The Theory and Practice of Archery Part 8

CHAPTER X.

_OF HOLDING AND LOOSING_

HOLDING.

By _holding_ is meant keeping the arrow fully drawn before it is loosed.

Ascham has made this his fourth point of archery; and but little can be added to what he has said on the subject. 'Holding,' he says, 'must not be longe, for it bothe putteth a bowe in ieopardy, and also marreth a man's shoote; it must be so lytle yat it may be perceyued better in a man's mynde when it is done, than scene with a man's eyes when it is in doyng.' This represents so exactly what holding, at its best, should be, that it needs only be added that this almost imperceptible pause before the act of loosing serves to steady the arm and perfect the aim, and is a great a.s.sistance to the obtaining of a certain and even loose. It is therefore, in company with the other points of archery, most necessary to be cultivated if successful hitting is to be the result. But let no archer think to arrive at this perfection of holding by grasping his bow as tight as he possibly can from first to last. The grasp should be gradually tightened as the strain of the draw is increased; otherwise too much toil is given to the bow-hand, and it will fail in the loose.

One very successful shot had so many faults that his success was always a surprise; yet he had this invariable virtue, that, though it was obvious that he held his bow quite loosely during the draw, at the final pause his grasp was visibly tightened most firmly.

Mention should not be omitted of the sadly false conception many archers have of holding when fully drawn. This they exhibit by constantly letting the arrow creep out whilst they appear to be taking aim, as though they were quite incapable of checking its impatience to be off. This is a most dangerous fault, and must be most carefully guarded against.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MAJOR C. H. FISHER, CHAMPION ARCHER FOR THE YEARS 1871-2-3-4.]

LOOSING.

After the bow has been drawn up to its proper extent, and the aim correctly taken, there still remains one more point which the archer must achieve successfully before he can ensure the correct and desired flight of his arrow to its mark; and this is the point of _loosing_, which term is applied to the act of quitting or freeing the string from the fingers of the right hand which retain it. It is the last of Ascham's famous 'Quintette,' wherein, though he does not say much, yet what he does say is so much to the point that it may well be quoted. 'It must be so quycke and hard yet it be wyth oute all guides, so softe and gentle that the shafte flye not as it were sente out of a bow case. The meane betwixt bothe, whyche is the perfyte lowsynge, is not so hard to be folowed in shootynge as it is to be descrybed in the teachyng. For cleane lowsynge you must take hede of hyttynge anythynge aboute you. And for the same purpose Leo the Emperour would haue al archers in war to haue both theyr heades pouled and there berdes shauen, lest the heare of theyr heades should stop the syght of the eye, the heere of theyr berdes hinder the course of the strynge.'

This loosing is the archer's crowning difficulty; for no matter how correct and perfect may be all the rest of his performance, the result will infallibly prove a failure, and end in disappointment, unless the loose also be successfully mastered. Upon this the flight of the arrow mainly depends, and to how great an extent this may be affected by it may be gathered from the fact that the same bow with a like weight of arrow and length of pull will cast many yards further in the hands of one man than it will in those of another, owing solely and entirely to the different manner in which the string shall have been quitted.

No arguments are necessary to prove how delicate an operation it is in archery to loose well, and to accomplish, with the evenness, smoothness, and unvarying similarity necessary for accurate hitting, the consummating effort, including as it does on the one side of an instant the greatest exertion of muscles that on the other side of that instant are in perfect repose. But considerable misapprehension exists amongst archers as to what is a good loose, it being often thought that if an extreme sharpness of flight be communicated to the arrow, it is conclusive evidence as to the goodness of the loose, without reference to the consideration that this extreme sharpness of loose seldom produces steadily successful hitting at any distance, and still less frequently is effective at all the distances. A thoroughly good loose cannot exist unless accuracy of hitting as well as keenness of flight be the combined result; and if the two cannot be obtained together, a slower flight with accuracy rises immeasurably superior to the rapid flight with uncertainty.

