VIII.—BOWS AND ARROWS ORDERED TO BE KEPT.
But, to return from this digression: as far back as the thirteenth century, every person not having a greater annual revenue in land than one hundred pence, was obligated to have in his possession a bow and arrows, with other arms offensive and defensive; and all such as had no possessions, but could afford to purchase arms, were commanded to have a bow with sharp arrows, if they dwelt without the royal forests, and a bow with round-headed arrows, if they resided within the forests. The words of the statute are, "Ark et setes hors de foreste et en foreste ark et piles." [290] The word pile I believe is derived from the Latin, pila, a ball; and I suppose these arrows were used to prevent the owners from killing the king's deer. The round-headed arrows were also called bolts, and also used with the cross-bow; hence the old adage, "A fool's bolt is soon shot," where the retort of an ignorant man is compared to the blunted arrow of an unskilful archer, shot off hastily, and without any aim. The proverb is thus versified by John Heywood,
A fooles bolte is soone shot, and fleeth oftymes fer
But the fooles bolte, and the marke, cum few times ner. [291]
It was also ordained by the forementioned statute that proper officers should be appointed to see that these weapons were kept in good order, and ready for immediate service.
IX.—DECAY OF ARCHERY.
Notwithstanding the manifest advantages accruing to the nation from the practice of archery, it seems to have been much neglected even at a time when the glory of the English archers was in its zenith, I mean in the reign of Edward III.; which occasioned that monarch to send a letter of complaint upon this subject to the sheriffs of London, declaring that the skill in shooting with arrows was almost totally laid aside, for the pursuit of various useless and unlawful games. He therefore commanded them to prevent such idle practices within the city and liberties of London; and to see that the leisure time upon holidays was spent in recreations with bows and arrows. In the thirty-ninth year of this reign, A. D. 1349, the penalty incurred by the offenders was imprisonment at the king's pleasure; the words of the letter are, "arcubus et sagittis vel pilettis aut boltis," with bow and arrows, or piles or bolts. The same command was repeated in the twelfth year of the reign of Richard II.; but probably its good effects were merely temporary. And in the fifth year of Edward IV. an ordinance was made, commanding every Englishman and Irishman dwelling in England, to have a long-bow of his own height; the act directs, that butts should be made in every township, at which the inhabitants were to shoot at up and down, upon all feast days, under the penalty of one halfpenny for every time they omitted to perform this exercise. This in the poetical legends is called "shooting about."
In the sixteenth century we meet with heavy complaints respecting the disuse of the long-bow, and especially in the vicinity of London. Stow informs us, "that before his time it had been customary at Bartholomew tide, for the lord mayor, with the sheriffs and aldermen, to go into the fields at Finsbury, where the citizens were assembled, and shoot at the standard, with broad and flight arrows, for games." I do not clearly understand the author's meaning in this passage, unless the word games may signify for sport sake. This exercise was continued for several days; but at the period in which our author lived it was practised only one afternoon, three or four days after the festival of Saint Bartholomew. [292]
The same writer attributes the decay of archery among the Londoners to the enclosures made near the metropolis, by which means the citizens were deprived of room sufficient or proper for the purpose; and his observations appear to have been justly founded, for a few years posterior to his death, a commission was granted by James I. [293] to many persons of quality; in which were recited and established the good statutes, ordinances, and proclamations, that had been previously made at different times in favour of archery. This commission extended to the prevention of enclosures in the grounds formerly used for the practice of the bow.
The commissioners were also impowered to survey the lands adjoining to the city of London, its suburbs, and within two miles circuit; and to reduce them to the same state and order for the use of the archers, as they stood at the beginning of the reign of Henry VIII.; and where they found any encroachments, to cause the banks to be thrown down, the ditches filled up, and the open spaces to be made level. Charles I. confirmed this commission, or granted another to the same purpose.