I 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 '■■ -^ n. 
 
 ^ 
 
 '^f^^/ - 
 
 r ,<
 
 m»
 
 Ex Libris 
 C. K. OGDEN 
 
 THE 
 
 SPORTS AND PASTIMES 
 
 PEOPLE OF ENGLAND; 
 
 INCl.UUINC: THli 
 
 RURAL AND DOMESTIC RECREATIONS, 
 MAY GAMES, MUMMERIES, SHOWS, PROCESSIONS, PAGEANTS, St. POMPOUS SPECTACLES 
 
 FROM 
 
 THE EARLIEST PERIOD TO THE PRESENT TIME. 
 
 BY JOSEPH STRUTT. 
 
 ILLVSTRATED BY 
 
 One l^untiretJ mti Jportg lEngtabings. 
 
 IN WHICH ARE REPRESENTED 
 
 MOST OF THE POPULAR DIVERSIONS; 
 
 SELECTED FROM ANCIENT PAINTINGS. 
 
 A NEW EDITION, WITH A COPIOUS INDEX, 
 BY WILLIAM HONE, 
 
 AUTHOR OF THE EVERY-DAV BOOK, TABLE BOOK, YEAR BOOK, ETC. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED FOR THOMAS TEGG, 
 
 73, CHEAPSIDE. 
 
 1845.
 
 J Haddon, Printer, Castle StreetjhFinsbury.
 
 Q-V 
 I'd 
 
 S4-5 
 
 -. BANIA . ..^ 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 There are two previous editions of Mr. Strutt's 
 Sports and Pastimes of the People of England. The 
 first appeared in 1801 ; the second, which was pub- 
 lished in 1810, the year wherein the author died, was 
 an incorrect reprint, without a single additional line. 
 Both were in quarto, and as each of the plates, with 
 few exceptions, contained several subjects referred to 
 in different parts of the work, and as there were no 
 paginal references on the plates, they were frequently 
 embarrassing to the reader. 
 
 ^ The present edition is of a more convenient size, 
 and at one-sixth of the price of the former editions ; 
 and every engraving is on the page it illustrates. 
 
 To a volume abounding in historical and other in- 
 teresting facts, an Index seemed indispensable ; and 
 a very copious one is annexed. The Two former 
 editions were without.
 
 Vi ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 If Mr. Strutt had lived, I am persuaded he would 
 have incorporated into the body of the work some 
 notes, which were needlessly placed on the bottom 
 margins. I have ventured to take them up into the 
 pages ; but without any undue alteration of the 
 author's language. 
 
 I hope, therefore, that my aim to render this edition 
 generally desirable and available, has been fully ac- 
 complished. 
 
 W. Hone. 
 
 Newington Green, 1830.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 A GENERAL ARRANGEMENT OF THE POPULAR SPORTS, PASTIMES, 
 AND MILITARY GAMES, TOGETHER WITH THE VARIOUS SPEC- 
 TACLES OF MIRTH OR P.LENDOUR, EXHIBITED PUBLICLY OR 
 PRIVATELY, FOR THE SAKE OF AMUSEMENT, AT DIFFERENT 
 PERIOD, IN ENGLAND. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. Object of the Work, to describe the Pastimes and trace their Origin — 11. 
 The Romans in Britain — III. The Saxons— IV. The Normans— V^ Tour- 
 naments and Justs— VI. Other Sports of the Nobility, and the Citizens and 
 Yeomen — VII. Knightly Accomplishmeutg — VIII. Esquireship — IX. Mili- 
 tary Sports patronized by the Ladies — X. Decline of such Exercises — XL 
 and of Chivalry — XII. Military Exercises under Henry the Seventh— XIII. 
 and under Henry the Eighth— XIV. Princely Exercises under James the 
 First — XV. Revival of Learning — XVI. Recreations of the Sixteenth Cen- 
 tury— XVII. Old Sports of the Citizens of London— XVIII. Modern Pas- 
 limes of the Londoners — XIX. Cots'.vold and Cornish Games — XX. Splen- 
 dour of the ancient Kings and Nobility — XXI. Royal and noble Entertain- 
 ments— XXII. Civic Shows— XXIII. Setting out of Pageants— XXIV, 
 Processions of Queen Mary and King Philip of Spain in London — XXV. 
 Chester Pageants— XXVI. Public Shows of the Sixteenth Century— XXVII. 
 Queen Elizabeth at Kenelworth Castle — XXVIIl. Love of Public Sights 
 illustrated from Sbakspeare — XXIX. Rope-dancing, tutored Animals, and 
 Puppet-shows — XXX. Minstrelsy, Bell-ringing, &c. — XXXI. Baiting of 
 Animals — XXXI I. Pastimes formerly on Sundays— XXXIII. Royal Inter- 
 ference with them — XXXIV. Zeal against Wakes and May-Games — XXXV. 
 Dice and Cards — XXXVI. Regulation of Gaming for Money by Richard 
 Coeur de Lion, &c. — XXXVII. Stitute.* against Cards, Ball-play, &c. — 
 XXXVIII. Prohibitions of Skittle play— XXXIX. Archery succeeded by 
 Bowling — XL. Modern Gambling — XLI. Ladien' Pastimes, Needle-work — 
 XLII. Dancing and Chess-plaj — XLIIJ. Ladies' Recreations in the Thir- 
 teenth Century. — XLIV. The Author's Labours. — Character of the En- 
 gravings .....-•er < XV
 
 OONT£MTS. 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 RURAL EXERCISES PRACTISED BY PERSONS OF RANK 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PACE 
 
 I, Hunting more ancient than Hawking — II. State of Hunting among the Britons— 
 III. Tlie Saxons expert in Hunting — IV. The Danes also — V. The Saxons 
 subsequently and the Normans— VI. Their tyrannical Proceedings— VII. 
 Hunting and Hawking after the Conquest— VIII. Laws relating to Hunting — 
 IX. Hunting and Hawking followed by the Clergy — X. The manner in which 
 the dignified Clergy in the Middle Ages pursued these Pastimes — XI. The 
 English Ladies fond of these Sports — XII. Privileges of the Citizens of 
 London to hunt ; — private Privileges for Hunting — XIII. Two Treatises on 
 Hunting considered — XIV. Names of Beasts to be hunted — XV. 3Volves 
 not all destroyed in Edgar's Time — XVI. Dogs for Hunting — XVII. Various 
 Methods of Hunting — XVIII. Terms used in Hunting ; — Times when to 
 hunt •• 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 t. Hawking practised by the Nobility — II. Its Origin not well known;— a 
 favourite Amusement with the Saxons — HI. RomEintic Story relative to 
 Hawking — IV. Grand Falconer of France, his State and Privileges — V. 
 Edward III. partial to Hawking ; — Sir Thomas Jermin — VI. Ladies fond of 
 Hawking — VII. Its Decline — VIII. How it was performed — IX. Embel- 
 lishments of the Hawk — X. Treatises concerning Hawking ; — Superstitious 
 Cure of Hawks — XI. Laws respecting Hawks — XII. Their great Value — 
 XIII. The different Species of Hawks, and their Appropriation — XIV, Terms 
 used in Hawking — XV. Fowling and Fishing ; — the Stalking Horse ; — Low- 
 belling 24 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 L Horse-racing known to the Saxons — II. Races in Smithfield, and why — III. 
 Races, at what Seasons practised— I.V. The Chester Races — V. Stamford 
 Races — VI. Value of Running -horses — VII. Highly prized by the Poets, 
 Sec. — VIII. Horse -racing commended as a liberal Pastime — IX. Charles II. 
 ond other Monarchs encouragers of Horse-racing ; — Races on Coleshill- 
 heath 40
 
 CONTENTS XI 
 
 BOOK II 
 
 laURAL EXERCISES GENERALLY PRACTISED. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PACB 
 
 L ITie English famous for their Skill in ArcLery — II. The use of the Bow kuown 
 to the Saxons and Danes — 111. Form of the Saxon Bow, &c. — IV. Archery 
 improved by the Normans — V. The Ladies fond of Archery — VI. Obser- 
 vations relative to the Cross-Bow — VII. Its form and the Manner in which it 
 was used — VIII. Bows ordered to be kept — IX. The decay of Archery and 
 why — X. Ordinances in its Favour ; — the Fraternity of St. George esta- 
 blished — XI. The Price of Bows — XII. Equipments for Archery — XIII. 
 Directions for its Practice — XIV. The Marks to shoot at — XV. The Length 
 of the Bow and Arrows — XVI. Extraordinary Performances of the Archers — 
 XVII. The modern Archers inferior to the ancient in long Shooting — XVIII. 
 The Duke of Shoreditch, why so called ;— -grand Procession of the London 
 Archers — XIX. Archery a royal Sport ;— a good Archer, why called Arthur 
 — XX. Prizes given to the Archers 4<j 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 1. Slinging of Stones an ancient Art — II. Known to the Saxons — III. And the 
 Normans — IV. How practised of late Years — V. Throwing of Weights and 
 Stones with the Hand — VI, By the Londoners — VII. Casting of the Bar and 
 Hammer— VIIL Of Spears— IX. Of Quoits — X. Swinging of Dumh Bells— 
 XI. Foot Races — XII. The Game of Base — XIII. Wrestling much practised 
 formerly — XIV. Prizes for — XV. How performed — XVI. Swimming — XVII. 
 Shding— XVIII. Ska'iii-— XIX. Rowing— XX. Sailing 71 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 1, Hand-ball an ancient Game — The Ball, where said to have been invented — 
 II. Used by the Saxons — III. And by the Schoolboys of London — IV. Ball 
 Play in France — V. Tennis Courts erected — VI. Tennis fashionable in Eng- 
 land — VII. A famous Woman Player — Vlll. Hand ball played for Tansy 
 Cakes— IX. Fives— X. Ballon-ball— XT. Stool - ball— XIL Hurling.— XIII. 
 Foot-ball;— Camp- ball— XIV. Goff ;— Cambuc ;— Bandy-ball— XV, Stow- 
 baU— XVI. Pall-mall— XVII. Ring-ball— XVIII. Club-ball— XIX. Cricket 
 —XX. Trap-Ball— XXI. Noriheu-spell— XXIL Tip-cat 91
 
 Xll CONTENTS. 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 PASTIMES USUALLY EXERCISED IN TOWNS AND CITIES, OR 
 PLACES ADJOINING TO THEM. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 lAOB 
 
 I. Tournament a general Name for several Exercises — II. The Quintain an ancient 
 Military Exercise — III. Various Kiods of the Quintain — IV. Derivation of 
 the Term — V. The Water Quintain — VI. Running at the Quintain prac- 
 tised by the Citizens of London ; and why — VII. The Manner in which it 
 was performed — VIII. Exhibited for the Pastime of Queen Elizabeth — IX. 
 Tilting at a Water Butt — X. The Human Quintain — XI. Exercises pro- 
 bably derived from it — XII. Running at the Ring — XIII. Difference between 
 the Toumaraents and the Justs — XIV. Origin of the Tournament — XV. The 
 Troy Game ; — the Bohordicum or Cane Game — XVI. Derivation of Tour- 
 nament ; — how the Exercise was performed — XVII. Lists and Barriera— 
 XV^JII. When the Tournament was first practised — XIX. When first ia 
 England — XX. Its Laws and Ordinances — XXI. Pages, and Perquisites of 
 the Kings at Arms, &c. — XXII. Preliminaries of the Tournament — XXIII. 
 Lists for Ordeal Combats — XXIV. Respect paid to the Ladies — XXV. Justs 
 less honourable than Tournaments — XXVI. The Round Table — XXVII. 
 Nature of the Justs— XXVIII. Made in honour of the Fair Sex— XXIX. 
 Great Splendour of these Pastimes ; — The Nobility partial to them — XXX. 
 Toys for initiating their Children in them — XXXI. Boat Justs, or Tilting on 
 the Water — XXXII. Challenges to all comers HI 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 I. Ancient Plays — II. Miracle Plays, Dramas from Scripture, &c. continaed 
 several Days — III. The Coventry Play — 1\'. Mysteries described — V. How 
 enlivened — VI. Moralities described — The Fool in Plays, whence derived-— 
 VII. Secular Plays — VIII. Interludes — IX. Chaucer's Definition of the 
 Tragedies of his Time — X. Plays performed in Churches — XI. Cornish Mi- 
 racle Plays — XII. Itinerant Players, their evil Characters — XIII. Court- 
 Plays — XIV. Play in honour of the Princess Mary's Marriage — XV. The 
 Play of Hock Tuesday — XVI. Decline of Secular Plays — XVII. Origin of 
 Puppet Plays — XVIII. Nature of the Performances — XIX. Giants and other 
 Puppet Characters — XX. Puppet Plays superseded by Pantomimes — XXI 
 The modern Puppet- show Man — XXII. Moving Pictures described , 15a
 
 CONTENTS. xiil 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 PA6B 
 
 I. The British Bards— II. The Northern Scalds— III. The Anglo-Saxon Glee- 
 men — IV. The Nature of tlieir Performances — V. A Royal Player with three 
 Darts — VI. Bravery of a Minstrel in the Conqueror's Army — VII. Other 
 Performances by Gleemen — VIII. The Harp an Instrument of Music much 
 used by the Saxons — IX. The Norman Minstrels, and their different De- 
 nominations and Professions — X. Troubadours — XI. Jestours — XII. Tales 
 and Manners of the Jesters — XIIL Further Illustration of their Practices — 
 XIV. Patronage, Privileges, and Excesses of the Minstrels — XV. A Guild 
 of Minstrels — XVI. Abuses and Decline of Minstrelsy — XVII. Minstrels 
 were Satirists and Flatterers — XVIII. Anecdotes of offending Minstrels, 
 Women Minstrels — XIX. The Dress of the Minstrels — XX. The King of 
 the Minstrels, why so called — XXI. Rewards given to JNlinstrels — XXII. 
 Payments to Minstrels — XXIII. Wealth of certain Minstrels — XXIV. Min- 
 strels were sometimes Dancing Masters 170 
 
 C H A P T E R IV. 
 
 I. The Joculator — II. His different Denominations and extraordinary Deceptions — 
 III. His Performances ascribed to Magic — IV. Asiatic Jugglers — V. Re- 
 markable Story from Froissart — VI. Tricks of the Jugglers ascribed to the 
 Agency of the Devil ; but more reasonably accounted for — VII. John Ry- 
 kell, a celebrated Tregetour— VIII. Their various Performances — IX. Pri- 
 vileges of the Joculators at Paris. — The King's Joculator an Officer of Rank 
 — ^X. The great Disrepute of modern Jugglers 19' 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 I. Dancing, Tumbling, and Balancing, part of the Joculator's Profession — II. 
 Performed by Women — III. Dancing connected with Tumbling — IV. Anti- 
 quity of Tumbling — much encouraged — V. Various Dances described — VI. 
 The Gleemen's Dances — VII. Exemplification of Gleemen's Dances — VIII. 
 The Sword Dance — IX. Rope Dancing and wonderful Performances on the 
 Rope — X. Rope Dancing from the Battlements of St. Paul's — XI. Rope 
 Dancing from St. Paul's Steeple — XII. Rope Dancing from All Saints' 
 Church, Hertford — XIII. A Dutchman's Feats on St. Paul's Weathercock — 
 XIV. Jacob Hall the Rope Dancer — XV. Modern celebrated Rope Dancing 
 —XVI. Rope Dancing at Sadler's Wells— XVII. Fool's Dance— XVIII. 
 Morris Dance — XIX. Egg Dance — XX. Ladder Dance — XXI. Jocular 
 Dances — ^XXII. Wire Dancing — XXIII. Ballette Dances — XXIV. Leaping 
 and Vaulting— XXV Balancing—XXVI. Remarkable Featd— XXVII. 
 The Posture-Master's Tricks— XXVIII. The Mountebank— XXIX. The 
 Tinker— XXX. The Fire-Eater 207
 
 xiv CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VL 
 
 PAOE 
 
 1. Animals, how tutored by the Jugglers — Tricks performed by Bears— II. 
 Tricks performed by Apes and Monkeys — III. By Horses among the Syba- 
 rites — IV. In the thirteenth Century — V. In Queen Anne's Reign — VI. 
 Origin of the Exhibitions at Astley's, the Circus, &c. — VII. Dancing Dogs— 
 VIII. The Hare beating a Tabor, and learned Pig — IX. A Dancing Cock — 
 The Deserter Bird — X. Imitations of Animals — XI. Mummings and Masque- 
 rades — XII. Mumming to Royal Personages — XIII. Partial Imitations of 
 Animals — XIV. The Horse in the Morris- dance — XV. Counterfeit Voices 
 of Animals — XVI. Animals trained for Baiting — XVII. Paris Garden — 
 XVIII. Bull and Bear Baiting patronised by Royalty — XIX. How performed 
 — XX. Bears and Bear-waros — XXI. Baiting in Queen Anne's time — XXII. 
 Sword Plav, ,&c.— XXIII. Public Sword Play— XXIV. Quarter Staff— 
 XXV. Wrestling, &c. in Bear Gardens — XXVI. Extraordinary Trial of 
 Strength '>3>j 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 I. Ancient Specimens of Bowling — Poem on Bowling — II. Bowling-greens first 
 made by the English — III. Bowling-alleys — IV. Long-bowling — V. Sup- 
 posed Origin of Billiards— VI. Kayles— VII. Closh— VIII. Loggats— IX. 
 Nine-pins— Skittles — X. Dutch-pins — XI. Four-corners— XII. Half-bowl — 
 XIII. Nine-holes— XIV. John BuU— XV. Pitch and Hustle— XVI. Bull- 
 baiting in Towns and Villages — XVII. Bull-running — At Stamford, &c. — 
 XVIII. At Tutbury— XIX. Badger-baiting— XX. Cock-fighting— XX I. 
 Throwing at Cocks— XXII. Duck-hunting —XXIII. Squirrel-hunting — 
 XXIV. Rabbit- hunting iC6
 
 CONTENTS. -^y 
 
 BOOK IV. 
 
 DOMESTIC AMUSEMENTS OF VARIOUS KINDS ; AND PASTIMES 
 APPROPRIATED TO PARTICULAR SEASONS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAOB 
 
 I. Secular Music fashionable — II. Ballad -singers encouraged by the Populace 
 
 III. Music Houses — IV. Origin of Vauxhall — V. Ranelagh — V'l. Sadler's 
 Wells— VII. Mjirybone Gardens — Operas — Oratorios — VIII. Bell-ringing 
 
 IX. Its Antiquity — X. Hand-bells — XL Burlesque Music — XII. Dancing 
 
 XIII. Its Antiquity, &c. — XIV. Shovel-board — XV. Anecdote of Prince 
 Henry— XVI. Billiards— XVII. Mississippi— XVIII. The Rocks of Scilly— 
 XIX. Shove-groat— XX. Swinging — XXI. Tetter-totter — XXII. Shuttle- 
 cock 28b 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 L Sedentary Games — II. Dice-playing ; — Its Prevalency and Bad Effects ITT. 
 
 Ancient Dice-box ; — Anecdote relating to false Dice — IV. Chess • Its An- 
 tiquity — V. The Morals of Chess — VI. Early Chess-play in France and 
 
 England — VII. The Chess-board — VTII. The Pieces, and their Form IX. 
 
 TTie various Games of Chess — X. Ancient Gaines similar to Chess XI. The 
 
 Philosopher's Game — XII. Draughts, French and Polish — XIII. Merelles, 
 
 or Nine Mens' Morris — XIV. Fox and Geese— XV. The Solitary Game 
 
 XVI. Backgammon, anciently called Tables; — The different Manners of 
 
 playing at Tables — XVII. Backgammon, its former and present Estimation 
 
 XVIII. Domino — XIX. Cards, when invented — XX. Card-playing much 
 practised — XXI. Forbidden — XXII. Censured by Poets — XXIII. A Speci- 
 men of ancient Cards — XXIV. Games formerly played with Cards XXV. 
 
 The Game of Goose — and of the Snake — XXVI. Cross and Pile 305 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 I. The Lord of Misrule said to be peculiar to the English — IL A Court Officer 
 
 III. The Master of the King's Revels — IV. The Lord of Misrule and his 
 
 Conduct reprobated — V. The King of Christmas — of the Cockneys VI. A 
 
 King'of Christmas at Norwich — VII. The King of the Bean — VTII. Whence 
 originated — IX. The Festival of Fools — X. The Boy Bishop — XT. The Fool 
 Plough — XII. Easter Games — XIII. Shrove-Tuesday — XTV. Hock-Tuesda> 
 — XV. May-Games — XVI. The Lord and Lady of the May — XVII. Grand 
 May-Game at Greenwich — XVIII. Royal May-Game at Shooter's-hilJ
 
 IVl CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 XIX. May Milk-Maids — XX. May FestiTal of the Chimney Sweepers — XXI. 
 Whitsun-Games — XXII. The Vigil of Saint John the Baptist, how kept — 
 XXIII. Its supposed origin — XXIV. Setting of the Midsummer Watch — 
 XXV. Processions on Saint Clement's and Saint Catherine's day — XXVI 
 Wassails — XXVII. Sheep-shearing and Harvest-home — XXVIII. Wakes — 
 XXIX, Sunday Festivals— XXX. Church Ales— XXXI. Fairs, and their Di- 
 versions and Abuses — XXXII. Bonfires — XXXIII. Illuminations — XXXIV. 
 Fireworks — XXXV. London Fireworks — XXXVI. Fireworks on Tower- 
 hill, at Public Gardens, and in Pageants. , 339 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 L Popular manly Pastimes imitated by Children — II. Horses — III. Racing and 
 
 Chacing IV. Wrestling and other Gymnastic Sports — V. Marbles, and 
 
 Span-counter— V I. Tops, &c. ; — The Devil among the Tailors — VII. Even 
 or Odd — Chuck- lialfpenny ;— Duck and Drake — VIII. Baste the Bear; — 
 Hunt the Slipper, &c. — IX. Sporting with Insects ; — Kites ; — Windmills — 
 X. Bob-cherry — XI. Hoodman- blind; — Hot-cockles— XII. Cock-fighting — 
 XIII. Anonymous Pastimes; — Mock Honours at Boarding-schools — XIV. 
 Houses of Cards ; — Questions and Commands ; — Handy-dandy ; — Snap- 
 dragon ;— Push-pin ; — Crambo ; — Lotteries — XV. Obsolete Pastimes — XVL 
 
 Creag; Queke-board ; — Hand in and Hand out; — White and Black, and 
 
 Making and Marring ;—Figgum ;—Mosel the Peg ;— Hole about Ui6 
 Churchyard;— Pennyprick;—Pick-point, &c. ; — Mottoes, Similes, 4nii 
 ClOBS-purposes ; — The Parson has lost his Cloak ._, .t79
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 A GENEllAL ARRANGEMENT OF THE POPULAR SPORTS, 
 PASTIMES, AND MILITARY GAMES, TOGETHER WITH 
 THE VARIOUS SPECTACLES OF MIRTH OR SPLENDOUR, 
 EXHIBITED PUBLICLY OR PRIVATELY, FOR THE SAKE 
 OF AMUSEMENT, AT DIFFERENT PERIODS, IN ENGLAND. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 I. Object of the Work, to describe the Pastimes and trace their Origin. — 11. The 
 Roiuiins in Britain. — III. Tlie Saxons. — IV. The Norniaus. — V. Touriiaments 
 and Justs.. — VI. Other Sport.-; of the Nobility, and the Citizens and Yeomen. — 
 VII. Knightly Accomplislimeuts. — VIII. Esquiresliip. — IX. Military Sports 
 patronized by the Ladies. — X. Decline of such Exercises — XI. and of Chivalry. 
 — XII. Mihtary Exercises under Henry the Seventh — XIII. and under Henry 
 the Eighth. — XIV. Princely Exercises under James the Fiist. — XV. Revival of 
 Learning. — XVI. Recreations of the Sixteenth Century. — XVII. Old Sports of 
 the Citizens of London. — XVIII. Modern Pastimes of the Londoneis. — XIX. 
 Cotswold and Cornish Games. — XX. Splendour ot the ancient Kings and No- 
 bility. — XXI. Royal and noble Entertainments. — XXII. Civic Shows. — XXIII 
 Setting out of Pageants. — XXIV. Processions of Queen Mary and King Philip 
 of Spain in London. — XXV. Chester Pageants. — XXVI. Public Shows of the 
 Sixteenth Century. — XX VII. Queen Eliaaheth at Keuelwoith Castle. — XX VIII. 
 Love of Public Sights illustrated from Shaksjeare. — XXIX. Rope-dancing, tu- 
 tored Animals, and Puppet-shows. — XXX. Alinstrelsy, Bell-rinting, &c. — 
 XXXI. Baiting of Animals. — X XX] I. Pastimes formerly on Sundays. — XXXIII. 
 Royal Interference with them. — XXXIV. Zeal against Wakes and RIay-Games. 
 — XXXV. Dice and Cards. — XXXVI. Regulation of Gaming for Money by 
 Richard Coeur de Lion, &c. — XXXVII. Statutes against Cards, Ball-play, 6cc. — 
 XXXVIII. Prohibitions of Skittle-play. — XXXIX. Archery succeeded by 
 Bowling. — XL. Modern Gambling. — XLI. Ladies' Pastimes, Needle-work. — 
 XLII. Dancing and Chess-play. — XLIII. Ladies' Recreations in the Thirteenth 
 Century. — XLIV. The Author's Labours. — Character of the Engravings. 
 
 I.— OBJECT OF THE WORK, TO DESCRIBE THE PASTIMES AND 
 TRACE THEIR ORIGIN. 
 
 In order to form a just estimation of the character of any 
 particular people, it is absolutely necessary to investigate the 
 Sports and Pastimes most generally prevalent among- them. 
 
 b
 
 XVin INTRODUCTION. 
 
 War, policy, and other contingent circumstances, may effectu- 
 ally place men, at different tunes, in different points of view , 
 but, when we follow them into their retirements, where no 
 disguise is necessary, we are most likely to see them in their 
 true state, and may best judge of their natural dispositions. 
 Unfortunately, all the information that remains respecting the 
 ancient inhabitants of this island is derived from foreign writers 
 partially acquainted with them as a people, and totally ignorant 
 of their domestic customs and amusements : the silence, there- 
 fore, of the contemporary historians on these important subjects 
 leaves us witr.out the power of tracing them with the least 
 degree of certainty ; and as it is my intention, in the following- 
 pages, to confine myself as much as possible to positive intel- 
 ligence, I shall studiously endeavour to avoid all controversial 
 and conjectural arguments. I mean also to tieat upon such 
 pastimes only as have been practised in this country ; but as 
 many of them originated on the continent, frequent digressions, 
 by way of illustrations, must necessarily occur: these, how- 
 ever, I shall make it my business to render as concise as the 
 nature of the subject will permit them to be. 
 
 11.— THE ROMANS IN BRITAIN. 
 
 We learn, from the imperfect bints of ancient history, that, when 
 the Romans first invaded Britain, her inhabitants Mere a bold, 
 active, and warlike people, tenacious of their native liberty, and 
 capable of bearing great fatigue; to which they were probably 
 inured by an early edtication, and constant pursuit of such 
 amusements as best suited the profession of a soldier; including 
 hunting, running, leaping, swimming, and other exertions re- 
 quiring strength and agility of body. Perhaps the skill which 
 the natives of Devonshire and Cornwall retain to the present 
 day, in hurling and wrestling, may properly be considered as 
 a vestige of British activity. After the Romans had conquered 
 Britain, they impressed such of the young men as were able 
 to bear arms for foreign service, and enervated the spirit of the 
 people by the importation of their own luxurious manners and 
 habits; so that the latter part of the British history exhibits 
 to our view a slothful and effeminate race of men, totally divested 
 of that martial disposition, and love of freedom, which so 
 strongly marked the character of their prooenitors; and their
 
 INTRODUCTIOX. XIX 
 
 amusements, no doubt, partook of the same weakness and 
 puerility. 
 
 III.— THE SAXONS, 
 
 The arrival of the Saxons forms a new epoch in the annals 
 of this country. These military mercenaries came professedly 
 to assist the Britons ag-ainst their incessant tormentors the Picts 
 and the Caledonians; but no sooner had they established their 
 footing" in the land, than they invited more of their countrymen 
 to join them, and turning their arms against their wretched 
 employers, became their most dangerous and most inexorable 
 enemies, and in process of time obtained full possession of the 
 largest and best part of the island ; whence arose a total change 
 in the form of government, laws, manners, customs, and habits 
 of the people. 
 
 The sportive exercises and pastimes practised by tbe Saxons 
 appear to have been such as were common among" the ancient 
 northern nations ; and most of them consisted of robust exer- 
 cises. In an old Chronicle of Norway,' we find it recorded of 
 Olaf Tryggeson, a king of that country, that he was stronger 
 and more nimble than any man in his dominions. He could 
 climb up the rock Smalserhorn, and fix his shield upon the 
 top of it; he could walk round the outside of a boat upon the 
 oars, while the men were revving ; he could play with three 
 darts, alternately throwing them in the air, and always kept 
 two of them up, while he held the third in one of his hands; 
 he was ambidexter, and could cast two darts at once; he ex- 
 celled all the men of his time in shooting with the bow ; and 
 he had no equal in swimming. In one achievement this monarch 
 was outdone by the Anglo-Saxon gligman, represented by the 
 engraving No. 50,^ who adds an equal number of balls to those 
 knives or daggers. The Norman minstrel Tallefer, before the 
 commencement of the battle at Hastings, cast his lance into the 
 air three times, and caught it by the head in such a surprising- 
 manner, that the English thought it was done by the power of 
 enchantment. Another northern hero, whose name was Kolson, 
 boasts of nine accomplishments in which he was well skilled : 
 " I know," says he, " how to play at chess ; I can engrave 
 Runic letters ; I am expert at my book ; I know how to handle 
 
 ' Pontoppidan's flistory of Norway, p. 248. * Qq p_ 57;}, 
 
 b3
 
 XX IN SUODUCTION. 
 
 the tools of die snsit!);' I can traverse the snow on skates of 
 wood ; I excel in shooting with the bow ; I use the oar with 
 facility; I can sinjf to the harp; and I compose verses."^ The 
 reader will, I doubt not, anticipate me in my observation, tliat 
 the acquirements of Kolson indicate a much more liberal edu- 
 cation than those of the Norwcg'ian monarch : it must, however, 
 be observed, that Kolson lived in an age posterior to hira; and 
 also, that he made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, which may 
 probably accoimt in great measure for his literary qualifications. 
 Yet, Ave are well assured that learning did not form any promi- 
 nent feature in the education of a young nobleman duriiig the 
 Saxon arovernment : it is notorious, th;!t Alfred the Great was 
 twelve years of age before he learned to read ; and that he owed 
 his knowledge of letters to accident, rather than to the intention of 
 his tutors. A book adorned with paintings in the hands of his 
 mother, attracted bis notice, a|id he expressed his desire to have 
 it: she promised to comply with his request on condition that 
 he learned to read it, which it seems he did; and this trifling- 
 incident laid the groundwork of his future scholarship/'' 
 
 Indeed, it is not by any means surprising, under the Saxon 
 government, when the times were generally very turbulent, and 
 the existence of peace exceedingly precarious, and when the 
 personal exertions of the opulent were so often necessary for 
 the preservation of their lives and property, that such exercises 
 as inured the body to fatigue, and biassed the mind to military 
 pursuits, should have constituted the chief part of a young 
 nobleman's education : accordingly, we find that hunting, 
 hawkinii, leaping, miming, wrestling, casting of darts, and 
 otiier pastimes which necessarily required great exertions of 
 bodily strength, were taught them in their adolescence. These 
 amusements engrossed the whole of their attention, every one 
 striving to excel his fellow; for hardiness, strength, and valour, 
 out-balanced, in the public estimation, the accomplishments of 
 the mind; and therefore literature, which flourishes best in 
 tranquillity and retirement, was considered as a pursuit unworthy 
 the notice of a si>ldier, and only requisite in the o-loomy recesses 
 of the cloister 
 
 Among the vices ot the Anglo-Saxons may be reckoued their 
 
 ' The famous IJunstan was also an excellent blacksmilli. 
 
 ' Oliii, Worm. Lit. Run. p. l'^9 ; Bartbolin. p. 45!0. ' At.ser. in Vit. JElfrecii.
 
 INTRODUCTION. XXI 
 
 propensity to gaming-, and especially with the dice, vhich they 
 derived from their ancestors; for Tacitus' assures us that the 
 ancient Germans would not only hazard all their wealth, but 
 even stake their liberty, upon the turn of the dice ; " and he 
 vrho loses," says the author, " submits to servitude, though 
 younger and stronger than his antagonist, and patiently permits 
 himself to be bound, and sold in the market; and this madness 
 they dignify by the name of honour." Chess was also a favourite 
 game with the Saxons; and likewise backgammon, said to 
 have been invented about the tenth century. It appears more- 
 over, that a large portion of the night was appropriated to the 
 pursuit of these sedentary amusentents. In the reign of Canute 
 the Dane, this practice was sanctioned by the example of royalty, 
 and followed by the nobility. Bishop iEtheric, having obtained 
 admission to Canute about midnight upon some urgent business, 
 found the king engaged with his courtiers at play, some at 
 dice, and some at chess.'^ The clergy, however, were prohibited 
 from playing at games of chance, by the ecclesiastical canons 
 established in the reign of Edgar.^ 
 
 IV.— THE NORMANS. 
 
 The popular sports and pastimes, prevalent at the close of 
 the Saxon era, do not appear to have been subjected to any 
 material change by the coming of the Normans : it is true, in- 
 deed, that the elder William and his innnediate successors re- 
 stricted the privileges of the chase, and imposed great penalties 
 on those who presumed to destroy the game in the royal forests, 
 without a proper licence.'* By these restrictions the g. ncral 
 practice of hunting was much confined, but by no means pro- 
 hibited in certain districts, and especially to persons of opulence 
 M'ho possessed extensive territories of their own. 
 
 v.— TOURNAMENTS AND JUSTS. 
 
 Among the pastimes introduced by the Norman nobili«y, 
 none engaged the general attention more than the toui naments 
 and the justs. The tournament, in its original institution, was 
 
 * De Moribus Germ. ' Hist. Ramsien. ajiud GaJe, vol. i. an. Sl>. 
 ' A. D. 960, can. 64, Johnson's Canons. 
 
 * See p. 6 in the body of the -work.
 
 XXII INTRODUCTION. 
 
 a martial conflict, in which the combatants engaged without any 
 animosity, merely to exhibit their strength and dexterity; but, 
 at the same time, engaged in great numbers to represent a 
 battle. The just was when two knights, and no more, were 
 opposed to each other at one time. These amusements, in the 
 middle ages, which may properly enough be denominated the 
 ages of chivalry, were in high repute among the nobility of 
 Europe, and produced in reality much of the pomp and gal- 
 lantry that we find recorded with poetical exaggeration in the 
 legends of knight-errantry. I met with a passage in a satirical 
 poem among the Harleian MSS. of the thirteenth century,' 
 which strongly marks the prevalence of this taste in the times 
 alluded to. It may be thus rendered in English : 
 
 If wealth, sir kniglit, percliance be thine, 
 In tournaments j'ou're bound to shine ■ 
 Refuse — and all the world will swear 
 . You are not worth a rotten pear.* 
 
 VI.— OTHER SPORTS OF THE NOBILITY, AND THE CITIZENS AND 
 
 YEOMEN. 
 
 While the principles of chivalry continued in fashion, the 
 education of a nobleman was confined to those principles, and 
 every regulation necessary to produce an accomplished knight 
 was put into practice. In order fully to investigate these par- 
 ticulars, we may refer to the romances of the middle ages ; and, 
 generally speaking, dependence may be placed upon their in- 
 formation. The authors of these fictitious histories never looked 
 beyond the customs of their own country ; and whenever the 
 subject called for a representation of remote magnificence, they 
 depicted such scenes of splendour as were familiar to them : 
 hence it is, that Alexander the Great, in his legendary life, re- 
 ceives the education of a Norman baron, and becomes expert 
 in hawking, hunting, and other amusements coincident with 
 the time in which the writer lived. Our early poets have fallen 
 into the same kind of anachronism ; and Chaucer himself, in 
 the Knight's Tale, speaking of the rich array and furniture of 
 the palace of Theseus, forgets that he was a Grecian prince of 
 preat antiquity, and describes the large hall belonging to an 
 
 ' No. 2253, fol. 108. 
 
 ' In the original it is purry poume, that is, xntten apple
 
 INTRODUCTION. Xxili 
 
 Eng-lish nobleman, with the guests seated at tabic, probably as 
 he had frequently seen them, entertained with singing, dancing, 
 and other acts of minstrelsy, their hawks being placed upon 
 perches over their heads, and their hounds lying round about upon 
 the pavement below. The two last lines of the poem just referred 
 to are peculiarly applicable to the maimers of the time in which 
 the poet lived, when no man of consequence f/avelled abroad 
 without his haM'k and his hounds. In the early delineations, 
 the nobility are frequently represented seated at table, with their 
 hawks upon their heads. Chaucer says, 
 
 Ne what hawkes sytten on perchen above, 
 Ne what houndes lyg'gen on the flour adoun. 
 
 The picture is perfect, when referred to his own time; but 
 bears not the least analogy to Athenian grandeur. In ths ro- 
 mance calle<l The Knight of the Swan, it is said of Ydain duchess 
 Roulj'on, that she caused her three sons to be brought up in 
 "all manor of good operacyons, vertues, and manors; and when 
 in their adolescence they were somwhat conien to the age ot 
 strengthe, they," their tutors, " began to practyse them in 
 shootinge with their bow and arbelstre,' to playe with the sword 
 and buckeler, to runne, to just,^ to playe with a poll-axe, and 
 to wrestle ; and they began to bear harneys,^ to runne horses, 
 and to approve them, as desyringe to be good and faythful 
 kuightes to susteyue the faith of God." We are not, however 
 to conceive, that martial exercises in general were confined to 
 the education of young noblemen : the sons of citizens and 
 yeomen had also their sports resembling military combats. Those 
 practised at an early period by the young Londoners seem to 
 have been derived from the Romans ; they consisted of various 
 attacks and evolutions performed on horseback, the youth being 
 armed with shields and pointless lances, resembling the Indus 
 Trojoe, or Troy game, described by Virgil.'* These amusements, 
 according to Fitz Stephen, who lived in the reign of Henry It., 
 were appropriated to the season of Lent; but at other times they 
 exercised themselves with archery, fighting with clubs and 
 bucklers, and running at the quintain; and in the winter, when 
 the frost set in, they would go upon the ice, and run against 
 
 • The cross-bow. 
 
 ' That is, to practise with lances, two persons runniog one against the other. 
 
 * Armour. * See p. 126 of lliis work
 
 %X\V INTRODUCTION. 
 
 each other with poles, in imitation of lances, in a just; and 
 frequently one or both were beaten down, "not always without 
 hurt; for some break their arm*!, and some their legs; but 
 youth," says my author, " emulous of glory, seeks these exer- 
 cises preparatory against the time that war shall demand their 
 presence." The like kind of pastimes, no doubt, were prac- 
 tised by the young men in other parts of the kingdom. 
 
 VII.— KNIGHTLY ACCOMPLISHMEXTS. 
 
 The mere management of arms, though essentially requisite, 
 was not sufficient of itself to form an accomplished knight in 
 the times of chivalry; it was necessary for him to be endowed 
 with beauty, as well as with strength and agility of body ; he 
 ought to be skilled in music, to dance gracefully, to run with 
 swiftness, to excel in wrestling, to ride well, and to perform 
 every other exercise befitting his situation. To these were to be 
 added urbanity of manners, strict adherence to tiie truth, and 
 invincible courage. Hunting and hawking skilfully v/ere also 
 acquirements that he was obliged to possess, and which were 
 usually taught him as soon as he was able to endure the fatigue 
 that they required. Hence it is said of sir Tristram, a fictitious 
 character lield forth as the mirror of chivalry in the romance 
 entitled The Death of Arthur, that "he learned to be an 
 harper, passing all other, that there was none such called hi 
 any countrey : and so in harping* and on instruments of musike 
 he a])plied himself in his youth for to learne, and after as he 
 growed in might and strength he laboured ever in hunting and 
 hawking, so that we read of no gentlemen who more, or so, 
 used himself therein ; and he began good measures of blowing 
 blasts of venery,^ and chase, and of all manner of vermains ; ^ 
 and all these terms have we yet of hunting and hawking; and 
 therefore the book of venery, and of hawking and hunting, is 
 called the Boke of Sir Tristram." In a succeeding part of the 
 same romance, king Arthur thus addresses the knight: "For 
 all manner of hunting thou bearest the prize; and of all mea- 
 sures of blowing- thou art the beginner, and of all the termes 
 
 • Hutiting. 
 
 » In the first chapter, p. 17, the reader will find the aiiin.als to be hunted divided 
 into three classes ; namely, beasts of venery, beasts of chase, and raskals, or vermin. 
 The horn was sounded in a diiierent manner according to the clas? of the beasts 
 pursued. 
 
 I
 
 INTRODUCTION. XXV 
 
 of hunting and hawking- thou art the beginner." ^ We are also 
 informed, that sir Tristram had previously learned the language 
 of France, knew all the principles of courtly behaviour, and was 
 skilful in the various requisites of knighthood. Another ancient 
 romance says of its hero, " He every day was pvovyd in dauncyng 
 and in sonjfs that the ladies coulde think were convenable for a 
 nobleman to conne ;2 but in every ihinge he passed all them that 
 were there. The king, for to assaie him, made justes and turnies ; 
 and no man did so well as he, in runnyng, playing at the pame,^ 
 shotyng, and castyngof the barre, ne found he his maister.''"* 
 
 VIIL— ESQUIRESHIP. 
 
 The laws of chivalry required that every knight should pass 
 through two offices: the first was a page; and, at the age of 
 fourteen, he was admitted an esquire. The office of the esquire 
 consisted of several departments ; the esquire for the body, 
 the esquire of the chamber, the esquire of the stable, and the 
 carving esquire ; the latter stood in the hall at dinner, carved 
 the different dishes, and distributed them to the guests. Several 
 of the inferior officers had also their respective esquires.^ 
 Ipomydon, a king's son and heir, in the romance that bears 
 his name, written probably at the commencement of the four- 
 teenth century, is regularly taught the duties of an esquire, 
 previous to his receiving the honours of knighthood ; and for 
 this purpose his father committed him to the care of a " learned 
 and courteous knight called Sir 'Tholomew." Our author 
 speaks on this subject in the following manner: 
 
 'Tholomew a clerke he toke, 
 
 That taught the child uppon the boke 
 
 Both to synge and to rede ; 
 
 And after he taught hym other dede. 
 
 ' Morte Arthur, translated from the French by sir Tliomas Mallory, knight, and first 
 printed by Caxton, A. D. 1481. " The English," says a writer of our own country, 
 " are so naturally inclined to pleasure, that there is no countrie wherein orentlemen 
 and lords have so many and so large parkes, only reserved for the purpose of hunting." 
 And again, " Our progenitors were so delighted :vit!i hunting, that the parkes are 
 Jiowe growne infinite in number, and are thought to containe more fallow deere 
 than all the Christian woi Id btsiues." Itinerary of Fynes Moryson, published in 
 1617, part iii. book iii. cap. 3. 
 
 * To learn. ^ Wnuen also paume ; that is, hand-tennice 
 
 * Romance of Three Kings' Sons and the King of Sicily, Ilarl. MS. 326. 
 
 * Mera. Anc. Cheval. torn. i. p. \0.
 
 XXri INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Afterward, to serve in halle 
 Both to grete and to smaile ; 
 Before the kynge mete to kerve ; 
 Hye and low fayre to serve. 
 Botli of howndes and hawkis game, 
 After, he taught hym all ; and same, 
 [n sea, in feld, and eke in ryvere ; 
 In woode to chase the wild dere. 
 And in feld to ryde a stede ; 
 That all men had joy of hys dede.' 
 
 Here we find reading mentioned; which, however, does not 
 appear to have been of any great importance in the middle ag-es, 
 and is left out in the Geste of King Home, another metrical 
 romance,^ which seems to be rather more ancient than the former. 
 Young Home is placed under the tuition of Athelbrus, the king's 
 steward, who is commanded to teach him the mysteries of hawk- 
 ing and hunting, to play upon the harp, 
 
 Ant toggen o' the harpe 
 With his nayles aharpe, 
 
 to carve at the royal table, and to present the cup to the king 
 when he sat at meat, with every other service fitting for him to 
 know. The monarch concludes his injunctions with a repeti- 
 tion of the charge to instruct him in singing and music : 
 
 Tech him of harp and of song. 
 
 And the manner in which the king's carver performed the 
 duties of his oflice is well described in the poem denominated 
 the Squyer of Lowe Degree • ^ 
 
 There he araied him in scarlet red, 
 
 And set a chaplel upon his hedde ; 
 
 A belte about his sydes two, 
 
 With brode barres to and fro ; 
 
 A home about his necke he caste ; 
 
 And forth he went at the laste. 
 
 To do his office in the halle 
 
 Among the lordes both greate and small. 
 
 He toke a white yeard in his hand ; 
 
 Before the kynge than gan he stande ; 
 
 And sone he set hym on his knee, 
 
 And served the kynge ryght royally 
 
 With deyEty raeates that were dere. — 
 
 > Harl. MS. 2252. » (bid. 
 
 • Printed by Copeland; Wack letter, witlioutdate ; Garrick's Collectiou, K. vo}. ix.
 
 INTUODUCTION. XXVJI 
 
 — And, when the squyer had done so, 
 He served them all' to and fro. 
 Eche man hym loved iu honeste, 
 Hye and lowe in their degre ; 
 So dyd the kyng — &c. 
 
 IX.— MILITARY SPORTS PATRONIZED BY THE LADIES. 
 
 Tournaments and justs were usually exhibited at coronatjoiw 
 royal marriages, and other occasions of solemnity where pomp 
 and pageantry were thought to be requisite. Our historians 
 abound with details of these celebrated pastimes. The reader 
 is referred to Froissart, Hall, Holinshed, Stow, Grafton, &c. 
 who are all of them very diffuse upon this subject ; and in the 
 second volume of the Manners and Customs of the English 
 are several curious representations of these military combats 
 both on horseback and on foot. 
 
 One great reason, and perhaps the most cogent of any, why 
 the nobility of the middle ages, nay, and even princes and 
 kings, delighted so much in the practice of tilting with each 
 other, is, that on such occasions they made their appearance 
 with prodigious splendour, and had the opportunity of display- 
 ing- their accomplishments to the greatest advantage. The 
 ladies also were proud of seeing their professed champions 
 engaged in these arduous conflicts; and, perhaps, a glove or 
 riband from the hand of a favourite female might have inspired 
 the receiver with as zealous a wish for conquest, as the abstracted 
 love of glory; though in general, 1 presume, both these ideas 
 were united ; for a knight divested of gallantry would have 
 been considered as a recreant, and unworthy of his profession. 
 
 X.— DECLINE OF MILITARY EXERCISES. 
 
 When the military enthusiasm which so strongly characterised 
 the middle ages had subsided, and chivalry was on the decline, 
 a prodigious change took place in the nurture and manners of 
 the nobility. Violent exercises requiring the exertions of mus- 
 cular strength grew out of fashion with persons of rank, and 
 of course were consigned to the amusement of the vulgar; and 
 the education of the former became proportionably more soft 
 
 ■ Tha', is, all of the lords and other nobility who were seated in the haJi.
 
 XXVIll INTRODUCTION 
 
 and delicate. This example of the nobility was soon followeJ 
 by persons of less consequence ; and the neglect of military 
 exercises prevailed so generally, that the interference of the 
 legislature was thought necessary, to prevent its influence from 
 being universally diffused, and to correct the bias of the com- 
 mon mind; for, the vulgar readily acquiesced with the relax- 
 ation of meritorious exertions, and fell into the vices of the 
 times, resortmg to such games and recreations as promoted 
 idleness and dissipation, by which they lost their money, and, 
 what is worse, their reputation, entailing poverty and distress 
 on themselves and their families. 
 
 XI DECLINE OF CHIVALRY. 
 
 The romantic notions of chivalry appear to have lost their 
 vigour towards the conclusion of the fifteenth century, especially 
 in this country, where a continued series of intestine commotions 
 employed the exertions of every man of property, antl real 
 battles afforded but little leisure to exercise the mockery of 
 war. It is true, indeed, that tilts and tournaments, with other 
 splendid exhibitions of military skill, Avere occasionally exer- 
 cised, and with great brilliancy, so far as pomp and finery could 
 contribute to make them attractive, till the end of the succeed- 
 ing century. These splendid pastimes were encouraged by the 
 sanction of royalty, and this sanction was perfectly political ; 
 on the one hand, it gratified the vanity of the nobility, and, 
 on the other, it amused the popuhice, who, being delighted 
 with such shows of grandeur, were thereby diverted from re- 
 flecting too deeply upon the grievances they sustained. It ii^, 
 however, certain that the justs and tournaments of the latter 
 ages, with all their pomp, possessed but little of the primitive 
 spirit of chivalry. 
 
 XII.— MILITARY EXERCISES UNDER HENRY VIL 
 
 Henry VII. patronized the gentlemen and officers of his 
 court in the practice of military exercises. The following ex- 
 tract may serve as a specimen of the manner in which they were 
 appointed to be performed: " Whereas it ever hath bene of old 
 antiquUie used in this realme of most noble fame, for all lustye 
 gentlemen to passe the delectable season of summer alter tJivcrs 
 
 I
 
 INTRODUCTION. XXIX 
 
 manner and sondry fashions of disports, as in huntino- the red 
 and fallowe deer with houndes, uicn houndes, and >vith the 
 bo\ve; also in hawking- with hawkes of the tower; and other 
 pastimes of the field. And bycause it is well knoAven, timt 
 in the months of Maie and June, all such disjvcrts be not con- 
 venient; wherefore, in escheAving' of i !< ess, the ground of all 
 vice," and to promote such exercises as " shall be honourable, 
 and also healthfnll and profitable to the body," we "beseech 
 your most noble highness to permit two gentlemen, assosyatying 
 to them two other gentlemen to be their aides," by "your ora- 
 cious licence, to furnish certain articles concerning- the feates 
 of armcs hereafter ensninge:" — " In the first place; On the 
 twenty-second daye of Maie, there shall be a grene tree sett up 
 in the lawnde of Grenwidi parke; whereupon shall hange, by 
 a grene lace, a vergescu ' blanke; upon wh ch white shield it 
 shal be lawful for any gentleman that will answer the following 
 chalengp to subscribe his name. — Secondly; The said two 
 gentlemen, with their two aides, shal be redye on the twenty- 
 thirde dale of Maie. being Thursdaye, and on Mondaye thence 
 next ensewinge, and so everye Thursday and Monday untill 
 the twentieth daye of June, armed for the foote, to answear 
 all gentlemen connners, at the feate called the Barriers, with 
 the casting-speare, and the targett, and with the bastard-sword,^ 
 after the manner following, that is to saie, from sixe of the clocke 
 in the forenoone till sixe of the clocke in the afternoone during- the 
 time. — ^Thirdly; And the said twogenllemen, with their twoaiders, 
 or one of them, shall be there redye at the said place, the daye and 
 dayes before rehearsed, to deliver any of the gentlemen answeares 
 of one caste with the speare bedded with the morne,^ and seven 
 strokes with the sword, point and edge rebated, without close, or 
 griping one another with handes, uponpaineof punishmentas the 
 judges for the time being shall thinke requisite. — Fourthly; And 
 it shall not be lawful! to the challengers, nor to the answearers, 
 with the bastard sword to give or ofl^er any foyne^ to his match, 
 upon paine of like punishment. — Fifthly; The challengers shall 
 bringe into ijse fielde, the said daies and tymes, all manner of 
 
 ' For riergf t-Mn, a virgin shield, or a wliite shield, witliout any devices, such as 
 was borne b\ tl\f tyros in chivalry who had not performed any memorable aci'on. 
 ' A S'vord without edge or point, as it is explained in the fcjllowjng articlf s. 
 ' That is, uith heads wiiliout points, or blunted so that they could do no hur. 
 * Foyne, or f in, sjunifies to push or liirui-t with the sword, insiead of strikiiitr.
 
 XXX INTRODUCTION. 
 
 weapons concerning the said feates, that is to save, casting- 
 speares hedded with mornes, and bastard swords with the edge 
 and point rebated ; and the answerers to have the first choise." ' 
 
 XIII.— MILITARY EXERCISES UNDER HENRY VIII. 
 
 Henry VIII. not only countenanced the practice of military 
 pastimes by permitting them to be exercised without restraint, 
 but also endeavoured to make them fashionable by his own ex- 
 ample. Hall assures us, that, even after his accession to the 
 throne, he continued daily to amuse himself in archery, casting 
 of the bar, wrestling, or dancing, and frequently in tilting, 
 tournaying, fighting at the barriers with swords, and battle- 
 axes, and such like martial recreations, in most of which there 
 were few that could excel him. His leisure time he spent in 
 playing at the recorders, flute, and virginals, in setting of songs, 
 singing and making of ballads.^ He was also exceedingly fond 
 of hunting, hawking, and other sports of the field ; and indeed his 
 example so far prevailed, that hunting, hawking, riding thegreat 
 horse, charging dexterously with the lance at thetilt, leaping, and 
 running, were necessary accomplishments for a man of fashion.^ 
 The pursuits and amusements of a nobleman are placed in a dif- 
 ferent pointof view byan author of the succeeding century ;* who, 
 describing the person and manners of Charles lord Mountjoy, 
 regent of Ireland, in 1599, says, "He delighted in study, in gjir- 
 dens, in riding on a pad to take the aire, in playing at shovelboard, 
 at cardes, and in reading of play-bookes for recreation, and 
 especially in fishing and fish-ponds, seldome useing any other 
 exercises, and useing these rightly as pastimes, only for a short 
 and convenient time, and with great variety of change from one 
 to the other." The game of shovelboard, though now considered 
 as exceedingly vulgar, and practised by the lower classes of 
 the people, was formerly in great repute among the nobility and 
 gentry ; and few of their mansions were without a shovelboard, 
 which was a fashionable piece of furniture. The great hall 
 was usually the place for its reception. 
 
 » Harl. MS. 69. =* Hall, in Life of Henry VIIL 
 
 ' Arte of Rhetorike by The. Wilson, fol. 67. 
 
 * Fynes Moryson's Itinerary, published A. D. 1617-
 
 INTRODUCTION. XXXI 
 
 XIV.— PRINCELY EXERCISES UNDER JAMES 1. 
 
 We are by no means in the dark respecting- the education of 
 the nobility in the reign of James I.; we have, from that mon- 
 arch's own hand, a set of rules for the nurture and conduct of 
 an heir apparent to the throne, addressed to his eldest son 
 Henry, prince of Wales. From the third book of this remark- 
 able publication, entitled " basiaikon aqpon, or, a Kinge's 
 Chistian Dutie towards God," I shall select such parts as re- 
 spect the recreations said to be proper for the pursuit of a 
 nobleman, without presuming to make any alteration in the 
 tliction of the royal author. 
 
 '* Certainly," he says, "bodily exercises and games are very 
 commendable, as well for bannishing of idleness, the mother 
 of all vice ; as for making the body able and durable for travell, 
 which is very necessarie for a king. But from this court I de- 
 barre all rough and violent exercises; as the foote-ball, meeter 
 for lameing, than making able, the users thereof; as likewise 
 such tumbling trickes as only serve for comoedians and balladines 
 to win their bread with : but the exercises that I would have 
 vouto use, although but moderately, not making a craft of them, 
 are, running, leaping, wrestling-, fencing, dancing, and playing 
 at the caitch, or tennise, archerie, palle-malle, and such like 
 other fair and pleasant field-games. And the honourablest and 
 most recommendable games that yee can use on horseback; 
 for, it becometh a prince best of any man to beafaire and good 
 horseman : use, therefore, to ride and danton great and cou- 
 rageous horses; — and especially use such games on horseback 
 as may teach you to handle your armes thereon, such as the 
 tilt, the ring-, and low-riding for handling of your sword. 
 
 " I cannot omit heere the hunting, namely, with running 
 houndes, which is the most honourable and noblest sort thereof; 
 for it is a theivish forme of hunting to shoote with gunnes and 
 bowes; and greyhoiunl hunting' is not so martial a game. 
 
 " As for hawkinge, I condemn it not; but I must praise it 
 more sparingly, because it neither resembleth the m arres so neere 
 as huiitiiig doeth in making a man bardie and skilfully ridden 
 in all grounds, and is more uncertain and subjec. to mischances; 
 
 ' Coursing, 1 presume, ha meaos
 
 XXXIl INTRODUCTION. 
 
 and, which is worst of all, is there through an extreme stirrer 
 up of the passions. 
 
 " As for sitting, or house pastimes*— since they may at times 
 supply the roome which, being einptie, would be patent to per- 
 nicious idleness — I will not therefore agree with the curiositio 
 of some learned men of our age in forbidding cardes, dice, and 
 such like games of hazard : ' when it is foule and storniie wea- 
 ther, then I sny, may ye lawfully play at the cardes or tables; 
 for, as to diceing, I think it becommeth best deboshed souldiers 
 to play at on the heads of their drums, being only ruled by 
 hazard, and subject to knavish cogging; and as for the chesse, 
 I think it over-fond, because it is over-wise and philosophicke 
 a folly." 
 
 His majesty concludes this subject with the following good 
 advice to his son : " Beware in making your sporters your 
 councellors, and delight not to keepe ordinarily in your com- 
 panie comoedians or ballad ines." 
 
 XV.— REVIVAL OF LEARNING. 
 
 The discontinuation of bodily exercises afforded a proportion- 
 able quantity of leisure time for the cultivation of the mind; 
 so that the manners of mankind were softened by degrees, and 
 learning, which had been so long neglected, became fashionable, 
 and was esteemed an indispensable mark of a polite education. 
 Yet some of the nobility maintained for a long time the old pre- 
 judices in favour of the ancient mode of nurture, and preferred 
 exercise of the body to mental endowments ; such was the opinion 
 of a person of high rank, who said to Richard Pace, secretary 
 to king Henry VHI., " It is enough for the sons of noblemen 
 to wind their horn and carry their hawke fair, and leave study 
 and learning to the children of meaner people." 2 Many of the 
 pastimes that had been countenanced by the nobility, and 
 sanctioned by their example, in the middle ages, grew into 
 disrepute in modern times, and were condemned as vulgar and 
 unbecoming the notice of a gentleman. " Throwing the ham- 
 mer and wrestling,*' says Peacham, in his Complete Gentleman, 
 
 ' 1 here omit a long train of royal reasoning in confutation of the assertione of the 
 learned men his majesty alludes to in *his oassa^e. 
 » Biograph. Brit. p. ISJao.
 
 iNTRODucTiopr. xxxi'u 
 
 published in 1622, " I hold them exercises not so well beseem- 
 ing^ nobility, but rather the soldiers in the camp and the prince's 
 guard." On the contrary, sir William Forest, in his Poesy e 
 of Princelye Practice, a MS. in the Royal Library,' written in the 
 year 1548, laying- down the rules for the education of an heir 
 apparentto the crown, or prince of the blood royal, writes thus: 
 
 So must a prince, at some convenient brayde. 
 In featis of maistrtes bestowe some diligence : 
 Too ryde, runne, leape, or caste by violence 
 Stone, barre, or plummett. or suche other tbinge. 
 It not refusetbe any prince oi kynge. 
 
 However, I doubt not both these authors spoke agreeably to 
 the taste of the times in which they lived. Barclay, a more 
 early poetic writer, in his Eclogues, first published in 1506, 
 has made a shepherd boast of his skill in archery; to which be 
 adds, 
 
 I can dance the raye ; I can both pipe and sing. 
 If I were mery ; I can both hurle and shng ; 
 I runne, I wrestle, I can well throwe the barre. 
 No shepherd throweth the axeltree so farre ; 
 If I were mery, I could well leape and spring ; 
 I were a man mete to serve a prince or king. 
 
