ARCHERY, the art and practice of shooting with the bow and arrow. Nearly every country except Australia has the bow and its origin is lost in the uncertainties of the old Stone age. Excellent drawings of archers are found in the Palaeolithic carv ings at Castellon (Spain), and elsewhere, which show a high development of tackle and shooting technique. Flint arrow-heads of Aurignacian culture date back, according to different anthro pologists, from 25,000 to 5o,000 years, and probably arrows with out stone points were used for unknown ages before that.
Savage bows of to-day vary in size and strength from the feeble 3f t. stick of the African pigmy to the 8ft. long but moderate weight bow of the Siriono Indian, or the heavy weapon of the African Wasukuma with a draw of 8olb. and a cast of 25o yards. The weight of a bow indicates the force required fully to draw its arrow. Primitive arrows differ according to the bow they fit. The pigmy shoots a sharpened twig of 8o grains, with or with out an iron point, and the Siriono an arrow more than 8ft. long and an inch thick. The average, taken the world over, might show bows about 5ft. in length, weighing from 3o to 501b., according to their thickness and the kind of wood. (The "weight" of a bow is the number of pounds required, when ap pended to the string, to draw to the head an arrow of 28in. for a man's bow and 25in. for a woman's.) The arrows, usually with three feathers and iron tips, are from 2 f t. to 3o inches. Bows are generally made of wood, but in Asia, from very early times, a composite bow of horn, wood and sinew, in order from front to back, has been used by the great military nations, such as the Greeks, Assyrians, Hindus, Scythians, Turks and Chinese, and has been a potent factor in establishing their power. It is short and strong, weighing up to loolb., and so resilient and elastic as to allow great reflexion, or bending frontwards when unstrung. This reflexed shape puts the strung bow in a state of high stress even before the arrow is drawn and thus increases its quickness or casting power.
The interest of English-speaking people centres in the wooden, 6-ft. long bow which was, for more than a millennium, practi cally the only projectile weapon of Great Britain. It seems to have been developed by the Scandinavian races and carried by them into England at an early date. About 4o such bows of the 5th century, dug up at Nydam, Denmark, and much other evi dence, support this view. Probably the preceding Celtic bow was a short, sturdy weapon, used chiefly at short range, of a type which persisted in Ireland. At Stamford Bridge the English archers were a formidable portion of the troops. William the Conqueror won the battle of Hastings largely through his Norman archers, who shot high in the air and dropped their arrows behind the English wall of shields. From this fact it is often said, though erroneously, that he introduced the bow into England. The highest develop ment of military archery was in the Hundred Years' War and in the Wars of the Roses, where it was the deciding factor at Crecy, Poitiers, Agincourt and elsewhere, in France, and, to a great extent, on several battle-fields in England.
With the improvement of fire-arms the use of the bow in Eng lish warfare rapidly declined, the forces of Elizabeth being the last in which it played an important role, although it was employed occasionally thereafter in such remote districts as the Scottish highlands. Archery then almost died. In fact, of all the myriads of bows that were made in old England only four are known to exist and two of these were recovered from a wreck which sunk in the Thames during the reign of Henry VIII. However, archery had been widely enjoyed as a sport during the middle ages. In fact, all men between 16 and 6o years were forced by law to practise it. It therefore survived among its amateurs, though comparatively feebly, in this form. A silver arrow, dated 1603, is still competed for in Scotland, and many other threads of con tinuity can be followed.
The old English archers shot in two ways; at a small prick or white spot, on a butt of turf, standing at a distance varying from 1 oof t. to a moderate, but uncertain, yardage, or at marks set from 150 to 3ooyd. away, which tried the full cast of the bow. If, at long range, the target were a white cloth stretched on a hoop, it was called a clout. Thus Shakespeare says :—"A' would have clapped i' the clout at twelve score, and carried you a forehand shaft a fourteen and fourteen and a half." This extreme is 29oyd., but a forehand shaft is one aimed no higher than can be sighted over by the eye, which might suggest an even greater cast for an underhand shaft at 45° elevation. If a succession of marks, like posts, were installed, as in the Finsbury Fields near London, the game was called shooting at rovers, and possibly was a f ore runner of golf.
Toward the end of the 18th century the formation of the Royal Toxophilite Society, of London, and the participation in the sport by the Prince of Wales, established modern archery as we know it. In 1844 the Grand National Meeting, which, ever since, has determined the championships of England, was held for the first time. Standards then adopted, which are still in force, were the four-foot target, coloured gold, red, blue, black and white and counting 9, 7, 5, 3, I; the York Round, for men, of 72 arrows at 1 ooyds., 48 at 8o and 24 at 6o; and the National Round, for women, of 48 arrows at 6o and 24 at 5o yards. Usually these rounds are shot "double," or repeated, and the scores combined. The best English archer of all the years since then, probably the best of all time, was Horace Alford Ford, who shot from 1848 to 1867. His Single York of 137 hits-8o9 score, in private prac tice, and Double York of 245-1,251, in a public meeting, stand as world's records. The best woman archer was Miss Legh. Her magnificent Double National of 143-841, at the Grand National Meeting of 1904, is the world's record.
