incredible force of the old English archery," he ginning with the Battle of Crécy where, "though thus draws a picture of the archers at the Battle of the French were six to one, well armed, were slain Halidon Hill: "The chiefe feare was wrought by fourteen princes, twelve hundred knights, and thirty the English archers who first with their stiff, close, thousand soldiers." "The wonderful effects and and cruell stormes of arrowes made their enemies' terrour of the shotte of arrowes," he goes on, “was footmen breake," and "did withall deliver their that day such as neither men-at-armes nor other deadlie arrowes, so lively, so courageously, and so horsmen of divers nations were able to enter and grievously that they run through the men of armes, breake the archers, being without pikes, staves, bored the helmets, pierced their very swordes, beat bankes and trenches to guard them, but in the their lances to the earth, and easily shot those that plaine fieldes. The archers, with their vollies of were more slightly armed thro' and through."(x) arrowes, did breake the rankes, both of horsemen Before entering upon these wars the king used and footmen, wounding and killing both horse and to send a requisition to different parts of the country man, the French king's horse being slaine under for the supply of a certain number of bows, bow him, and himselfe in perile." The Battle of Poitiers staves, or arrows. In 1343, Edward the Third sent he declares was won by the bow, when, with six a demand to sheriffs of certain counties to prepare thousand archers and two thousand armed men, five hundred white bows and five hundred bundles the king routed sixty thousand French. Then he of arrows for the intended war with France; and records how Sir William Old, with twenty archers, in 1475, Edward the Fourth, in the course of his put to flight Guyan de Coing, a French captain, preparations for that invasion of France, for which with a hundred and twenty lances-how, at the the armament was so vast and the result so in- Battle of Flooden Field, the archers of Cheshire adequate, sent a like order for bows and arrows as and Lancashire got "immortal fame and praise for "most specially requisite and necessary."(1) Among ever"-how "Captain Spinola, an Italian, a very other royal ordinances which Rymer has collected brave souldier, gave singular commendation of the and preserved, there are two more relating to this archery of England." As for the Scotch, "there subject and displaying the anxiety of successive is an olde proverbe in Scotland," he says, "that monarchs to keep up the practice of archery. In everie English archer beareth under his girdle 1392, Richard the Second issued an order that all twenty-four Scottes."(b) the servants of his household should carry bows and arrows when travelling; and, in 1417, Henry the Fifth sent an order round to all sheriffs to pluck from every goose in their respective counties, six wing feathers, which he would pay for, for the purpose of improving arrows. (2)

How enthusiastically does Roger Ascham speak of the noble art in his quaint old book "Toxophilus;" but then he sees in war and battle an entertainment set forth for the diversion and pleasure of heaven: "God is well pleased with wyse and witty feats of warre, as in meeting of enemyes for truse taking, to have privilege in ambuchmente, earnest men laid for feare of treason-and to have engines of warre to beat down cities withall," &c. (a) This old defence of war may be new to some of our readers; but the work throws little light upon the history of the subject.

A writer who took part in the controversy of the time of Elizabeth, to which we have already alluded, and who, in spite of "Humfrey Barwack, gentleman," did asseverate the superiority of the bow over the musket and harquebus, and "fiery weapons" in general, gives a summary of the most brilliant achievements of the British archers, be

The practising grounds for archery, in which the citizens of London were trained and kept in exercise, were to the north of the city wall-that large swampy tract known as Moorfields. In the time of Henry the Second, Fitz Stephen who died in 1191, records that "during the holidays in summer, the young men exercise themselves in leaping, archery," &c.,(c) and Edward Hall mentions their repairing to the fields beyond Finsbury to shoot with bows and arrows ;(d) but they were much embarrassed by enclosures, hedges, ditches, gardens, &c., so that of 1498, we read, "This yeare the gardens which had been continued time out of minde without Moorgate of London were destroied, and of them was made a plaine fielde for archers to shoote in."(e) This "plaine fielde" got in process of time, to be fenced and hedged off again; and, in 1598, Stowe bemoans its condition in these words: What should I speak of the ancient daily exercises in the long-bow by citizens of this city, now almost clean left off and forsaken? I overpass it, for, by the mean of closing-in the common grounds, our archers, for want of room to shoot abroad, creep into bowling alleys and ordinary dicing houses nearer home, where they have room enough

b. "A breefe Treatese to proove the necessitie and excellence of the use of Archerie." By R. S. London: 1596. c. Descriptio Novissimæ Civitatis Londoniæ: "De Ludis." d. Hall's Chronicle.

c. Holingshed's Chronicle, p. 785, 20.

