goat's-foot

Updated: May 25, 2025

It was needful even then to be careful of the aim, for the herd, as Shakespeare tells us, at once recognised the sound of a cross-bow: the jar of the string, tight-strained to the notch by the goat's-foot lever, the slight whiz of the missile, were enough to startle them and to cause the rest to swerve and pass out of range.

Richard Jefferies - Field and Hedgerow : Being the Last Essays of Richard Jefferies