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The UNIVERSAL MAGAZINE for APRIL, 1792. 241

An Account of the BISHOP'S ABBEY, at Waltham, in Hampshire: With a fine View of its venerable Ruins.

WALTHAM, called also Bishop's

Waltham, is a fmall, difagreeable, and ill-paved market-town, fituated at the distance of eight miles from Winchester and fixty-five from London. A palace of the bishops of Winchester, once fituated here, gave it the name of Bishop's Waltham.

The venerable remains of its abbey, which is termed, by the country people, The Bishop's Abbey,' are unqueftionable proofs, that it was once a place of fome confequence. Only one of its towers remains at prefent; and that is in a fhattered condition. This ftructure, however, with the adjacent walls, is in the highest state of prefervation for the canvas. The walls are overgrown with ivy, which, notwithstanding it has contributed to reduce the fabric to its present ruinous ftate, now feems to lend its utmoft aid to prevent its mouldering fides from finking into oblivion. The infide of the abbey is now appropriated to the uses of a farm-yard; and fuch parts of the walls as remain, are covered in, and converted into barns and cart lodges.

How chang'd, alas! from that rever'd abode,

Graced by proud dignity in ancient days,
When monks reclufe the facred pavements
Lod,

And taught th' unletter'd world its
Maker's praise.

The ivy now,
with rude luxuriance, bends
Its tangled foliage through the cloifter's
fpace;
O'er the green window's mould'ring height
afcends,

And fondly clafps it with a faft em

brace.

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The penfive mind that is fond to explore the remains of defolated grangrat deur, or to meditate in awful retrofpect on the folly of ancient fuperftition, may here find ample room for reflection. The lover of legal antiquities, the hiftorian of ancient regulations, may likewife find Bishop's Waltham an object of attention; for to the hiftory of this place muft we trace the origin of that celebrated act of parliament, entitled The Black Act,' of which fir William Blackstone gives this account: The ftatute 9 George I, commonly called The Waltham Black Act,' was occafioned by the devastations committed near Waltham, in Hampshire, by perfons in difguife, or with their faces blacked, who feem to have resembled the Roberdfmen, or followers of Robert Hood, that, in the reign of Richard the firit, committed great outrages on the borders of England and Scotland *.'-It seems, that many years ago, a party of the inhabitants of this town retired to a reclufe dell in the New Foreft, whence they iffued forth in the night; and, their num-. bers rendering them formidable, they committed great depredations in the neighbourhood, killing deer, fheep, &c. for their fubfiftence. As they commonly made their appearance in the night, and were disguised, moreover, as abovementioned, they were called The Waltham Blacks.' The place of their retreat was a recefs, acceffible only by a fubterranean paffage. They dreffed like foresters the cross-bow was their weapon; and it is afferted, that they called them felves the defcendants of Robin Hood. In this licentious flate they remained, a confiderable time, till, at laft, they were difperfed by the activity of the neighbouring gentlemen, and have not fince infefted the country.

Comment. Book IV, ch. 17.
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HISTORY of the ENGLISH LONG-BOW.
[From Mofeley's Effay on Archery. ]

S the English Long-bow formerly held fo diftinguished a rank among the military weapons of Europe, and as many of the most important battles and conquefts were obtained by the aid of English archers; it is neceffary for me to infift, at fome length, on the hiftory of the bow in this island; were it only in compliment to the fame of our ancestors.

Whether the eulogies which have been fo liberally paffed on the English archers, by English writers, be per fectly juft; and whether they really were more expert in the practice of this branch of war than many of the ancient nations, I think may be difputed. The perpetual attention paid to inure youth to the practice of the bow, by many warlike people of antiquity, was, I conceive, a much more fevere difcipline, than that of this country. Perhaps, indeed, our archers might derive a fuperiority from their bows being conftructed on better principles, being more fkilfully made, and of better materials than those used in other countries.

But leaving this point undifcuffed, I fhall now endeavour to trace the bow, in this island, during the early periods in which it feems to have been known; continuing the hiftory through the feveral fucceffive ages and reigns, till the period in which that inftrument was difcontinued, as a military weapon, in the English army.

