hbtoiy,  was  exactly  the  leogth  adhered  to  by  Waring  for  those
of  modem  archers.  Yet  all  this  involves  no  contradiction.  We
can  readily  understand  that  in  remote  districts  of  the  kingdom,
like  North  Wales,  Gwentland,  Yorkshire,  and  Cornwall,  a  large
proportion  of  archers  made  their  own  bows,  just  as  anglers
there  at  the  present  day,  manufacture  fishing  rods.  Poverty
and  necessity  are  the  parents  of  invention.  Some  of  my  readers
may  possibly  have  encountered  one  of  those  grey  coated,  blue
stockinged,  weather  beaten  old  fishermen,  who  haunt  the  sUver
ripples  of  Uske  or  Tave  ;  Teivi  or  Maes  y  pandy^  with  the  con-
stancy of  a  river  god.  In  that  section  of  a  walnut  shell,  which
he  caUs  a  coracle*,  see  him  glide  down  the  foaming  torrent  as  if
on  a  voyage  to  the  ocean  of  eternity.  Innumerable  files  coiled
round  the  crown  of  his  ragged,  battered,  shapeless  hat,  dance
in  the  evening  breeze ;  in  his  hand  he  brandishes  a  rod  formed
of  a  couple  of  hazel  sticks  rudely  bound  together ;  and  his  line
is  nothing  more  than  the  tribute  of  half  a  dozen  cows*  taib.  A
cockney  would  doubtless  laugh  at  such  primitive  looking
equipments,  until  his  visage  resembled  Falstaff's  *'  wet  cloak,
ill  laid  up."  No  matter.  The  spring  and  play  of  that  ill-
shapen  wand ;  and  the  colour  of  those  coarse  looking  flies,  are
worth  the  whole  contents  of  Chevalier's  shop.
Of  equally  unprepossessing  exterior,  but  similar  intrinsic
excellence,  was  the  bow  of  our  English  rustic ;  for  like  this
mountain  patriarch  of  the  rod,  he  was  frequently  too  poor  or
too  distant  from  any  market  to  purchase  of  the  regular  bowyers.
