"But they
have made no public parade since 1743,"[3] owing, probably, to the state
of parties in Edinburgh, for their attachment to the Stuart family was
well understood, and falling under the suspicion of the British
government after the rebellion of 1745, they were watched, "and spies
appointed to frequent their company." The company possess a house built
by themselves, termed Archers' Hall. All their business is transacted by
a president and six counsellors, who are nominated by the members at
large, and have authority to admit or reject candidates _ad libitum_.
The number of this association is now very great, having been of late
years much increased; they have standards, with appropriate emblems and
mottoes, and shoot for several prizes annually; amongst these are a
silver bowl and arrows, which, by a singular regulation, "are retained
by the successful candidate only one year, when he appends a medal to
them; and as these prizes are of more than a hundred years standing, the
number of medals now attached to them are very curious."
[3] Their part in the procession formed to welcome our monarch
to his Scottish metropolis, should be excepted.
To this notice may I be permitted to subjoin a few stanzas? Old Izaak
Walton hath put songs and sylvan poesy in plenty into the mouths of his
anglers and rural _dramatis personae_, and shall _I_ be blamed for
following, in all humility, his illustrious example? Perchance--but
hold! it is one of the fairest of summer mornings; the sun sheds a pure,
a silvery light on the young, fresh, new-waked foliage and herbage; a
faint mist veils the blue distance of the landscape; but the pearly
shroud conceals not yonder troop of young blithe men, who, arranged in
green, after the olden fashion, each bearing the implements of archery,
and tripping lightly over the heath, are carolling in the joy of their
free spirits, while the fresh breeze brings to my ear most distinctly
the words of
THE ARCHER'S SONG.
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