Having had an opportunity of confulting a fine collection of chroniclewriters, and historians, I have been induced to spare no pains, in the inveftigation of this part of my fubject. A tedious research has enabled me, however, to collect only a few folitary facts, with refpect to archery in this kingdom, before the time of the Nor. man invafion: but thefe few facts, I think, will prove fufficient evidence from which to judge of the ftate of the bow in the early ages.

I have been much furprized to find, that some of our hiftorians, and particularly the more modern ones, have represented the English at the Battle of Haftings, as entirely ignorant of the effect of archery; and speak of the astonishment with which the troops were feized, in finding death inflicted on them, while the enemy was far at a diftance. Speed obferves, that the first discharge of arrows from the Norman army, was a kind of fight both ftrange and terrible unto the English, who fuppofed their enemy had been already even in the middeft among them.' Echard expreffes the fame fentiment in his account of the battle with William. The fight,' he fays, began with great fury, order, and equal bravery on both fides; in which the English were feverely galled by the thick fhowers of arrows from the Norman Long-bows, before the battle joined; which was a weapon then unused in England, and thereby the more furprizing, the wounds coming from enemies fo far diftant, and not fuddenly to be revenged.'

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Hume mentions nothing of this extraordinary furprize among the Englifh troops, neither do Matthew Paris, nor many others. Sir J. Hayward fays, the use of the bow was firft brought into the land by the Normans, and that afterward the English being trained to the practice of it, became the best shooters in the world.

That the English could be ignorant of the bow at the conqueft, appears inconceivable, as both the Saxons and Danes made ufe of it in battle againft the inhabitants if this country, for many centuries previous to that time, It is true, there is no mention made of archers among the troops of Harold, but it does not follow that they were ignorant of the effect of archery, or that the bow was not then ufed in England.

At what time this inftrument was

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firft brought into the island, is uncertain; the history of our country extends with accuracy fo few ages back, that it is impoffible to afcertain the true æra in which the bow was introduced.

It is pretty certain, however, that the inhabitants of Britain did not make use of this weapon in battle, at the time Julius Cæfar firft vifited this country, as it is not enumerated among the arms of the natives, in the minute defcription of them, given by that author.

The Romans, it is probable, introduced the bow as a military weapon into Britain, as archers often formed a great part of their auxiliary troops. The battles between the Romans and our countrymen, as described by Cæfar, do not, however, appear to have been carried on by the affiftance of it. But from the fecond book of the Commentaries, we find, that Cæfar had both Numidian and Cretan archers in his army, when he encountered the Belgæ, in Gaul; and it is reasonable to fuppofe, that he alfo made ufe of them among his troops, when in Britain, about two years afterward.

During the reigns which fucceeded that of Julius Cæfar, and when the Romans had fettled themselves on this island, archers are frequently made mention of as part of their troops; and it is probable, that the reinforcements often fent to the army in Britain, included many archers, as they would be employed with advantage against a people, to whom the ufe of the bow was not familiar.

We may therefore conclude, from the authority of history, that the Romans introduced the bow into this country; and that they continued it in use to their final departure, about the year four hundred and fortyeight.

In North Britain, the bow appears to have been known at least as early, as it was in the fouth; the works of Boethius and other hiftorians of that country seem thus to intimate.

If the poems of Offian may be brought as evidence with refpect to the ftate of archery in later times, we may perceive that they uniformly reprefent the bow, as an attendant on the warrior and hunter. We learn alfo from fome paffages in these poems, that the yew-tree was then employed to form the weapons; Go to thy cave my love till our battle ceafe on the field. Son of Leith, bring the bows of our fathers! the founding quiver of Morni! Let our three warriors bend the yew.'

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Immediately on the Britons finding themfelves deferted by the Romans, they fought affiftance from the Saxons, against their enemies Scots; who haftening to their relief, entered this ifland with an army, about the year four hundred and fortynine. Thefe people are faid to have used both the long and crofs bows, and we may therefore be led to conclude, that archery was ftill cherished in this country by the new invaders.