The flight of an arrow keenly loosed is as fair to view as that of any bird, whilst the flight of an arrow that is badly loosed is as uninteresting as the staggerings of a drunken man. This is quite apart from the consideration of hitting the object aimed at; but when the question resolves itself into this practical form--'Is it possible for the same mode of loosing to give the utmost rapidity of flight and at the same time certainty of line and elevation?'--the consensus of experience should be in the negative. There is no denying that a few successive arrows may be shot accurately in this way, but during any prolonged period the inaccuracy of flight is sure to be such as to render the average shooting inferior. The difficulty, amounting almost to an impossibility, of obtaining a loose which shall combine great sharpness and accuracy of flight at the same time arises from the fact that such a loose requires, to obtain that sharpness, that the fingers of the right hand be s.n.a.t.c.hed away from the string with such suddenness and rapidity as to compromise the second quality of accuracy--such a sudden jerk of the string endangering the steadiness of the left arm at the final moment, and, by its unavoidable irregularity, not only having a tendency to drag the string and consequently the arrow out of the proper line of flight, but also simultaneously to vary the elevation.

Excepting for long-distance shooting, then, a very sharp loose cannot be recommended; nevertheless, in case he may be at any time engaged therein, the archer perfect at all points should have it under his command.

The different looses may now be divided into the _slashing_ loose, which may degenerate into the s.n.a.t.c.h or may be improved into the steady _continuous_ loose. The chief contrast to this is the _dead_ loose, which in strong hands is very useful. This consists of the simple opening of the fingers for the escape of the string, and is liable to degenerate into the _creeping_ loose, which need not be further referred to except for the purpose of again urging its avoidance. Another loose, which may be called an _active_ loose, is an appreciable improvement upon the dead loose in that the fingers at the loosing instant are withdrawn from the string, though without any further draw, and will be found, after the escape of the string, to have resumed their previous position--i.e. curled up instead of being sprawled out straight as is the case in the dead loose. The only remaining loose may be called the _lively_ loose, and consists of a short and quick additional draw, after the aim has been taken, of say from half an inch to three inches, and finished with an _active_ loose, and care must be taken to prevent the degeneration of this into a s.n.a.t.c.h.

Before the final treatment of the loose be entered upon, it will be useful to consider how the different sorts of shooting-gloves and finger-tips affect this intricate operation. Doubtless in the times when the English archer was in such high repute in battle, the only loose suitable to the old glove was the _slash_, as the only method of quitting the string, which, with the strongest bow each individual could use, must, for the longest pull on such bow, have been gripped as close as possible to the inside of the knuckles of the last joints of the two or three fingers used. No other loose could be employed with any chance of obtaining full results from the work done, and it is evident from the Acts of Parliament on the subject that in the archer's drill none but long-distance shooting was countenanced. The comparatively modern finger-tips or thimbles connected by straps at the back of the hand and buckled on round the wrist must have been used with the same slashing sort of loose. But, with the old tab made of horse-b.u.t.t leather, and all the different neatly-fitting tips with catches that have been invented long since the commencement of the public meetings at which York Rounds are shot, a much steadier and quieter loose may be obtained without wasting any of the work done; but, it must be admitted, with the general result that there is some slight decrease in the average strength of the bows that are used now. Moreover, it has been found that in the closely-contested matches of the present times the slashing sort of loose stands at a positive disadvantage at the shorter ranges.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 46.]

With the glove and tab and tips without catches the best loose may be obtained with the fingers extended as far as is compatible with the retention of the string; and, by applying the fingers almost diagonally to the string, a very firm grip is secured combined with much facility of liberation (fig. 46, p. 128). With the help of catches on the tips the string can be taught to rest at any intermediate point on the last joint or third phalanx of either of the fingers--it will be found more convenient here to use the word _phalanx_ for each part of the finger, each finger having three phalanges, first, second, and third--and the most entirely different hold on the string to the one previously described is that where the fingers are almost completely curled up (fig. 45); with an _active_ or _lively_ loose the string may be very sharply quitted with this hold, but it is more liable to strain the fingers, unless the bow be weak, and the high-set catch, though more popular twenty years ago, is now very little used. With a strong common glove and all four fingers on the string, this extreme position has been known to contribute to first-rate scores at all the distances, and it is probably the necessary position when four fingers are used.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 45.]

The intermediate position between these two extremes will probably be found the best, and this may be thus described.

The third phalanx of the middle finger should be as nearly as possible at right angles with the line of the drawn-up arrow.

The second phalanx will make an obtuse angle with the third, and the first about the same obtuse angle with the second; and these obtuse angles will vary in individual instances according to the stiffness or suppleness of the finger-joints.

