menu  Clarke's Survey of the Lakes, 1787

button title page
button previous page button next page
Page 186:-

addendum
  archery
  rifles

A comparison between the Bow of the Ancient Archers and the Modern Rifle-Guns.

THE dexterity of the Ancient Archers was celebrated by the Poets of their own times in songs, many of which are yet extant; in one of these (see page 107,) William Cloudesley is said to have shot an apple off his son's head at 120 paces distance: the same story is told of William Tell, an Archer of Switzerland, to whom the Swiss are said to owe in a great measure their present freedom. These feats seem at this day mere poetical fictions, and to have originated merely in the heated imaginations of the Bards of those days: but if we consult a very learned author, the celebrated Roger Ascham, who in the year 1544 wrote his Toxophilus, or Treatise upon Archery, we shall find some reason to give credit to these marvellous tales.
As Ascham's Treatise is extremely scarce, I hope it will not be disagreeable to the curious Reader if I give some extracts from it: to me indeed this seems necessary, in order to understand at all the effects of the bow, and the attention the Archers shewed to their weapons. He begins with the Bracer, or leathern guard, worn by Archers upon the left arm, to prevent it from being cut or bruised by the string of the bow: this was in his time precisely the same as is used by our Modern Archers; but he recommends shooting without any bracer, as its use may be superseded by giving the bow a greater bend *, viz. about nine inches. The shooting-glove was likewise the same as at present. The bow-string was, (if I understand him rightly) thicker in the middle that at the ends, and was made either of silk or hemp; it seems, sometimes, to have been platted like the thong of a whip, at others twisted like a rope, and to have been made of different thicknesses, for different purposes; small for long shots, and thick for short ones; the middle, however, (where the notch of the arrow was placed,) was required at all times to be perfectly round.
The bow, he recommended to be made from the bole of the tree; that at first it should be made clumsy, and afterwards dressed into a more perfect shape; its strength ought to be such, that the Archer, with a moderate, (though not very slight) exertion, could draw an arrow to the head. As to the materials of which it should be made, he reprobates every thing except yew. It appears from other authorities, that the length of a bow was generally five feet eight inches; but this was no invariable rule, for I have seen them both longer and shorter.
The arrow was made of ash, oak, or birch, and was of different weight and magnitude, according to the different purposes it was intended for; a weak Archer or one who shot † under-hand, requiring a lighter shaft than a strong man who shot ‡ over-hand; the length of the arrow was likewise various, but was generally from 27 inches to a yard; the longest arrow was used in war, and seems to have been a yard §. The feather of the shaft, was generally a goose's feather, tho' some-
times
* His words are "A shaftment and two fingers," the shaftment was (I believe) the length which would reach from the top of the thumb when extended, to the opposite side of the palm.
† Shooting under-hand, was when the Archer looked at his mark underneath the left-hand, in which he held his bow; in this manner of shooting the arrow must have described a very large curve.
‡ Shooting over-hand, was when the mark was seen above the bow-hand, and of course the arrow flew almost in a right line.
§ The old cloth-yard is by some said to have been only 32 inches; one circumstance tends to confirm this, viz. that few Archers have arms sufficiently long to draw a much longer arrow.
button next page

button to main menu Lakes Guides menu.