CHAPTER XI.

_OF DISTANCE SHOOTING, AND DIFFERENT ROUNDS_.

The attention may now be turned to the results obtained by the use of the bow and arrow.

The best notion of the old practice of archery may be gained from a review of the ancient butts or shooting-fields of our ancestors. These shooting-grounds were evidently attached to every town (if not also village) in the kingdom, as may be gathered from the universal survival of the local name of Butts. There is extant 'A plan of all the marks belonging to the Honourable Artillery Company in the fields near Finsbury, with the true distance as they stood, Anno 1737, for the use of long-bows, cross-bows, hand guns, and artillery.' These marks all have different appellations, and there is but one single instance of a repetition of the same distance between one of these marks and the other.

The ground on which these marks were situated appears to extend from a mark called _Castle_[6] to _Islington Common_, and there were two sets of actual butts at the Islington end. The distance between the one pair of these butts is given as six score and ten yards--i.e. 130 yards. The distance between the other pair is not given in the plan, but it appears to be less than half of the other, and is probably about sixty yards. The whole length of these shooting-fields appears to be about one mile on the plan; and this is about the actual distance between the Artillery Ground and the 'Angel,' Islington. The longest distance between any of the two marks is thirteen score and five yards--i.e. 265 yards--between Turk's Whale and Absoly. Here follow the names of the marks; and these may possibly be still traced in the neighbourhood in some instances. The distances are also given.

The start is made from 'Castle.'

+-------------------------------------------+-------------+-------+ | | Score yards | Yards | +-------------------------------------------+-------------+-------+ | From Castle to Gard stone | 9·5 | 185 | | " Gard stone to Arnold | 10·0 | 200 | | " Arnold to Turk's Whale | 8·4 | 164 | | " Turk's Whale to Lambeth | 3·13 | 73 | | " Lambeth to Westminster Hall | 11·7 | 227 | | " Westminster Hall to White Hall | 11·2 | 222 | | " White Hall to Pitfield | 7·17 | 157 | | " Pitfield[7] to Nevil's House or | | | | 'Rosemary Branch' | 9·17 | 197 | | +-------------+-------+ | Total yards | | 1425 | +-------------------------------------------+-------------+-------+

At 'Nevil's House' there appears to be a break in the marks, but they are taken up again at the 'Levant.'

+-------------------------------------------+-------------+-------+ | | Score yards | Yards | +-------------------------------------------+-------------+-------+ | From the Levant to Welch Hall | 8·18 | 178 | | " Welch Hall to Butt (1) | 11·11 | 231 | | " Butt(1) to Butt(2) on Islington | | | | Common | 6·18 | 138 | | And, on going back to Welch Hall, | | | | from Welch Hall to Egg-Pye | 10·10 | 210 | | +-------------+-------+ | Total yards | | 757 | +-------------------------------------------+-------------+-------+

Here there is another break.

To continue the round of the marks on the return journey without going over the same distance twice, return to Pitfield.

+-------------------------------------------+-------------+-------+ | | Score yards | Yards | +-------------------------------------------+-------------+-------+ | From Pitfield to Bob Peek | 11·3 | 223 | | " Bob Peek to Old Absoly | 8·12 | 172 | | " Old Absoly to Pitfield | 10·16 | 216 | | " Pitfield to Edw. Gold | 6·11 | 131 | | " Edw. Gold to Jehu | 9·9 | 189 | | " Jehu to Old Absoly | 8·17 | 177 | | " Old Absoly to Scarlet | 9·11 | 191 | | " Scarlet to Edw. Gold | 7·2 | 142 | | " Edw. Gold to White Hall | 12·2 | 242 | | " White Hall to Scarlet | 12·2 | 242 | | " Scarlet to Jehu | 4·2 | 82 | | " Jehu to Blackwell Hall | 9·18 | 198 | | " Blackwell Hall to Scarlet | 9·6 | 186 | | " Scarlet to Star or Dial | 9·14 | 194 | | " Star or Dial to White Hall | 7·0 | 140 | | +-------------+-------+ | Total yards | | 2725 | +-------------------------------------------+-------------+-------+

