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."
DAVID STEVENS.
Godalming.
The method of trying and proving a bow is stated by Ascham to be thus:
"By shooting it in the fields, and sinking it with dead heavy shafts; looking where it comes most, and providing for that place betimes, lest it pinch and so fret. When the bow has thus been shot in, and appears to contain good shooting wood, it must be taken to a skilful workman, to be cut shorter, scraped, and dressed fitter, and made to come circularly round; and it should be whipped at the ends, lest it snap in sunder or fret sooner than the archer is aware of."
It is calculated that an arrow may be shot 110 yards for every 20 lbs. weight of the bow.
As regards the length of the old English bow, the statute 5th of Edward IV. cap. 4., runs thus:
"That every Englishman, and Irishmen that dwell with Englishmen and speak English, that be between sixteen and sixty in age, shall have an English bow of his own length."
Ascham recommended for men of average strength arrows made of birch, hornbeam, oak, and ash.