The back of the hand will incline slightly away from the line through the forearm, so that the line from the elbow through the wrist may be quite straight with the same line continued through the wrist to the position of the string on the fingers at A. The positions of the phalanges of the first and third fingers will vary from those of the second finger, as shown in fig. 44.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 44.]

This position of the string across the fingers should be neither too near to nor too far from the tips, as too great a grip necessitates a drag or a jerk to free the fingers, besides exposing more surface to the friction of the string in pa.s.sing over it; whilst an insufficient hold of the string weakens the shooter's command over it, and renders the giving way of the finger a constant occurrence. It is therefore recommended that the string be placed as nearly as possible midway between the tips and first joints of the fingers.

Now a good loose may be described as possessing the characteristic that the fingers do not go forward one hair's breadth with the string, but their action is, as it were, a continuance of the draw rather than an independent movement, yet accompanied with just enough additional muscular action in a direction away from the bow and simultaneous expansion of the last joints of the fingers at the final instant of quitting the string as to admit of its instantaneous freedom from all and each of them at the same identical moment of time; for should one finger linger on the string but the minutest moment longer than its fellows, or should all or any of them follow forward with the string in the slightest degree, the loose will be faulty and the shot a probable failure. So slight, however, is this muscular movement that, though a distinct and appreciable fact to the mind of the shooter, it is hardly if at all perceptible to the lookers-on, as in a good loose the fingers should instantly recover their holding position, but will be at a slight though appreciable distance further from the bow consequent upon the combined effect of the removal of the pulling weight of the bow and the loosing effort. A pa.s.sage out of Mr. Townsend's article, 'How should the String be Loosed,' in the 'Archer's Register for 1866-7,' may here be quoted. 'The string of the bow having been pulled to the fullest extent intended, and the pause having been felt or made, next comes the loose; and, as this _must be effected by an opening of the fingers_, the tendency of the string would be to run forward, if ever so little, during the opening; and, as the whole spring [cast] of the bow is not given to the string [and arrow] until it is altogether freed from the fingers, so, to prevent [the] loss of power, the pulling hand and arm are drawn so much further back, as the opening of the fingers would allow the string to run forward before it is altogether released. Thus the string in reality remains stationary or nearly so [quite so] during the loose; and the fingers are freed without going one hair's breadth forward with the string.'

As an a.s.sistance towards this instantaneous recovery of the loosing fingers, some archers wore silver rings round the first phalanges of their three fingers, and these rings were connected by india-rubber straps with the finger-tips, thus compelling the first and third phalanges to approximate, as described in the _Mason_ tips.

Mr. Townsend's 'india-rubber practising apparatus' has not been seen for many years, though of great a.s.sistance in experiments and in correcting faults and general improvement of drawing and loosing.

Some archers use only the first and second fingers, and the loose thus obtained possesses the advantage that the string when quitting the fingers has less surface in contact with it.

Mr. Ford's own latest loose was from the first and third fingers, with the second finger packed upon the back of the first finger for its support; and he has been heard to declare that this arrangement of the fingers gives the best loose possible, as already described.

One of the commonest faults at the present day is the habit of making the third finger do more than its fair share of work. Evidence of this failing may be found in the fact that blisters are far more common on the third finger than on either of the others, and a frequent result is that the muscles of the third finger get strained and even partially torn from their attachments. This is one of the most frequent causes of the breakdown of archers who practise much. This may be avoided and the loose much improved by turning the backs of the fingers while drawing slightly upwards, and inwards, and thus exerting more pressure with the forefinger. An example of what is meant may be seen in the picture (opp.

p. 122) of Major Fisher, whose loose is remarkably good. Here it will be seen that the line of the knuckles is not perpendicular, but slopes outwards and downwards from the knuckle of the forefinger to that of the fourth.

The utility of catches on the finger-tips has already been explained in a previous chapter, but may be further mentioned in connection with the loose as contributing by an invariable hold on the string to a constant repet.i.tion of exactly the same loose.

