I have been asked to write the practical part of this article, though why I cannot imagine, for although I can sometimes pull off a good score with bow and arrow--when the wind does not blow and when my loose is good--I am of no use whatever with a pen, and never wrote an "article" on anything in my life. The Badminton book on Archery, with its valuable teaching, often stands me in good stead when I get into any of the innumerable tricks which beset the path of the archer, and which well nigh bring the beginner to _despair_ of ever becoming a steady shot. How many beginners have I met who have had to learn by bitter experience that to shoot a good arrow is not so easy as appears at first sight, and that to make perhaps a very fine score of three hundred and odd, does not by any means prove that one has conquered all difficulties. There are so many things to think of at once, and though you may try to do this conscientiously you will find your performance often terribly inadequate. But after all the great fascination of archery consists in the continual battling against faults which creep upon the archer unawares. This we find to our cost on a windy day, for there is nothing like wind to prove that we do not get the real power out of bow and loose. I always recommend to a beginner an inexpensive lancewood bow weighing about twenty-four to twenty-six pounds, the cost of which amounts to about twelve shillings, but when the archeress has practised sufficiently to understand what she requires and _why_, then I should advise a yew-backed yew of good quality as giving more cast and retaining it longer than other kinds. I should perhaps say that by cast is meant the rapidity and ease with which the arrow is delivered from the bow. Many shooters prefer to use a self yew bow, but it must be remembered that this is more delicate and requires to be drawn with great care. A three piece bow of yew, fustic and hickory, price about thirty shillings, will do good service, though the cast does not last so long if one practises constantly, as that of the yew-backed yew. There are many archers who have ruined their style and shooting with too heavy a bow, one weighing twenty-seven or twenty-eight pounds can do all that is necessary for the National Round of sixty and fifty yards if it is properly handled, and for the six dozen arrows at seventy yards, called the Hereford Round, I can use one of the same weight. For eighty yards, however, I prefer a bow of twenty-nine or thirty pounds, still my advice to all beginners is, "Do not shoot with a bow which is beyond your control."