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.*
[footnote...
The early scarcity of iron in Scotland is confirmed by Froissart, who
says,--"In Scotland you will never find a man of worth; they are like
savages, who wish not to be acquainted with any one, are envious of
the good fortune of others, and suspicious of losing anything
themselves; for their country is very poor. When the English make
inroads thither, as they have very frequently done, they order their
provisions, if they wish to live, to follow close at their backs; for
nothing is to be had in that country without great difficulty. There
is neither iron to shoe horses, nor leather to make harness, saddles,