always at hand, it is worn by the archer on his left side. The Glove has three finger-stalls, which should not project over the tops, nor cover the first joint. It has also a backthong, and a wrist-strap to fasten it to the right hand: its use is to prevent the fingers from being hurt by the string. The Brace is designed to protect the left arm from injury. It is made of stout leather, with a very smooth surface, which should be kept constantly greased, that the string may glide easily over it.

The Belt, Pouch, and Grease-Box.-The belt buckles round the waist, and supports, on the right, the pouch (for arrows required for immediate use), and the grease-box, which contains a composition of salt and bees'-wax for greasing the finger of the shooting-glove, and the brace when occasion requires it.

Butts and Targets.—Butts are artificial mounds of earth, turfed over, and built about seven feet high, eight feet wide, and three feet thick. In the centre a circular piece of board or card is placed for a mark: its size should vary according to its distance from the archer-six inches in diameter for sixty yards, and eight inches for eighty yards. He who places the most arrows in the mark is the winner; outside shots do not count.

Targets. Two are generally used, and placed opposite each other, to prevent loss of time in going to pick up the spent arrows, and returning with them to the shooting-point. They are made with plaited straw bands, wound round a centre, and sown together. Over this is drawn a surface of canvas, the ground of which is painted white, and on this

white ground are sketched four circles and a golden centre, called the "bull's eye." The first (inner) circle is red; the next, white, called the "inner white;" the third, black; the fourth, white, or outer white," and the border, or “petticoat of the target" is painted green. The points allowed for shots in either of these circles are,-1 for the outer white; 3 for the black; 5 for the inner white; and for the red 7. For the "bull's eye" 9 are counted. Thus, a scorc might stand as follows:

The usual size of a target is four and a half feet diameter for a distance of one hundred yards.

How to Draw the Bow.-Place yourself erect, firm, and partly sideways, with your face towards the mark, but no part of your body; the heels a few inches apart, and the head slightly bent forward. Holding the bow horizontally in your left hand, you fix your arrow, holding the shaft to the wood by the forefinger of your left hand, and the nick to the string between the first and second fingers of the right hand. Now grasp the centre of the bow firmly with your left hand, and with the right draw back the string, bringing it close up to the right ear, and taking careful aim. Then letting the string slip quickly from the fingers, you discharge your shaft.

Roving is an excellent pastime for "out and about," the wandering toxophilists finding marks in bushes, trees, or other conspicuous objects, and a point being counted when an arrow reaches within two bows' lengths of the mark. Blunt-headed arrows should be used, as the sharp-headed ones can hardly be extracted from the trunk of a tree (for instance) without damage.

Clout Shooting.-Attach a small piece of pasteboard or white cloth to a stick at a height from the ground of about five feet, and a distance from the bowman of three hundred to four hundred. Points are given for all shots within two bows' length of the foot of the clout-stick.

Flight Shooting simply consists in discharging your shafts as far as possible, but must be followed up with care, as the bow is liable to get broken by the heavy strain put upon it.

In archery, as in all other pursuits, practice alone produces perfection. Young novices should be careful how and where they shoot when friends and spectators are near. They should anxiously study a good attitude; should watch over their string and bow with assiduous care; and keep their temper. As a rule, bad-tempered persons never make skilful shots!

YVERY English boy takes to the water as naturally as a duck! If he lives by the sea-side he is never content unless he is bathing, or swimming, or out a-sailing, or rowing, or even dabbling up to his knees in the waves that freshen the sandy beach; and, if his lot is cast in any of the "pleasant places" that border upon our sweet English rivers, he has his wherry or his punt, and either handles his oar (like Dibdin's waterman) with "charming dexterity," beats in trolling and fly-fishing the immortal Izaak Walton himself. Is it not delicious, my boys, to recline like Tityrus, -"sub tegmine fagi,"-where the umbrageous beech, or the delicate alder, or drooping willows cast their broad shifting shadows on the sunlit waters, and a sweet savour comes up

from the blossoms clustered on the river-marge, and a blithe music rings in the ripple of the river or swells from the full throats of joyous birds? Or, like the gentle poet Keats, to

"Linger awhile upon some bending planks

That lean against a streamlet's rushy banks; -
How silent comes the water round that bend!
Not the minutest whisper does it send
To the o'erhanging sallows: blades of grass
Slowly across the chequered shadows pass.
Why, you might read two sonnets, ere they reach
To where the hurrying freshnesses aye preach

A natural sermon o'er their pebbly beds;

Where swarms of minnows show their little heads,
Staying their wavy bodies 'gainst the stream,

To taste the luxury of sunny beams
Tempered with coolness."

Or a mighty pleasure it is, and a surprising happiness, to wander far along the lonely river-bank, listening to the only sounds that break the deep silence-the wailing cry of the plover, the lowing of distant cattle, the sough of the water round the reeds and bulrushes, and the plunge of an active fish leaping into air, and quickly darting back again, in pursuit of its miniature prey. Or it may be that you come to an old and picturesque bridge, against whose piers the river whirls and eddies most fantastically, and beneath whose arches the swallows have securely built their nests. Or it is a summer morning, and you are tempted by the coolness of the "lucent lymph" to cast off your garments, and leap boldly into the water, where you disport yourself with a surpassing enjoyment of freedom, and astonish by your antics the sober carp which are basking near the surface to catch the sun's hot rays. Or if the river be