provision
of bows and arrows, and the enforcement of constant practice by all
young men and apprentices. The monk's mixture of brimstone, charcoal,
and salt-petre, however, in course of time left the old English
clothyard shaft with its grey goose feather and the accompanying
six-foot bow of yew to be playthings only, or but fit to use in shooting
squirrels or other small deer. The "Woodmen of Arden" is the oldest
society (in this county) of toxopholites as the modern drawers of the
long bow are called, which society was "revived" in 1785, the Earl of
Aylesford giving a silver bugle horn and his lady a silver arrow as
first and second prizes. The members of a local society may in summer
months be sometimes seen pacing their measured rounds on an allotted
portion of the Edgbaston Botanical Gardens.

_Athletics_--The Birmingham Athletic Club opened the Gymnasium in King
Alfred's Place, in Aug 1866, and hold their annual display and
assault-at-arms in the Town Hall in the month of March. Certain hours
are allotted to the ladies' classes, and special terms are made for
young men and schoolboys.

_Bowling Greens_ and Quoit Grounds were once favourite places of
amusement, many even of the town taverns having them attached. There was
one at the Salutation, bottom of Snow Hill, in 1778, and at an earlier
date at the Hen and Chickens, in High Street. In 1825 a bowling green
was laid out at the corner of Highfield Road and Harborne Road, for "a
very select party" of Edgbastonians. There was also one at the Plough
and Harrow, and several may stil be found in the neighbourhood.

_Chess_, aristocratic game as it is, is far from being unknown here, a
Chess Club having been established half-a-century back, which has nearly
a hundred members. Its present headquarters are at the Restaurant, 1,
Lower Temple Street.

_Cock-fighting_.--Early numbers of _Aris's Gazette_ frequently contained
notices of "mains" fought at Duddeston Hall.

_Cricket_.--There was a Cricket Club in existence here in 1745, and it
has been chronicled that a match was being played on the same day on
which the battle of Culloden was fought. Of modern clubs, whose name is
Legion, the oldest is the Birmingham C.C., started in 1819, the members
including the young _elite_ of the town, who had their field opposite
the Monument at Ladywood. The Birchfield C.C. was organised in 1840.
Among the noteworthy matches of late years are those of the All England
Eleven again