seen in this country. It is not the fiery dashing animal I had supposed, but with more rationality about him, and more apparent confidence in his rider, than the majority of English horses." See HORSE, &c.

ARCHED LEGS. A horse is said to have arched legs when his knees are bent arched-wise. This expression applies to the fore quarters. In some it is occasioned by over-work, in Brassicourts it is natural.

not ignorant of it (vide Gen. xxi. 20): " and God was with the lad Ishmael; and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer." The Grecians, too, were well acquainted with these weapons, and their bow (says Montfauçon) was shaped after the letter Σ.

Though we find very little mention of the bow in the Roman armies, yet they often employed auxiliary archers in their wars. Domitian, Commodus, and Theodosius were uncommonly dexterous in the use of the bow. There were masters at Rome to teach the art, among whom was T. Flavius Expeditus, whose image Spon has given from a sepulchral bas relief, where he is called Doctor Sagittarum. Leo ordained that all the youth of Rome should be compelled to use shooting, more or less, and always bear their bow and quiver about with them till they were eleven years old. He also adds: "We strictly command you to make proclamation to all men under our dominion, which be either in war or peace; to all cities and towns; and, finally, to all manner of men-that every free man have bow and arrows of his own, and every house have a bow and forty arrows for every occasion; and that they exercise themselves in holts, hills, dales, woods, and plains, to inure them to all the chances of war.'

ARCHERY. There are but few amusements that are more conducive to health and pleasing associations in their pursuit, than that of archery, which is of so great antiquity, that at what period and by whom first practised is very uncertain. The heathens attributed the invention of the bow to several persons. Pliny says Scytha, a son of Jupiter, by a daughter of Tellus, found it out; others consider Perses, a son of Perseus and Andromeda, as the iuventor: but Diodorus Siculus and the majority assign the honour of the discovery to Apollo, who wore a crown of laurel because he excelled every one in shooting and playing on the lyre. The statue of Apollo Belvidere is supposed by antiquaries to have had a bow in the hand; and the Mythology says Apollo destroyed with arrows the serpent Python, whom Juno had sent to persecute Latona. Certain it is that no instrument has so generally obtained The Saxons, according to Verstethroughout the earth as the bow.gen, first brought the bow into geneThis general prevalence makes it ral use in this country; and they in doubtful whether more persons than all probability derived their knowone may not justly lay claim to the ledge from the Scythians, who were invention as their own: we find it in excellent archers. the remotest parts of Asia, and the most northern of Europe; in Africa, also, it is common. The discoverers of the New World, too, found the bow and arrows among the Ameri-nation, as the sarissa was to the

cans.

It is not improbable, moreover, that Nimrod knew the use of the bow, considering he was a mighty hunter and a man of war. We are certain that the later patriarchs were

Camden thus speaks of this fascinating art:-" Amongst all the English artillery, archery challengeth the preeminency as peculiar to our

Macedonians; the gesa to the old Gauls; the framea to the Germans; the machora to the Greeks; first showed to the English by the Danes; brought in by the Normans, and continued by their successors to the

The bow, however, was not confined to martial purposes alone; it was also used in sporting-for birding there was a particular kind of arrow called a bird-bolt. We read that Godfrey of Boulogne broached three swallows upon his arrow at one shot when he commanded in the Holy Land, which being a thing very remarkable, he took the three birds for his coat of arms. William the Conqueror (who had a considerable number of bowmen in his army at the battle of Hastings) was an admirable archer, and was so strong that none but himself could bend

great glory of England in achieving | sheriffs of most of the English counvictories." ties for providing five hundred white bows and five hundred bundles of arrows for the then intended war against France in 1341. Similar orders were repeated in the following years with this difference only, that the sheriff of Gloucester was directed to furnish five hundred painted bows in addition to the same number of white. At the famous battle of Cressy, in August, 1346, the English are said to have had four thousand archers, who were opposed to fifteen thousand Genoese cross-bowmen. Previously to the engagement there fell a very heavy rain, which is said to have damaged the bows of the enemy, or perhaps rather the strings of them. Now, the long-bow, when unstrung, may be most conveniently covered, so as to prevent the rain from injuring it; whereas the arbalist or cross-bow is of a most inconvenient form to be sheltered from the weather. Here the English obtained a complete victory. The battle of Poictiers, in which the French King, John, was taken prisoner, in 1356, was gained also by the superiority of the English archers.

the bow he used.