 XVI.— RECREATIONS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy, published in 1C60, 
 gives us a general view of the sports most prevalent in the 
 seventeenth century. " Cards, dice, hawkes, and hounds," 
 says he, " are rocks upon which men lose themselves, when 
 they are imprudently handled, and beyond their fortunes." 
 And again, " Hunting and hawking are honest recreations, 
 and fit for some great men, but not for every base inferior 
 person, who, while they maintain their faulkoner, and dogs, 
 and hunting nags, their wealth runs away with their hounds, 
 and their fortunes fly away with their hawks." In another 
 place he speaks thus: "Ringing, bowling, shooting, playing^ 
 with keel-pins, tronks, coits, pitching of bars, hurling, wrest- 
 ling, leaping, running, fencing, mustering, swinmiing, playing 
 with wasters, foils, foot-balls, balowns, running at the quintain« 
 and the like, are common recreations of country folks : r'diiig 
 
 > No. 17. D. iii. 
 
 c
 
 XXXIV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of great horses, running at rings, tilts and tournaments, horse- 
 races, and wild-goose chases, which are disports of greater 
 men, and good in themselves, though many gentlemen by such 
 means gallop quite out of their fortunes." Speaking of l.'ie 
 Londoners, he says, " 1 hey take pleasure to see some pageant 
 or sight go by, as at a coronation, wedding, and such like 
 solemn niceties; to see an ambassador or a prince received and 
 entertained with masks, shows, and fireworks. The country 
 hath also his recreations, as May-games, feasts, fairs, and 
 wakes." The following pastimes he considers as common both 
 in town and country, namely, " bull-baitings and bear-baitings, 
 in which our countrymen and citizens greatly delight, and fre- 
 quently use; dancers on ropes, jugglers, comedies, tragedies, 
 artillery gardens, and cock-fighting." He then goes on: " Or- 
 dinary recreations we have in winter, as cards, tables, dice, 
 shovelboard, chess-play, the philosopher's game, small trunks, 
 shuttlecock, billiards, music, masks, singing, dancing-, ule- 
 games, frolicks, jests, riddles, catches, cross purposes, questions 
 and commands, merry tales of errant knights, queens, lovers, 
 lords, ladies, giants, dwarfs, thieves, cheaters, witches, fairies, 
 goblins, and friars." To this catalogue he adds: " Dancing, 
 singing, masking, mumming, and stage-plays, are reason- 
 able recreations, if in season ; as are IMay-games, w akes, 
 and Whitson-ales, if not at unseasonable hours, are justly per- 
 mitted. Let them," that is, the common people, " freely feast, 
 sing, dance, have puppet-plays, hobby-horses, tabers, crowds,' 
 and bag-pipes:" let them " play at ball and barl ey -brakes ; " 
 and afterwards, " Plays, masks, jesters, gladiators, tumblers, 
 and jugglers, are to be winked at, lest the people should do 
 M'orse than attend them." 
 
 A character in the Cornish Comedy, written by George Powell, 
 and acted at Dorset Garden in 1 696, says, " What is a gentle- 
 man without his recreations ? With these we endeavour to pass 
 ciway that time which otherwise w. uld lie heavily upon our 
 Lands. Hawks, hounds, setting-dogs, and cocks, with their 
 appurtenances, are the true marks of a counti'y gentleman." 
 This character is supposed to be a young heir just come to his 
 estate. " My cocks," says he, " are true cocks of the game — I 
 make a match of cock-fighting, ant! then an hundred or two 
 pounds are soon won, for 1 never fight a battle under." 
 
 Crowd is au aucient uame iot the violin
 
 INTkOOUCriON. XXXV 
 
 XVII.— OLD SPORTS OF THE CITIZENS OF LONDON 
 
 111 ndditioii to the May-games, morris-dancings, pageants 
 a'ld processions, which were commonly exhibited throughout 
 the kingdom in all great towns and cities, the Londoners had 
 peculiar and extensive privileges of hunting', hawking, and 
 fishing: ^ they had also large portions of ground allotted to 
 them in the vicinity of the city for the practice of such pastimes 
 as were not prohibited by the government, and for those espe- 
 cially that were best calculated to render them strong and 
 healthy. We are told by Fitz Stephen, in the twelfth century, 
 that on the holidays during* the summer season, the young men 
 of London exercised themselves in the fields with " leaping, 
 shooting with the bow, wrestling, casting the stone, playino* 
 with the ball, and fighting with their shields." The last species 
 of pastime, I believe, is the same that Stow, in his Survey of 
 London, calls "practising- with their wasters and bucklers; " 
 which in his day was exercised by the apprentices before the 
 doors of their masters. The city damsels had also their recre- 
 ations on the celebration of these festivals, according to the tes- 
 timony of both the authors just mentioned. The first tells us 
 that they played upon citherns,^ and danced to the music ; and 
 as this amusement probably did not take place before the close 
 of the day, they were, it seems, occasionally permitted to con- 
 tinue it by moonlight. We learn from the other, who wrote 
 at the distance of more than four centuries, that it was then 
 customary for the maidens, after evening prayers, to dance in 
 the presence of their masters and mistresses, while one of their 
 companions played the measure upon a timbrel ; and, in order 
 to stimulate them to pursue this exercise with alacrity, the best 
 dancers were rewarded with garlands, the prizes being exposed 
 w public view, "hanged athwart the street," says Stow, during- 
 the whole of the performance. This recital calls to my mind a 
 passage in Spenser's Epithalamium, wherein it appears that 
 the dance was sometimes accompanied with singing. It runs 
 thus : 
 
 The damsels they delight, 
 
 When they their timbrels smite, 
 And thereunto dance and carol sweet. 
 
 See the first and second chapters iu the body of the work. 
 ' The words of Fitz Stephen are, " Puellarum cithara ducit choros, et p^de libero 
 pulsatur tellus, usque imminente luna." The word cithara, Stow renders, but I think 
 not justly, timbrels. 
 
 C 2
 
 S X ■VVI t N TV. >. i f> V <. V i .'1 \. 
 
 XV112.— MOOERN PASTIMES OF THE LONDONERS. 
 
 A general view of the pastimes practised by the Londoners 
 soon after the commencement of the last century occurs in 
 Strype's edition of Stow's Survey of London, published in 1720.' 
 " The modern sports of (he citizens," says the editor, " besides 
 drinking-, are cock-fighting, bowling upon greens, playing at 
 fables, or backgammon, cards, dice, and billiards ; also musical 
 (Mstcrtainments, dancing, masks, balls, stage-plays, and club- 
 meetings, in the evening; they sometimes ride out on horseback, 
 and hunt with the lord-mayor's pack of dogs when the common 
 hunt goes out. The lower classes divert themselves at football, 
 wrestling, cudgels, ninepins, shovelboard, cricket, stowball, 
 ringing of bells, quoits, pitching the bar, bull and bear baitings, 
 throwing at cocks," and, what is worstof all, lying at alehouses." 
 To these are added, by an author of later date, Maitland, in his 
 History of London, published in 1739, " Sailing, rowing, swim- 
 ming and fishing, in the river Thames, horse and foot races, 
 leaping, archery, bowling in allies, and skittles, tennice, chess, 
 and draughts; and in the winter seating, sliding, and shooting." 
 nuck-hunting- was also a favourite amusement, i>ut generally 
 practised in the summer. The pastimes here enumerated were 
 by no means confined to the city of London, or its environs: the 
 larger part of them were in general practice throughout the 
 kinffdom. 
 
 xrX.-COTSWOLD AND CORNISH GAMES. 
 
 Before 1 quit this division of my subject, I shall mention the 
 annual celebration of games upon Cotswold Hills, in Gluuces- 
 lershire, to which prodigious mulritudes constantly resorted. 
 Robert Dover, an attorney, of Barton on the Heath, in ihe 
 county of Worwick, was forty years the chief director of these 
 pastimes. 1 hey consisted of wrestling, cudgel-playing, leaping:, 
 pitching the bar, throwing the sledge, tossing the pike, vvitli 
 various other feats of strength and activity ; many of the country 
 gentlemen hunted or coursed the hare ; and the women danced. 
 A castle of boards was erected on this occasion, from which 
 guns were frequently discharged. « Captain Dover received 
 
 ' Vol. L p. 257.
 
 INTRODUCTION. XXXVU 
 
 permission from James I. to hold these sports ; and he appeared 
 at their celebration in the very clothes which that monarch had 
 formerly worn, but with much more dignity in his air and 
 aspect." ' I do not mean to say that the Cotswold games were 
 invented, or even first established, by captain Dover ; on the 
 contrary, they seem to be of much higher origin, and are evidently 
 alluded to in the following lines by John Hey wood the epigram- 
 matist : 2 
 
 He fometh like a bore, the beaste sbould seeme bolde, 
 For he is as fierce as a lyon of Cotsolde. 
 
 Something of the same sort, I presume, was the Carnival, kept 
 every year, about the middle of July, upon Halgaver-moor, near 
 Bodmin in Cornwall ; " resorted to by thousands of people," 
 says Heath, in his description of Cornwall, published in 1750. 
 " The sports and pastimes here held were so well liked by 
 Charles II. when he touched here in his way to Sicily, that he 
 became a brother of the jovial society. The custom of keeping 
 this carnival is said to be as old as the Saxons." 
 
 XX.— SPLENDOUR OF THE ANCIENT KINGS AND NOBILITY. 
 
 Paul Hentzner, a foreign writer, who visited this country at 
 the close of the sixteenth century, says of the English, in his 
 Itinerary, written in 1598, that they are "serious like the Ger- 
 mans, lovers of show, liking to be followed wherever they go 
 by whole troops of servants, who wear their master's arms in 
 silver."^ This was no new propensity : the English nobility at 
 all times affected great parade, seldom appearing abroad with- 
 out large trains of servitors and retainers ; and the lower classes 
 of the people delighted in gaudy shows, pageants, and pro- 
 cessions. 
 
 If we go back to the times of the Saxons, we shall find that, 
 soon after their establishment in Britain, their monarchs assumed 
 great state. Bede tells us that Edwin, king of Northumberland, 
 lived in much splendour, never travelling without a numerous 
 retinue ; and when he walked in the streets of his own capital, 
 even in the times of peace, he had a standard borne before 
 him. , This standard was of the kind called by the Romans tufa, 
 
 ' Athen. Oxen. ii. col. 812 ; and see Grangcr'a Biographical History, vol, ii. p. 398 
 8vo, 
 
 In W-i Proverbs, part l.chnjj. 11 ^ Scuta ex rgento facta.
 
 XXXVUl INTRODUCTION. 
 
 and by the English tuuf: it was made with featherss of various 
 colours, ia the form of a globe, and fastened upon a pole." ^ 
 It is unnecessary to multiply citations; for which leason, I 
 shall only add another. Canute the Dane, who is said to have 
 been the richest and most magnificent prince of his time in 
 Europe, rarely appeared in public without being followed by a 
 train of three thousand horsemen, well mounted and completely 
 armed. These attendants, who were called house carles, formed 
 a corps of body guards, or household troops, and were ap- 
 pointed for the honour and safety of that prince's person.^ The 
 examples of royalty were followed by the nobility and persons 
 of opulence. 
 
 In the middle ages, the love of show\vas carried to an extra- 
 vagant length ; and as a man of fashion was nothing less than 
 a man of letters, those studies that were best calculated to im- 
 prove the mind were held in little estimation. 
 
 XXI ROYAL AND NOBLE ENTERTAINMENTS. 
 
 The courts of princes and the castles of the great barons 
 were daily crowded with numerous retainers, who were always 
 welcome to their masters' tables. Th<^ noblemen had their 
 privy counsellors, treasurers, marshals, constables, stcM'ards, 
 secretaries, chaplains, heralds, pursuivants, pages, henchmen 
 or guards, trumpeters, and all the other officers of the royal 
 court.2 To these may be added whole companies of minstrels, 
 mimics, jugglers, tumblers, rope-dancers, and players; and 
 especially on days of public festivity, when, in every one of 
 the apartments opened for the reception of the guests, were 
 exhibited variety of entertainments, according to the taste of 
 the times, but in which propriety had very little share ; the 
 whole forming a scene of pompous confusion, where feasting, 
 drinking, music, dancing, tumbling, singing, and buffoonery, 
 were jumbled together, and mirth excited too often at the ex- 
 pense of common decency.^ If we turn to the third Book oi 
 Fame, a poem written by our own countryman Chaucer, we 
 shall find a perfect picture of these tumultuous court entertam- 
 ments, drawn, I doubt not, from reality, and perhaps without 
 
 ' Bede, Eccl. Hist. lib. ii. cap. 16. » Dr. Henry's Hist. vol. ii. lib. v. cap. 7. 
 
 ' See the Northumberland Family-Book. 
 * JoUan. Sarisburieusis, lib. i. c. 8. p. S4.
 
 INTRODUCTION. XXXIX 
 
 any exag-geratioi). It may be thus expressed in modem lau- 
 guage: Minstrels of every kind were stationed in the receptacles 
 for the guests ; among them were jesters, that related tales of 
 mirth and of sorrow ; excellent players upon the harp, with 
 others of inferior merit • seated on various seats below them, 
 Avho mimicked their performances like apes to excite laughter; 
 behind them, at a great distance, was a prodigious number of 
 other minstrels, making- a great sound with cornets, shaulms, 
 flutes, horns,2 pipes of various kinds, and some of them made 
 with green corii,^ such as are used by shepherds' boys; there 
 were also Dutch pipers to assist those who chose to dance either 
 '•love-dances, springs, or rayes,"'* or any other new-devised 
 measures. Apart from these were stationed the trumpeters and 
 players on the clarion ; and other seats were occupied by dif- 
 ferent musicians playing variety of mirthful tunes. There were 
 also present large companies of jugglers, magicians, and trege- 
 tors, who exhibited surprising tricks by the assistance of natural 
 magic. 
 
 Vast sums of money were expended in support of these ab- 
 surd and childish spectacles, by which the estates of the nobility 
 were consumed, and the public treasuries often exhausted. But 
 we shall have occasion to speak more ftdly on this subject here- 
 affoi-.^ 
 
 XXII.— CIVIC SHOWS. 
 
 The pageantry and shoM s exhibited in great towns and cities 
 on occasions of joy and solemnity were equally deficient in 
 taste and genius. At London, where they were most frequently 
 required, that is to say, at the reception of foreign monarchs, 
 at the processions of our own through the city of London to 
 Westminster previous to their coronation, or at their return from 
 abroad, and on various other occasions ; besides such as occurred 
 at stated times, as the lord-mayor's show, the setting of the 
 midsummer watch, and the like, a considerable number of 
 
 ' Smale harpers with ther glees. 
 
 " Cornmuse <ind Shalmes — many a floyte and lytlyngehorne. 
 
 ' Pypes made of grene corne are also mentioned in the Romance of the Rose. 
 
 ■• These are the author's own words. 
 
 * In the chapters on Minstrels, Jugglers, &c. pp. 170, 197. Tb.e plays and pageant* 
 exhihited at court arc described iu the chapter treatin|; ou 1 iioatricai Amnsemn t», 
 p. 1 50.
 
 xl 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 different artificers were kept, at the city's expense, to furnish 
 the machinery for the pageants, and to decorate them. Stow 
 tells us that, in his memory, great part of Leaden Hall was 
 appropriated to the purpose of painting and depositing the 
 pageants for the use of the city. 
 
 The want of elegance and propriety, so glaringly evident in 
 these temporary exhibitions, was supplied, or attempted to be 
 supplied, by a tawdry resemblance of splendour. The fronts 
 of the houses in the streets through which the processions 
 passed were covered with rich adornments of tapestry, arras, 
 and cloth of gold ; the chief magistrates and most opulent 
 citizens usually appeared on horseback in sumptuous habits 
 and joined the cavalcade ; while the ringing of bells, tht 
 sound of music from various quarters, and the shouts of the 
 populace, nearly stunned the ears of the spectators. At certain 
 distances, in places appointed for the purpose, the pageants 
 were erected, which were temporary buildings representing 
 castles, palaces, gardens, rocks, or forests, as the occasion re- 
 quired, where nymphs, fawns, satyrs, gods, goddesses, angels, 
 and devils, appeared in company with giants, savages, dragons, 
 saints, knights, buffoons, and dwarfs, surrounded by minstrels 
 and choristers; the heathen mythology, the legends of chivalry, 
 and Christian divinity, were ridiculously jumbled together, 
 without meaning; and the exhibition usually concluded with 
 dull pedantic harangues, exceedingly tedious, and replete with 
 the grossest adulation. The giants especially were favourite 
 performers in the pageants ; they also figured away with great 
 applause in the pages of romance ; and, together with dragons 
 and necromancers, were created by the authors for the sole 
 purpose of displaying the prowess of their heroes, whose busi- 
 ness it was to destioy them. 
 
 Some faint traces of the processional parts of these exhibitions 
 were retained at London in the lord mayor's show about twenty 
 or thirty years ago ; ' but the pageants and orations have been 
 long discontinued, and the show itself is so much contracted, 
 that if is in reality altogether unworthy of such an appellation. 
 
 » [Before 1601.]
 
 INTRODO'CTION. xll 
 
 XXIII.— SETTING OUT OF PAGEANTS, 
 
 111 an old play, the Historie of Promos and Cassandra, part 
 the secoi.d, by George Whetstone, printed in 1578,' a carpenter, 
 and others, employed in preparing the pageants for a royal 
 procession, are introduced. In one part of the city the artificer 
 is ordered " to set up the frames, and to space out the rooms, 
 that the Nine Worthies may be so instauled as best to please the 
 eye." The " Worthies " are thus named in an heraldical MS, in 
 the Harleian Library : 2 " Duke Jossua ; Hector of Troy ; 
 kyng David; emperour Alexander; Judas Machabyes; eniperour 
 Julyus CeBsar; kyng Arthur; emperour Charlemagne; and 
 syr Guy of Warwycke;" but the place of the latter was fre- 
 quently, and I believe originally, supplied by Godefroy, earl 
 of Bologne: it appears, however, that any of them might be 
 changed at pleasure: Henry VHl. was made a " Worthy" to 
 please his daughter Mary, as we shall find a little farther on. 
 In another part of the same play the carpenter is commanded 
 to " errect a stage, that the wayghtes ^ in sight may stand ; " 
 one of the city gates was to be occupied by the fowre Virtues, 
 together with "a consort of music;" and one of the pageants 
 is thus whimsically described : 
 
 They have Hercules of monsters conquering ; 
 Huge great giants, in a forrest, fighting 
 With lions, bears, wolves, apes, foxes, and grayes, 
 Baiards and brockes 
 
 Oh, these be wondrous frayes ! 
 
 The stage direction then requires the entry of " Two men ap- 
 parelled lyke greene men at the mayor's feast, with clubbs of 
 fy reworks ;" whose office, we are told, Mas to keep a clear passage 
 m the street, " that the kyng and his trayne might pass with 
 ease." — In another dramatic performance of later date, GreeJi's 
 Tu Quoque, or the City Gallant, by John Cooke, published in 
 1614, a city apprentice says, " By this light, I doe not thinke 
 but to be lord mayor of London before 1 die ; and have three 
 pageants carried before me, besidec a ship and an unicorn." The 
 fuUowing passage occurs in Selden's Table Talk, under tbe 
 article Judge, "We see the pageants in Cheapside, the lions 
 
 I Garrick's Collection of Old Plays, H. vol. iii. - No. 2220, fol. 7 
 5 Or waits, the band of city minstrels.
 
 xlil INTRODUCTION. 
 
 and the elephants ; but we do not see tne men that carry them 
 we see the judges look big like lions ; but we do not see whij 
 inoves them." 
 
 XXIV PROCESSIONS OF QUEEN MARY AND KING PHILIP OF 
 
 SPAIN IN LONDON. 
 
 In the foregoing quotations, we have not the least necessity 
 to make an allowance for poetical licence: the historians of the 
 time will justify the poets, and perfectly clear them from any 
 charge of exaggeration ; and especially Hall, Grafton, and 
 Holinshed, who are exceedingly diffuse on this and such like 
 popular subjects. The latter has recorded a very curious piece 
 of pantomiraical trickery exnibited at the time that the princess 
 Mary went in procession through the city of London, the day 
 before her coronaticm : — At the upper end of Grace-church- 
 Street there w as a pageant made by the Florentines ; it was 
 very high ; and " on the top thereof there stood foure pictures ; 
 and in the midst of them, and the highest, there stood an angell, 
 all in greene, with a trumpet in his hand ; and when the trum- 
 petter who stood secretlie within the pageant, did sound his 
 trumpet, the angell did put his trumpet to his mouth, as though 
 it had been the same that had sounded." A similar deception 
 but on a more extensive scale, was practised at the gate oi 
 Kenel worth Castle for the reception of queen Elizabeth.' 
 Holinshed, speaking of the spectacles exhibited at London, 
 Avhen Philip king of Spain, with Mary his consort, made their 
 public entry in the city, calls them, in the margin of bis 
 Chronicle, " the vaine pageants of London ; " and he uses the 
 same epithet twice in the description immediately subsequent ; 
 " Now," says he, " as the king came to London, and as he 
 entered at the drawbridge, [on London Bridge,] there was a 
 vaine great spectacle, with two images representing two giants, 
 the one named Corinens, and the other Gog-magog, holding 
 betweene them certeine Latin verses, which, for the vaine osten- 
 tation of flatterye, 1 overpasse." ^ ij^ tjjeu adds : " From the 
 
 ' See luitlier on, p. xivi. 
 
 * These passages do not prove Oiat the historian was disgusted with the pageantry, 
 abstractedly considered, but rather with the occasion of its exhibition ; for, lie 
 speaks of the same kind of spectacles, with commendation, both anterior and sub- 
 sequent to the present show, which do not appear to have had the least claim lor 
 superiority in point of reason or consistency.
 
 INTRODUCTOIN. xliLi 
 
 bridge they passed to the conduit in Gratious-street, which wag 
 finely painted ; and, among other things," there exhibited, 
 " were the Nine Worthies ; of these king Henry VIII. was one. 
 He was painted in harnesse, ^ having in one hand a sword, and 
 ill the other hand a booke, whereupon was written Verbum Dei.- 
 He was also delivering, as it were, the same booke to his sonne 
 king Edward VI. who was painted in a corner by him." This 
 device, it seems, gave great offence ; and the painter, at the 
 queen's command, was summoned before the bishop of Win- 
 chester, then lord chancellor, where he met with a very severe 
 reprimand, and was ordered to erase the inscription; to Avhich 
 he readily assented, and was glad to have escaped at so easy 
 a rate from the peril that threatened him ; but in his hurry to 
 remove the offensive words, he rubbed out " the whole booke, 
 and part of the hand that held n."^ 
 
 The Nine Worthies appear to have been favourite characters, 
 and were often exhibited in the pageants; those mentioned in 
 the preceding passage were probably nothing more than images 
 of wood or pasteboard. These august personages were not, 
 however, always degraded in this manner, but, on the con- 
 trary, tbey were frequently personified by human beings un- 
 couthly habited, and sometimes mounted on horseback. They 
 also occasionally harangued the spectators as they passed in the 
 procession. 
 
 XXV.— CHESTER PAGEANTS. 
 
 The same species of shows, but probably not upon so extensive 
 a scale, were exhibited in other cities and large towns throughout 
 the kingdom. I have now before me an ordinance for the mayOr, 
 aldermen, and common councilmen of the city of Chester, to 
 provide yearly for the setting of the watch, on the eve of the 
 festival of Saint John the Baptist, a pageant, which is expressly 
 said to be " according to ancient custome," consisting of four 
 giants, one unicorn, one dromedary, one luce,"* one camel, one 
 ass, one dragon, six hobby-horses, and sixteen naked boys. 
 This ordinance among the Harleian MSS.^ is dated 1564. In 
 another MS. in the same library, it is said, "i\.D. 1599, Henry 
 Hardware, esq. the mayor, was a godlv and zealous man ; " he 
 
 ' Armour. 
 
 ^ " The Word of God;" meaning the Bible published in English by his authority, 
 which was prohibited in the sanguinary reign of his fanatic daughter; 
 » Holinshed, vol. iii. pp. 1091, 1120, &c. 
 
 * Called below a flowei-de-luce, an animal I am not in the least at-quainted with. 
 » No. 1968.
 
 Xliv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 caused " the gyauntes m the raidsomer show to be broken/' 
 and not to goe ; the devil in his feathers,'"' alluding perhaps to 
 Bome fantastic representation not mentioned in the former or- 
 dinance, " he put awaye, and the cuppes and canues, and the 
 dragon and the naked boys." In a more modt rn hand it is 
 added, " And he caused a man in complete armour to go in 
 their stead. He also caused the bull-ring to be taken up," &c. 
 But in the year 1601, John Ratclyffe, beer-brewer, being mayor, 
 "sett out the giaunts and midsommer show, as of oulde it was 
 wont to be kept."' In the time of the Commonwealth this 
 spectacle was discontinued, and the giants, with the beasts, 
 were destroyed. At the restoration of Charles II, it was agreed 
 by the citizens to replace the pageant as usual, on the eve o 
 the festival of St. John the Baptist, in 1661 ; and as the following 
 computation of the charges for the diJfTerent parts of the show 
 are exceedingly curious, I shall lay them before the reader 
 without any farther apology. We are told that "all things 
 were to be made new, by reason the ould modells were all 
 broken." The computist then proceeds: " For finding all the 
 materials, with the workmanship of the four great giants, all 
 to be made new, as neere as may be lyke as they were before, 
 at five pounds a giant the least that can be, and four men to 
 carry them at two shillings and six pence each." The materials 
 for the composition of these monsters are afterwards specified 
 to be " hoops of various magnitudes, and other productions of 
 the cooper, deal boards, nails, pasteboard, scaleboard, paper 
 of various sorts, with buckram, size cloth, and old sheets for 
 their bodies, sleeves, and shirts, which were to be coloured." 
 One pair of the " olde sheets" were provided to cover tlit 
 " father and mother giants." Another article specifies "three 
 yards of buckram for the mother's and daughter's hoods ; " whi( h 
 seems to prove that three of tl' 3se stupendous pasteboard per- 
 sonages were the representatives of females. There were " also 
 tinsille, tinfoil, gold and silver leaf, and colours of different 
 kinds, with glue and paste in abundance." Respecting the last 
 article, a very ridiculous entry occurs in the bill of charges, it 
 runs thus : " For arsnick to put into the paste to save the giants 
 from being eaten by the rats, one shilling and fourpence." But 
 to go on with the estimate. " For the new making the city 
 mount, called the maior's mount, as auntiently it was, and for 
 hreing of bays for the same, and a man to carry it, three 
 
 , ' Harl. MS. ?l«5 
 
 Ll - • ^ .
 
 INTRODUCTION. xlv 
 
 pounds six shillings and eight pence." The bays mentioned in 
 this and the succeeding article was hung round the bottom 'i* 
 the frame, and extended to the ground, or near it, to conceal 
 the bearers. " For making anew the merchant mount, as it 
 aunciently was, with a ship to turn round, the hiring of the 
 bays, and five men to carry it, four pounds." The ship and 
 new dressing it, is charged at five shillings; it was probably 
 made with pasteboard, which seems to have been a principal 
 article in the manufacturing of both the moveable mountains; 
 it was turned by means of a swivel attached lo an iron handle 
 underneath the frame. In the bill of charges for " the mer- 
 chant's mount," is an entry of twenty pence paid to a joyner 
 for cutting the pasteboard into several images. " For making 
 anew the elephant and castell, and a Cupid," with his bow 
 and arrows, " suitable to it," the castle was covered with tin- 
 foil, and the Cupid with skins, so as to appear to be naked, 
 " and also for two men to carry them, one pound sixteen shil- 
 lings and eight-pence. For making anew the four beastes 
 called the unicorne, the antelop, the flower-de-luce, and the 
 camell, one pound sixteen shillings and fburpence apiece, and 
 for eight men to carry them, sixteen shillings. For four liobby- 
 horses, six shillings and eight-pence apiece; and for four boys 
 to carry them, four shillings. For hance-staves, garlands, and 
 balls, for the attendants upon the mayor and sherifl^s, one pound 
 nineteen shillings. For makinge anew the dragon, and for six 
 naked boys to beat at it, one pound sixteen shillings. For six 
 morris-dancers, with a pipe and tabret, twenty shillings." 
 
 The sports exhibited on occasions of solemnity did not termi- 
 nate with the pageants and processions : the evening was 
 g^enerally concluded Avith festivity and diversions of various 
 kinds to please the populace. These amusements are well de- 
 scribed in a few lines by an early dramatic poet, whose name is 
 not known ; his performance is entitled A pleasant and stately 
 Morall of the Three Lordesof London, black letter, no date:- 
 
 Let nothing that's magnifical, 
 
 Or that may tend to London's graceful state. 
 Be unperformed, as showes and solemne feasts. 
 Watches in armour, triumplies, cresset lights. 
 Bone fires, belles, and peales of ordinauiice 
 And pleasure. See that plaies be publi.shed, 
 Mai-games and maskes, with mirtlie and minstrelsie. 
 Pageants and school -fea<:tr8. heart's and puppet-pldie*. 
 
 ' Gsrrick'A Collecion of OW P'
 
 Xlvi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The " cresset light " was a large lanthorn placed upon a long- 
 pole, and carried upon men's shoulders. There is extant a copy 
 of a letter from Henry VII. to the mayor and aldermen of Lon- 
 don, commanding them to make bonfires, and to show other 
 marks of rejoicing in the city, when the contract was ratified 
 for the marriage of his daughter Mary with the prince of 
 Castile.' 
 
 XXVI.— PUBLIC SHOWS IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 
 These motley displays of pomp and absurdity, proper only 
 for the amusement of children, or to excite the admiration of 
 the populace, were, however, highly relished by the nobility, 
 and repeatedly exhibited by them, on extraordinary occasions. 
 One would think, indeed, that the repetitions would have been 
 intolerable ; on the contrary, for want of more rational enter- 
 tainments, they maintained for ages their popularity, and do 
 not appear to have lost the smallest portion of their attraction 
 by the frequency of representation. Shows of this kind were 
 never more fashionable than in the sixteenth century, when they 
 were generally encouraged by persons of the highest rank, and 
 exhibited with very little essential variation; and especially 
 during the reign of Henry VIII.^ His daughter Elizabeth ap- 
 pears to have been equally pleased with this species of pageantry; 
 and therefore it was constantly provided for her amusement, by 
 the nobility whom she visited from time to time, in her pro- 
 gresses or excursions to various parts of the kingdom.^ I shall 
 simply give the outlines of a succession of entertainments con- 
 trived to divert her when she visited the earl of Leicester at 
 Kenel worth castle, and this shall serve as a specimen for the 
 rest. 
 
 XXVII.— QUEEN ELIZABETH AT KENELWORTH. 
 
 Her majesty came thither on Saturday the ninth of July, 
 1575 ; '* she was met near the castle by a fictitious Sibyl, who 
 promised peace and prosperity to the country during her reign. 
 Over the first gate of the castle there stood six gigantic figures 
 with trumpets, real trumpeters being stationed behind them, 
 
 » Cotton MS. Titus, B. i. 
 
 5 See the account of the court ludi iu the chapter on Theatrical Exhibitions. 
 
 * 1 he reader may find accounts of most of these excursions in a work entitled Tho 
 Progresses of Queen Elizabeth, in two volumes 4to. published by Mr. Nichols. 
 
 " ITiis account is chiefly taken from a small pamphlet called Princely Pleasure! 
 il Kenelworth Castle. Progresses, vol. i.
 
 INTRODUCTIOIV. xlvil 
 
 who sounded as the queen approached. This pageant was childish 
 enough, but not more so than the reason for its being placed 
 there. " By this dumb show," says my author, " it was meant 
 that in the daies of king Arthur, men were of that stature ; so 
 that the castle of Kenelworth should seem still to be kept by 
 king Arthur's heirs and their servants." Laneham says these 
 figures were eight feet high. Upon her majesty entering the 
 gateway, the porter, in the character of Hercules, made an 
 oration, and presented to her the keys. Being come into the 
 base court, a lady " came all over the pool, being so conveyed, 
 that it seemed she had gone upon the water; she was attended 
 by two water nymphs, and calling herself the Lady of the 
 Lake, she addressed her majesty with a speech prepared for the 
 purpose." The queen then proceeded to the inner court, and 
 passed the bridge, which was railled on both sides, and the 
 tops of the posts were adorned with " sundry presents and 
 gifts," as of wine, corn, fruits, fishes, fowls, instruments of 
 music, and weapons of war. Laneham calls the adorned posts 
 " well-proportioned pillars turned : " he tells us there were 
 fourteen of them, seven on each side of the bridge; on the 
 first pair were birds of various kinds alive in cages, said to be 
 the presents of the god Silvanus; on the next pair w(re difl^erent 
 sorts of fruits in silver bowls, the gift of the goddess Pomona; 
 on the third pair were diflferent kinds of grain in silver bowls, 
 the gift of Ceres; on the fourth, in silvered pots, were red and 
 white wine with clusters of grapes in a silver bowl, the gift of 
 Bacchus; on the fifth were fishes of various kinds in trays, the 
 donation of Neptune; on the sixth were weapons of war, the 
 gift of Mars; and on the seventh, various musical instruments, 
 the presents of Apollo. The meaning of these emblematical 
 decorations was explained in a Latin speech delivered by the 
 author of it. Then an excellent band of music began to play 
 as her majesty entered the inner court, where she alighted from 
 her horse, and went up stairs to the apartments prepared for her. 
 
 On Sunday evening she was entertained with a grand display 
 of fireworKs, as well in the air as upon the water. 
 
 On Monday, after a great hunting, she was met on her re- 
 turn by Gascoigne the poet, so disguised as to represent a 
 savage man, who paid her many hinh-flown compliments in a 
 kind of dialogue between himself and an echo. 
 
 On Tuesday she was diverted with music, dancing, and an 
 interlude upon the water
 
 Xlviii INTRODUCTION, 
 
 On Wednesday was another grand hunting-. 
 
 On Thursday she was amused with a grand bear-beating, to 
 which were added tumbling and fire-works. Bear-beating and 
 bull-baiting were fashionable at this period, and considered as 
 proper pastimes for the amusement of ladies of the highest rank. 
 Elizabeth, though a woman, possessed a masculine mind, and 
 preferred, or affected to prefer, the exercises of the chace and 
 other recreations pursued by men, rather than those usually ap- 
 propriated to her sex. 
 
 On Friday, the weather being unfavourable, there were ao 
 open shows. 
 
 On Saturday there was dancing within the castle, and a 
 country brideale, with running at the quintain in the castle 
 yard, and a pantomimical show called " the Old Coventry Play 
 of Ilock Thursday," performed by persons who came from 
 Coventry for that purpose. In the evening a regular play was 
 acted, succeeded by a banquet and a masque. 
 
 On the Sunday there was no public spectacle. 
 
 On the Monday there was a hunting in the afternoon, and, 
 on the queen's return, she was entertained with another show 
 upon the water, in which appeared a person in the character 
 of Arion, riding upon a dolphin twenty-four feet in length; and 
 he sung an admirable song, accompanied with music performed 
 by six musicians concealed in the belly of the fish. Her majesty, 
 it appears, was much pleased with this exhibition. The per- 
 son who entertained her majesty in the character of Arion is 
 said to have been Harry Goldingham, of whom the following 
 anecdote is related : " There was a spectacle presented to queen 
 Elizabc'th upon the water, and among others, Harry Goldingham 
 was to represent Arion upon the back of a dolphin; but finding 
 his voice to be very hoarse and unpleasant when he came to 
 perform his part, he tears oflT his disguise, and swears that he 
 was none of Arion, not he, but even honest Harry Goldingham ; 
 which blunt discoverie pleased the queen better than if it had 
 gone thorough in the right way. Yet he could order his voice 
 to an instrument exceedingly well."' This story has been ap- 
 plied to the performance above mentioned, but 1 trust mistakenly; 
 it certainly must have happened on some other occasion, for 
 such a circumstance would not have escaped the observation of 
 the facetious Laneham ; besides it appears in this instance that 
 
 " Harl. MS 6395, entitled Merry Passages Hnd Jests, art 221.
 
 INTRODUCTION. xlix 
 
 the part of Arion was performed wilhoiit defect, and tlie song 
 well execated. 
 
 On Tuesday the Coventry play was reoeated, because the 
 queen had not seen the whole of it on Saturday. 
 
 On Wednesday, the twentieth of the same month, she de- 
 parted from Kenelworth. Various other pastimes were prepared 
 upon this occasion ; but, for want of time and opportunity, they 
 could not be performed. 
 
 XXVIII.— LOVE OF PUBLIC SIGHTS ILLUSTRATED FRcM 
 SIIAKSPEARE. 
 
 The English are particularised for their partiality to strange 
 sights; uncommon beasts, birds, or fishes, are sure to attract 
 their notice, and especially such of them as are of the monstrous 
 kind ; and this propensity of our countrymen is neatly satirised 
 by Shakspeare in the Tempest ; where Stephano, seeing Calaban 
 lying upon the stage, and being' uncertain whether he was a 
 fish, a beast, or one of the inhabitants of the island, speaks in 
 the following manner: " Were I in England now, as once I was, 
 and had this fish painted, Tiot a holiday fool there but wonltl 
 give me a piece of silver. There would this monster make a 
 man : any strange beast there makes a man. When they will 
 not give a doit to relieve a lame beggar, they will lay out ten 
 to see a dead Indian." ^ Indeed, we may observe that a cow 
 with two heads, a pig with six legs, or any other unnatural 
 production, with propei management, are pretty certain fortunes 
 to the possessors. 
 
 XXIX.— ROPE-DANCING, TUTORED ANIMALS, AND PUPPET-SHOWS. 
 
 They also take great del ight in seeing men and animals per- 
 form such feats as appear to be entirely contrary to their nature; 
 as, men and monkeys dancing upon ropes, or walking upon 
 wires ; dogs dancing minuets, pigs arranging letters so as to 
 form words at their master's command ; hares beating drums, or 
 birds firing oflf cannons. These exhibitions, for all of them 
 
 ' Tempe?l, act li. scene ir
 
 1 INTRODUCTJON. 
 
 have in reality been brought to public view, are ridiculed by 
 (lie Spectator, in a paper dated the 8d of April, 1711. The 
 uuthor pretends that he received the following letter from a 
 show-man who resided near Charing-Cross : 
 
 " Honoured Sir, — Having heard that this nation is a great 
 encourager of ingenuity, I have brought with me a rope-dancer 
 that was caught \n one of the woods belonging to the great 
 Mogul. He is by birth a monkey, but swings upon a rope, 
 takes a pipe of tobacco, and drinks a glass of ale, like anj 
 reasonable creature,' He gives great satisfaction to the quality; 
 and if they will make a subscription for him, I will send for 
 a brother of his out of Holland, that is a very good tumbler; 
 and also for another of the same family whom I design for my 
 merry-andrew, as being an excellent mimic, and the greatest 
 droll in the country where he now is. I hope to have this en- 
 tertaiiunent in readiness for the next winter ; and doubt not but 
 It will please more than the opera or the puppet-show. I will 
 not say that a monkey is a better man than some of the opera 
 heroes ; but certainly he is a better representative of a man 
 than any artificial composition of wood and wire." 
 
 The latter part of this sarcasm relates to a feigned dispute 
 for seniority between Powel, a puppet-showman, who exhibited 
 his wooden heroes imder the little piazza in Covent-garden, and 
 the managers of the Italian opera; which is mentioned in a pre- 
 ceding paper 2 to this effect : " The opera at the Haymarket, 
 and that under the little piazza of Covent-garden, are at present 
 the two leading diversions of the town ; Powel professing in 
 his advertisements to set up Whittington and his Cat against 
 Rinaldo and Armida." — After some observations, which are not 
 immediately to the present purpose, the author proceeds: "I 
 observe that Powel and the undertakers of the opera had both 
 of them the same thought, and I think much about the same 
 time, of introducing animals on their several stages, tnough 
 indeed with different success. The sparrows and chaffinches 
 
 • 'there actually was such a monkey exhibited at that time near Charing-Cross, but 
 in the bills which were given to the public he is called a Wild Hairy Man, and they 
 tell us he performed all that the Spectator relates concerning him ; but this subject 
 1<! treatetl more fully in the body of the wtrk. 
 
 * Sti-sttator, vol. i. No. 14.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 11 
 
 at the Haymarket fly as yet very irregularly over the stage, 
 and instead of perching on the trees, and performing their 
 parts, these young actors either get into the galleries, or put 
 out the caudles; whereas Powel has so well disciplined his 
 pig, that in the first scene he and Punch dance a minuet together. 
 I am informed that Powel resolves to excel his adversaries in 
 their own way, and introduce larks into his opera of Susanna, 
 or Innocence betrayed ; which will be exhibited next Aveek 
 with a pair of new elders." 
 
 From the same source of information, in a subsequent paper,' 
 we may find a catalogue of the most popular spectacles ex- 
 hibited in London at the commencement of the last century. 
 Our author has introduced a projector, mIio produces a scheme 
 for an opera entitled The Expedition of Alexander the Great; 
 and proposes to bring in " all the remarkable shows about the 
 town among the scenes and decorations of his piece;" which is 
 described in the following manner; " This Expedition of Alex- 
 ander opens with his consulting the Oracle at Delphos ; in which 
 the Dumb Conjurer, who has been visited by so many persons 
 of quality of late years, is to be introduced as telling his for- 
 tune ; at the same time Clench of Barnet ^ is represented in 
 another corner of the temple, as ringing the bells of Delphos 
 for joy of his arrival. The Tent of Darius is to be peopled 
 by the ingenious Mrs. Salmon, where Alexander is to fall in love 
 with a piece of waxwork that represents the beautiful Statira. 
 When Alexander comes to that country in which, Qiiintus 
 Curtius tells us, the dogs were so exceedingly fierce, that 
 they would not loose their hold, though they were cut to pieces 
 limb by limb, and that they would hang upon their prey by 
 their teeth when they had nothing but a mouth left, there is to be 
 a scene of Hockley in the Hole, in which are to be represented 
 all the diversions of that place, the Bull-Baiting only excepted, 
 which cannot possibly be exhibited in the theatre by reason of 
 the lowness of the roof. The several Woods in Asia, which 
 Alexander must be supposed to pass through, will give the 
 audience a sight of Monkies dancing upon ropes, with many 
 other pleasantries of that ludicrous species. At the same time, 
 
 ■ Spectator, Tol. i. No 31, dated Thursday, April 5, 1711. 
 
 ■•' A man famous at that time for imitating a variety of musical instruments w sih Dsi'5 
 voice, and, among others, the bells. See his bill of performance, at p. 9j>, 
 
 d2
 
 Vu INTRODUCTION. 
 
 It' there chance to be any strange animals in town, whether 
 birds or beasts, they may be either let loose among- the woods, 
 or driven across the stage by some of the country people of Asia. 
 In the last Great Battle, Pinkethman is to personate king Porus 
 upon an Elephant, and is to be encountered by Powel, repre- 
 senting Alexander the Great upon a Dromedary, which, never- 
 theless, he is desired to call by the name of Bucephalus. On 
 the close of this great Decisive Battle, when the two Kings 
 are thoroughly reconciled, to show the mutual friendship and 
 good correspondence that reigns between them, they both of them 
 go together to a puppet-show, in which the ingenious Mr. 
 Powel junior may have an opportunity of displaying his whole 
 art of machinery for the diversion of the two monarchs." It is 
 further added, that, " after the reconciliation of these two kings, 
 they might invite one another to dinner, and either of them en- 
 tertain his guest with the German artist, Mr. Pinkethman's 
 Heathen Gods, or any of the like Diversions which shall then 
 chance to be in vogue." 
 
 The projector acknowledged the thought was not originally 
 his own, but that he bad taken the hint from " several Per- 
 formances he had seen upon our stage; in one of which there 
 was a Raree Show, in another a Ladder-Dance, and in others a 
 posture or a moving picture with many curiosities of the like 
 nature." ' 
 
 XXX.— MINSTRELSY, BELL-RINGING, &c. 
 
 The people of this country in all ages delighted in secular 
 music, songs, and theatrical performances; ^ which is abundantly 
 evident from the great rewards they gave to the bards, the 
 scalds, the gleemen, and the minstrels, who were successively 
 the favourites of the opulent, and the idols of the vulgar. The 
 continual encouragement given to these professors of music, 
 poetry, and pantomime, in process of time swelled their num- 
 bers beyond all reasonable proportion, inflamed their pride, in- 
 creased their avarice, and corrupted their manners ; so that at 
 
 ' All these pastimes the reader wiU find particularised, iiuder their proper heads, 
 in the body of the work. 
 
 • " To pass over griefe," says an author of our owti, " the Italians sleepe, the 
 English goto piayes, the Spaniards lament, jmd the Irisli boAvl," &c. Fyae» Mo- 
 ryacn's Itinerary, in 16 17, part iii. book i. cap. 3.
 
 INTRODUCTION. |,'i) 
 
 length they lost the favour they had so long enjoyed anioiso- the 
 higher classes of society ; and, the donations of the populace 
 not being sufficient for their support, they fell away from af- 
 fluence to poverty, and wandered about the country in a con- 
 temptible condition, dependent uj)on the casual rewards they 
 might occasionally pick up at church-ales, wakes, and fairs.' 
 
 Hentzner, who wrote at the conclusion of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury, says, " the English excel in dancmg and music, for thev 
 are active and lively." A little further on he adds, "they are 
 vastly fond of great noises that fill the ear, such as the firing of 
 cannon, beating of drums, and the ringing of bells ; so that it is 
 common for a number of them that have got a glass in their heads 
 to get up into some belfry and ring the bells for hours together for 
 the sake of exercise." ^ Polydore Vergi) mentions another re- 
 markable singularit}^ belonging to the English, who celebrated 
 the festival of Christmas with plays, masques, and magnificent 
 spectacles, together with games at dice and dancing, which, 
 he tells us, was as ancient as the year 1170, and not cus- 
 tomary with other nations ; ^ and with respect to the Christmaa 
 pnnce, or lord of the misrule, he was, as the same author in- 
 foniis us, a personage almost peculiar to this country.'* 
 
 XXXI.— BAITING OF ANIMALS. 
 
 It were well if these singularities were the only vulnerable 
 parts of the national character of our ancestors ; but it must 
 be confessed that there are other pastimes which equally at- 
 tracted their attention, and manifested a great degree of barba- 
 rism, which will admit of no just defence. Sir Richard Steele, 
 reprobating the inhumanity of throwing at cocks, makes these 
 pertinent observations : " Some French writers have represented 
 this diversion of the common people much to our disadvantage, 
 and imputed it to a natural fierceness and cruelty of temper, as 
 they do some other entertainments peculiar to our nation ; I 
 mean those elegant diver«ons of bull-baiting-, and prize-fighting, 
 with the like ingenious n^creations of the bear-garden, I wish 
 
 ^ i'he reader will find this subject particularly treated on, in the cliaptcr that relates 
 to minstrels and music, in the body of the work. 
 
 * Hentzuer's Itinerary, published by lord Orford, at Strawbcrry-liill, pp. 88, 89. 
 ' Hist. Angl. lib. xiii. * De Herum Invent, lib. v. cap. 2.
 
 liv INTRODUCTION, 
 
 I knew how to answer this reproach which is cast upor us, 
 and excuse the death of so many innocent cocks, buHs, dogs, 
 and bears, as have been set together by the ears, or died an 
 untimely death, only to make us sport." ' 
 
 The ladies of the present day will probably be surprised to 
 hear, that all, or the greater part of these barbarous recreations, 
 were much frequented by the fair sex, and countenanced by 
 those amonir them of the highest rank and most finished edu- 
 cation, being brought by degrees, no doubt, to sacrifice thei*" 
 feelings to the prevalency of a vicious and vulgar fashion, which 
 even the sanction of royalty, joined with that of ancient custom^ 
 cannot reconcile with decency or propriety. 
 
 XXXII.— PASTIMES FORMERLY ON SUNDAYS. 
 
 I know not of any objection that can have more weight in the 
 condemnation of these national barbarisms, than the time usually 
 appropriated for the exhibition of them ; which, it seems, was 
 the after part of the Sabbath-day. The same portion of time 
 also was allotted for the performance of plays, called, in the 
 writings of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, " vaine playes 
 and interludes ; "^ to which are added, " dice and card-playing, 
 dancing, and other idle pastimes." Stephen Gosson, a very 
 zealous, if not a very correct writer, declaiming vehemently 
 against plays and players, says of the latter, " because they are 
 permitted to play every Sunday, they make four or five Sundayes 
 at leaste every weeke."^ Nor is he less severe upon those who 
 frequented such amusements : " To celebrate the Sabbath," says 
 he, " they go to the theatres, and there keepe a general market 
 of bawdrie; by which means," as he afterwards expresses him- 
 self, " they make the theatre a place of assignation, and meet 
 for worse purposes than merely seeing the play.""* A contem- 
 porary Avriter, endeavouring to prove the impropriety of an 
 established form of prayer for the church service, among other 
 
 ' Tatler, No. 134, dated Thursday, Feb. 16, 1709. 
 
 * See a painplilet written by John Northbrooke., published in the reign of cj leta 
 Elizabeth, without date. 
 
 •■• School of Abuse, published lo79. 
 
 ^ Gosson, I hope, was acquainted witli the vub^ar part of the audience ouly, or, 
 whi<.li is more probable, -.poke f.oin report, and that esaggerated
 
 INTRODUCTION. Iv 
 
 arguments, uses the following: "He," meaning tbe ministers 
 *• posteth it over as fast as he can galloppe ; for, ejther lie hath 
 two places to serve; or else there are some games to be playde 
 in the afternoon, as lying for the whetstone, heathenishe dauncing 
 for the ring, a beareor a bull to be baited, or else a Jackanapeii 
 to ride on borsebacke, or an interlude to be plaide ; and, if no 
 place else can be gotten, this interlude must be playde in the 
 church. We speak not of ringing after matins is done."' To 
 what has been said, I shall add the following verses, which 
 made their appearance rather earlier than either of the foregoing 
 publications; and they describe, with much accuracy I doubt 
 not, the manner of spending the Sunday afternoons according 
 to the usage of that time: but it is proper previously to observe, 
 that such amusements on holidays were by no means peculiar 
 to the young gallants of this country, but equally practised 
 upon the continent. 
 
 Now, when their dinner once is done, and that they well have fed. 
 To play they go ; to casting of the stone, to runne, or shoote ; 
 To tosse the li^ht and windy ball aloft with hand or foote ; 
 Some others trie their skill in gonues ; some wrastell all the day; 
 And some to schoolea of fence do goe, to gaze upon the play ; 
 Another sort there is, that doe not love abroad to roame. 
 But, for to passe their time at cardes, or tables, still at home.' 
 
 XXXm.— ROYAL INTERFERENCE WITH SUNDAY PASTIMES. 
 
 Citations to this purpose might be made from infinity of 
 pamphlets, written professedly against the profanation of the 
 Sabbath: it was certainly an evil that called loudly for redress; 
 and the pens of various writers, moral and religious, as well of 
 the clergy as the laity, have been employed for that purpose. 
 There are some few treatises on this subject that do honour to 
 their authors ; but far the larger part of them are of a different 
 description, consisting of vehement and abusive declamations 
 wherein the zeal of the writers is too fre»|uently permitted n. 
 run at random, without the least restraint from reason and mo- 
 deration, and, what is still worse, without that strict adherence 
 
 ' Admonition to Parliament, by Tho. Cartwright, published A.D. 1372. 
 ' Still, for stay. The Pope's Kingdom, book iv. translated from the Latin of TUo 
 Neogoorgus, by Barnabe Googe, and dedicated to o^uren Elizabeth, A.D. 1570.
 
 Wi 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 to the truth which the seriousness of the subject necessarily re- 
 quired. It must be granted, however, that the continued re- 
 monstrances from the grave and religious parts of the community 
 were not without effect. Jn the twenty-second year of the reign 
 of Elizabeth, the magistrates of the city of London obtained 
 from the queen an edict, " that all heathenish playes and inter- 
 ludes should be banished upon Sabbath days ; "' but this re- 
 striction, I apprehend, was confined to the jurisdiction of the 
 lord mayor; for, it is certain that such amusements were pub- 
 licly exhibited in other districts, and especially at the Paris 
 Garden in Southwark, a place where these sort of sports were 
 usually exhibited ; and where three years afterwards a prodigious 
 concourse of people being assembled together on a Sunday 
 afternoon, to " see plays and a bear-baiting, the whole theatre 
 gave way and fell to the ground ; by which accident many of 
 the spectators were killed, and more hurt." ^ This lamentable 
 misfortune was considered as a judgment from God, and 
 occasioned a general prohibition of all public pastimes on 
 the Sabbath-day. The wise successor of Elizabeth, on the other 
 hand, thought that the restrictions on the public sports Mere 
 too generally and too strictly applied, and especially in the 
 country places; he therefore published on the 24th of May, 
 1618, the following declaration: " Whereas we did justly, in 
 our progresse through Lancashire, rebuke some puritanes and 
 precise people, in prohibiting and unlawfully punishing' of our 
 good people for using their lawful! recreations and honest exer- 
 cises on Sundayes and other holy dayes, after the afternoone 
 sermon or service : It is our will, that after the end of divine 
 service, our good people be not disturbed, letted, or discouraged, 
 from any lawful recreation, such as dauncing, either for men 
 or women ; archery for men, leaping, vaulting, or any other 
 such harmless recreation ; nor for having of May-games, Whit- 
 son-ales, and morris-daunces, and the setting up of May-poles, 
 and other sports therewith used ; so as the same be had in due 
 and convenient time, without impediment or neglect of divine 
 service. But withall, we doe here account still as prohibitted, 
 all unlawful! games to be used upon Sundayes onely, as beare 
 
 ' Jolm Field, in his Declara'ion of God's Judgment at Paris Garden, publishid 
 A. D. 1503. fol. 9. 
 * Field, ut supra. See also D. Beard's Theatre of God's Judgments,
 
 INTRODUCTIOr. IvU 
 
 and bull-baitings, interludes, and, at all times in the meaner sort 
 of people by law prohibited, bowling." This proclamation was 
 renewed by Charles I. in the eighth year of his reign; w\jich 
 occasioned many serious complaints from the puritanical party ; 
 but, three years afterwards, a pamphlet was jjublished which 
 defended the principles of the declaration ; ' wherein the author, 
 who was a high church-man, endeavours to fine away the ob- 
 jections of its opponents. In one part- he says, "those recre- 
 ations are the meetest to be used, which give the best refreshment 
 to the bodie, and leave the least impression in the minde. In 
 this respect, shooting, leaping, pitching the barre, stool-ball, 
 and the like, are rather to be chosen than diceing or carding." 
 This publication was immediately answered by the other party, 
 who certainly had the best end of the argument, and were not 
 sparing in their severity, but wounded the ordinance itself 
 through the sides of its defender. The more precise writers 
 objected not only to the profanation of the Sabbath, but to 
 the celebration of most of the established festivals and holidays, 
 as we find from the following verses: 
 
 Their feastes, and all tbeir holydayes they keep throughout the yeare, 
 
 Are full of vile idolatry, and heathen like appeare. 
 
 I shew not here their dauuces yet with filthy gestures mad, 
 
 Nor other wanton sports that on the holydayes are had. 
 
 In some place solemne sights and showes, and pageants faire are play'd 
 
 With sundry sorts of maskers brave, in straunge attire arrai'd.' 
 
 XXXIV ZEAL AGAINST WAKES AND MAY- GAMES. 
 
 But nothing seems to have excited their indignation more than 
 the church-ales, wakes, and May-games. An author I have be- 
 fore me inveighs greatly against the erecting and decorating 
 of the May-poles ; '* among others, he uses the following* argu- 
 ments ; " Most of these May-poles are stollen ; yet they give 
 out that the poles are given to them ; when, upon thorow exa- 
 mination, 'twill be found that most of them are stollen. There 
 were two May-poles set up in my parish ; the one was stollen, 
 and the other was given by a profest papist. That which was 
 
 ' Entitled A Treatise concerning the Sabbath, pubhshed A. D. 1636. 
 ' Page 25. s ji^g Pope's Kingdom, from Neogeorgus by Googe 
 
 * Thomas Hall, B. D Pastor of King's Norton, in his pamphlet entitled Funebria 
 Flor«; or, th Down-fall of May-Games j published 1660.
 
 Iviii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 stollen was said to be given ; when it was proved to their faces 
 that it was stollen , and they made to acknowledge their offence : 
 this pole was rated at five shillings. If all the poles, one with 
 another, were so rated which were stollen this May, what a con- 
 siderable summ it would amount to!" So much for his rea- 
 soning. He then attempts to be witty ; and arraigns the goddess 
 Flora at the bar: "Flora, hold up thy hand; thou art here 
 indited by the name of Flora, of the city of Rome, in the county 
 of Babylon, for that thou, contrary to the peace of our sovereign 
 lord, his crown and dignity, hast brought in a pack of prac- 
 tical fanaticks; viz. ignorants, atheists, papists, drunkards, 
 swearers, swash -bucklers, maid-marrions, morrice- dancers, 
 maskers, mummers. May-pole stealers, health-drinkers, game- 
 sters, lewd men, light women, contemners of magistrates, af- 
 fronters of ministers, rebellious to masters, disobedient to parents, 
 mispenders of time, and abusers of the creature, &c." This 
 silly invective is concluded with a poem as dull and insipid as 
 the prose; in ^\hich the May-pole is supposed to be addressing 
 itself to one who is passing by it. The last lines run thus : 
 
 Now, traveller, lecum more grace to shew 
 . And see that thou thy betters know : 
 Thou hear'st what I say for myself, 
 I am no ape, I am no elf ; 
 I am no base one's parasite;. 
 I am the great world's favourite ; 
 And, sith thou must now past me fro. 
 Let this my blessing with thee go: 
 There's not a knave in all the town. 
 Nor swearing courtier, nor base clown. 
 Nor dancing lob, nor mincing quean. 
 Nor popish clerk, be't priest or dean. 
 Nor knight debausht, nor gentleman 
 That follows drabs, or cup or cann. 
 That will give thee a friendly look 
 If thou a May-pole can'st not brook. 
 
 These zealous reformists have extended their censures to the 
 church-men as well as to the laity ; they accuse them with strengtlj- 
 ening, by their example, the general depravation of manners 
 and decay of religion: how far the charge was just, I cannot take 
 upon me to answer. It is obvious enough that ignorant persons 
 will not be induced to prize those qualifications very highly, 
 which they who have the reputation of wisdom and learning 
 neglect to appreciate as they ought to (^o.
 
 INTRODUCTION. lix 
 
 XXXV.— DICE AND CARDS; 
 
 The Saxons and the Danes, as we have observed already,^ were 
 much addicted to gaming ; and the same destructive propensity 
 was equally prevalent among the Normans. The evil conse- 
 quences arising from the indulgence of this pernicious pleasure 
 have in all ages called loudly for reprehension, and demanded 
 at last the more powerful interference of the legislature. The 
 vice of gambling, however, is by no means peculiar to the 
 people of this country: its influence is universally diff"used 
 among mankind ; and in most nations the same strong measures 
 that have been adopted here are found to be absolutely neces- 
 sary to prevent its extension beyond the limits of subordination. 
 Dice, and those games of chance dependent upon them, have 
 been most generally decried; and cards, in latter times, are 
 added to them as proper companions. Cards, when compared 
 with dice, are indeed of modern invention, and originally, I 
 doubt not, were productive only of innocent amusement ; they 
 were, however, soon converted into instruments of gambling 
 equally dangerous as the dice themselves, and more enticing 
 from the variety of changements they admit of, and the pleasing 
 mixture of chance with skill, which often gives the tyro an 
 advantage over the more experienced player; that is, supposing 
 fair play on both sides ; but woeful experience has convinced 
 many that this is not always the case. 
 
 XXXVI.— REGULATION OF GAMES FOR MONEY, BY RICHARD 
 CCEUR DE LION, &g. 
 
 Towards the close of the twelfth century, we meet with a 
 very curious edict relative to gaming, and which shows how ge- 
 nerally it even prevailed among the lower classes of the people 
 at that period. This edict was established for the regulation 
 of the Christian army under the command of Richard T. of 
 England, and Philip of France, during the crusade in 1190 : 
 It prohibits any person in the army beneath the degree of a 
 
 ' See p. ix.
 
 ix INTRODUCTION. 
 
 knight from playing at any sort of game for money : knights 
 and clergymen might play for money, but no one of them was 
 permitted to lose more than twenty shillings in one whole day 
 and night, under the penalty of one hundred shillings, to be 
 paid to the archbishops in the army ; the two monarchs had 
 the privilege of playing for what they pleased ; but their at- 
 tendants were restricted to the sum of twenty shillings ; and, if 
 they exceeded, they were to be whipped naked through the 
 army for three days.' 
 
 XXXVII.— STATUTES AGAINST DICE, CARDS, BALL-PLAY, &c. 
 
 The decrees established by the council held at Worcester, in 
 the twenty-fourth year of Henry III. prohibited the clergy 
 from playing at dice, or at chess : ^ but neither the one nor the 
 other of these games are mentioned in the succeeding penal 
 statutes, before the twelfth year of Richard II., when diceing 
 is particularised, and expressly forbidden ; though perhaps 
 they were both of them included under the general title of 
 games of chance, and dishonest games, mentioned in the pro- 
 clamation of Edward III. which, with other pastimes therein 
 specified, were generally practised to the great detriment of 
 military exercises, and of archery in particular. 
 
 In the eleventh year of Henry VII. cards are first mentioned 
 among the games prohibited by the law ;^ and at that time they 
 seem to have been very generally used ; for, the edict expressly 
 forbids the practice of card-playing to apprentices, excepting 
 the duration of the Christmas holidays, and then only in their 
 
 ' Benedict. Abbas, Vit. Ric. I. edit, a Hearne, torn. ii. p. 610. 
 
 ' The words in the original, as quoted by Du Cange, are these : " Nee ludant ad 
 aleas vel taxillos, nee sustineant ludos fieri de rege et regina," &c. The game of 
 king and queen he conceives to have been some game with the cards ; but most 
 authors who have written upon the subject of playing cards, think that they were not 
 known at that period, at least in this country : it is certain, however, tliat in the time 
 of Elizabeth, the game of king and queen was understood to mean the plajing with 
 cards. " John Heywood, the great epigrammatist," according to Camden, " used 
 to say he did not love to play at kinge and queene, but at Christmasse, according 
 to the old order of Englande ; that few men plaiyed at cardes but at Christmasse ; 
 and then almost all, men and boyes." Camden's Remains, p. 378. I have ventured 
 to substitute chess for cards, in which game the two principal pieces are the king and 
 the queen, and are so denominated in a MS. nearly coeval with the edict. See the 
 acconnt of this game in the body of the work. 
 
