Roger Ascham Toxophilus 1545

128

lytle bineth the nocke, and put leade in it. But yet
none of thefe wayes be anye thing needful at al, for ye
nature of a fether in flying, if a man marke it wel, is
able to bear vp a wonderful weyght: and I thinke
fuche peecing came vp firft, thus: whan a good
Archer hath broken a good ihafte, in the fethers, and
for the fantafie he hath had to it, he is lothe to leefe
it, and therfore doeth he peece it. And than by and
by other eyther bycaufe it is gaye, or elles becaufe
they wyll haue a fliafte lyke a good archer, cutteth
theyre hole Ihaftes, and peeceth them agayne: A
thynge by my iudgement, more colUye than nedefull.

And thus haue you heard what wood, what faffhion,
what nockynge, what peecyngeaftele mufte haue: No we
foloweth the fetherynge.

fflji. I woulde neuer haue thought you could haue
fayd halfe fo muche of a ftele, and I thynke as con-
cernyng the litle fether and the playne head, there is
but lytle to faye.

2C0& Lytle, yes trulye: for there is no one thing,
in al Ihoting, fo moche to be loked on as the fether.
For fyrfte a queftion maye be afked, whether any other
thing befyde a fether, be fit for a mart or no ? if a
fether onelye be fit, whether a goofe fether onely,
or no ? yf a goofe fether be befl, then whether
there be any difference, as concernynge the fether
of an oulde goofe, and a yonge goofe : a gander,
or a goofe: a fennye goofe, or an vplandiih goofe.
Againe which is beft fether in any goofe, the ryght
wing or the left wing, the pinion fether, or any other
fether: a whyte, blacke, or greye fether ? Thirdly, in
fettyng on of your fether, whether it be pared or
drawen with a thicke rybbe, or a thinne rybbe (the
rybbe is ye hard quill whiche deuydeth the fether) a
long fether better or a fhorte, fet on nere the nocke,
or farre from the nocke, fet on flreight, or fom what
bowyng? and whether one or two fethers runneon the
bowe. Fourthly in couling or ftieryng, whether high
or lowe, whether fomewhat fwyne backed (I mufLe vfe