ARCHERY
SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE
LONDON
THE
THEORY AND PRACTICE
OF
ARCHERY
HORACE FORD
CHAMPION ARCHER OF ENGLAND FOR THE YEARS 1850 TO 1859 AND 1867
THOROUGHLY REVISED AND RE-WRITTEN
BY
W. BUTT, M.A.
FOR MANY YEARS HON. SECRETARY OF THE ROYAL TOXOPHILITE SOCIETY
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
1887
PREFACE.
No excuse need be offered to archers for presenting to them anew edition of the late Mr. Horace A. Ford's work on the Theoryand Practice of Archery. It first appeared as a series ofarticles in the columns of the 'Field,' which were republishedin book form in 1856; a second edition was published in1859, which has been long out of print, and no book on thesubject has since appeared. Except, therefore, for a few copiesof this book, which from time to time may be obtained fromthe secondhand booksellers, no guide is obtainable by whichthe young archer can learn the principles of his art. Onhearing that it was in contemplation to reprint the secondedition of Mr. Ford's book, it seemed to me a pity that thisshould be done without revision, and without bringing it upto the level of the knowledge of the present day. I thereforepurchased the copyright of the work from Mr. Ford's representatives,and succeeded in inducing Mr. Butt, who was formany years the secretary of the Royal Toxophilite Society, toundertake the revision.
A difficulty occurred at the outset as to the form in whichthis revision should be carried out. If it had been possible,there would have been advantages in printing Mr. Ford's text[vi]untouched, and in giving Mr. Butt's comments in the form ofnotes. This course would, however, have involved printingmuch matter that has become entirely obsolete, and, moreover,not only would the bulk of the book have been increased to agreater extent even than has actually been found necessary, butalso Mr. Butt's portion of the work, which contains the informationof the latest date, and is therefore of highest practical valueto young archers, would have been relegated to a secondaryand somewhat inconvenient position. Mr. Butt has thereforerewritten the book, and it would hardly perhaps be giving himtoo much credit to describe the present work as a Treatise onthe Theory and Practice of Archery by him, based on the workof the late Horace A. Ford.
In writing his book, Mr. Ford committed to paper theprinciples by means of which he secured his unrivalled positionas an archer. After displaying a clever trick, it is thepractice of some conjurers to pretend to take the spectatorsinto their confidence, and to show them 'how it is done.' Insuch cases the audience, as a rule, is not much the wiser;but a more satisfactory result has followed from Mr. Ford'sinstructions.
Mr. Ford was the founder of modern scientific archery.First by example, and then by precept, he