Especial care must be taken that, whilst loosing, the left arm must maintain its position firmly and unwaveringly, and must not give way at the final moment in the slightest degree in the direction towards the right hand, as arrows constantly dropping short are the certain consequence of any such shrinking of the bow-arm--the same injurious effect being produced on their flight as when the fingers of the right hand are allowed to go forward with the string. This yielding of the left arm is of more constant occurrence than archers will generally admit, and is the cause of many an arrow, otherwise correctly treated, missing its mark. This failing is not unfrequently the result of too much practice. All must be firm to the last, and the attention of the shooter should never be relaxed for a single instant until the arrow has actually left the bow. But, though this firmness be necessary for the shooting of an arrow it is not necessary, however satisfactory the result or good the att.i.tude, to remain for some seconds in rivalry with the Apollo Belvedere; the bow-arm should, if possible, be instantly and quietly moved to the left whilst the next arrow is procured from the quiver or whilst the shooting station is given up to the next in order; and this leftward motion of the left arm will correct the very general tendency there is to throw the upper horn of the bow to the right and downwards convulsively, which is a very frequent and unsightly antic.

Many of the other objectionable antics already referred to are brought to perfection at this instant, and should also be most carefully avoided.

CHAPTER XI.

_OF DISTANCE SHOOTING, AND DIFFERENT ROUNDS_.

The attention may now be turned to the results obtained by the use of the bow and arrow.

The best notion of the old practice of archery may be gained from a review of the ancient b.u.t.ts or shooting-fields of our ancestors. These shooting-grounds were evidently attached to every town (if not also village) in the kingdom, as may be gathered from the universal survival of the local name of b.u.t.ts. There is extant 'A plan of all the marks belonging to the Honourable Artillery Company in the fields near Finsbury, with the true distance as they stood, Anno 1737, for the use of long-bows, cross-bows, hand guns, and artillery.' These marks all have different appellations, and there is but one single instance of a repet.i.tion of the same distance between one of these marks and the other.

The ground on which these marks were situated appears to extend from a mark called _Castle_[6] to _Islington Common_, and there were two sets of actual b.u.t.ts at the Islington end. The distance between the one pair of these b.u.t.ts is given as six score and ten yards--i.e. 130 yards. The distance between the other pair is not given in the plan, but it appears to be less than half of the other, and is probably about sixty yards.

The whole length of these shooting-fields appears to be about one mile on the plan; and this is about the actual distance between the Artillery Ground and the 'Angel,' Islington. The longest distance between any of the two marks is thirteen score and five yards--i.e. 265 yards--between Turk's Whale and Absoly. Here follow the names of the marks; and these may possibly be still traced in the neighbourhood in some instances. The distances are also given.

The start is made from 'Castle.'

+-------------------------------------------+-------------+-------+ Score yards Yards +-------------------------------------------+-------------+-------+ From Castle to Gard stone 95 185 " Gard stone to Arnold 100 200 " Arnold to Turk's Whale 84 164 " Turk's Whale to Lambeth 313 73 " Lambeth to Westminster Hall 117 227 " Westminster Hall to White Hall 112 222 " White Hall to Pitfield 717 157 " Pitfield[7] to Nevil's House or 'Rosemary Branch' 917 197 +-------------+-------+ Total yards 1425 +-------------------------------------------+-------------+-------+

At 'Nevil's House' there appears to be a break in the marks, but they are taken up again at the 'Levant.'

+-------------------------------------------+-------------+-------+ Score yards Yards +-------------------------------------------+-------------+-------+ From the Levant to Welch Hall 818 178 " Welch Hall to b.u.t.t (1) 1111 231 " b.u.t.t(1) to b.u.t.t(2) on Islington Common 618 138 And, on going back to Welch Hall, from Welch Hall to Egg-Pye 1010 210 +-------------+-------+ Total yards 757 +-------------------------------------------+-------------+-------+

Here there is another break.

To continue the round of the marks on the return journey without going over the same distance twice, return to Pitfield.

+-------------------------------------------+-------------+-------+ Score yards Yards +-------------------------------------------+-------------+-------+ From Pitfield to Bob Peek 113 223 " Bob Peek to Old Absoly 812 172 " Old Absoly to Pitfield 1016 216 " Pitfield to Edw. Gold 611 131 " Edw. Gold to Jehu 99 189 " Jehu to Old Absoly 817 177 " Old Absoly to Scarlet 911 191 " Scarlet to Edw. Gold 72 142 " Edw. Gold to White Hall 122 242 " White Hall to Scarlet 122 242 " Scarlet to Jehu 42 82 " Jehu to Blackwell Hall 918 198 " Blackwell Hall to Scarlet 96 186 " Scarlet to Star or Dial 914 194 " Star or Dial to White Hall 70 140 +-------------+-------+ Total yards 2725 +-------------------------------------------+-------------+-------+