the English archers became the best in Europe, and obtained many signal victories. The Artillery Company of London, though they have long disused the weapon, are the remains of the ancient bowmen or archers. Artillery (artillerie) is a French term, signifying archery; as the King's bowyer was in that language styled artillier du roy. And from that nation the English seem to have learnt at least the use of the cross-bow. William the Conqueror had a considerable number of bowmen in his army, when no mention is made of such troops on the side of Harold. And it is supposed that these Norman archers shot with the arbalist, or cross-bow, in which formerly the arrow was placed in a groove, termed in French a quarrel, and in English a bolt.

Philip de Comines acknowledges what our own writers assert, that the English archers excelled those of every other nation; and Sir John Fortescue says, "The safety of the realme of England standyth upon archers." And hence the superior dexterity of their archers gave the English a great advantage over their capital enemies, the French and Scots.

The Normans used the bow as a military weapon; and under their government the practice of archery was not only much improved, but generally diffused throughout the kingdom.

In the ages of chivalry, the usage of the bow was considered as an essential part of the education of a young man who wished to make a figure in life.

The ladies also were fond of this amusement; and by a curious representation, from an original drawing in a manuscript of the fourteenth century, we see it practised by one who has shot at a deer, and wounded it with great adroitness; and in another previous engraving, the hunting equipments of the female archers about the middle of the fifteenth century are represented.

It

It was usual, when the ladies exercised the bow, for the beasts to be confined by large enclosures, surrounded by the hunters, and driven in succession from the covers to the stands where the fair sportswomen were placed, so that they might readily shoot at them without the trouble and fatigue of rousing and pursuing them. is said of Margaret, the daughter of Henry VII., that when she was on her way towards Scotland, a hunting party was made for her amusement in Alnwick Park, where she killed a buck with an arrow. It is not specified whether the long-bow or the cross-bow was used by the princess on this occasion: we are certain that the ladies occasionally shot with both; for when Queen Elizabeth visited Lord Montacute, at Cowdrey, in Sussex, on Monday, August 17th, 1591, "Her highness tooke horse, and rode into the park, at eight o'clock in the morning, where was a delicate bowre prepared, under the which were her highness' musicians placed; and a cross-bow by a nymph, with a sweet song, was delivered into her hands, to shoote at the deere. About some thirty in number were put into a paddock, of which number she killed three or four, and the countess of Kildare

Kings and princes have been celebrated for their skill in archery, and among those of our own country may be placed Henry VII., who in his youth was partial to this exercise; and therefore it is said

of him in an old poem, written in praise of the Princess Elizabeth, afterwards queen to Henry VII.—”

See where he shoteth at the butts,

And with hym are lordes three;

He weareth a gowne of velvette blacke,
And it is coted above the knee.

He also amused himself with the bow after he had obtained the crown, as we find from an account of his expenditures, where the following memorandums occur: "Lost to my Lord Morgan at buttes, six shillings and eightpence;" and again, "Paid to Sir Edward Burroughes thirteen shillings and fourpence, which the kynge lost at buttes with his cross-bowe." Both the sons of King Henry followed his example, and were excellent archers.

With these remarks on the history of archery, I will conclude with proposing to you "Success to the Archery Club."

ANNUAL MEETING OF THE

Toast.-"PROSPERITY TO THE

PIGEON CLUB.

PIGEON CLUB."

"Pros

GENTLEMEN,-The financial affairs of the Club having been ordered to pass, the next duty I have to perform is to give a toast which I am sure will be acceptable to you all present. It is, perity to the Pigeon Club." Prior to your responding to it, I will make a few remarks on Pigeons.

For the last two or three thousand years at least pigeons have been kept by man as domestic creatures, with the object of making them fulfil a rather varied round of characters. Their office has been to afford a ready supply of wholesome food convenient to have at hand in hot countries, where animal food must be eaten almost as soon as it is killed; to furnish manure, indispensable in the East for the cultivation of the fruits and vegetables most in request there-the gourd, the melon, and the cucumber; to render efficient and ready services as messengers under circumstances of extreme difficulty; and to be pampered at home as domestic pets, whose value lies in their docility, their beauty, or even in their strange and anomalous peculiarities.

"

The well-known passage in Isaiah (lx. 8), "Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?" establishes the domestication of the Blue Rock Pigeon at the early epoch when the prophet wrote. The "windows are clearly the apertures in a dovecot; and every reader will remember that windows in the East are seldom glazed entrances for light merely, as with us, but are openings to admit air principally, and the sun's rays as little as possible; and when closed, are done so by lattice-work or shutters, as in pigeon-lofts here: so that the expression "windows" is very appropriate to denote the means of approach to the creatures' dwelling-place.

The Romans kept domestic pigeons very much in the same way that we do now; and, in addition to this, were in the habit of catch

ing the wild species, such as the Ring-Dove and the Common Turtle, and putting them in confinement, as we do quails and ortolans. Fancy pigeons, too, as distinguished from the dovehouse kinds, which were reared solely to be killed and eaten, seem to have been known from a very early period. It may be believed that we hear less of the different sorts then cultivated and most in favour, in consequence of the merits of all the others being thrown into the shade by the superior usefulness of those employed as letter-carriers. Before Pompey's civil war, L. Axius, a Roman knight, used to sell a single pair of pigeons for four hundred denarii, or £12 18s. 4d., as nearly as we can estimate that sum by the modern standard.