 » An. 11 Hen. VIL cap. 2.
 
 INTRODUCTION. Ixi 
 
 masters* houses.' We learn from Stow, that these holidays ex- 
 tended " from All-Hallows evening to the day after Candlemas- 
 day, when," says the historian, " there was, among other sports, 
 playing- at cards for counters, nailes, and points in every house, 
 more for pastime than for gain." ^ The recreations prohibited 
 by proclamation in the reign of Edward III., exclusive of the 
 games of chance, are thus specified ; throwing- of stones,* 
 wood, or iron ; playing at hand-ball, foot-ball, club-ball, and 
 cambucam, which I take to have been a species of goff, and 
 probably received its name from the crooked bat with which it 
 was played. These games, as before observed, were not for- 
 bidden from any particular evil tendency in themselves, but be- 
 cause they engrossed too much of the leisure and attention of 
 the populace, and diverted their minds from the pursuits of a 
 more martial nature. I should not forget to add, that " bull- 
 baiting and cock-fighting " are included with " other dishonest 
 games as trivial and useless." In ^ the reign of Edward IV. we 
 find coits, closh or claish, kayles or nine-pins, half-bowl, hand- 
 in and hand-out, with quick-borde, classed among the unlawful 
 amusements;* which list was considerably augmented in the 
 succeeding reigns, and especially in the eighteenth year of 
 Henry VIIT., when bowling, loggating, playing at tennice, 
 dice, cards and tables, or back-gammon, were included.^ 
 
 In the preamble to the Parliamentary Statutes as early as the 
 sixth year of Edward III., there is a clause prohibiting of boys 
 or others from playing at barres, or snatch-hood,'' or any other 
 improper games, in the king's palace at Westminster during 
 the sitting of the parliament ; neither might they, by striking, 
 or otherwise, prevent any one from passing peaceably about his 
 business. 
 
 ' No householder might permit the games prohibited by the statute to be practised in 
 their houses, excepting on the holidays, as before specified, under the penalty of six 
 shillings and eight-pence for every offence. 
 
 * Survey of London, p. 79. 
 
 * Pilam manuaiem, pedinam, et bacculoream, et ad cambucam, &c. 
 
 * Rot. Glaus. 39 Ed. III. m. 23. 
 
 * The magistrates are commanded to seize upon the said tables, dice, cards, boules> 
 closhes, tennice-balis, &c. and to burn them. 
 
 An. 17 Edw. II, cap. 3. 
 
 ' Nul enfaunt ne autres jeur a barres, ne a autres jues nient convenebles come a 
 O'istre chaperon des gentz, ne a mettre en eux, &c. Rot. Pari. an. 6 Edw.lll. Harl. 
 MS. 7058.
 
 XII IKTRODUCVION. 
 
 XXXVHI.—PROHIBlTiONS OF SKITTLE-PLAY. 
 
 In modern times, the penal laws have been multiplied, and 
 much invigorated, in order to restrain the spirit of gambling-; 
 and in some measure they have had a salutary effect ; but the 
 evil is so fascinating and so general, that in all probability it 
 will never be totally eradicated from the minds of the people. 
 The frequent repetition and enforcement of the statutes in 
 former times, proves that they were then, as they are now, in- 
 adequate to the suppression of gaming for a long continuance ; 
 and, when one pastime was prohibited, another was presently 
 invented to supply its place. I remember, about twenty years 
 back,^ the magistrates caused all the skittle-frames in or about 
 the city of London to be taken up, and prohibited the playing 
 at dutch-pins, nine-pins, or in long bowling allies, when in 
 many places the game of nine-holes was revived as a substitute, 
 with the new name of Bubble the Justice, because the populace 
 had taken it into their heads to imagine, that the power of the 
 magistrates extended only to the prevention of such pastimes as 
 were specified by name in the public acts, and not to any new 
 species of diversion. 
 
 XXXIX.— ARCHERY SUCCEEDED BY BOWLING. 
 
 The general decay of those manly and spirited exercises, 
 which formerly were practised in the vicinity of the metropolis 
 has not arisen from any want of inclination in the people, but 
 from the want of places proper for the purpose : such as in 
 times past had been allotted to them are now covered with 
 buildings, or shut up by enclosures, so that, if it were not for 
 skittles, dutch-pins, four-corners, and the like pastimes, they 
 would have no amusements for the exercise of the body ; and 
 these amusements are only to be met w^th in places belonging 
 to common drinking-houses, for which reason their play is sel- 
 dom productive of much benefit, but more frequently becomes 
 the prelude to drunkenness and debauchery. This evil has 
 
 ' [Before 1801.]
 
 INTRODUCTION. Ixiii 
 
 been increasing for a long series of years ; and honest Stow 
 laments the retrenchments of the grounds appropriated for 
 martial pastimes which had begun to take place in his day. 
 " Why," says he, " should 1 speak of the ancient exercises of 
 the long bow, by the citizens of this city, now almost clean 
 left off and forsaken? I over-pass it; for, by the means of 
 closeing in of common grounds, our archers, for want of room 
 to shoot abroad, creep into bowling-alleys and ordinarie diceing- 
 houses neer home, where they have room enough to hazard 
 their money at unlawful games." ' He also tells us, that " North- 
 umberland house, in the parish of St. Katherine Coleman, 
 belonging to Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, in the 
 thirty-third year of Henry the Sixth ; but of late, being de- 
 serted by that noble family, the gardens Mere converted into 
 bowling-alleys, and the other parts of the eslate into diceing 
 houses. But bowling-alleys and houses for the exercise of 
 diceing and other unlawful games are at this time so greatly 
 increased in the other parts of the cify and its suburbs, that 
 this parent spot," or, as he afterwards calls it, " the ancient 
 and only patron of misrule, is forsaken of its gamesters." ^ And 
 nere we may add the following remark from an author some- 
 what more ancient than Stow:^ "common bowl ing-alleyes are 
 privy mothes that eat up the credit of many idle citizens, whose 
 gaynes at home are not able to weigh downe tlieyr losses 
 abroad ; whose shoppes are so farre from maintaining their play, 
 that theyr wives and children cry out for bread, and go to bedde 
 supperlesse ofte in the yeere." In another place, his reflections 
 are more general, and he exclaims, " Oh, what a wonderful 
 change is this! our wreastling at armes is turned to wallowing 
 in ladies' laps, oui courage to cowardice, our running to royot, 
 our bowes into bowls, and our darts into dishes." 
 
 XL.— MODERN GAMBLING. 
 
 The evils complained of by these writers were then in their 
 infancy; they have in the present day attained to a gigantic 
 
 ' Survey of London, p. 8.5. 
 
 ' It was aftei-wards converted into small cottages, which were Jet, at large rents, 
 to strangers and others. Ihid. p. 138. 
 
 ^ Stephen Gosson, in The School of Abuse, 1579.
 
 Ixiv IRTRODUCTIOW. 
 
 stature ; and we may add to them E. O. tables, as also otheT 
 tables for gambling distinguished by the appellation of Rouge 
 et Noir, Pbaro-banks, and many more fashionable novelties, 
 equally as detrimental to morality, and as equally destructive 
 to the fortunes of those who pursue them, as any of the recre- 
 ations of the former times. Even horse-racing, which anciently 
 was considered as a liberal sport, and proper for the amusement 
 of a gentleman, has been of late years degraded into a dangerous 
 species of gambling, by no means the less deserving of censure, 
 because it is fashionable and countenanced by persons of the 
 higviest rank and fortune. The good old Scotch poet little dreamed 
 of such an innovation, when he lamented that horse-racing was 
 falling- into disrepute through the prevalency of games of chance. 
 His words are these : 
 
 Halking, bunting, and swift horse running 
 Are changit all in wrangus, wynning ; 
 There is no play but cartes and dyce, &c.' 
 
 XLI.— LADIES' PASTIMES— NEEDLE- V/ORK. 
 
 It now remains to say a few words in a general way respecting 
 the diversions of the English ladies. In the early ages, our fair 
 countrywomen employed a large portion of their time in needle- 
 work and embroidery; and their acquirements in these elegant 
 accomplishments most probably afforded them little leisure for 
 the pursuits of trifling and useless amusements: but, though 
 we are not acquainted with the nature of their recreations, there 
 is no reason to suppose that they were unbecoming in themselves, 
 or indulged beyond the bounds of reason or decorum. I have 
 already, on a former occasion, particularly noticed the skilful- 
 ness of the Saxon and Norman ladies in handling the needle, 
 embroidering, and working in tapestry ; and that their perform- 
 ances were not only held in very high estimation at home, but 
 were equally prized upon the continent, where none were pro- 
 duced that could be placed in competition with them.^ 
 
 ' That is, cards and dice ; an old anonymous poem " of Covetice," cited by Warton, 
 History of Poetry, vol. ii. p. 316. 
 
 2 In the Manners and Cusroms of the English; the Chronicle of England; and 
 nioie particularly in the View of the Dressts of the English j vol, i. p. 73. vcl. ii. 
 p. 140. Sic.
 
 Ii>irROI>U«)TIOM, Ixv 
 
 XLII.— DANCING AND CHESS PLAY. 
 
 Dancing was certainly an ancient and favourite pastime with 
 the women of this country: the maidens even in a state of ser- 
 vitude claimed, as it were by established privilege, the license 
 to indulge themselves in this exercise on holidays and public 
 festivals; when it was usually performed in the presence of their 
 masters and mistresses.' 
 
 In the middle ages, dice, chess, and afterwards tables, and 
 cards, with other sedentary games of chance and skill, were 
 reckoned among the female amusements; and the ladies also 
 frequently joined with the men in such pastimes, as mo find it 
 expressly declared in the metrical romance of Ipomydon. The 
 passage alluded to runs thus : 
 
 When tbey had dyned, as I you saye, 
 Lordes and ladyes yede to to playe ; 
 Some to tables, and some to chesse, 
 With other gamys more or lesse. ^ 
 
 In another poem, by Gower,^ a lover asks his mistress, m lien 
 she is tired of "dancing and caroling," if she was willing to 
 " play at chesse, or on the dyes to cast a chaunce." Forrest, 
 speaking in praise of Catharine of Arragon, first wife ot 
 Henry VIII., says, that when she was young, 
 
 With stoole and with needyl she was not to seeke, 
 And otlier practiseings for ladyes meete ; 
 To pastyme at tables, tick tatke or gleeke, 
 Cardis and dyce — &c.^ 
 
 XUII.— LADIES' RECREATIONS IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 The English ladies did not always confine themselves to 
 domestic pastimes, they sometimes participated with the other 
 sex in diversions of a more masculine nature; and engaged 
 with them in the sports of the field. These violent exercises 
 eeem to have been rather unfashionable among them in the 
 seventeenth century ; for Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy, 
 speaks of their pastimes as m'ich better suited to the modesty 
 and softness of the sex. " The women," says he, " instead of 
 laborious studies, have curious needle-works, cutMorks, spin- 
 ning, bone-lace making, with other pretty devices to adorn 
 
 • See p. xxxv. 2 jjarl. MS. 2252. ' => Cuufessio Amantis. 
 
 Wartoa's History of English Poetry, vol. iii. p. 311.
 
 Ixvi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 houses, cushions, carpets, stool-seats," &c.' Not but some oi 
 /hese masculine females have occasionally made their appear- 
 ance; and at the commencement of the last century, it should 
 seem that they were more commonly seen than in Burton's time, 
 which gave occasion for the following satirical paper in one or 
 the Spectators,^ written by Addison : " I have," says he, " very 
 frequently the opportunity of seeing a rural Andromache, who 
 came up to town last winter, and is one of the greatest fox- 
 hunters in the country ; she talks of hounds and horses, and 
 makes nothing of leaping over a six-bar gate. If a man tells 
 her a waggish story, she gives him a push with her hand in 
 jest, and calls him an impudent dog ; and, if her servant neg- 
 lects his business, threatens to kick him out of the house, I 
 have heard her in her wrath call a substantial tradesman a lousie 
 cur ; and I remember one day when she could not think of the 
 name of a person, she described him, in a large company of 
 men and ladies, by the fellow with the broad shoulders." 
 
 XLIV.— THE AUTHOR'S LABOURS— CHARACTER OF THE 
 ENGRAVINGS. 
 
 Having laid before my readers a general view of the sports 
 and pastimes of our ancestors, I shall proceed to arrange them 
 under their proper heads, and allot to each of them a separate 
 elucidation. he task in truth is extremely difficult ; and many 
 omissions, as well as many errors, must of necessity occur in 
 the prosecution of it ; but none, I hope, of any great magnitude, 
 nor more than candour will overlook, especially when it is recol- 
 lected, that in a variety of instances, I have been constrained to 
 proceed without any guide, and explore, as it were, the recesses 
 of a trackless wilderness. I must also entreat the reader to ex- 
 cuse the frequent quotations which he will meet with, which in 
 general I have given verbatim ; and this 1 have done for his 
 satisfaction, as well as my own, judging it much fairer to stand 
 iipon the authority of others than to arrogate to myself the 
 least degree of penetration to which I have no claim. 
 
 It is necessary to add, that the engravings, which constitute an 
 essential part of this work, are not the produce of modern in- 
 vention, neither do they contain a single figure that has not its 
 proper authority. Most of the originals are exceedingly ancient, 
 
 ' Part ii. sect '2. can. 4. ' No. 57, A. D. 1711.
 
 INTROnUCTION. IXVIl 
 
 and all the copies are faithfully made without the least unneces- 
 sary deviation. As specimens of tl»o art of design they have 
 nothing" to recommend them to the modern eye, but as portrai- 
 tures of the manners and usages of our ancestors, in times 
 remote, they are exceedingly valuable, because they not only 
 elucidate many obsolete customs, but lead to the explanation of 
 several obscurities in the history of former ages. 
 
 Jamuiry, 1801.
 
 SPORTS AND PASTIMES 
 
 PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 
 
 BOOK L 
 
 RURAL EXERCISES PRACTISED BY PERSONS OF RANK. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Hunting more ancient than Hawking. — II. State of Hunting among the Britons„ 
 — III. The Saxons expert in Hunting. — IV. The Danes also. — V. The Saxon» 
 subsequently ; — The Normans.— V^I. Their tyrannical Proceedings. — VII. Hunt- 
 ing and Hawking after the Conquest. — VIII. Laws relating to Hunting. — IX. 
 Hunting and Hawking followed by the piergy. — X. The Manner in which the 
 dignified Clergy in the Middle Ages pursued these Pastimes. — XI. The English 
 Ladies fond of these Sports. — XII. Privileges of the Citizens of London to 
 Hunt ; — Private Privileges for Hunting. — XIII. Two Treatises on Hunting con- 
 sidered. — XIV. Names of Beasts to be hunted. — XV. Wolves not all destroyed 
 in Edgar's Time. — XVI. Dogs for Hunting. — XVII. Various Methods of 
 Hunting. — XVIII. Terms used in Hunting ; — Times when to hunt. 
 
 I HUNTING MORE ANCIENT THAN HAWKING. 
 
 We have several English treatises upon the subject of Hunting-, 
 but none of them very ancient ; the earliest I have met with is 
 a MS. in the Cotton Library at the British Museum,^ written at 
 the commencement of the fourteenth century. These compo- 
 sitions bear great resemblance to each other, and consist of 
 general rules for the pursuit of game ; together with the names 
 and nature of the animals proper for hunting, and such other 
 
 ' Vespasian, B. xii. There are also three copies of this MS. but more modern, in 
 •ho Royal Library. [See sec. xiii. of the present chapter.] 
 
 3
 
 2 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK I. 
 
 matters as were necessary to be known by sportsmen. Hawking 
 most commonly forms a part of these books ; and, though this 
 pastime can only be considered as a modern invention, when it 
 is put in competition with that of hunting, yet it has obtained 
 the precedency, notwithstanding the sanction of antiquity is so 
 decidedly against it. I shall, however, in the following pages, 
 revert the arrangement of those amusements, and begin with 
 hunting, Avhich naturally, in my opinion, claims the priority of 
 place. 
 
 II.— HUNTING AMONG THE BRITONS. 
 
 Dio Nicaeus, an ancient author, speaking of the inhabitants 
 of the northern parts of this island, tells us, they were a fierce 
 and barbarous people, who tilled no ground, but lived upon the 
 depredations they committed in the southern districts, or upon 
 the food they procured by hunting.^ Strabo also says, that the 
 dogs bred in Britain v/ere liighly esteemed upon the continent, 
 on account of their excellent qualities for himting ; and these 
 qualities, he seems to hint, were natural to them, and not the 
 effect of tutorage by their foreign masters.^ The information 
 derived from the above-cited authors, does not amount to a proof 
 that the practice of hunting v.as familiar with the Britons col- 
 lectively ; yet it certainly affords much fair argument in the 
 support of such an opinion ; for it is hardly reasonable to sup- 
 pose that the pursuit of game should have been confined to the 
 uncultivated northern freebooters, and totally neglected by the 
 more civilised inhabitants of the southern parts of the island. 
 We are well assured that venison constituted a great portion of 
 their food,^ and as they had in their possession such dogs as 
 were naturally prone to the chase, there can be little doubt that 
 they would exercise them for the purpose of procuring their 
 favourite diet ; besides, they kept large herds of cattle, and 
 flocks of sheep, both of which required protection from the 
 wolves, and other ferocious animals, that infested the woods 
 and coverts, and must frequently have rendered hunting an act 
 of absolute necessity. 
 
 If it be granted that the Britons, generally speaking, were 
 expert in hunting, it is still uncertain what animals Avere ob- 
 noxious to the chase ; we know however, at least, that the hare 
 was not anciently included ; for Csesar tells us, " the Britons 
 did not eat the flesh of hares, notwithstanding the island abounded 
 
 ' Dio NiciEus ex Xipliilin. ■« Lib. iv. * Caesar Bel. Gal. lib. vi.
 
 CHAP, I. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 6 
 
 with them.'* And this abstinence, he adds, arose from a prin- 
 ciple of religion; ' which principle, no doubt, prevented them 
 from being- worried to death : a cruelty reserved for more en- 
 lightened ages. 
 
 We do not find, that, during the establishment of the Romans 
 m Britain, there were any restrictive laws promulgated respecting 
 the killing of game. It appears to have been an established 
 maxim, in the early jurisprudence of that people, to invest the 
 right of such things as had no master with those who were the 
 first possessors. Wild beasts, birds, and fishes, became the 
 property of those who first could take them. It is most probable 
 that the Britons were left at liberty to exercise their ancient pri- 
 vileges; for, had any severity been exerted to prevent the de- 
 struction of game, such laws would hardly have been passed 
 over without the slightest notice being taken of them by the 
 ancient historians. 
 
 III.— HUNTING AMONG THE SAXONS. 
 
 The Germans, and other northern nations, were much more 
 strongly attached to the sports of the field than the Romans, 
 and accordingly they restricted the natural rights which the 
 people claimed of hunting". The ancient privileges were gradu- 
 ally withdrawn from them, and appropriated by the chiefs and 
 leaders to themselves; at last they became the sole prerogative 
 of the crown, and were thence extended to the various ranks 
 and dignities of the state at the royal pleasure. 
 
 As early as the ninth century, and probably long- before that 
 period, hunting constituted an essential part of the education oi 
 a young nobleman. Asser assures us, that Alfred the great, 
 before he was twelve years of age, " was a most expert and active 
 hunter, and excelled in all the branches of that most noble art, 
 to which he applied with incessant labour and amazing- success." ^ 
 It is certain that, whenever a temporary peace gave leisure for 
 relaxation, hunting was one of the most favourite pastimes fol- 
 lowed by the nobility and persons of opulence at that period. 
 It is no wonder, therefore, that dogs proper for the sport should 
 be held in the highest estimation. When Athelstan, the grand- 
 son of Alfred, had obtained a signal victory at Brunanburgh 
 over Constantine king of Wales, he imposed upon him a yearly 
 tribute of gold, silver, and cattle; to which was also added a 
 certain number of " hawks, and sharp-scented dogs, fit for 
 
 » Cffisar Bel. Gal. lib. vi. =< Asser. in Vit. ^Ifredi. 
 
 B2
 
 4 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK I. 
 
 hunting- of wild beasts." ^ His successor, Edgar, remitted the 
 pecuniary payment on condition of receiving annually the skins 
 of three hundred wolves.^ We do not find, indeed, that the 
 hawks and the hounds were included in this new stipulation ; 
 but it does not seem reasonable that Edgar, who, like his pre- 
 decessor, was extremely fond of the sports of the field, should 
 have given up that part of the tribute. 
 
 IV.— HUNTING AMONG THE DANES. 
 
 The Danes deriving their origin from the same source as the 
 Saxons, differed little from them in their manners and habitudes, 
 and perhaps not at all in their amusements ; the propensity to 
 hunting, however, was equally common to both. When Canute 
 the Dane had obtained possession of the throne of EnglanJ, 
 he imposed several restrictions upon the pursuit of game, which 
 were not only very severe, but seem to have been altogether 
 unprecedented; and these may be deemed a suflicient proof of 
 his strong attachment to this favourite pastime, for, in other 
 respects, his edicts breathed an appearance of mildness and 
 regard for the comforts of the people. 
 
 v.— HUNTING DURING THE RESTORATION OF THE SAXONS. 
 
 After the expulsion of the Danes, and during the short restoration 
 of the Saxon monarchy, the sports of the field still maintained 
 their ground. Edward the Confessor, whose disposition seems 
 rather to have been suited to the cloister than to the throne, would 
 join in no other secular amusements ; but he took the greatest 
 delight, says William of Malmsbury, " to follow a pack of 
 swift hounds in pursuit of game, and to cheer them with his 
 voice." ^ He was equally pleased with hawking, and every day, 
 after divine service, he spent his time in one or other of these 
 favourite pastimes.'* Harold, who succeeded him, was so fond 
 of his hawk and his hounds, that he rarely travelled without 
 them. He is so represented upon the famous tapestry of Bayeux, 
 with his hounds by his side and a hawk upon his hand, when 
 brought before William duke of Normandy.^ Travelling thus 
 accompanied, Avas not a singular trait in the character of a noble- 
 man at this period, 
 
 ' Will. Malmsbury. Hist. Reg. Anglorum, lib. ii. cap. 6. 
 
 » Ibid. cap. 8. " Ibid, ut sup. cap. 13. * Ibid. 
 
 * Montfaucon MoTiai'ch. Fran, and Ducarel's Anglo-NormaQ Antiquities
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 
 
 1. S\V7NE Hunting — IX. Century. 
 
 The above engraving reprtsents a Saxon chieftain, attenoed 
 by his liuntsman and a couple of hounds, pursuing- the wild 
 SM'ine in a forest, taken from a nianuscriptal •>ainting of the 
 ninth century in the Cotton Library.* 
 
 2. Spearing a Boar — XIV. Centuiiy. 
 
 The above is a representation of the manner of attacking the 
 wild boar, from a manuscript written about the commencemen 
 of the fourteenth century,in the possession of Francis Douce,Escf 
 
 3. The Unlarthino of a Fox. 
 
 The preceding engraving is from a manuscript in the Royn 
 Library,'^ written about the same time as the latter. 
 
 ' Tiberius, B. v. 
 
 * No. 2, B. vii.
 
 C SPORTS AND PASTIMES KOOK I. 
 
 VI.-nUNTINC AMONG THE NORMANS OPPRESSIVELY EXERCISED. 
 
 During the tyrannical g-overnment of William the Norman, 
 and his two sons who succeeded him, the restrictions concerning- 
 <he killing- of game were by no means meliorated. The privi- 
 ^eg-es of hunting in the royal forests were confined to the king 
 and his favourites; and, to render these receptacles for the 
 beasts of the chase more capacious, or to make new ones, whole 
 villages were depopulated, and places of divine worship over- 
 thrown ; not the least regard being paid to the miseries of the 
 Buffering- inhabitants, or the cause of religion. These despotic 
 proceedings were not confined to royalty, as may be proved from 
 good authority. I need not mention the New Forest, in Hamp- 
 shire, made by the elder William, or the park at Woodstock in 
 Oxfordshire, seven miles in circumference, and walled round 
 with stone by Henry his son.^ This park, Stowe tells us, was 
 the first made in England. The royal example m as first followed 
 by Henry earl of Warwick, who made a park at Wedgenoke, 
 near Warwick, to preserve his deer and other animals for hunt- 
 ing; after this the practice of park-making became geneial 
 among persons of opulence. 
 
 This subject is delineated, with great force of colouring, by 
 John of Salisbury, a writer of the twelfth century, when the 
 severity of the game laws was somewhat abated. "Tn our time," 
 says the author, " hunting and hawking are esteemed the most 
 honourable employments, and most excellent virtues, by our 
 nobility ; and they think it the height of worldly felicity to 
 spend the whole of their time in these diversions; accordingly 
 they prepare for them with more solicitude, expense, and parade, 
 than they do for war; and pursue the wild beasts with greater 
 fury than they do the enemies of their country. By constantly 
 following this way of life, they lose much of their humanity, 
 and become as savage, nearly, as the very brutes they hunt." 
 He then proceeds in this manner : " Husbandmen, with their 
 harmless herds and flocks, are driven from their well cultivated 
 fields, their meadows, and their pastures, that wild beasts may 
 range in them Avithout interruption." He adds, addressing him- 
 self to his unfortunate countrymen, "If one of these great and 
 merciless hunters shall pass by your habitation, bring forth 
 hastily all the refreshment you have in your house, or that you 
 can readily buy, or borrow from your neighbours : that you may 
 
 • Will. Malrasbury, lib. >v.
 
 CHAP. I. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 7 
 
 not be involved in ruin, or even accused of treason.**' If this 
 picture of Norman tyranny be correct, it exhibits a melanclioly 
 view of the sufferings to which the loMer clashes of the people 
 were exposed; in short, it appears that these haughty Ninirods 
 considered tlie murder of a man as a crime of less magnitude 
 than the killing of a single beast appointed for the chase. 
 
 VII.— HUNTING AND HAWKING AFTER THE CONQUEST. 
 
 King- John was particularly attached to the sports of the field; 
 and his partiality for fine horses, hounds, and hawks, is evident, 
 from his frequently receiving such animals, by way of payment, 
 instead of money, for the renewal of grants, fines, and forfeitures, 
 belonging to the crown.^ 
 
 In the reign of Edward I. this favourite amusement was re- 
 duced to a perfect science, and regular rules established for its 
 practice ; these rules were afterwards extended by the master 
 of the game belonging to king- Henry IV. and drawn up for 
 the use of his son, Henry prince of Wales. Both these tracts 
 are preserved, and we shall have occasion to speak a little fuller 
 concerning them in the course of this chapter. 
 
 Edward HI. took so much delight in hunting, that even at 
 the time he was engaged in war with France, and resident in 
 that country, he had with him in his army sixty couple of stag- 
 hounds, and as many hare hounds,^ and every day he amused 
 himself with hunting or hawking. 
 
 It also appears that many of the great lords in the English 
 army had their hounds and their hawks, as well as the king ; 
 to this may be added, from the same author, that is, Froissart, 
 who was himself a witness to the fact, that Gaston earl of Foix, 
 a foreign nobleman contemporary with king Edward, kept up- 
 wards of six hundred dogs in his castle for the purpose of 
 hunting. He had four greyhounds called by the romantic names 
 of Tristram, Hector, Brute, and Roland.^ 
 
 James I. preferred the amusement of hunting to hawking or 
 shooting. It is said of this monarch that he divided his time 
 betwixt his standish, his bottel, and his hunting; the last had 
 his fiair weather, the two former his dull and cloudy.^ One 
 
 ' Johan. Sarisburiensis de Nugis Curialium, lib. i. cap. 4. 
 ' Blount's Ancient Tenures, p. 135. 
 
 " Fort cliiens et chiens de levries," Froissart. Chron. vol. i. cap. 210. 
 
 Froissart, vol. iv. * Wellwood's Memoirs, p SX
 
 ° SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK I. 
 
 time when he was on a hunting party near Bury St. Edmunds 
 he saw an opulent townsman, who had joined the chase, " very 
 brave in his apparel, and so glitteiing and radiant, that he 
 eclipsed all the court." The king' was desirous of knowing- the 
 name of this gay gentleman, and being informed by one of his 
 followers, that it was Lanime, he facetiously replied, " Lamb, 
 call you him ? 1 know not what kind of lamb he is, but I am 
 sure he has got a fleece upon his back."' Thus it seems that 
 even the puns of royalty are worthy of record. 
 
 It would be an endless, as well as a needless task, to quote 
 all the passages that occur in the poetical and prose writings of 
 the last three centuries, to prove that this favourite pastime had 
 lost nothing- of its relish in the modern times ; on the contrary^ 
 it seems to have been more generally practised. Sir Thomas 
 More, who wrote in the reign of Henry VIII., describing the 
 state of manhood, makes a young gallant to say, 
 
 JMan-hod I am, therefore I me delyght 
 
 To hunt and hawke, to nourishe up and fede 
 
 The greyhounde to the course, the hawke to th' flight. 
 
 And to bestryde a good and lusty stede.* 
 
 These pursuits are said by latter writers to have been destruc- 
 tive to the fortunes of many inconsiderate young heirs, who, 
 desirous of emulating the state of their superiors, have kept 
 their horses, hounds, and hawks, and flourished away for a 
 short time, in a style that their income was inadequate to sup* 
 port. Others again, not having it in their power to proceed so 
 far, contented themselves more prudently with joining the parties 
 that were hunting, and partook with them the pleasure of fol- 
 lowing- the game. 
 
 VIII.— LAWS RELATING TO HUNTING. 
 
 Laws for punishing such as hunted, or destroyed the game, 
 in the royal forests, and other precincts belonging to the crown, 
 were, as we have just hinted above, established with unprece- 
 dented severity by Canute the Dane, when he ascended the 
 throne of England. By these edicts the great thanes, bishops, 
 and abbots, were permitted to hunt in the king's chases ; but all 
 unqualified persons were subjected to very heavy fines, not only 
 
 ' Harl. MS. No. 6395, auonynious, entitled " Merry Passages and Jeasts." 
 ■•* Sir Thomas More's Poems. See also Warton's History of English Poetry, 4to 
 «l. iii, p. 101.
 
 CHAP. I. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 9 
 
 for hunting, but even for disturbing of the game. If a gentle- 
 man, or an inferior thane, killed a stag in the king's forests, 
 he was degraded from his rank; if a ceorl, or husbandman, 
 committed the same offence, he was reduced to slavery ; and if 
 a slave killed one, he suffered death. Magistrates were ap- 
 pointed, in every county, or shire, to put these laws in execution, 
 and under them were appointed inferior officers or gamekeepers, 
 whose province it was to apprehend the offenders. ^ By another 
 law enacted by the same monarch, every proprietor of land had 
 the privilege to hunt game within his own fields and woods; but 
 might not pursue them into the royal forests.^ This prince also 
 prohibited the exercise of hunting, or hawking, upon the sab- 
 bath day.^ 
 
 The severity of the game laws was rather increased, than 
 abated, underthegovernanceof the four first Norman monarchs. 
 Henry II. is said to have relaxed their efficacy ; rather, I pre- 
 sume, by not commanding them to be enforced with rigour, than 
 by causing them to be abrogated ; for they seem to have virtually 
 existed in the reign of king John ; and occasioned the clause in 
 the Forest Charter, insisting that no man should forfeit his life, 
 or his limbs, for killing the king's deer; — but, if he was taken 
 in the fact of stealing venison belonging to the king, he should 
 be subjected to a heavy fine ; and, in default of payment, be 
 imprisoned for one year and one day ; and after the expiration 
 of that time, find surety for his good behaviour, or be banished 
 the land.'* This charter was afterwards confirmed by his son 
 Henry HI. and the succeeding monarchs. 
 
 IX.— HUNTING BY THE CLERGY. 
 
 Another clause in Ihe same charter grants to an archbishop, 
 bishop, earl, or baron, when travelling through the royal forests, 
 at the king's command, the privilege to kill one deer or two in 
 the sight of the forester, if he was at hand ; if not, they were 
 commanded to cause a horn to be sounded,^ that it might not 
 appear as if they had intended to steal the game. 
 
 It is evident that this privilege was afterwards construed into 
 a permission for the personages named therein to hunt in the 
 
 • Constitut. Cnut. Reg. de Forest, apud Spelm. Gloss, et Wilkins, Leg. Sax. pul46 
 ' Leges Cnuti, apud Lambard, cap. 77. ^ Ibid. cap. 15. 
 
 • Carta de Foresta, cap. 11 . ' Faciat coniare, ibid. cap. 17.
 
 10 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK I 
 
 royal chases ; but the words of the charter are not to that 
 amount, and ought, says Spelman, to be taken literally as they 
 stand in the translation : they could not however, at any rate, 
 adds he, mean, " that the ecclesiastics are to hunt the deer them- 
 selves, for they suppose them to be no hunters, as the earls and 
 burons might be ; and therefore it is not said, that he who claims 
 the venison shall blow the horn, but only that he shall cause it 
 to be sounded."^ 
 
 The propensity of the clergy to follow the secular pastimes, 
 and especially those of hunting and hawking, is frequently 
 reprobated by the poets and moralists of the former times. 
 Chaucer, in his Canterbury Tales, makes the monk much better 
 skilled in riding and hunting, than in divinity. The same poet, 
 afterwards, in the Ploughman's^^ Tale, takes occasion to accuse 
 the monks of pride, because they rode on coursers like knights, 
 having their hawks and hounds with them. In the same tale he 
 severely reproaches the priests for their dissolute manners, saying, 
 that many of them thought more upon hunting with their dogs, 
 and blowing the horn, than of the service they owed to God.^ 
 
 The prevalence of these excesses occasioned the restric- 
 tions, contained in an edict established in the thirteenth year of 
 Richard II. which prohibits any priest, or other clerk, not pos- 
 sessed of a benefice to the yearly amount of ten pounds, from 
 keeping a greyhound, or any other dog for the purpose of hunt- 
 ing; neither might they use ferrits, hayes, nets, hare-pipes, 
 cords, or other engines to take or destroy the deer, hares, or 
 rabbits, under the penalty of one year's imprisonment.^ The 
 dignified clergy were not affected by this statute, but retained 
 their ancient privileges, which appear to have been very extensive. 
 By the game laws of Canute the Dane they were permitted to 
 hunt in the forests belonging to the crown ; and these prerogatives 
 were not abrogated by the Normans. Henry II., displeased at 
 the power and ambition of the ecclesiastics, endeavoured to 
 render these grants of none effect; not by publicly annulling 
 them, but by putting in force the canon law, which strictly for- 
 bade the clergy to spend their time in hunting and hawking : 
 and for this purpose, having obtained permission from Hugo 
 
 ' Spelman's Answer to the Apology for Archbishop Abbot. 
 
 - Canterbury Tales by Chaucer. Numerous quotations might be made from othe/ 
 wriiera in addition to those above ; but they are sufficient for my purpose. 
 » Stat. 13 Rich. II.
 
 CHAP. 1. OF THE PIZOPLE OF ENGLAND. 11 
 
 Pertroleonis, the Pope's legate, he caused a law to be made, 
 authorising him to convene the offenders before the secular 
 fudges, and there to punish them.' The establishment of this 
 edict was probably more to show his power, than really to re- 
 strain them from hunting. 
 
 X.— HUNTING AND HAWKING IN THE MIDDLE AGES BY BISHOPS, &c. 
 
 The bishops and abbots of the middle ages hunted with great 
 state, having a large train of retainers and servants ; and some 
 of them are recorded for their skill in this fashionable pursuit, 
 Walter bishop of Rochester, who lived in the thirteenth century, 
 was an excellent hunter, and so fond of the sport, that at the 
 age of fourscore he made hunting his sole employment, to the 
 total neglect of the duties of his office.^ In the succeeding cen- 
 tury an abbot of Leicester surpassed all the sportsmen of the 
 thne in the art of hare hunting ; ' and even when these dignitaries 
 were travelling from place to place, upon affairs of business, 
 they usually had both hounds and hawks in their train. Fitz- 
 stephen assures us, that Thomas a Becket, being sent as ambas- 
 sador from Henry II. to the court of France, assumed the state 
 of a secular potentate ; and took with him dogs and hawks of 
 various sorts, such as were used by kings and princes."* 
 
 The clergy of rank, at all times, had the privilege of hunting 
 in their own parks and inclosures ; and therefoi'e, that they might 
 not be prevented from following this favourite pastime, they took 
 care to have such receptacles for game belonging to their prio- 
 ries. At the time of the Reformation, the see of Norwich, only, 
 was in the possession of no less than thirteen parks, well stocked 
 with deer and other animals for the chase,^ At the end of a book 
 of Homilies in MS., in the Cotton Library,^ written about the 
 reign of Henry VI., is a poem containing instructions to priests 
 in general, and requiring them, among other things, not to en- 
 gage in " hawkynge, huntynge, and dawnsynge," 
 
 XI.— HUNTING AND HAWKING BY LADIES; 
 
 The ladies often accompanied the gentlemen in hunting par- 
 ties ; upon these occasions it was usual to draw the game into a 
 
 ' An. 21 Hen. II. A. D. 1157. See Spelman's Answer to the Apology for Arch- 
 bishop Abbot. 
 
 ' P. Blenseus. epist. Ivi, p. 81 ^ Knyghton, apud Decern Script, p. 263, 
 
 * Stephanid. vit. S. Thorn. * Vide Spelman ut supra.
 
 12 SPORTS AND PAf; TIMES BOOK I 
 
 small compass by means of inclosures, and temporary stands 
 M ere made for them to be spectators of tlie sport ; though in 
 many instances they joined in it, and shot at the animals as they 
 passed by them, with arrows. Agreeable to these manners, which 
 custom reconciled to the fair sex, most of the heroines of ro- 
 mance are said to be fond of the sports of the field. In an old 
 poem entitled the " Squyer of lowe degTe,^' ^ the king of Hun- 
 gary promises his daughter that in the morning she shall go 
 with him on a hunting party, arrayed most gorgeously and 
 riding in a chariot covered with red velvet, drawn by 
 
 Jennettes of Spayne that ben so white, 
 Trapped to the ground with velvet bright. 
 
 In the field, says he, the game shall be inclosed with nets, and 
 you placed at a stand so conveniently that the harts and the 
 hinds shall come close to you — 
 
 Ye shall be set at such a tryst, 
 
 That hert and hynde shall come to your fyst. 
 
 He then commends the music of the bugle-horn — 
 
 To here tbe bugles there yblow 
 With theyr bugles in that place, 
 And seven score racbes at bis recbase 
 
 He also assures her that she should have — 
 
 A lese of herhounds with her to strake. 
 
 The harehound, or greyhound, was considered as a very valu- 
 able present in former times,^ and especially among the ladies, 
 with whom it appears to have been a peculiar favourite ; and 
 therefore in another metrical romance, probably more ancient 
 than the former, called "Sir Eglamore,"^ a princess tells the 
 knight, that if he was inclined to hunt, she would, as an espe- 
 cial mark of her favour, give him an excellent greyhound, so 
 swift that no deer could escape from his pursuit — 
 
 • Garrick's Collection of Old Plays, K. vol. ix. 
 
 2 The following extracts prove king John to have been exceedingly partial to this 
 kind of dogs. Rot. Pip. iv. Reg. Joban. A. D. 1203. Rog. constab. Cestrise debet 
 D marcas et X palfridos et X laissas Leporariorum, &c. that is, five hundred maiks, 
 ten horses, and ten leashes of greyhounds. — An. xi. Joban. 1210. Rog. de Mallvell 
 redd. comp. de 1 palfrido velocitercurrenteet2 laissiiis Leporariorum, one swift ruEsing 
 horse, and six greyhounds. 
 
 9 GaiTick's CoUec. K. vol. x.
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 
 
 13 
 
 Syr yf you be on huntynge founde, 
 I shall you gyve a good greyhounde 
 
 That is dunne as a doo : 
 For as I am trewe gentylwoman, 
 There was never deer that he at ran, 
 
 That myght yscape him fro. 
 
 It is evident, however, that the ladies had hunting parties by 
 themselves. 
 
 ^.'^ 
 
 
 4. Ladies Hunting — XIV. Centwry 
 
 ^^e find them, according- to this representation, in the open 
 fields winding the horn, rousing the game, and pursuing it, 
 without any other assistance : this delineation, which is by no
 
 14 SPORTS AND PASTIMKS BOOK I. 
 
 means singular, is taken from a manuscript in the Royal Library, 
 written and illuminated early in the fourteenth century, ' We 
 may also obser\^e, that, upon these occasions, the female Nim- 
 rods dispensed with the method of riding best suited to the mo- 
 desty of the sex, and sat astride on the saddle like the men ; 
 but this indecorous custom, I trust, was never general, nor of 
 long continuance, even with the heroines who were most delighted 
 with these masculine exercises. An author of the seventeenth 
 century speaks of another fashion, adopted by the fair hunt- 
 resses of the town of Bury in Suffolk. " The Bury ladies," 
 says he, " that used hawking and hunting, were once in a great 
 vaine of wearing breeches," which it seems gave rise to many 
 severe and ludicrous sarcasms. The only argument in favour of 
 this habit, was decency in case of an accident. But it was ob- 
 served that such accidents ought to be prevented, in a manner 
 more consistent with the delicacy of the sex, that is, by refraining 
 from those dangerous recreations.^ 
 
 Queen Elizabeth was extremely fond of the chase, and the 
 nobility m ho entertained her in her different progresses, made 
 large hunting parties, which she usually joined when the weather 
 was favourable. She very frequently indulged herself in fol- 
 lowing of the hounds. " Her majesty," says a courtier, writing 
 to Sir Robert Sidney, " is well and excellently disposed to 
 hunting, for every second day she is on horseback and continues 
 the sport long."^ At this time her majesty had just entered the 
 seventy-seventh year of her age, and she was then at her palace 
 at Oatlands. Often, when she was not disposed to hunt herself, 
 she was entertained with the sight of the pastime. At Cowdrey, 
 in Sussex, the seat of lord Montecute, A. D. 1591, one day after 
 dinner her grace saw from a turret, " sixteen bucks all having 
 fayre lawe, pulled downe with greyhounds in a laund or 
 lawn."^ 
 
 The hunting dresses, as they appeared at the commencement 
 of the fifteenth century, are given from a manuscript of that 
 time, in the Harleian Collection.^ 
 
 * 2. B. vii. [In the original drawing, and on Mr. Strutt's plate, the figures pur- 
 suing and pursued are in a line together : but for the purpose of including all the 
 figures within the preceding page, the lady on horseback is placed above, instead of 
 behind the female archer.] 
 
 « MS. Harl. 6395. Merry Passages and Jeasts, art. 345. 
 
 8 Rowland Whyte to Sir Robert Sidney, dated September 12, A.D. 1600. 
 
 * Nichols's Progresses, vol. ii. * No. 4431. 
 
 I
 
 CHAP. 1. 
 
 OF THE PEOPLK OF ENGLANr>. 
 
 15 
 
 XV. Century. 
 
 Xll. 
 
 -PRIVILEGES OF THE CITIZENS OF LONDON TO HUNT 
 AND HAWK. 
 
 The citizens of London were permitted to hunt and hawk in 
 certain districts. And one of the clauses, in the royal charter 
 granted to them by Henry I., runs to this purport : " The citizens 
 of London may have chases, and hunt as well, and as fully, as 
 their ancestors have had ; that is to say, in the Chiltre, in Mid- 
 dlesex, and Surry." ^ Hence we find, that these privileges were 
 of ancient standing. They were also confirmed by the succeeding 
 charters. Pitzstephen, who wrote towards the close of the reign 
 of Henry IL, says, that the Londoners delight themselves Math 
 hawks and hounds, for they have the liberty of hunting in Mid- 
 dlesex, Hertfordshire, all Chilton, and in Kent to the waters of 
 Grey ,2 which differs somewhat from the statement in the charter. 
 These exercises were not much followed by the citizens of Lon- 
 don at the close of the sixteenth century, not for want of taste 
 
 > Maitland's Hist. London, book i. chap. 6. 
 ' Stepiianides Descript. London.
 
 1(5 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK I. 
 
 for the amusement, says Stow but for leisure to pursue it.' 
 Strype, however, so late as the reign of George I., reckons among 
 the modern amusements of the Londoners, " Riding on horseback 
 and hunting with my Lord Mayor's hounds, when the common- 
 hunt goes out." 
 
 This common-hunt of the citizens is ridiculed in an old ballad 
 called the " London Customs," published in D'Urfey's Col- 
 lection,2 I shall select the three following stanzas only. 
 
 Next once a year into Essex a hunting tbey go ; 
 
 To see 'em pass along, O 'tis a most pretty shew ; 
 
 Through Cheapside and Fenchurch-street, and so to Aldgate pump, 
 
 Each man witli 's spurs in's horses sides, and his back-sword cross his rump. 
 
 My lord he takes a stafF in hand to beat the bushes o'er ; 
 
 I must confess it was a work he ne'er had done before. 
 
 A creature bounceth from a bush, which mads them all to laugh ; 
 
 My lord, he cried, a hare a hare, but it prov'd an Essex calf. 
 
 And when they had done their sport, they came to London where they dwell, 
 Their faces all so torn and scratch'd, their wives scarce knew them well ; 
 For 'twas a very great mercy, so many 'scap'd alive. 
 For of twenty saddles carried out, they brought again but five. 
 
 Privileges to hunt in certain districts, were frequently granted 
 to individuals either fiom favour, or as a reward for their ser- 
 vices. Richard L gave to Henry de Grey, of Codnor, the manor 
 of Turroe, in Essex, with permission to hunt the hare and the 
 fox, in any lands belonging to the crown, excepting only the 
 king's own demesne parks ; and this special mark of the royal 
 favour was confirmed by his brother John, when he succeeded to 
 the throne.^ 
 
 Others obtained grants of land, on condition of their paying- 
 an annual tribute in horses, hawks, and hounds. And here I 
 cannot help noticing a curious tenure, by which Bertram de 
 Criol held the manor of Setene, or Seaton, in Kent, from Ed- 
 ward L; he was to provide a man, called " veltarius," or hunts- 
 man,'* to lead three greyhounds when the king went into Gascony, 
 so long as a pair of shoes, valued at fourpence, should last him.^ 
 
 ' Stow's Survey of London, vol. i. p. 157. 
 
 « " Pills to Purge Melancholy," 1719, vol. iv. p. 42. 
 
 ' Blount's Ancient Tenures. 
 
 * Or " vautrarius," which Blount derives from the French vaultre, a mongrel 
 hound, and supposes the name to signify an inferior huntsman ; and this opinion I 
 have adopted. 
 
 s E c. An. 34 Edward I. No. 37. Richard Rockesley held the same land by ihr 
 6ime tenure, in the second year of Edward II. Blount ut supra.
 
 CHAP. I. OV THK PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 17 
 
 XIII.— TWO EARLY TREATISES ON HUNTING. 
 
 I bave mentioned two treatises upon hunting, in a foniier part 
 (tlie first section) of this chapter; the earliest of them was ori- 
 g-inally written in French, by William Twici, or Twety, grand 
 huntsman to king Edward II.' I bave never seen the French 
 tract, but the manuscript I spoke of is in English, and from its 
 appearance nearly coeval with the original, but the name of 
 John GyfFoi'd is joined to that of Twety, and both of them are 
 said to be " maisters of the game " to king Edward,^ and to have 
 composed this treatise upon " the crafte of huntynge." The 
 other, as before observed, was written by the master of the game 
 to Henry IV. for the use of prince Henry his son, and is little 
 more than an enlargement of the former tract.^ The Book of 
 St. Albans, so called because it was printed there, contains the 
 first treatise upon the subject of hunting that ever appeared 
 from the press. It is however evidently compiled from the two 
 tracts above mentioned, notwithstanding the legendary authority 
 of Sir Tristram, quoted in the beginning-. The Book of St. 
 Albans is said to have been written by Juliana Barnes, or Berners, 
 the sister of lord Berners, and prioress of the nunnery of Sope- 
 well, about the year 1481, and was printed soon afterwards. 
 This book contains two other tracts, the one on hawking, and 
 the other on heraldry. It has been reprinted several times, and 
 under different titles, with some additions and amendments, but 
 the general information is the same. 
 
 XIV.— NAMES OF BEASTS OF SPORT. 
 
 Twici introduces the subject with a kind of poetical prologue, 
 in which he gives us the names of the animals to be pursued ; 
 and these are divided into three classes. 
 
 The first class contains four, which, we are informed, may be 
 properly called beasts for hunting ; namely, the hare, the hart, 
 the wolf, and the wild boar.^ 
 
 The second class contains the names of the beasts of the chase, 
 
 ' Entitled "Art de Venf rie le quel Maistre Guillnme Twici venour le Roy dangle- 
 terre fist en son temps per aprandre Autres ; or the Art of Hunting, which Mr. Win- 
 Twici, huntsman to the king of England, made for the instruction of others." See 
 Warton's Hist. Eng. Poetry, vol. ii. p. 221. 
 
 • Cotton MS. Vespasian, 13. xii. 
 
 • MS. Harl. This book is entitled " The Maister of the Game." 
 
 • The Book of St. Albans, I fancy, by mistake, places the wild roe for tLe wild 
 boar. 
 
 O
 
 18 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK I. 
 
 and they are five; that is to say, the buck, the doe, the fox, 
 the martin, and the roe.^ 
 
 In the third class we find three, that are said to afford " greate 
 dysporte" in the pursuit, and they are denominated, the grey 
 or badg-er, the wild-cat and the otter. 
 
 Most of the books upon hunting agree in the number and names 
 of the first class ; but respecting the second and third they are 
 not so clear. The beasts of the chase in some are mere multi- 
 farious, and divided into two classes : the first called beasts of 
 sweet flight, are the buck, the doe, the bear, the rein deer, the 
 elk, and the spytard, which, as the author himself informs us, is 
 a hart one hundred years old. Tn the second class, are placed 
 the fulimart, the fitchat, or fitch, the cat, the grey, the fox, the 
 wesel, the martin, the squirrel, the white rat, the otter, the 
 stoat, and the pole-cat ; and these are said to be beasts of stink- 
 ing flight.2 
 
 XV.— WOLVES. 
 
 The reader may possibly be surprised, when he casts his eye 
 over the foregoing list of animals for hunting, at seeing the 
 names of several that do not exist at this time in England, 
 and especially of the wolf, because he will readily recollect the 
 story so commonly told of their destruction during the reign of 
 Edgar. It is generally admitted that Edgar gave up the fine of 
 gold and silver imposed by his uncle Athelstan, upon Constan- 
 tine the king of Wales, and claimed in its stead the annual pro- 
 duction of three hundred wolves' skins; because, say the his- 
 torians, the extensive woodlands and coverts, abounding at that 
 time in Britain, aflbrded shelter for the wolves, which were 
 exceedingly numerous, and especially in the districts bordering 
 upon Wales. By this prudent expedient, add they, in less than 
 four years the whole island was cleared from those ferocious 
 animals, without putting his subjects to the least expense ; but, 
 if this record be taken in its full latitude, and the supposition 
 established, that the wolves were totally exterminated in Britain 
 during the reign of Edgar, more will certainly be admitted 
 
 ' The Book of St. Albans adds, that all other kinds of beasts subject to hunting are 
 to be called " Raskall," derived, I suppose, from the Saxon word papcal, which signifies 
 a lean beast, or one of no worth. 
 
 ' The word in the original MS. is written fute and fuite, which I conceive to be 
 French, and then the interpr station I have given of flight will be proper. The meaning 
 is, that the latter leave a scent behind them when they are chased.
 
 CHAP, r. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 19 
 
 than IS consistent with the (ruth, as certain documents clearly 
 prove. 
 
 The words of William of Malmsbury relative to wolves in 
 Edgar's time are to this purport. "He, Edg^r, imposed a tribute 
 upon the king of Wales exacting yearly three hundred wolves. 
 This tribute continued to be paid for three years, but ceased 
 upon the fourth, because nullum se nlterins posse invenire pro- 
 fess us ; it was said that he could not find anymore;"' that 
 is, in Wales, for it can hardly be supposed that he was permitted 
 to hunt them out of his own dominions. 
 
 As respects the existence of wolves in England afterwards, 
 and till a much later period ; it appears, that in the tenth year 
 of William 1. Robert de Umfranville, knight, held the lordship, 
 &c. of Kiddlcsdale, in the county of Northumberland, by service 
 of defending that part of the country from enemies and " wolves." ^ 
 Also in the forty-third year of Edward III. Thomas Engaine 
 held lands in Pitchley, in the county of Northampton, by ser- 
 vice of finding at his own cost certain dogs for the destruction 
 of wolves, foxes, &c. in the counties of Northampton, Rutland, 
 Oxford, Essex, and Buckingham.' As late as the eleventh year of 
 Henry VI. Sir Robert Plumpton held one bovate of land, in the 
 county of Nottingham, called Wolf hunt land, by service of 
 winding a horn, and chasing or frighting the wolves in the 
 forest of Shirewood.'* 
 
 XVI.— DOGS OF THE CHASE. 
 
 In the manuscripts before mentioned we find the follo^ving 
 names for the dogs employed in the sports of the field ; that is 
 to say, raches, or hounds ; running hounds, or harriers, to chase 
 hares ; and greyhounds, which were favourite dogs with the 
 sportsmen ; alauntes, or bull-dogs, these were chiefly used for 
 hunting the boar; the mastiflf is also said to be " a good hounde" 
 for hunting the wild boar ; the spaniel was of use in hawking ; 
 " hys crafte," says the author, " is for the perdrich or patridge, 
 and the quaile ; and, when taught to couch, he is very service- 
 able to the fowlers, who take those birds with nets." There 
 must, I presume, have been a vast number of other kinds of 
 dogs known in England at this period ; these, however, are all 
 that the early m riters, upon the subject of hunting', have thought 
 
 ' Hist. Reg. Angl. lib. ii. cap. 8. * Testa Nevelli. 
 
 3 Memb. 13. '' Ibid. See mor*^ in Blount's Ancient Tenures. 
 
 C2
 
 20 SPORTS AND PASTIMES ROOK I. 
 
 proper to enumerate. In the sixteenth century the list is en- 
 larged ; besides those already named, we find bastards and mon- 
 grels, lemors, kenets, terrours, butcher's hounds, dunghill dogs, 
 trindel-tail'd dogs, " pryckereard " curs, and ladies small pup- 
 pies.^ 
 
 There formerly existed a very cruel law, which subjected 
 all the dogs that were found in the royal chases and forests, 
 excepting such as belonged to privileged persons, to be maimed 
 by having the left claw cut from their feet, unless they were 
 redeemed by a fine ; this law probably originated with the Nor- 
 mans, and certainly was in force in the reign of Henry I.^ 
 
 XVII.— DIFFERENT MODES OF HUNTING. 
 
 Several methods of hunting were practised by the sportsmen 
 of this kingdom, as well on horseback as on foot. Sometimes 
 this exercise took place in the open country; sometimes in woods 
 and thickets ; and sometimes in parks, chases, and forests, where 
 the game was usually enclosed with a haye or fence-work of 
 netting, supported by posts driven into the ground for that pur- 
 pose. The manner of hunting at large needs no description ; 
 but, as the method of killing game within the enclosures is now 
 totally laid aside, it may not be amiss to give the reader some 
 idea how it was performed, and particularly when the king with 
 the nobility were present at the sport. All the preparations and 
 ceremonies necessary upon the occasion are set down at large in 
 the manuscript made for the use of prince Henry, mentioned 
 before ; ^ the substance of which is as follows. 
 
 When the king should think proper to hunt the hart in the parks 
 or forests, either with bows or greyhounds, the master of the game, 
 and the park-keeper, or the forester, being made acquainted 
 with his pleasure, was to see that every thing be provided ne- 
 cessary for the purpose. It was the duty of the sheriff of the 
 county, wherein the hunting was to be performed, to furnish fit 
 stabling for the king's horses, and carts to take away the dead 
 game. The hunters and officers under the forester, with theii 
 assistants, were commanded to erect a sufficient number of tempo- 
 rary buildings'* for the reception of the royal family and their train ; 
 
 ' " Booke of hauking and hunting," without date, reprinted with the title of 
 ' A Jewell for Gentrie." Lend. 1614. 
 
 2 See Blouni's Antient Tenures, art. Sutton, &c. ' Page 17, sec. xiii. 
 
 * They are called " trists" or " treetes" in the RtS. a'ad might possibly be temporary 
 Etao;as. 

 
 CHAP. I. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 21 
 
 and, if I understand my author clearly, these buildings were di- 
 rected to be covered with green boughs,^ to answer the double 
 purpose of shading the company and the hounds from the heat 
 of the sun, and to protect them from any inconveniency in case 
 of foul weather. Early in the morning, upon the day appointed 
 for the sport, the master of the game, with the officers deputed 
 by him, was to see that the greyhounds were properly placed, 
 and the person nominated to blow the horn, whose office was to 
 watch what kind of game was turned out, and, by the manner 
 of winding his horn, signify the same to the company, that they 
 might be prepared for its reception upon its quitting the cover. 
 Proper persons were then to be appointed, at different parts of 
 the enclosure, to keep the populace at due distance. The yeo- 
 men of the king's bow, and the grooms of his tutored grey- 
 hounds,^ had in charge to secure the king's standing, and pre- 
 vent any noise being made to disturb the game before the arrival 
 of his majesty. When the royal family and the nobility were 
 conducted to the places appointed for their reception, the master 
 of the game, or his lieutenant, sounded three long mootes, or 
 blasts with the horn, for the uncoupling of the hart hounds. 
 The game was then driven from the cover, and turned by the 
 huntsmen and the hounds so as to pass by the stands belonging 
 to the king and queen, and such of the nobility as were per- 
 mitted to have a share in the pastime ; who might either shoot 
 at them Avith their bows, or pursue them with the greyhounds, 
 at their pleasure. We are then informed that the game which 
 the king, the queen, or the prince or princesses, slew with their 
 own bows, or particularly commanded to be let run, was not 
 liable to any claim by the huntsmen or their attendants ; but 
 of all the rest that was killed they had certain parts assigned 
 to them by the master of the game, according to the ancient 
 custom. 
 
 This arrangement was for a royal hunting, but similar pre- 
 parations were made upon like occasions for the sport of the 
 great barons and dignified clergy. Their tenants sometimes 
 held lands of them by the service of finding men to enclose the 
 grounds, and drive the deer to the stands whenever it pleased 
 their lords to hunt them.^ 
 
 ' The passage runs thus in the MS. " the fewtierers ought to make fayre logges of 
 grene boughes at tlieir trestes," 6cc. 
 
 ' Chastised greyhouudes, ]\1S. •• See Blouut's Ancient Tenures.
 
 22 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK 1. 
 
 XVIII.— HUNTING TERMS— SEASONS FOR HUNTING. 
 
 There was a peculiar kind of language invented by the sports- 
 men of the middle ages, which it was necessary for every lover 
 of the chase to be acquainted with. 
 
 When beasts went together in companies, there was said to 
 be a pride of lions ; a lepe of leopards ; an herd of harts, of 
 bucks, and of all sorts of deer; a bevy of roes; a sloth ot 
 bears; a singular of boars ; a sownder of wild swine; a dryft 
 of tame swine; a route of wolves; a harras of horses; a rag- 
 of colts ; a stud of mares ; a pace of asses ; a baren of nudes ; 
 a team of oxen ; a drove of kine ; a flock of sheep ; a tribe of 
 goats ; a sculk of foxes ; a cete of badgers ; a richess of mar- 
 tins ; a fesynes of ferrets ; a huske or a down of hares ; a nest 
 of rabbits ; a clowder of cats, and a kendel of young cats ; a 
 shrewdness of apes ; and a labour of moles. 
 
 And also, of animals when they retired to rest ; a hart was 
 said to be harbored, a buck lodged, a roebuck bedded, a hare 
 formed, a rabbit set, &c. 
 
 Two greyhounds were called a brace, three a leash, but two 
 spaniels or harriers were called a couple. We have also a mute 
 of hounds for a number, a kenel of raches, a litter of whelps, 
 and a cowardice of curs. 
 
 It is well worthy notice, that this sort of phraseology was not 
 confined to birds and beasts, and other parts of the brute cre- 
 ation, but it was extended to the various ranks and professions 
 of men, as the specimen, which I cannot help adding, will suf- 
 ficiently demonstrate; the application of some of them, will, I 
 trust, be thought apt enough : — 
 
 A state of princes ; a skulk of friars ; a skulk of thieves ; an 
 observance of hermits; a lying of pardoners; a subtiltie of Ser- 
 jeants; an untruth of sompners ; a multiplying of husbands; an 
 incredibility of cuckolds ; a safeguard of porters ; a stalk of fo- 
 resters; a blast of hunters; a draught of butlers; a temperance of 
 cooks; a melody of harpers; a poverty of pipers; a drunkenship 
 of coblers ; a disguising of taylors ; a wandering of tinkers ; a 
 malepertuess of pedlars ; a fighting of beggars ; a rayful, (that 
 is, a netful,) of knaves; a blush of boys; a bevy of ladies; a 
 nonpatience of wives ; a gagle of women ; a gagle of geese ; a 
 superfluity of nuns; and a herd of harlots. Similar terms were
 
 CHAP. T. OF THE PEOPLE OF ELGLAND. 
 
