Page images
PDF
EPUB

compellation of Round-heads, which afterwards grew so general), and saying so he drew his sword, &c."

For this outrage the Captain was brought before the House of Commons, committed, and subsequently cashiered from his Irish employment. Of his after-life, all I have been able to collect is, that in the May of 1645, being then a Colonel, he fought and killed Sir John Scudamore of Holme Lacy, a cavalier officer and brother to the unfortunate Dr. Rowland Scudamore, whose death was caused a few months after, by a shot fired from the town of Hereford, whilst he was hovering between the town and the enemies trenches, in expectation of meeting with his mistress, one Mrs. Steynner. For the death of Sir John, "the Moderate Intelligencer" (No. 18) informs us, he was to be tried by a council of war, but with its results I am unacquainted.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][graphic][merged small]

Mr. URBAN,-The elegant Font above represented, has been for many years rejected for another, and placed among lumber in the tower of the Church. From its form, and the style of the foliage, I consider it to be a specimen of the later Norman architecture about the time of Stephen or Henry the First. Its bason is 1 ft. 9 inc. in diameter, and 9 inc. deep.

No part of the church is of so early a date; the oldest parts being some windows in the chancel of about the time of Edward II. The square windows are of a subsequent period. The tower, which is of brick, was repaired in the reign of Elizabeth, according to the inscription on the outside

PRAYSE GOD FOR AL THE GOOD BENEFECTORS. ANO 1586. A neat lithographic print of Springfield Church and School, is bestowed by the worthy Rector on the children as a reward for good conduct.

ARCHERY.-POWER OF THE BOW.

1. A. R.

New Kent Road, March 17.

Mr. URBAN, I do not hesitate to own, and to endeavour to explain to the best of my ability, the decision on the power of the Bow which appeared in your present volume, p. 56; and as you have favoured me with a perusal of a second letter of One of the Sceptics, dated Cirencester, January 22, and also of another from Mr. Milner, Lieutenant of the Hullshire Bowmen [inserted hereafter, p. 596], I beg to offer a few words of explanation.

Your Correspondent, Mr. Meyrick, p. 177, treats the matter in a technical form, and the difference between us may, I think, be easily reconciled, as chiefly consisting in terms. In all the cases stated, I suppose it will be allowed that a fulcrum, or fixed point for the bow, must be obtained before the arrow can be drawn up to the head. Now, I think, the following simple diagram will remove any of the difficulties which may at first present themselves in settling this question. Let us suppose a bow, registered 50lbs. in power, according to Mr. Waring's method, to be suspended thus between two weights of 50lbs. each passing over pullies.

[graphic][subsumed]

Now the weight Q attached by a line to the bow, and passing over the pulley A, constitutes the fixed obstacle to be removed in drawing up the arrow, and it will require an equal force represented by the weight P acting in an opposite direction to effect that purpose.

Now take away the weight Q, and substitute the archer's left hand. Surely it will require an equal power of 50lbs. acting in the direction of B to enable him, with his right hand, to draw the arrow its required length. The Archer therefore, who has drawn his arrow to the head, is clearly exerting at the moment of his having done so, and while the bow is in equilibrio, previous to the discharge of the shaft, a total power of 100lbs. If the Sceptic still should doubt, I would add, let him ask his left arm whether it has borne any resisting part after a long day's shooting? Say, the first of the season.

How far the force is divided between the muscles of the body and its pondus iners, or gravity, is another part of the question, which seems not to have entered into the contemplation of any of your Correspondents.

For it must be remembered that the Archer does not merely thrust with his left arm, but that he presents the whole pondus iners of his body to aid in opposing the drawing force of 50lbs., so that the fact stated by Mr. Meyrick of a man being able to thrust with no greater force than of 27lbs. or 30lbs., is nothing, I conceive, to the point, he being aided in the act of drawing by the weight of his body which, to use Bishop Latimer's expression, is "laid in the bow."*

As for the numbering by weights being erroneous, if my decision be allowed, it might as well be said that I advance that a round of beef weighing 20lbs. ought really to be considered as weighing 40lbs., because the total weight of 40lbs. is required to keep the steelyard in equilibrio.

