In this volume I have endeavored to describe the history mechanism and manipulation of the crossbow; medieval and modern, military and sporting.

Though there are numerous books essays and manuscripts, which deal exhaustively with the longbow, the subject of the crossbow has not previously been treated, other than in a very cursory manner by writers on the armour and weapons of the Middle Ages.

I cannot, in any language, discover a work exclusively devoted to the crossbow, though this arm was carried by hundreds of thousands of solders in medieval warfare, and has ever since been popular on the Continent for sporting or target use.

In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the longbow was the cherished weapon of the English, while the crossbow held a similar position in France Germany Italy and Spain.

The longbow, glorious as its achievements were in the hands of our ancestors, but was a hewn stick of foreign yew of no intrinsic value.

On the other hand, the crossbow gave the artist, the engraver, the inlayer and the mechanic every chance of exercising their talents to the utmost.

There are but one or two English longbows in existence; there are, however, numbers of beautifully constructed medieval crossbows to be seen in armouries and museums; weapons which

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