In the ages of chivalry, the use of the bow was considered as an essential part of the education of a young man who wished to make a figure in life. The heroes of romance are, therefore usually praised for their skill in archery; and Chaucer, with propriety, says of Sir Thopas, "He was a good archere."

The fatal accident by which William II. lost his life by an arrow while hunting in the New Forest, is too familiar to the reader to require recital.

From the numerous testimonies, with which the ancient English chronicles and histories are filled, we select the following as highly illustrative of the destructive power of the old English bow: the passage is taken from a description of the battle of Halidown Hill, near Berwick, written by a contemporary historian:-"In this battle," says he,

Richard Strongbow, Earl of Pembroke, was, as his name implies, a mighty archer: it is said his arms were so long that he could touch his knees without stooping. This nobleman rendered himself famous by his exploits in Ireland; after reducing that country for Henry II. he died in 1177. Richard I., when besieging the" the Lord Percie's archers did castle of Chaluze, approached too near the walls, and was killed by an arrow from a cross-bow, on the 8th of March, 1199. It is during the reign of this monarch that we first find mention made of Robert Fitzooth, Earl of Huntingdon, vulgarly called Robin Hood, who, as tradition goes, was the best marksman and stoutest archer of his time.

Edward III. in the fifteenth year of his reign, issued an order to the

withal deliver their deadlie arrows so lively, so courageous, so grievously, that they ranne through the men at armes, bored their helmets, pierced their very swords, beat their lances to the earth, and easily shot those who were more slightly armed, through and through."

Philip de Comines, even, in his "Memoirs of his Own Times," acknowledges, what our own writers assert, that the English archers ex

celled those of every other nation; | arrows. Henry VII. in his youth, and Sir John Fortescue says again was particularly partial to the exerand again," that the mighte of the cise of archery; and we find he frerealme of England standyth upon quently amused himself with the archers." In 1417, Henry V. as- bow after he had obtained the cribes his victory at Agincourt to crown, as we read of in the account the archers, and directs the sheriffs of his expenditure. Both the sons of many counties to pluck from every of this monarch followed the examgoose six wing feathers, for the pur-ple of their royal parent, and were pose of improving arrows, which are excellent archers, especially the to be paid for by the king. In the eldest, Prince Arthur, who used 5th of Edward IV. an act passed, often to visit the Society of London that every Englishman, and Irish- Bowmen at Mile-End, where they man dwelling with Englishmen, usually met, and practised with should have an English bow of his them. From his expertness in handown height, which is directed to be ling the bow, every good shooter made of yew, wych, hazel, ash, or was called by his name. The capauburne, or any other reasonable tain also of the fraternity was hotree, according to their power. This noured with the title of Prince Aract also directed that butts should thur, and the other archers were be made in every township, at which styled his Knights. After the death the inhabitants were obliged to shoot of Prince Arthur, his brother Henry up and down, every feast-day, under continued to honour the meeting at the penalty of a halfpenny. Hence Mile-End with his presence. He the names of several places at the was exceedingly fond of archery; present day, which have obvious re- and, if an old authority may be creference to the former exercise of dited, at the time of his coming to archery sports, as Newington Butts, the crown," he shotte as strong and &c. as greate a lengthe as any of his garde."

Richard III, by his attention to archery, was able to send one thousand bowmen to the Duke of Bretagne; and he availed himself of the same troops at the battle of Bosworth.

