Excerpt from The Book of Archery: Being the Complete History and Practice of the Art, Ancient and Modern

Reader; the wisdom of our ancestors has said, -

"Speak well of archers, for your father shot in a bow," -

a time-honoured proverb, originating in that martial age, when her sons deemed

"England not worth a fling,

But for the crooked yew and grey goose wing."

Yet is there a hold upon your sympathies far more powerful than a thousand wise saws or modern instances, such as these; - I mean the strong propensity of youth and age for recreations which unbend the mental faculties, while the body enjoys the exhilarating influence of sun and summer breeze, which tempt us to climb the upland lawn, plunge into the deep rocky glyn, wander over fern-clad heaths, and wend our way through the shadowy, pathless woods. These advantages are the archer's; his are the glories of sea, earth, and sky, with all the pleasures of the young and opening year; for his pastime belongs to that fair season only, when, as the old forest glee has it, -

"Summer is coming in,

Merry sing cuckoo!

Groweth seed,

And bloweth mead,

And springeth the wood anew;

Ewe bleateth after lamb.

Loweth after calf, cow;

Bullock starteth,

Buck verteth,

Merry sing cuckoo;

Well sing'st thou cuckoo,

Nor cease to sing now."

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