to hazard their money at unlawful games, and there I leave them to take their pleasures."(f)

NORTHUMBERLAND HOUSE. James the First, on issuing his commission for THE Strand, extending from Charing-cross to more completely carrying out the statute of Henry Temple-bar for three-quarters of a mile, was the Eighth, put forth a proclamation for viewing probably so called as being at the brink of the and surveying the archery fields next adjoining to Thames, before the space now built upon was the City of London, and the suburbs within a gained by raising the ground. In early times compass of two miles, and "reducing the same to Danish merchants and mariners resided close by such order and state for the archers as they were in the Thames, and their church was dedicated to St. the reign of Henry the Eighth." And, in pur- Clement, the seamen's patron saint. A petition to suance thereof, the Finsbury archers were for a long Edward II. (1315) says that the footway was intime in the habit of making occasional surveys, terrupted by thickets and bushes. On the south levelling hedges, banks, and fences, filling up side the mansions of the nobility had gardens ditches, &c.; and, in 1746, a cowkeeper at Hox- stretching down to the river. It was crossed by ton, named Pitfield (who is still borne in remem- three water courses over which were bridges, the brance of the neighbourhood by a street named remains of one of these was found in 1802. The after him), was compelled to renew one of the Strand was not paved till 1532. As many as nine archer's marks, on which the Artillery Company bishops possessed inns or hostels on the water side of caused to be cut the words, "Pitfield's Repen- the Strand at the Reformation. York House which tance," as a warning to all similar wrongdoers.(g) was built for Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, was originally the inn of the Bishop of Norwich, then the Keeper of the Great Seal had it, and the great Bacon was born here. We mention this mansion because after the Duke of Buckingham's death in 1628, York House was leased to the Earl of Northumberland. The "superstitious pictures" was sold by order of Parliament, in 1645, and the house given by Cromwell to General Fairfax.

In 1696, Mrs. Elizabeth Shakeley, a widow, left thirty-five pounds a year to the Finsbury Archers, to be given in prizes.(h)

The last of the Surveys was made as late as the year 1786, but population grew too fast for the City Archers-they could no longer keep the ground clear-the long lines of the city streets spread out over Hoxton-and archery in London was dead.

We believe that up till the year 1792-if not later a silver arrow was annually shot for at Harrow School.

Whilst the Finsbury Archers held Moorfields, the avenue leading to it out of the city through Cripple Gate, now known as Milton-street, but in the last century celebrated (but with very little more reason than because Pope willed it so in the "Dunciad "), as the haunt of starving poets, Grubstreet to wit, was filled with the shops of bowyers, fletchers, and stringers; who despersed about the city when there was no longer concourse of archers in the neighbourhood, and are now mainly represented by a scattered population of fishing-rod

Northumberland House occupies the site of the Hospital of St. Mary Rounceval, founded temp. Henry III. The present mansion was built by Henry Howard in 1605, Earl of Northampton (son of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, the poet), Bernard Jansen and Gerard Christmas being, it is said, his architects. It was then called Northampton House, and the earl of that name died here in 1614, and the mansion passed to Thomas Howard, Earl of Suffolk, the name being changed to Suffolk House. Algernon Percy, tenth Earl of Northumberland, bought the house for £15,000 of James, Earl of Suffolk, and in 1642 he married Elizabeth, daughter of Theophilus, second Earl of Suffolk, and it was then called Northumberland House. In 1670, Josceline, the eleventh Earl, died without Archery is not so utterly defunct in the pro- male issue, and the mansion descended to his vinces. "Bow-meetings" are still very favourite daughter Elizabeth, who married Seymour, Duke amusements in North Wales and Devonshire; and of Somerset. But it still was called Northumbereven the Cockney has a keen relish for the toy-land House, for Somerset House in the Strand was bow on Windmill-hill on Sundays. But what would called by their name. "The Proud Duke of the Finsbury Archers think of him-what would the Somerset" and his Duchess resided here in great stalwart bowmen of Crécy and Poitiers say could state. they be shown this lingering specimen of the city

makers.

archer?