Henry VII. directed a large body of archers to be sent to Brittany, and that they should be reviewed before they embarked. In the nineteenth year of his reign, the same king forbade the use of the cross-bow," because the long-bow had been much used in this realme, whereby honour and victory had been gotten against outward enemies, and the realme greatly defended." It was this king who instituted a band of archers to guard the royal person, under the title of Yeomen of the Guard, a band which still exists, though, instead of bows, they are now armed with swords and halberts. Still, however, to keep up the memory of their predecessors' skill, they annually practise shooting with bows and

Henry VIII., in the third year of his reign, directed that every father should provide a bow and two arrows for his son when he shall be seven years old. It was subsequently enacted, in the reign of the same monarch, that every one, except clergy and judges, should be obliged to shoot at butts. In a splendid shooting match at Windsor before this king, when the exercise was nearly over, his majesty observing one of his guard, named Barlow, preparing to shoot, said to him, "Beat them all, Barlow, and thou shalt be Duke of Archers." Barlow drew

his bow, executed the king's command, and received the promised reward, being created Duke of Shoreditch, that being the place of his residence. Several others of the most expert marksmen were honoured with titles; as, Earl of Pancridge (Pancras), Marquess of Clerkenwell, &c. The same monarch

To Sir Ashton Lever, perhaps, may be ascribed the revival of the science: it is certain that the Society of Toxophilites owes its origin to him. Among the other institutions which rose under different titles, may also be named the Hatfield Archers, under the patronage of Lady Salisbury:-the Royal British Bowmen, which society shot for the prizes given by his late majesty, when Prince of Wales, on the 3rd of September, 1790; the ladies' prize, a golden medallion, was won by Lady Cunliff; and the gentlemen's, a silver bugle horn, was gained by R. Hesketh, Esq.-the Caledonian, or Edinburgh Archers (the most numerous of any society, being above nine hundred in number), at whose grand match, in 1789, Lord Aylesford attended, and the fame of his dexterity was blown so high that the Caledonian band dreaded the issue of the encounter. Mr. Gray, however, a writer to the Signet-who was an incomparable shot-won the prize. The Royal Company of Archers, in the month of August, 1790, shot on the banks of the Tweed for the ancient arrow belong

and Queen Catherine, on one occa- | fined in its practice to a few counsion, went from Greenwich to ties only, till about fifty years ago, Shooter's Hill, on May-day, where when it was revived with increased they were received by two hundred splendour throughout every part of archers clad in green, with a cap- England, as appears by the numtain personating Robin Hood, who ber of societies at that time instifirst showed the king the skill of his tuted. archers; after which the ladies were conducted into the wood, and feasted with venison and wine in curiously decorated arbours and bowers. This king gave the first charter to the Artillery Company in the twentyninth year of his reign. Charles I. appears, from the dedication of a treatise entitled "The Bowman's Glory," to have been himself an archer. In the eighth year of his reign he issued a commission to the chancellor, lord mayor, and several of the privy council, to prevent the fields near London being so enclosed, as to interrupt the necessary and profitable exercise of shooting; as also to lower the mounds where they prevented the view from one mark to another. The Scorton archers began to shoot for a silver arrow, at Scorton, near Richmond, Yorkshire, on the 14th of May, 1673. Henry Calverly and William Wheatley, Esqs. were captain and lieutenant at the first meeting. The number of shooters present was twenty-two. Charles II. took such delight in it that he knighted a man (Sir William Wood) on account of his great skill in the art, whose portrait is in the possession of the Toxopbilite Socie-ing to the town of Peebles, when ty; and his royal consort, Catherine of Portugal, was probably much pleased with the pastime of archery; for in compliment to her, in 1676, by the contributions of Sir Edward Hungerford and others, a silver badge for the marshal of the fraternity of bowmen was made, weighing twenty-five ounces, and representing an archer drawing the long-bow, with the following inscription: Regina Cathe rina Sagittarii. The supporters were two bowmen, with the arms of England and Portugal.

On the death of Charles archery again began to decline, and was con

Lord Elibank gained the prize. The Bowmen of Chevy Chase is a society formed in Northumberland ; the patron of which is the duke of the county, who presents them with a silver arrow. There are other and numerous societies now existing, which continue their annual and monthly meetings; such as the Royal Kentish Bowmen, Robin Hood's Bowmen, John O'Gaunt's Bowmen, Hainault Foresters, StokeLeigh-Camp Bowmen, &c. &c.

The different kinds of prizes that are shot for are-silver arrows, silver bugles, silver cups, gold medals,