Notes for Section III of: The Book of Archery by George Hagar Hansard, 1841.

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Notes Section III

1.	"That Moorish queen was so skilful in drawing the Turkish bow, that it was held as a marvel; and it is said that they called her in Arabic, Nugueymat Turga; which is to say, 'Star of the Archers.'"-- Dr. Southey's Chronicle of the Cid.
2.	Beaux.
3.	A lightly delivered arrow marks the skilful bowman.
4.	Paston Letters, vol. ii. p. 97.
5.	Thumb-rings for drawing the bowstring. Their use, description, &c. are hereinafter fully explained.
6.	Near the port of Ali, at Ispahan, is a bazaar, where live the manufacturers of bows and arrows. In India, the bowyers form a distinct caste.-- Struy's Travels.
7.	And of monarchs likewise, as the following quaint translation of an epitaph will show:-- Darius, the Persian, lies buried here, Who in riding and shooting had never a peer. Indeed, this consummate skill gained them a distinctive epithet among cotemporary nations. We have allusions to their archery in the Bible; and, among profane writers, Pollux preserves the following legend, which was inscribed on a picture representing several Grecian females, who had offered up prayers during the Persian invasion. " These are the women who prayed to Venus for the Greeks, more particularly for their countrymen of Corinth; since the goddess was concerned that we should not betray the citadel of Greece to the bow-bearing Persians."
8.	Khondemir says, that the art of archery had reached its highest perfection among Persians of all ranks, from the prince to the peasant, under the Kajan dynasty; so that, at this day, they call a strong bow, such as few men can draw, "Keman Kajani"--a Kajanian bow.--d'herbelot, i. 463.
9.	Oriental bowyers use a peculiar kind of glue, made from a root called in Turkey Sheriscoan, which they grind like corn between two stones, until it resembles sawdust.--thevenot.
10.	Hist. of Juss. Bassa, p. 11.
11.	See Travels.
12.	Baldæus, Description of Ceylon.
13.	The curved extremity of an Indian bow is so named by their bowyers. "The man provided himself with several little rods, about the length of the ears of a bow." --Autobiography of Baber Khan.
14.	The iron point of an arrow.
15.	Sandys observes, that one of the early Turkish sultans occupied his leisure in manufacturing these rings. The produce of his industry, distributed among favourite pashas and officers, received of course an additional value from the distinguished rank of the donor.
16.	Of this a considerable specimen may be seen in the figure of a tortoise found on the banks of the Jumna, in Hindostan, and preserved in the British Museum. Sefins of cornelian may easily be procured in the bazars of Constantinople.
17.	See page 102.
18.	Halfpenny.
19.	Le Clerc.
20.	Marco Polo.
21.	Ockley's Hist. of the Saracens.
22.	Ladies are assured this is merely an unworthy play upon two Latin words, -- "Not fair, but fighting."
23.	The cognizance of the Douglas.
24.	An ancient term for hunting.
25.	"Lodged the deer." On the eve preceding a stag hunt, the forester) contrived to separate one or more deer of a " fair head " from the rest of the herd, and drive them into a thicket apart. As this was purposely de. Iayed until dusk, the animals were sure to make their lair there, until the hunters appeared, at daybreak. In those days fixtures for ten or eleven o'clock were unknown; men who went to bed with the sun rose with the sun.
26.	"Takes a stand." Places herself in some convenient spot to shoot at the game when afoot before the dogs.
