Besides the American lady there are archers from Belgium, France, Poland, Czecho-Slovakia, Norway, Sweden, and one Swiss representative.
Obviously the H.A.C. ground is the right meeting place, for at the beginning this ancient regiment was known as the fraternity of artillery of longbows, crossbows and handguns, licensed to shoot at "all manner of marks or butts, at heron, or pheasant or other game." There are no pheasants in Finsbury now (not even in the shops) and it was strange to hear the twang of bow and the pleasing "plank" of arrows landing in targets while all round us buses grunted and trams clanged and the city went on grubbing for money.
If any of the ancient bowman's ghosts were looking on they must have felt contemptuous, for the longest range today is less than half that at which they shot. There is a story of a Turkish Ambassador to London, who went to see an archery club practising in Bedford Square. "You can't shoot properly in here," he exclaimed with scorn. And taking a bow he went out into the adjoining street and proceeded to discharge arrows up to a quarter of a mile. What happened to the traffüc and What the police did is not recorded. But Ambassadors are privileged.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.