 20 
 
 applied to iiianimate things, as a caste of bread, a cluster of 
 grapes, a cluster of nuts, &c, 
 
 I shall now conclr.de this long, and, I fear, tedious chaptei 
 with "the seasons for alle sortes of venery;" and the ancient 
 books upon hunting, seem to be agreed upon this point. 
 
 The " time of grace " begins at Midsummer, and lasteth to 
 Holyrood-day. The fox may be hunted from the Nativity to 
 the Annunciation of our Lady ; ' the roebuck from Easter to 
 Michaelmas; the roe from Michaelmas to Candlemas ; the hare 
 from Michaelmas to Midsummer; l! e wolf as the fox ; and the 
 boar from the Nativity to the Purification of our Lady 
 
 * Sw tbe Encyclopedia Britann'c i, art. Hunting;*
 
 14 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOR I. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 L Hawking practised by the Nobility. — II, Its Origin not well known ; — Afavounte 
 Amusement with the Saxons. — III. Romantic Story relative to Hawking. — IV. 
 Grand Falconer of France, his State and Privileges. — V. Edward HI. partial to 
 Hawking- ; — Sir Thomas Jermin. — VI. Ladies fond of Hawking. — VII. Its De- 
 cline. — VIII. How it was performed. — IX. Embellishments of the Hawk. — ■ 
 X. Treatises concerning Hawking ; — Superstitious Cure of Hawks. — XI. Laws 
 respecting Hawks. — XII. Their great Value. — XIII. The different Species of 
 Hawks, and their Appropriation. — XIV. Terms used in Hawking. — XV. Fowhng 
 and Fishing ; — The Stalking Horse ; — Lowbelling. 
 
 I.— HAWKING BY THE NOBILITY. 
 
 Hawking, or the art of training' and flying of hawks, for the 
 purpose of catching' other birds, is very frequently called fal- 
 conry or fauconry ; and the person who had the care of the 
 hawks is denominated the falconer, but never I believe the 
 hawker. The sport is generally placed at the head of those 
 amusements that can only be practised in the country, and pro- 
 bably it obtained this precedency from its being a pastime so 
 generally followed by the nobility, not in this country only, but 
 also upon the continent. Persons of high rank rarely appeared 
 without their dogs and their hawks ; the latter they carried with 
 them when they journeyed from one country to another,' and 
 sometimes even when they went to battle, and would not part 
 with them to procure their own liberty when taken prisoners. 
 Sometimes they formed part of the train of an ecclesiastic.^ These 
 birds were considered as ensigns of nobility : and no action could 
 be reckoned more dishonourable to a man of rank than to give up 
 his hawk.2 The ancient English illuminators have uniformly 
 distinguished the portrait of king Stephen by giving him a 
 hawk upon his hand, to signify, I presume, by that symbol, 
 that he was nobly, though not royally born.'* 
 
 Sebastian Brant, a native of Germany, the author of a work 
 entitled Stultifera Navis, the Ship of Fools, published towards 
 
 * See p. 4. sec. v. * See p. 11. sec x. 
 
 * Memoirs des loscrip. torn. ix. p. 542. 
 
 * See the Regal and Ecclesiastical Antiquities of England.
 
 CHAP. II. OP THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. "ZS 
 
 the conclusion of the fifteenth century, accuses his countrymen 
 of brhiging their hawks and hounds into the churches, and in- 
 terrupting; the divine service ; which indecency he severely re- 
 probates and with the greatest justice. The passage is thus 
 translated by Alexander Barclay:' 
 
 Into the church then comes another sotte, 
 Withouteu devotion, jetting up and down, 
 Or to h". seene, and showe his garded cote. 
 Another on liis fiste a sparhawke or fawcone. 
 Or else a cokow ; wasting so his shone ; 
 Before the aulter he to and fro doth wander. 
 With even as great devotiou as doth a gander. 
 In comes another, his houndes at his tayle, 
 With lynes and leases, and other like baggage ; 
 His dogges barke, so that withouten fayle. 
 The whole church is troubled by their outrage. 
 
 II.— ORIGIN OF HAWKING. 
 
 I cannot trace the origin of hawking to an earlier period than 
 the middle of the fourth century. Julius Firmicus, who livea 
 about that time, is the first Latin author that speaks of falconers, 
 and the art of teaching- one species of birds to fly after and 
 catch others.2 pijny is thought to have attributed a sport of this 
 kind to the inhabitants of a certain district in Thrace, but his 
 words are too obscure for much dependance to be placed upon 
 them.^ An English writer, upon what authority I know not, 
 says, that hawking was first invented and practised by Frederic 
 Barbarossa, when he besieged Rome.'' It appears, however, to 
 be very certain that this amusement was discovered abroad, where 
 it became fashionable, some time before it was known in this 
 country : the period of its introduction cannot be clearly deter- 
 mined ; but, about the middle of the eighth century, Winifred, 
 or Boniface, archbishop of Mons, who was himself a native of 
 England, presented to Ethelbert, king of Kent, one hawk and 
 two falcons ; and a king of the Mercians requested the same 
 Winifred to send to him two falcons that had been trained to kill 
 cranes.^ In the succeeding century, the sport was very highly 
 esteemed by the Anglo-Saxon nobility; and the training and 
 flying of hawks became one of the essentials in the education of 
 
 ' And printed by Pynson A. D. 1508, * Lib. v. cap. 8 
 
 3 Pliny Nat. Hist. lib. x. cap. 8. '' Peacham's Complete Gentleman, p. 183 
 
 Epist. Winifred. See Warton's Hist. Eng. Poet. vol. ii. p. 221.
 
 26 SPORTS AND PASTIMRS BOOK T. 
 
 a young man of rank. Alfred the great is commended for his 
 early proficiency in this, as well as in other fashionable amuse- 
 ments ; ' he is even said to hare Avritten a treatise upon the sub- 
 ject of hawking, but there is no such work at present in exist- 
 ence, that can with any degree of certainty be attributed to him. 
 The pastime of hawking must, no doubt, at this period, have 
 been very generally followed, to call for the prohibition inserted 
 in a charter granted to the Abbey of Abington, by Kenulph, 
 king of the Mercians ; which restrains all persons from carrying 
 of hawks, and thereby trespassing upon the lands belonging to 
 the monks who resided therein.^ This amusement continued to 
 be a fashionable one to the end of the Saxon oera. Byrhtric, 
 a Saxon nobleman, who died towards the end of the tenth cen- 
 tury, among other valuable articles, left by will, to earl JElfric, 
 two hawks, and all his heahop hunbap. which Lambarde renders 
 hedge-hounds; spaniels, I suppose, for the purpose of flushing 
 the game.3 We have already seen that Edward the confessor 
 was highly pleased with the sports of the field, and pursued 
 them constantly every day, allotting the whole of his leisure 
 lime to hunting or hawking.** 
 
 III.— RO:^I ANTIC STORY RELATIVE TO HAWKING. 
 
 The monkish writers, after the conquest, not readily account- 
 ing for the first coming of the Danes, or for the cruelties that 
 they committed in this country, have assigned several causes ; 
 and, among others, the following story is related, which, if it 
 might be depended upon, would prove that the pastime of hawk- 
 ing was practised by the nobility of Denmark at a very early 
 period ; such a supposition has at least probability on its side, 
 even if it should not be thought to derive much strength from 
 the authority of this narrative. 
 
 A Danish chieftain, of high rank, some say of royal blood, 
 named Lothbroc, amusing himself with his hawk near sea, upon 
 the western coasts of Denmark, the bird, in pursuit of her 
 game, fell into the water ; Lothbroc, anxious for her safety, got 
 into a little boat that was near at hand, and rowed from the shore 
 to take her up, but before he could return to the land, a sudden 
 storm arose, and he was driven out to sea. After suffering 
 
 ' See p. 3. sec. iii. 
 
 ^ This cliarter was granted A.D. 821. Dugdale's Monasticon, vol. i. p. 100. 
 * See the whole of the curious willin Lambarde's Perambulation of Kent, p. 540. 
 ■• See p. 4. sec. v.
 
 CHAP. II. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 27 
 
 o^reat hardship, during a voyage of infinite peril, he reached 
 the coast of Norfolk, and landed at a port called Rodham : he 
 was immediately seized by the inhabitants, and sent to the court 
 of Edmund, king of the East Angles; when that monarch was 
 made acquainted with the occasion of his coming, he received 
 him very favourably, and soon became particularly attached to 
 him, on account of his great skill in the training and flying of 
 hawks. The partiality which Edmund manifested for this un- 
 fortunate stranger, excited the jealousy of Beoric, the king's 
 falconer, who took an opportunity of murdering the Dane, 
 whilst he was exercising of his birds in the midst of a wood, 
 and secreted the body : which was soon afterwards discovered 
 by the vigilance of a favourite spaniel. Beoric was apprehended, 
 and, it seems, convicted of the murder ; for he was condemned 
 to be put into an open boat (some say the very boat in which 
 the Danish chieftain came to England) without oars, mast, or 
 rudder, and in that condition abandoned to the mercy of the 
 ocean. Tt so chanced, that the boat was wafted to the very 
 point of land that Lothbroc came from ; and Beoric, escaped 
 from the danger of the waves, was apprehended by the Danes, 
 and taken before two of the chieftains of the country, named 
 Hinguar and Hubba ; who were both of them the sons of 
 Lothbroc. The crafty falconer soon learned this circumstance, 
 and, in order to acquire their favour, made them acquainted 
 with the murder of their father, which he affirmed was executed 
 at the command of king Edmund, and that he himself had 
 suffered the hardship at sea, from which he had been delivered 
 by reaching the shore, because he had the courage to oppose 
 the king's order, and endeavoured to save the life of the Danish 
 nobleman. Incited by this abominable falsehood to revenge 
 the murder of their father, by force of arms, they invaded the 
 kingdom of the East Angles, pillaged the country, and having 
 taken the king prisoner, caused him to be tied to a stake, and 
 shot to death with arrows. 
 
 This narration bears upon the face of it the genuine marks 
 of a legendary tale. Lidgate, a monk of Saint Edmund's Bury, 
 has given it a place, with the addition of several miraculous cir- 
 cumstances, in his poetical life of king Edmund, who was the 
 tutelar saint of the abbey to which he belonged.' On the other 
 
 ' Lidgate presented this poem to king Henry VI. when that monarch held his court 
 nt Bury. The presentation MS. is yet extant in the Harh ian Library, No. 2278
 
 28 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK 1. 
 
 hand, every one who is acquainted with the history of the An- 
 glo-Saxons must know, that the Danish pirates had infested the 
 coEists of England, and committed many dreadful depredations, 
 long before the time assigned for the abore event ; and the suc- 
 cess of the first parties encouraged others to make the like at- 
 tempts. 
 
 IV.— GRAND FALCONER OF FRANCE. 
 
 Hawking is often mentioned, says a modern author, in the 
 capitularies of the eighth and ninth centuries. The grand fau- 
 connier of France was an officer of great eminence ; his annual 
 salary was four thousand florins; he was attended by fifty 
 gentlemen, and fifty assistant falconers ; he was allowed to keep 
 three hundred hawks, he licensed every vender of hawks in 
 France, and received a tax upon every bird sold in that king- 
 dom, and even within the verge of the court ; and the king 
 never rode out upon any occasion of consequence without this 
 oflicer attending upon him.' 
 
 In Doomsday-book, a hawk's airy ^ is returned among the most 
 valuable articles of property; which proves the high estimation 
 these birds were held in at the commencement of the Norman 
 government ; and probably some establishment, like that above 
 mentioned, was made for the royal falconer in England. 
 
 v.— FONDNESS OF EDWARD III. &c. FOR HAWKING. 
 Edward III., according to Froissart, had with him in his army 
 when he invaded France, thirty falconers on horseback, who had 
 charge of his hawks ; ^ and every day he either hunted, or went 
 to the river"* for the purpose of hawking, as his fancy inclined 
 him. From the frequent mention that is made of hawking by 
 the water-side, not only by the historians, but also by the 
 romance writers of the middle ages, I suppose that the pursuit 
 of water-fowls aflforded the most diversion. The author last 
 quoted, speaking of the earl of Flanders, says, he was always 
 at the river,^ where his falconer cast oft" one falcon after the 
 heron, and the earl another. In the poetical romance of the 
 " Squire of low Degree," the king of Hungary promises his 
 daughter, that, at her return from hunting, she should hawk by 
 the river-side, with gos hawk, gentle falcon, and other well- 
 
 > Warton's Hist, of English Poetry, vol. ii. p. 2'2). - Aiia Accipitris. 
 
 ' Treute fauconniers acbeval, cbargez d'oiseaux. Froissart's Chron. vol. i. cap. 210. 
 ♦ Ou en riviere. Ibid. * Tous jours en riviere. Ibid. cap. 1-iO.
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 OF THK PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 
 
 29 
 
 tutored birds;' so also Chaucer, in the rhime of sir Thopas, 
 says that he could hunt the wild deer, 
 
 And ryde on haukynge by die ryver, 
 Witli grey gos hawke in hande.^ 
 
 An anonymous M'riter, of the seventeenth century, records thj 
 following anecdote: "Sir Thomas Jermin, going out with his 
 servants, and brooke hawkes one evening, at Bury ,3 they were 
 no sooner abroad, but fowle were found, and he called out to 
 one of his falconers. Off with your jerkin : the fellow being into 
 the wind '^ did not heare him; at which he stormed, and still 
 cried out, Off'with your jerkin, you knave, off with your jerkin : 
 now it fell out that there was, at that instant, a plaine townsman 
 of Bury, in a freeze jerkin, stood betwixt him and his falconer, 
 who seeing sir Thomas in such a rage, and thinking he had 
 spoken to him, unbuttoned hhnself amaine, threw off his jerkin, 
 and besought hisworshippe not to be offended, for he would off 
 with his doublet too, to grive him content."^ 
 
 6. Saxon Hawking — IX. Century. 
 
 This engraving represents a Saxon nobleman and his falconer, 
 with their hawks, upon the bank of a river, waiting for the 
 rising of the game. The delineation is from a Saxon manuscript 
 written at the close of the ninth century, or at the commence- 
 ment of the tenth ; in the Cotton Library.^ Another drawing 
 upon the same subject, with a little variation, occurs in a Saxon 
 manuscript, somewhat more modern.'' The two following en- 
 gravings are from drawings in a manuscript written early in 
 the fourteenth century, preserved in the Royal Library.^ We 
 see a party of both sexes hawking by the water side ; the fal- 
 
 ' Garrick's Collect, of old Plays, K. vol. X " Canterbury Talcs. 
 
 » Bury St. Edmund's, in Suffolk. 
 
 * That is, to the windward; I use the author's own words. 
 
 * MS. Harl. 6395. Merry Passages and Jeasts, art. 2S3. • Tiberius, C. vi. 
 ' Julius. A. vi. e Marked 2 B. vii
 
 30 
 
 SPORTS AND PASTIMES 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 coiier is frightening the fowls to make their rise, and the hawk- 
 is in the act of seizing upon one of them.' 
 
 8. Ladies Hawking — XIV. Centur*. 
 
 ' [The fowls before the falconer in the original drawing are placed below in the 
 present engraving, to accommodate it to the page.]
 
 CHAP. II, OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 31 
 
 VI.— FONDNESS OF LADIES AND THE CLERGY FOR HAWKIJ^JG. 
 
 We may also here notice, that the ladies not only accompanied 
 the gentlemen in pursuit of this diversion, but often practised 
 it by themselves ; and, if we may believe a contemporary writer,' 
 in the thirteenth century, they even excelled the men in know- 
 ledge and exercise of the art of falconry, which reason, he very 
 ungallantly produces, in proof that the pastime was frivolous 
 and effeminate. Hawking was forbidden to the clergy by the 
 canons of the church; but the prohibition was bv no means 
 sufficient to restrain them from the pursuit of this favourite and 
 fashionable amusement. On which account, as well as for 
 hunting, they were severely lashed by the poets and moralists; 
 and, indeed, the one was rarely spoken of M'ithout the other 
 being included; for those who delighted in hawking were gene- 
 rally proficients in hunting also.^ 
 
 VII.— DECLINE OF HAWKING. 
 
 The practice of hawking declined, from the moment the mus- 
 ket was brought to perfection, which pointing out a method more 
 ready and more certain of procuring game, and, at the same 
 time, affording an equal degree of air and exercise, the immense 
 expense of training, and maintaining of hawks became altogether 
 unnecessary ; it was therefore no wonder that the assistance of 
 the gun superseded that of the bird ; or that the art of hawking, 
 when rendered useless, should be laid aside. Its fall was very 
 rapid. Hentzner, who wrote his Itinerary A. D. 1598, assures 
 us that hawking- was the general sport of the English nobility ; 
 at the same time, most of the best treatises upon this subject 
 were written. At the commencement of the seventeenth cen- 
 tury, it seems to have been in the zenith of its glory. At the 
 close of the same century, the sport was rarely practised, and a 
 few years afterwards hardly known. 
 
 VIII.— METHOD OF HAWKING. 
 
 Hawking was performed on horseback, or on foot, as occasion 
 required. On horseback, when in the fields, and open country; 
 and on foot, when in the woods and coverts. In following the 
 
 1 Johan. Sarisburiensis, lib. i. cap. 4. * See p. 4. sec. t.
 
 32 SPORTS AND PASTIMKS BOOK I. 
 
 hawk on ioot, it was usual for the sportsman to have a stout 
 pole with him, to assist him in leaping over little rivulets and 
 ditches, which might otherwise prevent him in his progress ; and 
 this we learn from an historical fact related by Hall ; who informs 
 us, that Henry VHI. pursuing his hawk on foot, at Hitchen in 
 Hertfordshire, attempted, with the assistance of his pole, to jump 
 over a ditch that was half full of muddy water, the pole broke, 
 and the king fell with his head into the mud, where he would 
 have been stifled had not a footman, named John Moody, who 
 was near at hand, and seeing the accident, leaped into the ditch, 
 and released his majesty from his perilous situation; " and so," 
 says the honest historian, " God of hys goodnesse preserved 
 him." 
 
 IX.— CAPARISON OF A HAWK. 
 
 When the hawk was not flying at her game, she was usually 
 hood-winked, with a cap or hood provided for that purpose, and 
 fitted to her head ; and this hood was worn abroad, as well as 
 at home. All hawks taken upon " the fist," the term used for 
 carrying them upon the hand, had straps of leather called 
 iesses, put about their legs. The jesses were made sufficiently 
 long for the knots to appear between the middle and the little 
 fingers of the hand that held them, so that the lunes, or small 
 thongs of leather, might be fastened to them with two tyrrits, 
 or rings; and the lunes were loosely wound round the little 
 finger. It appears that sometimes the jesses were of silk. 
 Lastly, their legs Mere adorned with bells, fastened with rings 
 of leather, each leg having one ; and the leathers, to which the 
 bells were attached, were denominated bewits ; and to the bewits 
 was added the creance, or long thread, by which the bird in 
 tutoring, was drawn back, after she had been permitted to fly ; 
 and this was called the reclaiming of the hawk. The bewits, 
 we are informed, were useful to keep the hawk from "winding 
 when she bated," that is, when she fluttered her wings to fly 
 after her game. 
 
 Respecting the bells, it is particularly recommended that they 
 should not be too heavy, to impede the flight of the bird ; and 
 that they should be of equal weight, sonorous, shrill, and musi- 
 cal ; not both of one sound, but the one a semitone below the 
 
 • Hall in tbe life of Henry VJII. sub an. xvi.
 
 CHAP. 11. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 33 
 
 othei' ; ' they ought not to be broken, especially in the sounding 
 part, because, in that case, the sound emitted would be dull 
 and unpleasing-. There is, says the Book of Saint Albans, great 
 choice of sparrow-hawk bells, and they are cheap enough; but 
 for gos-hawk bells, those made at Milan are called the best ; 
 and, indeed, they are excellent ; for they are commonly sounded 
 Avith silver, and charged for accordingly. But we have good 
 bells brought from Dordreght (Dort), which are well paired, 
 and produce a very shrill, but pleasant sound. 
 
 I am told, that silver being mixed with the metal when the 
 bells are cast, adds much to the sweetness of the tone ; and 
 hence probably the allusion of Shakespear, when he says, 
 
 How silver sweet sound lovers' tougues oy night. 
 
 I cannot help adding in this place a passage from an old play, 
 written by Thomas Heywood ; wherein one of the characters, 
 speaking of a hawk flying, says 
 
 Her bels, Sir Francis, had not both one waight. 
 Nor was one semitune above the other. 
 Mei thinkes these Millane bels do sound too full, 
 Aud spoile the mounting of your hawke.' 
 
 So much for the birds themselves; but the person who carried 
 the hawk was also to be provided with gloves for that purpose, 
 to prevent their talons from hurting his hand. In the inventories 
 of apparel belonging to king" Henry VIII. such articles fre- 
 quently occur; at Hampton Court, in the jewel house, were seven 
 hawkes' gloves embroidered.^ 
 
 X.— EARLY TREATISES ON HA WKIMG— SUPERSTITIOUS CURE 
 OF HAWKS. 
 
 We have a poetical fragment, written in old Norman French, 
 as early as the thirteenth century, containing some general obser- 
 vations respecting the management of hawks, which the author 
 informs us he found in a book made for, or by, the good king 
 Edward."* Wanley, in his catalogue of the Harleian manuscripts, 
 suspects there is some mistake in the name; and that this frag- 
 ment is really part of a treatise upon hawking, which he tells us 
 was written by king Alfred ; but I rather think the author is 
 
 ^ These observations are taken from " The Boke of Saint Albans ; " a subsequent 
 edition saya, " at least a note under." 
 
 * " A Woman killed with Kindness," third edition, 1617. Garrick's Coll. E, vol. iv. 
 » MS. Harl. 1419. 
 " Ke en escrit trove, si cum iolis, el livere al bon Rei Edward." MS. Harl. 978. 
 
 D
 
 U4 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK I. 
 
 correct in this particular ; for another manuscript ' in English, 
 and about a century more modern, treating- upon the same sub- 
 ject, has the following indication at th.e close, " Here endith the 
 booke of haukyiig, after Prince Edwarde, kynge of Englande." 
 It appears to me, that the original treatise referred to by both 
 the above authors, should be attributed to Edward the confessor; 
 not perhaps written by him, but at his command ; which suppo- 
 sition is partly justified by the extreme partiality he had for this 
 diversion.2 
 
 In the last-mentioned manuscript we find not only the general 
 rules relative to hawking, but an account of the diseases incident to 
 the birds themselves, and the medicines proper to be administered 
 to them upon such occasions. I shall only mention the following 
 superstitious ceremonies: after a hawk has been ill, and is 
 sufficiently recovered to pursue the game, the owner has this 
 admonition given to him ; " On the morrow tyde, when thou 
 goest oute to haukyng, say, In the name of the Lord, the birds 
 of heaven shall be beneath thy feet: Aso, if he be hurt by the 
 heron, say, The Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, 
 has conquered; Hallelujah : and if he be bitte of any man, say. 
 He that the wicked man doth bind, the Lord at his coming shall 
 set free."^ These sentences, I suppose, were considered as charms, 
 but how far they operated, I shall leave the reader to judge; the 
 coupling of texts of scripture with such an amusement, seems 
 also in favour of the supposition that the book was composed 
 for the monkish monarch, Edward the confessor, 
 
 XL— LAWS RESPECTING HAWKING. 
 
 No persons but such as were of the highest rank were permitted 
 under the Norman government to keep hawks, as appears from 
 a clause inserted in the Forest Charter : this charter king John 
 was compelled to sign ; and by it the privilege was given to 
 every free man to have airies of hawks, sparrow-hawks, falcons, 
 eagles, and herons in his own woods."* In the thirty-fourth year 
 of the reign of Edward III. a statute was made, by which a 
 person finding a falcon, tercelet, laner, laneret, or any other 
 species of hawk, that had been lost by its owner, was commanded 
 
 ' MS. Harl. 2340. " See sec. v. p. 4. 
 
 ' In nomine Domini volatilia coeli erunt sub pedibus tuis — Vicit Leo de tribu Judi» 
 radix David AUeluya — Quern iniquus h-imo ligavit, Dominus per adventum suum 
 solret. * Carta de Forresta, cap. xi.
 
 CHAP. II. OF THE PROPLE OF ENGLAND. y5 
 
 to carry the same to the slieriff of the county wherein it was 
 found ; the duty of the sheriff was to cause a proclamation to 
 be made in all the principal towns of the county, that he had 
 such a hawk in his custody, and that the nobleman to Avhoni it 
 belonged, or his falconer, might ascertain the same to be his 
 property, and have it restored to him, he first paying' the costs 
 that had been incurred by the sheriff; and, if in the space of 
 four months no claimant appeared, it became the property of 
 the finder, if he was a person of rank, upon his paying the costs 
 to the sherifl^; on the contrary, if he was an unqualified man, 
 the huwk belonged to the sheriff: but the person who found it 
 was to be rewarded for his trouble. If the person who found 
 the hawk concealed the same from the owner or his falconer, 
 he was liable upon discovery to pay the price of the bird to the 
 owner, and to suffer two years' imprisonment ; and if he was 
 unable to pay the fine, his imprisonment was extended to a longer 
 term.i In the thirty-seventh year of the same monarch this act 
 was confirmed, with additional severity ; and the stealing and 
 concealing of a hawk, was made felony .^ In the same reign 
 the bishop of Ely excommunicated certain persons for stealing 
 a hawk that was sitting upon her perch in the cloisters of Ber- 
 mondsey, in Southwark ; but this piece of sacrilege was com- 
 mitted during divine service in the choir, and the hawk was the 
 property of the bishop.^ 
 
 In the reign of Henry VII. a restrictive act was established, 
 prohibiting any man from bearing a hawk bred in England, 
 called a nyesse,^ a gos-hawk, a tassel, a laner, a laneret, or a 
 falcon, upon pain of forfeiting the same to the king-, but that he 
 should use such hawks as were brought from abroad ; ^ what 
 good purpose this ordinance was to promote, I am at a loss to 
 say. The laws respecting these birds were frequently varied in 
 the succeeding times, and the alterations seem, in some instances, 
 to have been exceedingly capricious. 
 
 As the hawk was a bird so highly esteemed by the nobility of 
 England, there will be no wonder if we find the royal edicts 
 established for the preservation of their eggs; accordingly, in 
 the eleventh year of Henry VII. it was decieed, that if any 
 person was convicted of taking from the nests, or destroying the 
 
 ' Rot. Pari. 34 Ed. HI. 2 Ibid. 37 Ed. III. 
 
 » A. D. 1337. Ilegist. Adami Orleton. Epis. Wint. fol. 36. 
 
 * A hawk was called a nyesse, or an eyesse, from her having v/atery eyes. 
 
 » Stat. xi. Hen. VII. 
 
 D 2
 
 36 SPORTS AND PASTIMES HOOK I. 
 
 egg's of a falcon, a gos-hawk, a laner, or a swan, he should 
 suffer imprisonment for one year and one day, and be liable to 
 a fine at the king's pleasure; one half of which belonged to the 
 crown, and the othei' half to the owner of the ground whereon 
 the eggs were found ; and, if a man destroyed the same sort of 
 eggs upon his own ground, he was equally subject to the 
 penalty.^ This act was somewhat meliorated in the reign of 
 Elizabeth, and the imprisonment reduced to three months : but 
 then the offender was obligated to find security for his good be- 
 haviour for seven years, or remain in prison until he did. 
 
 XII.— VALUE OF HAWKS. 
 
 The severity of the above-mentioned laws may probably excite 
 the surprise of such of my readers, as are not informed how 
 highly this kind of birds was formerly appreciated. At the 
 commencement of the seventeenth century, we find, that a gos- 
 hawk and a tassel-hawk were sold for one hundred marks, which 
 was a large sum in those days ; and the price is by no means 
 mentioned as singular or extravagant ; for, on the contrary, an 
 author, Edmund Best, who published a treatise upon hawks and 
 hawking, printed at London, 1619, and who himself trained and 
 sold them, insinuates, that the parting from the birds was con- 
 sidered as a favour : and no doubt it was so, if the hawks in 
 training" required such incredible pains and watchfulness, both 
 by night and by day, as he declares are absolutely necessary. 
 And upon this account such as were properly trained and exer- 
 cised were esteemed presents worthy the acceptance of a king 
 or an emperor. In the eighth yeai of the reign of Edward III. 
 the king of Scotland sent hira a falcon gentle as a present^ which 
 he not only most graciously received, but rewarded the falconer 
 who brought it with the donation of forty shillings ; a proof how 
 highly the bird was valued.^ It is further said, that in the reign 
 of James I. Sir Thomas Monson gave one thousand pounds for 
 a cast of hawks. A cast of hawks of toure, says an old book 
 on hawking, signifies two, and a lese three. 
 
 XIII.— DIFFERENT SPECIES OF HAWKS. 
 The books of hawking assign to the different ranks of persons 
 the sort of hawks proper to be used by them : and they are 
 placed in the following order — 
 
 • Stat. xi. Hen. VII. 
 
 » Expen. IIosp. Reg. Ed. III. MS. Cott. Nero, C. viii. p. 275.
 
 CHAP. II. OF THE PEOTLE OF ENGLAND. 37 
 
 The eagle, the vulture, and the merloun, for an emperor. 
 
 The ger-faulcon, and the tercel of the ger-faulcon, for a king. 
 
 The faulcon gentle, and the turcel gentle, for a prince. 
 
 The faulcon of the rock, for a duke. 
 
 The faulcon peregrine, for an earl. 
 
 The bastard, for a baron. 
 
 The sacre, and the sacret, for a knight. 
 
 The lanere, and the laneret, for an esquire. 
 
 The marlyon, for a lady. 
 
 The hobby, for a young- man.' 
 
 Tlie goft-hawk, for a yeoman. 
 
 The tercel, for a poor man. 
 
 The sparrow-hawk, for a priest. 
 
 The musket, for a holy water clerk. 
 
 The kesterei, for a knave or servant. 
 This list includes, I presume, the greater part, if not all, of 
 the names appertaining- to the birds used in hawking. The 
 Mews at Charing-cross, Westminster, is so called, from the word 
 mew, which in the falconers' language, is the name of a place 
 wherein the hawks are put at the moulting time, when they cast 
 their feathers. The king's hawks were kept at this place as early 
 as they ear 1377, an. 1 Richard II.; but A. D. 1537, the 27th year 
 ot Henry VIII., it was converted into stables for that monarch's 
 Iiorses, and the hawks wei'e removed.^ 
 
 XIV.— TERMS USED IN HAWKING. 
 
 As in hunting, so in hawking, the sportsmen had their peculiar 
 impressions, and therefore the tyro in the art of falconry is 
 recommended to learn the following arrangement of terms as 
 fhey were to be applied to the different kinds of birds assem- 
 bled in companies. A sege of herons, and of bitterns ; an herd 
 of swans, of cranes, and of curlews; a dopping of sheldrakes;^ 
 a spring- of teels ; a covert of cootes ; a gaggle of geese ; a 
 badelynge of ducks ; a sord or sute of mallards ; a muster of 
 peacocks ; a nye of pheasants ; a bevy of quails ; a covey of 
 partridges; a congregation of plovers: a flight of doves; a 
 dule of turtles; a walk of snipes; a fall of woodcocks; a 
 
 m this and the next line the author makes the following observation : " These 
 loftoure, and ben bothe illured to be called and rec'.aymed." Jewel for 
 
 ' Between ( 
 ben Imwkes i 
 Genttie I ond. 1614. 
 
 * Stow'ti Survey of London. ■» The sheldrake is a species of wild fowl.
 
 '18 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK I. 
 
 brood of bens ; a buildins of rooks ; a munnuration of star- 
 lings; an exaltation of larks; a flight of swallows; a host of 
 sparrows ; a watch of nightingales ; and a charm of goldfinches. 
 
 XV." FOWLING AND FISHING— THE STALKING HORSE— 
 LOWBELLING. 
 
 The arts of Fowling and Fishing are usually added to the 
 more modern treatises upon bunting and hawking*. I shall select 
 a few observations that occur respecting the former ; but with 
 regard to the latter, 1 have not met with any particulars suffi- 
 ciently deviating from the present methods of taking fish to 
 claim a place in this work. 
 
 Fowling, says Burton, may be performed with guns, lime- 
 twigs, nets, glades, gins, strings, baits, pit-falls, pipe-calls, 
 stalking horses, setting dogs, and decoy ducks; or with chafl^- 
 nets for smaller birds ; ^ there may also be added bows and 
 arrows, which answered the purpose of guns before they were 
 invented and brought to perfection. 
 
 The Stalking Horse, originally, was a horse trained for the 
 purpose and covered Avith trappings, so as to conceal the sports- 
 man from the game he intended to shoot at. It was particularly 
 useful to the archer, by affording him an opportunity of ap- 
 proaching the birds unseen by them, so near that his arrows 
 might easily reach them; but as this method was frequently 
 mconvenient, and often impracticable, the fowler had recourse 
 to art, and caused a canvass figure to be stufied, and painted 
 like a horse grazing, but sufficiently light, that it might be 
 moved at pleasure with one hand. These deceptions were also • 
 made in the form of oxen, cows, and stags, either for variety, 
 or for conveniency sake. In the inventories of the wardrobes, 
 belonging to king Henry VHI., we frequently find the allow- 
 ance of certain quantities of stuff for the purpose of making 
 " stalking coats, and stalking hose for the use of his majesty."^ 
 
 There is also another method o fowling, which, says my 
 author, fori will give it nearly in his own words, is performed 
 with nets, and in the night time ; and the darker the night 
 the better. — " This sport we call in England, most commonly 
 bird-batting-, and some call it lowbelling ; and the use of it is 
 to go with a great light of cressets, or rags of linen dipped in 
 
 ' Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, book v. chap. 8. edit Lend, 1660* 
 » Harleian, I\IS. iib*.
 
 CHAP. II. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 39 
 
 tallow, which will make a good light; and you must have a 
 pan or plate made like a lanthorn, to carry your light in, which 
 must have a great socket to hold the light, and carry it before 
 you, on your breast, with a bell in your other hand, and of a 
 great bigness, made in the manner of a cow-bell, but still larger ; 
 and you must ring it always after one order. — If you carry the 
 bell, you must have two companions with nets, one on each side 
 of you ; and what with the bell, and what with the light, the 
 birds will be so amazed, that when you come near them, they 
 will turn up their white bellies: your companions shall then 
 lay their nets quietly upon them, and take them. But you must 
 continue to ring the bell ; for, if the sound shall cease, the other 
 birds, if there be any more near at hand, will rise up and fly 
 away." — "This is," continues the author, "an excellent method 
 to catch larks, woodcocks, partridges, and all other land birds." ^ 
 
 The pipe-call, mentioned by Burton, is noticed under a dif- 
 ferent denomination by Chaucer ; " Lo," says he, " the birde 
 is begyled with the merry voice of the foulers' whistel, when 
 it is closed in your nette," — alluding to the deceptive art of the 
 bird-catchers in his time.^ 
 
 I shall just observe, that there are twelve prints, published 
 by John Overton, upon the popvdar subjects of hunting, hawking, 
 and fishing-, &c. engraved by Hollar, from designs by Francis 
 Barlow, which perfectly exemplify the manner in Avhich those 
 pastimes were practised, somewhat more than a century back. 
 
 ' Jewel for Gentrie. Loud. 1614. » Testament of Love, book ii.
 
 40 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK I. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 I. Horse-racing known to the Saxons. — II. Races in Smithfielu, and why. — III. Races, 
 at what Seasons practised. — IV. The Chester Races. — V. Stamford Races. — 
 VI. Value of Running-horses. — VII. Highly prized by the Poets, &c. — VIII. 
 Horse-racing commended as a liberal Pastime. — IX, Charles II. and other Mon- 
 archs Encouragers of Horse-racing ; — Races on Coleshill-heath 
 
 I.— HORSE-RACING KNOWN TO THE SAXONS. 
 
 It was requisite in former times for a man of fashion to under- 
 stand the nature and properties of horses, and to ride well ; or, 
 using- the words of an old romance writer, " to runne horses and 
 to approve them."^ In proportion to the establishment of this 
 maxim, swift running-horses of course rose into estimation; 
 and we know that in the ninth century they Avere considered 
 as presents well worthy the acceptance of kings and princes. 
 
 When Hugh, the head of the house of the Capets, afterwards 
 monarchs of I'rance, solicited the hand of Edelswitha, the sister 
 of Athelstan, he sent to that prince, among other valuable pre- 
 sents, several running-horses,^ with their saddles and their bridles, 
 the latter being embellished with bits of yellow gold. It is 
 hence concluded, and indeed with much appearance of truth, 
 that horse-racing was known and practised by the Anglo-Saxons, 
 but most probably confined to persons of rank and opulence, 
 and practised only for amusement sake. 
 
 U.— RACES IN SMITHFIELD. 
 
 The first indication of a sport of this kind occurs in the de- 
 scription of London, written by Fitzstephen, who lived in the 
 reign of Henry 11. He tells us, that horses were usually exposed 
 for sale in West Smithfield ; and, in order to prove the excellency 
 of the most valuable hackneys and charging steeds, they \vere 
 matched against each other; his words are to this effect,' " When 
 a race is to be run by this sort of horses, and perhaps by others, 
 
 ' Knight of the Swan, Garrick's Collect. K. vol. x. 
 
 » Equos cursores. Malmsb. de Gest. Reg. Angl. lib. ii. cap. 6. 
 
 3 I have followed the translation published by Mr. White, of Fleet-street, A. D. 
 1772. See Stow's Survey of London, and republished with additions by Strype. 
 [The translation of fitzstephen published by ]\Ir. V\' hite, was made by the late Dr. 
 Samuel Pegge-]
 
 CHAP, III. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 41 
 
 which also in their kind are strong- and fleet, a shout is imme- 
 diately raised, and the common horses are ordered to withdraw 
 out of the way. Three jockeys, or sometimes only two, as the 
 match is made, prepare themselves for the contest ; such as being 
 used to ride know how to manage their horses with judgment : 
 the grand point is, to prevent a competitor from getting before 
 them. The horses, on their part, are not without emulation, 
 they tremble and are impatient, and are continually in motion: 
 at last the signal once given, they strike, devour the course, 
 hurrying along with unremitting velocity. The jockeys, inspired 
 with the thoughts of applause and the hopes of victory, clap 
 spurs to their willing horses, brandish their whips, and cheer 
 them with their cries." 
 
 III.— HORSE-RACING SEASONS. 
 
 In the middle ages there were certain seasons of the year 
 when the nobility indulged themselves in running their horses 
 and especially in the Easter and Whitsuntide holidays. In the 
 old metrical romance of " Sir Bevis of Southampton," ^ it is 
 said, 
 
 n somer at Whitsontyde, 
 Whan knigbtes most on horsebacke ride ; 
 A oours, let they make on a daye, 
 Steedes, and Palfraye, for to assaye ; 
 Wbicbe horse, that best may ren, 
 Three myles the cours was then, 
 Who that might ryde him shoulde 
 Have forty pounds of redy golde. 
 
 Commeiiius in his vocabulary, entitled " Orbis Sensualium 
 Pictus," published towards the conclusion of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury, indeed says, " At this day, tilting, or the quintain is used, 
 where a ring is struck with a truncheon, instead of horse-races, 
 which," adds he, " are grown out of use." 
 
 A writer of the seventeenth century 2 tells us, that horse- 
 racing, which had formerly been practised at Eastertide, " was 
 then put down, as being contrary to the holiness of the season ; " 
 but for this prohibition I have no further authority. 
 
 IV.— CHESTER RACES. 
 It is certain, that horse-races were held upon various holidays, 
 at different parts of the kingdom, and in preference to other 
 
 > " Syr Bevys of Hampton," black letter, without date, piinted by Wm. Copland. 
 Garrick'B Collect. K. vol. ix. Bourne Antiq. Vulgares, chap. xxir.
 
 42 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOIC T» 
 
 pastimes. " It had been customary," says a Chester antiquary,' 
 " time out of mind, upon Shrove Tuesday, for the company ot 
 saddlers belonging to the city of Chester, to present to the dra- 
 pers a wooden ball, embellished with flowers, and placed upon 
 the point of a lance; this ceremony was performed in the 
 presence of the mayor, at the cross in the 'Rodhee,' or Roody, 
 an open place near the city ; but this year," ^ continues he, " the 
 ball was changed into a bell of silver, valued at three shillings 
 and sixpence, or more, to be given to him who shall run the 
 best, and the farthest on horseback, before them upon the same 
 day." ^ These bells were afterwards denominated Saint George's 
 bells ; and we are told that in the last year of James I. John 
 Brereton, inn-keeper, mayor of Chester, first caused the horses 
 entered for this race, then called Saint George's race, to start 
 from the point, beyond the new tower : and appointed them to 
 run five times round the Roody : " and he," says my author,^ 
 " who won the last course or trayne, received the bell, of a good 
 value, of eight or ten pounds, or thereabout, and to have it for 
 ever ; which moneyes Avere collected of the citizens, to a sum for 
 that purpose."^ By the author's having added, that the winner 
 at this race Mas to have the bell, and have it for ever, is implied, 
 that it had formerly been used as a temporary mark of honour, 
 by the successful horseman, and afterwards returned to the cor- 
 poration ; this alteration was made April 23, A. D. 1624. 
 
 Here we see the commencement of a regular horse-race, but 
 whether the courses were in immediate succession, or at diffe- 
 rent intervals, is not perfectly clear ; we find not, however, the 
 least indication of distance posts, weighing the riders, loading 
 them with weights, and many other niceties that are observed in 
 the present day. The Chester races were instituted merely for 
 amusement, but now such prodigious sums are usually dependent 
 upon the event of a horse-race, that these apparently trivial 
 matters, are become indispensably necessary. Forty-six years 
 afterwards,^ according to the same writer, the sheriffs of Chester 
 " would have no calves-head feast, but put the charge of it 
 into a piece of plate, to be run for on that day, Shrove Tuesday; 
 and the high-sheriff borrowed a Barbary horse of sir Thomas 
 
 ' Probably the elder Randel Holme of Chester, one of tbe city heralds. ftlS 
 Harl. 2130. fol. 235. 
 
 * The thirty-first of Henry VI H. ^ That is Shrove Tuesday 
 
 * Probably the younger Randel Holme. » ftlS. Harl. 2123. 
 « A. D. 1665. and 3 Charles II
 
 CHAP. III. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 43 
 
 Mitldleton, M'hich won him the plate ; and being master of the 
 race, he would not suffer the horses of master Massey, of Pud- 
 dington, and of sir Philip Egerton, of Oulton, to run, because 
 they came the day after the time prefixed for the horses to be 
 brought, and kept in the city; w hich thing caused all the gentry 
 to relinquish our races ever since." 
 
 \^— STAMFORD RACES. 
 
 Races something similar to those above mentioned, are de- 
 scribed by Butcher,' as practised in the vicinity of the town of 
 Stamford, in Lincolnshire. " A concourse," says he, " of noble- 
 men and gentlemen meet together, in mirth, peace, and amity, 
 for the exercise of their swift rumiing-horses, every Thursday 
 in March. The prize they run for is a silver and gilt cup, with 
 a cover, to the value of seven or eight pounds, provided by 
 the care of the alderman for the time being ; but the money 
 is raised out of the interest of a stock formerly made up by 
 the nobility and gentry, which are neighbours, and well-wishers 
 to the town." 
 
 VI.— VALUE OF RUNNING-HORSES. 
 
 Running-horses are frequently mentioned in the registers of 
 the royal expenditures. It is notorious, that king- John was 
 so fond of swift horses and dogs for the chase, that he re- 
 ceived many of his fines in the one or the other ;2 but at the 
 same time it does not appear that he used the horses for any 
 purposes of pleasure, beyond the pursuits of hunting', hawking, 
 and such IJ^e sports of the field. 
 
 In the reign of Edward III. the runnmg-horses purchased 
 for the king^s service, were generally estimated at twenty marks, 
 or thirteen pounds, six shillings, and eightpence each ; but 
 some few of them were prized as high as twenty-five marks.^ 
 I met with an entry, dated the ninth year of this king's reign, 
 which states, that the king- of Navarre sent him as a present 
 wo running-horses, which I presume were very valuable, be- 
 cause he gave the person who brought them no less than one 
 hundred shillings for his reward.^ 
 
 'O" 
 
 ' In his Survey of the Town of Stamford, first printed A. D. 1646. chap. 10. 
 
 * See p. 7. sec. vii. 
 
 3 Bernado de Nictum pro uno cursorio hardo empto de eodem, xxr. marc. 
 Compot. Garderoba. An. xi. Ed. 111. MS. Cot. Nero, C. viii. fol. 219. 
 
 * Michali de la Were Scut. Regis Navarr. present domino Rcgi duos equos cur- 
 sores ex parte dono Domini sui, de dono Regis. C sol. Ibid.
 
 44 SPORTS AND PASTIMES " IJOOK 1. 
 
 VII.— RUNNING-HORSES OF THE HEROES OF ROMANCE. 
 If we appeal to the poets, we shall find, that swift running- 
 horses were greatly esteemed by tht heroes who figure in their 
 romances ; and rated at prodigious prices ; for instance, in an 
 ancient poem, which celebrates the warlike actions of Richard I., 
 it is said, that in the camp of the emperor, as he is called, of 
 Cyprus, 
 
 Too stedes fownde kinge Richarde, 
 Thatt con favell, thatt other Lyard : 
 Yn this worlde, they hadde no pere ; ' 
 Droit.edary, neither destrere,' 
 Stede, rabyte, ne cammele,* 
 Goeth none so swyfte without fayle 
 For a thousand pownd of golde, 
 Ne sholde the one be solde. 
 
 And though the rhymist may be thought to have claimed the 
 poetical licence for exaggeration, respecting the value of these 
 two famous steeds, the statement plainly indicates that in his 
 time there were horses very highly prized on account of their 
 swiftness. We do not find indeed, that they were kept for the 
 purpose of racing only, as horses are in the present day; but 
 rather, as I before observed, for hunting and other purposes of 
 a similar nature; and also to be. used by heralds and messengers 
 in cases of urgency. 
 
 Race-horses were prized on account of their breed, in the time 
 of Elizabeth, as appears from the following observations in one 
 of bishop Hall's Satires. — 
 
 dost thou prize 
 
 Thy brute beasts worth by their dams qualities 1 
 
 Says't thou this colt shall prove a swift pac'd steed, 
 
 Onely because a Jennet did him breed 1 
 
 Or says't thou this same horse shall win the prize, 
 
 Because his dam was swiftest Trunchefice 
 
 Or Runcevall his syre ; himself a gallaway ? 
 
 While like a tireling jade, he lags half away.^ 
 
 VIII.— HORSE-RACING A LIBERAL PASTIME. 
 
 Two centuries back horse-racing was considered as a liberal 
 pastime, practised for pleasure rather than profit, without 
 the least idea of reducing it to a system of gambling. It is 
 
 ' MS. Harl. 4690, written early in the fourteenth century. * Peer or equal. 
 
 ' A French word, siguifying a large powerful horse. 
 
 ' Steed, rabbit, nor camel.' ^ Lib. iv. fat. 3. Edit. )J99.
 
 CHAP. III. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAIVU 45 
 
 ranked with hunt ug and hawking, and opposed to dice and 
 card playing by an old Scotch poet, who laments that the latter 
 had in great measure superseded the former.^ One of the puri- 
 tanical writers 2 in the reign of Elizabeth, though he is very 
 severe against cards, dice, vain plays, interludes, and other idle 
 pastimes, allows of horse-racing as " yielding good exercise," 
 which he certainly would not have done, had it been in the 
 least degree obnoxious to the censure which at present it so justly 
 claims. 
 
 Burton,^ who wrote at the decline of the seventeenth century 
 says sarcastically, " Horse-races are desports of great men, and 
 good in themselves, though many gentlemen by such means 
 gallop qviite out of their fortunes ; " which may be considered 
 as a plain indication, that they had begun to be productive of 
 mischief at the time he wrote : and fifty years afterwards, they 
 were the occasion of a new and destructive species of gambling". 
 The following lines are from a ballad in D'Urfey's collection 
 of songs : it is called " New Market," which place was then 
 famous for the exhibition of horse-races. 
 
 Let cullies that lose at a race 
 
 Go venture at hazard to win. 
 
 Or he that is bubbl'd at dice 
 
 Recover at cocking again ; 
 
 Let jades that are founder'd be bought. 
 
 Let jockeys play crimp to make sport. — 
 
 Anotlier makes racing a trade. 
 
 And dreams of his projects to come ; 
 And many a crimp match has made, 
 By bubbing another man's groom.'' 
 
 IX.— ROYAL PATRONS OF HORSE-RACING— RACES ON 
 COLESHILL HEATH, &c. 
 
 From what has been said, it seems clear enough, that this 
 pastime was originally practised in England for the sake of the 
 exercise, or by way of emulation, and, generally speaking, the 
 owners of the horses were the riders. These contests, however, 
 attracted the notice of the populace, and drew great crowds of 
 people together to behold them ; which induced the inhabitants 
 of many towns and cities to affix certain times for the perform- 
 ance of such sports, and prizes were appointed as rewards for 
 
 » Poem of Covetice, quoted by Warton. Hist. English Poetry, vol. ii. p. 316. 
 
 * John Northbrooke. 
 
 ' Anatomy of Melancholy, part. ii. sec. 2, chap. 4, edit. 1660. 
 
 * Pills to purge Melancholy, fourth edit. 1719, vol. ii. p. 53.
 
 4ii SPOnXS AND PASTIMES BOOK t. 
 
 the successful candidates. The prize was usually a silver cup 
 or some other piece of plate, about eight or ten pounds value. 
 
 In the reign of James 1. public races were established in many 
 parts of the kingdom ; and it is said that the discipline and 
 modes of preparing the horses upon such occasions, were much 
 the same as are practised in the present day.* The races were 
 then called bell courses, because, as we have seen above, the 
 prize was a silver bell. 
 
 At the latter end of the reign of Charles I. races were held 
 in Hyde Park, and at New Market. After the restoration, horse- 
 racing was revived and much encouraged by Charles II. who 
 frequently honoured this pastime with his presence; and, for 
 his own amusement, when he resided at Windsor, appointed 
 races to be made in Datchet mead. At New Market, where it 
 is said he entered horses and run them in his name, he established 
 a house for his better accommodation ; ^ and he also occasionally 
 visited other places where horse-races were instituted. I met 
 with the following doggerel verses in a metrical Itinerary, 
 written at the close of the seventeenth century. The author,^ 
 for he hardly deserves the name of poet, speaking of Burford 
 Downs, makes these remarks : 
 
 Next for the glory of the place. 
 Here has been rode many a race, — 
 — King Charles the Second I saw here ; 
 But I've forgotten in what year. 
 The duke of Monmouth here also. 
 Made his horse to swete and blow ; 
 Lovelace, Pembrook, and other gallants 
 Have been ventring here their talents. 
 And Nicholas Baiuton on black Sloven, 
 Got silver plate by labor and drudging, &c. 
 
 At this time it seems, that the bells were converted into cups:, 
 or bowls, or some other pieces of plate, which were usually 
 valued at one hundred guineas each ; and upon these trophies 
 of victory the exploits and pedigree of the successful horses 
 were most commonly engraved. William III. was also a pa- 
 troniser of this pastime, and established an academy for riding , 
 and his queen not only continued the bounty of her prede- 
 cessors, but added several plates to the former donations. 
 George I. instead of a piece of plate, gave a hundred guineas 
 to be paid in specie. 
 
 • Ency. Brit, under Race. ^ Ibid. 
 
 ' Probably Matthew Thomas Baskervile, whose name appears at the end ; it was 
 written about the year 1690. MS. Harl. 4716.
 
 (MAP. ni, OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 4/ 
 
 In one of the Spectators, we meet A^ith the following* .'idvei~ 
 tisenient, extracted, as we are told, from a paper called the Post 
 Boy : 1 " On the ninth of October next will be run for on Coleshill 
 Heath, in Warwickshire, a plate of six gumeas value, three 
 heats, by any horse, mare, or gelding, that hath not won above 
 the value of five pounds : the winning horse to be sold for 
 ten pounds, to carry ten stone weight if fourteen hands high : 
 if above, or imder, to carry or be allowed weight for inches, 
 and to be entered on Friday the fifth, at the Swan, in Coleshill, 
 by six in the evening. Also a plate of less value, to be run 
 for by asses ; " which, though by no means so noble a sport as the 
 other, was, I doubt not, productive of the most mirth. 
 
 » Dated Sept. 11, A.D. 1711. Spectator, voi.iiL No,, 175.
 
 4^ SPOKTS AN1> PASri.VIKS HOOK 11 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 RURAL EXERCISES GENERALLY PRACTISEfX 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 I. The English famous for their Skill in Archery. — II. The Use of the Bow known to tha 
 Saxons and the Danes. — III. Form of the Saxon Bow, &c. — IV. Archery improved 
 by the Normans. — V. The Ladies fond of Archery. — VI. Observations relative 
 to the Cross-Bow. — VII. Its Form, and the Manner in which it was used. — 
 VIII. Bows ordered to be kept. — IX, The Decay of Archery, and why. — X. Or- 
 dinances in its Favour; — The Fraternity of St. George established. — XI. The 
 Price of Bows. — XII. Equipments for Archery. — XIII. Directions for its Prac- 
 tice. XIV. The Marks to shoot at. — XV. The Length of the Bow and Arrows. 
 
 •XVI. Extraordinary Performances of the Archers. — XVII. The modern Archers 
 
 inferior to the ancient in long Shooting. — XVIII. The Duke of Shoreditch, why 
 so called ; — Grand Procession of the London Archers. — XIX. Archery a royal 
 Sport ; A good Archer, why called Arthur. — XX. Prizes given to the Archers. 
 
 I.— SKILL OF THE ENGLISH IN ARCHERY. 
 
 Among the arts that have been carried to a high degree of 
 perfection in this kingdom, there is no one more conspicuous 
 than that of Archery. Our ancestors used the bow for a double 
 purpose: in time of war, it was a dreadful instrument of de- 
 struction ; and in peace it became an object of amusement. It 
 will be needless to insist upon the skill of the English archers, 
 or to mention their wonderful performances in the field of battle. 
 The victories they obtained over their enemies are many and 
 glorious ; they are their best eulogiums, and stand upon record 
 in the histories of this country for the perusal, and for the ad- 
 miration of posterity. I shall therefore consider this subject in 
 a general point of view, and confine myself, as much as possible, 
 to such parts of it as relate to amusement only. 
 
 II.-THE BOW KNOWN TO THE ANGLO-SAXONS AND DANES. 
 
 The Anglo-Saxons, and the Danes, were certainly well ac- 
 quainted with the use of the bow ; a knowledge thej' derived at
 
 CHAP. T. 
 
 OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 
 
 49 
 
 an early period from their progenitors. The Scandinavia'.i scalds, 
 speaking in praise of the heroes of their country, frequently 
 add to the rest of their acquirements a superiority of skill in 
 handling of the bow.^ It does not, however, appear, that this 
 skill was extended beyond the purpose of procuring food or 
 for pastime, either by the Saxons or by the Danes, in times an- 
 terior to the conquest. It is indeed said that Edmund, king of 
 the East Angles, was shot to death with arrows by the Danes; 
 but, if this piece of history be correct, it is no proof that they 
 used the boAV as a weapon of war. The action itself might be 
 nothing more than a Avanton piece of cruelty ; and cruelty seems 
 io have been a prominent feature in the character of those law- 
 less plunderers. 
 
 III.— FORM OF THE SAXON ]50W 
 
 Representations of the bow occur frequently in the Saxon 
 manuscripts; and from one of them in the Cotton Library, written 
 about the eighth century ,2 I have selected the followino-. 
 
 9. Two Saxon Archers — VIII. Century. 
 
 The one accompanied by his dog, is in search of the wild deer 
 
 the other has no companion, but is depicted in the act of shootmg 
 
 at a bird : and from the adornment of his girdle, appears to 
 
 • Olaii Worm. Lit. Run. p. 129. 
 p. 248. 
 
 Barthol. p. 420. Pontoppiaan s Hist. Norway, 
 ' Claudius, B. iv.
 
 50 SrORTS AND PASTIMES ROOiv II. 
 
 have been no bad marksman. The first represents Esau g"oing 
 to seek venison for his father, and the second, Ishmael, after 
 his expulsion from the house of Abraham, and residing in the 
 desart. 
 
 10. Saxon Bow and Arrow. — X. CtNTunY. 
 
 This engraving- is made from a manuscript of the tenth < en- 
 tury in the Cotton Library.^ The bow is curiously ornamented 
 h iving the head and tail of a serpent carved at the ends ; and 
 was, probably, such a one as was used by the nobility. In all 
 these bows we may observe one thing remarkable, that is, the 
 string not being made fast to the extremities, but permitted to 
 play at some distance from them. How far this might be more 
 or less advantageous than the present method, I shall not pre- 
 sume to determine. 
 
 IV.— NORMAN ARCHERY. 
 
 It is well known that the Normans used the bow as a military 
 weapon ; and, under their government, the practice of archery 
 was not only much improved, but generally diffused through- 
 out the kingdom. 
 
 In the ages of chivalry the usage of the bow was considered 
 as an essential part of the education of a young man who wished 
 to make a figure in life. The heroes of romance are therefore 
 usually praised for their skill in archery ; and Chaucer, with 
 propriety, says of sir Thooas " He was a good archere."^ 
 
 v.— ARCHERY PRACTISED BY LADIES. 
 
 In the seventeenth century archery was muc/i commended as an 
 exercise becoming a gentleman to practise, and greatly conducive 
 to health.^ The ladies also -were fond of this amusement, and by 
 a previous representation'* from an original drawing in a manu- 
 script of the fourteenth century, we see it practised by one who 
 has shot at a deer, and wounded it with great adroitness; and in 
 
 ' Tiberius, C. vi. '■^ Canterbury TLles. 
 
 ' Peacham's Compleat Gentleman, p. 187. edit. l6'i-2. * Engraving I, p. 13.
 
 CHAP. I. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 51 
 
 another previous engraving ' the hunting equipments of the female 
 archers about the middle of the fifteenth century are represented 
 It was usual, when the ladies exercised the bow, for the beasts 
 to be confined by large inclosures, surrounded by the hunters, 
 and driven in succession from the covers to the stands, where the 
 fair sportswomen were placed ; so that they might readily shoot 
 at them, without the trouble and fatigue of rousing and pursuing 
 them.2 It is said of Margaret, the daughter of Henry VII., 
 that when she was on her >vay towards Scotland, a hunting 
 party was made for her amusement in Alnwick Park, where she 
 killed a buck with an arrow.^ It is not specified whether the 
 long-bow or the cross-bow was used by the princess upon this 
 occasion; we are certain that the ladies occasionally shot with 
 both, for when queen Elizabeth visited lord Montecute at Cow- 
 drey, in Sussex, on the Monday, August I7, 1591, " Her higli- 
 ness tooke horse, and rode into the park, at eight o'clock 
 in the morning, where was a delicate bowre prepared, under 
 the which were her highness musicians placed ; and a cross-bow, 
 by a nymph, with a sweet song, was delivered into her hands, 
 to shoote at the deere ; about some thirty in number were put 
 into a paddock, of which number she killed three or four, and 
 the countess of Kildare one."'* 
 
 VI,— THE CROSS-BOW. 
 
 The foregoing" observations refer chiefly to tlie long-bow, so 
 called, to distinguish it from the arbalist,^ or cross-bow, which 
 was not only much shorter than the former, but fastened also 
 upon a stock, and discharged by the means of a catch or trigger, 
 which probabl)'^ gave rise to the lock on the modern musket. 
 Bayle, explaining the difl^erence between testimony and argument, 
 uses this simile, " Testimony is like the shot of a long-bow, which 
 owes its efficacy to the force of the shooter; argument is like 
 the shot of a cross-bow, equally forcible, whether discharged 
 by a dwarf or a giant." 
 
 I cannot pretend to determine at what period the cross-bow 
 was first brought into this country, but I believe not long before 
 the commencement of the thirteenth century ; at least, I have 
 never met with any representation of such an engine prior to 
 
 ' Engraving 5, p. 15. ' See book i. ch. i. sec. xvii. p. 21. 
 
 ■' Leland's Collect, vol. iv. p. 278. * Nichols's Progrtsses, vol. ii. 
 
 * Arciibalista in F^tin, and also frequently steel bow in English, because the hurEa 
 were usually made with steel. 
 
