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Your Correspondent, Mr. Meyrick, p. 177, treats the matter in a technical form, and the difference between us may, I think, be easily reconciled, as chiefly consisting in terms. In all the cases stated, I suppose it will be allowed that a fulcrum, or fixed point for the bow, must be obtained before the arrow can be drawn up to the head. Now, I think, the following simple diagram will remove any of the difficulties which may at first present themselves in settling this question. Let us suppose a bow, registered 50lbs. in power, according to Mr. Waring's method, to be suspended thus between two weights of 50lbs. each passing over pullies.

Q

Now the weight Q attached by a line to the bow, and passing over the pulley A, constitutes the fixed obstacle to be removed in drawing up the arrow, and it will require an equal force represented by the weight P acting in an opposite direction to effect that purpose.

Now take away the weight Q, and substitute the archer's left hand. Surely it will require an equal power of 50lbs. acting in the direction of B to enable him, with his right hand, to draw the arrow its required length. The Archer therefore, who has drawn his arrow to the head, is clearly exerting at the moment of his having done so, and while the bow is in equilibrio, previous to the discharge of the shaft, a total power of 100lbs. If the Sceptic still should doubt, I would add, let him ask his left arm whether it has borne any resisting part after a long day's shooting? Say, the first of the season.

How far the force is divided between the muscles of the body and its pondus iners, or gravity, is another part of the question, which seems not to have entered into the contemplation of any of your Correspondents.

For it must be remembered that the Archer does not merely thrust with his left arm, but that he presents the whole pondus iners of his body to aid in opposing the drawing force of 50lbs., so that the fact stated by Mr. Meyrick of a man being able to thrust with no greater force than of 27lbs. or 30lbs., is nothing, I conceive, to the point, he being aided in the act of drawing by the weight of his body which, to use Bishop Latimer's expression, is "laid in the bow."*

As for the numbering by weights being erroneous, if my decision be allowed, it might as well be said that I advance that a round of beef weighing 20lbs. ought really to be considered as weighing 40lbs., because the total weight of 40lbs. is required to keep the steelyard in equilibrio.

In a word, I never pretended to assert that a power of 100lbs. is exerted by the hand drawing the bow. My words were, "The mere drawing power is not the only power exerted in bringing the arrow's head up to the bow-there must be a power of equal resistance to keep the bow in its place during the act of drawing" (p.56); and let the matter be twisted as it may through terms and technicalities, to this conclusion of common sense, I am persuaded, must it come at last.t Yours, A. J. K.

He taught me howe to drawe, howe to laye my bodye in the bowe," says Latimer, speaking of his father in one of his sermons.

+ There certainly is an analogy between the drawing the bow and the lifting a weight from the ground; and the holding the bow in the hand, and suspending the given weight by the string, as has been suggested by "One of the Sceptics," as a mode of simplifying the question; but in both cases your Correspondents forget to notice that the weight itself is represented by the Archer's power of holding during the act of drawing.

Cirencester, Jan. 22.

Mr. URBAN,-Nothing could be more unsatisfactory to "the Sceptics," than your notice of the Gloucestershire Toxophilite's (p. 56) communication, respecting the power exerted by the Bowman. You observe that the position, That a Bowman, on discharging an arrow from a 50lb. bow, exerts a force equivalent to 100lbs., is capable of mathematical demonstration. This has been stated and denied a thousand times before. That mathematical demonstration is the very thing required. Again, you refer us to the note at the foot of p. 104 of the English Bowman, forgetting that we pointed that out to you, conceiving it to be the source of that which we deem a prevailing error, and which indeed is a mere unsupported assertion. We will put the matter in one, out of many points of view, in which we have examined it, and perhaps the most simple of any.

We will suppose that, instead of hanging the Bow upon any hook, or other fixed support, when the 50lb. weight is attached to try its power, that it is held in the hand; or, in more scientific language, what power does it exert to overcome the force of the attraction of gravitation in the weight? What weight does the hand support? Why, it is as clear as daylight to our apprehensions, that the individual supports 50lbs. in addition to the mere simple weight of the Bow, and no more. It is evident therefore, that when the string is drawn by the hand, the same force only is exerted to draw the arrow to the same point. Again, many men use a bow of 80lbs. power. According to your position, these men, standing upright, and exerting their powers in a most unfavourable position, and in a line above the level of the shoulders, draw and resist 160lbs.; an exertion which, in these degenerate days at least, we humbly conceive no man living could accomplish. Yours, &c. ONE OF THE SCEPTICS.

Kingston-upon-Hull, Feb. 11.

