Part 10 (2/2)

Everett made a still further advance with 155 hits and 633 score in 1880; and in 1881 Mr. H. H. Palairet made 153 with 623 score.

To Mrs. b.u.t.t (then Miss S. Dawson) still belongs the best 'record' for the 'Ladies' Day' of the Royal Toxophilite Society, the largest annual gathering of ladies, when the single National Round of 48 arrows at 60 and 24 arrows at 50 yards is shot. She made 70 hits with 406 score in 1867; in 1875 she scored 401 with 69 hits; and in 1885 Mrs. P. F. Legh made 70 hits with 400 score.

FOOTNOTE:

[8] Wolsey died November 30, 1530

CHAPTER XIII.

_THE PUBLIC ARCHERY MEETINGS AND THE DOUBLE YORK AND OTHER ROUNDS._

In 1791, ten years after the revival of archery by the establishment of the Royal Toxophilite Society, a public meeting of all the Archery Societies, which had already become very numerous in the United Kingdom, was held on Blackheath, and this meeting was followed by other similar meetings in 1792 and 1793. Here ended this series of National Archery Meetings, and in the early part of the present century the use of the bow appears to have languished.

The records of the Scorton Arrow Meetings go back, in an almost uninterrupted succession of annual meetings, to the year 1673. These meetings, though originally confined to a limited locality--'six miles from Eriholme-upon-Tees,' near Richmond, in Yorks.h.i.+re--were open to all comers. In 1842 and 1843 these meetings were held at Thirsk, in Yorks.h.i.+re, and to those present thereat the establishment of an annual Grand National Archery Meeting is certainly owing.

The first Grand National Archery Meeting was held at York on August 1 and 2, 1844, the Scorton Arrow Meeting having been again held at Thirsk on July 30 in the same year. It was originally intended that the meeting should occupy one day only, but the weather proved so unfavourable on the first day that the Round had to be finished on the second day. To the enterprising archers of Yorks.h.i.+re is also due the invention of the York Round, which has since become the almost universally acknowledged test of the comparative excellence of all archers. This Round--which is now always shot on each of the two days of a public archery meeting--consisting of six dozen arrows at 100 yards, four dozen arrows at 80 yards, and two dozen arrows at 60 yards, was so arranged in the belief that about the same scores would then be made at each distance; and this has been proved tolerably correct as regards the average of archers, though not so as regards Mr. H. A. Ford, Major C. H. Fisher, Mr. H. H. Palairet, Mr. C. E. Nesham, and some others, when shooting in their best form, as it would be clearly impossible for them to score, in four dozen arrows at 60 yards, the 495 which Mr. H. A. Ford made in twelve dozen arrows at 100 yards at Cheltenham in 1857, or the 466 which he made on the same occasion in eight dozen arrows at 80 yards. Efforts have occasionally been made to reduce the quant.i.ty of shooting at 100 yards, for the benefit of those who look upon 80 yards as a long distance; and it has also been suggested that a few arrows might be taken from 80 yards and added to 60 yards; but it is generally acknowledged that the York Round cannot well be mended.

The Ladies' National Round of four dozen arrows at 60 yards, and two dozen arrows at 50 yards, shot on each of two days, did not become the established Round until 1851, and then the only reason of its adoption was that it corresponded in quant.i.ties with the shooting of the gentlemen at 80 yards and 60 yards.

In the year after the Third Leamington Grand National Archery Meeting--i.e. in 1854--the Leamington Meeting was started, and has ever since been an annual inst.i.tution, except in those years when the Grand National Meeting has been again held at Leamington.

The first Crystal Palace Archery Meeting was held in 1859, and has since been repeated annually.

The Grand Western Archery Meeting was started at Taunton in 1861, and has been repeated annually at different places, except in 1865, when the Grand National Meeting was held at Clifton, and in 1867, when no Grand Western Archery Meeting was held. In 1886 this meeting was combined with the Grand National Archery Meeting when held at Bath.

Occasionally an extra public meeting has occurred--as at Aston Park, Birmingham, in 1858 and in 1868; at the Alexandra Park, Muswell Hill, in 1863, and again in 1873 and 1882; also at Hastings, in 1867.

The first of a series of Grand Northern Meetings was established in 1879. This meeting has since been repeated annually.

