The Meadows.] THE ROYAL .ARCHERS. 353
a captahseneral the famous Sir George Mackenzie,
then Lord Tarbat, and Secretary of State, and afterwards
Earl of Cromartie. Having judiciously
chosen a leader of powerful influence and approved
fidelity, they obtained from Queen Anne, on the
6th March, 1704, a charter under the Great Seal
of Scotland, erecting them into a royal company,
receiving and ratifying in their behalf the old laws
and acts in favour of archery ; giving them power
to enrol members, to select a council, and choose
for the Jacobites to omit utilising it for eventual
military purposes, and thus when, in 1714, the critical
state of the country and the hopes and fears of
opposite factions were roused by the approaching
death of Queen Anne and the distracted state of
her ministry, an unusual amount of vigour inspired
the Royal Company of Archers. Their laws were
extended on vellum, adorned with festoons of
ribbon, and subscribed by all the members ; and
they did not hesitate to engross in their minute
ARCHERS? HALL: THE DINING HALL.
their own leaders ; ?? as also of convening in military
fashion, by way of weapon-shaw, under the
guidance of their own officers . . . . and of
going forth as often as to it shall seem proper, at
least once in each year, about Midsummer, to shoot
arrow with a bow at a butt.? (?Laws, &c., of the
Royal Company of Archers ?-J. B. Paul?s Hist.,
&c.). The magistrates of Edinburgh soon after
gave them a silver arrow, to be shot for yearly.
These new rights and privileges they were appointed
to possess after the mode of 2 feudal tenure,
and to hold them in free gift of her Majesty and her
successors, paying therefor an annual acknowledgment
of a pair of barbed arrows.
Such an organisation as this proved too tempting
03
book, in terms not to be misunderstood, that on
his birthday they drank to the health of the exiled
James VIII.
The first
bears on one side Mars and Cupid within a wreath
of thistles, with the motto mentioned ; on the other
is a yew-tree, supported by two archers, with the
motto, Daf gZoria vires. The second colour has
on one side the royal standard, or lion rampant,
with a crowned thistle and the national motto,
Nemo me impune Zacessif. On the other side is St.
Andrew on his cross, with a crown over all, and
the then very significant motto, Dufce pro patria
pwicuZum.
On the 14th of June the Earl cf Cromartie, then
They still carry a pair of colours.
