The night before the Battle of Hastings King Harold the second (Harold Godwinson)was talking to his troops in a moral boosting exercise.All were confident of the outcome on the morrow except one poor little chap, fumbling with a bow and arrow who confessed that he was terrified.
Have confidence said the king; you have there an English longbow the finest weapon that modern science can produce, now put an arrow into yonder tree. The would be archer did his best but the arrow bounced off a rock and another soldier's helmet and ended up in a haystack a couple of hundred yards from the tree.
"I see what you mean" said the king "you are hopeless, you will have someone's eye out with a performance like that"
History does not record whether it was a French or an English bowman who fired the fatal shot!
I am heading for Kent tomorrow for a holiday so I will solicit the opinion of the locals in one of the pubs in Hastings as I take my evening medication.
Keep Smiling
John