A small and curious meeting to shoot for a little silver dart called the Ancient Scorton Arrow has been held in Yorkshire since 1673 and is one of the oldest sporting events, with practically un broken annual records, in the world. In Scotland archery is splendidly upheld by the King's Bodyguard for that country, called the Royal Company of Archers. The recorded minutes of this society date from 1676, its membership comprises Scotland's highest nobility, and it perpetuates the best traditions of shoot ing, both at ooft. butts within doors and at 180 and 2ooyd. ranges without. The only other society which shoots over simi lar long distances is the Woodmen of Arden, of Meriden, Eng land. On the Continent, archery is practically confined to Bel gium and the parts of Holland and France that lie near it, includ ing Paris. Tt is a sport of the working classes, not of the leisured as in England. Some compagnies are of great antiquity, that of Soissons claiming to have been formed in the Roman times of 471. The Compagnie de St. Sebastien at Bruges, with a fine medi aeval hall, includes Charles II. and Victoria of England among its former members.
Continental shooting is much like the old English butt-practice, In a typical jardin des archers, two open sheds face each other at 5o metres, one for a straw butt and small target and the other for the archers, who file in singly and shoot only one arrow apiece. Le tir a la perclie (popinjay shooting) is widely and elaborately done, each village having its mat, or mast about iooft. high, with a grille, of crossbars, on which from 1 to 6o oiseaux and a coq (feathered, wooden birds) are placed. The archer knocks them off, while holding one foot against the pole, with a maquet, or heavy arrow with a blunt horn end.
In the Olympic games of 1908, against an English team and the best American archers of that time, and in more than half a dozen less formal matches in other years between English and French, the latter were always victorious at the distances to which they were accustomed. At one of the latter contests, at Le Touquet in 1914, Ingo Simon, a naturalized Englishman, shot 462yd. 9in. with an 8olb. Turkish composite bow. This modern performance rendered credible an authenticated shot of 482yd. made in 1795, at London, with the same sort of weapon, by Mahmoud Effendi, secretary to the Turkish ambassador.
In America the bow was the chief weapon of the aboriginal Indians, but their skill was not so great as story books would lead us to believe. They usually shot animals at very short ranges after skilfully stalking them. In many contests between Indians and white experts, the latter have always won by scores two or three times as great. Organized archery, on the English pattern, was initiated in 1828 by the United Bowmen of Phila delphia, a club of about 25 young men who shot regularly in that city for 3o years and whose handsome trophies are preserved in the Pennsylvania Historical Society. Dying out in the Civil War period, it was revived in 1878 by the formation of the National Archery Association, following a wave of enthusiasm produced by the writings of Maurice Thompson, a Confederate veteran, who, with his brother Will, had lived by the bow in the forests of the far south. Tournaments to determine the championships for both sexes have been held by this body annually, beginning in except for two years during the World War. At these tourna ments the York and National Rounds are shot, as in England, but the hasty American temperament has added two shorter rounds called the American, for men, of 3o arrows at 6o, 5o and 40yd. (90 in all), and the Columbia, for women, of 24 arrows at 5o, 4o and 3oyd. (72 in all) . The American championships, since 1915, have been computed on the sum of the hits and scores of both double rounds, for each sex. At other meetings various rounds may be shot, most of which are associated with English archery societies and carry their names. The best of American origin which tests a man's skill at all favourite dis tances is the Metropolitan, originated at New York in 1926, of 3o arrows at zoo, 8o, 6o, 5o and 4oyd., or 150 in all.
There is an important difference in the customs of the two countries, which makes the exact comparison of scores difficult, in that the English place targets at both ends of the range, shoot ing in two directions, while the Americans shoot in only one. How much this affects the score, if at all, has never been accurately determined. Among American archers, a few have affixed to their bows adjustable sights, usually of metal, to facili tate aiming. As this is a radical departure from the unassisted methods of the past, many feel that scores made with their aid should be classified separately from those made without it, although, as yet, no official action has been taken. The leading American archer is Paul Webb Crouch, of Boston. His best scores are :—in practice, Single York, 132-732, Single American, 9o-684, Single Metropolitan, 148-932, the last being one of the world's outstanding feats in any sport; in tournament, Double York, 232–I,132, Double American, 180–I,232, Single Metropolitan, 134-810. Crouch is one of those who use the sight. The best woman archer was Mrs. M. C. Howell, of Cincinnati, 0., whose Double National of 132-756, made in 1895, is still the record.
Flight-shooting in America is done with wooden bows only. In England, Rawson and Troward, in the 18th century, made unofficial shots of 36o and 34oyd. As 29oyd. by Maxson of Washington, D.C. (1891), remained the American record for 25 years, some scepticism regarding those figures existed until Curtis, of Pembina, N.D., testing their possibility, shot 366yd. (1927), by lying down and drawing a bow against his feet. On New Year's day, 1928, Howard Hill, of Opa-Locka, Fla., a mag nificently built man with a strain of Cherokee blood, set a new record by shooting, in the ordinary standing position, a 5-ft. osage-orange bow with the astounding weight of 1721b., sending a 2 2 in. birch arrow 39 1 yd. and 23 inches.