 E 2
 
 52 SPORTS AND PASTIMES HOOK 11, 
 
 that period. On the continent, where probably it orig-inated, 
 its appearance miglit be somewhat earlier. Our historians 
 assure us that Richard I. was wounded by an arrow from a bow 
 of this kind, Avhile he was reconnoitring the walls of the castle 
 of Chalezun ; which wound w^as the occasion of his death. 
 William Brito seems to attribute the introduction of the cross- 
 Dow to this monarch, who, he says, first showed it to the French.^ 
 
 In the twenty-third year of the reign of Edward T. the earl 
 of Warwick had hi his army a number of soldiers called Ballis- 
 tarii,2 and this word is translated cross-bow men by our chro- 
 nological writers, but certainly it may with equal propriety be 
 rendered slingers, or casters of stones, who frequently formed 
 a part of the Anglo-Norman armies.^ 
 
 From this period we hear but little concerning the cross-bows, 
 as military weapons, until the battle of Cressy in 1346; at 
 which time they were used by a large body of Genoese soldiers, 
 who were particularly expert in the management of these wea- 
 pons, and assisted the French upon that memoralile occasion; 
 but their efforts %vere ineffectual when opposed to the archery 
 of the English. Previous to the commencement of the battle 
 there fell a sharp shower of rain, which wetted the strings of 
 the cross-bows ; and, we are told, in great measure prevented 
 the archers from doing' their usual execution ; '* but the strings 
 of the long-bows used by the Englishmen do not appear to have 
 been damaged in the least by the rain ; this might arise from 
 their being made with diflerent materials ; or more probably, 
 from their being kept with the bows, in the bow-cases, during 
 the continuance of the shower; for every man had a case of 
 canvass, or of some such material, to draw over his bow when 
 he had done using of it.^ 
 
 In the succeeding annals the cross-bow is continually spoken 
 of as a weapon of war. In 1347, the year after the celebrated 
 victory was obtained at Cressy, Charles, earl of Blois, at the 
 siege of le Roche de Rien, had no less than two thousand cross- 
 bow men in his army. The cross-bow was used by the English 
 soldiery chiefly at sieges of fortified places, and on shipboard, 
 in battles upon the sea. But the great fame acquired by our 
 
 ' Camden's Remains. * NichoL Trivet. Annal. 
 
 ^ See Manners and Customs of the English, vol. i. 
 
 * Serres, and also most of our own historians. Froissart praises the skill of the 
 Genoese cross-bowmen upon another occasion, saying, " They shot so surely, that 
 lightly they myst not of their level." Vol. iv. chap. 38, fol. 47. English translation, 
 [by Lord Bemers,] and in several other places. * Ascham's I'oxophilus.
 
 CHAl*. I. 
 
 OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 
 
 53 
 
 countrymen in archery, was derived from their practice with the 
 long-bow: and to this instrument they gave the preference. 
 
 VII.— FORM AND USE OF THE CROSS-BOW. 
 The reader may see the manner in which the cross-bow was 
 formerly used, upon the following- representation taken from a 
 manuscript of the fourteenth century in the Royal Library.' 
 
 11. Practising with the Cross-Bow. 
 
 Below is an engraving* from a painting on another manuscript 
 in the Royal Library much more modern.^ 
 
 12. Cno-b LSow feHOOTiNG AT TiiL J^ui IS. — \\I Clntiry. 
 ' 2 13. \->i. 2 ^9 C viii. dated 1 196
 
 54 SPORTS AND PASTIMES liOOK H. 
 
 Here we find exhibited a school for practice ; and the manner 
 ill which the archers shot at the butts, or dead marks, a pastime 
 frequently alluded to by the authors of the fifteenth and six- 
 teenth centuries. 
 
 In the reign of Henry VII. the cross-bow was forbidden by 
 law to be used ; ' and, soon after his son ascended the throne, 
 h was found necessary to renew the prohibition ; ^ yet, notwith- 
 standing the interference of the legislature, in less than twenty 
 years afterwards, the usage of cross-bows and hand-guns was so 
 prevalent, that a new statute was judged necessary, which 
 forbad the use of both, and inflicted a penalty of ten pounds 
 for keeping a cross-bow in the house.^ This severe fine might 
 probably produce a temporary reformation ; which certainly 
 was not of long' continuance, for cross-bows were commonly 
 used again in the succeeding reigns. Hentzner tells us, that 
 in the year 1598, he saw in the armory of the tower of London, 
 cross-bows, and bows and arrows : of which, says he, to this 
 day, the English make great use in their exercises. StoM' speaks 
 of a large close, called the Tazell, let in bis time to the cross- 
 bow-makers, wherein, he says, they used to shoot for games 
 at the popinjay, which, Maitland tells us, was an artificial 
 parrot."* In the present day, the cross-bow is seldom to be met 
 with unless in the public armories. I have seen the cross-bow 
 used in the country, for the purpose of shooting at the young 
 rooks, to beat them out of their nests. 
 
 VIIL— BOWS AND ARROWS ORDERED TO BE KEPT. 
 
 But, to return from this digression : as far back as the thir- 
 teenth century, every person not having a greater annual revenue 
 in laud than one hundred pence, was obligated to have in his 
 possession a bow and arrows, with other arms oflTensive and de- 
 fensive ; and all such as had no possessions, but could aflx>rd 
 to purchase arms, were commanded to have a bow with sharp 
 arrows, if they dwelt without the royal forests, and a bow with 
 round-headed arrows, if they resided within the forests. The 
 words of the statute arc, "Ark et setes hors de foreste et en foreste 
 ark et piles." ^ The word pile I believe is derived from the Latin, 
 
 1 Stat. 29 Hen. VI [. A. D. 1 JOB. '^ Stat. 6 Hen. VIII. cap. 13. 
 
 3 Stat. 25 Hen. VIII. cap. 17. * History of London, book ii. p. 48:2. 
 
 * Slat. temp. Ed. II. apud WiuLou.
 
 CHAP. I. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 55 
 
 pila, a ball ; and 1 Suppose these arrows were used to prevent 
 the owners from killing- the king's deer. The round-headed 
 arrows were also called bolts, and also used with the cross-bow; 
 hence the old adage, "A fool's bolt is soon shot," where the 
 retort of an ignorant man is compared to the blunted arrow of 
 an unskilful archer, shot off hastily, and without any aim. 
 The proverb is thus versified by John Heywood, 
 
 A fooles bolte is sooiie shot, and flceth oftymea fer 
 
 Eut the fooles bolte, and the marke, cum few times Der.* 
 
 It was also ordained by the forementioned statute that proper 
 officers should be appointed to see that these weapons were kept 
 in good order, and ready for immediate service. 
 
 IX.— DECAY OF ARCHERY. 
 
 Notwithstan(^"ng the manifest advantages accruing to the nation 
 from the practice of archery, it seems to have been much ne- 
 glected even at a time when the glory of the English archers was 
 in its zenith, I mean in the reign of Edward III.; which occa- 
 sioned that monarch to send a letter of complaint upon this 
 subject to the sheriffs of London, declaring that the skill in 
 shooting with arrows was almost totally laid aside, for the pur- 
 suit of various useless and unlawful games. He therefore 
 commanded them to prevent such idle practices within the city 
 and liberties of London; and to see that the leisure time upon 
 holidays was spent in recreations with bows and arrows. In the 
 thirty-ninth year of this reign, A. D. 1349, the penalty incurred 
 by the offenders was imprisonment at the king's pleasure ; the 
 words of the letter are, " arcubus et sagittis vel pilettis aut boltis," 
 with bow and arrows, or piles or bolts. The same command 
 was repeated in the twelfth year of the reign of Richard IL ; but 
 probably its good eflects were merely temporary And in the fi fth 
 year of Edward IV. an ordinance was made, cciumandiiig every 
 Englishman and Irishman dwelling in Englanr., to have a long- 
 bow of his own height ; the act directs, that butts should be 
 made in every township, at which the inhabitants were to shoot 
 at up and down, upon all feast days, under the penalty of one 
 halfpenny for every time they omitted to perform this exercise. 
 This m the poetical legends is called " shooting about." 
 
 In the sixteenth century we meet with heavy complaints re- 
 
 • Heywood's Epigrams and Proverbs, 1566. ch. 13.
 
 50 
 
 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK II, 
 
 specting- the disuse of the long-bow, and especially in the vicinity 
 of London. Stow informs us, "that before his time it had been 
 customary at Bartholomew tide, for the lord mayor, with the 
 sheriffs and aldermen, to go into the fields at Finsbury, where 
 the citizens were assembled, and shoot at the standard, with 
 broad and flight arrows, for games." I do not clearly under- 
 stand the author's meaning in this passage, unless the word 
 g-ames may signify for sport sake. This exercise was continued 
 for several days ; but at the period in which our author lived it 
 was practised only one afternoon, three or four days after the 
 festival of Saint Bartholomew,^ 
 
 The same writer attributes the decay of archery among the 
 Londoners to the enclosures made near the metropolis, by which 
 means the citizens were deprived of room sufficient or proper 
 for the purpose ; and his observations appear to have been 
 justly founded, for a few years posterior to his death, a com- 
 mission was granted by James L^ to many persons of quality ; 
 jn which were recited and established the good statutes, ordi- 
 nances, and proclamations, that had been previously made at 
 different times in favour of archery. This commission extended 
 to the prevention of enclosures in the grounds formerly used for 
 the practice of the bow. 
 
 The commissioners were also impowered to survey the lands 
 adjoining- to the city of London, its suburbs, and within two 
 miles circuit ; and to reduce them to the same state and order 
 for the use of the archers, as they stood at the beginning of the 
 reign of Henry VIIJ. ; and where they found any encroachments, 
 to cause the banks to be thrown down, the ditches filled up, 
 and the open spaces to be made level. Charles L confirmed this 
 commission, or granted another to the same purpose. 
 
 X.— ORDINANCES IN FAVOUR OF ARCHERY.— CROSS-BOWS, &c. 
 
 In the reign of Henry VHL three several acts were made for 
 promoting the practice of shooting with the long-bow ; one, as 
 we have already seen, prohibited the use of cross-bows and 
 hand-guns : another was occasioned by a complaint from the 
 bowyer-s, the flctchers, or arrow-makers, the stringers, and the 
 arrow-head-makers, stating that many unlawful games were 
 practised in the open fields, to the detriment of the public morals 
 
 ' Stow's Survey of London, by Strype, vol. ii. p. 267. Stow died A. D. 1605, 
 * Aqu. 8 Jacob! prim. Ibid.
 
 CHAP. T. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 57 
 
 and great decay of archery. Those games were therefore strictly 
 prohibited by parliament ; and a third act followed, which 
 obliged every man, being the king's subject, to exercise him- 
 self in shooting with the long-bow ; and also to keep a bow with 
 arrows continually in his house. From this obligation were 
 excepted such as were sixty years old, or by lameness or any 
 other reasonable impediment claimed an exemption ; and also 
 all ecclesiastics, the justices of the two benches, or of the as 
 sizes, and the barons of the exchequer. Fathers and guardians 
 were also commanded to teach the male children the use of the 
 long-bow, and to have at all times bows provided for them as 
 soon as they arrived at the age of seven years ; and masters 
 were ordered to find bows for their apprentices, and to compel 
 them to learn to shoot with them upon holidays, and at every other 
 convenient time. By virtue of the same act, every man who 
 kept a cross-bow in his house was liable to a penalty of ten 
 pounds. 
 
 Soon afterwards, that is, in the twenty-ninth year of the same 
 king's reign, the use of cross-bows under certain restrictions 
 was permitted, a patent being then granted by him to sir Chris- 
 topher Morris, master of his ordinance, Anthony Knevyt and 
 Peter Mewtas, gentlemen of his privy chamber, for them to 
 be overseers of the science of artillery, by which was meant 
 long-bows, cross-bows, and hand-guns. Others were appointed 
 to be masters and rulers of the same science, with power to 
 them and their successors, to establish a perpetual corporation, 
 called the Fraternity of Saint George, and to admit such persons 
 as they found to be eligible. The members of this society were 
 also permitted, for pastime sake, to practise shooting at all sorts 
 of marks and butts, and at the game of the popinjay, and other 
 games, as at fowls and the like, in the city and suburbs of 
 London, as well as in any other convenient places. There is 
 the following remarkable proviso in this charter ; " In case any 
 person should be wounded, or slain in these sports, with an 
 arrow shot by one or other of the archers, he that shot the arrow 
 was not to be sued or molested, if he had, immediately before the 
 discharge of the weapon, cried out, ' fast,' the signal usually 
 given upon such occasions." ^ 
 
 I may just add, that in addition to the hand-guns, I meet 
 with other instruments of like kind mentioned in the reign of 
 
 ' Stow's Survey, by Strype, vol. i. p. 250.
 
 58 SPORTS AND PASTIMES IJOOK II. 
 
 Elizabeth, namely, demy hags, or hag butts. They shot with 
 these engines not only at butts and other dead marks, but also 
 at birds and beasts, using sometimes bullets and sometimes hall 
 shot ; ^ but in the beginning of the seventeenth century the M-^ord 
 artillery was used in a much more extensive sense, and compre- 
 hended long-bows, cross-bows, slur-bows, and stone-bows ; also 
 scorpions, rams, and catapults, which, the writer tells us, were 
 formerly used ; he then names the fire-arms as follows, cannons, 
 basilisks, culverins, jakers, faulcons, minions, fowlers, cham- 
 bers, harguebusses, calivers, petronils, pistols, and dags. 
 " This," says he, " is the artiilerie which is nowe in the most 
 estimation, and they are divided into great ordinance, and into 
 shot or guns," which proves that the use of fire-arms had then 
 in great measure superseded the practice of archery. 
 
 XL— PRICES ORDAINED FOR BOWS. 
 
 In the reign of Edward IV. an ordinance was established, 
 which compelled the bowyers of London to sell the best botv- 
 staves at three shillings and fourpence each; which was con- 
 firmed in the third year of Henry VII., and in the thirty-third 
 year of his son Henry VIII. ; but these acts were repealed in 
 the third year of queen Mary, and the following prices were 
 settled by the parliament : for a bow made of the best foreign 
 yew, six shillings and eightpence ; for an inferior sort, three 
 shillings and fourpence ; and for one made of English yew, 
 two shillinofs.^ 
 
 Notwithstanding the interference of the legislature in favour 
 of archery, it gradually declined, and at the conclusion of the 
 seventeenth century was nearly, if not altogether, discontinued. 
 Yet, if we may credit a dull poem, written in the reign of 
 Charles 11.^ some attempts were then made by the nobility 
 to revive this manly pastime. I shall only quote the four fol- 
 lowing lines: — 
 
 Forsake your lov'd Olympian games awhile,'' 
 With which the tedious minutes you beguile 
 Wave quoits and nine-pins, those bear-garden sports. 
 And follow shooting, often used at courts. 
 
 The " shooting," in the last line, means with the bow. It is 
 to be observed, that the office of bow-bearer of Sherwood-forest 
 
 ' Gesta Grayorum, fol. 18, printed 1594. Garrick's Collect. C. vol. 14. 
 
 ' Vlaitland's London, book v. chap. i. 
 
 5 " Archery e revived," by Robert Shotterel and Thomas D'Urfey, 1676; p. 63 
 
 * Alluding, I presume, to tcnnice, or the balloon ball.
 
 CHAP. I. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 59 
 
 was continued to the year 1633; but it appears to have been a 
 mere sinecure.' 
 
 In the present day the use of the musket is become so general, 
 that archery, though it continues to be partially practised, has 
 little chance of recovering its former popularity. 
 
 XII.— EQUIPMENT FOR ARCHERY. 
 
 Roger Ascham, an author well versed in the subject of archery, 
 who lived in the reign of queen Elizabeth, informs vis,^ that it 
 was necessary for the archer to have a bracer, or close sleeve, 
 to lace upon the left arm ; it was also proper for this bracer to 
 be made with materials sufficiently rigid to prevent any folds 
 which might impede the bow-string when loosed from the hand ; 
 to this was to be added a shooting-glove, for the protection 
 of the fingers. The bow, he tells us, ought to be made with 
 well-seasoned wood, and formed with great exactness, taper- 
 mg from the middle towards each end. Bows were sometimes 
 made of Brazil, of elm, of ash, and of several other woods; 
 but eugh, or yew, had the sanction, from general experience, 
 of superiority. Respecting the bow-string', the author was not 
 decided which to prefer; those made with good hemp, according 
 to the common usage of the time in Avhich he lived, or those 
 manufactured with flax, or silk ; he therefore thinks the choice 
 ought to be left to the string-maker. There are, he tells us, 
 three essential parts in the composition of the arrow, that is to 
 say, the stele or wand, the feathers, and the head. The stele 
 was not always made with the same species of wood, but varied 
 as occasion required, to suit the different manners of shooting- 
 practised by the archers ; he commends sound ash for military 
 arrows, and preferred it to asp, which in his day was generally 
 used for the arrows belonging to the army ; but for pastime, he 
 thought that none were better than those niade of oak, hard- 
 beam, or birch ; but after all, says he, in this point I hold it 
 best to trust to the recommendation of an honest fletcher. The 
 feathers from the wing of a goose, and especially of a grey-goose, 
 he thought were preferable to any others for the pluming of an 
 arrow. Thus in the popular ballad of Chevy Chace, an English 
 
 ' Arcliaeologia, vol. vii. p. 58. 
 
 ' In his " Toxopliilus, or the scliole of shootingj" wiiUcii in 1:>44, fixsl pub/ishtc 
 in 1571, republished by Mr. James Benaet in 1761.
 
 (50 SPORTS AND PASTiaiES BOOK II. 
 
 archer aimed his arrow at sir Hugh Mountgonierye, with such 
 skill, that it hit him on the breast, and the poet elegantly says, 
 
 The grey-goose-vinge that was thereon 
 In his hearts blood was wett. 
 
 The more ancient ballad upon this subject, given in the first 
 volume of the Reliques of Ancient Poetry, reads, the "swane- 
 feathers." 
 
 There was, it seems, but little difference between the two wings 
 of one bird ; but, according- to the opinion of the best arrow- 
 makers, the second feather was best in some cases and the pinion 
 in others. It was necessary for an archer to have several arrows 
 of one flight (I presume Ascham means of one shape, length, 
 and weight), plumed with feathers from different wings, to suit 
 the diversity of the winds. We are not from these directions to 
 conclude, that the goose alone afforded the plumage for the 
 arrows ; the feathers of many other birds Mere used for the 
 same purpose, and are mentioned in the metrical romances of 
 the middle ages. An old ballad of Robin Hood says, that he 
 and his followers had an hundred bows furnished with strings, 
 and an hundred sheafs of goose arrows, with bright burnished 
 heads ; every arrow \v as an ell long, adorned with peacocks* 
 feathers, and bound at the notching with white silk.^ 
 
 With them they had an hundred bowes. 
 The stringes were well ydight ; 
 An hundred shefe of arrows good 
 With hedes bumish'd full bryght; 
 And every arrowe an ell longe, 
 With peacocke well ydight, 
 And nocked they were with white silk. 
 It was a semely syght. 
 
 And Chaucer, in his description of the " squyers yeomen/' 
 says. 
 
 And he was clad in cote and hode of grene, 
 A shefe of pecocke arrowes bryght and shene ; 
 Under his belt he bare ful thrifiely 
 Well coude he dresse his tackle yomauly ; 
 His arrowes drouped not with fethers lo^7e. 
 And in hande he bare a niyghty bowe.* 
 
 The adornment of these arrows with peacocks' feathers is nv 
 
 ' " Geste of Robyr. Hode." Garrick's Collect. K. vol. z. 
 = Prologue to Canterbury TaIe^
 
 €HAI». I. OF THK PKOPLE OF I.NGLANU. (Jl 
 
 to be considered as a mere poetical flourish, for we have suflicient 
 testimony, that such plumage was actually used.' 
 
 But, returning- to our autiior, he informs us, that the English 
 arrows had forked heads and broad-heads, yet he thought, that 
 round pointed heads resembling a bodkin Avere the best. The 
 notch, or small hollow part at the bottom of the arrow, made 
 for the reception of the bow-string, was varied as occasion re- 
 quired, or at the will of the archer, behig sometimes deep and 
 narrow, and sometimes broad and not deep. 
 
 XIII.— DIRECTIONS FOR ARCHERY. 
 Having thus furnished the archer with his necessary accoutre- 
 ments, Ascham proceeds to instruct him how they ought to be 
 managed ; but first of all he recommends a graceful attitude 
 He should stand, says another writer, fairly, and upright with 
 his body, his left foot at a convenient distance before his right; 
 holding the bow by the middle, with his left arm stretched out, 
 and with the three first fingers and the thumb of the right hand 
 upon the lower part of the arrow affixed to the string of the 
 bow.^ In the second place, a proper attention was to be paid 
 to the nocking, that is, the application of the notch at the bottom 
 of the arrow to the bow-string ; we are told that the notch of the 
 aiTow should rest between the fore-finger and the middle finger 
 of the right hand.^ Thirdly, our attention is directed to the 
 proper manner of drawing the bow-string: in ancient times, says 
 Ascham, the right hand was brought to the right pap ; but at 
 present it is elevated to the right ear, and the latter method he 
 prefers to the former. The shaft of the arrow below the feathers, 
 ought to be rested upon the knuckle of the fore-finger of the 
 left hand ; the arrow was to be drawn to the head, and not held 
 too long in that situation, but neatly and smartly discharged, 
 without any hanging upon the string. Among the requisites 
 necessary to constitute a good archer, are a clear sight, steadily 
 directed to the mark ; and proper judgment, to determine the 
 distance of the ground ; he ought also to know how to take the 
 advantage of a side wind, and to be well acquainted with what 
 compass his arrows would require in their flight : courage is 
 also an indispensable requisite, for whoever, says our author, 
 
 > Lib. Compotis Garderobae sub an. 4 Ed. II. page 53, is this entry, Pro duode- 
 cim flecchiis cum pennis de pavonze emptis pro rege, de 12 den. J that is, For twelve 
 arrows plumed with peacocks' feathers, bought for the king, twelve pence. MS. Cott. 
 Lib. Nero, C. viii. 
 
 2 Country Contentments, 161,5, chap. viii. p. IC. ' Ibid.
 
 62 SPORTS AND PASTIxMES HOOK II. 
 
 shoots with the least trepidation, he is sure to shoot badly. One 
 great fault in particular he complains of, which young archers 
 generally fall into, and that is, the direction of the eye to the 
 end of the arrow, rather than to the mark ; to obviate this evil 
 habit he advises such, as were so accustomed, to shoot in the dark, 
 by night, at lights set up at a proper distance for that purpose^ 
 He then concludes with observing, that " bad tutorage " was 
 rarely amended in grown-up persons ; and therefore he held it 
 essentially necessary, that great attention should be paid to the 
 teaching an archer properly, while he was young; "for chil- 
 dren," says he, "if sufficient pains are taken with them at the 
 onset, may much more easily be taught to shoot av ell, than men," 
 because the latter have frequently more trouble to unlearn 
 their bad habits, than was primitively requisite to learn them 
 good ones.^ 
 
 XIV.— MARKS FOR SHOOTING AT, 
 
 The marks usually shot at by the archers for pastime, were, 
 "butts, prickes, and reavers." The butt, we are told, was a 
 level mark, and required a strong arrow, with a very broad 
 feather; the pricke was a "mark of compass," but certain in 
 its distance; and to this mark strong swift arrows, of one flight, 
 with a middling sized feather, were best suited ; the roaver was 
 a mark of uncertain length ; it was therefore proper for the 
 archer to have various kinds of arrows, of different weights, to 
 be used according to the different changements made in the 
 distance of the ground.^ 
 
 The Cornish men are spoken of eis good archers, and shot 
 their arrows to a great length; they are also, says Carew, "well 
 skilled in near shooting, and in well aimed shooting- ; — the butts 
 made them perfect in the one, and the reaving in the other, for 
 the prickes, the first corrupters of archery, through too much 
 preciseness, were formerly scarcely known, and little practised."^ 
 Other marks are occasionally mentioned, as the standard, the 
 target, hazel wands, rose garlands, and the popinjay, which, 
 we are told, was an artificial parrot."* I have not met with such 
 a mark in any manuscript delineation ; but, in the following 
 engraving, the reader will find a cock substituted for the parrot, 
 and the archer has discharged his arrow very skilfully. 
 
 • Ascliam, p. 129, et infra. ' Country ContentmenU. 
 
 3 Survey of Cornwall, by Richard Carew, Esq. 1602. B. i. p. 73. 
 
 * See SIC. X. p. .57.
 
 t HAF. 1. 
 
 OF THE PEOPLE OF TNCiLAM). 
 
 em 
 
 Archery. — XIV. Century. 
 
 I am by no means certain, whether the draughtsman designed 
 to represent an artificial, or a living cock : the manner of its 
 being placed on the post, may favour the first idea ; but the 
 mouth being open, and the elevation of the head, as if in the 
 last gasp of life, will justify the latter. It is taken from a MS. 
 written early in the fourteenth century, preserved in the Rojal 
 Library.^ 
 
 XV.— LENGTH OF BOWS AND ARROWS. 
 
 The length of the bow is not clearly ascertained ; those used 
 by the soldiery appear, in the manuscript drawings, to have 
 been as tall, at least, as the bearers; agreeable to an ordinance 
 made in the fifth year of Edward IV. commanding every man to 
 have a bow his own height ; and they might, upon the average, 
 be something' short of six feet long. The arrows used by the 
 English archers at the memorable battle of Agincourt, were a 
 full yard in length.^ Carew, in his survey of Cornwall, says, 
 "The Cornish archers for long shooting, used arrows a cloth 
 yard long." The old and more modern ballads of Chevy Chace 
 speak of the arrow as being the length of a cloth yard, but 
 some of these poetical legends extend it an ell. 
 
 Ilall^ mentions a company of archers, who met king Henry VIII. 
 at Shooter's Hill, on a May-day morning, where they discharged 
 their bows in his presence, and the arrows made a loud whist- 
 ling in their flight, "by crafte of the heade." The strangeness 
 of the noise, we are informed, surprised his Majesty, though at 
 the same time he was much pleased with the contrivance. A 
 modern author, the Hon.Daines Barrington, assures us, this soxmd 
 was occasioned by holes being made in the arrow heads, and 
 
 2 B. vii. 
 
 ^ See most of our historians. 
 
 3 An. 7 Hen. VIII. fol. b6
 
 64 
 
 SPORTS AND PASTIMES 
 
 ROOK n. 
 
 that such weapons were used upon military occasions, and 
 especially as signals; ' but not, I presume, before the time men- 
 tioned by the historian ; for had not those arrows been newly 
 introduced, there is no reason why the king-, who was well 
 acquainted with every branch of archery, should have been 
 surprised at the sound they made, or pleased at the sight of them. 
 
 XVI.— FEATS IN ARCHERY. 
 
 If the metrical romances and ballads of the former ages may 
 be depended upon, the strength of our English archers in 
 drawing of the bow, and their skill in directing the arrow to 
 its mark, were justly the objects of admiration. 
 
 The reader, I trust, Avill pardon the insertion of the following- 
 extracts from two old poetical legends, which convey, at least, 
 some idea of the practice of archery in times anterior to our 
 own ; the first is a ballad in eight fyttes or parts, entitled, " A 
 mery Geste of Robyn Hode."^ According to the story, the 
 king^ thought proper to pay Robin Hood a visit, disguised in the 
 habit of an abbot : and the outlaw, by way of entertaining his 
 guest, proposed a shooting match. Two wands were then set 
 \ip, but at so great a distance from each other, that. 
 
 By fyfty space our kyng sayde 
 
 Tlio markes were to longe. — 
 
 On every syde a rose garlande. 
 
 The shot under tlie lyne. 
 
 Whoso faileth of the rose garland, said Robyn, 
 
 His takyll he shal tyne ;* 
 
 And yelde it to his maister. 
 
 Be it never so fine. — 
 
 Twyse Robyn shot about. 
 
 And ever he cleved the wande. — 
 
 And so did Gilbert, Little John, and Scathelocke, his com 
 panions; but, 
 
 At the last shot, that Robyn shot, 
 For all his frendes fore. 
 Yet he fay led of the garland, 
 Three fyngers and more — 
 
 ' Archaeologia, vol. vii. p, .58. 
 
 * Black letter, without date. Imprinted at London upon the Three Crane Wharfe, 
 by Willyam Copland. Garrick's Collect. Old Plays, K. vol. x. Dr. Percy, bishop 
 of Dromore, says, " There is a more ancient copy printed by Wynkin de Worde, 
 preserved in the archives of the public library at Cambridge." Reliques of Ancien 
 Poetry, vol. i. 
 
 3 King Edward IV., I presume, is meant by the poet, for in one of the liner we 
 read "Edward our comely kynge " Anachronisms of this kind were common enough 
 in the old ballads. ■> That is, he shall lose it, or rather, it shallbe foifeite.l.
 
 CHAP. r. OF THE PEOPLE OK ENGLAND. G5 
 
 of course his '* takill " was forfeited, which he presented to the 
 king, saying, 
 
 Syr abbot, I deliver thee myne arrowe. 
 
 The sei^ond poem is also of the ballad kind, and apparently 
 as old as the former,^ M^herein Adam Bell, Clym of the Clougl.e, 
 and William Cloudesle, are introduced to shoot before the king. 
 The butts, or dead marks setup by the king's archers, were cen- 
 sured by Cloudesle, saying, 
 
 I hold hym never no good archer, 
 That shoteth at buttes so wide — 
 
 and having procured two " hasell roddes," he set them up at the 
 distance of four hundred yards^ from each other; his first at- 
 tempt in shooting at them, contrary to the expectation of the 
 king, was successful, for it is said, 
 
 Cloudesle with a bearyng arowe ' 
 Clave the wand in two. 
 
 The king, being much surprised at the performance, told him 
 he was the best archer he ever saw. Cloudesle then proposed 
 to show him a more extraordinary proof of his skill, and tied 
 his eldest son, a child only seven years old, to a stake, and placed 
 an apple upon his head. When he bound his son he charged 
 him not to move, and turned his face from him, that lie might 
 not be intimidated by seeing the arrow directed towards him : 
 one hundred and twenty yards ^ were measured from the stake, 
 and Cloudesle went to the end of the measurement ; he first en- 
 treated the spectators to be silent, 
 
 And then drew out a fayre brode arrowe ; 
 
 Hys bow was great and longe. 
 He set that arrowe in his bowe 
 
 That was both styflfe and stronge. 
 
 Then Cloudesle cleft the apple in two. 
 
 As many a man myght se. 
 Over Gods forbode,*sayde the kynge, 
 
 That thou sholde shote at me. 
 
 ' Black letter, without date, and printed also by Copland in Lothbury. Its title is. 
 The Names of the Three Archers; the whole ballad, with some small variations, is in 
 the Reliques of Ancient Poetry, vol.i. p. 154, &c. This copy is bound up in tlie 
 same volume of the Garrick Collection of Old Plays with the Geste of Robyn Hode. 
 
 ' Twenty score paces, says the song. 
 
 * I rather think the poet meant an arrow shot " compass," for the pricke or wand 
 was a " mark of compass," that is, the arrow in its fliglit formed the isegmei.t of a circle. 
 See sec. jciv. p. 62. * " Six score paces." Song. s God forbid.
 
 on SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK II. 
 
 XVII.— SUPERIORITY OF ANCIENT BOWMEN. 
 
 If we were to judge of the merits of the ancient bowmen from 
 the piaetice of archery as it is exercised in the present day, these 
 poetical eulogiums would appear to be entirely fictitious. There 
 are no such distances now assigned for the marks as are mentioned 
 before, nor such precision, even at short lengths, in the direction 
 of the arrows. By an act established An. 33 Hen. VIII., no 
 person who had reached the age of twenty-four years, might shoot 
 at any mark at less than two hundred and twenty yards distance.' 
 I believe few, if any, of the modern archers, in shooting- at a 
 mark, exceed the distance of eighty or a hundred yards, or, 
 in long shooting, reach four hundred yards. I have seen the 
 gentlemen who practise archery in the vicinity of London, re- 
 peatedly shoot from end to end, and not touch the target with 
 an arrow; and for the space of several hours, without lodging 
 one in the circle of gold, about six inches diameter in the centre 
 of the target: this, indeed, is so seldom done, that one is led to 
 think, when it happens, it is rather the effect of chance than 
 of skill : which proves what Ascham has asserted, that an archer 
 should be well taught early in life, and confirm the good teaching 
 by continual practice afterwards. We may also recollect, that 
 archery is now followed for amusement only, and is to be com- 
 mended as a manly and gentleman-like exercise. 
 
 I remember about four or five years back,^ at a meeting of the 
 society of archers, in their ground near Bedford Square, the 
 'I'urkish ambassador paid them a visit; and complained that the 
 enclosure was by no means sufficiently extensive for a long shot: 
 he therefore went into the adjacent fields to show his dexterity ; 
 where I saw him shoot several ax rows more than double the length 
 of the archery ground, and his longest shot fell upwards of 
 four hundred and eighty yards from his standing. The bow he 
 used was much shorter than those belonging to the English 
 archers; and his arrows were of the bolt kind, with round heads 
 made of wood. This distance rather exceeds the length our 
 rhymist has given to the wands set up by Cloudesle and his 
 companions, but then we are to recollect they shot Avith vast pre- 
 cision to that distance,' which the ambassador did not, he had 
 no mark, and his arrows fell exceedingly wide of each other. 
 
 • Arcliaeologia, voU i p. 58 ^^ [Mr Strutt wrote this in 1800.] 
 
 ' See sec. xvi. p. 65-
 
 CHAP. I. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 67 
 
 Carew, speaking of the Cornish archers two centuries back, 
 says, " For long- shooting, their shaft was a cloth yard in length, 
 and their prickes twenty-four score paces, equal to four hun- 
 dred and eighty yards ; and for strength, they would pierce any 
 ordinary armour ; " he then adds, " and one Robert Arundell, 
 whom I well knew, could shoot twelve score paces with his 
 right hand, with his left, and from behind his head." ' This 
 puts me in mind of a curious anecdote related by Hall : " There 
 came to his grace, king Henry the Eighth, a certayn man, with 
 a bowe and arrowe, and he desyred his grace to take the muster 
 of hym, and to see him shoote ; for that tyme hys grace was 
 contented ; the man put hys one fote in his bosome, and so dyd 
 shoote, and shote a very good shote, and well towardes hys 
 marke ; whereof, not onely his grace, but all others greatly mer- 
 veyled; so the kynge gave him a rewarde,"^ and for this cu- 
 rious feat he afterwards obtained the by-name of " Fote in 
 Bosome." 
 
 XVIII.— THE DUKE OF SHOREDITCH. 
 
 The same monarch, Henry VIH., having appointed a great 
 match of archery at Windsor, a citizen of London, named 
 Barlow, an inhabitant of Shoreditch, joined the archers, and 
 surpassed them all in skill ; the king was so much pleased with 
 his performance, that he jocosely gave him the title of " Duke 
 of Shoreditch ; " and this title the captain of the London archers 
 retained for a considerable time afterwards. In 1583, in the 
 reign of Elizabeth, a grand shooting match was held in London, 
 and the captain of the archers assuming his title of Duke of 
 Shoreditch, summoned a suit of nominal nobility, under the 
 titles of marquis of Barlo, of Clerkenwell, of Islington, of 
 Hoxton, of Shacklewell, and earl of Pancrass, &c. and these 
 meeting together at the appointed time, with their different com- 
 panies, proceeded m a pompous march from Merchant Taylors 
 Hall, consisting of three thousand archers, sumptuously ap- 
 parelled ; Strype says, *• odly habited ;" every man had a long-bow, 
 and four arrows. With the marquis of Barlo and the marquis 
 of Clerkenwell were " Hunters who wound their horns."^ Nine 
 hundred and forty-two of the archers had chains of gold about 
 
 ' Survey of Cornwall, 1602. la vita Hen VIll. fol. 8. 
 
 '^ Stow'a Survey, by Strype, vol.i. p. 850. 
 
 r 2
 
 68 SPORTS AND PAS.TIMES BOOK II. 
 
 their necks. This splendid company was guarded by four thou- 
 sand whifflers and bilhnen, besides pag-es and footmen. They 
 passed through Broad-street, the residence of their captain, and 
 thence into Moorfields, by Finsbury, and so on to Sraithfield, 
 where having performed several evolutions, they shot at a target 
 for honour.' 
 
 Another cavalcade of like kind was made by the London 
 archers in 1682, the reign of Charles II., and the king himself 
 was present ; but being a wet day, his majesty was obliged to 
 leave the field soon after the arrival of the bowmen.^ 
 
 XIX.— ROYAL SPORT— A GOOD ARCHER WHY CALLED ARTHUR. 
 
 Kings and princes have been celebrated for their skill in 
 archery, and among those of our own country may be placed 
 king Henry VII. who in his youth was partial to this exercise, 
 and therefore it is said of him in an old poem, written in praise 
 of the princess Elizabeth, afterwards queon to Henry VII.^ 
 
 See where he shoteth at the butts, 
 And with hym are lordes three ; 
 He weareth a gowne of velvette blacke. 
 Anil it is coted above the knee. 
 
 He also amused himself with the bow after he had obtained the 
 crown, as we find from an account of his expenditures,^ where 
 the following memorandums occur: " Lost to my lord Morging 
 at buttes, six shillings and eightpence:" and again, " Paid to 
 sir Edward Boroughe thirteen shillings and fourpence, which the 
 kynge lost at buttes with his cross-bowe." Both the sons of king 
 Henry followed his example, and Avere excellent archers ; and 
 especially the eldest, prince Arthur, who used frequently to visit 
 the society of London bowmen at Mile-end, where they usually 
 met, and practised with them. From his expertness in handling 
 of the bow, every good shooter was called by his name. The 
 captain also of the fraternity was honoured with the title of 
 Prince Arthur, and the other archers were styled his knights.* 
 The title of Prince Arthur seems to have been superseded by the 
 creation of the " Duke of Shoreditch." 
 
 After the death of prince Arthur, his brother Henry continue I 
 
 ' Strype's London, vol. i. p. 250. ' Archaeoloria. vol. vii. 
 
 3 MS. Harl. 365, fol. 96. 
 
 ♦ An. r et 9 Hen. VII. MS. in the Remembrancer's Office. See also Appendix to 
 Dr. Henry s Hist. BriU vol. vi. Archeeologia, vol. vit
 
 CHAP. I. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 69 
 
 to honour the meeting at Mile-end with his presence. We have 
 seen already, that he was exceedingly fond of archery, and if 
 Hall may be credited, at the time of his coming to the crown, 
 " he shotte as strong, and as greate a lengthe as any of his garde." ' 
 
 King Edward VI., though not so conspicuous as his father 
 or his uncle, was nevertheless an eucourager of archery, and 
 frequently amused himself with the bow. This appears from 
 his own diary.^ 
 
 Charles 1. was an archer, as appears from the dedication of a 
 treatise, called the " Bowman's Glory;" and Catherine of Por- 
 tugal, queen to Charles II., was probably much pleased m ith 
 seeing the pastime of archery practised ; for in compliment to 
 her, a badge of silver, weighing twenty-two ounces, was made 
 for the marshal of the fraternity of bowmen, having upon it the 
 representation of an archer with his bow drawn in the action 
 of shooting, and inscribed with her name, " Reginse Catharinse 
 Sagittarii." This badge was made in the year 1676, by the 
 contribution of sir Edward Huna^erford and others.^ 
 
 XX.— PRIZES FOR ARCHERY. 
 
 I find but little said res}>ecting the rewards bestoMcd upon 
 the best bowmen ; the London fraternity are said to have shot 
 for pastime or for honour; hoM'ever, I make no doubt, upon 
 particular trials of skill, rewards sufficient to excite the emulation 
 of the archers were proposed; they might sometimes consist of 
 money, and perhaps more frequently of some other valuable 
 article, as the following lines may testify, extracted from the 
 Mery Geste of Robyn Hode, and the prize is judiciously ap- 
 propriated to the purpose. The poet tells uS; that the sherif 
 of Notyngham, 
 
 Did crye a ful fayre playe 
 
 That all the best archyres of the north 
 
 Should come upon a daye ; 
 
 And they that sliote, al of the best, 
 
 The prize should bear away. 
 
 And he that shotetb al of the best. 
 
 Furthest, fayre and lowe. 
 
 At a payre ot goodly buttes, 
 
 Under the grene wood shaw 
 
 « In Life of Hen. VIII. 1511, fol. 8. 
 
 ' Archseologia,vol. vii * Ency. Brit.
 
 70 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK II 
 
 A rygbt good arrowe he shal liave, 
 
 The shaft of sylver whyte, 
 
 The head, and fethers of ricbe red gold, 
 
 In England is none lyke. — 
 
 And when they came to Notyngham, 
 
 The buttes were fayre and longe. — 
 
 Thrise Robin shot about 
 
 And alway he cleft the wand. 
 
 It is added, that to him was delivered the "i^oode ariowe, foi 
 best worthie wa.« he."
 
 CHAP. II. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 7 J 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 I. Slinging of Stones an ancient Art. — II. Known to the Saxons. — III. And tlie 
 Normans. — IV. How practised of late Years. — V. Throwing of Weights and 
 Stones with the Hand. — VI. By the Londoners. — VII. Casting of the Bar and 
 Hammer.— VIII. Of Spears.— IX. Of Quoits. — X. Swinging of Dumb Bells.— 
 XI. Foot Races. — Xll. The Game of Base. — XIII. Wrestling much practised 
 formerly. — XIV. Prizes for. — XV. How j)erformed. — XV'I. Swimming. — XVII. 
 Sliding.— XVIII. Skating.— XIX. Rowing.— XX. Sailing. 
 
 I.— SLINGING OF STONES. 
 The art of slinging-, or casting- of stones with a sling-, is of hig-li 
 antiquity, and probably antecedent to that of archery, though 
 not so generally known nor so universally practised. The tribe 
 of Benjamin among the Israelites is celebrated in holy writ for 
 the excellency of its slingers. In the time of the judges there 
 were seven hundred Benjamites Avho all of them used their left 
 hands, and in the figurative language of the Scripture it is said, 
 they " could sling stones at an hair-breadth and not miss," ^ that 
 is, with exceedingly great precision. Again we are told, tl at 
 when David fled to Ziklag, he was joined by a party of valiant 
 men of the tribe of Benjamin, who could use both the right and 
 the left in slinging of stones and shooting arrows out of a bow.2 
 David himself was also an excellent marksman, as the destruction 
 of Goliath by the means of his sling sufficiently testifies. It 
 was, perhaps, an instrument much used by the shepherds in 
 ancient times, to protect their flocks from the attacks of ferocious 
 animals : if so, we shall not wonder that David, who kept his 
 father's sheep, was so expert in the management of this weapon.^ 
 In Barclay's Eclogues an English shepherd boasts of his skill 
 in using of the sling. 
 
 II.— SLINGING BY THE ANGLO-SAXONS. 
 The art of slinging of stones was well known and practised 
 at a very early period in Europe, but we have no authority to 
 prove that it was carried to so high a pitch of perfection in this 
 part of the globe, as it appears to have been among the Asiatic 
 natioi.s. It is altogether uncertain, whether the ancient inha- 
 
 '- .>aia'ges, chap. xx. ver. 16. » 1 Chron. cliap. xii. ler. 2. 
 
 ' 1 Samuel, chap. xvii. and xviii.
 
 72 
 
 SPORTS AND PASTIMES 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 bitants of Britain were acquainted with the use of the sling or 
 not; if the negative be granted, which hardly seems reasonable, 
 we must admit the probability of their being taught the properties 
 of such an instrument by the Romans, who certainly used it as a 
 military weapon. We can speak more decidedly on the part of 
 our ancestors the Saxons, who seem to have been skilful in the 
 management of the sling ; its form is preserved in several of their 
 paintings, and the manner in which it was used by them, as far 
 back as the eighth century, may be seen below, ft-om a manu- 
 script of that age in the Cotton Library.' It is there represented 
 with one of the ends unloosened from the hand and the stone 
 discharged. In the original the figure is throwing the stone at 
 a bird upon the wing, which is represented at some distance 
 from him. 
 
 c 
 
 Slinging — VIII. Century. 
 
 In other instances we see it depicted with both the ends held 
 in the hand, the figure being placed in the action of taking his 
 aim, and a bird is generally the object of his exertion, as in 
 the following engraving from a parchment roll in the Royal 
 Library, containing a genealogical account of the kings of 
 England, to the time of Henry III.'' 
 
 Claudius, B. iv. 
 
 ■' 14. B. V.
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND 
 
 73 
 
 15. Manner of holding the Slino. 
 
 Sometimes the sling- is attached to a staff or truncheon, about 
 three or four feet in length, wielded with both hands, and charged 
 with a stone of no small magnitude. These slings appear to 
 nave been chiefly used in besieging of cities, and on board of 
 ships in engagements by sea. The following engraving re- 
 presents a sling of this kind, from a drawing" supposed to have 
 been made by Matthew Paris, in a MS. at Bennet' College, 
 Cambridge.* 
 
 16. Slings op Warfare. 
 
 III.— SLINGING BY THE ANGLO-NORMANS. 
 We have sufficient testimony to prove that men armed with 
 slings formed a part of the Anglo-Norman soldiery,^ and the 
 word Balistarii, used by our early historians, may, I doubt not, 
 be more properly rendered slingers than cross-bowmen ; though 
 indeed, upon the introduction of the cross-bow, these men might 
 take the place of the slingers. In fact the cross-bow itself 
 was modified to the purpose of dischaiging of stones, and for 
 that reason was also called a stone-bow, so that the appellation 
 Balistarius and Arcubalistarius were both of them latterly applied 
 to the same person. The sling, however, was not entirely super- 
 seded by the bow at the commencement of the fifteenth century, 
 as the following verses plainly indicate : they occur in a ma- 
 nuscript poem in the Cotton Library,^ entitled, " Knyghthode 
 
 ' C. V. 16. 2 Manners and Customs of the Englisli, vol. i. 
 
 * Titus A. xxiii. part 1, fol. 8.
 
 74 . SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK II. 
 
 and Batayle," written about that time, which )>rofessedly treats 
 upon the duties and exercises necessary to constitute a good 
 soldier. 
 
 Use eek the cast of stone, with slynge or honde : 
 It falleth ofte, yf other shot there none is, 
 Men harneysed in steel may not withstonde. 
 The multitude and miglity cast of stonys ; 
 And -stonys in eSecte, are every where, 
 And slynges are not noyous for to bcare. 
 
 By the two last lines the poet means to say, that stones are 
 every where readily procured, and that the slings are by no means 
 cumbersome to the bearers, which were cogent reasons for re- 
 taining them as military weapons ; neither does he confine their 
 use to any body or rank of soldiers, but indiscriminately recom- 
 mends the acquirement of skill in the casting of stones, to every 
 individual who followed the profession of a warrior. 
 
 IV.— MODERN MODES OF SLINGING. 
 
 I remember in my youth to have seen several persons expert 
 in slinging of stones, which they performed with thongs of leather, 
 or, wanting those, with garters ; and sometimes they used a stick 
 of ash or hazel, a yard or better in length, and about an inch in 
 diameter; rt was split at the top so as to make an opening wide 
 enough to receive the stone, which was confined by the re-action 
 of the stick on both sides, but not strong enough to resist the 
 impulse of the slinger. It required much practice to handle this 
 instrument with any ^reat degree of certainty, for if the stone in 
 the act of throwing quitted the sling either sooner or later than 
 it ought to do, the desired effect w^as sure to fail. Those who 
 could use it properly, cast stones to a considerable distance 
 and with much precision. In the present day, the use of all 
 these engines seems to be totally discontinued. 
 
 v.— THROWING WITH THE HAND. 
 Throwing of heavy weights and stones with the hand was 
 much practised in former times, and as this pastime required 
 great strength and muscular exertion, it was a very proper exer- 
 cise for military men. The Greeks, according to Homer, at 
 the time of the siege of Troy, amused themselves with casting of 
 the discus, which appears to have been a round flat plate of 
 metal of considerable magnitude and very heavy.' The discus 
 
 Iliad, book xxiii.
 
 CHAP. II. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 75 
 
 of the ancients,*' says Dr. Johnson,' " is someti uvs callod in 
 English quoit, but improperly. The game of quoits is a game 
 of skill; the discus was only a trial of strength, as among us 
 to throw the hammer." 
 
 VI.— THROWING BY THE LONDONERS. 
 
 In the twelfth century we are assured, that among the amuse- 
 ments practised by the young Londoners on holidays, was casting 
 of stones,^ darts, and other missive weapons. Bars of wood 
 and iron were afterwards used for the same purpose, and the 
 attention of the populace was so much engaged by this kind of 
 exercise, that they neglected in great measure the practice of 
 archery, which occasioned an edict to be passed in the thirty-ninth 
 year of Edward III. prohibiting the pastimes of throwing of 
 stones, wood, and iron, and recommending the use of the long- 
 bow upon all convenient opportunities.® 
 
 VII.— CASTING OF THE BAR AND HAMMER. 
 
 Casting of the bar is frequently mentioned by the romance 
 writers as one part of a hero's education, and a poet of the 
 sixteenth century thinks it highly commendable for kings and 
 princes, by way of exercise, to throw " the stone, the barre, or 
 the plummet." Henry VIII., after his accession to the throne, 
 according to Hall and Holinshead, retained " the casting of the 
 barre " among his favourite amusements. The sledge hammer 
 was also used for the same purpose as the bar and the stone; and 
 among the rustics, if Barclay be correct, an axletree. 
 
 At the commencement of the seventeenth century, these pas- 
 times seem to have lost their relish among the higher classes of 
 the people, and for this reason Peacham, describing a complete 
 gentleman, speaks of throwing the hammer as an exercise proper 
 only for soldiers in camp, or for the amusement of the king's 
 guard, but by no means " beseeming of nobility." 
 
 VIII. -THROWING OF SPEARS. 
 Throwing of spears and javelins being properly a military 
 exercise, was not prohibited by the act above mentioned. It 
 was sometimes practised as a trial of strength, when the attempt 
 was to throw beyond a certain boundary, or to exceed a com 
 
 ' In his Dictionary, under quoit. Filzstephen's Description of London. 
 
 ^ Rot. claus. Memb. 23.
 
 "G SPORTS A\D PASTIMES BOOK I). 
 
 petitor in distance ; and of skill, when the spear was cast at a 
 quintain, or any other determined mark. According to Fitz- 
 stephen, it was one of the holiday sports of the young- Londoners 
 in the reign of Henry II. With them it seems to have been an 
 exertion to cast the weapon farthest. The pastime is frequently 
 mentioned by the writers of the middle ages, Charles VI. of 
 France and the lords of his court, after a grand entertainment, 
 were amused with " Wrastling, and casting of the bar, and the 
 dart, by Frenchmen and the Gascoyns."^ 
 
 IX.— QUOITS. 
 
 The game of quoits, or coits, as an amusement, is superior 
 to any of the foregoing pastimes ; the exertion required is more 
 moderate, because this exercise does not depend so much upon 
 superior strength as upon superior skill. The quoit seems evi- 
 dently to have derived its origin from the ancient discus, and 
 with us in the present day it is a circular plate of iron per- 
 forated in the middle, not always of one size, but larger or 
 smaller to suit the strength or conveniency of the several can- 
 didates. It is further to be observed, that quoits are not only 
 made of different magnitudes to suit the poise of the players, 
 but sometimes the marks are placed at extravagant distances, so 
 as to require great strength to throw the quoit home; this, 
 however, is contrary to the general rule, and depends upon the 
 caprice of the parties engaged in the contest. 
 
 To play at this game, an iron pin, called a hob, is driven into 
 the ground, within a few inches of the top ; and at the distance 
 of eighteen, twenty, or more yards, for the distance is optional, 
 a second pin of iron is also made fast in a similar manner; two 
 or more persons, as four, six, eight, or more at pleasure, who 
 divided into two equal parties are to contend for the victory, 
 stand at one of the iron marks and throw an equal number oi 
 quoits to the other, and the nearest of them to the hob are reck- 
 oned towards the game. But the determination is discriminately 
 made: for instance, if a quoit belonging to A lies nearest to the 
 hob, and a quoit belonging to B the second, A can claim but 
 one towards the game, though all his other quoits lie nearer 
 to the mark than all the other quoits of B ; because one quoit 
 of B being the second nearest to the hob, cuts out, as it is called, 
 all behind it: if no su<h quoit had interfered, then A would 
 
 • Froissart, Lord Bemers' translation, vol. iv. chap. 149^ fol. 184.
 
 CHAP. II. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 77 
 
 have reckoned all his as one each. Having cast all their quoits, 
 the candidates walk to the opposite side, and determine the 
 state of the play, then taking- their stand there,, throw their 
 quoits back again and continue to do so alternately as long as 
 the game remains undecided. 
 
 Formerly in the country, the rustics not having the round 
 perforated quoits to play with, used horse-shoes, and in many 
 places the quoit itself, to this day, is called a shoe. 
 
 X.— DUMB BELLS. 
 
 John Northbroke, in a Treatise against Diceing, Dancing, &c. 
 written in the time of queen Elizabeth, advises young men, by 
 way of amusement, to " labour witli poises of lead or other 
 metal ; " this notable pastime, I apprehend, bore some resemblance 
 to the Skiomachia,^ or figliting with a man's own shadow, men- 
 tioned in one of the Spectators : ^ " It consisted," says the author, 
 " ill brandishing of two sticks, grasped in each hand and loaden 
 with plugs of lead at either end ; — this pastime opens the chest, 
 exercises the limbs, and gives a man all the pleasure of boxing 
 without the blows." It is sometimes practised in the present 
 day, and called " ringing of the dumb bells." 
 
 XL— FOOT-RACING. 
 
 There is no kind of exercise that has more uniformly met 
 the approbation of authors in general than running. In the 
 middle ages, foot-racing was considered as an essential part o{ 
 a young man's education, especially if he was the son of a man 
 of rank, and brought up to a military profession. 
 
 It is needless, I doubt not, to assert the antiquity of this 
 pastime, because it will readily occur to every one, that variety 
 of occasions continually present themselves, which call forth the 
 exertions of running even in childhood ; and when more than 
 one person are stimulated by the same object, a competition na- 
 turally takes place among them to obtain it. Originally, perhaps, 
 foot-races had no other incitement than emulation, or at best the 
 prospect of some small reward : but in process of time the 
 rewards were magnified, and contests of this kind were instituted 
 as public amusements ; the ground marked out for that purpose, 
 and judges appointed to decide upon the fairness of the race, to 
 ascertain the winner, and to bestow the reward. 
 
 » ^Kiofiaxia. ' Vol. ii. No. 115.
 
 78 
 
 SPORTS AND PASTIMES 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 In former times, according to Commenius,' it was customary 
 for the places appropriated to pedal races to be railed in on either 
 side, and the prize-g-iver stood at the goal, to deliver the reward 
 to the person who should first touch it. I suppose he means at 
 the Olympic games, among which foot-racing was one. In the 
 present day foot-races are not much encouraged by persons of 
 fortune, and seldom happen but for the purpose of betting, and 
 the racers are generally paid for their performance. In many 
 instances the distance does not exceed one hundred yards. At 
 fairs, wakes, and upon many other occasions where many people 
 are assembled together, this species of amusement is sometimes 
 promoted, but most frequently the contest is confined to the 
 younger part of the concourse. 
 
 Two centuries back running, according to Peacham, was 
 thought to be an exercise by no means derogatory to the rank of 
 nobility ; ^ and a poetical writer in the Cotton manuscript, " CM' 
 Knyghthode and Batayle," before cited,^ written early in the 
 fifteenth century, recommends it strongly to the practice of the 
 soldiery : his words are these. 
 
 In rennynge the exercise is good also. 
 To smyie first in fight, and also whennj. 
 To take a place our foemen will forrenno 
 A.nd take it erst, also, to serche or sture. 
 Lightly to come and go, rennynge is sure. 
 Keiinyng is also right gooti tit the chase. 
 And for to lepe a dike is also good ; 
 For mightily what man may renne and lepe. 
 May well devict. and safe is party kepe. 
 
 XII.— BASE, OR PRISONERS' BARS. 
 
 There is a rustic game called Base or Bars, and sometimes 
 written Bays,^ and in some places Prisoners' Bars; and as the 
 success of this pastime depends upon the agility of the can- 
 didates and their skill in running, I think it may properly enough 
 be introduced here. It was much practised in former times, and 
 some vestiges of the game are still remaining in many parts of 
 the kingdom. The first mention of this sport that I have met 
 with occurs in the Proclamations at the head of the parliamentary 
 proceedings, early in the reign of Edward III., where it is spoken 
 of as a childish amusement, and prohibited to be played in the 
 
 * Orbis sensualium Pictus. ' Compleat Gentleman, 1622. 
 
 * Titus A. xxiii. part i. page 6. See p. 73. sec. iii. 
 
 * Johnson's Dictionary, word Base.
 
 CHAP. II. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 79 
 
 avenues of the palace at Westminster,^ during the sessions of 
 Parliament, because of the interruption it occasioned to the 
 members and others in passing- to and fro as their business re- 
 quired. It is also spoken of by Shakespear as a game practised 
 by the boys : 
 
 He witli two striplings, lads more like to run 
 The country base, than to commit such slaughter, 
 Blade good the passage.^ 
 
 It was, however, most assuredly played by the men, and 
 especially in Cheshire and other adjoining counties, where 
 formerly it seems to have been in high repute. 
 
 The performance of this pastime requires two parties of equal 
 number, each of them having a base or home, as it is usually 
 called, to themselves, at the distance of about twenty or thirty 
 yards. The players then on either side taking hold of hands, 
 extend themselves in length, and opposite to each other, as far 
 as they conveniently can, always remembering that one of them 
 must touch the base ; when any one of them quits the hand of 
 his fellow and runs into the field, which is called giving the 
 chase, he is immediately followed by one of his opponents ; he 
 again is followed by a second from the former side, and he by 
 a second opponent ; and so on alternately, until as many are 
 out as choose to run, everyone pursuing the man he first followed, 
 and no other; and if he overtake him near enough to touch hun, 
 his party claims one toward their game, and both return home. 
 They then run forth again and again in like manner, until the 
 number is completed that decides the victory; this number is 
 optional, and I am told rarely exceeds twenty. It is to be 
 observed, that every person on either side who touches another 
 during the chase, claims one for his party, and when many are 
 out, it frequently happens that many are touched. 
 
 About 1770, I saw a grand match at base played in the fields 
 behind Montague House, now the British Museum, by twelve 
 gentlemen of Cheshire against twelve of Derbyshire, for a con- 
 siderable sum of money, which aflforded much entertainment to 
 the spectators. In Essex they play this game with the addition 
 of two prisons, which are stakes driven into the ground, paral- 
 lel with the home boundaries, and about thirty yards from them; 
 and every person who is touched on either side in the chase, 
 
 '■ " Nul enfaunt ne autres ne jue — a barres." Rot. Pari. MS. Harl. 7057. 
 2 Cymbeline.
 
 80 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK !!. 
 
 IS sent to one or other of these prisons, where he must remain 
 till the conclusion of the game, if not delivered previously by 
 one of his associates, and this can only be accomplished by 
 touching him, which is a difficult task, requiring the performance 
 of the most skilful players, because the prison belonging to 
 either party is always much nearer to the base of their oppo- 
 nents than to their own ; and if the person sent to relieve his 
 confederate be touched by an antagonist before he reaches him, 
 he also becomes a prisoner, and stands in equal need of de- 
 liverance. The addition of the prisons occasions a considerable 
 degree of variety in the pastime, and is frequently productive 
 of much pleasantry. 
 
 XIII.— WRESTLING. 
 
 The art of wrestling, which in the present day is chiefly 
 confined to the lower classes of the people, was, however, highly 
 esteemed by the ancients, and made a very considerable figui'e 
 among the Olympic games. In the ages of chivalry, to wrestle 
 well was accounted one of the accomplishments which a hero 
 ought to possess. 
 
 Wrestling is a kind of exercise that, from its nature, is 
 likely to have been practised by every nation, and especially 
 by those the least civilised. It was probably well known in 
 this country long before the introduction of foreign manners. 
 The inhabitants of Cornwall and Devon have, we are well as- 
 sured, from time immemorial, been celebrated for their expert- 
 ness in this pastime, and are universally said to be the best 
 wrestler3 in the kingdom. To give a Cornish hug is a pro- 
 verbial expression. The Cornish, says Fuller, are masters of 
 the art of wrestling, so that if the Olympian games were now 
 in fashion, they would come away with the victory. Their hug- 
 is a cunning close with their fellow-combatants, the fruits whereof 
 is his fair fall or foil at the least.' They learned the art at 
 an early period of life, for you shall hardly find, says Carew, 
 an assembly of boys in Devon and Cornwall, where the most 
 untowardly among them will not as readily give you a muster 
 (or trial) of this exercise as you are prone to require it.^ 
 
 The citizens of London, in times past, are said to have been 
 expert in the art of wrestling, and annually upon St. James's 
 day they were accustomed to make a public trial of their skill. 
 
 ' Worthies of England in Cornwall, p 197. "^ Survey of Cornwai!, 1602, p. 75.
 
 CHAl". II. OF THC PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 81 
 
 In the sixth year of Henry III. they held their anniversary 
 meeting- for this purpose near the hospital of St. Matilda, at 
 St. Giles's in the fields, where they were met by the inhabitants 
 of the city and suburbs of Westminster, and a ram was appointed 
 for the prize ; the Londoners were victorious, having- greatly 
 excelled their antagonists, which produced a challenge from 
 the conquered party, to renew the contest upon the Lammas 
 day following- at Westminster: the citizens of London readily 
 consented, and met them accordingly, but in the midst of the 
 diversion, the bailiff of Westminster and his associates took 
 occasion to quarrel witli the Londoners, a battle ensued, and 
 many of the latter were severely wounded in making- their re- 
 treat to the city. This unjustifiable petulance of the bailiff gave 
 rise to a more serious tumult, and it was several days before the 
 peace could be restored.^ Stow informs us, that in the thirty- 
 first year of Henry VI., A. D. 1453, at a wrestling- match near 
 Clerkenwell, another tumult was excited against the lord mayor, 
 but he does not say upon what occasion it arose. 
 