Sir Bernard Burke in his "Vicissitudes of Families," points out that the Percy family is conspicuous alike for its achievements and its sufferings. It sprang from the marriage of Josceline of Louvaine (son of Godfrey Barbatus, Duke of Lower Brabant, and brother of Adeliza, second Queen of Henry I.), with Agnes de Percy, daughter of William, third Lord Percy. The first Earl of

Northumberland (Henry), was slain at Bramham duke, and the immediate predecessor of his cousin, Moor, and his brother, the early companion in the Earl of Beverley, the late duke. Sir Bernard arms of the Black Prince, Sir Thomas Percy, was Burke gives an interesting anecdote of the munifibeheaded in 1403. His son fell at Shrewsbury, cence of the House of Northumberland. The Abbé and his grandson, the second earl, at the Battle of de Percy descended from the Norman branch of St. Albans, in 1445, having passed his youth, de- that illustrious name, effected his escape at the outspoiled of estate, an exile in Scotland. His two burst of the French Revolution, but his small means sons, Sir Thomas Percy Lord Egremont and Sir were soon exhausted, he was in great want. At Ralph, were both killed. The last words of the last, however, he wrote to the duke mentioning the latter were, "I have saved the bird in my bosom!" name he bore, and soon received a note stating that is "my faith to my king." Henry, the third that the duke would write again. He in the meanearl, was slain at Towton in 1461, and his son, time ascertained its truth and sent the abbé the fourth earl, was murdered by a mob at Thirsk £1,000 in a gold snuff-box, and with a general in 1489. He was buried in Beverley Minster, and invitation to the house. The late duke was one his funeral actually cost £12,080. Henry, the whose name will long be remembered on his fifth earl, died in peace, but his son, Sir Thomas estates. He built first-rate cottages and let them Percy, was executed at Tyburn for the part he took at low rents, and in other respects improved the in Aske's rebellion. The sixth earl, Henry, the condition of his tenants. first lover of Anna Boleyn, could not bear up| The house originally formed three sides of a against his brothers execution and his own un- quadrangle, the fourth remaining open to the happy marriage, and died soon after. The Duke- gardens and the river, but the Earl of Suffolk comdom of Northumberland was conferred on John pleted the quadrangle on the Thames side. A fire Dudley, Earl of Warwick, but as he was himself in 1780 consumed a good deal of the mansion. attainted in 1553, the earldom was restored in 1557 The central stone gateway, the work of Gerard to Thomas Percy. The latter, however, joined Christmas, is old work. It is surmounted by a lion the rising of the North against Queen Elizabeth, and ended his life on the scaffold, August, 1572. His brother Henry, eighth earl, intrigued in favour of Mary Queen of Scots, and committed suicide in the Tower. His son Henry, ninth earl, was convicted of a groundless suspicion of being concerned in the Gunpowder Plot, and was ordered by the Star Chamber to pay a fine of £30,000, and be: In the interior is a fine staircase with marble imprisoned for life in the Tower. His grandson Josceline, eleventh earl, outlived his only son, and with him ended, as Sir Bernard remarks, "the male line of the most historic, perhaps, of all our English families." His daughter, Lady Elizabeth, was twice a wife and twice a widow before she We have lost so many interesting memorials of was sixteen, and was the greatest heiress of her old London, that we cannot afford to lose such an time. In 1670, James Percy, a trunk maker, laid edifice as Northumberland House. We are rejoiced claim to the Earldom of Northumberland, and that the public are protesting against its threatened contended against the Duke of Somerset for fifteen demolition, and hope their efforts to prevent it will years. After several trials the Lords' Committee be successful. It is the only example remaining of of Privileges, in 1689, declared his conduct to be the great river palaces which formerly stretched insolent in persisting to call himself the Earl of along the Strand. Its destruction is perfectly unNorthumberland, and he was ordered to be brought necessary, for persons well qualified to judge have before the four courts of Westminster Hall, wear-stated that a route by way of Whitehall-place ing a paper on his breast on which was written "the would be preferable. Mr. Butterfield, in a letter to false and insolent pretender to the Earldom of Northumberland."

On the death of the Duke of Somerset in 1748, he was succeeded by his son Algernon, Earl of Hertford, and seventh Duke of Somerset, created Earl of Northumberland in 1749. As he left no son, his son-in-law, Sir Hugh Smithson, of Stanwick, in Yorkshire, Bart., took the name and arms of Percy, and was created Duke of Northumberland in 1766. He was the grandfather of the fourth

passant, the Percy crest, cast in lead, and instead of the present ugly parapet, Mr. Timbs says there was the family motto, "Espérance en Dieu," but one of these feil down at the funeral of Anne of Denmark and killed a spectator. The date, 1749, denotes a year of repairs, and the initials, A.S.P.N., Algernon Somerset, Princeps Northumbriæ.*

steps. The principal drawing-room has medallions by Angelica Kauffmann, and a Raphaelesque ceiling. Beyond is a small room hung with tapestry, designed by Zuccarelli, and worked in Sohosquare in 1758.

