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This is the eleventh item from Robert Dymond's book: "Things New and Old Concerning the Parish of Widecombe-in-the-Moor and its Neighbourhood" (1876)

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ARCHERY AT WIDECOMBE

A short account of the ancient close of land called “ Butte Parks,” together with some observations upon Ancient and Modern Archery.

BY indenture of feoffment, dated 19th January, II. Charles 1st, John Hamlyn and two others granted and en-feoffed to Richard Langworthy and others, and their heirs, a house, situate within the parish of Widecombe, called the Church House, and a close of land there situate, called Henhay alias Butte Parks, the rents and profits of the said premises, and of the said land, to be applied to such charitable and good uses and deeds as by the major part of the householders parishioners should be agreed upon, either for the reparation of the church of the said parish, amending the highways, relieving the poor, furtherance of the King’s Majesty’s service, or the like.

We gather from the report of the Charity Commissioners that the site of Butte Parks has been lost, and that the parish are not in pos- session of any field of that name, but they consider that (from the circumstance of the quantity of land included in the said Butte Parks being nowhere particularized, and from its herbage and pasture only being demised by the above-mentioned deed) it is not improbable that it was the piece of waste land now called the Green, adjoining the Church House, and used as a playing place for the children of the parish.

There can be, we imagine, little doubt but that this piece of land was originally provided for the use of the inhabitants of the parish in obedience to an Act passed in the fifth year of Edward II. (A.D. 1466), which directed “That every Englishman should have a bow of his own height of yew, ash, wych, hazel, or amburn ; and that butts should be made in every township, which the inhabitants were to shoot at every feast-day under the penalty of a halfpenny when they should omit that exercise.” Yew trees were at this time almost invariably planted in English churchyards in order to provide wood for the construction of bows.

The use of archery,:according to the fanciful opinion of the poet Claudian, originated’ from the porcupine being observed to cast its quills whenever it was offended. Plato ascribes the invention to Apollo, by whom it was communicated to the Cretans. The eastern nations were expert in archery in the earliest ages, and the precision of the ancient archer is scarcely exceeded by our skill in modern arms. Astor, of Amphipolis, upon being slighted by Philip, king of Macedonia, aimed an arrow at him with the inscription “aimed at Philip’s right eye,” which struck it and put it out ; it was the last good shot, however, that Astor made, for upon the surrender of the town he was hanged by order of the conqueror.

Homer gives a very graphic description of an archery match between “experienced Merion and skilful Tencer ;” the mark was a milk-white dove tied by a cord to the mast of a war galley. The prizes were ten double-edged battle-axes to whoever killed the bird, and ten single axes to whoever divided the string. Tencer having obtained the first shot, instantly cut the cord with a single arrow ; but Merion, nothing daunted, immediately killed the bird upon the wing.

Archery appears to have been introduced into England previously to A.D. 440, and Harold and his two brothers are said to have been killed by arrows shot from the cross-bows of the Norman invaders at the Battle of Hastings ; when the Norman fleet made the port of Pevensey on the coast of Sussex, on the 28th of September, in that memorable year, 1066, the knights and archers landed first, and the foremost man of the company was the ancestor of the Stricklands, of Sizergh Castle, in Westmoreland, who derive their name and arms from this circumstance and who still exhibit the sword with which they assert their redoubtable chief first struck the English land. William the Conqueror, it is stated, first introduced the use of the cross-bow into this island, and also re-introduced the practice of archery. The usual range of the long bow was from three hundred to four hundred yards, and the length of the bow was six feet, and the arrow three ; cross-bows were fixed to a stock of iron or wood, and were discharged by a trigger. His successor, William Rufus, was accidentally killed by an arrow whilst hunting in Hampshire; and after this, for a few years, archery seems almost to have fallen into disuse, but it was revived by King Richard the Lion-hearted, in the year 1190, and largely employed by that warlike monarch in the third Crusade. In the year 1199 a report was brought him that a peasant ploughing in the fields of Vidomar, lord of Chaluz, in Aquitaine, had struck upon a trap door which concealed an enchanted treasure, and going down into a cave discovered several golden statues with vases full of diamonds, all of which had been secured in the castle of Chaluz for the private use of the Sieur de Vidomar. Richard, when he heard this, sent to Vidomar demanding a share of the treasure; the poor Castellan declared that no such treasure had been found; nothing but a pot of Roman coins had been discovered and these he was welcome to have.

As King Richard had set his mind upon golden statues and vases of diamonds, it was not likely that he would lower his ideas to the reality stated by the unfortunate lord of Vidomar; so he marched at once to besiege the Castle of Chaluz; and here met his death, being pierced from the walls by an arrow from an arbalista or crossbow, aimed by the hand of Bertrand de Gordon, on the 6th April, 1199.

We read in Stowe, that “ four thousand archers surrounded the houses of Parliament ready to shoot the King and the members, in the 21st year of the reign of Richard II., 1397.

