concludes, the English used the long-bow as that instrument was usually provided with a case, but the cross-bow, being of so inconvenient a shape, could not be provided with such covering. Indeed this latter kind of bow, is not said to have been furnished with a cover, as far as I have been able to find.

The battle of Crecy, as well as that of Poictiers. (where the archers poured forth their quivers in such bloody victories,*) intimates the bow to have been highly cultivated by the English at those times; but it was found necessary by Edward to enforce the practice of archery during the peace which followed, as the soldiers rather attended to other amusements, than archery.

During the reign of Richard II little is recorded with respect to the bow. We find, however, from Hollinshead, that a number of archers were sent at the request of the Genoese, to assist them against the Saracens on the coast of Barbary; and that they performed some meritorious exploits with their longbow.

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From a passage in Stow, we find Richard II to have had a very numerous guard of archers; for in the year 1397, as one day the members were leaving the Parliament House, a great stir was made as was usual; whereupon the king's archers, in number four thousand, compassed the Parliament House, thinking there had been some broil, or fighting, with their bows bent, their arrows notched, and drawing ready to shoot, to the terror of all that were there: but the king coming pacified them."

* "Innumera laxarunt cæde pharetus."

The most memorable circumstance with respect to the bow, which occurring in the reign of Henry IV was the victory gained over the Scots near Halidownehill, in the year 1402; "where," in the words of an old historian, the Lord Percie's archers did withall deliver their deadly arrows so lively, so courageously, so grievously, that they ranne through the men of armes, bored the helmets, pierced their very swords, beat their lances to the earth, and easily shot those who were more slightly armed, through and through*."

The battle of Agincourt, which happened in the year 1415, under Henry V, is the next signal victory ascribed to the English archers, who destroyed a great number of the French cavalry, by their yardlong arrows. This indeed, seems the last very important action in which archery is much spoken of, and although the use of it was continued through several succeeding reigns, it at length seems to have been cultivated more as an amusement, than for real military servicet.

As a contrast to this barbarous, though energetic passage, we quote the description of a furious arrow, from Lucan:

"Haud unum contenta latus transire, quiescit:

"Sed pandens perque arma viam, perque ossa, relicta "Morte fuigit: superest telo post volnera cursus.' Pharsalia, Lib. 3.

+ It is said that James 1, of Scotland, during his long confinement in England, in the beginning of the fifteenth century, was so struck with the spirit and gallantry of the English archers, that on returning to his own country, he established Royal Companies of bowmen in different parts of his dominions. The art of shooting with the bow, is at

The amusement was extremely fashionable in the time of Henry VIII and Hollinshead reports, that that prince shot as well as any of his guard.

Edward VI is said, by Mr. Barrington, to have been fond of the exercise of archery*.

Charles I appears to have amused himself in this way also, and is represented in the frontispiece of Markham's art of archery, (1734) in the attitude and dress of a bowman.

During the reigns of Charles II and James II the amusement was continued, and the former sometimes attended at exhibitions of shooting. The Artillery Company, or Finsbury archers, have survived even to the present time, but except in that society, the

present regularly practised by numerous Societies; and the Pepingce is annually celebrated at Kilwinning, in the West of Scotland, by the gentlemen of the neighbourhood. The Pepingoe (or Popingay, a mark formed like a parrot) is projected two or three feet from the top of the church steeple, and they shoot at it perpendicularly, resting their left foot on the base of the tower. The Royal Company of Archers, at Edinburgh, consists of the principal nobility and gentry of that kingdom, to the number of eight or nine hundred members. Maitland, in his history of Edinburgh, informs us, that this Society was founded about the year 1676; and that it was erected into a corporation by Letters Patent from Queen Anne, dated the 31st of December, 1713. If we may judge from the compliments of a Poet, this Society seems to have flourished with great spirit in the beginning of the present century. We allude to Allan Ramsey's works; among which there are several poems addressed to the Archers of Edinburgh, and which celebrate their skill. Among others, the Duke of Hamilton receives a few lines on his having shot an eel in the neck.

Mr. B. refers to that Prince's manuscript journal, in the British Museum.

bow, till within these ten years, was very little known in the kingdom. At present, indeed, archery gains favour, and many companies are formed, for the practice of that amusement*.

The exact time in which the bow became disused in war by the English army, perhaps cannot be fixed. P. Daniel mentions, that arrows were shot by the English at the Isle of Rhé, in 1627. Mr. Grose informs us, that in 1643, the Earl of Essex issued a precept "for stirring up all well-affected people by benevolence, towards raising a company of archers for the service of the King (Charles I) and the Parliament." And in a pamphlet, says the same author, which was printed anno 1664, giving an account of the success of the Marquis of Montrose against the Scots, bowmen are repeatedly mentioned. One Neade, in the Reign of Charles I obtained a commission under the Great Seal, wherein he and his son were empowered to teach the combined management of the pike and bow. A book entitled, The double armed man," shewing the proper exercise and attitudes, was written and published by William

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* Of these Societies I believe the following are the prin

cipal: viz.

The Hon. Artil. Comp.
Royal Edinburgh
Toxopbilite

Woodmen of Arden
Royal Kentish Bowmen
Royal British Bowmen
Robin Hood Bowmen
Loyal Archers

Yorkshire Archers

Hainhault Foresters

Southampton Archers

Bowmen of Chiviot Chace
Kentish Rangers

Woodmen of Hornsey

Surry Bowmen

Bowmen of the Border
Meircan Bowmen
Broughton Archers
Staffordshire Bowmen

Trent Archers.

Neade, about the year 1625. It contains nothing of consequence relating to archery, but we may judge that that art was not laid aside at this period."

The spirit of archery is still kept up at many places among the Scots, It is kept up at Kilwinning*. This society is very ancient, there being evidence of its existence as far back as 1488. This amusement is practised annually at a certain time of the year, generally in the month of June. What has contributed perhaps more than any other thing to its continuance has been the monastery here, the only venerable remains of which are the steeple, and a gable which some years ago underwent a repair by the present Earl of Eglinton. Like many other reli

The Monastery was founded as early as the year 1140, by Hugh de Moreville, a very opulent and powerful Baron, Lord of Cunningham, and Lord High Constable of Scotland. It was dedicated to St. Winning. The monks were brought from the Priory of Kelso. At the Reformation the Earl of Glencairn, who had been so active in its demolition, obtained a grant of the abbey, and made him Commendator of it. To him succeeded William Melville, of the family of Raith. On his resignation, January 5th 1603,Hugh, Earl of Eglinton, got a new grant of the Abbey, with all the lands, titles, and patronage of the churches at that time belonging to it, erected into a temporary Lordship.

At the Reformation the revenue of the monastery, exclusive of the property lands, amounted to £840 3s. 4d. Scots; 8 bolls of wheat, 14 chalices, 1 boll, and 15 pecks of beans; 67 chalders of oat meal, 13 stubs, 140 capons, two hens 268 cheeses; and 9 fathom of stack peat. According to the traditionary account of the entire revenue of the monastery, it is asserted, that its present annual amount would be at least £200,000 sterling. This supposition seems to be pretty well founded, when it is considered that no less than nineteen churches are known to have held of it.