Returning to Star or Dial:--

+-------------------------------------------+-------------+-------+ | | Score yards | Yards | +-------------------------------------------+-------------+-------+ | From Star or Dial to Westminster Hall | 8·8 | 168 | | " Westminster Hall to Dial or Monument | 8·4 | 164 | | " Dial or Monument to Star or Dial | 9·9 | 189 | | " Star or Dial to Blackwell Hall | 13·5 | 185 | | " Blackwell Hall to Old Speering | 9·1 | 129 | | " Old Speering to Star or Dial | 9·16 | 196 | | +-------------+-------+ | Total yards | | 1031 | +-------------------------------------------+-------------+-------+

Returning to Blackwell Hall:--

+-------------------------------------------+-------------+-------+ | | Score yards | Yards | +-------------------------------------------+-------------+-------+ | From Blackwell Hall to Dial or Monument | 10·16 | 216 | | " Dial or Monument to Lambeth | 6·10 | 130 | | " Lambeth to Old Speering | 10·8 | 208 | | +-------------+-------+ | Total yards | | 554 | +-------------------------------------------+-------------+-------+

Returning to Lambeth:--

+-------------------------------------------+-------------+-------+ | | Score yards | Yards | +-------------------------------------------+-------------+-------+ | From Lambeth to Day's Deed | 8·14 | 174 | | " Day's Deed to Turk's Whale | 9·12 | 192 | | " Turk's Whale to Absoly (longest) | 13·5 | 265 | | " Absoly to Arnold | 9·1 | 181 | | " Arnold to Blood House Bridge | 7·14 | 154 | | +-------------+-------+ | Total yards | | 966 | +-------------------------------------------+-------------+-------+

Returning to Day's Deed:--

+-------------------------------------------+-------------+-------+ | | Score yards | Yards | +-------------------------------------------+-------------+-------+ | From Day's Deed to Absoly | 9·11 | 191 | | " Absoly to Gard stone | 9·15 | 195 | | +-------------+-------+ | Total yards | | 386 | +-------------------------------------------+-------------+-------+

The sum of all these distances amounts to about 4-1/2 miles, being actually 4 miles and 804 yards. There is a pathway extending the whole distance from Blood House Bridge to Islington Common. There are boggy places set down as lying between Turk's Whale and Absoly, and Turk's Whale and Day's Deed. There is also a bog located between the two nearest butts, which must have been inconvenient; also a pond on one side, and another bog on the other side of them.

Two other measurements are given--namely, fifteen score and eight yards, or 308 yards, for the length of a garden wall lying some yards to the right of the White Hall and Pitfield marks; and sixteen score and two yards, or 322 yards, in the same neighbourhood, close by the pathway, and indicating about the distance between Star or Dial and Edw. Gold.

The widest part of these shooting-fields seems to be at about this same part--viz. from White Hall to Scarlet 242 yards, and on to Jehu 82 yards, a total width of 324 yards; and the narrowest part extends from Nevil's House to Islington Common, in which narrow part are both the sets of butts.

There appear to be some eight or ten fields included in the plan, with hedges indicated, but there is no appearance of either a road or a pathway crossing them.

These marks, giving a great variety of distances, from the shortest of 73 yards between Turk's Whale and Lambeth to the longest of 265 already particularised, seem admirably calculated for the training of the old English archer and the teaching him readily to calculate the various distances at any time between himself and his enemy; and it is worthy of observation that all these distances are well within the belief of modern archers as such distances as--bearing in mind that there is no evidence of general deterioration--our ancestors could easily compass, seeing that there are well-authenticated instances of lengths somewhat beyond 300 yards having been attained in modern times without any lengthened special training.

In these fields no doubt was seen the _clout shooting_, which is still kept up by the Woodmen of Arden, at Meriden in Warwickshire, and by the archers of the Scottish Bodyguard at Edinburgh.

This style of shooting is so called from the aim having been taken at any white mark (cloth, etc.), placed at a fixed distance; but the clout in use now is a white target with a black centre, set slantwise on the ground. The distances vary from 180 to 240 yards, and this latter distance may be taken as about the extreme range of this style of shooting in olden times; as Shakespeare mentions (2 Henry IV. iii. 2) that 'old Double,' who 'drew a good bow,' and 'shot a fine shoot,' 'would have clapped i' the clout at twelve score, and carried you a forehand shaft a fourteen and fourteen and a half, that it would have done a man's heart good to see.' As the clout is but rarely hit, the arrow nearest to it at each end, if within three bows' lengths (about eighteen feet) of it, counts as in bowls and quoits.

When the Grand National Archery Meeting was held at Edinburgh in 1850, some of this shooting was introduced, with the result that, out of 2,268 shots at 180 yards, there were 10 hits, and out of 888 shots at 200 yards there were 5 hits.