 In old time, says Stow, wrestling- was more used than it has 
 been of later years.^ In the month of August, about the feast 
 of St. Bartholomew, adds this very accurate historian, there 
 M'ere divers days spent in wrestling; the lord mayor, aldermen, 
 and sheriffs, being present in a large tent pitched for that pur- 
 pose near Clerkenwell ;^ upon this occasion the officers of the city, 
 namely, the sheriffs, Serjeants, and yeomen, the porters of the 
 king's beam or weighing-house,'' and others of the city, gave a 
 general challenge to such of the inhabitants of the suburbs as 
 thought themselves expert in this exercise ; but of late years, con- 
 tinues he, the wrestling is only practised on the afternoon of St. 
 Bartholomew's day.^ The latter ceremony is thus described by a 
 foreign writer, who was an eye-witness to the performance : 
 " When," says he, " the mayor goes out of the precincts of the 
 city, a sceptre,^ a sword, and a cap, are borne before him, and 
 he is followed by the principal aldermen in scarlet gowns with 
 golden chains ; himself and they on horseback. Upon their 
 arrival at a place appointed for that purpose, where a tent is 
 pitched for their reception, the mob begin to wrestle before them 
 
 ' Matthew Paris. Hist. Ang. sub an. 1222. ' Survey of London, p. 78, 85. 
 
 ^ The margin says, " at Skinner's Well." 
 
 * There are now, says the author, no such men, meaning "the porters of the king's 
 beam," that is, at the commencement of the seventeenth century. 
 
 * Survey of London, p. 85. * I presume he means the mace. 
 
 G
 
 82 
 
 SPORTS AND PASTIMES 
 
 HOOK II. 
 
 two at a time." He adds a circumstance not recorded bv tfie 
 historian : " After tliis is over, a parcel of live rabbits are turned 
 loose among the crowd, which are pursued by a number of boys, 
 who endeavour to catch them with all the noise they can make." ' 
 From the time that wrestling- became lui fash ion able and was 
 rarely practised by persons of opulence, it declined also among 
 the populace, but by slower degrees ; and at present is seldom 
 seen except at wakes and fairs, where it still continues to be 
 partially exhibited. 
 
 XIV.— PRIZES FO^l WRESTLING. 
 
 We may have observed, that the reward proposed for the best 
 wrestlers in the contest between the Londoners and the inhabi- 
 tants of Westminster, as mentioned above, was a ram. Anciently 
 this animal was the prize most usually given upon such occa- 
 sions, and therefore in the rhyme of sir Thopas, Chaucer says 
 of the Knight, 
 
 Of wrastling was there none his pare, 
 Where any Ram shulde stonrle.' 
 
 And again, in his character of the miller, 
 
 for over al ther he cam. 
 
 At wrasth ng he wolde have away the Ram.' 
 
 Other rewards, no doubt, were sometimes proposed, as we may 
 see upon the engraving below, where two men are wrestling for 
 a cock : the original drawing, from a manuscript in the Royal 
 Library,^ is certainly more ancient than the time of Chaucer. 
 
 17. Ancient Wrestling. 
 
 ' Hentzner's Itinerary first published A. D. 1598 Lord Orford's translation. 
 Strawberry Hill edition, p. 36. 
 
 ' Canterbury Tales. ' Prologues to the Canterbury Tales. 2 B. viii.
 
 CHAP. n. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 83 
 
 In modern times the prizes were uot only much varied, but 
 were occasionally of higher value. If we may believe the author 
 of the old poem, entitled " A mery Geste of Robyn Hode," 
 there were several prizes put up at once. The poet, speaking 
 of a knight who was going to Robin Hood, says,^ 
 
 Unto Bemisdale, 
 
 As he went, by a bridge was a wrastlinj. 
 
 And there taryed was he. 
 And there was all the best yemen. 
 
 Of all the west couutrey. 
 A full fayre game there was set up ; 
 
 A white bull, up ypyght ; 
 A great coursar with sadle and brydle. 
 
 With gold burnished full bryght : 
 A payre of gloves, a red gold ringe, 
 
 A pipe of wine, good faye : 
 What man bereth him best, ywis. 
 
 The prise shall bear away. 
 
 A humorous description is given in one of the Spectators of 
 a country wake : the author there mentions " a ring of wrestlers ; 
 the squire," says he, " of the parish always treats the whole 
 company, every year, with a hogshead of ale, and proposes a 
 beaver bat, as a recompence to him who gives the most fall?."^ 
 
 XV.— WRESTLING, HOW PERFORMED. 
 
 Another Representation. 
 
 The manner in which this pastime was exhibited in the western 
 parts of England, at the distance of two centuries, is thus de- 
 scribed by Carew, an author then living. " The beholders then 
 cast, or form themselves into a ring, in theempty space whereof 
 the two champions step forth, stripped into their dublets and 
 hosen, and untrussed, that they may so the better command the 
 use of their lymmes ; and first shaking hands, in token of friend- 
 ship, they fall presently to the effect of anger; for each strivetb 
 
 • Second fit, or part, Garrick's Collect. Old Plays, K. vol. x. 
 » Vol. ii. No. 161, published 1711. 
 
 G 2
 
 84 
 
 SPORTS AND PASTIMKS 
 
 BOOK 11. 
 
 how to take hold of the other with his best advantage, and to 
 bear his adverse party downe; wherein, whosoever overthroweth 
 his mate, in such sort, as that either his backe, or the one shoulder, 
 and contrary heele do touch the ground, is accounted to give the 
 fall. If he be only endangered, and makes a narrow escape, 
 it is called a foyle." 
 
 He then adds, " This pastime also hath his laws, for instance ; 
 of taking hold above the girdle — wearing a girdle to take hold 
 by — playing three pulls for trial of the mastery, the fall giver 
 to be exempted from playing again with the taker, but bound 
 to answer his successor. Silver prizes, for this and other acti- 
 vities, were wont to be carried about, by certain circumferanci, 
 or set up at bride ales ; but time, or their abuse," perhaps I might 
 add both, " hath now worn them out of use." ' 
 
 The Greeks had a pastime called Hippas,^ which, we are told, 
 was one person riding upon the shoulders of another, as upon a 
 horse ; ^ a sport of this kind was in practice with us at the com- 
 mencement of the fourteenth century, but generally performed 
 by two competitors who struggled one with the other, and he 
 who pulled his opponent from the shoulders of his carrier was 
 the victor. 
 
 19. 
 
 The representations of this curious pastime are taken from 
 different manuscripts ; one in the Royal Library,^ and the other 
 m the Bodleian Library at Oxford, dated 1344.^ 
 
 » Survey of Cornwall, 1602, p. 7o. ^ 'iTnzac » Po'Jux, lib, ix. can. 7. 
 
 * 2 a. vii. 5 '^464, boa. 264.
 
 CK»AP. II. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. b5 
 
 This seems to bear more analogy to wrestling than to any 
 Other sport, for which reason I have given it a place in the pre- 
 sent chapter. 
 
 XVI.— SWIMMING. 
 
 Swimming is an exercise of great antiquity ; and, no doubt, 
 familiar to the inhabitants of this country, at all times. The 
 heroes of the middle ages are sometimes praised for their skill 
 in swimming : it is said of Olaf Fryggeson, a king of Norway, 
 that he had no equal in his art.* Peacham, describing the re- 
 quisites for a complete gentleman, mentions swimming as one; 
 and particularly recommends it to such as were inclined to fol- 
 low a military profession. In this he seems to have followed an 
 old poetical writer,^ who speaks in this manner : — 
 
 To swymme, is eke to lerne in sommer leson. 
 Men fynJe not a bridge, so often as a flood, 
 Swymmyng to voyde ; and chase an lioste wil eson. 
 Eke after rayne the rivers goeth wood,* 
 That every man in t'host can swymme, is good : 
 Knyght, squyer, footman, cook, and cosynere. 
 And grome, and page, in swymmyng is to lere. 
 
 Meaning thereby, that the art of swimming* ought to be learned 
 by every class of persons belonging to an army : and, perhaps, 
 it may not be improper to add, by every other person also. 
 
 Swimming and diving are mentioned by the author of the 
 Visions of Pierce Ploughman,^ in the following manner : — 
 
 Pontoppidan's Hist, of Norway, p. 148. ^ MS. Cott, Titus, A. xxiii. 
 
 ' Wood, or wode, signifies wild or mad ; and here, that the rain makes the riverB 
 swell and overpass their bounds. * Edit. 1330, p. 13.
 
 fe(> SPORTS AND PASTI'MKS BOOK II 
 
 Take two strong men and in Temese ' cast them, 
 
 And both naked as a needle, ther non slkerer^ than other ; 
 
 The one hath cunnynge and can swymme and dyve. 
 
 The other is lewed of that laboure, lerned never to swym. 
 
 Which trowest of these two in Temese is most in dred, 
 
 He that never dived ue nought can of swymmyng. 
 
 Or the swymmer that is safe if he himself lyke ? 
 
 Boys in the country usually learn to swim with bundles of bull- 
 rushes, and with corks where the rushes cannot readily be pro- 
 cured ; particularly in the neighbourhood of London, where 
 we are told, two centuries back, there were men who could teach 
 theartof swimming- well, and, says the author, " for commoditie 
 of river and water for that purpose, there is no where better." ^ 
 I am sorry to add, that swimming is by no means so generally 
 practised with us in the present day as it used to be in former 
 times. We have several treatises on the art of swimming and 
 diving, and in the Encyclopaedia Britannica are many excellent 
 directions relating to it, under the article Swimming-. 
 
 XVII.— SLIDING. 
 
 Sliding upon the ice appears to have been a very favourite 
 pastime among the youth of this country in former times; at 
 present the use of skates is so generally diffused throughout the 
 kino-dom, that sliding is but little practised, except by children 
 and such as cannot afford to purchase them. 
 
 Sliding is one of the diversions ascribed to young men of 
 London by Fitzstephen, and, as far as one can judge from his 
 description of the sport, it differed not in the performance from 
 the method used by the boys of our own time ; but he adds 
 another kind of pastime upon the ice that is not now in practice : 
 his words are to this effect, "Others make a seat of ice as large as 
 a millstone, and having placed one of their companions upon it, 
 they draw him along, when it sometimes happens that moving on 
 slippery places they all fall down headlong." Instead of these 
 seats of ice, among the moderns, sledges are used, which being 
 extended from a centre, by the means of a strong rope, those who 
 are seated in them are moved round with great velocity, and 
 form an extensive circle. Sledges of this kind were set upon 
 the Thames during the hard frost, in the year 1716, as the fol- 
 
 The river Thames. 
 
 ^ Sikerer, surer, safer ; that is, neither the one nor the other should have any 
 extraneous assistance, but each sh',uld depend entirely upon his own exertions to escape 
 from the water. 
 
 3 History of all the schools and colleges in and about Londou, printed A. D. 161.5.
 
 CHAP. I!. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 87 
 
 lowing couplet in a song written upon that occasion- phiinly 
 proves : 
 
 While the rabble in sledges run giddily round. 
 And nought but a circle of folly is found. 
 
 XVllI.— SKATING. 
 
 Skating is by no means a recent pastime, and probably the 
 invention proceeded rather from necessity than the desire of 
 amusement. 
 
 It is the boast of a northern chieftain, that he could traverse 
 the snow upon skates of wood.^ I cannot by any means ascer- 
 tain at what time skating made its first appearance in England, 
 but we find some ti-aces of such an exercise in the thirteenth 
 century, at which period, according to Fitzstephen, it was 
 customary in the winter, when the ice would bear them, for the 
 young citizens of London to fasten the leg bones of animals 
 under the soles of their feet by tying them round their ancles, 
 and then taking a pole shod with iron into their hands, they 
 pushed themselves forward by sti'iking- it against the ice, and 
 moved with celerity equal, says the author, to a bird tiying 
 through the air, or an arrow from a cross-bow; but some 
 allowance, I presume, must be made for the poetical figure : he 
 then adds, " at times, two of them thus furnished agree to start 
 opposite one to another, at a great distance ; they meet, elevate 
 their poles, attack, and strike each other, when one or both of 
 tliem fall, and not without some bodily hurt ; and, even after 
 their fall, are carried a great distance from each other, by the 
 rapidity of the motion, and whatever part of the head comes 
 upon the ice, it is sure to be laid bare.' 
 
 The wooden skates shod with iron or steel, which are bound 
 about the feet and ancles like the talares of the Greeks and 
 Romans, were most probably brought into England from the 
 Low Countries, where they are said to have originated, and 
 where it is well known they are almost universally used by 
 persons of both sexes when the season permits. In Hoole's 
 translation of the Vocabulary by Commenius, called Orbis Sen- 
 sualiran Pictus, the skates are called scrick-shoes from the 
 German, and in the print at the head of the section, in that 
 work, they are represented longer than those of the present day, 
 and the irons are turned up much higher m the front. 
 
 ' In D'Urfey's Collection of Songs, 1719, vol. iii. p. 4. 
 ■•' Olai. Worm. Lit. Run. p. 129.
 
 88 SPOUTS AND PAS17MKS BOOK II. 
 
 Some modern writers have ar-serted, that " Ine metropolis of 
 Scotland has produced more instances of elegant skaters than 
 perhaps any other country whatever, and the institution of a 
 skating-club, about forty years ago, has contributed not a little 
 to the improvement of this amusement." * I have, however, seen, 
 some years back, when the Serpentine river in Hyde Park was 
 frozen over, four gentlemen there dance, if I may be allowed 
 the expression, a double minuet in skates, with as much ease, 
 and I think more elegance, than in a ball room; others again, 
 by turning and wmding with much adroitness, have readily in 
 succession described upon the ice the foi'm of all the letters in 
 the alphabet. 
 
 XIX.— ROWING. 
 
 I shall not pretend to investigate the antiquity of boat- 
 rowing. This art was certainly well understood by the primitive 
 inhabitants of Britain, who frequently committed themselves to 
 the mercy of the sea in open boats, constructed with wicker 
 work, and covered with leather.^ The Saxons were also expert 
 in the management of the oar, and thought it by no means 
 derogatory for a nobleman of the highest rank to row or steer a 
 boat with dexterity and judgment. Kolson, a northern hero, 
 boasting of his qualifications, declares, that " he was expert in 
 handling the oar."^ The reader may possibly call to his recol- 
 lection the popular story related by our historians concerning 
 Edgar, surnamed the Peaceable, who they tell us was conveyed 
 in great state along the river Dee, from his palace in the city of 
 West Chester, to the church of St. John, and back again : the 
 oars were managed by eight kings, and himself, the ninth, sat 
 at the stern of the barge and held the helm.^ This frolic, for I 
 cannot consider it in any other light, appears to be well attested, 
 and is the earliest record of a pastime of the kind. 
 
 The boat-quintain and tilting at each other upon the water, 
 which were introduced by the Normans as amusements for the 
 summer season,^ could not be performed without the assistance of 
 the oars, and probably much of the success of the champion 
 depended upon the skilfulness of those who managed the boat. 
 Ff we refer to two engravings^ whereon both these sports are 
 
 1 Eccy. Brit. art. Skating. * C?esar Beli. Gall. lib. v. cap. 12. 
 
 ' Bartholin, p. 420. ■* Will. Malms. Mat. West, iu the reign of Edgar. 
 
 * Fitzstephen's Description of London. Stow's Survey. 
 
 ^ See book iii. chap. i. sec. v.
 
 CHAP. II. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. ^ft 
 
 represented, we shall see that the rowers are seated contrary 
 to the usual method, and face the head of the vessel instead of 
 the stern. 
 
 The institution of the water pageantry at London upon the 
 lord mayor's day, m as of an essential service to the professed 
 watermen, who plied about the bridge; and gave occasion to the 
 introduction of many pleasure boats, which in the modern times 
 have been greatly increased. The first procession to West- 
 minster by water was made A. D. 1453, by John Norman, then 
 lord mayor, for which he was highly conmiended by the 
 watermen. 
 
 AVhen tilting at the quintain and justing one against another in 
 boats upon the water were discontinued in this country, rowing 
 matches were substituted, and are become exceedingly popular: 
 we may see them frequently exhibited upon the Thames during- 
 the summer season ; and as these contests, which depend upon 
 skill as well as upon strength, are rarely productive of any thing- 
 further than mere pastime, they are in my opinion deservedly 
 encouraged. When a rowing-match takes place near London, 
 if the weather be fine, it is astonishing to see what crowds of 
 people assemble themselves upon the banks of the Thames as 
 spectators, and the river itself is nearly covered with wherries, 
 pleasure boats, and barges, decorated with flags and streamers, 
 and sometimes accompanied with bands of music. This pastime, 
 though very ancient, and frequently practised upon solemn oc- 
 casions by the Greeks and the Romans, does not seem to have 
 attracted the notice of our countrymen in former times. 
 
 it may be thought unnecessary for me to mention the well- 
 knoAvn annual legacy of Thomas Dogget, a comedian of some 
 celebrity at (he commencement of the last century, which pro- 
 vides three j)rizes to be claimed by three young watermen, on 
 condition they prove victorious in rowing from the Old Swan 
 Stairs near London Bridge, to the W^hite Swan at Chelsea. The 
 contest takes place upon the first of August; the number of 
 competitors upon this occasion is restricted to six, avIio must not 
 have been out of their times beyond twelve months. Every man 
 rows singly in his boat, and his exertions are made against the 
 tide; he who first obtains his landing- at Chelsea receives the 
 prize of honour, which is a waterman's coat, ornamented with a 
 large badge of silver, and therefore the match is usually called 
 " Rowing for the Coat and Badge." The second and the third
 
 90 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK II. 
 
 candidates have small pecuniary rewards, but the other three get 
 nothing- for their trouble. 
 
 Of late years the proprietor of Vauxhall Gardens, and Astley 
 the rider, give each of them in the course of the summer a new 
 wherry, to be rowed for by a certain number of watermen, two 
 of which are allowed to row in one boat ; and these contests are 
 extended to two or three heats or trials before the successful 
 candidates are determined. 
 
 XX.— SAILING. 
 
 Another popular amusement upon the water is sailing, and 
 many persons have pleasure boats for this purpose ; I do not 
 mean the open boats which are usually let out for hire by the 
 boat-builders for the purpose of sailing*, but vessels of much 
 greater magnitude, that are covered with a deck, and able with 
 skilful management to weather a rough storm ; many large bets 
 are frequently dependant upon the swiftness of these boats, and 
 the contest is sometimes determined at sea. 
 
 A society, generally known by the appellation of the Cum- 
 berland Society, consisting of gentlemen partial to this pastime, 
 give yearly a silver cup to be sailed for in the vicinity of London. 
 The boats usually start from the bridge at Blackfriars, go up 
 the Thames to Putney, and return to Vauxhall, Avhere a vessel is 
 moored at a distance from the stairs, and the sailing boat tha 
 first passes this mark upon her return obtains the victory.
 
 CHAP. III. OF THL; PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. i)! 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 1. Hand-ball an ancient Game. — The Ball, where said to have been iu vented. — 11, 
 Used by the Saxons — III. And by the Schoolboys of London. — IV. Ball Play 
 in France. — V. Tennis Courts erected. — VI. Tennis fashionable in England. — 
 VII. A faiious Woman 1 layer. — VIII. Hand-ball played for Tansy Cakes. — 
 IX. Fives.— X. Balloon-ball.— XI. Stool-b;tll.— XII. Hurling.— XIII. Foot-ball ; 
 —Camp-ball.— XIV. Goff ;—Cambuc ;— Bandy-ball. ~ XV. Stow-bal!. — XVI. 
 Pall-mall.— XVII. Ring-ball.— XVlll. Club-ball.- XIX. Cricket.— XX. Trap- 
 ball.— XXI. Northen-spell.— XXII. Tip-cat. 
 
 I.— HAND BALL. 
 
 The ball has given origin to many popular pastimes, and 1 
 nave appropriated this chapter to such of them as are or have 
 been usually practised in the fields and other open places. The 
 most ancient amusement of this kind, is distinguished with us 
 by the name of hand-ball, and is, if Homer may be accredited, 
 coeval at least with the destruction of Troy. Herodotus attributes 
 the invention of the ball to theLydians;> succeeding writers 
 have affirmed, that a female of distinction named Anagalia, a 
 native of Corcyra, was the first who made a ball for the purpose 
 of pastime, which she presented to Nausica, the daughter of 
 Alcinous, king- of Phoeacia, and at the same time taught her 
 how to use it;'^ this piece of history is partly derived from Homer, 
 who introduces the princess of Corcyra with her maidens, amus- 
 ing themselves at hand-ball : 
 
 O'er the green mead the sporting virgins play, 
 Their shining veils unbound, along the skies, 
 Tost and retost, the ball incessant flies.^ 
 
 Homer has restricted this pastime to the young maidens of 
 Corcyra, at least he has not mentioned its being practised by 
 the men ; in times posterior to the poet, the game of hand-ball 
 was indiscriminately played by both sexes. 
 
 XL- ANGLO-SAXON BALL PLAY. 
 
 It is altogether uncertain at what period the ball was brought 
 into England : the author of a manuscript in Trinity College, 
 Oxford, written in the fourteenth century, and containing the 
 
 ' Lib. i. =" ^lian, lib. ii. Volaterranus, lib. xxix. ' Odyssey, by Pope, b, v
 
 92 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK II. 
 
 life of Saint Cuthbert/ says of him, that when he was young, 
 " he pleyde atte balle with the children that his fellowes were." 
 On what authority this information is established I cannot tell. 
 The venerable Bede, who also wrote the life of that saint, makes 
 no mention of ball play, but tells us he excelled in jumping, 
 running, wrestling, and such exercises as required great muscular 
 exertion,^ and among them, indeed, it is highly probable that 
 of the ball might be included. 
 
 III.— LONDON BALL PLAY. 
 
 Fitzstephen, who wrote in the thirteenth century, speaking of the 
 London school-boys, says, "Annually upon Shrove Tuesday, they 
 go into the fields immediately after dinner, and play at the cele- 
 brated game of ball;^ every party of boys carrying their own 
 ball ;" for it does not appear that those belonging to one school con- 
 tended with those of another, but that the youth of each school di- 
 verted themselves apart. Some difficulty has been stated by those 
 who have translated this passage, respecting the nature of the 
 game at ball here mentioned. Stowe, considering it as a kind 
 of goff or brandy-ball, has, without the least sanction from the 
 Latin, added the Avord bastion,"* meaning a bat or cudgel ; others 
 again have taken it for foot-ball,^ which pastime, though probably 
 known at the time, does not seem to be a very proper one for 
 children : and indeed, as there is not any just authority to sup- 
 port an argument on either side, I see no reason why it should 
 not be rendered hand-ball.^ 
 
 IV.— BALL PLAY IN FRANCE. 
 The game of hand-ball is called by the French palm play,' 
 because, says St. Foix, a modern author, originally '* this ex- 
 ercise consisted in receiving* the ball and driving it back again 
 with the palm of the hand. In former times they played with 
 the naked hand, then Avith a glove, which in some instances was 
 lined ; afterwards they bound cords and tendons round their 
 hands to make the ball rebound more forcibly, and hence the 
 
 ' No. Ivii. '^ " Sive enim saku, sive cursu, sive luctatu,' &c. Vita Sancti Cud- 
 bereti, cap. i. ^ " Lusum pilse celebiem." Stephanides de luflis. 
 
 * " The scholars of each school have their ball or bastion ia their hand.i,' Survey 
 of Londou. 
 
 » Lord Lyttelton, History of Henry the Second, vol. iii. p.273 ; and [Dr. Pegge] the 
 translator of Fitzstephen, iu 1772. 
 
 ^ By the word celebrem Fitzstephen might advtrt to the antiquity of the pastime. 
 
 ' Jeu de paume, and in Latin pila palmaria. 
 
 1 
 
 1
 
 CHAP. 111. OF THR PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 93 
 
 racket derived its origin." ' During the reign of Cliarles V, 
 palm play, which may properly enough be denominated hand- 
 tennis, was exceedingly fashionable in France, being played by 
 the nobility for large sums of money ; and when they had lost 
 all that they had about them, they would sometimes pledge a part 
 of their wearing apparel rather than give up the pursuit of the 
 game. The duke of Burgundy, according to an old historian,^ 
 having lost sixty franks at palm play with the duke of Bourbon, 
 Messire William de Lyon, and Messire Guy de la Trimouille, 
 and not having money enough to pay them, gave his girdle as 
 a pledge for the remainder ; and shortly afterwards he left the 
 same girdle with the comte D'Eu for eighty franks, which he 
 also lost at tennis. 
 
 v.— TENNIS-COURTS. 
 
 At the time when tennis play was taken up seriously by the 
 nobility, new regulations were made in the game, and covered 
 courts erected, wherein it might be practised without any inter- 
 ruption from the weather. In the sixteenth century tennis-courts 
 were common in England, and the establishment of such places 
 countenanced by the example of the monarchs. In the Voca- 
 bulary of Commenius,^ we see a rude representation of a tennis- 
 court divided by a line stretched in the middle, and the players 
 standing on either side with their rackets ready to receive and 
 return the ball, which the rules of the game required to be 
 stricken over the line. Hence the propriety of Heywoode's 
 proverb, " Thou hast stricken the ball under the line ; " meaning 
 he had failed in his purpose.'* 
 
 VI.— TENNIS FASHIONABLE IN ENGLAND. 
 We have undoubted authority to prove that Henry VII. was 
 a tennis player. In a MS. register of his expenditures made in 
 the thirteenth year of his reign, and preserved in the Remem- 
 brancer's Office, this entry occurs : " Item, for the king's loss at 
 tennis, twelvepence ; for the loss of balls, threepence." Hence one 
 may infer, that the game was played abroad, for the loss of the balls 
 would hardly have happened in a tennis-court. His son Henry, 
 who succeeded him, in the early part of his reign was much 
 «jttached to this diversion ; which propensity, as Hall assures 
 
 ' E^ssais historiques sur Paris, vol. i. p. 160. 2 Laboureur. Sub an. 1368. 
 
 » Tublished by Hoole, 1658. ^ John Hey woode's works, London, 1566.
 
 W4 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK II. 
 
 IIS,' being perceived by certayne craftie persons about him, they 
 brought in Frenchmen and Lombards to make wagers with hym, 
 and so he lost muche money ; but when he percey ved theyr crafte, 
 he eschued the company and let them go." He did not however 
 give up the amusement, for we find him, according to the same 
 historian, in the thirteenth year of his reign, playing at tennis 
 with the emperor Maximilian for his partner, against the prince 
 of Orange and the marquis of Brandenborow : " the earl of 
 Devonshire stopped on the prince's side, and the lord Edmond 
 on the other side ; and they departed even handes on both sides, 
 after eleven games fully played." ^ Among the additions that 
 king Henry VHI. made to Whitehall, if Stowe be correct, were 
 "divers fair tennis-courts, bowling-allies, and a cockpit."^ 
 
 James I., if not himself a tennis player, speaks of the pastime 
 with commendation, and recommends it to his son as a species 
 of exercise becoming a prince.'* Charles H. frequently diverted 
 himself with playing at tennis, and had particular kind of dresses 
 made for that purpose. So had Henry VHI. In the wardrobe 
 rolls we meet with tenes-cotes for the king, also tennis-drawers 
 and tennis-slippers.^ 
 
 VIT.— A FAMOUS WOMAN PLAYER. 
 
 A French writer speaks of a damsel named Margot, who re- 
 sided at Paris in 1424, and played at hand-tennis with the palm, 
 and also with the back of her hand, better than any man ; and 
 what is most surprising, adds my author, at that time the game 
 was played with the naked hand, or at best with a double glove.^ 
 
 VIII.— HAND-BALL PLAY FOR TANSY CAKES. 
 Hand-ball was formerly a favourite pastime among the young 
 persons of both sexes, and in many parts of the kingdom it 
 was customary for them to play at this game during the Easter 
 holidays for tansy cakes ; but why, says Bourne, they should 
 prefer hand-ball at this time to any other pastime, or play it 
 particularly for a tansy cake, I have not been able to find out.-^ 
 The learned Selden conceives the institution of this reward to 
 have originated from the Jewish custom of eating bitter herbs 
 at the time of the passover.^ 
 
 > In the life of Henry VIII. the second year of his reign, fol. 11. = Ibid. fol. 98. 
 3 Survey of London, p. 496. ■* BasiUcon Doroii, b. iii. 
 
 « MSS. Harl. 2248 and 6271. * St. Foix Essais Historiiiues sur Paris, vol. i. p. 160. 
 ' Antiquities of the Common People, chap. xxiv. » Table I'alk, art. Christmas.
 
 CHAP III. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 95 
 
 Anciently the mayor, aldermen, and sheriff of Newcast]*-, 
 accompanied with a great number of burgesses, used to go every 
 year at the feasts of Easter and Whitsuntide to the Foith, the 
 little Mall of the town, with the mace, the sword, and the cap 
 of maintenance carried before them. The young people still 
 continue to assemble there at those seasons particularly, and 
 play at hand-ball, or dance, but are no longer countenanced by 
 the presence of their governors." 
 
 Fuller mentions the following proverbial saying used by the 
 citizens of Chester, " when the daughter is stolen shut Pepper 
 Gate," which he thus explains : " The mayor of the city had his 
 daughter, as she was playing at ball with other maidens in 
 Pepper-street, stolen away by a young man through the sam'? 
 gate, whereupon he caused it to be shut up." ^ 
 
 IX.— FIVES. 
 Hand-tennis still continues to be played, though under a dif- 
 ferent name, and probably a different modification of the game; 
 it is now called fives, which denomination perhaps it might 
 receive from having five competitors on each side, as the suc- 
 ceeding passage seems to indicate. In 1591, when queen Eliza- 
 beth was entertained at Elvetham in Hampshire, by the earl of 
 Hertford, " after dinner, about three o'clock, ten of his lordship's 
 servants, all Somersetshire men, in a square greene court before 
 her majesties windowe, did hang up lines, squaring out the forme 
 of a tennis-court, and making a cross line in the middle ; in this 
 square they (being stript out of their dublets) played five to 
 five with hand-ball at bord and cord as they tearme it, to the 
 great liking of her highness." ^ 
 
 X.— BALLOON-BALL. 
 
 The balloon or wind-ball resembled the follisof the Romans. 
 The follis was a large ball of leather, blown full of wind, and 
 beaten backwards and forwards with the fist, and seems to have 
 been much played with. 
 
 " Folle decet pueros ludere, folle senes." ■• 
 
 The balloon-ball, was a large ball made of double leather, which 
 being filled with wind by means of a ventil, says Commenius,^ 
 
 ' Mr. Brand, in his additions to Bourne. 
 
 " Fuller's Worthies, published 1662, p. 188. 
 
 » Progresses of Q. Eliz. by Mr. Nichols, vol. ii. p. 19. 
 
 * Martial, lib. iv. Epig, 45. ^ Orbis SensuaJium Pictos, rap. 1.^3.
 
 96 
 
 SPORTS AND PASTIMES 
 
 BOUK 1 1. 
 
 M'as Jrivcn to and fro by the strength of men's arms ; and for 
 this purpose every one of the players had a round hollow bracer 
 of wood to cover the hand and lower part of the arm, with which 
 he struck the ball. This pastime was usually practised in the 
 open fields, and is much commended for the healthiness of the 
 exercise it afforded. The balloon-ball seems certainly to have 
 orig'inated from the hand-ball, and was, I apprehend, first 
 played in England Avithout the assistance of the bracer ; this 
 supposition will be perfectly established if it be granted, and 
 I see no reason Avhy it should not, that the four figures repre- 
 sented below are engaged in the balloon-ball play : the original 
 delineation occurs in a manuscript of the fourteenth century in 
 the Royal Library.' 
 
 21. Balloon-Ball. — XIV. Century. 
 
 The following engraving represents a gentleman and lady 
 playing at hand-ball, and as far as one can judge from the re- 
 presentation, the pastime consisted in merely be?ting the ball 
 from one to the other. 
 
 22. Hand-Ball.— XIV. CENxunv. 
 ' 20. D, i.'.
 
 CHAP. III. OF THR PEOPLF, OF ENGLAMJ. i>7 
 
 These figures are taken from a manuscript jii the Harleian 
 Library,^ nearly, if not altogether, coeval in point of antiquity 
 with the former. The balls are unlike each other; that in the 
 engraving No. 20 is the largest, and bears the marking of the 
 seams. 
 
 XI.— STOOL-BALL. 
 
 Stool-ball is frequently mentioned by the writers of the three 
 last centuries, but without any proper definition of the game. 
 Doctor Johnson tells us,^ it is a play where balls are driven 
 i'rom stool to stool, but does not say in what manner or to what 
 purpose. I have been informed, that a pastime called stool- 
 ball is practised to this day in the northern parts of England, 
 which consists in simply setting a stool upon the ground, and 
 one of the players takes his place before it, while his antago- 
 nist, standing at a distance, tosses a ball with the intention of 
 striking the stool ; and this it is the business of the former to 
 prevent by beating it away with the hand, reckoning one to the 
 game for every stroke of the ball ; if, on the contrary, it should 
 be missed by the hand and touch the stool, the players change 
 places. I believe the same also happens if the person who threw 
 the ball can catch and retain it when driven back, before it 
 reaches the ground. The conqueror at this game is he who 
 strikes the ball most times before it touches the stool. Again, 
 in other parts of the country a certain number of stools are set 
 up in a circular form, and at a distance from each other, and 
 every one of them is occupied by a single player ; when the ball 
 is struck, which is done as before with the hand, every one of 
 them is obliged to alter his situation, running in succession from 
 stool to stool, and if he who threw the ball can regain it in time 
 to strike any one of the players, before he reaches the stool to 
 M'hich he is running, he takes his place, and the person touched 
 must throw the ball, until he can in like manner return to the 
 circle. 
 
 Stool-ball seems to have been a game more properly appro- 
 priated to the women than to the men, but occasionally it was 
 played by the young persons of both sexes indiscriminately ; 
 as the following lines from a song written by D'Urfey for his 
 
 ' No. 656C>. * In his Dictionary ; word steoi. 
 
 H
 
 98 SPORTS AND PASTIMKS BOOK II 
 
 play of Don Quixote, acted at Dorset Gardens in 1694,' sufii- 
 ciently indicate : 
 
 Down in a vale on a summer's day. 
 All tbe lads and lasses met to be merry ; 
 A match for kisses at stool-ball to play, 
 And for cakes, and ale, and sider, and perry. 
 
 Chorus. Come all, great small, short tall, away to stool-ball. 
 
 XII. HURLING. 
 
 Hurling is an ancient exercise, and seems originally to have 
 been a species of the hand-ball ; it was played by the Romans 
 with a ball called harpastum, a word probably derived from 
 harpago, to snatch or take by violence. The contending- parties 
 endeavoured to force the ball one from the other, and they who 
 could retain it long enough to cast it beyond an appointed 
 boundary were the conquerors. The inhabitants of the western 
 counties of England have long been famous for their skill in 
 the practice of this pastime. There were two methods of hurling 
 in Cornwall, at the commencement of the seventeenth century, 
 and both are particularly described by Carew, a contemporary 
 writer,^ whose words are these : " Hurling taketh his denomi- 
 nation from throwing of the ball, and is of two sorts ; in the east 
 parts of Cornwall to goales, and in the west* to the country. For 
 hurling to goales there are fifteen, twenty, or thirty players, 
 more or less, chosen out on each side, who strip themselves to 
 their slightest apparell and then join hands in ranke one against 
 another ; out of these rankes they match themselves by payres, 
 one embracing another, and so passe away, every of which 
 couple are especially to watch one another during the play; 
 after this they pitch two bushes in the ground, some eight or ten 
 feet asunder, and directly against them, ten or twelve score paces 
 off, other twain in like distance, which they terme goales, where 
 some indifferent person throweth up a ball, the which whosoever 
 can catch and carry through his adversaries goale, hath wonne 
 the game ; but herein consisteth one of Hercules his labours, foi 
 he that is once possessed of the ball, hath his contrary mate 
 waiting at inches and assaying to lay hold upon him, the other 
 thrusteth him in the breast with his closed fist to keep him off 
 
 • See also his Pills to purge Melancholy, vol. i. p. <J1 
 ' Survey of Cornwall, 1602, book i. p. 73.
 
 CHAP. III. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 99 
 
 which they call hutting." According to the laws of the game, 
 " they must hurle man to man, and not two set upon one man 
 at once. The hurler against the ball must not hut nor hand- 
 fast under the girdle, he who hath the ball must hut only in the 
 other's breast, and deale no fore ball, that is, he may not throw 
 it to any of his mates standing nearer to the goale than himself." 
 In hurling to the country, "two or three, or more parishes agree 
 to hurl against two or three other parishes. The matches are 
 usually made by gentlemen, and their goales are either those 
 gentlemen's houses, or some towns or villages three or four 
 miles asunder, of which either side maketh choice after the 
 nearnesse of their dwellings; when they meet there is ney- 
 ther comparing of numbers nor matching of men, but a silver 
 ball is cast up, and that company which can catch and carry it 
 by force or slight to the place assigned, gaineth the baU and the 
 victory. Such as see where the ball is played give notice, 
 crying ' ware east,' ' ware west,' as the same is carried. The 
 hurlers take their next way over hilles, dales, hedges, ditches; 
 yea, and thorow bushes, briars, mires, plashes, and rivers 
 whatsoever, so as you shall sometimes see twenty or thirty lie 
 tugging together in the water scrambling and scratching- for 
 the ball." 
 
 About the year 1775, the hurling to the goals was frequently 
 played by parties of Irishmen, in the fields at the back of the 
 British Museum, but they used a kind of bat to take up the 
 ball and to strike it from them ; this instrument was flat on both 
 sides, and broad and curving at the lower end. I have been 
 greatly amused to see with what facility those who were skilful 
 in the pastime would catch up the ball upon the bat, and often 
 run with it for a considerable time, tossing it occasionally from 
 the bat and recovering it again, till such time as they found a 
 proper opportunity of driving it back amongst their companions, 
 who generally followed and were ready to receive it. In other 
 respects, I do not recollect that the game differed materially 
 from the description above given. The bat for hurling was 
 known and probably used in England more than two cen- 
 turies ago, for it is mentioned in a book published in the reign 
 of queen Elizabeth,' and is there called " a clubbe" or " hurl« 
 batte." 
 
 ' " Philogamus," black letter, witbout date.
 
 100 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK II. 
 
 XIII. FOOT-BALL— CAMP-BALL. 
 
 Foot-ball is so called because the ball is driven about with 
 the feet instead of the hands. It was formerly much in vogue 
 among the common people of England, though of late years it 
 seems to have fallen into disrepute, and is but little practised. I 
 cannot pretend to detennine at what period the game of foot- 
 ball originated ; it does not however, to the best of my recol- 
 lection, appear among the popular exercises before the reign 
 of Edward III., and then, in 1349, it was prohibited by a public 
 edict ;' not, perhaps, from any particular objection to the sport 
 in itself, but because it co-operated, with other favourite amuse- 
 ments, to impede the progress of archery. 
 
 When a match at foot-ball is made, two parties, each con 
 taiuing an equal number of competitors, take the field, and 
 stand between two goals, placed at the distance of eighty or an 
 hundred yards the one from the other. The goal is usually 
 made with two sticks driven into the ground, about two or three 
 feet apart. The bal], which is commonly made of a blown 
 bladder, and cased with leather, is delivered in the midst of the 
 ground, and the object of each party is to drive it through the 
 goal of their antagonists, which being achieved the game is 
 won. The abilities of the performers are best displayed in 
 attacking and defending the goals ; and hence the pastime was 
 more frequently called a goal at foot-ball than a game at foot- 
 ball. When the exercise becomes exceeding violent, the players 
 kick each other's shins without the least ceremony, and some of 
 them are overthrown at the hazard of their limbs. 
 Barclay in his fifth eclogue^ has these lines . 
 
 The sturdie plowmen lustie, strong and bold, 
 
 Overcometh the winter with driving the foote-ball. 
 Forgetting labour and many a grievous fall. 
 
 And a more modern poet, Waller, 
 
 As when a sort of lusty shepherds try 
 Their force at foot-ball ; care of victory 
 Makes them salute so rudely breast to breast, 
 That their encounter seems too rough for jest. 
 
 The danger attending this pastime occasioned king Ji.mes ]. 
 to say, " From this court I debarre all rough and violent ex- 
 
 ' See *ec. ix. p. .»5. * Ship of Fools, 1500.
 
 CHAP. III. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 101 
 
 ercises, as the foot-ball, meeter for lameing tlian making' able 
 the users thereof." ' 
 
 The rustic boys made use of a blown bladder without the cover- 
 ing of leather by way of foot-ball, putting peas and horse beans 
 withinside, which occasioned a rattling as it was kicked about* 
 
 — And uowe in the winter, when men kill the fat swine, 
 
 They get the bladder and blow it great and thin. 
 
 With many brans and peason put within ; 
 
 It ratleth, soundeth, and shineth clere and fayre. 
 
 While it is throwen and caste up in tlie ayre, 
 
 Eche one contendeth and hath a great delite 
 
 With foote and with hande the bladder for to smite ; 
 
 If it fall to grounde, they lifte it up agayne, 
 
 And this waye to labour they count it no payne.' 
 
 " It had been the custom," says a Chester antiquary ,2 " time 
 out of mind, for the shoemakers yearly on the Shrove Tuesday, 
 to deliver to the drapers, in the presence of the mayor of Chester, 
 at the cross on the Rodehee,^ one ball of leather called a foote- 
 ball, of the value of three shillings and fourpence or above, to 
 play at from thence to the Common Hall of the said city ; which 
 practice was productive of much inconvenience, and therefore 
 this year (1540), by consent of the parties concerned, the ball 
 was changed into six glayves of silver of the like value, as 
 a reward for the best runner that day upon the aforesaid 
 Rodehee." 
 
 In an old comedy, the Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green, by 
 John Day,^ one of the characters speaks thus of himself: " I 
 am Tom Stroud of Hurling, I'll play a gole at camp-ball, or 
 wrassel a fall a the hip or the hin turn." Camp-ball, I conceive, 
 is only another denomination for foot-ball, and is so called, 
 because it was played to the greatest advantage in an open 
 country. The term may probably be a contraction of the word 
 campaign. 
 
 XIV.— GOFF— CAMBUC—BANDY-BALL. 
 
 There are many games played with the ball that require the 
 assistance of a club or bat, and probably the most ancient 
 among them is the pastime now distinguished by the name of 
 gofF. In the northern parts of the kingdom goflT is much prac- 
 tised. It requires much room to perform this game with pro- 
 
 ' Basilicon Doron, bock iii. ' Barclay ut supra. 
 
 ' I rather thiuk the elder Randel Holmes, one of the city heralds, MS. Harl. 'iloO, 
 foi. 935. ■• An open jilace mar the city. See p. 42. •' Acted A.D. 1659. 
 
 imiVEH:
 
 102 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK II. 
 
 priety, and therefore I presume it is rarely seen at present in the 
 vicinity of the metropolis. It answers to a rustic pastime of the 
 Romans which they played with a ball of leather stuffed with 
 feathers, called paganica, because it was used by the common 
 people : the goff-ball is composed of the same materials to this 
 day : I have been told it is sometimes, though rarely, stuffed 
 with cotton. In the reisfn of Edward III. the Latin name cam- 
 buca' was applied to this pastime, and it derived the denomi- 
 nation, no doubt, from the crooked club or bat with which it was 
 played ; the bat was also called a bandy, from its being bent, 
 and hence the game itself is frequently written in English 
 bandy-ball. Below are two figures engaged at bandy-ball, and 
 the form of the bandy, as it was used early in the fourteenth 
 century, from a MS. book of prayers beautifully illuminated 
 and written about that time, in the possession of Francis 
 Douce Esq. 
 
 23. Bandy-Ball. — XIV. Century. 
 
 Goff, according to the present modification of the game, is 
 performed with a bat, not much unlike the bandy : the handle 
 of this instrument is straight, and usually made of ash, about 
 four feet and a half in length ; the curvature is affixed to the 
 bottom, faced with horn and backed with lead ; the ball is a 
 little one, but exceedingly hard, being made with leather, and, 
 as before observed, stuffed with feathers. There are generally 
 two players, who have each of them his bat and ball. The game 
 consists in driving the ball into certain holes made in the 
 ground ; he who achieves it the soonest, or in the fewest number 
 of strokes, obtains the victory. The goff-lengths, or the spaces 
 between the first and last holes, are sometimes extended to the 
 distance of two or three miles ; the number of intervening holes 
 
 • Cambuta vel cambuca. Baculus incurvatus, a crooked club or staff : the word 
 cambuca vhs also used for the virga episcoparum, or episcopal croeier, because it 
 was curved at the top. Du Cange, Glo&tary, in voco cambuta.
 
 CHAP. III. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 103 
 
 appears to be optional, but the balls must be struck into the 
 holes, and not beyond them ; when four persons play, two of 
 them are sometimes partners, and have but one ball, which they 
 strike alternately, but every man has his own bandy. 
 
 It should seem that goff" was a fashionable game among the 
 nobility at the commencement of the seventeenth century, and it 
 was one of the exercises with which prince Henry, eldest son to 
 James I., occasionally amused himself, as we learn from the 
 following anecdote recorded by a person who was present:' 
 "At another time playing at goff, a play not unlike to pale-maille, 
 whilst his schoolmaster stood talking with another, and marked 
 not his highness Avarning him to stand farther off, the prince 
 thinking he had gone aside, lifted up his goff-club to strike the 
 ball ; mean tyme one standing by said to him, ' beware that 
 you hit not master Newton :' wherewith be drawing back his 
 hand, said, ' Had I done so, I had but paid my debts.' " 
 
 XV.— STOW-BALL. 
 
 A pastime called stow-ball is frequently mentioned by the 
 writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, which, I 
 presume, was a species of goff, at least it appears to have been 
 played with the same kind of ball. In Littleton's Latin and 
 English Dictionary, under the word paganica, the goff-ball and 
 the stow-ball are the same. 
 
 XVI.— PALL-MALL. 
 
 According to the author, in the reign of James 1., quoted 
 above, pall-mall was a pastime not unlike goff, but if the de- 
 finition of the former given by Cotgrave be correct, it will be 
 found to differ materially from the latter, at least as it was 
 played in modern times. *' Pale-maille," says he, " is a game 
 wherein a round box ball is struck with a mallet through a high 
 arch of iron, which he that can do at the fewest blows, or at the 
 number agreed upon, wms." It is to be observed, that there are 
 two of these arches, that is, " one at either end of the alley." 
 The game of mall was a fashionable amusement in the reign of 
 Charles II., and the walk in St. James's Park, now called the 
 Mall, received its name from having been appropriated to the 
 purpose of playing at mall, where Charles himself and his 
 courtiers frequently exercised themselves in the practice of this 
 
 ' An ;uionymous author, Had. MS. 6391.
 
 104 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BUOIC II. 
 
 pastime. The denomination mall given to the game, is evidently 
 derived from the mallet or wooden hammer used by the players 
 to strike the ball. 
 
 XVII.— RING-BALL. 
 
 Commenius' mentions a game which he attributes indeed to 
 the children, and tells us, it consisted in striking a ball with a 
 bandy through a ring fastened into the ground. A similar kind 
 of pastime, I am informed, exists to this day in the north of 
 England ; it is played in a ground or alley appropriated to the 
 purpose, and a ball is to be driven from one end of it to the other 
 with a mallet, the handle of which is about three feet three or 
 four inches in length; and so far it resembles pall-mall; but 
 there is the addition of a ring, which is not mentioned by 
 Cotgrave; I have however been told, that it was sometimes 
 used in the game of mall. This ring is placed at an equal dis- 
 tance from the sides of the alley, but much nearer to the bottom 
 than the top of the ground, and through this ring it is necessary 
 for the ball to be passed in its progress. The ring is made to 
 turn with great facility upon a swivel, and the two flat sides are 
 distinguished from each other : if the ball passes through the 
 one it is said to be lawful, and the player goes on ; but if through 
 the other, it is declared to be unlawful, and he is obliged to beat 
 the ball back, and drive it through again until such time as he 
 causes it to pass on the lawful side ; this done, he proceeds to 
 the bottom of the ground, where there is an arch of iron through 
 which it is also necessary for the ball to be passed, and then the 
 game is completed. The contest is decided by the blows given 
 to the ball in the performance, and he who executes his task 
 with the smallest number is the victor. 
 
 XVIIL— CLUB-BALL. 
 
 Club-ball is a pastime clearly distinguished from cambuc 
 or goflT, in the edict above mentioned established by Edward HI. 
 The difference seems to have consisted in the one being played 
 with a curved bat and the other with a straight one. The 
 following engravings represent two specimens of club-ball ; the 
 first, from a MS. in the Bodleian Library, dated 1344,2 exhibits 
 a female figure in the action of throwing the ball to a man who 
 elevates his bat to strike it. 
 
 ' Orbis Sensualium Pictus, cap. cxzxvi. 'J No. 264.
 
 <;!iAi». III. 
 
 OF THR PROPLE OF ENGLAND, 
 
 305 
 
 21. Club-B.all. — XIV. Century. 
 
 Behind the woman at a little distance appear in the original 
 delineation several other figures of both sexes, Avaiting atten- 
 tively to catch or stop the ball when returned by the batsman : 
 these figures have been damaged, and are very indistinct in 
 many parts, for which reason I did not think it proper to insert 
 them. The next specimen of ball, taken from a drawing- more 
 ancient than the former, a genealogical roll of the kings of 
 England to the time of Henry III. in the Royal Library,' presents 
 two players only, and he who is possessed of the bat holds the 
 ball also, which he either threw into the air and struck with his 
 bat as it descended, or cast forcibly upon the ground, and beat 
 it away when it rebounded ; the attention of his antagonist to 
 catch the ball need not be remarked. It does not appear in 
 oither of these instances how the sfarne was determined. 
 
 85. Cll'r-Ball. — XIII. Cenivry. 
 » 1^ B. V.
 
 lOG SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK 1!. 
 
 XIX.— CRICKET. 
 
 From the club-ball originated, I doubt not, that pleasant ant? 
 manly exercise, disting-uished in modern times by the name o 
 cricket; I say in modern times, because I cannot trace the 
 appellation beyond the commencement of the last century, where 
 it occurs in one of the songs published by D'Urfey. * The first 
 four lines, " Of a noble race was Shenkin," run thus : 
 
 Her was the prettiest fellow 
 At foot-ball or at cricket, 
 At hunting chase, or mmble race. 
 How featly her could prick it. 
 
 Cricket of late years is become exceedingly fashionable, being 
 much countenanced by the nobility and gentlemen of fortune, 
 who frequently join in the diversion. This game, which is 
 played with the bat and the ball, consists of single and double 
 wicket. The wicket was formerly two straight thin battons 
 called stumps, twenty-two inches high, which were fixed into 
 the ground perpendicularly six inches apart, and over the top 
 of both was laid a small round piece of wood called the bail, 
 but so situated as to fall oflT readily if the stumps were touched 
 by the ball. Of late years the wicket consists of three stumps 
 and two bails ; the middle stump is added to prevent the ball 
 from passing through the wicket without beating it down. The 
 external stumps are now seven inches apart, and all of them 
 three feet two inches high. Single wicket requires five players 
 on each side, and double wicket eleven ; but the number in both 
 instances may be varied at the pleasure of the two parties. At 
 single wicket the striker with his bat is the protector of the 
 wicket, the opponent party stand in the field to catch or stop the 
 ball, and the bowler, who is one of them, takes his place by the 
 side of a small batton or stump set up for that purpose two-and- 
 twenty yards from the wicket, and thence delivers the ball with 
 the intention of beating it down. It is now usual to set up two 
 stumps with a bail across, which the batsman, when he runs, 
 must beat oflf before he returns home. If the bowler proves 
 successful the batsman retires from the play, and another of his 
 party succeeds; if, on the contrary, the ball is struck by the bat 
 and driven into the field beyond the reach of those who stand 
 out to stop it, the striker runs to the stump at the bowler's 
 
 • Pillfl to purge Melancholy, fourth edition, 1?19, vol. ii. p. 172.
 
 CHAP. IH. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 107 
 
 station, which he touches with his bat and then returns to his 
 M'icket. If this be performed before the ball is thrown back, it 
 is called a run, and one notch or score is made upon the tally 
 towards his game ; if, on the contrary, the ball be thrown up 
 and the wicket beaten down with it by the opponent party 
 before the striker is at home, or can ground his bat within three 
 feet ten inches of the wicket, at which distance a mark made in 
 the ground is called the popping-crease, he is declared to be 
 out of the play, and the run is not reckoned : he is also out if he 
 strikes the ball into the air, and it be caught by any of his an- 
 tagonists before it reaches the ground, and retained long enough 
 to be thrown up again. When double wicket is played, two 
 batsmen go in at the same time, one at each wicket ; there are 
 also two bowlers, who usually bowl four balls in succession 
 alternately. The batsmen are said to be in as long as they 
 remain at their wickets, and their party is called the in-party ; 
 on the contrary, those who stand in the field with the bowlers 
 are called the out-party. Both parties have two innings, and 
 the side that obtains the most runs in the double contest claims 
 the victory. These are the general outlines of this noble 
 pastime, but there are many other particular rules and regu- 
 lations by which it is governed ; and those rules are subject 
 to frequent variations, according to the joint determination of 
 the players. 
 
 XX.— TRAP-BALL. 
 
 Trap-ball, so called from the trap used to elevate the ball 
 when it is to be stricken by the batsman, is anterior to cricket, 
 and probably coeval with most of the early games played with 
 the bat and ball : we trace it as far back as the commencement 
 of the fourteenth century, and a curious specimen of the manner 
 in which it was then played is here presented from a beautiful 
 MS. in the possession of Francis Douce, Esq.' 
 
 26. Trap-Ball. — XIV. Century. 
 ' See p. loa.
 
 108 • SPORTS AND PASTIMES IJOOK II. 
 
 Here are only two players, but the game is not restricted to 
 any particular number, though I think it seldom exceeds six or 
 eight on a side. The size of the bat indicates the holder to have 
 possessed no great judgment in striking the ball, but the trap is 
 sufficiently elevated to preclude the necessity of the batsman's 
 stooping when he raises the ball in order to strike it away, 
 which gives it a decided advantage over the machine now used 
 for the same purpose. This is generally made in the form of a 
 shoe, the heel part being hollowed out for the reception of the 
 ball ; but boys and the common herd of rustics, who cannot 
 readily procure a trap, content themselves with making a round 
 hole in the ground, and, by way of a lever, use the brisket bone 
 of an ox, or a flat piece of wood of like size and shape, which is 
 placed in a slanting position, one half in the hole with the ball 
 upon it, and the other half out of it: the elevated end being- 
 struck smartly with the bludgeon occasions the ball to rise to a 
 considerable height, and all the purposes of a trap are thus 
 answered, especially if the ground be hard and dry. It is usual, 
 in the present game of trap-ball, when properly played, to place 
 two boundaries at a given distance from the trap, between which 
 it is necessary for the ball to pass when it is struck by the bats- 
 man, for if it falls withoutside of either, he gives up his bat and 
 is out ; he is also out if he strikes the ball into the air and it is 
 caught by one of his adversaries before it grounds ; and again, 
 if the ball when returned by the opponent party touches the trap, 
 or rests within one bat's length of it : on the contrary, if none of 
 these things happen, every stroke tells for one towards the 
 striker's game. 
 
 Trap-ball, when compared with cricket, is but a childish 
 pastime ; but I have seen it played by the rustics in Essex in a 
 manner differing materially from that now practised in the 
 vicinity of the metropolis, and Avhich requires much more dex- 
 terity in the performance ; for, instead of a broad bat with a 
 flatted face, they use a round cudgel about an inch and a half 
 diameter and three feet in length, and those who have acquired 
 the habit of striking the ball with this instrument rarely miss 
 their blow, but frequently strike it to an astonishing distance. 
 The ball being stopped by one of the opponent party, the strikei 
 forms his judgment of the ability of the person who is to throw 
 it back, and calls in consequence for any number of scores 
 towards his game that he thinks proper ; it is then returned,
 
 CHAP. III. OF THE PEOPLK OF KNGLANl). jOO 
 
 and if it appears to his antasfonist to rest at a sufficient dit-lance 
 to justify the stoker's call, he obtains his number; but when a 
 contrary opuiioii is held, a measurement takes place, and if the 
 scores demanded exceed in number the lengths of the cudgel 
 from the trap to the ball, he loses the whole, and is out; while, 
 on the other hand, if the lengths of the bat are more than the 
 scores called for, the matter terminates in the striker's favour, 
 and they are set up to his account. 
 
 XXL— NORTHEN SPELL. 
 
 Northen-spell is played with a trap, and the ball is stricken 
 with a bat or bludgeon at the pleasure of the players, but the 
 latter, I believe, is most commonly used. The performance 
 of this pastime does not require the attendance of either of the 
 parties in the field to catch or stop the ball, for the contest be- 
 tween them is simply who shall strike it to the greatest distance 
 in a given number of strokes ; the length of each stroke is mea- 
 sured before the ball is returned, by the means of a cord made 
 fast at one end near the trap, the other being stretched into the 
 field by a person stationed there for that purpose, who adjusts it 
 to the ball wherever it may lie; the cord is divided into yards, 
 which are properly numbered upon it in succession, so that the 
 person at the bottom of the ground can easily ascertain the dis- 
 tance of each stroke by the number of the yards which he calls 
 to the players, who place it to their account, and the ball is 
 thrown back. This pastime possesses but little variety, and 
 is by no means so amusing to the bystanders as cricket or 
 trap-ball. 
 
 XXIL— TIP-CAT. 
 
 Tip-cat, or perhaps more properly the game of cat, is a rustic 
 pastime well known in many parts of the kingdom, and is 
 always played with a cudgel or bludgeon resembling that used 
 for trap-ball. Its denomination is derived from a piece of wood 
 called a cat, of about six inches in length, and an inch and a half 
 or two inches in diameter, diminished from the middle, to both 
 the ends, in the shape of a double cone ; by this curious con- 
 trivance the places of the trap and of the ball are at once 
 supplied ; for when the cat is laid upon the ground, the player 
 with his cudgel strikes it smartly, it matters not at which end, 
 and it will rise with a rotatory motion, high enough for him
 
 110 SPORTS AND PASTIMES, &C. HOOK 11. 
 
 to beat it away as it falls, in the same manner as he would 
 a ball. 
 
 There are various methods of playing the game of cat, but I 
 snail only notice the two that follow. The first is exceedingly 
 simple, and consists in making a large ring upon the ground, in 
 the middle of which the striker takes his station ; his business 
 IS to beat the cat over the ring. If he fails in so doing* he is 
 out, and another player takes his place ; if he is successful he 
 judges with his eye the distance the cat is driven from the centre 
 of the ring, and calls for a number at pleasure to be scored 
 towards his game: if the number demanded be found upon 
 measurement to exceed the same number of lengths of the 
 bludgeon, he is out ; on the contrary, if it does not, he obtains 
 his call. The second method is to make four, six, or eight holes 
 in the ground, in a circular direction, and as nearly as possible 
 at equal distances from each other, and at every hole is placed 
 a player with his bludgeon: one of the o})posite party who 
 stand in the field, tosses the cat to the batsman who is nearest 
 him, and every time the cat is struck the players are obliged to 
 change their situations, and run once from one hole to another 
 in succession; if the cat be driven to any great distance they 
 continue to run in the same order, and claim a score towards 
 their game every time they quit one hole and run to another; 
 but if the cat be stopped by their opponents and thrown across 
 between any two of the holes before the player who has quitted 
 one of them can reach the other, he is out 
 
 <
 
 in 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 PASTIMES USUALLY EXERCISED IN TOWNS AND CITIES, 
 OR PLACES ADJOINING TO THEM 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 I. Tournament a general Name for several Exercises. — II. The Quintain an ancient 
 Military Exercise. — III. Various Kinds of the Quintain. — IV. Derivation of the 
 Term. — V. The Water Quintain. — VI. Running at the Quintain practised by the 
 Citizens of London ; and why. — VII. The Manner in which it was performed. — 
 VIII. Exhibited for the Pastime of Queen Elizabeth. — IX. Tilting at a Water 
 Butt. — X. The Human Quintain. — XI. Exercises probably derived from it. — 
 XII. Running at the Ring. — XIII. Difference between the Tournaments and 
 the Justs. — XIV. Origin of the Tournament.— XV. The Troy Game ;— the 
 Bohordicum or Cane Game. — XVI. Derivation of Tournament ; — How the 
 Exercise was performed. — XVII. Lists and Barriers. — XVIIT. When the Tour- 
 nament was first practised. — XIX. When first in England. — XX. Its Laws and 
 Ordinances. — XXI. Pages, and Perquisites of the Kings at Arms, «&c. — XXII. 
 Preliminaries of the Tournament. — XXIII. Lists for Ordeal Combats. — XXIV. 
 Respect paid to the Ladies. — XXV. Justs less honourable than Tournaments. — 
 XXVI. The Round Table.— XXVII. Nature of the Justs.— XXVIII. Made in 
 Honour of the Fair Sex. — XXIX. Great Splendour of these Pastimes ; — The 
 
 Nobility partial to them. — XXX. Toys for initiating their Children in them 
 
 XXXI. Boat Justs, or Tilting on the Water.— XXXII. Challenges to all comers. 
 
 I.— TOURNAMENT. 
 
