Hoyle's Games, Improved And Enlarged - online book

The Source book & Scientific Guide for popular Gaming & Sports.

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	440                          ARCHERY.
	Observe, That as arrows are weighed by the same weight as standard silver, five shillings troy weight is termed an arrow of five shillings. The above dimensions it will of course be felt are not arbitrary, as every one will use an arrow the best suited to his strength, and the best adapted to the nature and power of his bow. Long after the bow was banished from" the ranks of war in our European armies, it continued to be in this country a fashionable amusement of much value. But even as an amusement, till within the last twenty years, it had for a century past been little known. The archers' division of the artillery company in the south, and one or two societies in Lancashire and Cheshire, and the royal company of archers in Scotland, were for many years the sole support of the art in Great Britain. The last-mentioned society was founded in the reign of James the First. They still, on all occasions of a royal visit to Edinburgh, claim the privilege of forming the body-guard of the sove-eign. Their uniform is tartan, lined with white, and trimmed with green : a white sash with green tassels, and a blue bonnet with a St. Andrew's cross and feather. This company includes a great proportion of Scottish nobility and gentry. Notwithstanding all that has been advanced to the contrary, the projectile power of the bow, it must be admitted upon dispassionate consideration, is vastly inferior to the modern firelock. First, be­cause it is impaired by the state of the atmosphere, in some state of which it cannot be applied with