the Times (April 1), suggested that those interested in its preservation should show by a counterplan how it can be retained. We quite agree with Mr. Beresford Hope, who at the influential meeting held at Willis' Rooms (March 30), said the burden of proof lay with the destroyers, and they had shown no case. In order to prevent such an occurrence in future he thinks-"The Office of

Timbs' Curiosities of London," 555.

of more than local interest has recently been

Under the auspices and at the expense of the made in the immediate vicinity of Leipzig. It Emperor of Austria an expedition is fitting out appears that Dr. Heine, in the preliminary for the purpose of making excavations and an adaptation of some land for building purposes, examination of the ancient Greek ruins in the was engaged in making new bed for the river island of Samothrace. It is to sail in the course Plagwitz, when at a depth of about three metres of next month, and will be under the orders of below the surface, he came unexpectedly on a Dr. Alexander Conze, Professor of Classical number of poles of wood standing in a vertical Archæology at the University of Vienna, accomposition. On this being reported to Professor panied by the two Architects, Alois Hauser and Credner, Director of the Saxon Royal Museums, George Niemann, both of whom have had much Dr. Alfred Jentzsch was ordered to proceed to experience in excavating. F. S. the spot to make an examination. His report states that under the grass he found a stratum of loam, two metres in thickness, under which was greyish fatty clay. In this were a number of round poles with the lower ends pointed, and driven in with a certain amount of order and regularity. On a level with the upper ends were found a great many horizontal logs and beams, which point to the inference that the poles were never higher than now, and that they must have

Divers Notes.

BLEACHING THE HAIR.-The latest fashionable advices from New York inform us that the newest "rage" among the ladies is to bleach the hair white. This is no novelty-no American "notion." It was a fashion of the latter

part of the reign of Queen Anne, and gave rise to the use of hair-powder as a substitute for what soon proved to be an inconvenient custom. F. P. A.

been driven in before the stratum of loam was deposited. The whole discovery has much analogy with the lacustrine remains found in FOLK LORE.-I have somewhere read that a Switzerland and other countries. It is, however, uncertain whether they served as the foundation Curious custom obtains in Worcestershire, where of human habitations, as no fragments indica- it is thought that if a woman were to attend tive of industry or art have hitherto been dis- at the church on either of the three Sundays on covered, though it is highly probable that further which her intended wedding is proclaimed—all researches may bring some to light. Similar her offspring would be born deaf and dumb! discoveries of lacustrine villages have been There is also a superstition in Scotland that it made in Switzerland and the Alpine lakes of is unlucky for a woman to attend in the kirk Austria, Bavaria, and the Tyrol, and also in when the banns are "put up.” FREDK. RULE. Mecklenburg, but never before in Saxony or Ashford, Kent. other parts of central Germany. Excavations ORIGIN OF THE TERM "JOHN BULL."-I do are still being carried on, with what success not remember to have met with this before, remains to be seen. though I have a floating recollection of something like it. Dr. John Bull was the first Gresham Professor of Music, and organist and composer to Queen Elizabeth. John, like a true Englishman, travelled for improvement; and having heard of a famous musician at St Omer's, he placed himself under him as a novice; but a circumstance very soon convinced the master that he was inferior to the scholar. The musician showed John a song, which he composed in forty parts; telling him, at the same time, that he defied all the world to produce a person capable of adding another part to his composition. Bull desired to be left alone, and to be indulged for a short time with pen and ink. In less than three hours, he added forty parts more to the song. Upon which the Frenchman swore, in great ecstacy, that "he must be either the Devil or John Bull."

An ancient tomb of beautiful architecture has been lately discovered in the grounds of the Villa Casalli, on the Via Appia at Rome. It consists of three chambers, containing four sarcophagi of the purest white marble, elaborately sculptured; one of these represents in high relief the Muses, and another Bacchus and Ariadne, the third a hunt of wild animals, and the fourth the portal of a tomb. It is supposed by the cognoscenti, that the figure of one of the Muses, whose head is crowned with a wreath of flowers, is meant to represent one of the deceased whose remains were deposited there. The inscription is simply the name, "Titus Olius Nikephorus," and the style of the letters, and the sculpture, and other details, indicate the jus period of Septimus Severus. One of the women wears her hair in the style of Julia Mammoea, in the form of a diadem, and with a high forehead. The German Archæological Institute at Rome intend to make it the subject of discussion at one of their next meetings.

Farnworth, Bolton.

ROYLE ENTWisle. "DOWN AMONG THE DEAD MEN."-Skimming recently through "Johnson's Lives of the English Poets," my attention was arrested to this