Some persons, who are anxious to extol the achieve ments of the English archers, represent the Grecian bows as puny and ineffective in comparison of the more modern long bow. This conjecture accords ill with the accounts of the strength requisite for bending them; and besides, if they had not been very powerful, it is inconceivable that they could have produced the effects ascribed to them. It required no ordinary force to pierce the shields and armour used in those days.
There is no early account of bows having been used in the Roman armies. In the time of Scipio Africanus, they were applied with great effect, against the Numan tines in Spain. Tiberius owed his success in the war with Arminius and Inguiomerus, chiefly to the great execution done by the archers, some of whom fought on foot, and others were mounted on horseback. After his time, the practice of Archery was not discontinued ; but it would require a great share of credulity to admit the narratives of Suetonius and Herodian, concerning the surprising expertness of Domitian and Commodus, to be faithful reports of facts given by eye-witnesses. The Roman Sagittarii were part of the Velites, com posed of paulleres et juvenes, often also of auxiliaries. Their service was peculiarly dangerous ; they were sometimes placed in front, sometimes in the wings, sometimes in the rear ; and the chief purpose for which they were employed, was to harass the enemy, by at tacking the weakest parts of their lines, before the ge neral attack commenced. The most distinct accounts which have been preserved of the mode of fighting with the bow and arrow, are those which relate to the Par thians, who, for ages, defied the Roman arms. They were mounted on horseback, and discharged their ar rows as successfully in retreating as in advancing. They were never reduced to subjection till they ceased to trust to the bow.
In the middle ages, the Goths, Vandals, and Huns, gained their victories chiefly by the use of the same de structive weapons.
Till the time of the Saxon invasion, the use of the bow does not seem to have been introduced into Britain. Some obscure writers ascribe great excellence in shoot ing, to the Scots ; but they do not appear to have been at any time equal to the English, at least after the latter became acquainted with the art. It is somewhat singu
lar indeed, that Ossian's heroes should have been so remarkably distinguished by this accomplishment at a very early period, and that it should have afterwards fallen into so great disuse. The well-known act of James I. requiring all males above twelve years of age to practise archery, never produced any good effect.
The English claim to be considered the best of mo dern archers, and their claims have scarcely been dis puted. Edward III. was at great pains to provide bows and arrows. In the battle of Cressy, his archers cut off the flower of the French nobility. The French had as many archers in the field as the English ; but the former are understood to have used the cross bow, which is not easily protected from the rain ; and, it is said, their bows or their strings were so completely soaked as to be al together unfit for use. The victory gained by the Black Prince at Poictiers, when the French king and the dau phin, and almost all the peers of France, were taken prisoners, was also ascribed to the archers, very few of whom fell, though the slaughter of the French was en ormous. The battle of Agincourt, still more fatal to the French, and more glorious to the English, was gain ed by the same mode of fighting.
The advantages from time to time obtained over the Scots were chiefly owing to the strength and skill of the English archers. The battle of Homildon, in Northum berland, proved, that the strongest armour was no ade quate security against the English arrows ; and the bat tle of Flodden was not less decisive.
The various statutes made in the reigns of Edward III. Henry V. Edward IV. Henry VII. Henry VIII. and Elizabeth, show, that, long after the invention of gunpowder, the strength of the English armies consist ed in the superiority of the archers; and that the go vernment saw the great importance of preventing the art from falling into desuetude. What Roger Ascham has told us of the English priests keeping the whole Scottish nation at bay, or, as he says, overthrowing them, by skilfully handling the bow, when the armies were in France, is unsupported by any evidence, but a vague tradition existing in his time, for it is not even hinted at by any of the chroniclers, who were sufficiently disposed to admit every thing bordering on the marvel lous.