 Every kind of military combat made in conformity to certam 
 rules, and practised by the knights and their esquires for di- 
 version or gallantry, was anciently called a tournament; yet 
 these amusements frequently differed materially from each other, 
 and have been distinguished accordingly by various denomi- 
 nations in the modern times. They may however, I think, be 
 all of them included under the four following heads ; tilting- 
 and combating at the quintain, tilting at the ring-, tournaments, 
 and justs. 
 
 All these, and especially the two last, vi^ere favourite pastimes 
 with the nobility of the middle ages. The progress and decline 
 of tournaments in this country has already been mentioned in 
 a general way ;i I shall in this place be a little more particular 
 Avith respect to the nature and distinction of these celebrated 
 diversions. 
 
 In the Introdui tion.
 
 112 SPORTS AND PASTIMRS CHAP, III. 
 
 II.— THE <iUINTAIN. 
 
 Tilting" or combating- at the quintain is certainly a military' 
 exercise of high antiquity, and antecedent, I doubt not, to the 
 justs and tournaments. The quintain, originally, was nothing 
 more than the trunk of a tree or post set up for the practice of 
 the tyros in chivalry.' Afterward a staff or spear was fixed in 
 the earth, and a shield being- hung upon it, was the mark to 
 strike at: 2 the dexterity of the performer consisted in smitmg 
 the shield in such a manner as to break the ligatures and bear it 
 to the ground. In process of time this diversion was improved, 
 and instead of the staff and the shield, the resemblance of a 
 human figure carved in wood was introduced. To render the 
 appearance of this figure more formidable, it was generally made 
 in the likeness of a Turk or a Saracen armed at all points,^ 
 bearing" a shield upon his left arm, and brandishing a club or a 
 sabre with his right. Hence this exercise was called by the 
 Italians, " running at the armed man, or at the Saracen." The 
 quintain thus fashioned was placed upon a pivot, and so con- 
 trived as to move round with facility. In running at this figure 
 it was necessary for the horseman to direct his lance with great 
 adroitness, and make his stroke upon the forehead between the 
 eyes or upon the nose ; for if he struck wide of those parts, 
 especially upon the shield, the quintain turned about with much 
 velocity, and, in case he was not exceedingly careful, would give 
 him a severe blow upon the back with the wooden sabre held in 
 the right hand, which was considered as highly disgraceful to 
 the performer, while it excited the laughter and ridicule of the 
 spectators."* When many were engaged in running at the 
 Saracen, the conqueror was declared from the number of strokes 
 he had made, and the value of them; for instance, if he struck 
 the image upon the top of the nose between the eyes, it was 
 reckoned for three; if below the eyes, upon the nose, for two; 
 if under the nose to the point of the chin, for one ; all other 
 strokes were not counted ; but whoever struck upon the shield 
 and turned the quintain round, was not permitted to run again 
 upon the same day, but forfeited his courses as a punishment foi 
 his unskii fulness.* 
 
 ' Vegetius de re militari, lib. i. cap. xi. et xiv. 
 
 ' " Terra; infixis sudibus scuta apponuntur — Quintanae ludus scilicet equestris exer- 
 ceretur — in equis lusitari solitum appensis sudes in terram irapactas scutis." Robertas 
 Monach. Hist Hierosol. lib. v. 
 
 » Menestrier, Traite des Tournois, Joustes, &c. p. 264. 
 
 * Menestrier ut supra ; Du Cange Gloss, in voce quintana ; Pluvinel sur I'exercise de 
 nionter a clieval, part iii. p. 177. ' Menestrier, p. 112, et Pluvinel ut supra.
 
 CHAP .1. 
 
 OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 
 
 ihi 
 
 111.— VARIOUS QUINTAINS. 
 The quintain in its original state was not confined to tlie 
 exercise of young warriors on horseback : it was an object of 
 practice for them on foot, in order to acquire strength and skill 
 in assaulting an enemy with their swords, spears, and battle- 
 axes. I met with a manuscript in the Royal Library,^ written 
 early in the fourteenth century, entitled " Les Etablissmentz 
 des Chevalerie," wherein the author, who appears to have been 
 a man scientifically skilled in the military tactics of his time, 
 strongly recommends a constant and attentive attack of the pel 
 (from the Latin palus), for so lie c^Us the post-quintain. The 
 pel, he tells us, ought to be six feet in height above the ground, 
 and so firmly fixed therein as not to be moved by the strokes 
 that were laid upon it. The practitioner was then to assail the 
 pel, armed with sword and sliield in the same manner as ne 
 would an adversary, aiming his blows as if at the head, the face, 
 the arms, the legs, the thighs, and the sides; taking care at all 
 times to keep himself so completely covered with his shield, as 
 not to give any advantage supposing he had a real enemy to 
 cope with : so far my author ; and prefixed to the treatise is a 
 neat little painting representing the pel, with a young sotdiiez 
 performing his exercise, which is here copied. 
 
 27. TiiE Pel Quintain — XIV. CENTuar. 
 
 ' 20. B. xi 
 1
 
 114 SPORTS AND PASTIMFS BOOK HI, 
 
 Below is the quintain in the form of a Saracen, from Pluviuel 
 
 28. The Saeacen Quintain. 
 
 An English poet who has taken up the subject of chivalry 
 under the title of " Knighthood and Battle,"' describes the 
 attack of the pel in the following curious manner : 
 
 Of figbt, the disciplyne, and exercise 
 
 Was this. To have a pale or pile upright ^ 
 
 Of mannys hight,* thus writeth olde and wise ; 
 
 Therewith a bacheler, or a yong knyght, 
 
 Shal first be taught to stonde and lerne to fight. — 
 
 And fanne of doubil wight, tak him his shelde 
 
 Of doubil wight, a mace of tre* to welde. 
 
 This fanne and mace whiche either doubil wight. 
 Of shelde, and swayed in confiicte, or bataile, 
 Shal exercise as well swordmen, as knyghtes. 
 And noe man, as they sayn, is seyn prevaile. 
 In field, or in castell, thoughe he assayle. 
 That with the pile, nathe^ firste grete exercise. 
 Thus writeth Werrouris olde and wyse. 
 
 Have eche his pile or pale upfixed fast, 
 
 And as it were uppon his mortal foe ; 
 
 With mightyness and weapon most be cast 
 
 To fight stronge, that he ne skape hym fro. 
 
 On hym with shield, and sword avised so. 
 
 That thou he cloos,* and preste^ thy foe to smyte, 
 
 Lest of thyne own dethe thou be to wite. 
 
 1 Ktiyghthode and Batayle, MS. Cott. Titus A. xxiii. fol. 6 and 7. This curious 
 poem, written early in the fifteenth century, appears to be a translation of the former 
 treatise, or rather a paraphrase upoa 't. 
 
 * Set up. 3 Of man's height. ■• A mace or club of wood. 
 
 '' Hath not « Close. '' Piompt, swift, ready.
 
 CII.4P I. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 115 
 
 Empeche' his head, his face, have at his gorge,* 
 Beare at the breste, or sperne him one the side. 
 With myghte knyghtly poost,^ ene as Seynt George 
 Lepe o thy foe ; looke if he dare abide : 
 Will he not flee 1 wounde him ; make woundis wide , 
 Hew of his honde, his legge, his theyhs, his armys. 
 It is the Turk, though he be sleyn noon harm is. 
 
 Both the treatises commend the use of arms of double weight 
 upon these occasions, in order to acquire strength, and give the 
 warrior greater facility in wielding the weapops of the ordinary 
 size ; to which the poet adds, 
 
 And sixty pounds of weight 'tis good to bear. 
 
 The lines just now quoted evidently allude to the quintain in the 
 form of a Turk or Saracen, which, I presume, was sometimes 
 used upon this occasion. The pel was also set up as a mark to 
 cast at with spears, as the same poet informs us: 
 
 A dart of more wight then is mester,* 
 
 Take hym in honde and teche him it to stere ; 
 
 And cast it at the pile as at his foo. 
 
 So that it conte and right uppon him go. 
 
 And likewise for the practice of archery: 
 
 Set Lert and eye uppon the pile or pale. 
 Shoot nyghe or onne ; and if so be thou ride 
 On horse, is eck^ the bowis bigge up hale, 
 Smyte in the face, or breste, or back or side, 
 Compelle to fle, or falle, yf that he bide. 
 
 IV.— DERIVATION OF QUINTAIN. 
 
 This exercise is said to have received the name of quintain 
 from Quinctus or Quintas the inventor,^ but who he was, or when 
 he lived, is not ascertained. The game itself, I doubt not, is of 
 remote origin, and especially the exercise of the pel, or post 
 quintain, which is spoken of at large by Vegetius ; and from him 
 the substance of what the two authors above quoted have said 
 upon the subject is evidently taken. He tells us that this species 
 of mock combat was in common use among the Romans, who 
 caused the young military men to practise at it twice in the day, 
 at morning and at noon ; he also adds that, they used clubs and 
 
 ' From the French, empecher, to hinder or withstand, here used for attack. 
 ' Throat. ^ Power, strength. 
 
 ♦ Than is required, that is in time of real action. » It is the same. 
 
 * A quincto auctore nomen habebat, vide Joan Meursi, de Ludis Grsecorum. in rit 
 Kovra? KvvTavog. 
 
 I 2
 
 no 
 
 SPORTS AND PASTIMES 
 
 BOOR III. 
 
 javelins, heavier than common, and fought at the pel as if they 
 were opposing- an adversary, &c.^ 
 
 In the code of laws established by the emperor Justinian, the 
 quintain is mentioned as a well known sport ; and permitted to 
 be continued, upon condition that it should be performed with 
 pointless spears, contrary to the ancient usage, which it seems 
 required them to have heads or points.^ 
 
 v.— THE WATER QUINTAIN. 
 To the best of my recollect'on, Fitzstephen is the first of our 
 writers M'ho speaks of an exercise of this kind, which he tells us 
 was usually practised by the young Londoners upon the water 
 during the Easter holidays. A pole or mast, he says, is fixed in 
 the midst of the Thames, Avith a shield strongly attached to it; 
 and a boat being previously placed at some distance, is driven 
 swiftly toM'ards it by the force of oars and the violence of the 
 tide, having a young* man standing in the prow, who holds a 
 lance in his hand with which he is to strike the shield : and if 
 he be dexterous enough to break the lance against it and retain 
 his place, his most sanguine wishes are satisfied : on the contrary, 
 if the lance be not broken, he is sure to be thrown into the water, 
 and the vessel goes away without him, but at the same time two 
 other boats are stationed near to the shield, and furnished with 
 many young persons who are in readiness to rescue the champion 
 from danger. It appears to have been a very popular pastime ; 
 for the bridge, the wharfs, and the houses near the river, were 
 crowded with people on this occasion, who come, says the author, 
 to see the sports and make themselves merry .^ The water 
 quintain, taken from a manuscript of the fourteenth century, in 
 the Royal Library ,•* where a square piece of board is substituted 
 for the shield, is represented below. 
 
 29. The Water Quintain — XIV. Century. 
 Vegetius de re mihiari, lib. i. cap. xi. et xiv. 
 
 Kvvravov xovra^ .V'P'C ^'/ff TrvpTric, quintanura contacem sine fibula. Cod. de 
 toribus, lib. iii. tit. 43. Stenhanides Descrip. Lond. ^ 2 B. vii.
 
 CHAP. I. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 117 
 
 VI.— RUNNING AT THE QUINTAIN PRACTISED BY THE LONDONERS; 
 
 AND WHY. 
 
 Matthew Paris mentions the quintain by name, but he speaks 
 of it in a cursory manner as a well known pastime, and probably 
 would have said nothing about it, had not the following circum- 
 stance given him the occasion. In the thirty-eighth year of the 
 reign of Henry III. A.D. 1254, the young Londoners, who, he 
 tells us, were expert horsemen, assembled together to run at the 
 quintain, and set up a peacock as a reward for the best performer. 
 The king then keeping his court at Westminster, some of his 
 domestics came into the city to see the pastime, where they 
 behaved in a very disorderly manner, and treated the Londoners 
 with much insolence, calling them cowardly knaves and rascally 
 clowns, which the Londoners resented by beating them soundly ; 
 the king, however, was incensed at the indignity put upon 
 his servants, and not taking into consideration the provocation 
 on their parts, fined the city one thousand marks,' Some 
 have thought, these fellows Avere sent thither purposely to 
 promote a quarrel, it being known that the king was angry with 
 the citizens of London for refusing to join in the crusade.^ 
 
 We may here observe, that the rules of chivalry, at this time, 
 would not admit of any person, under the rank of an esquire, to 
 enter the lists as a combatant at the justs and tournaments; for 
 which reason the burgesses and yeomen had recourse to the 
 exercise of the quintain, which was not prohibited to any class 
 ■»f the people : but, as the performers were generally young- men 
 whose finances would not at all times admit of much expense, 
 the quintain was frequently nothing better than a stake fixed 
 into the ground, with a flat piece of board made fast to the 
 upper part of it, as a substitute for the shield that had been used 
 in times remote; and such as could not procure horses, con- 
 tented themselves with running at this mark on foot. The fol- 
 lowing' representation of a lad mounted on a wooden horse 
 with four wheels, and drann by two of his comrades tilting 
 at the immoveable quintain, is taken from a MS. in the Bodleian 
 Library at Oxford, dated 1344.^ 
 
 ' Matthew Paris. Hist. Angl. sub an l'it>3. 
 '■^ Strype's Stow, &c. =" BoJ. ^64.
 
 118 
 
 SPORTS AND PASTIMES 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 30. Fixed Quintain — XIV. Century. 
 
 Others, again, made use of a moveable quintain, which was also 
 very simply constructed ; consisting only of a cross-bar turning 
 upon a pivot, with a broad part to strike against on one side, and 
 a bag of earth or sand depending from the other : there was a 
 double advantage in these kind of quintains, they were cheap 
 and easily to be procured. Their form, at an early period in 
 the fourteenth century, is represented in the engraving above, 
 and by the following from the same manuscript. Both these 
 quintains are marked, I know not why, with the figure of a 
 horseshoe. 
 
 31. MovEAiiLE Quintain — XIV. Century. 
 
 VII.— MANNER OF EXERCISING WITH THE QUINTAIN. 
 
 But to return: Stow, in his Survey of London, having related 
 the above-mentioned disturbance from Matthew Paris, goes on 
 as follows : " This exercise of running at the quintain, was prac- 
 tised in London, as well in the summer as in the wmter, but 
 especially at the feast of Christmas. I have seen," continues 
 my author, " a quintain set upon Cornhill by Leadenhall, where
 
 CHAP. I. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 119 
 
 the attendants of the lords of merry disports have rim and made 
 great pastime; for he that hit not the board end of the quintain 
 was laughed to scorn, and he that hit it full, if he rode not the 
 faster, had a sound blow upon his neck with a bag full of sand 
 hanged on the other end." ' But the form of the modern quintain 
 is more fully described by Dr. Plott, in his History of Oxford- 
 shire :^ " They first set a post perpendicularly into the ground, 
 and then place a slender piece of timber on the top of it on a 
 spindle, with a board nailed to it on one end, and a bag of sand 
 hanging at the other; against this board they anciently rode 
 with spears. Now T saw it at Deddington in this county, only 
 with strong staves, which violently bringing about the bag of 
 sand, if they make not good speed away, it strikes them in the 
 neck or shoulders, and sometimes knocks them off their horses ; 
 the great design of this sport being to try the agility both of 
 horse and man, and to break the board. It is now," he adds, 
 " only in request at marriages, and set up in the way for young 
 men to ride at as they carry home the bride ; he that breaks the 
 board being counted the best man." 
 
 VIII.— THE QUINTAIN, A PASTIME BEFORE QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 Among other sports exhibited for the amusement of queen 
 Elizabeth, during her residence at Kenilworth Castle, in War- 
 wickshire, then the seat of the earl of Leicester, who entertained 
 her majesty there for several days, A.D. 1575, there was, says 
 Laneham, " a solemn country bridal ; when in the castle was set 
 up a comely quintane for feats at armes, where, in a great com- 
 pany of young- men and lasses, the bridegroom had the first 
 course at the quintane, and broke his spear * tres hardiment ' 
 (very boldly, or with much courage). But his mare in his 
 manage did a little stumble, that much adoe had his manhood 
 to sit in his saddle. But after the bridegroom had made his 
 course, ran the rest of the band, awhile in some order, but soon 
 after tag and rag, cut and long tail ; where the speciality of the 
 sport was to see how some for his slackness had a good bob with 
 the l)ag, and some for his haste to topple downright, and come 
 tumbling to the post: some striving so much at the first setting 
 out, that it seemed a question between man and beast, whether 
 tne race should be performed on horseback or on foot; and 
 some put forth with spurs, would run his race byas, among the 
 
 Survey ql' London^ p. ' First published in 1677.
 
 120 
 
 SPORTS AND PASTIMES 
 
 BOOK iir. 
 
 thickest of the tlirong, that down they came tog-ether hand over 
 head. Another while he directed his course to the quiutane, his 
 judgment would carry him to a mare among the people ; another 
 would run and miss the quintane with his staff, and hit the 
 board with his head."' This whimsical description may pos- 
 sibly be somewhat exaggerated, but no doubt the inexpertness 
 of the riders subjected them to many laughable accidents. 
 
 IX.— TILTING AT A WATER BUTT. 
 
 Below is a representation from a MS. in the Bodleian Library, 
 dated 1343, of three boys tilting jointly, at a tub full of water, 
 which is to be struck in such a manner as not to throw it over 
 them. I presume they are learners only, and that therefore they 
 are depicted Avithout their clothes ; they undressed themselves, 
 I apprehend, in order to save their garments from being wetted 
 in case the attempt should prove unsuccessful. 
 
 32. Water-Tub Quintain — XIV. CENTunv. 
 
 This farcical pastime, according to Menestrier, was practised 
 occasionally in Italy, where, he says, a large bucket filled with 
 water is set up, against which they tilt their lances ; and if the 
 stroke be not made with great dexterity, the bucket is overset 
 and the lanceman thoroughly drenched with the contents.^ 
 
 X.— THE HUMAN QUINTAIN. 
 
 1 shall here say a few words concerning the human quintain, 
 which has escaped the notice of most of the writers upon thi? 
 subject ; it is, hoAvever, very certain that the military men in the 
 middle ages would sometimes practise with their lances at a man 
 completely armed; whose business it was to act upon the 
 
 Laneham in Queen Elizabeth's Progresses, by Mr. Nicl^ols, vol. i. p. 249. 
 * Traits de Tournois, 1669, p. 347.
 
 CHAP. I. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND, 121 
 
 defensive, and parry their blows with his shield. A represen- 
 tation of this exercise is in the engraving below, taken from 
 a Bodleian manuscript, dated 1344. 
 
 33. Living Quintain — XIV. Century. 
 
 This representation is justified by the concurrent testimony of 
 an ancient author, cited by Ducange, who introduces one knight 
 saying to another, " I do not by any means esteem you suffi- 
 ciently valiant (si bons chevalier) for me to take a lance and 
 just with you ; therefore I desire you to retire some distance 
 from me, and then run at me with all your force, and I will be 
 your quintain."^ The satirist Hall, who wrote in the time of 
 Elizabeth, evidently alludes to a custom of this kind, in a satire^ 
 first printed in 1599, when he was twenty-five years of age. 
 He says: 
 
 Pawne thou no glove for challenge of the deed, 
 Nor make thy quintaine other's armed head. 
 
 XL— EXERCISES PROBABLY DERIVED FROM THE QUINTAIN. 
 
 The living quintain, according to the representation just 
 given, is seated upon a stool with three legs without any sinport 
 behind ; and the business, I presume, of the tilter, was to over- 
 throw him; while, on his part, he was to turn the stroke of the 
 pole or lance on one side with his shield, and by doing so with 
 adroitness occasion the fall of his adversary. 
 
 Something of a similar kind of exercise, though practised in a 
 different way, appears in the following engraving, where a 
 man seated, holds up one of his feet, opposed to the foot of 
 another man, who standing upon one leg endeavours to thrust 
 him backwards. 
 
 ' Ije Roman de Giron le courtois. Du Cange, Gloss, in vote quintana. 
 2 Lib. iv. Sat. 3.
 
 1?2 
 
 SPORTS AND PASTIMES 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 And again where his opponent is seated in a swing and drawn 
 back by a third person, so that the rope being left at liberty in 
 the swing, the man of course descended with great force, and 
 striking the foot of his antagonist with much violence, no doubt 
 very frequently overthrew him. 
 
 35. 
 
 The two last sports were probably never exhibited by military 
 men, but by rustics and others in imitation of the human quintain. 
 The contest between the two figures below, seems to depend 
 upon the breaking of the stick which both of them hold, or is a 
 struggle to overthrow each other 
 
 36
 
 CHAP, I. 
 
 OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 
 
 123 
 
 The following engraving from a manuscript book of prayers of 
 the fourteenth century, in the possession of Mr. Douce, represents 
 two men with a pole or headless spear, who grasp it at either 
 ena, and are contending which shall dispossess the other of 
 his hold. 
 
 This feat the single figure, represented below from the Oxford 
 MS. of 1344, seems to have achieved, and is bearing away the 
 pole in triumph.' 
 
 38. 
 
 XII.— RUNNING AT THE RING. 
 
 TiltiDg or, as it is most commonly called, running at the nng, 
 was aiso a fashionable pastime in former days ; the ring is evi- 
 dently derived from the quintain, and indeed the sport itself is 
 frequently called running or tilting at the quintain. With the 
 Italians, says Du Cange, quintano sometimes signifies a ring, 
 hence the Florentines say, " correr alia quintana," which with us 
 is called running at the ring: the learned author produces 
 several quotations to the same purpose.^ Commenius also, in 
 his vocabulary ,2 says, " At this day tilting at the quintain is 
 
 ' Referred to in p. 118. ' Gloss, iu voce quintana. 
 
 ' Orbis SeMualium Picti a, by Hoole, 1658.
 
 124 
 
 SPORTS AND PASTIMES 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 used where a hoop or ring is struck with a lance." Hence it is 
 clear, that the ring was put in the place of the quintain. The 
 excellency of the pastime was to ride at full speed, and thrust 
 the point of the lance through the ring, which was supported in 
 a case or sheath, by the means of two springs, but might be 
 readily drawn out by the force of the stroke, and remain upon 
 the (op of the lance. 
 
 ^ Jl'L'"""""""""" """■"""""""""■v'l ^^ WnmMuiam 
 
 39. The Ring in Tiltixo. 
 
 Above is the form of the ring, with the sheath, and the manner 
 in which it was attached to the upright supporter, from Pluvinel. 
 The letter a indicates the ring detached from the sheath ; b 
 represents the sheath with the ring inserted and attached to the 
 upright post, in which there are several holes to raise or lower 
 he ring to suit the conveniency of the performer. The following 
 engraving, also from Pluvinel, represents the method of per- 
 forming the exercise. 
 
 40. Tilting at the Ring. 
 
 At the commencement of the seventeenth centurj^, the p<tstnae of 
 running at the ring was reduced to a science. Pluvinel, who 
 treats this subject at large, says, the length of the course wa 
 measured, and marked out according to the properties of the 
 horses that were to run : for one of the swiftest kind, one
 
 CHAP. I. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 125 
 
 hundred paces from the starting place to the ring, and thirty 
 paces beyond it, to stop him, were deemed necessary ; but for 
 such horses as had been trained to the exercise, and were more 
 regular in their movements, eighty paces to the ring, and twenty 
 beyond it, were thought to be sufficient. The ring, says the 
 same author, ought to be placed with much precision, somewhat 
 higher than the left eyebrow of the practitioner, when sitting 
 upon his horse ; because it was necessary for him to stoop a little 
 in runnmg towards it.* 
 
 In tilting at the ring, three courses were allowed to each can- 
 didate ; and he who thrust the point of his lance through it the 
 oftenest, or, in case no such thing was done, struck it the most 
 frequently, was the victor : but if it so happened, that none of 
 them did either the one or the other, or that they were equally 
 successful, the courses were to be repeated until the superiority 
 of one put an end to the contest.^ 
 
 XIIL— DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TOURNAMENTS AND JUSTS. 
 
 Tournaments and justs, though often confounded with each 
 other, differed materially. The tournament was a conflict with 
 many knights, divided into parties and engaged at the same time. 
 The just was a separate trial of skill, when only one man was 
 opposed to another. The latter was frequently included in the 
 former, but not without many exceptions; for the just, ac- 
 cording to the laws of chivalry, might be made exclusive of the 
 tournament.^ 
 
 In the romantic ages, both these diversions were held in the 
 highest esteem, being sanctioned by the countenance and example 
 of the nobility, and prohibited to all below the rank of an esquire; 
 but at the same time the justs were considered as less honourable 
 than the tournaments ; for the knight who had paid his fees and 
 been admitted to the latter, had a risrht to ens-affe in the former 
 M'ithout any further demand, but he who had paid the fees for 
 justing only, was by no means exempted from the fees belonging 
 to the tournament, as will be found in the laws relative to the 
 lance, sword, and helmet, a little further on. 
 
 XIV. ORIGIN OF THE TOURNAMENT. 
 It is an opinion generally received, that the tournament origi- 
 nated from a childish pastime practised by the Roman youths 
 
 ' Art de monter a cheval, part iii. p. 1.5(i. 
 
 * Menestrier,- Trait6de Tournoi^, p. 112. ^ Du Gauge, Gloss, in voce juatci.
 
 126 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK. Ill, 
 
 called Ludus TroiaB (the Troy game), said to have been so named 
 because it was derived from the Trojans, and furst brought into 
 Italy by Ascanius the son of ^neas. Virgil has given a de- 
 scription of this pastime, according to the manner, I presume, in 
 which it was practised at Rome. If he be accurate, it seems to 
 have been nothing more than a variety of evolutions performed 
 on horseback. The poet tells us, that the youth were each of 
 them armed with two little cornal spears, headed with iron. 
 
 Cornea bina ferunt prajfixa hastilia ferro. — ^imd. lib. v. 1. 556. 
 
 Having passed in review before their parents, upon a signal 
 given, they divided themselves into three distinct companies ; 
 and each company consisted of twelve champions exclusive of 
 its appropriate leader, when, according to Trapp's translation, 
 which if not so poetical is more literal than Dryden's, the tutor 
 of Ascanius, and overseer of the sports, 
 
 Epityden, frtm far 
 
 Loud with a shout, and with his souniJing lash 
 
 The signal gave : they equally divide, 
 
 The three commanders open their brigades 
 
 In sep'rate bodies : straight recall'd they wheel 
 
 Their course, and onward bear their hostile darts. 
 
 Then diff 'rent traverses on various grounds. 
 
 And difiF'rent counter traverses they form ; 
 
 Orbs within orbs alternately involve. 
 
 And raise th' effigy of a fight in arms. 
 
 Now show their backs in flight — now furious turn 
 
 Their darts ; — now all in peace together ride. 
 
 Under the denomination of the first emperors, these games 
 were publicly practised by the young nobility in the circus 
 at Rome.' 
 
 The same kind of sports, or others bearing close resemoiance 
 to them, were established in this kingdom in the twelfth century, 
 and probably at a much earlier period. Fitzstepheii, an author 
 then living, informs us, " that every Sunday in Lent, immediately 
 after dinner, it was customary for great crowds of young Lon- 
 doners mounted on war horses, well trained, to })erform the 
 necessary turnings and evolutions, to ride into the fields in dis- 
 tinct bands, armed hastilibus ferro dempto, with shields and 
 headless lances ; where they exhibited the representation of 
 battles, and went through a variety of warlike exercises : at the 
 same time many of the young noblemen who had no received 
 the honour of knighthood, came from the king's court, and from 
 
 * Tsdtus Annal. lib. xi. Et Suetonius ip vit. Claud,
 
 CHAP. I. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. ]27 
 
 the houses of the great barons, to make trial of their skill in arms; 
 the hope of victory animating their minds. The youth being 
 divided into opposite companies, encountered one another : in 
 one place they fled, and others pursued, without being able to 
 overtake them ; in another place one of the bands overtook and 
 overturned the other." According to Virgil, the Roman youth 
 presented their lances towards their opponents in a menacing 
 position, but without striking with them ; 
 
 Nunc spicula vertunt iufensi. — Mneid. lib. v. 1. 586. 
 
 The young Londoners in all probability went further, and 
 actually tilted one against the other. At any rate, the frequent 
 practice of this exercise must have taught them, insensibly as it 
 were, to become excellent horsemen. 
 
 XV.— THE TROY GAME. 
 
 I am clearly of opinion, that the justs and tournaments arose 
 by slow degrees from the exercises appointed for the instruction 
 of the military tyros in using their arms, but which of the two 
 had the preeminence in point of antiquity cannot easily be 
 determined ; we know that both of them were in existence at the 
 time the Troy game was practised by the citizens of London, 
 and also that they were not permitted to be exercised in this 
 kingdom. 
 
 In the middle ages, when the tournaments were in their splen- 
 dour, the Troy game was still continued, though in a state of 
 improvement, and distinguished by a different denomination it 
 was then called in Latin, behordicum, and in French, bohourt or 
 behourt, and was a kind of lance game, in which the young 
 nobility exercised themselves, to acquire address in handling 
 of their arms, and to prove their strength. Some authors, and 
 with great appearance of truth, derive this word from burdis or 
 bordis, to jest, joke, or make game, and therefore it will properly 
 signify a playful pastime, or combat, such as youth might engage 
 in.' The word behordicum will, however, admit of a mor? 
 enlarged signification ; from a quotation which is given by Du 
 Cange, we find it was occasionally used for running at the 
 quintain : 
 
 Emmi le pre ot quintaine levee. 
 
 Li jouvencel bebordent par la pr6e. 
 
 ' Du Cange, Gloss, in voce boJu>rdicum. The word, somewhat differently spelt, 
 occurs in Maadat. Reg. Angl. cited by Du Cange, and iu Ryiner Feed. torn. v. 
 l*,^^^ et alia.
 
 128 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK III. 
 
 Which will run thus in English: They raised a quintain in the 
 midst of a meadow, and the youth tilted at it with their ianres.- 
 In fact, I apprehend, it might be applied to any of the mi- 
 litary exercises performed by the young men, either for pastime 
 or improvement. Menestrier says, they formerly used hoJlow 
 canes instead of lances, and for that reason it was also called the 
 cane game. I find no authority to place the cane game at an 
 earlier period than the twelfth century, when probably it origi- 
 nated from the following circumstance related by Hoveden.^ He 
 tells us, that Richard I. of England, being at Messina, the capital 
 of Sicily, on his way to the Holy Land, went with his cavalcade 
 one Sunday afternoon to see the popular sports exhibited without 
 the walls of the city, and upon their return they met in the street 
 a rustic driving an ass loaded with hollow canes, " arundinas quas 
 cannas vocant." The king and his attendants took each of them 
 a cane, and beg-an, by way of frolic, to tilt with them one against 
 another: it so happened, that the king's opponent was William 
 de Barres, a knight of high rank in the household of the French 
 king, " quiaam miles optimus de familia regis Francire." In the 
 encounter they broke both their canes, and the monarch's hood 
 was torn by the stroke he received, " fracta est cappa regis," which 
 made him angry ; when riding' with great force against the 
 knight, he caused his horse to stumble with him, and while he 
 was attempting to cast him to the ground, his own saddle turned 
 round and he himself was overthrown. The king was soon pro- 
 vided with another horse, stronger than the former, which he 
 mounted, and again assaulted de Barres, endeavouring by 
 violence to throw him from his horse, but he could not, because 
 the knight clung fast to the horse's neck, Robert de Bretuil, 
 newly created earl of Leicester, laid hold upon de Barres to 
 assist the king, but Richard forbad him to interfere, desiring that 
 they might be left to themselves. When they had contended a 
 long time, adding threats to their actions, " et dictis et factis," the 
 king was much provoked, and commanded him to leave the 
 place and appear no more before him, declaring at the sauie 
 time, that he would ever afterwards consider him as an enemy ; 
 but through the mediation of the king of France, a reconciliation 
 was effected, and the knight was again restored to the favour 
 of the monarch. 
 
 ' Roman D'Aubrey, MS. apud Du Cange ut suora. 
 * Annal. pars posterior sob an. 1l?l.
 
 I HAP. F. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 129 
 
 X VI.— TOURNAMENTS. 
 
 Oiir word tournament, or tournoyement, which sionifies to 
 turn or wheel about in a circular manner,' comes from the French 
 word tournoy, which, according- to the generality of authors, is 
 derived from the Latin troja. This does not appear consistent 
 with any reasonable analogy. I am rather led to adopt the 
 opinion of Fauchet,^ who thinks it came from the practice of the 
 knights running par tour, that is, by turns, at the quintain, and 
 wheeling about successively in a circle to repeat their course ; 
 but, says he, in process of time they improved upon this pastime, 
 and to make it more respectable ran one at another, Avhich cer- 
 tainly bore a much greater similitude to a real engagement, 
 especially when they were divided into large parties, and meet- 
 ing together combatted with clubs or maces, beating each other 
 soundly, without any favour or paying the least respect to rank 
 or dignity. In one of these encounters, Robert earl of Cleremont, 
 son of Saint Louis, and head of the house of Bourbon, was so 
 severely bruised by the blows he received from his antagonist, 
 that he was never well afterwards. This, says Fauchet, was 
 possibly the cause of the ordinance, that the kings and princes 
 should not aften\ ards enter the lists as combatants at these tour- 
 naments; which law indeed, continues he, has been ill observed 
 by the succeeding kings, and in our time by Henry IL, who, un- 
 fortunately for France, was killed at the justs he made in honour 
 of his daughter's marriage. It Avas, in fact, very conmion for 
 some of the combatants to be beat or thrown from their horses, 
 tranjpled upon and killed upon the spot, or hurt most grievously. 
 Indeed, a tournament at this period was rarely finished Avithout 
 some disastrous accident ; and it was an established law, that if 
 any one of the combatants killed or wounded another, he should 
 be indemnified ; which made them less careful respecting- the 
 consequences, especially when any advantage gave them an 
 opportunity of securing the conquest. Tournaments were con- 
 sequently interdicted by the ecclesiastical decrees. 
 
 The following quotation from an ancient manuscript romance, 
 in the Harleian collection, entitled Ipomydon,^ plainly indicates 
 the performance of the tournament in an open field ; and also, 
 that great numbers of the combatants were engaged at one 
 time^ promiscuously, encountering with each other: we learn 
 
 ' Cotgnive. ' Origines des Chevaliers, &c. p. 9. » No. 2252. fol. G'» 
 
 K
 
 190 SPORTS AND PASTIMKS BOOK 111. 
 
 moreover, that the champion who remained unhorsed at the con- 
 clusion of the sports, besides the honour he attained, sometimes 
 received a pecuniary reward. 
 
 The kyng his sonne a knyght gan make, 
 And many another for his sake ; 
 Justes were cryed ladyes to see, 
 Thedyr came lordes grete plente, 
 Toumementis atyred in the felde, 
 A thousand armed with spere and shelde ; 
 Knyghtis began togedre to ryde. 
 Some were unhorsyd on every side, 
 Tpomydon that daye was victorius, 
 And there he gaff many a cours ; 
 For there was none that he mette, 
 But he hys spere on hym woulde sette : 
 Then after within a lytell stounde,' 
 Horse and man both went to grounde. 
 The Heraudes'^ gaff the child the gree,' 
 A thousand pound he had to fee ; 
 Mynstrellys had giftes of golde 
 And fourty dayes this fest was holde. 
 
 In some instances the champions depended upon their military, 
 skill and horsemanship, and frequently upon their bodily 
 strength; but at all times it was highly disgraceful to be 
 unhorsed, by whatever exertion it might be effected. 
 
 Thomas of Walsingham, one of our oAvn historians, tells us,'* 
 that when Edward I. returned from Palestine to England, and 
 was on his passage through Savoy, the comes Kabilanensis, earl 
 of Chabloun, invited him to a tournament,^ in Vhich himself 
 and many other knights were engaged. The king with his 
 followers, although fatigued by the length of their journey, 
 accepted the challenge. On the day appointed both parties met, 
 and, being armed with swords, the engagement commenced; 
 the earl singled out the king, and on his approach, throwing 
 away his sword, cast his arms about the neck of the monarch, 
 and used his utmost endeavour to pull him from his horse. 
 Edward, on the other hand, finding the earl would not quit his 
 hold, put spurs to his horse, and drew him from his saddle 
 hanging upon his neck, and then shaking him violently, threw 
 him to the ground. The earl having recovered himself and 
 being remounted, attacked the king a second time, but finding 
 
 ' A small space of time. 
 
 ' Heralds, whose office it was to superintend the ceremonious parts of the 
 tournaments. 
 
 » Reward. » Hist. Argl. fol. 3, A.D. 12? 4. 
 
 ^ 1 rdum militarum (qui Tulgo torneatnentum dicitur). Ibid.
 
 CHAP. I. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. Igjl 
 
 his hand " too heavy," he gave up the contest, and acknow 
 ledged him to be the conqueror. The knights of the earl'i* party 
 were angry vrhen they saw their leader drawn from his horse, 
 and run upon the English with so much violence, that the 
 pastime assumed the tumultuous appearance of a real battle, the 
 English on their side repelled force by force ; and had not the 
 resignation of the earl put an end to the conflict, in all pro- 
 bability the consequences would have been very serious. 
 
 XVIL— LISTS AND BARRIERS. 
 It was a considerable time after the establishment of justs 
 and tournaments, before the combatants thought of making 
 either lists or barriers; they contented themselves, says Menes- 
 trier,' with being stationed at four angles of an open place, 
 whence they run in parties one against another. There were 
 cords stretched before the different companies, previous to the 
 commencement of the tournaments, as we learn from the fol- 
 lowing passage in an old English romance, among the Harleian 
 manuscripts : 2 "All these thinges donne thei were embatailed 
 eche ageynste the othir, and the corde drawen before eche partie, 
 and whan the tyme was, the cordes were cutt, and the trumpettes 
 blew up for every man to do his devoir, duty. And for to 
 assertayne the more of the tourney, there was on eche side a 
 stake, and at cache stake two kyngs of amies, with penne, and 
 inke, and paper, to write the names of all them that were yolden, 
 for they shold no more tournay." As these pastimes were 
 accompanied with much danger, they invented in France the 
 double lists, where the knights might run from one side to the 
 other, without coming in contact, except with their lances; 
 other nations followed the example of the French, and the usage 
 of lists and barriers soon became universal. 
 
 XVllI.— WHEM THE TOURNAMENT WAS FIRST PRACTISED. 
 
 It is impossible to ascertain the precise period when tour- 
 naments first made their appearance ; nor is it less difficult to 
 determine by whom they were invented. Peacham, on the 
 authority of Nicetas, tells us, that the emperor Emanuel Com- 
 minus, at the siege of Constantinople, invented tilts and tour- 
 naments;^ but this is certainly a mistake The French and the 
 Germans both claim the honour. The historian, Nithard, men- 
 
 • Tracte de Tournois. ^ No. Sid- ^ Complete Gentleman, p. 178. 
 
 K 2
 
 132 SPORTS AND PASTIMES 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 tions a military game, frequently exhibited in Germany, before 
 the emperor Louis, and his brother Charles the bald, about the 
 year 842, which bears great resemblance to the tournament ; foi 
 be speaks of many knights of different nations, divided into 
 parties equal in number, and running at each other with great 
 velocity, as though they were in battle: Veluti invicem adversari 
 sibi vellent, alter in alterum veloci cursu ruebat.^ Most of the 
 German writers, however, make the emperor Henry I., sur- 
 named L'oiseleur, who died in 936, the institutor of these pas- 
 times ; but others attribute their origin to another Henry, at least 
 a century posterior. The French, on their side, quote an ancient 
 history ,2 which asserts, that Geofry, lord of Previlli in Anjou, 
 who was slain at Gaunt in 1066, was the inventor of the 
 tournament. 
 
 XIX!— THE TOURNAMENT IN ENGLAND. 
 
 It seems to be certain, that tournaments were held in France 
 and Normandy before the conquest, and, according to our own 
 writers, they were not permitted to be practised in this country 
 for upM'ards of sixty years posterior to that event. The manner 
 of performing the tournament, as then used, says Lambarde, 
 " not being at the tilt, as T think, but at random and in the open 
 field, was accounted so dangerous to the persons having to do 
 therein, that sundry popes forbad it by decree ; and the kings of 
 this realm before king Stephen would not suffer it to be fre- 
 quented within their land, so that such as for exercise of this 
 feat of arms were desirous to prove themselves, were driven to 
 pass over the seas, and to perform it in some different place in 
 a foreign country."^ This author's statement of the fact is 
 perfectly correct. In the troublesome reign of king Stephen, 
 the rigour of the laws was much relaxed, and tournaments, 
 among other splendid species of dissipation, were permitted to 
 be exercised ; they were, however, again suppressed by Henry II.; 
 and therefore it was, I presume, that the young king Henry, son 
 of Henry II., went every third year, as Matthew Paris assures 
 us he did, over the seas, and expended vast sums of money " in 
 conflictibus Gallicis," or French combats, meaning tournaments.'* 
 But Richard I. having, as it is said, observed that the French 
 practising frequently in the tournaments, were more expert in 
 
 ' See more upon this subject in the Encyclopedic Francois, art. Tuurnoi. 
 ' Cijronique de Tours. ' Perambulation of Kent, p. 492. 
 
 < Hist. Angl. A,D. 1179.
 
 CHAP. I. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 133 
 
 the use of their anus than the English, permitted his own 
 knights to establish the like martial sports in his dominions; 
 but at the same lime he imposed a tax, according to their 
 quality, upon such as engaged in them. An earl was subjected 
 to the fine of twenty marks for his privilege to enter the field as 
 a combatant ; a baron, ten ; a knight having a landed estate, 
 four; and a knight without such possession, two; but all 
 foreigners were particularly excluded. He appointed five places 
 for the holding of tournaments in England ; namely, between 
 Sarum and Wilton ; between Warwick and Kenelworth ; be- 
 tween Stamford and AVallingford ; between Brakely and Mixe- 
 berg; and between Blie and Tykehill. The act also specifies 
 that the peace should not be broken thereby, nor justice hindered, 
 nor damage done to the royal forests.' How long these imposts 
 continued to be collected does not appear; but tournaments 
 Were occasionally exhibited with the utmost disj)lay of magni- 
 ficence in the succeeding reigns, being not only sanctioned by 
 royal authority, but frequently instituted at the royal command, 
 imtil the conclusion of the sixteenth century. From that period 
 they declined rapidly, and fifty years afterwards were entirely 
 out of practice. 
 
 XX.— LAWS AND ORDINANCES OF JUSTS AND TOURNAMENTS. 
 
 AW military men, says Fauchet,^ who bore the title of knights 
 or esquires, were not indiscrin)inately received at these tour- 
 naments : there were certain laws to which tliose who presented 
 themselves became subject, and ^ihich they swore to obey before 
 they were permitted to enter the lists. 
 
 In one of the Harleian manuscripts,^ I met with the following 
 ordinance for the conducting of the justs and tournaments ac- 
 cording to the ancient establishment. It is preceded by a 
 proclamation that was to be previously made, which is couched 
 in these terms. Be it known,^ lords, knights, and esquires, ladies, 
 and gentlewomen; you are hereby acquainted, that a superb 
 achievement at arms, and a grand and noble toiu'nament will be 
 held in the parade^ of Clarencieux, king at arms, on the part of 
 the most noble baron, lord of T. c. b. and on the part of the 
 most noble baron, the lord of C. b. d. in the parade of Norrais, 
 
 ' Harl. MS. 69. ^ Oiigines des Chevaliers, kc. •'' No. 69. 
 
 * Or ovez, for Ouir, more literally Hear now ; ;md the words are repeated. 
 
 * Marche, part of the lists 1 presume, or portion of grouud appropriated to <lic 
 tournament.
 
 134 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK III. 
 
 king at arms. The regulations that follow are these : The two 
 barons on whose parts the tournament is undertaken, shall be at 
 their lodges (pavilions) two days before the commencement of 
 the sports, when each of them shall cause his arms to be at- 
 tached' to his pavilion, and set up his banner in the front of his 
 parade; and all those who wish to be admitted as combatants 
 on either side, must in like manner set up their arms and banners 
 before the parades allotted to them. Upon the evening of the 
 same day they shall show themselves in their stations, and ex- 
 pose their helmets to view at the windows of their pavilions ; and 
 then " they may depart to make merry, dance, and live well.'* 
 On the morrow the champions shall be at their parades by the 
 hour of ten in the morning, to await the commands of the lord 
 of the parade, and the governor, who are the speakers of the 
 tournament; at this meeting* the prizes of honour shall be 
 determined. 
 
 In the document before us, it is said, that he who shall best 
 resist the strokes of his adversary, and return them with most 
 adroitness on the party of Clarencieux, shall receive a very 
 rich sword, and he who shall perform in like manner the best 
 on the part of Norroys, shall be rewarded with an helmet equally 
 valuable. 
 
 On the morning of the day appointed for the tournament, the 
 arms, banners, and helmets of all the combatants shall be ex- 
 posed at their stations, and the speakers present at the place of 
 combat by ten of the clock, where they shall examine the arms 
 and approve or reject them at their pleasure ; the examination 
 being finished, and the arjns returned to the owners, the baron 
 who is the challenger, shall then cause his banner to be placed 
 at the beginning of the parade, and the blazon of his arms to be 
 nailed to the roof of the pavilion r^ his example is to be followed 
 by the baron on the opposite side, and all the knights of either 
 party who are not in their stations before the nailing up of the 
 arms, shall forfeit their privileges, and not be permitted to tourney. 
 
 The kings at arms and the heralds are then commanded by 
 the speakers to go from pavilion to pavilion, crying aloud, 
 " To achievement, knights and esquires, to achievement;"^ being 
 
 ' Feront clouer leurs armes, literally nail them ; the clouage or nail money, as we 
 shall see afterwards, was the perquisite of the heraJds. 
 
 ^ " Mettra sa batiier, au commencement dedits bastons et clouera la blason de sea 
 armes, a lautre vout." The passage is by no means clear ; I Lave therefore given the 
 words of the original. 
 
 ' A I'aschevier, chevalieri, &c.
 
 CHAP. I. OP THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 135 
 
 the notice, 1 presume, for them to arm themselves; and soon 
 afterwards the company of heralds shall repeat the former 
 ceremony, having the same authority, saying*, " Come forth, 
 knights and esquires, come forth :"• and when the two barons 
 have taken their places in the lists, each of them facing his own 
 parade, the champions on both parties shall arrange themselves, 
 every one by the side of his banner; and then two cords shall 
 be stretched between them, and remain in that position until it 
 shall please the speakers to command the commencement of the 
 sports. The combatants shall each of them be armed with a 
 pointless sword having the edges rebated, and with a baston, 
 or truncheon, hanging from their saddles, and they may use 
 either the one or the other so long as the speakers shall give 
 them permission, by repeating the sentence, " Laisseir les aler," 
 Let them go on. After they have sufficiently performed their 
 exercises, the speakers are to call to the heralds, and order them 
 to " ployer vos baniers," fold up the banners, which is the signal 
 for the conclusion of the tournament. The banners being rolled 
 up, the knights and the esquires are permitted to return to their 
 dwellings. 
 
 XXI PAGES AND PERQUISITES OF THE KINGS AT ARMS, &c. 
 
 Every knight or esquire performing in the tournament, was 
 permitted to have one page, armed, within the lists, but without 
 a truncheon or any other defensive weapon, to Avait upon him 
 and give him his sword, or truncheon, as occasion might re- 
 quire ; and also in case of any accident happening to his armour, 
 to amend the same. In after times, three servitors were allowed 
 for this purpose. 
 
 The laws of the tournament permitted any one of the com- 
 batants to unhelm himself at pleasure, if he was incommoded 
 by the heat; none being suffered to assault him in any way, 
 until he had replaced his helmet at the command of the 
 speakers. 
 
 The kings at arms, and the heralds who proclaimed the tour- 
 nament, had the privilege of wearing the blazon of arms of 
 those by whom the sport was instituted ; besides M'hich they 
 were entitled to six ells of scarlet cloth as their fee, and had all 
 their expenses defrayed during the continuation of the tourna- 
 ment : by the law of arms they had a right to the helmet of 
 
 1 H0T8 clievaliers, &c.
 
 136 
 
 SPORTS AND PASTIMES 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 every knight when he made his first essay at the tournament, 
 which became their perquisite as soon as the sports were con- 
 cluded ; they also claimed every one of them six crowns as nail 
 money, for affixing- the blazon of arras to the pavilions. The 
 kings at arms held the banners of the two chief barons on the 
 day of the tournament, and the other heralds the banners of their 
 confederates according to their rank. 
 
 XXII.— PRELIMINARIES OF THE TOURNAMENT 
 
 An illumination to a manuscript romance in the Royal Library,' 
 entitled St. Graal, written in the thirteenth century, represents 
 the manner in which the two chief barons anciently entered the 
 lists at the commencement of a tournament. The king at arms 
 standing in the midst of the ground holds both the banners, and 
 the instruments of the minstrels are ornamented with the 
 blazonry of the arms.^ 
 
 ' 41. Preparatjon for a Tocenament 
 
 ' No. 14. E. iii. 
 
 - [ I he minstrels of the barons are behind them in Mr. Strutt's quarto plate, as in the 
 MS. illumination ; on tlie present page, the minstrels are placed below the combatants, 
 in order to accommodate the figures to the space prescribed by the octavo size.]
 
 CHAP. I. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 137 
 
 The action of the two combatants, who have not yet received their 
 weapons, seems to be that of appealing to heaven in proof of 
 their having no charm to protect them, and no inclination to 
 make use of any unlawful means to secure the conquest; which 
 I believe was a ceremony usually practised upon such occasions. 
 In the reign of Henry V. a statute was enacted by the par- 
 liament, containing the following regulations relative to the tour- 
 naments, which regulations were said to have been established 
 at the request of all the nobility of England.^ The act pro- 
 hibits any combatant from entering the lists with more than 
 three esquires to bear his arms, and wait upon him for that day. 
 In another clause it is said, If any of the great lords, or others 
 Tient Mangerie, keep a public table, for such, I presume, is 
 implied by the term, they shall not be allowed any additional 
 esquires, excepting those who trencheront, carve for them. It 
 further specifies, that no knight or esquire, who was appointed 
 to attend in the lists as a servitor, shovdd wear a sword or a 
 dagger,^ or carry a truncheon, or any other weapon excepting a 
 large sword used in the tournament : and that all the combatants 
 who bore lances, should be armed with breastplates, thigh- 
 pieces, shoulder-pieces, and bacinets, without any other kind of 
 armour. No earl, baron, or knight, might presume to infringe 
 upon the regulations of this statute, under the forfeiture of his 
 horse and his arms, and the pain of imprisonment for a certain 
 space of time, at the pleasure of the governors of the tour- 
 nament. Another clause, which probably refers to such as were 
 not combatants for the day, runs thus : No one except the great 
 lords, that is to say, earls or barons, shall be armed otherwise 
 than above expressed ; nor bear a sword, pointed knife, mace, or 
 other weapon, except the sword for the tournament. In case of 
 transgression, he forfeited his horse, and was obnoxious to im- 
 prisonment for one year. If an esquire transgressed the law 
 in any point, he not only lost his horse and his arms, but was 
 sent to prison for three years. But if the knights or esquires in 
 the above cases were possessed of lands, and appeared in arms 
 for the service of their lords, it seems they might recover their 
 horses. The " Roys des harnoys," kings at arms, the heralds, 
 and the minstrels, were commanded not to wear any kind of 
 sharp weapons, but to have the swords without points which 
 belonged to them. Those who came as spectators on horse- 
 
 ' Harl. VIS. 69. • Coutel, literally a knife.
 
 138 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK III. 
 
 back, were strictly forbidden to be armed with any kini of 
 armour, or to bear any offensive weapons, under the penalty 
 that was appointed to the esquires ; and no boy, or man on foot 
 coming for the same purpose, might appear with a sword 
 dagger, cudgel, or lance ; they were to be punished with one 
 year's imprisonment in case of disobedience to the statute. 
 
 XXIII.— LISTS FOR ORDEAL COMBATS. 
 The lists for the tilts and tournaments resembled those, I doubt 
 not, appointed for the ordeal combats, which, according to the 
 rules established by Thomas, duke of Gloucester, uncle to 
 Richard II., were as follows : " The king shall find the field to 
 fight in, and the lists shall be made and devised by the con- 
 stable ; and it is to be observed, that the list must be sixty paces 
 long and forty paces broad, set up in good order, and the ground 
 within hard, stable, and level, without any great stones or other 
 impediments; also that the lists must be made with one door to 
 the east, and another to the west, and strongly barred about 
 with good bars seven feet high or more, so that a horse may not 
 be able to leap over them."^ 
 
 XXIV.— RESPECT PAID TO LADIES IN THE TOURNAMENT. 
 After the conclusion of the tournament, the combatants, as we 
 have seen above, returned to their dwellings; but in the evening- 
 they met again in some place appropriated for the purpose, 
 where they were joined by the ladies, and others of the nobility 
 who had been spectators of the sports ; and the time, Ave are told, 
 was passed in feasting, dancing, singing", and making merry. 
 But, " after the noble supper and dancing," according to the 
 ancient ordinance above quoted, the speakers of the tournament 
 called together the heralds appointed on both parties, and de- 
 manded from them alternately, the names of those who had best 
 performed upon the opposite sides; the double list of names 
 was then presented to the ladies who had been present at the 
 pastime, and the decision was ieferred to them respecting the 
 awardment of the prizes ;2 who selected one name for each 
 party, and, as a peculiar mark of their esteem, the favourite 
 champions received the rewards of their merits from the hands 
 of two young virgins of quality. The statutes and ordinances 
 f(r justs and tournaments made by John Tiptoft, earl of Wor 
 
 ' Cotton MS. Nero D. vi. and Harl. MS. 69, ut suprn. 
 
 ' " Avev une grele d« coups." Lncyclop. Fran, in voce inurnoi.
 
 CHAP. I. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 139 
 
 cester, at the command of Edward IV., in the sixth year of his 
 reign, conclude thus : " Reserving always to the queenes high- 
 ness and the ladyes there present, the attribution and gift of the 
 prize after the manner and forme accustomed." ^ 
 
 Neither was this the only deference that was paid to the fair 
 sex by the laws of the tournament, for we are told, that if a 
 knight conducted himself with any impropriety, or transgressed 
 the ordinances of the sport, he was excluded from the lists with 
 a sound beating, which was liberally bestowed upon him by the 
 other knights with their truncheons, to punish his temerity, and 
 to teach him to respect the honour of the ladies and the rights of 
 chivalry; the unfortunate culprit had no other resource in such 
 case for escaping without mischief, but by supplicating the 
 mercy of the fair sex, and humbly intreating them to interpose 
 their authority on his behalf, because the suspension of his 
 punishment depended entirely upon their intercession. 
 
 XXV.— JUSTS INFERIOR TO TOURNAMENTS. 
 
 The just or lance-game, in Latin justa, and in French jouste, 
 which some derive from jocare, because it was a sort of sportive 
 combat, undertaken for pastime only, differed materially, as before 
 observed, from the tournament, the former beirjg often included 
 in the latter, and usually took place when the grand tourna- 
 mental conflict was finished. But at the same time it Avas per- 
 fectly consistent with the rules of chivalry, for the justs to be 
 held separately ; it was, however, considered as a pastime inferior 
 to the tournament, for which reason a knight, who had paid his 
 fees for permission to just, was not thereby exempted from the 
 fees of the tournament; but, on the contrary, if he had dis- 
 charged his duties at the tournament, he was privileged to just 
 without being liable to any further demand. This distinction 
 seems to have arisen from the weapons used, the sword being- 
 appropriated to the tournament, and the lance to the just, and so 
 it is stated in an old document cited by Du Cange : ^ " When," 
 says this author, " a nobleman makes his first appearance in the 
 tournament, his helmet is claimed by the heralds, notwithstanding 
 his having justed before, because the lance cannot give the 
 freedom of the sword, which the sword can do of tl)e lance ; foi 
 It is to be observed, that he who has paid his helmet at the tour- 
 nament is freed from the payment of a second helmet at the 
 
 ' Harl. aiS. 69. ' Glossary, in voce puta.
 
 140 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK JIT. 
 
 just; but the helmet paid at justing, does not exclude the 
 claim of the heralds when a knight first enters the lists at the 
 tournament. 
 
 XX VI.— THE ROUND TABLE. 
 
 The just, as a military pastime, is mentioned by William of 
 Malmsbury, and said to have been practised in the reign of king- 
 Stephen.^ During the government of Henry III. the just as- 
 sumed a different appellation, and was also called the Round 
 Table game.^ This name was derived from a fraternity of knights 
 who frequently justed with each other, and accustomed them- 
 selves to eat together in one apartment, and, in order to set aside 
 all distinction of rank or quality, seated themselves at a circular 
 table, where every place was equally honourable. Athenteus, 
 cited by Du Cange/ says, the knights sat round the table, 
 " eorum scuta ferentes a tergo," bearing their shields at their 
 backs : I suppose for safety sake. Our historians attribute the 
 institution of the round table to Arthur, the son of Uter Pen- 
 dragon, a celebrated British hero, whose achievements are so 
 disguised with legendary wonders, that it has been doubted if 
 such a person ever existed in reality. 
 
 In the eighth year of the reign of Edward I., Roger de Mor- 
 timer,"* a nobleman of great opulence, established a round table 
 at Kenelworth, for the encouragement of military pastimes; 
 where one hundred knights, with as many ladies, were entertained 
 at his expense. The fame of this institution occasioned, Ave are 
 told, a great influx of foreigners, who came either t > initiate them- 
 selves, or make some public proof of their prowess. About 
 seventy years afterwards Edward III. erected a splendid table 
 of the same kind at Windsor, but upon a more extensive scale ; 
 It contained the area of a circle two hundred feet in diameter: 
 and the weekly expense for the maintenance of this table, when 
 it was first established, amounted to one hundred pounds; which, 
 afterwards, was reduced to twenty pounds, on account of the 
 large sums of money required for the prosecution of the war with 
 France. This receptacle for military men gave continual occasion 
 for the exercise of arms, and aftbrded to the young nobility an 
 
 ' " Pugnaj facere quod justam vocant." Hist. Novelise, fol. 106, sub an. 1142. 
 
 - Matthew Paris properly distinguishes it from the tournament. " Non liastiladio, 
 (]uod tomeamentum dicitur, sed — ludo militari, qui mensa rofinda dicitur." Hist. Angl 
 »ub an. 1252. 
 
 ' Glossary, in voce mensa rotunda. 
 
 ■• Rogerus de Mortuo Mari. The. Walsingliair. Hist. Angl cub an. 1280, fol. 8 
 
 I
 
 CHAP. I. OF THK PEOPLE OV ENGLAND. 141 
 
 opportunity of learning", by the way of pastime, all the requisites 
 of a soldier. The example of king Edward was followed by 
 Philip of Valois king- of France, m ho also instituted a round 
 table at his court, and by that means drew thither many German 
 and Italian knights who were coming to England.' The contest 
 between the two monarchs seems to have had the effect of de- 
 stroying the establishment of the round table in both kingdoms, 
 for after this period we hear no more concerning it. In England 
 the round table was succeeded by the order of the garter, the 
 ceremonial parts of which order are retained to this day, but the 
 spirit of the institution ill accords with the present manners. 
 
 XXVII.— NATURE OF THE JUSTS. 
 
 The cessation of the round table occasioned little or no al- 
 teration respecting the justs which had been practised by the 
 knights belonging to it; they continued to be fashionable 
 throughout the annals of chivalry, and latterly superseded the 
 tournaments, which is by no means surprising, when we recollect 
 that the one was a confused engagement of many knights to- 
 gether, and the other a succession of combats between two only 
 at one time, which gave them all an equal opportunity of 
 showing individually their dexterity and attracting the general 
 notice. 
 
 In the justs the combatants most commonly used spears with- 
 out heads of iron ; and the excellency of the performance con- 
 sisted in striking the opponent upon the front of his helmet, so 
 as to beat him backwards from his horse or break the spear. 
 Froissart^ mentions a trick used by Reynaud de Roy, at a tilting 
 match between him and John de Holland : he fastened his hel- 
 met so slightly upon his head that it gave way, and was beaten 
 off by every stroke that was made upon the vizor with the lance 
 of John of Holland, and of course the shock he received Was not 
 so great as it would have been, had he made the helmet fast to 
 the cuirass; this artifice was objected to by the English on the 
 part of Holland ; but John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, who was 
 present, permitted Roye to use his pleasure ; though he at the 
 same time declared, that for his part, he should prefer a contrary 
 practice, and have his helmet fastened as strongly as possible. 
 And again the same historian, speaking of a justing between 
 
 ' Tho. Walsingliam. Ilist. Angl. sub an. 1344, fol. 154. 
 Vol. iii. cliap. lix.
 
 142 
 
 SPORTS AND PASTIMES 
 
 HOOK in. 
 