In a word, I never pretended to assert that a power of 100lbs. is exerted by the hand drawing the bow. My words were, "The mere drawing power is not the only power exerted in bringing the arrow's head up to the bow-there must be a power of equal resistance to keep the bow in its place during the act of drawing" (p.56); and let the matter be twisted as it may through terms and technicalities, to this conclusion of common sense, I am persuaded, must it come at last.† Yours, A. J. K.

"He taught me howe to drawe, howe to laye my bodye in the bowe," says Latimer, speaking of his father in one of his sermons.

+ There certainly is an analogy between the drawing the bow and the lifting a weight from the ground; and the holding the bow in the hand, and suspending the given weight by the string, as has been suggested by "One of the Sceptics," as a mode of simplifying the question; but in both cases your Correspondents forget to notice that the weight itself is represented by the Archer's power of holding during the act of drawing.

Cirencester, Jan. 22.

Mr. URBAN,-Nothing could be more unsatisfactory to "the Sceptics," than your notice of the Gloucestershire Toxophilite's (p. 56) communication, respecting the power exerted by the Bowman. You observe that the position, That a Bowman, on discharging an arrow from a 50lb. bow, exerts a force equivalent to 100lbs., is capable of mathematical demonstration. This has been stated and denied a thousand times before. That mathematical demonstration is the very thing required. Again, you refer us to the note at the foot of p. 104 of the English Bowman, forgetting that we pointed that out to you, conceiving it to be the source of that which we deem a prevailing error, and which indeed is a mere unsupported assertion. We will put the matter in one, out of many points of view, in which we have examined it, and perhaps the most simple of any.

We will suppose that, instead of hanging the Bow upon any hook, or other fixed support, when the 50lb. weight is attached to try its power, that it is held in the hand; or, in more scientific language, what power does it exert to overcome the force of the attraction of gravitation in the weight? What weight does the hand support? Why, it is as clear as daylight to our apprehensions, that the individual supports 50lbs. in addition to the mere simple weight of the Bow, and no more. It is evident therefore, that when the string is drawn by the hand, the same force only is exerted to draw the arrow to the same point. Again, many men use a bow of 80lbs. power. According to your position, these men, standing upright, and exerting their powers in a most unfavourable position, and in a line above the level of the shoulders, draw and resist 160lbs.; an exertion which, in these degenerate days at least, we humbly conceive no man living could accomplish. Yours, &c. ONE OF THE SCEPTICS.

Kingston-upon-Hull, Feb. 11.

Mr. URBAN,-Some years ago, when first I turned my attention to Archery, and read works on the subject, the idea of exerting a force double to that registered on the Bow, when in the act of drawing the arrow to the head, appeared very strange and difficult to understand; and I still find many Archers, who do not at first fully comprehend the reason of this, although after a short conversation 1 have found but little difficulty in convincing them of the fact by a simple experiment.

Archers, in drawing the Bow, not only pull the string with the right hand, but push the Bow from them with the left, using of course an equal force with both arms (although in one instance the flexor, in the other the extensor muscles are called into action); the muscles of the left arm are used to propel, while those of the right are to retain, the bow arm is used more by some Archers than others in shooting; this is termed by Ascham, "laying the body in the Bow,” when an undue proportion of weight is thrown upon it. Thus you see, as action and re-action are always equal, it follows, if the Bow is marked 50lbs., the right arm must exert a force equal to 50lbs. to draw the arrow to the head, while the muscles of the left are exerting themselves with a power equal to 50lbs. to push it forward, or retain it in a stationary position; so that a force equal to 100lbs. is called into action, although different sets of muscles are used in each arm; when the string is loosed, the 50lbs. force is taken from both arms, and this is the reason why many young Archers shoot their arrows left of the mark, for the bow arm being suddenly released of its 50lbs. pressure, is apt to start back, and thus throw the arrow out of the direction. This may be easily proved, by fixing a bow to the hook of an improved weighing machine, and then drawing the string with the right hand, and noticing the dial plate, which will indicate the force applied. You have thus, in my opinion, a very satisfactory demonstration of the circumstance, that when the left arm is substituted for the weighing scale, the same force must be exerted by it to maintain the bow in its proper position. This is the experiment that first convinced me of the fact, and which has also operated similarly with others.

Yours, &c.

G. MILNER, Jun. Lieut. Hullshire Bowmen.

[graphic][merged small][merged small]
« PreviousContinue »