(Vol. iv., p. 56.)
Although unable to answer all the Queries of TOXOPHILUS, the subjoined
information may possibly advantage him. His Queries of course have
reference to the long bow, and not to the arbalest, or cross-bow. The
length of this bow appears to have varied according to the height and
strength of the bowman; for in the 12th year of the reign of Edward IV.
an act was passed ordaining that every Englishman should be possessed of
a bow of his own height. Bishop Latimer also, in one of his sermons,
preached before Edward VI., and published in 1549, wherein he enforces
the practice of archery, has the following passage:
"In my time my father taught me how to draw, how to lay my body in
my bow, and not to draw with strength of arms, as other nations
do, but with strength of body. I had my bows brought me according
to my age and strength: as I increased in them, so my bows were
made bigger and bigger."
The length of the full-sized bow appears to have been about six feet:
the arrow, three.
The distance to which an arrow could be shot from the long bow of course
depended, in a great measure, upon the quality and toughness of the
wood, as well as upon the skill and strength of the archer; but I
believe it will be found that the tougher and more unyielding the bow,
the greater the strength required in bending it, and consequently the
greater the force imparted to the arrow. The general distance to which
an arrow could be shot from the long bow seems to have been from eleven
to twelve score yards; although there are instances on record of
individuals shooting from 400 to 500 yards.
The best bows used by our ancestors were made of yew, as it appears from
a statute made in the thirty-third year of the reign of Henry VIII., by
which it was enacted--
"That none under the age of seventeen should shoot with a bow of
yew, except his parents were worth 10_l._ per annum in lands, or
40 marks in goods: and for every bow made of yew, the bowyer not
inhabiting London or the suburbs should make four, and the
inhabitant there two, bows of other wood."
These restrictions were doubtless owing to the great scarcity of yew.
The other woods most in request were elm, witch-hazel, and ash. By the
statute 8th of Elizabeth, cap. 3., it was ordained that every bowyer
residing in London should have always ready fifty bows of either of the
before-mentioned woods. By this statute also the prices at which the
bows were to be sold were regulated.
I believe the ancient bows were made of one piece; whether there is any
advantage to be derived in having a bow of more than two pieces, I leave
for some one better qualified than myself to determine.
As regards arrows, Ascham, in his _Toxophilus_, has enumerated fifteen
sorts of wood of which arrows were made in his time, viz. brasell,
turkie-wood, fusticke, sugercheste, hard-beam, byrche, ash, oak,
service-tree, alder, blackthorn, elder, beach, aspe, and sallow; of
these aspe and ash were accounted the best; the one for target-shooting,
the other for war. The author of _The Field Book_ says:
"That an arrow weighing from twenty to four-and-twenty
pennyweights, made of yew, was considered by archers the best that
could be used."