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 bow and crossbow makers which must ever be the basis of all future research into the history of this interesting weapon. Before, however, we give illustrations of some of the important crossbows to be seen in public and private collections we will very briefly describe the general construction of the stock and bow. Every crossbow consists in a wooden stock or frame, commonly known as the tiller, terminating in a butt-end, which enables the bow to be shouldered, and provided with a longitudinal groove in which is laid the shaft or bolt. At the opposite extremity of the butt-end is fixed the bow. The string of the bow was stout and thick, and was usually made of gut or strong hemp fibre. When the bow is bent ready for discharge the string is held by a disk made of bone or hard wood known as the barrel, placed some half-way down the stock. This barrel is fitted with two notches, the one holding the string, the other corresponding to the release which, having been displaced, the bow is discharged. Behind the barrel there is a spring, generally of whalebone, which presses lightly on the end of the shaft placed in the groove, thus allowing the crossbow to be tilted without the shaft dropping out of the groove.

The various names given to crossbows were not so much influenced by the shape of the bow and stock, which from the earliest times practically remained unaltered, nor by the method of releasing the string, as by the all-important factor of the appliance used actually to bend the bow of the war crossbow, which in the latter part of the XIVth and throughout the XVth centuries had become so enormously strong as to be quite incapable of manipulation without mechanical aid.

The propelling force of the steel and horn XVth century crossbow must have been great; for as the results of some interesting experiments made with a strong late XVth century steel crossbow obtained from Nuremberg, made under the direction of that eminent authority on implements of the chase, Mr. W. H. Baillie-Grohman, it was found that weights of 1,200 lb. had to be employed in order to pull the cord into position, whereas 60 lb., as all modern archers know, represent the pull of an ordinary long bow. Little wonder then that the great Maximilian could slay a stag at 200 yards, and that men could be killed at more than twice that distance. As some corroboration of the latter fact, a rather interesting story came to the notice of Mr. Baillie-Grohman, interesting, that is to say, if any belief can be attached to this legend of the ancient SchlossMatzen. The affair in question occurred in the middle of the XVth century, when two brothers, the knights Hans and Ulrich of Frundsberg, owned two neighbour