In 1881 the Royal Toxophilite Society, in celebration of their centenary, gave a Double York Round meeting, which, though not strictly speaking a public meeting, was so well attended that it cannot be omitted from the records of the York Round. This meeting has also been repeated annually ever since 1881.

Almost the largest attendance of gentlemen at a public Archery Meeting consisted of one hundred and ten at York in 1845, when there were only eleven ladies shooting. At Cheltenham, in 1856, there were seventy-two ladies and one hundred and twelve gentlemen shooting. The best attended meeting was in 1860, at Bath, when there were one hundred and nine gentlemen and ninety-nine ladies. This was just before the beginning of the Grand Western Meetings, and there was a full meeting of ninety gentlemen and ninety-three ladies in 1865, in which year no Grand Western Meeting was held.

With the exception of the Seventh Grand National Archery Meeting, which was held in Edinburgh in 1850, all the Grand National Archery Meetings have occurred in England.

Two Double York Round Scottish National Meetings were held in Scotland in the years 1865 and 1866; but they were not largely attended.

In Ireland, in the course of the years 1862 to 1866, Irish National and other public meetings were held, mostly in the grounds of the Dublin Exhibition; but though the Double York Round was shot, and some good shooting was done by the Irish and also by English visitors, the meetings were mostly small, and there seems but little probability of their revival.

A few words should be said about the scoring at public meetings. The original plan was for the Captain at each target to mark, with a p.r.i.c.ker made on purpose, the hits made by each shooter in a s.p.a.ce representing each of the colours of the target--gold, red, blue, black, and white. In 1872 an improved plan was adopted of keeping a proper s.p.a.ce for the hits made at each end, in which is entered each hit in the figure representing its value, as 9, 7, 5, 3, or 1. When no hit is made at any end, this fact should also be recorded; and thus the progress of the shooting is always kept accurately noted, and the possibility of mistakes in the scores is very much diminished.

Mr. H. A. Ford often mentions the St. George and St. Leonard's Rounds--the former being three dozen arrows at each of the distances of 100, 80, and 60 yards, and the latter (originally 75 arrows at 60 yards only) being three dozen arrows at 80 yards, and three dozen and three at 60 yards. The practice of these Rounds has now entirely disappeared from amongst archers.

During the whole of the period from 1844 to 1886 inclusive the appointed Round has been completed (except at the Leamington Meeting in 1862, when the weather rendered it quite impossible); and this says a great deal for the steadfastness of archers, as they have frequently had to submit to the ill-treatment of pitiless downpourings of rain and arrow-breaking storms of wind in order to get the Round finished.

No approach has been made to Mr. H. A. Ford's best public score of 1,251, made at Cheltenham in 1857, or to his second best record of 1,162 at Leamington in 1856; but his other scores of over 1,000 are easily counted--namely, 1,076 at Exeter in 1858, 1,014 at Leamington in 1861, 1,037 at Brighton in 1867, 1,087 at Leamington in 1868, and 1,032 at Leamington in 1869. Major C. H. Fisher made 1,060 at Sherborne in 1872.

Mr. Palairet made 1,025 at the Crystal Palace in 1882, and 1,062 in the Regent's Park in 1881. Mr. C. E. Nesham made 1,010 in the Regent's Park in 1883, and 1022 at Bath in 1886. No other archers have reached 1,000 at a public match.

Miss Legh's score at Bath in 1881 of 840, when she made all the 144 hits, stood foremost amongst ladies' achievements until it was beaten by Mrs. Legh's score of 864 with 142 hits at Leamington in 1885. Miss Legh in 1882, at the Crystal Palace, scored 792, and in 1885 809 with 143 hits. Mrs. b.u.t.t's score of 785 at Leamington in 1870 ranks next. Then come Mrs. Horniblow's scores of 768 at Leamington in 1871, and of 764--also at Leamington--in 1872. Mrs. Piers F. Legh scored 763 at Sutton Coldfield in 1881. Mrs. V. Forbes scored 752 at the Crystal Palace in 1870. Mrs. Marshall scored 744 at the Crystal Palace in 1884.

Miss Betham's best score was 743 at Leamington in 1867. Mrs. P. Pinckney scored 729 at the Crystal Palace in 1873; and Mrs. Pond scored 700 in 1874, also at the Crystal Palace. No other ladies appear to have made as much as 700.

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