Persons acquainted with forest matters know, that on cutting through a yew tree, the number of concentric rings visible on the surface of the wood indicates its age. Mr. Jesse, whose unaffected love of nature entitles him to rank as the worthy successor of White of Selbourne, has made some very interesting remarks respecting the growth and age of these trees, of which I regret being unable to extract more than a fragment: --"That there are yew trees in England as old or older than the introduction of Christianity into our island, no doubt can exist. The yew appears to me of all European trees, that which attains the greatest age. I have measured the deposits of one of 70 years, and Veillard measured one of 280. These two measurements agree in proving that the yew grows a little more than one ligne annually, in the first 150 years, and less than a ligne from 150 to 250.
"Those of Fotheringay, in 1770, had a diameter of 2558 lignes, consequently we must reckon them at from twenty-five to twenty-six centuries. Those of Brabourne churchyard in Kent had, in 1660, a diameter of 2810 lignes; and, if still living, must have attained a period of three thousand years!" --See the whole paper in "Gentleman's Magazine" for June 1836.
Not within consecrated ground only, but even the domainsof the clergy. When Harry V. issued his commission to Nicholas Frost, the royal bowyer, to enter upon the lands of private individuals, and cut down yew and other wood for the public service, he expressly forbids his trespassing on estates belonging to any religious order.-- Sir N. H. Nicholas.
Ne rector prosternet arbores in cemeterio,--is one of the stipulations of Magna Charta.
Village churches in Wales have rarely either spire or
tower. Many of these simple structures owe their origin
to the early British Christians. They generally stand in
the midst of fields, and on the banks of rivers,
embowered in trees, at a distance from human habitations.
The body of the church, and occasionally the tower, are
whitened. In some instances the tower is uncoloured, and
in others the battlements only are whitewashed, for the
natives of the Principality evince a great fondness for
the lime brush. Not only are their cottages whitened
inside and out, but should a fragment of rock or stone
stile lie within their fields, it is sure to receive a
coating of lime, which they frequently renew. The
practice is of remote antiquity; their earliest bards,
and I believe some Roman authors, allude to the snowwhite
cottages of the Britons. At one season of the year,
generally Easter, the villagers place slips of yew,
intermingled with every variety of wild and garden
flower, around the edges of their family grave mounds.
The bard Davyth ap Gwilym, in describing the beauty and
fertility of Glamorganshire, pathetically alludes to the
practice here described:--
And thus, 'mid all thy radiant flowers,
Thy thick'ning leaves and glossy bowers,
The poet's task shall be to glean
Roses and flowers that softly bloom,
The jewels of the forest gloom!
With trefoils wove in pavement green,
With sad humility to grace
His golden Ivor's resting-place.
In the records of a Speech Court, held under "Foresters'
Oaks," Wentwood, in the year 1688, it is said that Sir William Bandmele claimed to have houseboote and hayboote
at his house at Oditton, from the Conquest, &C.--Willet.
These are the four evidences by which, according to the
old feudal laws, a man was convicted of deer stealing.
The first relates to an offender detected in a forest,
drawing after a deer with hound in leash; the second, to
him caught with bent bow ready to shoot; the third, to
bearing away the venison on his shoulders, and the
fourth, to him merely found with hands stained with blood
of the game. Edward the Confessor's Red Book contains the
following caution: --"Omnis homo abstineat a venariis
meis, super poenam vitae."-- "Let every man refrain from
my hunting grounds on pain of death."
As you approach the tropics, this characteristic becomes more and more obvious. The Demerara Indian bows have a beautifully fine grain; several in my possession are without flaw or blemish from nock to nock.
What will modest Mr. Humphrey Barwick[1] , the self-styled "gentleman soldier, captain, et encor plus oultre," say to this ?
So much for the "disabilities of the long bow," when used
against armour of Spanish steel; but we'll go further,
and meet this veracious champion of the musket on his own
ground, who scruples not to affirm, that an English steel
headed shaft, far from inflicting wounds through a
military buff coat, would scarcely penetrate ordinary
broad cloth.
Now this is very audacious in one who had repeatedly
witnessed the effects of archery on the field of battle;
but the whole book is beneath contempt. Nevertheless, I
will cite an instance or two in disproof of his
assertions, merely because the narrative itself is too
amusing to be omitted in a work of this sort. First,
then, for "the broad cloth."
