The Sports and Pastimes Of The People Of England

Notwithstanding the manifest advantages accruing to the nation from the practice of archer y, it seems to have been much neglected even at a time when the glor y of the English archers was in its zenith, I mean in the reign of Edward 3. which occasioned that monarch to send a letter of complaint upon this subject to the sheriffs of London, declaring that the skill in shooting with arrows was almost totally laid aside, for the pursuit of various useless and unlawful games. He therefore commanded them to prevent such idle practices within the city and liberties of London; and to see that the leisure time upon holidays was spent in recreations with bows and arrows. In the thirty-ninth year of this reign, A. D. 1349, the penalty incurred by the offenders was imprisonment at the king's pleasure; the words of the letter are, "arcubus et sagittis vel pilettis aut boltis," with bow and arrows, or piles or bolts. The same command was repeated in the twelfth year of the reign of Richard 2.; but probably its good effects were merely temporary.