SCOTLAND’S ARCHERS

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 141, 11 March 1938, Page 17

SCOTLAND’S ARCHERS

Attendance On The King TRADITION MAINTAINED When King George VI was at HolyroOdhouse, Scotland, recently, the ancient and honourable Royal Company of Archers, which is privileged by the high distinction of being the King’s Bodyguard for Scotland, presented him with “a pair of barbed arrows” in accordance with an old custom. This famous body, which claims Scotland’s highest nobility as members, is bound, if asked for, to present a pair of arrows to the Sovereign each year at the term of Whit-Sunday. Such is the provision of the charter granted to the Royal Company of Archers by Queen Anne in 1703. In recent times, however, the practice has been limited to the company’s offering the Reddends (pair of arrows) on the occasion of the King’s viists to Scotland, and on special occasions. The King’s Bodyguard for Scotland lias carried on the best traditions of bowmanship for centuries. Its recorded minutes go back to 1676, but it is most probable there was some kind of similar body in existence long before that —centuries perhaps before the time when, in 1549, preaching before the boy King Edward VI, Bishop Latimer styled the British bow, “God’s ■weapon.” Ip those days the safety and honour of the realm depended upon the bow, and there is perhaps some foundation for the claim that the Royal Company evolved out of an archer guard of the Kings of Scotland. Long Ranges. The King’s Bodyguard for Scotland, preserving the martial tradition from the days when the warbbw had a more formidable cast than that required for modern tournaments, used longer ranges than required for modern tournaments)- and always wear uniform while shooting ;for .prizes. The company shoots at 100 ft. butts within doors, and at 180yds. and 200yds. ranges without. Only one other society shoots over yich long ranges, the renowned Woodmen of Arden. In Scotland the St. Andrew Cross is shot for at 200 yards, and the Musselburgh arrow at 180 yards. Proof of the great age of the company is seen in the statement that the Musselburgh Arrow has been shot for since 1603. But at this time, apparently, with the introduction of firearms,* archery was not so popular as it had been. In order to restore its prestige the Royal Company of Archers was put on a sound footing. In the year mentioned, 1676, the minutes begin:—Owing to “the noble and usevfull recreation of archery being for many years much neglected, several noblemen and gentlemen did associate themselves in a company for encouragement thereof... and did apply to the privy council for their approbation . . . which was granted” Fresh Charter. Toward the end of the seventeenth century, owing to the Stuart troubles, the company appears to have been suspended, but in 1703 a new captain-gene-ral, Sir George Mackenzie, afterward Earl of Cromarty, obtained for the company a new charter from Queen Anne. The rights and privileges renewed or conferred by this-charter .were to be held of the Crown on condition that a pair of barbed arrows were presented, as mentioned earlier, on stated occasions. Since then the Royal Company has had a most prosperous existence, and although during the '45 some of its members were on the insurgent side, it was not suspended. .... ; George IV conferred new honours upon it. When, soon after his Coronation, he visited Scotland in 1822, it was deemed appropriate that the- Royal Company should act as His Majesty’s bodyguard. So he authorised the company to take, in addition to its former name, that of “The King’s Body Guard for Scotland,” and presented to their captain-general a gold stick, thus con-, stituting the Company part of the Royal Household. Though this designation had not been in use previously archers had actually in former times been the bodyguard of the King, and there is the tradition that at Flodden the body of the Scot tish King was found covered and surrounded by the bodies of his Archers’ guard. At a Coronation the captain-general of the Royal Company takes his place immediately -behind the gold stick of England. On all ceremonial occasions silver sticks are carried by (a) the President of the Council, who at present happens to be a captain by rank in the Royal Company, and (b) the Officer In Command of the Royal Company on parade when not the captaingeneral, who may be in attendance on the King.' The Royal Company meets the Woodmen of Arden in competition alternately in England and Scotland. The scene on such occasion is very picturesque, for the English bowmen are dressed in tail-coats of green, buff waistcoats, white trousers, , and broad-brimmed hats, and the Scotsmen have Balmoral bonnets and dark green military uniforms. The skill of the markers, dressed in top hats, tail coats, white kneebreeches, and stockings, excites the admiration of onlookers nearly as much as the prowess of the bowmen themselves. The Reddendo. The Reddendo presented to the King, consists of three arrows of the usual standard length, fitted with silver barbs. They rest upon a green velvet cushion embroidered in silver, with an Imperial crown in the centre, encircled by a wreath of thistles, and further bearing the initials of the King’s Bodyguard for Scotland, the Royal Company of Archers, has also the words King George VI, 1937.