"Drawing near to the landing-place," says the author of
"Proceedings in New England, A.D. 1638," " the number of
Indians that rose from behind the barricado amounted to
between fifty and sixty fighting men; straight as arrows,
very tall, and of active bodies. Having their arrows
nocked, they drew near to the water-side, and let fly at
the soldiers as though they meant to have made an end of
us all in a moment. They shot a young gentleman in the
neck, through a collar, for stiffness, as If it had been
an oaken board, and entered his flesh a good depth.
Myself received an arrow through my coat sleeve; a second
against my helmet on the forehead; so, if God, in his
providence, had not moved the heart of my wife, to
persuade me to carry it along with me, which I was
unwilling to do, I had been slain. Let no man, therefore,
despise the council of his wife, though she be a woman."
A little further on, the same author enables us to deal
with the buff-coat after a similar fashion.
"Having given fire we approached near to the entrance,
which they had stopped full arms of trees or stakes.
Myself, approaching the entrance, found the work too
heavy for me, to draw out all those that were strongly
forced in. We therefore gave orders to Master Hedge and
some other soldiers to pull out those stakes. Having thus
done, and laid them between me and the entrance, they
proceeded of themselves, without order, to the south end
of the fort. But it was remarkable to many of us, that
men who run before they are sent most commonly have an
ill reward. With our carbines, in our left hands and our
swords in our right, we approached the fort. Master Hedge
was shot through both arms. Captain Mason and myself,
entering into the wigwams, he was shot at, and received
many arrows against his head-piece, but God preserved him
from any wounds. Myself received an arrow through the
left hip, through a sufficient buff-coat, that, if I had
not been supplied with such a garment, would have pierced
me through and through. Another I received through neck
and shoulders, hanging in the linen of my head-piece;
others of our soldiers were shot, some through the
shoulders, some in the face, some in the head, some in
the legs, Captain Mason and myself each losing a man. I
had twenty wounded."
An Indian chief, named Carrara, requested permission to
examine the sword of a Portuguese officer, with whom he
was in company. The owner having observed that this
weapon would pierce through a double buff-coat, our
Indian friend immediately requested to see it done This
the Portuguese performed, but sorely bruised his hand
with the pomel of the sword, the coat being placed across
the back of a chair. When the Indian saw the effects of
the sword, he asked for his bow, and, adding a third fold
to the leathern garment, made so furious a shot that he
pierced it through and through. All present stood
astonished at the power of what they had previously
considered an insignificant weapon.
The facts here adduced receive additional corroboration
from the following return of killed and wounded in a
battle with archers. This statement, which is interesting
from its rarity, was published by Mons. de la Fueillard,
at the siege of Candia, A.D. 1667.
De Torci, of the brigade of St. Paul, before the town; dead.
M. Ourq, wounded by an arrow in the thigh; since dead.
De la Roque, by an arrow in the shoulder.
De Milieu, an arrow-shot in the kidneys.
De Hougre, by an arrow in the head, of which he died.
De Charmon, an arrow-shot in the arm.
De la Coste, by an arrow in the head.
Le Chevalier de Vausel, by an arrow in the arm.
Le Capitaine la Forest, by an arrow-shot in the belly, of which he immediately died.
Le Sergeant Major Pini, by a stone in the shoulder, and an arrow-shot in the belly; dead.
[1] Author of a work entitled, "Disabilities of the Long Bow, in comparison with Weapons of Fire,"
&c.
This rule has its exceptions. I once made a beautiful self-bow from a large branch of yew, which was amputated, after two valuable coach-horses had been poisoned by feeding on its leaves.
This must be a mistake of the learned doctor. Ash does not grow in that climate, and if it did, the Indians possess too many varieties of excellent wood to resort to one so inferior.
All wood is best seasoned by exposure to the weather,
care being taken to protect it from the sun, which would
make it shaky, as the woodmen term it, that is, full of
cracks. As this process will occupy eighteen months at
least, I have recommended the other, lest the archer's
patience should evaporate.
Archers are not, perhaps, aware that the Welsh word tackl literally means "an arrow." By extension, it is properly applied to the whole shooting apparatus.