Hunting wild game with the bow is, from necessity, practised by all savages. Among civilized nations it was a sport of royalty until the bow was replaced by the gun. In modern times, although the Thompsons lived on small game shot with arrows, it was really left for the late Saxton T. Pope, with his close friend and pupil in archery, Arthur Young, both of San Francisco, to revive, after the Great War, the mediaeval broad-headed arrow and yew bow as instruments of death. These skilled hunters and great archers have killed specimens of practically every game animal in North America, from squirrels to the Kodiak bear, and from birds, fish, rabbits, deer, pumas, black-bears and grizzlies to the wary mountain sheep. In 1926 they hunted lions near Nairobi, Africa, but, while they did kill seven with the arrow only, they also proved that a charging lion must be stopped by some other defence, such as a shelter or a rifle.
The equipment for modern archery consists of a bow, with its string, arrows, a bracer or arm-guard, finger-tips or shooting glove, a quiver and a target. The standard English bow is divided by a handle, of plush, tape or leather, into upper and lower limbs. These taper gradually and are nearly flat on the back and half-round on the belly, or face. Nocks may be cut near the ends to receive the string, or curved tips of horn also nocked, may be added. Bows for men are from 5ft. Bin. to 6f t. in length and weigh from 36 to 8o pounds. Thirty-six to 4o1b. is weak and of little use beyond 6o yards. Forty-six to so is about right for most men. Fifty-five to 6o is excellent at i ooyd. when in strong hands. Greater weights are chiefly used in hunting, roving and flight shooting. Women's bows are from aft. to 5ft. 6in. and weigh from 18 to 351b., with 25 as an average. Because of their con venience in transportation, jointed bows, with separate limbs connected by metallic sleeves like a fishing rod, have long been used in continental Europe and, more recently, in America. Crouch made all of his big scores with them. In England they are not favoured. Owing to the rigid centre they have less wood to bend and, therefore, are very quick but rather more liable to break. Backed bows have a strip of tough wood, like hickory, glued to a more fragile belly. The backing is often of rawhide or hard fibre. A thin strip of steel has been used, but as yet this has been inadequately tested. Since 1927, jointed steel bows have been made in the United States which, at least in the writer's opinion, are fully equal to the best wooden ones. They are formed of either tapered seamless tubing or tapered U-bar, the latter being possibly the better. The best wood for bows is probably yew, some still coming from Italy and Spain, but most from the northern Pacific slope of the United States. It is light in hand, quickly resilient and divided into heart and sapwoods which must be properly proportioned in the making. Close rivals are Osage orange, from the United States, and lemon wood and lancewood, from the tropics. Osage is so elastic that it may be shortened to 5ft. or less, with improved cast. Lemon and lance bows are more slender than yew but are equally strong and shoot just as far.
The parts of an arrow are the shaft, tip, feathers, pock and crest or painted rings. The woods most often used are spruce, Norway pine and Port Orford cedar. A self-arrow is made of a single stick of wood, sometimes with a short core of steel set in its end, while a footed-arrow has a piece of hardwood spliced on it to give balance and strength. The restless ingenuity of America has also brought into use hollow metal arrows made of seamless tubing of both duralumin and steel. The former were introduced in 1927 and the Double American Round was won with them at the tournament of the National Archery Association. The latter were not perfected until the following year. The steel is plated with cadmium to prevent rust and the feathers are affixed to both kinds by the medium of a coating of celluloid. The best strings, of hemp, are professionally made in Belgium, where the trade has come down from the middle ages, but excellent substi tutes may be made of twisted coarse linen thread. One end is laid to form an eye and the other is tied in a timber-hitch. The centre is whipped with fine thread to prevent abrasion by the arrow-nock.
When shooting repeatedly at the targets it is necessary to pro tect the first three fingers of the drawing-hand and the inside of the wrist of the bow-arm from being injured by the string. For the former purpose a glove may be worn which is reinforced on the palmar surface of the fingers by an extra thickness of leather, or separate tips may be used which, in general, are patterned like long thimbles. For the wrist of the bow-arm a device is a strip or cuff of leather, laced with elastic to prevent slipping. In the occasional shots of hunting and rovers these adjuncts are fre quently dispensed with. The standard target-back is made of straw rope, tightly compressed and sewn in a spiral. On per manent ranges stationary butts may be constructed of baled straw.
(R. P. E.) See R. Ascham, Toxophilus ; Roberts, The English Bowman (18o1) ; The Archer's Register (a year book, 1865-1914) ; Walrond, Archery (Badminton library, 1894) ; S. T. Pope, Hunting with the Bow and Arrow (1923) ; R. P. Elmer, Archery (1925) ; Henri Stein, Archers (1925, in French) ; and S. T. Pope, The Adventurous Bowmen (1926).