How far is a 'score' ????

[richard roop]

#137745

Been thumbing thru my latest book, ‘With Bended Bow’, Archery In Medieval And Renaissance Europe. by Erik Roth.  Looks like it’s going to be an interesting read, but I keep noticing distance given as xx score. As in …………

Full fifteen score your mark shall be

Full fifteen score shall stand

I lay my bow, said Clifton then

We cleave the willow wand.

Robin Hood and Queen Katherine.

So …………………… does anybody know how far a ‘score’ is ?????

Thanx !!!

[Raymond Coffman]

#137746

Richard

Wikipedia says a score is A unit of measure denoting 20 ( checked to verify my memory, which is suspect these days – haha) it can be time or distance – 20 of anything –

“4 score and 7 yrs” is 87 yrs. Gettysburg address – time since declaration of independence for instance.

In England ( what is the authors nationality? ) it could be yards or rods (5.5 ft)

Scout aka Ray

[Ralph]

#137747

“4 score and 7 yrs” is 87 yrs.

That be a record for a flight shoot… :-)))

I still got 13 years before that arrow lands “I shot an arrow in the air, where it lands I know not where”…

Doc Nock told me I was full of wisdom this morning.

Me, I’m thinking it’s more like full of ****.

[richard roop]

#137749

Ok……………… Possibly 15 score might be 300 paces ???

[Raymond Coffman]

#137761

Richard

Yes – 300 yds very possibly – extreme range for the longbow from my historical readings or :

Score just means 20 of whatever – 15score yards = 300 — 15 score feet = 300ft / 100yds – I think – haha, best I can figure –

 

Scout aka Ray

[Ralph]

#137775

I used a popular search engine and ask “what distance is a score?”

I guarantee what we are sharing, sensible or my nonsense, make way better sense than what came up on my computer.

So I’m outta here with a score being twenty of whatever you have twenty of IMHO…or what you are tallying on a score card/board.

 

Andrew Jackson figured out what a score of dollars is.  . :-))

 

[Raymond Coffman]

#137785

Ralph

Yea, it’s interesting that the computer search engines don’t give a very definitive answer – score is kind of an enigma -good to have a few of those hanging around.

Scout aka Ray

 

[Kees]

#137792

I am always amazed that they were shooting at a willow wand.  Read that recently also in “Witchery of Archery”, as also referenced in the poem in the opening post.  That would be hard to see at 300 yards….

[Raymond Coffman]

#138264

Kees

Thanks for the comment, googled it and found reference to medieval archery –  tgts and ranges —

A  willow wand* apparently was a wood tgt 6ft tall by 6 inches wide ( aprox) often at 100yds ( 15 score ft?)   I also saw a mention and map of Finsbury Fields an area in London used for archery in the 1400s that had tgts ranging out to 345 yds—

* one source said this was thought to represent a castle shooting opening ( loophole/ arrow firing slit —

 

Scout aka Ray

[Author]

Posts