But it is as letter-carriers that pigeons have obtained the greatest celebrity among the ancients; and of their services in this capacity we find very frequent and interesting mention. The practice seems to have been adopted in remote times, in modes and upon occasions the exact counterpart of those which call forth the powers of the birds at the present day. How likely is it that the patriarchs, remembering the tradition of the ark, in their search for fresh pasture at a distance from the main body of their tribe, may have taken with them a few pigeons to be flown from time to time, and to carry home news of the proceedings of the exploring party! During the last few years, the invention of the electric telegraph has done more to bring Carrier Pigeons into partial disuse than had been effected in all the three thousand years previous.

ANGLING.

ANNUAL MEETING OF THE

Toast.-" PROSPERITY OF THE

ANGLERS' CLUB.

ANGLERS' CLUB."

GENTLEMEN,-Angling came into general repute in England about the period of the Reformation, when both secular and regular clergy, being prohibited by common law from the amusement of hunting, hawking, and fowling, directed their attention to this

recreation.

The invention of printing assisted in exciting attention to this subject, and made known its importance "to cause the health of your body, and specyally of your soul," as the first treatise quaintly concludes. Wynkin de Worde gave the world, in 1496, a small folio republication of the celebrated book of St. Alban's. It contained for the first time a curious tract, entitled the " Treatyse of Fiyssing with an Angle; " embellished with a woodcut of the angler."

Izaak Walton's inimitable " Discourse on Angling" was first printed in 1653, in an elegant duodecimo, with plates of the most considerable fish cut in steel. This edition, and the three subsequent ones, consisted wholly of what is now called Part I. of the "Complete Angler," or Walton's individual portion of that work. While engaged, in 1676-being the eighty-third year of his age--in preparing the fifth edition, he received from his friend Charles Cotton, Esq., a gentleman in Derbyshire, "Instructions how to Angle

for a Trout or Grayling in a Clear Stream," as they were first called, which afterwards became Part II. of this joint publication.

Angling has been thought of sufficient importance to be protected by statute. This first occurred in the reign of Edward I., when imprisonment and treble damages were awarded against all that should trespass on the.rights of authorized fishers. And in almost all other reigns various laws were passed for the protection of fishers or streams. It is held that when the lord of the manor has the soil on both sides of the river, as in the case of the Severn, the right of fishing goes with it, and he who intrudes thereon must prove his claim of a free fishery; but when the tide ebbs and flows, and the river is an arm of the sea, as in the case of the Thames, the right is presumed to be common, and he who claims a privilege must prove it.

Angling has long been held in high rank among the sports of the people of England; poets have ever written in its praise, and philosophers have delighted in its practice. It is not confined to particular places, ages, or grades of society; wherever the brook wanders through the hazy shore or broomy glen"-wherever the willowbranch laves in the streamlet-wherever the trout leaps at the may-fly, or the pikes in the bulrushes, or the salmon springs up the waterfall-there are also anglers. But anglers are somewhat like poets-men are to be born so. And I believe with old Izaak, who has said, "God never did make a more calm, quiet, innocent recreation than angling."

May every sport prove as innocent as that of the field.

May our hounds, horses, and hearts never fail us.

The joys of angling.

May we always enjoy the pleasures of shooting, and succeed with the fowl and the fair.

The staunch pack that a sheet will cover.

May those who love the crack of the whip never want a brush to pursue.

May the bows of all British bowmen be strong, their strings sound, and may their arrows fly straight to the mark.

May the horns of the buck never disgrace the sportsman's brow.
May strength the sportsman's nerves in vigour brace;
May cruelty ne'er stain with foul disgrace

The well-earn'd pleasures of the chase.

May the pleasures of sportsmen never know an end.

WEDDINGS.

Toast.-"HEALTH AND PROSPERITY TO THE NEWLY MARRIED COUPLE, MR. AND MRS.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, FRIENDS AND NEIGHBOURS,—I rise on this happy occasion-this festive, domestic, and matrimonial occasion, I may say-to propose to you a toast, and one in which I feel sure you will all join heart and hand with me in drinking and doing honour to. It's a happy toast, and this is a happy occasion. And I may say, ladies and gentlemen, and with truth, that I feel this is one of the happiest days of my life. I've been doing a little bit of charity, and you all know that it is written that charity shall cover a multitude of sins." Ladies and gentlemen, I have been giving away something-a gem-a gem of the first water. I have this day given a young man a good virtuous handsome lovable English maiden for a wife. A greater prize in life's lottery one man cannot present to another. And may they, the newly married couple, be happy, is the fervent wish of the elderly gentleman now addressing you. I love a wedding, and during the now somewhat lengthened progress of this pilgrim--and I've had my fair share of bunions, I can tell you-ah! you may laugh—of course you may-everybody may and ought to laugh on a wedding day; but, as I just observed, I love a wedding, and I have been to many, and hope to go to many more. I see lots of nice young couples here around me. Now make up your minds to get married. Pop the question,"-out with it! and if any of you are in want of a father, I'm your man! Young ladies, look at me-scan me well--then I will ask, in the words of the immortal Samuel Pickwick, How should you like to have another father?" I am in the mar

ket, and very much at the service of any young lady or gentleman bound for the Church. Now while the young couples are making up their minds to name "the day-the happy, happy day," and considering where they shall buy the ring, I will give you the toast that I rose for the purpose of proposing, for 'tis

The toast-the toast-the toast's the thing

To make your hands tingle, and the glasses ring.

Now, my kind friends, you will all join with me in drinking "Health, Long Life, and Happiness to Mr. and Mrs. , the newly married Couple;" and may their path through life be strewed with roses and posies! May they have joys--and boys-to their