At the meetings at Meriden stands a marker right in front of this clout, whose duty it is to signal back to each archer, when he has shot, whether his arrow fall short, or go too far, or wide, and--to avoid being hit himself.

The ordinary target arrows may be used in this practice up to the distance of 200 yards, but beyond this distance much stronger bows or flight arrows must be employed.

In these fields, too, would be kept up the practice of _roving_, or taking, as the object to be aimed at, not these or any known mark, but some stray or accidental mark. This practice must have been valuable in olden times in testing the knowledge of distances acquired at the different fixed marks, and it would still be interesting as an amusement, but it is not now so easy to find grounds sufficiently open for the purpose. Where there is sufficient space for golf links, roving might still be practised, and already the golfer's ball and the archer's arrow have been matched together between hole and hole.

Of _flight-shooting_, or shooting with _flight_ or light arrows, it may be said that such practice was probably in vogue in old times for the purpose of annoying the enemy whilst at a distance, or in such a ruse as is described by Hall in his account of the battle of Towton in 1461, when 'The Lord Fawconbridge, which led the forward of King Edwardes battail, beinge a man of great Polyce, and of much experience in Marciall feates, caused every archer under his standard to shoot one flight (which before he caused them to provyde), and then made them to stand still. The Northern men, felyng the shoot, but by reason of the snow not wel vewyng the distaunce betwene them and their enemies, like hardy men shot their schefe arrowes as fast as they might, but al their shot was lost and their labor vayn, for thei came not nere the Southern men by xl. tailors' yerdes.'

Flight-shooting has also been used in experiments to determine the extreme casts of different weights and kinds of bows, and the greatest range attainable by the power and skill of individual archers. As a result of such experiments, it may be stated that very few archers can cover more, or even as much as, 300 yards. To attain this range, a bow of at least sixty-two or sixty-three pounds must not only be used but thoroughly mastered, not merely as regards the drawing, but in respect of quickness and sharpness of loose also.

The only remaining style of shooting in vogue in old times--that at the butts or mounds of earth--was known as _prick-shooting_, a small mark being fixed upon the butt and shot at from various distances. This style of shooting was probably popular even then, as many of the Acts of Parliament are levelled against it, on account of its interfering with the more robust practice of the long distances necessary for the purpose of war. This prick-shooting next became known as the _paper game_, when cardboard, and paper stretched on canvas, were placed on the butts. It is not very clear when such targets as are now in use came into fashion, with their gaudy heraldic faces. The distances employed for this butt-shooting appear to have been differently calculated from the lengths in the longer-distance shooting, an obsolete measure of 7-1/2 yards, known as an _archer's rood_, having been employed; and the butt-shooting in vogue at the revival of archery in 1781 was at the distances of 4, 8, 12, and 16 roods, or 30, 60, 90, and 120 yards; and the modern distances of 60 yards, 80 yards, and 100 yards do not seem to have come into use until they were mentioned towards the end of the last century as _Princes' lengths_ at the annual contests held in the grounds of the Royal Toxophilite Society, for the possession of the silver bugles presented by their patron, George IV., then Prince of Wales.

About the date of the Introduction of the _York Round_ in 1844, two other rounds were in use amongst archers and in archery clubs. These were the _St. Leonard's Round_, which first consisted of 75 arrows at 60 yards only, but afterwards of 36 arrows at 80 yards, and 39 arrows at 60 yards; and the _St. George's Round_, consisting of 36 arrows at each of the distances of 100 yards, 80 yards, and 60 yards, the round of the St. George's Archers, who occupied grounds in St. John's Wood, near London.

The _York Round_, having been now firmly established for more than forty years as the round appointed to be shot at all the public archery meetings, has become the acknowledged test of excellence in bow practice, and all other rounds have dropped out of use with the exception of the round known as the _National Round_, which is practised by ladies at the public meetings, and consists of 48 arrows at 60 yards and 24 arrows at 50 yards; and of 48 arrows at 80 yards and 24 arrows at 60 yards, as practised by gentlemen at meetings where the 100 yards shooting is omitted.

FOOTNOTES:

[6] Possibly now the 'Castle' publichouse, 9 Finsbury Pavement.

[7] The 'Rosemary Branch' publichouse, 2 Shepperton Road, Islington, N., is perhaps too far off the line to be identical. The same may be said of Pitfield Street, Hoxton.