27.	Stone bow, hereinafter described;
28.	Rutlandshire.
29.	Gloucestershire.
30.	A MS. record of the Berkeley family, written by one of their household, named Smyth.
31.	The following passage presents a lively idea of the pursuits of an old English sportsman:-- "It now behoves to cast an eye a little back into this knight's age of puberty, in which he much delighted himself in hunting the deer, hare, foxe, and goat, wherein himself, and his next brother, John, would lye out in the fields whole nights in Michael Wood thickets, then stored with goats, and in the parts of Combe and Oselworth, then ever abounding with foxes; and in also running at ring, with other hastitudes, or spere plays, as the accounts of his father's officers doe call them, and was also, ill his age of adolescency, prime minister of his father's falconry."--Smyth's MS. Lives of Berkeleys
32.	Desmond is an Irish earldom.
33.	The male hawk being a tierce or one third smaller, and far less courageous, than the female.
34.	When a cast of well-trained falcons are thrown off, one of them exerts herself to climb above the heron. From this elevated position, she makes her stoop with greater vigour; whilst her partner hovers beneath, prepared to attack the devoted bird in its downward rush to avoid the beak and talons of the first. As the combat takes place in the clouds, the eyes of the spectators are necessarily there also. The heron's flight then becomes rapid, however sluggish it may be at other times. Your pace is therefore tremendous; for, in order fully to enjoy this animated sport, the falconer pushes forward his unguided horse, at a speed to which the first burst of a crack pack of fox hounds forms no adequate comparison. When the game fell beaten to the earth, our ancient falconers galloped in to break its legs and wings, and pin it to the ground by means of its own long pointed beak. The hawks were then permitted to tire upon the quarry; that is, to tear her in pieces at their leisure. Modern falconry is unacquainted with this cruel finale to an otherwise very delightful recreation. We now take the bird alive, and with a label attached to its leg. setting forth when, where, by whose hawks captured, it is restored to liberty and its native groves.
35.	Spon and Monfaucon have preserved the form of an ancient tablet, dedicated in the following terms to a Roman professor of the art:-- "D. M. T. FLAVIO EXPEDITO DOCTORI SAGITTAR: FLAV: EUPHROS: E ATTIC: TULLIÆ P.B.M.
36.	Lady patroness of the Royal Toxophilite Society.
37.	One fact of undoubted credit, but little known, will show that the heart of this fair archeress was just in its right place. Whilst passing over Westminster Bridge, Mrs. Crespigny observed a wretched crippled soldier, with an intelligent but half-famished countenance, sitting on the pathway. She stopped, and sent him a small sum of money by the servant, when the poor fellow returned a message of gratitude so simple and touching' as induced her to alight from the carriage, and personally inquire the circumstances of his distress. The tale proved by no means an uncommon one in those days. He was an American loyalist gentleman, who had lost all in fighting for his sovereign; and, after witnessing the destruction of his wife and children by the flames, which, in the dead of night, the hostile party kindled around his dwelling, he had sought an asylum in England, in the vain hope of being admitted into Chelsea Hospital. Mrs. Crespigny was deeply affected; and leaving a more ample supply, departed, with the exile's address. After many days of fatiguing, unwearied solicitation, she managed to obtain from Sir George Younge, the then Secretary of War, a promise that the man should have an out-pensioner's order. Though not what she had looped, it was a source of great rejoicing to this friend of the wretched soldier; and with eager satisfaction she conveyed to him the news. The sequel is distressing. When Mrs. Crespigny's servant silently entered his apartment, be overheard a pathetic prayer for the happiness of his benefactress. On recognising him, the white-haired veteran found strength only to pronounce a hasty blessing, ere he fell backwards, and in a few moments expired.
38.	As this specimen of Mrs. Crespigny's muse exhibits more playfulness than poetic talent, a mere jeu d'esprit of the moment, I add the concluding lines of an effusion of a higher order, addressed by this amiable woman to Sir Harry Martyn, when a child, accompanied with the present of a knife:-- "Whilst there is so much cutting in high life, No present, sure, is equal to a knife; But you, dear boy, will very shortly know How far your cutting may in reason go. That tyrant, fashion, whom so many seek, Can only govern, unrestrained, the weak; So with its follies sometimes you 'll dispense, And never cut good humour or good sense." Mrs. Crespigny's Letters to her Son were once deservedly popular.
39.	"This inscription is placed in a glass frame, and was copied April, 1798. --Banke's MSS.
40.	Simple neatness.
41.	Letter from Mrs. Jones of Monmouth to Sir Joseph Bankes.
42.	Daughter of the Laird of Arran.