Edward III. was at great pains to provide bows and arrows for his soldiers, who claimed to be the best archers in those days, and their claims have been universally admitted. In the battle of Cressy his bowmen cut off the flower of the French nobility. Each army had an equal number of archers in the field, but our enemies are believed to have been armed with the crossbow, and it is said that their bow strings were so completely soaked as to be altogether unfit for use. The victory gained by the Black Prince at Poictiers, when the French king, the Dauphin, and almost all the peers of France were taken prisoners, was also ascribed to the archers, very few of whom fell, although the slaughter amongst the French was enormous; and the battle of Agincourt was still more fatal to them, and was gained by our ancestors by the same method of fighting.

The old ballad of “Chevy Chase” proclaims the feats of the bold outlaw Robin Hood, of his lieutenant, Little John, and of his merry followers, with this then formidable weapon and it is said that their usual range was from six to eight hundred yards; and all through the disastrous civil wars, known in history as “ the Wars of the Roses,” bows and arrows seem to have been the principal weapons in use in the respective armies of York and Lancaster.

The citizens of London were formed into companies of archers in ‘the reign of Edward III. As we have already said, an edict was promulgated nearly a hundred years later, directing all Englishmen to arm themselves with the national weapon ; and although both ancient and modern writers have lavished encomiums on the bow, still, since it is universally admitted that it is not worthy of being compared with any description of fire arms, it is a little remarkable that for more than two hundred years after the latter were introduced, attempts were made from time to time by the English Government to encourage the practice of archery ; thus, in the 29th of Henry VIII. (1538), the citizens of London were formed into a body of archers styled “ The Fraternity of St. George ;” and, to come nearer home, in the reign of Philip and Mary, (when the town of Ashburton, in this county, made preparations to furnish aid to the Sovereign, in raising an army of ten thousand men, to‘proceed to the Low Countries under the command of the Earl of Pembroke), there is abundant evidence that many of the English soldiers were still armed with the ancient bow and arrows. In the ancient records of the parish we read as follows :-“1556-7-viii, for making clean of the Church Harness & letheryng.”-“1557-8- xxd for a sheff of arrows; xxivs for cloth for the saudyers (soldier’s) coats ; xid for bow strings ; ixd for cottenyng the cloth for the saudyers cotts (coats) ; xiid for carriage of the harnys to Chagford.” Afterwards (at the commencement of the reign of Queen Elizabeth) we ﬁnd that the Churchwardens derived 3s. 4d. in 1558-9 from “lopping the yew trie ;” and that in the same years there are several entries relative to the “Bowyer’—“viiis to the Bowyer;” “iiis ivd to the Bowyer for cutting out the polme trie ;” 1559-60—xiis to the Bowyer for makyng of bows.” The Manor of Ashburton was held from the King by finding two soldiers for service in the Royal Army.

Charles I., in the fourth year of his reign, granted a commission under the great seal for enforcing the use of the long bow; and although this was revoked a few years later, another was granted, in 1633, to two persons of the name of Mead, authorising them to teach an invention for uniting the use of the bow and pike. Ten years afterwards, a precept was issued by the Earl of Essex, calling upon all well-affected persons to assist in raising a company of archers for the service of the King; but since that time archery can claim only to be considered as a recreation. It was found that the ancient weapon was of little use when opposed to firearms ; consequently the previous kings relating to the practice of archery ceased to be enforced and the grounds anciently set apart for it in the various towns and villages of England were gradually devoted to other purposes, as in the village of Widecombe, and now even the situation of the spot where the ancestors of our modern Rifle Volunteers were wont to exercise, is well nigh forgotten, and the men of the present day cease to remember that the dominion and glory and majesty and power of their native land was won chiefly with this now almost discarded weapon. However, a number of societies have contributed to prevent this ancient arm of the nation from sinking into complete oblivion. In 1753, targets were erected in the Finsbury fields, during the Easter and Whitsun holidays, when the best shooter was named Captain, and the second Lieutenant. These archers are now extinct, but their society is incorporated with a division of the Artillery Company of London, founded by Royal Charter, in the 29th of Henry VIII.

The Royal Company of Scottish Archers, founded by James 1st, selected the most expert of their number to act in the capacity of the King’s principal body-guard ; a distinction which this Royal Company still claims within six miles of Edinburgh. As the Cuirass of the Life Guardsman is the only link between the dress of the present English soldier and his mighty predecessors, so are these bow-men of Scotland the very last ot British warriors who can claim to be furnished with the ancient arm. Ladies now in the pleasant summer time make their polished bows and gay trappings an excuse for many a merry meeting under “ the greenwood tree.” Will the time ever come when the march of progress will hand over to them the rifles of the Snider, and the Martini Henry, the Infant of Woolwich, or the Chilled Shot of Palliser to minister to their innocent and harmless recreation?

CHAS. WORTHY, late H.M. 82nd Regt.