owans, or Cowans. We have
also among us the Brownsmiths, or makers of brown bills; the Nasmyths,
or nailsmiths; the Arrowsmiths, or makers of arrowheads; the
Spearsmiths, or spear makers; the Shoosmiths, or horse shoers; the
Goldsmiths, or workers in gold; and many more. The Smith proper was,
however, the worker in iron--the maker of iron tools, implements, and
arms--and hence this name exceeds in number that of all the others
combined.

In course of time the smiths of particular districts began to
distinguish themselves for their excellence in particular branches of
iron-work. From being merely the retainer of some lordly or religious
establishment, the smith worked to supply the general demand, and
gradually became a manufacturer. Thus the makers of swords, tools,
bits, and nails, congregated at Birmingham; and the makers of knives
and arrowheads at Sheffield. Chaucer speaks of the Miller of
Trompington as provided with a Sheffield whittle:--

"A Shefeld thwytel bare he in his hose." [22]

The common English arrowheads manufactured at Sheffield were long
celebrated for their excellent temper, as Sheffield iron and steel
plates are now. The battle of Hamildon, fought in Scotland in 1402,
was won mainly through their excellence. The historian records that
they penetrated the armour of the Earl of Douglas, which had been three
years in making; and they were "so sharp and strong that no armour
could repel them." The same arrowheads were found equally efficient
against French armour on the fields of Crecy and Agincourt.

Although Scotland is now one of the principal sources from which our
supplies of iron are drawn, it was in ancient times greatly distressed
for want of the metal. The people were as yet too little skilled to be
able to turn their great mineral wealth to account. Even in the time
of Wallace, they had scarcely emerged from the Stone period, and were
under the necessity of resisting their iron-armed English adversaries
by means of rude weapons of that material. To supply themselves with
swords and spearheads, they imported steel from Flanders, and the rest
they obtained by marauding incursions into England. The district of
Furness in Lancashire--then as now an iron-producing district--was
frequently ravaged with that object; and on such occasions the Scotch
seized and carried off all the manufactured iron they could find,
preferring it, though so heavy, to every other kind of plunder.[23