Mr. URBAN,-Some years ago, when first I turned my attention to Archery, and read works on the subject, the idea of exerting a force double to that registered on the Bow, when in the act of drawing the arrow to the head, appeared very strange and difficult to understand; and I still find many Archers, who do not at first fully comprehend the reason of this, although after a short conversation I have found but little difficulty in convincing them of the fact by a simple experiment.

Archers, in drawing the Bow, not only pull the string with the right hand, but push the Bow from them with the left, using of course an equal force with both arms (although in one instance the flexor, in the other the extensor muscles are called into action); the muscles of the left arm are used to propel, while those of the right are to retain,-the bow arm is used more by some Archers than others in shooting; this is termed by Ascham, "laying the body in the Bow," when an undue proportion of weight is thrown upon it. Thus you see, as action and re-action are always equal, it follows, if the Bow is marked 50lbs., the right arm must exert a force equal to 50lbs. to draw the arrow to the head, while the muscles of the left are exerting themselves with a power equal to 50lbs. to push it forward, or retain it in a stationary position; so that a force equal to 100lbs. is called into action, although different sets of muscles are used in each arm; when the string is loosed, the 50lbs. force is taken from both arms, and this is the reason why many young Archers shoot their arrows left of the mark, for the bow arm being suddenly released of its 50lbs. pressure, is apt to start back, and thus throw the arrow out of the direction. This may be easily proved, by fixing a bow to the hook of an improved weighing machine, and then drawing the string with the right hand, and noticing the dial plate, which will indicate the force applied. You have thus, in my opinion, a very satisfactory demonstration of the circumstance, that when the left arm is substituted for the weighing scale, the same force must be exerted by it to maintain the bow in its proper position. This is the experiment that first convinced me of the fact, and which has also operated similarly with others.

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LITTLEHAMPTON.

(With a View of the old Church.)

THIS quiet and retired Watering-Place has acquired many warm friends, who consider it unrivalled by any on the Southern Coast for the conveniences of bathing, and the salubrity and free circulation of fine air.

The principal houses stand on a terrace placed about 200 yards from the sea, a distance which is increased to half a mile at low water. In front of the houses is a common of about 100 acres, on which sheep only are permitted to feed; and children can therefore enjoy their pastimes thereon with perfect safety. An abundance of mushrooms may be gathered in this common at the proper season. At its termination next the beach, is an esplanade about half a mile in length; in the centre of which is a building containing hot and cold baths. On the retiring of the sea, the sands are of the finest kind, firm and dry, and may be passed with horses and carriages so far as Worthing. They even occasionally form a race-course; at which subscription cups are given, and one is presented by the Earl of Surrey, who has a large house at the eastern extremity of the Terrace. His seat at Michelgrove is about eight miles distant, and his ancestral castle of Arundel about four.

At no great distance the river Arun empties itself into the sea, defended at its mouth by a small pier of about 80 yards in length. There is a dock-yard for building vessels of several hundred tons burthen; and the trade of the port consists chiefly in timber and coals. At the neighbouring ferry a large barge or raft is employed, worked by a windlass; it has carried over two coaches with four horses each, and is capable of conveying 350 soldiers if necessary. The Portsmouth and Chichester Canal joins the Arun about half a mile above the town of Littlehampton; which itself is situated about half a mile from the sea. The mildness of the climate is shown by the myrtles, which grow in the open air against the houses.

The old Church, of which an engraving is annexed (see the Plate), being small and incommodious for a large population, was removed in 1825. In the chancel was an open arcade, intended to receive a tomb, and ascribed by Mr. Dallaway (in his Rape of Arundel) to the fourteenth century, as is the great east window, which, together with a circular doorway, and the font, were preserved by the exertions of the late Mr. Cartwright, and have been retained in the new structure. The latter is not remarkable for any skill or elegance of design. Its body is nearly 100 feet long; and it has two small entrances in the centre of each side, somewhat resembling transepts. The tower rises very slightly above the roof; it has only one bell, but also contains a clock with three faces. The interior is neat, with a small organ. The whole cost only 26001. In the church-yard was interred the late Rev. Edmund Cartwright, M.A. F.S.A. the author of the History of the Rape of Bramber, and Vicar of the adjoining parish of Lyminster.

The benefice was formerly vested in the College of Arundel, which did not appoint a perpetual Vicar, but only a clericus conductitius, or curate remotive. In the reign of Elizabeth it was one of several impropriations exchanged by the Crown for manors with the Bishop of Chichester, and the tythes have been ever since demised by lease from the Bishops. No Vicar was presented from the reign of Elizabeth until 1802; the duty being performed, as of old, by a nominee of the impropriator. A moderate income has at length been raised for the minister from Queen Anne's Bounty, private benefactions, and a charge upon the pews of the new church. The present Vicar is the Rev. Anthony Plimley Kelley, M.A. instituted in 1824.

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