During the Saxon heptarchy, we find that Offrid, the fon of Edwin, king of Northumbria, was killed by an arrow, in a battle between the troops of that king and the united army of Mercians and Welsh, which was fought about the year fix hundred and thirty-three, near Hatfield in the Weft-riding of Yorkshire. But except this fact, little relating to the bow appears in our annals of the Saxon æra.

The Danes, as they arrived at a later period than the Saxons, come next under our review. These warlike people were accustomed to the ufe of archery in battle, and we find it often noticed in this period, by our early chronicle writers, About the year eight hundred and feventy, they became very formidable, and committed great depredations on the inhabitants of East Anglia. In one of their battles with the Eaft Angles, they overcame their enemies, and took prifoner Edmund, king of that part of the ifland, whom, after infulting with many indignities, they bound to a ftake,

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a ftake, for the Danish archers and javelinmen to aim at; putting him to death by that cruel and ignominious expedient.

During the reign of Alfred, it feems probable, that archery was much in ufe, both in the army of the Danes, and in that of Alfred. I am inclined to this opinion from a paffage in Afferius, who relates a curious anecdote concerning our good king. Alfred took refuge from the perfecution of the Danes, at a poor cottage, where he refided unknown to his benefactors, who little imagined their roof protected a royal guelt. It happened one day, fays that writer, as the king fat by the fire preparing his bow, arrows, and his other warlike inftruments,' that the farmer's wife had placed fome bread cakes upon the hearth to bake, fuppofing he would take care to turn them as they occafionally required. He, however, neglected to do fo; and the poor woman, enraged to see her cakes fcorching by the heat, ran in hafte to fave them, and faid to the ftranger, Thou fellow! (as Speed tranflates it) doet thou fee the bread burne before thy face, and will not turn it? And yet art thou glad to eat it before it be half baked?' Bows and arrows are here called warlike inftruments, and we may with reafon prefume, therefore, that they were used among the other weapons in battle. Polydore Virgil confirms this fuppofition; for fpeaking of the troops of Ethelred, of which, part were commanded by his brother Alfred, he fays, a great number of archers were placed in the right wing of the army.

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From this time till the era of the Norman invafion, little occurs with refpect to archery; but it is well known how fu ceisfully it was introduced by William, at the battle of Haltings.

Bows and arrows are spoken of, at this fight, by all our hiftorians: and the catastrophe of the battle fully proves the advantage which the invaders derived from thefe weapons.

Many of our early writers negled to particularize the kind of bow made ufe of by the Norman army, buț John Rofs exprefsly fays, the longbow was used. Mr. Barrington is of opinion, that the cross-bow was the inftrument principally employed in the army of William, and the paffages which have occurred to my obfervation, feem to prove the truth of his conjecture. From fir John Hayward's account of William, it feems almoft certain, that he himself used the crossbow.

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No circumstance worthy of obfervation occurs in our history, from the conqueft till the time of Henry the fecond, in whofe reign, archery seems to have been first carried into Ireland, by the troops of that king. Lord Lyttelton, in his hiflory of the life of Henry, fays, it is ftrange that the Irish, who had much intercourfe with the Welth before Henry the fecond's time, fhould not have learnt from that nation, who greatly excelled in archery, that arrows were better weapons to annoy an enemy with than ftones, thrown by the hand without the help of flings, which, unless at a small diftance, could have little or no effect.' The fame author observes, that

from many inftances, in the courfe of thefe wars, (the wars of Henry with the Irish) it appears, that the English conquefts in Ireland, were principally owing to the use of the long-bow in battle, which the Irish infantry wanted; and therefore Giraldus Cambrenfis, in his chapter entitled, Qualiter Hibernica gens fit expugnanda, advifes, that in all engagements with that people, archers thould be intermingled with the heavy-armed

troops.

To fhew how worthy of imitation the Welsh were, at the time of Henry II, in the ufe of the bow; I fhall relate a few exploits performed by their archers, as they are reported by Giraldus Cambrenfis.

There is a particulart:ibe in Wales, fays this ancient writer, named the Venta; a people brave and warlike,

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