 Thomas Harpingham and sir John de Barres, says, " As me 
 thought the usage was thanne, their helmes wer tied but with a 
 lace, to the entente the spere should take no hold ; " by which 
 it seems the trick became more common afterwards.' 
 
 Below is a representation of the just, taken from a manuscript 
 in the Royal Library ,2 of the thirteenth, or early in the four- 
 teenth century, where two knights appear in the action of tilting 
 at each other with the blunted spears.^ 
 
 ■li;. Justing. — XIV. CENXuRy. 
 
 This delineation was made before the introduction of the 
 barrier, which was a boarded railing erected in the midst of the 
 lists, but open at both ends, and between four and five feet in 
 height. In perfornung the justs, the two combatants rode on 
 
 Froissart, vol. iii. chap, cxxxiii. fol. 148, lord Berners' translation. 
 
 2 No. 14, E.iii. 
 
 ^ [In the original engraving the knights are opposed to each other on the same line : 
 in the present they are separated, and one placed below, in order to represent them 
 within the octavo page of the size is the quarto.]
 
 CHAP. f. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 143 
 
 separate sides of the barrier, and were thereby prevented from 
 running their horses upon each other. 
 
 XXVIIL— JUSTS, PECULIARLY IN HONOUR OF THE LADIES. 
 We have seen that the privilege of distributing* the prizes 
 and remitting the punishment of offenders, was by the laws of 
 the tournament invested with the fair sex, but at the justs their 
 authority was much more extensive. In the days of chivalry 
 the justs were usually made in honour of the ladies, who pre- 
 sided as judges paramount over the sports, and their determi- 
 nations were in all cases decisive ; hence in the spirit of romance, 
 arose the necessity for every " true knight " to have a favourite 
 fair one, who was not only esteemed by him as the paragon of 
 beauty and of virtue, but supplied the place of a tutelar saint, 
 to whom he paid his vows and addressed himself in the day of 
 peril ; or it seems to have been an established doctrine, that 
 love made valour perfect, and incited the heroes to undertake 
 great enterprises. " Oh that my lady saw me," said one of them 
 as he was mounting a breach at the head of his troops and driving 
 the enemy before him. The French writer St. Foix, who men- 
 tions this,^ says in another place, *' It is astonishing that no 
 author has remarked the origin of this devotion in the manners 
 of the Germans, our ancestors, as drawn by Tacitus, who," he 
 tells us, "attributed somewhat of divinity to the fair sex.^" 
 Sometimes it seems the knights were armed and unarmed by 
 the ladies ; but this, I presume, was a peculiar mark of their 
 favour, and only used upon particular occasions, as, for instance, 
 when the heroes undertook an achievement on their behalf, or 
 combating in defence of their beauty or their honour.^ 
 
 XXIX.— GREAT SPLEN DOUR OF THESE SPORTS ATTRACTIVE 
 TO THE NOBILITY 
 
 At the celebration of these pastimes, the lists were superbly 
 decorated, and surrounded by the pavilions belonging to the cham- 
 pions, ornamented with their arms, banners, and banerolls. The 
 scaffolds for the reception of the nobility of both sexes who came 
 as spectators, and those especially appointed for the royal family, 
 
 ' Essais Hist, sur Paris, vol.iii. p. 263. Ibid. vol. i. p. 327. 
 
 ^ As the ladies, say some modem authors, were I'ame, the soul of the justs, it was 
 proper that they should be therein distinguished by some peculiar homage ; and, ac- 
 cordingly at the termination of ajust with lances, the last course was made in honour 
 of the sex, and called the lance of the ladies. The same deference was paid to them in 
 single combats with the sword, the axe, and the dagger. Encyclop. Fran, article 
 joute.
 
 144 SPORTS AND PASTIKES BOOK lU 
 
 were hung with tapestry and embroideries of gold and silver. 
 Every person, upon such occasions, appeared to the greatest 
 advantage, decked in sumptuous array, and every part of the 
 field presented to the eye a rich display of magnificence. We 
 may also add the splendid appearance of the knights engaged 
 in the sports; themselves and their horses were most gorgeously 
 arrayed, and their esquires and pages, together with the min- 
 strels and heralds who superintended the ceremonies, were all 
 of them clothed in costly and glittering apparel. Such a show 
 of pomp, where wealth, beauty, and grandeur were concentred, 
 as it were, in one focus, must altogether have formed a wonderful 
 spectacle, and made a strong* impression on the mind, which 
 was not a little heightened by the cries of the heralds, the 
 clangour of the trumpets, the clashing of the arms, the rushing 
 together of the combatants, and the shouts of the beholders ; 
 and hence the popularity of these exhibitions may be easily 
 accounted for. 
 
 The tournament and the just, and especially the latter, af- 
 forded to those who were engaged in them, an opportunity of 
 appearing before the ladies to the greatest advantage ; they 
 might at once display their taste and opulence by the costliness 
 and elegancy of their apparel, and their prowess as soldiers ; 
 therefore, these pastimes became fashionable among* the nobility ; 
 and it was probably for the same reason that they were pro- 
 hibited to the commoners, 
 
 XXX.— TOYS FOR INITIATING CHILDREN IN THESE SPORTS. 
 
 Persons of rank were taught in their childhood to relish such 
 exercises as were of a martial nature, and the very toys that 
 were put into their hands as playthings, were calculated to bias 
 the mind in their favour. On the opposite page the reader will 
 find two views of a knight on horseback, completely equipped 
 for the just ; four wheels originally Avere attached to the pe- 
 destal, which has a hole in the front for the insertion of a cord. 
 The knight and his horse are both made with brass ; the spear 
 and the wheels are wanting in the original, but the hole in 
 which the spear was inserted, still remains imder the right arm, 
 and it is supplied upon the print by something like it placed in 
 the proper situation. This curious figure, which probably was 
 made in the fifteenth century, is in the possessionof sir Frederic 
 Eden, with whose permission this copy, about the same size as 
 he original; makes its appearance here.
 
 ruAP. I. 
 
 OF THE PEOPLE OF TNGLANn. 
 
 145 
 
 43. A Justing Tov.
 
 14G 
 
 SPORTS AND PASTIMES 
 
 BOOK UU 
 
 The man represented by the figures in the preceding' engraving 
 may be readily separated from the horse, and is so contrived as to 
 be thrown backwards by a smart blow upon the top of the shield 
 or the front of his helmet, and replaced again with much ease : 
 two such toys were requisite ; each of them having a string 
 made fast in the front of the pedestal, being then placed at a 
 distance in opposition the one to the other, they were violently 
 drawn together in imitation of two knights tilting ; and by the 
 concussion of the spears and shields, if dexterously managed, 
 one or both of the men were cast to the ground. Sometimes, as we 
 may see by the subjoined figure from a curious engraving on 
 wood by Hans Burgmair, which makes one of a series of prints 
 representing the history and achievements of the emperor Maxi- 
 milian the First, in the possession of Francis Douce, esq. these 
 toys were made without wheels, and pushed by the hand upon 
 a table towards each other ; but in both cases the effect was 
 evidently the same. 
 
 44. Toys, representing Kniohts Justing. 
 
 XXXI.— BOAT JUSTS, OR TILTING ON THE WATER. 
 
 It has been previously observed, that all persons below the 
 rank of an esquire were excluded from the justs and the tourna- 
 ments ; but the celebration of these pastimes attracted the common 
 mind in a very powerful manner, and led to the institution of 
 sports, that bore at least some resemblance to them : tilting at 
 the quintain was generally practised at a very early period,' 
 and justing upon the ice by the young Londoners.^ The early 
 inclination to join in such kind of pastimes is strongly indicated 
 by the two boys represented on the next page : the place of the 
 horse is supplied by a long switch, and that of a lance by another. 
 ' See sect. vii. p. 118. * See book ii. chap. ii. sec. xviii. p. 87.
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 OF THE PEOPLE Of ENGLAND. 
 
 147 
 
 The original delineation occurs in a beautiful MS. book of 
 prayers, written in the fourteenth century, in the possession ot 
 F. Douce, esq. 
 
 43. Boys Tilting in Pastimb. 
 
 Here we may also add the boat justs, or tilting- upon the water. 
 The representation of a pastime of this kind is given below, from 
 a manuscript of the fourteenth century in the Royal Library.' 
 
 46. Boat Tilting. 
 
 The conqueror at these justs was the champion who could 
 dexterously turn aside the blow of his antagonist with his shield, 
 and at the same time strike him with his lance in such a manner 
 as to overthrow him into the river, himself remaining unmoved 
 from his station; and perhaps not a little depended upon the 
 skill of the rowers.^ When queen Elizabeth visited Sandwich 
 in 157!i, she was entertained with a tilting upon the water, 
 " where certain wallounds that could well swym had prepared 
 two boates, and in the middle of each boate was placed a borde, 
 upon which borde there stood a man, and so they met tog'ether, 
 with either of them a staff and a shield of wood ; and one of 
 them did overthrowe another, at which the queene had good 
 sport." ^ The same kind of laughable pastime was practised at 
 
 ' No, 1 , B vii. 
 
 " See what has been said respecting the quintain upo.a the water, sect. v. p. 116. 
 
 Nichols's Progresses, vol. i. p. 56. 
 
 L2
 
 14h SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK MI. 
 
 I^mdon, as we learn from Stow ; " I have seen," says he, " in 
 the summer season, upon the river of Thames, some rowed in 
 wherries, with staves in their hands flat at the fore end, running- 
 one ag-ainst another, and for the most part one or both of them 
 were overthrown and well ducked." 
 
 XXXII.— CHALLENGES TO ALL COMERS. 
 
 I shall now conclude this long chapter with the two following 
 extracts from a manuscript in the Harleian Collection.^ Six 
 gentlemen challenged " all commers at the just roial, to runne in 
 osting harnies along a tilte, and to strike thirteen strokes with 
 swordes, in honour of the marriage of Richard duke of York^ 
 with the lady Anne, daughter to the duke of Norfolk." 
 
 When Henry VII. created his second son Henry prince of 
 Wales, four gentlemen offered their service upon the occasion. 
 First, they made a declaration that they do not undertake this 
 enterprise in any manner of presumption, but only " for the 
 laude and honour of the feaste, the pleasure of the ladyes ; and 
 their owne learning, and exercise of deedes of armes, and to 
 ensewe the ancient laudable customs." 
 
 They then promised to be ready at Westminster on a given 
 day, the twenty-fourth of November, to keep the justs in a place 
 appointed for that purpose by the king. To be there by "eleven 
 of the clock before noone to answer all gentlemen commers, and 
 to runne with every commer one after another, six courses 
 ensewingly ; and to continue that daye as long" as it shal like 
 the kynges grace, and to tilt with such speares as he shall 
 ordeyn, of the which speares, the commers shall have the choise: 
 but if the said six courses by every one of the commers shall be 
 performed, and the day not spent in pleasure and sport according- 
 to the effect of these articles, it shall then be lawful for the said 
 commers to begin six other courses, and so continue one after 
 another as long as it shall be at the king's pleasure. If it shall 
 happen to any gentleman that his horse fayleth him, or himself 
 be unarmed in such wise as he cannot conveniently accomplish 
 the whole courses, then it shall be lawful for his felowe to finish 
 up the courses." 
 
 Again, they promise upon a second day, the twenty-ninth of 
 November, to be in readiness to mount their horses at the same 
 place and hour as before, to tourney with four other gentlemen, 
 
 ' No. 69. 
 
 * Son to king Edward IV., who lost his life with his brother Edward in the Tower.
 
 CHAP. I. OP THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 140 
 
 with such swordes as the kins' shall ordain, until eighteen strokes 
 be given by one of them to the otoer ; and add that it shall be 
 lawful to strike all manner of ways, the foyne only excepted, 
 and the commers shall have their choice of the swords. Here it 
 may be observed, that to foyne, is to thrust, as in fencing, which 
 was exceedingly dangerous when the swords were pointed. The 
 author of a MS. poem, in the Cotton Collection,' frequently re- 
 ferred to in the course of this work, entitled Knyghthode and 
 Batayle, says, in fighting with an enemy, " to foyne is better than 
 to smyte," and afterwards two inches, " entre foyned," hurtetli 
 more than a broader wound with the edge of a sword. 
 
 " Whosoever," continues the Harleian manuscript, " shall 
 certifye and give knowledge of his name and of his comming 
 to one of the three kings of arms, whether it be to the justs or 
 at the tourney, he shall be first answered, the states alwayes 
 reserved which shall have the preheminence. If any one of the 
 said commers shall think the swordes or spears be too easy for 
 him, the said four gentlemen will be redye to answer him or 
 them after their owne minde, the king's licence obteyned in that 
 behalf." 
 
 The gentlemen then entreat the king to sign the articles with 
 his own hand, as sufficient licence for the heralds to publish the 
 same in such places as might be thought requisite. The king 
 accepted their ofl^er, and granted their petition ; at the same 
 time he promised to reward the best performer at the justs royal 
 with a iiijg of gold set with a ruby ; and the best performer at 
 t'le tournament with another golden ring set with a diamond, 
 equal in value to the former. 
 
 Upon some particular occasions toe strokes with the sword 
 were performed on foot, and so were the combats with the axes; 
 the champions having, generally, a barrier of wood breast-high 
 between them. 
 
 Titus, A. xxiii, part i. fol. 7.
 
 J60 SPORTS AND PASTIMES UOOK III. 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 I. Ancient Plays. — II. Miracle Plays, Dramas from Scripture, &c. continued s veral 
 days. — ni. The Coventry Play. — lY. Mysteries described. — V. How enlivened. 
 — VI. Moralities described. — The Fool in Plays, whence derived. — VII. Secular 
 Plays. — VIII. Interludes. — IX. Chaucer's Definition of the Tragedies of his 
 Time. — X. Plays performed in Churches. — XI. Cornish Miracle Plays. — XII. 
 Itinerant Players, their evil Characters. — XIII. Court Plays. — XIV. Play in 
 honour of the Princess Mary's Marriage. — XV. The Play of Hock Tuesday. — 
 XVI. Decline of Secular Plays.— XVII. Origin of Puppet Plays — XVIII. 
 Nature of the Performances. — XIX. Giants and other Puppet Characters. — 
 XX. Puppet Plays superseded by Pantomimes. — XXI. The modem Puppet-show 
 Man. — XXII. Moving Pictures described. 
 
 I.— ANCIENT PLAYS. 
 
 It is not my design to enter deeply upon the origin and progress 
 of scenic exhibitions in England : this subject has already been 
 so ably discussed, that very little new matter can be found to 
 excite the public attention : I shall, therefore, be as brief as 
 possible, and confine myself chiefly to the lower species of 
 comic pastimes, many of which may justly claim the sanction of 
 high antiquity. 
 
 IL— MIRACLE PLAYS, DRAMAS FROM SCRIPTURE, &c. CONTINUED 
 SEVERAL DAYS. 
 
 The theatrical exhibitions in London, in the twelfth century, 
 were called Miracles, because they consisted of sacred plays, or 
 representations of the miracles wrought by the holy confessors, 
 and the sufferings by which the perseverance of the martyrs was 
 manifested.^ Such subjects were certainly very properly chosen, 
 because the church was usually the theatre wherein these pious 
 dramas were performed, and the actors were the ecclesiastics or 
 their scholars. The first play of this kind specified by name, I 
 believe, is called St. Catherine, and according to Matthew Paris,^ 
 was written by G^eofrey, a Norman, afterwards abbot of Saint 
 Albans : he was sent over into England by abbot Richard, to 
 
 • Fitzstephen's Description of London. 
 
 ' Quendam ludum de sancta Katerina (quam miracula vulgariter appellamus) fecu. 
 Vitas Abbat. p. 35.
 
 CHAP. II. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 151 
 
 take upon him the direction of the school belonging to that 
 monastery, but coming too late, he went to Dunstable and taught 
 there, wliere he caused, his play to be performed about the year 
 1 110, and borrowed from the sacrist of Saint Albans capce 
 cliorales, some of the ecclesiastical vestments of the abbey, to 
 adorn the actors. In latter times, these dramatical pieces 
 acquired the appellation of mysteries; because, as the learned 
 editor of the Reliques of Ancient Poetry supposes, the most 
 mysterious subjects of the scripture were frequently chosen for 
 tlieir composition.^ 
 
 According to the Wife of Bath's prologue in the Canterbury 
 Tales, the miracle plays in Chaucer's days were exhibited 
 during the season of Lent, and sometimes a sequel of scripture 
 histories was carried on for several days. In the reign of 
 Richard II., A.J). 1391, the parish clerks of London put forth 
 a play at Skinners Wells, near Smithfield, which continued 
 three days; the king, queen, and many of the nobility, being 
 present at the performance.^ In the succeeding reign, 10 
 Henry IV., A.D. 1409, another play was acted at the same place, 
 and lasted eight days; this drama began with the creation of 
 the world, and contained the greater part of the history of the 
 Old and New Testament. It does not appear to have been 
 honoured with the royal presence, but was well attende«l by 
 most of the nobility and gentry of the realm. 
 
 Ill THE COVENTRY PLAY. 
 
 The last of these performances, no doubt, bore a close analogy 
 to the well known mystery entitled Corpus Christi, or Ludus 
 CoventriflB, the Coventry Play ; transcripts of this play, nearly 
 if not altogether coeval with the time of its representation, are 
 yet in existence ; one in particular is preserved in the Cotton 
 Library.^ The prologue to this curious drama is delivered by 
 three persons, who speak alternately, and are called vexillators; 
 it contains the argument of the several pageants, or acts, that 
 constitute the piece, and they amount to no less than forty ; and 
 every one of these acts consists of a detached subject from the 
 holy writ, beginning with the creation of the universe and con- 
 cluding M ith the last judgment. In the first pageant, or act, the 
 
 ' Essay on tlie Origin of the English Stage, vol. i. 
 
 • Stow's Survey of London, p 76. 
 
 * Vespasian, D. viii.
 
 152 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK HI. 
 
 Deity is represented seated on his throne by himself, delivering 
 a speech of forty lines beginning thus: 
 
 " Ego sum de Alplia et Omega principium et finis. 
 
 , " My name is knowyn God and Kynge, 
 
 My worke for to make now wyl I wende, 
 In myself restyth my reyneynge. 
 It hath no gynnyg ne non ende." 
 
 The angels then enter, singing from the church service, " 1 o 
 Thee all angels cry aloud, the heavens and all the powers 
 therein ; To Thee the Cherubim and Seraphim continually do 
 cry. Holy, holy, holy Lord God of Hosts." Lucifer next makes 
 his appearance, and desires to know if the hymn they sang was 
 in honour of God or in honour of him ? The good angels readily 
 reply, in honour of God ; the evil angels incline to worship 
 Lucifer, and he presumes to seat himself in the throne of the 
 Deity ; who commands him to depart from heaven to hell, 
 which dreadful sentence he is compelled to obey, and with his 
 wicked associates descends to the lower regions. I have given 
 a much fuller account of this curious mystery in the third volume 
 of the Manners and Customs of the English People, with long 
 extracts, and from several others nearly equal in antiquity, to 
 which the reader is referred. This play was acted by the Friars 
 Minors, or Mendicant Friars, of Coventry; and commenced on 
 Corpus Christi day, w hence it received its title. Dugdale says,^ 
 for the performance of these plays they had theatres for the 
 several scenes very large and high, placed upon wheels, and 
 drawn to all (he eminent parts of the city for the better advantage 
 of the spectators. 
 
 IV.— MYSTERIES DESCRIBED, 
 The mysteries often consisted of single subjects, and made 
 but one performance. In the Bodleian Library at Oxford ^ I 
 met with two mysteries that to the best of my knowledge have 
 not been mentioned : the subject of one is the conversion of 
 Saint Paul, and of the other the casting out of the devils from 
 Mary Magdalene ; they are both very old and imperfect, 
 especially the latter, which seems to want several leaves. The 
 lirst is entitled Saulus; and after a short prologue the stage 
 direction follows, " Here outeyth Saul, goodly besene in the 
 best wyse lyke an adventrous knyth, thus sayynge, 
 ' Warwickshire, p. 116. ' Digby, 113.
 
 CHAP. 11. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 153 
 
 " Most dowtyd man, I am lyvynge upon the grounde 
 Goodly besene with many a ryche harlemeut ; 
 My pere on lyve I trow ys nott yfound 
 Thorow the world, fro the oryent to the occydent.' 
 
 The interlocutors, besides the poet who speaks the prologue, 
 and Saul, are Caiaphas, Ananias^ first and second soldiers, the 
 " Stabularyus," or hostler, the servant, and Belial. 
 
 v.— MYSTERIES, HOW ENLIVENED. 
 
 Notwithstanding the seriousness of the subjects that consti- 
 tuted these mysteries, it seems clear that they were not exhibited 
 without a portion of pantomimical fun to make them palatable to 
 the vulgar taste; and indeed the length and the dulness of the 
 speeches required some such assistance to enliven them, and 
 keep the spectators in good humour; and this may be the 
 reason why the mysteries are in general much shorter than the 
 modern plays. Beelzebub seems to have been the principal 
 comic actor, assisted by his merry troop of under-devils, who, 
 with variety of noises, strange gestures, and contortions of the 
 body, excited the laughter of the populace.^ 
 
 VJ.— THE FOOL IN PLAYS, WHENCE DERIVED— MORALITIES 
 DESCRIBED. 
 
 When the mysteries ceased to be played, the subjects for the 
 drama were not taken from historical facts, but consisttd of 
 moral reasonings in praise of virtue and condemnation of vice, 
 on which account they were called Moralities ; and these per~ 
 formances requiring some degree of invention, laid the foun- 
 dation for our modern comedies and tragedies. The dialogues 
 were carried on by allegorical characters, such as Good Doctrine, 
 Charity, Faith, Prudence, Discretion, Death, and the like, and 
 their discourses were of a serious cast ; but the province of 
 making the spectators merry, descended from the Devil in the 
 mystery, to Vice or Iniquity of the morality, who usually per- 
 sonified some bad quality incident to human nature, as Pride, 
 or Lust, or any other evil propensity. Alluding to the mimicry 
 of this motley character, Jonson, in Epig. 159, has these lines • 
 
 " But the old Vice 
 
 Acts old Iniquity, and in the fit 
 
 Of mimicry gets th' opinion of a wit." 
 
 In the Staple of Newes, acted A.D. 1625, it is said, " Iniquity 
 
 ' Seethe Manners anii Customs of tlie English, where this subject is treated upon 
 more largely.
 
 154 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK 117. 
 
 came in like Hokos-pokos in a jugler's jerkin, with false skirts 
 like the knave of clubs ;" and afterward, " Here is never a fiend 
 to carry him, the Vice, away; besides, he has never a wooden 
 dagger : I 'd not give a rush for a Vice that has not a wooden 
 dagger to snap at every one he meetes :" in another part, the 
 Vice is described, " in his long coat, shaking his wooden 
 dagger." Hence it appears this character had a dress peculiar 
 to himself. Philip Stubs, in his Anatomic of Abuses, printed 
 A.J). 1595, says, " You must go to the playhouse if you will 
 learne to play the Vice, to sweare, teare, and blaspheme both 
 heaven and hell :" and again, " Who can call him a wise man, 
 who playeth the part of a Foole or a Vice ? " I remember to 
 have seen a stage direction for the Vice, to lay about him lustily 
 with a great pole, and tumble the characters one over the other 
 with great noise and riot, " for dysport sake." Even when 
 regular tragedies and comedies were introduced upon the stage, 
 we may trace the decendants of this facetious Iniquity in the 
 clowns and the fools which so frequently disgraced them. The 
 great master of human nature, in compliance with the false taste 
 of the age in which he lived, has admitted this motley character 
 into the most serious parts of one of his best tragedies. Tlie pro- 
 pensity to laugh at the expense of good sense and propriety, is 
 well ridiculed in the " Intermeane" at the end of the first act of 
 the Staple of Newes, by Jonson, and again in the Preludiura to 
 the Careless Shepherdess, a pastoral tragi-comedy by Thomas 
 GoflTe, in 1656, where several characters are introduced upon the 
 stage as spectators, waiting for the commencement of the per- 
 formnnce. One of them says : 
 
 Why, I would have a fool in every act. 
 
 Be 't comedy or tragedy ; I 've laugh'd 
 
 Unt'.' I cr'yd again, to see what faces 
 
 Tlie rogue will make . Oh ! it does me good 
 
 To see him hold out 's chin, hang down his hands, 
 
 And twirle his bawble. There is nere a part 
 
 About him but breaks jests. I heard a fellow 
 
 Once on the stage, cry doodle doodle dooe 
 
 Beyond compare ; I 'de give th' other shilling 
 
 To see him act the ChangUng once again. 
 
 To this another character replies. 
 
 And so would I ; his part has all the wit. 
 For none speakes, carps, and quibbles besides him ; 
 I'd rather see him leap, or laugh, or cry. 
 Than hear the gravest speech in all the play ; 
 I never saw Rheade peeping through the curtain, 
 But ravishing joy entered into my heart.
 
 CHAP. II. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND 1.55 
 
 A boy then comos upon the stage, and the first speaker in- 
 quires for the Fool ; but being told he is not to perform that 
 night, he says — 
 
 Well, since there will be nere a fool i' tb' play, 
 I '11 have my money again ; the comedy 
 Will be as tedious to me as a sermon. 
 
 VII.— SECULAR PLAYS. 
 The plays mentioned in the preceding pages, and especially 
 the miracles and mysteries, differed greatly from tiie secular 
 plays and interludes which were acted by strolling companies, 
 composed of minstrels, jugglers, tumblers, dancers, bourdours 
 or jesters, and other performers properly qualified for the dif- 
 ferent parts of the entertainment, which admitted of a variety 
 of exhibitions. These pastimes are of higher antiquity than the 
 ecclesiastical plays ; and they were much relished not only bv 
 the vulgar part of the people, but also by the nobility. The 
 courts of the kings of England, and the castles of the great 
 earls and barons, were crowded with the performers of the 
 secular plays, where they were well received and handsomely 
 rewarded;' vast sums of money were lavishly bestowed upon 
 these secular itinerants, which induced the monks and other 
 ecclesiastics to turn actors themselves, in order to obtain a 
 share of the public bounty. But to give the better colouring 
 to their undertaking, they took the subjects of their dialogues 
 from the holy writ, and performed them in the churches. The 
 secular showmen, however, retained their popularity notwith- 
 standing- the exertions of their clerical rivals, who diligently 
 endeavoured to bring them into disgrace, by bitterly inveighing 
 againstthe filthiness and immorality of their exhibitions.^ On the 
 other hand, the itinerant players sometimes invaded the province 
 of the churchmen, and performed their mysteries, or others 
 similar to them, as we find from a petition presented to Richard II. 
 by the scholars of Saint Paul's school, wherein complaint is 
 made against the secular actors, because they took upon them- 
 selves to act plays composed from the scripture history, to the 
 great prejudice of the clergy, who had been at much expense 
 to prepare such performances for public exhibition at the festival 
 
 ' See more upon this subject in the following chapter. 
 
 ' By writing and preaching against them. A monkish author of the twelfth century 
 says of them. " P^tiam illi quo obscaenio partibus corporis oculis omnium earn ingerunt 
 turpitudinem, quam erubescat videre vei cynicus, &c." Job. Saiisburensis de Nugia 
 Curialium, lib. i. cap. viii. p. 34.
 
 156 SPOttTS AND PASTIMES BOOK III. 
 
 of Christmas, 1378. But, generally speaking, the secular plays 
 had nothing to do with religion ; and if an early writer of our 
 own country, John of Salisbury, may be fully credited, but 
 little with morality : they consisted of comic tales, dialogues, 
 and stories, to which were added coarse and indecent jests, in- 
 termixed with instrumental music, singing-, dancing, tumbling, 
 gesticulation, and mimicry, to excite laughter, without the least 
 regard to decency ; and for this reason the clergy were pro- 
 hibited from going to see them. In 1519 Cardinal Wolsey, in 
 his regulations for the monastery of the canons regular of Saint 
 Austin, forbad the brethren to be players, or mimics; but the 
 prohibition meant, that they should not go abroad to exercise 
 those talents in a secular or mercenary capacity.^ 
 
 VIIT.— INTERLUDES. 
 
 The interludes, which, I presume, formed a material part of 
 the performances exhibited by the secular players, were cer- 
 tainly of a jocular nature, consisting probably of facetious or 
 satirical dialogues, calculated to promote mirth, and therefore 
 they are censured by Matthew Paris ^ as " vain pastimes." Some- 
 thing of this kind was the representation made before king 
 Henry Vlll. at Greenwich, in 1528, thus related by Hall ; 
 " Two persons plaied a dialogue, the effect whereof was, whether 
 riches were better than love ; and, Avhen they could not agree 
 upon a conclusion, each called in thre knightes all armed ; thre 
 of them woulde have entered the gate of the arche in the middle 
 of the chambre, and the other thre resisted ; and sodenly be- 
 tweene the six knightes, out of the arche fell downe a bar all gilte, 
 at the which bar the six knightes fought a fair battail, and then 
 they departed, and so went out of the place ; then came in an 
 olde man with a silver herd, and he concluded that love and 
 riches bothe be necessarie for princes, that is to say, by love to 
 be obeyed and served, and with riches to rewarde his lovers and 
 frendes ; and with this conclusion the dialogue ended." We 
 hereby find, that these dialogues were not only a part of the 
 entertainment, but also ingeniously made the vehicles for the 
 introduction of other sports. Sometimes they were of a sati- 
 rical nature ; and, when occasion required, they took anoth ei 
 turn, and became the agents of flattery and adulation: boti 
 
 ' Dugdale's Monast. vol. ii. p. 568. * Vitse Abbatum, p. 6.
 
 CHAP. II. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 157 
 
 these purposes were answered by the following dialog-ue, taken 
 from the author just now quoted : " On Sonday at night the 
 fifteenth of June, 1523, in the great halle at Wyndsore," the 
 emperor Maximilian and Henry Vlll. being present, " was a 
 disguisiyng or play ; the effect of it was, that there was a proud 
 horse which would not be tamed nor bridled ; but Amitie sent 
 Prudence and Policie which tamed him, and Force and Puis- 
 sance brideled him. This horse was meant by the Frenche 
 kyng,^ and Amitie by the kynge of England, and the emperor 
 and the other persons were their counsail and power," 
 
 IX.— DEFINITION OF TRAGEDIES IN CHAUCER'S TIME. 
 
 Comedies were not known, nor tragedies according to the 
 modern acceptation of the word in Chaucer's time ; for what 
 he calls tragedies, are simply tales of persons who have fallen 
 from a state of prosperity, or worldly grandeur, to great ad- 
 versity ; as he himself tells us in the following lines: 
 
 Tragedy is to tel a certayne story, 
 As olde bokes maken memory, 
 Of them that stode in great prosperite. 
 And be fallen out of bye degre 
 Into misery and ended wretchedly .2 
 
 X.— PLAYS PERFORMED IN CHURCHES. 
 The ecclesiastical plays, as we observed before, were usually 
 performed in churches, or chapels, upon temporary scaffolds 
 erected for that purpose; and sometimes, when a sufficient 
 number of clerical actors were not to be procured, the church- 
 wardens and chief parishioners caused the plays to be acted by 
 the secular players, in order to collect money for the defraying 
 of the church expenses ; and in many instances they borrowed 
 the theatrical apparel from other parishes when they had none 
 of their own. The acting of plays in churches was much de- 
 claimed against by the religious writers of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury ; and Bonner, bishop of London, in 1542, the thirty-third 
 year of the reign of Henry Vlll., issued a proclamation to the 
 clergy of his diocese, prohibiting all manner of common plays, 
 games, or interludes, to be played, set forth, or declared, witli- 
 in their churches or chapels. 
 
 ' Or rather we should say, the French king was meant by the horse, &c. 
 » Prologue to the Monk's Tale, which consists of seventeen short stories or trage 
 iies, of which, he tells us, he had an hundred in his cell.
 
 158 SPORTS AND PASTIMES ItOOK HI. 
 
 XI.— CORNISH MIRACLE PLAYS. 
 In Cornivall the miracle plays were differently represented: 
 they were not performed in the churches, nor under any kind 
 of cover, but in the open air, as we learn from Carew, whose 
 words upon this subject are as follow : " The g-uary-miracle, m 
 English, a miracle play, is a kind of interlude compiled in 
 Cornish out of some scripture history, with that grossness 
 which accompanied the Romanes vetus comedia. For repre- 
 senting it, they raise an earthen amphitheatre in some open field, 
 having the diameter of his enclined plain some forty or fifty 
 feet. The country people flock from all sides many miles of, 
 to hear and see it, for they have therein devils and devices to 
 delight as well the eye as the eare. The players conne not 
 their parts without booke, but are prompted by one called the 
 ordinary, who followeth at their backs with the book in his 
 hand, and telleth them what to say." ^ In the Harleian Library 
 is preserved a miracle play of this kind in the Cornish language, 
 written by William Gordon, A. D. IGll, accompanied with an 
 English translation by John Keygwyn, A. D. 1693. It begins 
 with the creation and ends with Noah's flood. Noah himself 
 concludes the play, with an address to the spectators, desiring 
 them to " come to-morrow betimes " to see another play on the 
 redemption of man ; and then speaking to the musicians, says, 
 " Musicians, play to us, that we may dance together as is the 
 manner of the sport." Such a ridiculous jumble of religion 
 and buffoonery might well excite the indignation of serious 
 people. This species of amusement continued to be exhibited 
 in Cornwall long after the abolition of the miracles and moralities 
 ill the other parts of the kingdom, and when the establishment 
 of regular plays had taken piace.^ 
 
 » Survey of Cornwall, Lond. 160a, p. 71. 
 
 2 [It is proper to observe, that the Harleian manuscript of the " Guary-Miracle," 
 referred to by Mr. Strutt, entitled " The Creation of the World, with Noah's Flood, 
 written in Cornish by William Jordan, with an English translation by John Kcigwin," 
 has been carefully edited byDavies Gilbert Esq. M.P. F.R.S. F.S.A. &c. and printed 
 by Mr. J. B. Nichols in one volume 8vo. 1827. Mr. Davies Gilbert, who, subsequent 
 to that work was elected president of the Royal Society, had previously edited and 
 given to the public a remarkable Cornish poem called " Mount Calvary," also trans- 
 lated by John Keigwin, with a memoir of Keigwin, and some particulars of his 
 family, by Nicholas Harris Nicolas, esq. F.S.A. These two volumes, and another 
 on " Ancient Christmas Carols, with the tunes to which they were formerly sung in 
 the West of England,"' also by Mr. Gilbert, are highly valuable additions to our 
 metrical and dramatic archfeologia. The airs of the carols are especially curious ; and 
 the preface to them contains accounts of a versified play exhibiting the prowess of 
 St. George over a Mahometan adversaiy, and of a rustic farce which usually followed 
 it.T
 
 CHAP. II. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. i^ 
 
 XII.— CHARACTER OF THE OLD ITINERANT PLAYERS. 
 The itinerant players often exhibited their performances upon 
 temporary scaffolds as late as the reig^n of queen Elizabeth. A 
 writer of that time, who is very severe against them, says, 
 " They are called histriones, or rather histrices, which play, upon 
 scaffolds and stages, enterludes and comedies ; " he then launches 
 out most furiously, calling them "jugglers, scoffers, jeasters, 
 and players," and ranks them with the lowest and most vicious 
 of mankind.^ 
 
 Xin.— COURT PLAYS. 
 
 There was another species of entertainment which differed 
 materially from any of the pastimes mentioned in the preceding 
 pages, I mean the ludi, or plays exhibited at court in the 
 Christmas holidays: we trace them as far back as the reign of 
 Edward III. The preparations made for them at that time are 
 mentioned without the least indication of novelty, which admits 
 of the supposition that they were still more ancient. From the 
 numeration of the dresses appropriated in 1348 to one of these 
 plays, which consisted of various kinds of disguisements, they 
 seem to have merited rather the denomination of mummeries 
 than of theatrical divertisements.^ The king then kept his 
 Christmas at his castle at Guildford ; the dresses are said to be 
 ad faciendum ludos domini regis, and consisted of eighty tunics 
 of buckram of various colours ; forty-two visors of different 
 similitudes, namely, fourteen of faces of women, fourteen of faces 
 of men, and fourteen heads of angels made with silver ; twenty- 
 eight crests ; fourteen mantles embroidered with heads of 
 dragons; fourteen M'hite tunics wrought with the heads and 
 wings of peacocks ; fourteen with the heads of swans with 
 wings; fourteen tunics painted with the eyes of peacocks ; four- 
 teen tunics of English linen painted ; and fourteen other tunics 
 embroidered with stars of gold.^ How far these plays were en- 
 livened by dialogues, or interlocutory eloqiience is not known ; 
 but probably they partook more of the feats of pantomime than 
 of colloquial excellency, and were better calculated to amuse 
 the sight than to mstruct the mind. 
 
 The magnificent pageants and disguisings frequently exhibited 
 
 ' A treatise against dicing, dancing, vsiin plays, or interludes, &c. by John North- 
 brook e. 
 * Wardrobe roll of Edward IH. 
 « Warton's Hist. Eng. Poet. vol. i. p. 238.
 
 160 
 
 SPORTS AND PASTIMES 
 
 JIOOX III. 
 
 at court in the succeeding times, and especially in tlie reign of 
 Henry VIII., no doubt originated from the ludi above men- 
 tioned. These mummeries, as a modern writer justly observes, 
 were destitute of character and humour, their chief aim being 
 to surprise the spectators " by the ridiculous and exaggerated 
 oddity of the visors, and by the singularity and splendour of 
 the dresses ; every thing was out of nature and propriety. 
 Frequently the masque was attended with an exhibition of 
 gorgeous machinery, resembling the wonders of a modern pan- 
 tomime." ^ 
 
 The reader may form some judgment of the appearance the 
 actors made upon these occasions, from the following : 
 
 47. Mummers. — XIV. Cf.ntup.y. 
 
 These, and the other figures m the subjoined engraving, are 
 taken from a beautiful manuscript in the Bodleian Library, 
 written and illuminated in the reign of Edward III.^ 
 
 48. MlTMMEHS.— XIV. Centttiiv. 
 
 The performance seems to have consisted chiefly in dancing, 
 and the mummers are usually attended by the minstrels playing 
 upon different kinds of musical instruments. 
 
 • Warton, vol. iii. p. 156. See also Dr. Henry, Hist. Brit. vol. vi. book vi. chap. 7. 
 No, 264. This MS. was completed ia the year 1343.
 
 CHAP. 11. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 161 
 
 Many of these stately shows are described at length by Hall 
 and Holinshed ; and, as some of my readers may not have those 
 authors near at hand, I will subjoin the account of two of them 
 in Hall's own words. In the fifth year of the reign of Henry VIII, 
 his majesty kept his Christmas at Greenwich ; and, " according- 
 to olde custome," on twelfth night,' " there came," says the his- 
 torian, " into the greate hall, a mount called the riche mount. 
 This mount was set full of riche flowers of silke, and especially 
 of brome^ slippes full of poddes, the branches were grene sattin, 
 and the flowers flat gold of damaske which signified Plantage- 
 net : on the top stood a goodly bekon^ giving light, rounde 
 above the bekon sat the king and five other al in coates and 
 cappes of right crimosin velvet, embroudered with flat gold of 
 damaske, their coates set full of spangelles of gold; and foure 
 woodhouses drew the mount 'till it came before the queen, and 
 then the kyng and his compaigne discended and daunced; then 
 suddainly the mount opened, and out came six ladies all in 
 crimosin satin and plunket, embroudered with golde and perle, 
 with Frenche hoodes on their heddes, and they daunced alone. 
 Then the lordes of the mount tooke the ladies and daunced 
 together, and the ladies re-entered, and the mount closed, and 
 so was conveyed out of the hall."^ The woodhouses, in the 
 preceding quotation, or wodehouses, as they are sometimes 
 called, were wild or savage men ; and in this instance, men 
 dressed up with skins, or rugs resembling skins, so as to appear 
 like savages. These pageants were frequently moveable and 
 drawn upon wheels. In honour of the marriage of Arthur, 
 prince of Wales, with Catherine of Spain, there were three 
 pageants exhibited in Westminster Hall, which succeeded each 
 other, and were all of them drawn upon wheels : the first was 
 a castle with ladies ; the second a ship in full sail, that cast 
 anchor near the castle ; and the third a mountain with several 
 armed knights upon it, who stormed the castle, and obliged the 
 ladies to surrender. The show ended in a dance, and the page- 
 antry disappeared.** 
 
 XIV.— PLAY IN HONOUR OF THE PRINCESS MARY. 
 
 In the tenth year of the same king's reign, in honour of his 
 sister the princess Mary's marriage with the king of France,^ 
 
 » Vita Hen. VIII. fol. 59. » Broom. « Beacon, 
 
 « Hall's Union. Vita Hen. VTII. fol. 9. * Harl. MS. 69, p. 31 
 
 ^ October the eighth. 
 
 M
 
 162 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK in. 
 
 there was exhibited in the great hall at Greenwich, " a rock 
 ful of al maner of stones very artificially made, and on the top 
 stood fire trees : the first was an olive tree, on which hanged 
 a shield of the armes of the church of Rome ; the second was a 
 pyne aple tree,' with the arms of the emperor ; the third was 
 a rosyer,2 ^JjIj i\^q armes of England ; the fourth a braunche of 
 lylies, bearing the armes of France; and the fifth a pomegranet 
 tree, bearing the armes of Spayn ; in token that all these five 
 potentates were joined together in one league against the enemies 
 of Christe's fayth : in and upon the middes of the rock satte a 
 fayre lady, richely appareyled, with a dolphin in her lap. In 
 this rock were ladies and gentlemen appareled, in crimosyn 
 sattyn, covered over with floures of purple satyn, embroudered 
 with wrethes of gold knit together with golden laces, and on 
 every floure a hart of gold moving. The ladies' tyer^ was after 
 the fashion of Inde, with kerchiefes of pleasaunce"* hached 
 with fynegold, and set with letters of Greeke in gold of bullion, 
 and the edges of their kerchiefes were garnished with hanging 
 perle. These gentlemen and ladyes sate on the neyther part of 
 the rock, and out of a '^ave m the same rock came ten knightes 
 armed at all poyntes, and faughte together a fayre tournay. And 
 when they were severed and departed, the disguysers dissended 
 from the rock and daunced a great space, and sodeynly the rock 
 moved and receaved the disguysers and imediately closed agayn. 
 Then entred a person called report, appareled in crymosyn satin 
 full of tongues, sitting on a flying horse with wynges and feete 
 of gold called Pegasus ; this person in Frenche declared the 
 meaning of the rocks, the trees, and the tourney." ^ 
 
 XV.— PLAY OF HOCK-TUESDAY. 
 Among the pastimes exhibited for the entertainment of queen 
 Elizabeth during her stay at Kenelworth Castle, Warwickshire, 
 was a kind of historical play, or old storial show, performed by 
 certain persons who came for that purpose from Coventry. It 
 was also called the old Coventry play of Hock-Tuesday, but 
 must not be confounded with the Ludus de Corpus Christi, or 
 Coventry Mystery, mentioned before, to which it did not bear 
 the least analogy. The subject of the Hock-Tuesday show 
 was the massacre of the Danes, a memorable event in the 
 
 ' Pine apple. * A rose tree, * Head dress. 
 
 * Pleasaunce was a fine tliin species of gauze, which was striped with gold. 
 « Hal), ut sup fol. 59.
 
 CHAP. If. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 163 
 
 Eng-Iish history, on St. Brice's night, November 13, 1002, 
 which was expressed " in action and in rhimes." It is said to 
 have been annually acted in the town of Coventry, according- 
 to ancient custom ; but that it was suppressed soon after the re- 
 formation, at the instance of some of their preachers, whose 
 good intention the towns-people did not deny, but complained 
 of their severity; urging in behalf of the show, that it was 
 " without ill example of manners, papistry, or any superstition." ' 
 The rhimes originally belonging to the play, I presume, were 
 omitted upon the abovementioned occasion ; ^ for it appears to 
 have been performed without any recitation in mere dumb show, 
 and consisted of hot skirmishes and furious encounters between 
 the English and the Danish forces : first by the launce knights 
 on horseback, armed with spears and shields, who being many 
 of them dismounted fought with swords and targets. Then fol- 
 lowed two " host of foot men," one after the other, first marching 
 in ranks, then, turning about in a warlike manner, they changed 
 their form from ranks into squadrons, then into triangles, then into 
 rings, and then " winding out again they joined in battle; twice 
 the Danes had the better, but at the last conflict they were beaten 
 down, overcome, and many of them led captive for triumph by 
 our English women." Her majesty was much pleased with this 
 performance, " whereat," says my author, " she laughed well," 
 and rewarded the actors with two bucks, and five marks in 
 money ; and with this munificence they were highly satisfied.^ 
 
 XVI.— DECLINE OF SECULAR PLAYS. 
 
 The secular plays, as we have seen, consisted of a medley oi 
 diflferent performances, calculated chiefly to promote mirth 
 without any view to instruction ; but soon after the production 
 of regular plays, when proper theatres were established, the 
 motley exhibitions of the strolling actors were only relished by 
 the vulgar ; the law set her face against them, the performers 
 were stigmatised with the names of rogues and vagabonds, and 
 all access was denied them at the houses of the opulent. They 
 depended of course upon the precarious support derived from 
 the favours of the lower classes of the people, which was not 
 
 • Laneham's account of the sports at Kenelworth Castle, in Nichols's Progresses of 
 queen Elizabeth, voL i. p. 22. 
 
 * Owing to the discontinuance of the play they might have been lost, and probably 
 the time did not permit them to be written anew. Reliq. Anc. Poet. vol. i. p. 142. 
 
 ^ Laneham ut Bupra, p. 24. 
 
 M 2
 
 164 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK III. 
 
 sufficient to enable them to appear w th their former credit; 
 their companies were necessarily divided, and their performances 
 became less worthy of notice, every one of them endeavouring 
 to shift for himself in the best manner that he could ; or a few 
 of them uniting their abilities as occasion might serve, ex- 
 hibited at wakes and fairs, and lived upon the contributions of 
 rustics and children. The tragitour now became a mere juggler, 
 and played a few paltry tricks occasionally, assisted by the 
 bourdour, or jester, transformed into a modern jack-pudding. 
 It is highly probable, that necessity suggested to him the idea of 
 •supplying the place of his human confederates by automaton 
 figures made of wood, which, by means of wires properly at- 
 tached to them, were moved about, and performed many of the 
 actions peculiar to mankind ; and, with the assistance of speeches 
 made for them behind the scenery, produced that species of 
 drama commonly distinguished by the appellation of a droll, or 
 a puppet-play ; wherein a facetious performer, well known by 
 the name of Punchinello, supplied the place of the Vice, or 
 mirth-maker, a favourite character in the moralities. In modern 
 days this celebrated actor, who has something to say to the 
 greater part of his auditory, is called plain Punch. In the 
 moralities, the DeviLjisually carried away the Iniquity, or Evil, 
 at the conclusion of the drama ;^ and, in compliance with the 
 old custom. Punch, the genuine descendant of the Iniquity, is 
 constantly taken from the stage by the Devil at the end of the 
 puppet-show. Ben Jonson, by way of burlesque, in the comedy 
 entitled "The Devil is an Asse," reveises the ancient usage, and 
 makes the Iniquity run away with the Fiend, saying — 
 
 The Divell was wont to carry away the Evill, 
 
 But now the Evill out-carries the Divell. — Act v. scene 6. 
 
 The first appearance of a company of wooden actors excited, 
 no doubt, the admiration of the populace, and the novelty of such 
 an exhibition was probably productive of much advantage to the 
 inventor. I cannot pretend to determine the time that puppet-plays 
 were first exhibited in England. I rather think this species of en- 
 tertainment originated upon the continent. Cervantes has made 
 Don Quixote a spectator at a puppet-show, and the knight's 
 behaviour upon this occasion is described with great humor. 
 The puppets were originally called motions ; we find them 
 mentioned in Gammer Gurton's Needle, which is supposed to 
 
 ' See eect. vi. p. 153.
 
 CHAP. II. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 10*5 
 
 have been written in 1517; and there the master of the puppet- 
 show seems to have been considered as no better than an idle 
 vagrant. One of the characters says, he will go " and travel 
 with young Goose, the motion-man, for a puppet-player." 
 
 X VII.— ORIGIN OF PUPPET-PL A. YS. 
 Previous to the invention of puppets, or rather to the incor- 
 porating of them into companies, there were automatons that 
 performed variety of motions. The famous rood, or crucifix, 
 at Boxley in Kent, described by Lambarde, was a figure of 
 this kind, which moved its eyes, and turned its head whenever 
 the monkish miracle workers required its assistance. The jack 
 of the clock-house, often mentioned by the writers of the six- 
 teenth century, was also an automaton, that either struck the 
 hours upon the bell in their proper rotation, or signified by its 
 gestures that the clock was about to strike. In a humorous 
 pamphlet called Lanthorn and Candle, or the Bellman's Second 
 Walk, published at London, 1605, it is said, " The Jacke of 
 the Clocke-house goes upon screws, and his ofiice is to do 
 nothing but strike;" and in an old play still more early, " He 
 shakes his heade and throws his arms about like the Jacke of 
 the Clocke-house." The name of Jack of the Clock-house was 
 also given to a certain description of thieves. From these 
 figures, I doubt not, originated the more modern heroes of the 
 puppet-show. 
 
 XVIII.— NATURE OF PERFORMANCES BY PUPPETS. 
 The puppet-shows usually made their appearance at great 
 fairs, and especially at those in the vicinity of the metropolis ; 
 they still ' continue to be exhibited in Smithfield at Bar- 
 tholomew-tide, though with very little traces of their former 
 greatness ; indeed, of late years, they have become impopular, 
 and are frequented only by children. It is, however, certain, 
 that the puppet-shows attracted the notice of the public at the 
 commencement of the last century, and rivalled in some degree 
 the more pompous exhibitions of the larger theatres.^ Powel, 
 a famous puppet-show man, is mentioned in one of the early 
 papers of the Spectator,^ and his performances are humorously 
 contrasted with tho.se of the Opera House. At the same time 
 
 ' [In 1801.] ' See the lutrod action. 
 
 ' No. xiv. vol. i. firsi publisbed in 1711.
 
 166 SPOUTS AND PASTIMES BOOK HI. 
 
 there was another motion-master, who also appears to have been 
 of some celebrity, named Crawley; I have before me two bills 
 of his exhibition, one for Bartholomew Fair, and the other for 
 Southwark Fair. These are preserved in a miscellaneous col- 
 lection of advertisements and title-pages among the Harleian 
 MSS.' The first of these bills runs thus: "At Crawley's 
 Booth, over against the Crown Tavern in Smithfield, during 
 the time of Bartholomew Fair, will be presented a little opera, 
 called the Old Creation of the World, yet newly revived ; with 
 the addition of Noah's Flood ; also several fountains playing 
 water during the time of the play. — The last scene does present 
 Noah and his family coming out of the Ark, with all the beasts 
 two and two, and all the fowls of the air seen in a prospect 
 sitting upon trees; likewise over the ark is seen the Sun rising 
 in a most glorious manner: moreover, a multitude of Angels 
 will be seen in a double rank, which presents a double prospect, 
 one for the sun, the other for a palace, where will be seen six 
 Angels ringing of bells. — Likewise Machines descend from 
 above, double and treble, with Dives rising out of Hell, and 
 Lazarus seen in Abraham's bosom, besides several figures 
 dancing jiggs, sarabands, and country dances, to the admira- 
 tion of the spectators ; with the merry conceits of squire Punch 
 and sir John Spendall." This curious medley was, we are 
 told, " completed by an Entertainment of singing, and dancing 
 M ith several naked swords, performed by a Child of eight 
 years of age." In the second bill, we find the addition of 
 " the Ball of little Dogs ;" it is also added, that these celebrated 
 performers had danced before the queen (Anne) and most of 
 the quality of England, and amazed every body. 
 
 XIX.— GIANTS AND OTHER PUPPET CHARACTERS. 
 
 The subjects of the puppet-dramas were formerly taken from 
 some well known and popular stories, with the introduction of 
 knights and giants ; hence the following speech in the Hu- 
 morous Lovers, a comedy, printed in 1617: " They had like to 
 have frighted me with a man dressed up like a gyant in a 
 puppet-show." In my memory, these shows consisted of a 
 wretched display of wooden figures, barbarously formed and 
 decorated, without the least degree of taste or propriety ; the 
 wires that communicated the motion to them appeared at the tops 
 
 > m.!>9SU
 
 CHAP. II. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND, 167 
 
 of their heads, and the manner in which they were made to move, 
 evinced the ignorance and inattention of the managers ; the 
 dialogues were mere jumbles of absurdity and nonsense, inter- 
 mixed with low immoral discourses passing between Punch 
 and the fiddler, for the orchestra rarely admitted of more than 
 one minstrel; and these flashes of merriment were made offen- 
 sive to decency by the actions of the puppet. In the reign 
 of James II. there was a noted merry-andrew named Philips; 
 " This man," says Granger, " was some time fiddler to a pup- 
 pet-show ; in which capacity he held many a dialogue with 
 Punch, in much the same strain as he did afterwards with the 
 mountebank doctor, his master upon the stage. This zany, 
 being regularly educated, had confessedly the advantage of his 
 brethren."' 
 
 XX.— PUPPET-PLAYS SUPPRESSED BY PANTOMIMES. 
 The introduction, or rather the revival of pantomimes, which 
 indeed have long disgraced the superior theatres, proved the 
 utter undoing of the puppet-show men ; in fact, all the ab- 
 surdities of the puppet-show, except the discourses, are retained 
 in the pantomimes, the difference consisting principally in the 
 substitution of living puppets for m ooden ones ; but it nmst be 
 confessed, though nothing be added to the rationality of the 
 performances, great pains is taken to supply the defect, by 
 fascinating the eyes and the ears ; and certainly the brilliancy of 
 the dresses and scenery, the skilful management of the ma. 
 chinery, and the excellence of the music, in the pantomimes, 
 are great improvements upon the humble attempts of the vagrant 
 motion-master 
 
 XXI.— THE MODERN PUPPET-SHOW MAN. 
 
 In the present day, the puppet-show man travels about the 
 streets when the weather will permit, and carries his motions, 
 with the theatre itself, upon his back ! The exhibition takes 
 place in the open air ; and the precarious income of the miserable 
 itinerant depends entirely on the voluntary contributions of the 
 spectators, which, as far as one may judge from the square 
 appearance he usually makes, is very trifling. 
 
 A few years back,^ a puppet-show was exhibited at the court 
 end of the town, with the Italian title Fantoccini, which greatly 
 
 ' Biogr. Hist, to), iv. p. 350. » [Before 1801.]
 
 168 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK llf. 
 
 attracted the notice of the public, and was spoken of as an 
 extraordinary performance: it was, however, no more than a 
 puppet-show, *vith the motions constructed upon better prin- 
 ciples, dressfd with more elegance, and managed with greater 
 art, than they had formerly been. 
 
 XXII.— MOVING PICTURES. 
 
 Another species of scenic exhibition with moving, figures, 
 bearing some distant analogy to the puppets, appeared at the 
 commencement of the last century. Such a show is thus 
 described in the reign of queen Anne, by the manager of a 
 show exhibited at the great house n the Strand, over against 
 the Globe Tavern, near Hungerford Market ; the best places at 
 one shilling, and the others at sixpence each : " To be seen, 
 the greatest Piece of Curiosity that ever arrived in England, 
 being made by a famous engineer from the camp before Lisle, 
 who, with great labour and industry, has collected into a 
 moving picture the following figures : first, it doth represent 
 the confederate camp, and the army lying intrenched before 
 the town ; secondly, the convoys and the mules with prince 
 Eugene's baggage ; thirdly, the English forces commanded by 
 the duke of Marlborough ; likewise, several vessels, laden with 
 provisions for the army, which are so artificially done as to 
 seem to drive the water before them. The city and the citadel 
 are very fine, with all its outworks, ravelins, hornworks, coun- 
 ter-scarps, half-moons, and palisados; the French horse 
 marching out at one gate, and the confederate army marching 
 in at the other; the prince's travelling coach with two generals 
 in it, one saluting the company as it passes by; then a trumpeter 
 sounds a call as he rides, at the noise whereof a sleeping 
 centinel starts, and lifts up his head, but, not being espied, 
 lies down to sleep again ; besides abundance more admirable 
 curiosities too tedious to be inserted here." He then modestly 
 adds, " In short the whole piece is so contrived by art, 
 that it seems to be life and nature." These figures, I presume, 
 were flat painted images moving upon a flat surface, like those 
 frequently seen upon the tops of clocks, where a carpenter's 
 shop, or a stone-mason*s yard, are by no means unusually re- 
 presented. A juggler named Flockton, some few years back, 
 had an exhibition of this kind, which he called a grand piece 
 of clock-work. In this machine the combination of many dif-
 
 CHAP. II. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 169 
 
 ferent motions, and tolerably well contrived, were at one time 
 presented to the eye. 
 
 Pinkethman's Pantheon mentioned in the Spectator, was, I 
 presume, an exhibition something similar to that above de- 
 scribed, and probably the heathen deities were manufactured 
 from pasteboard, and seated in rows one above the other upon 
 clouds of the same material ; at least 1 have seen them so 
 fabricated, and so represented, about 1760, at a show in the 
 country, which was contrived in such a manner, that the whole 
 group descended and ascended with a slow motion to the sound 
 of luus'c.
 
 170 SPORTS 4ND PASTIMES BOOK 111. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 1. The British Bards. — II. The Northern Scalds. — III. The Anglo-Saxon Gleemen. — 
 IV. The Nature of their Performances. — V. A Royal Player with three Darts. — 
 VI. Bravery of a Minstrel in the Conqueror's Army. — VII. Other Performances 
 DV Gleemen. — VIII. The Harp an Instrument of Music much used by the Saxons. 
 — IX. The Norman Minstrels, and their different Denominations, and profes- 
 sions. — X. Troubadours. — XI. Jestours. — XII. Tales and INIanners of the Jesters. 
 — XIII. Further Illustration of their Practices. — XIV. Patronage, Privileges, and 
 Excesses of the Minstrels. — XV. A Guild of Minstrels. — XVI. Abuses and 
 Decline of Minstrelsy. — XVII. Minstrels were Satirists and Flatterers. — XVIII. 
 Anecdotes of offending Minstrels, Women Minstrels. — XIX. The Dress of the 
 Minstrels. — XX. The King of the Minstrels, why so called. — XXI. Rewards 
 given to Minstrels. — XXII. Payments to Minstrels. — XXIII. Wealth of certain 
 Minstrels. — XXIV. Minstrels were sometimes Dancing Masters. 
 
 I.— THE BRITISH BARDS. 
 
 The Britons were passionately fond of vocal and instrumental 
 music : for this reason, the bards, who exhibited in one person 
 the musician and the poet, were held in the highest estimation 
 among them. " These bards," says an early historian, ♦' cele- 
 brated the noble actions of illustrious persons in heroic poems 
 which they sang to the sweet sounds of the lyre ; " * and to this 
 testimony we may add another of equal authority ; " The British 
 bards are excellent and melodious poets, and sing their poems, 
 in which they praise some, and censure others, to the music of 
 an instrument resembling a lyre." ^ Their songs and their music 
 are said, by the same writer, to have been so exceedingly affect- 
 ing, that " sometimes when two armies are standing in order of 
 battle, with their swords drawn, and their lances extended upon 
 the point of engaging in a most furious conflict, the poets have 
 stepped in between them, and by their soft and fascinating songs 
 calmed the fury of the warriors, and prevented the bloodshed. 
 Thus, even among barbarians," adds the author, " rage gave 
 way to wisdom, and Mars submitted to the Muses." 
 
 ' Ammianus Marcell. lib. xr. cap. 9. ' Diodorus Siculus, lib. v. cap. 31.
 
 CHAP. III. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 171 
 
 II.— THE NORTHERN SCALDS. 
 
 The scalds* were the poets and the musicians of the ancient 
 northern nations ; they resembled the bards of the Britons, and 
 were held in equal veneration by their countrymen. The scalds 
 were considered as necessary appendag-es to royalty, and even 
 the inferior chieftains had their poets to record their actions and 
 mdulge their vanity. 
 
 III.— THE ANGLO-SAXON GLEEMEN. 
 
 Upon the establishment of the Saxons in Britain, these poeti- 
 cal musicians were their chief favourites ; the courts of the kings, 
 and the residences of the opulent afforded them a constant 
 asylum ; their persons were protected, and admission granted 
 to them without the least restraint. In the Anglo-Saxon language 
 they were distinguished by two appellations ; the one equivalent 
 to the modern term of gleemen or merry-makers, and the other 
 harpers, derived from the harp, an instrument they usually 
 played upon. Ghp or Ghgman ; hence Gligsamen, glee-games, 
 are properly explained in Somner's Lexicon, by merry tricks, 
 jests, sports, and gambols, which were expressive of their new 
 acquirements : Deanpejie, the appellation of harper, was long- 
 retained by the English rhymists. The gleemen added mimicry, 
 and other means of promoting mirth to their profession, as well 
 as dancing and tumbling-, with sleights of hand, and variety of 
 deceptions to amuse the spectators ; it was therefore necessary 
 for them to associate themselves into companies, by which means 
 they were enabled to diversify their performances, and render 
 many of them more surprising through the assistance of their 
 confederates. In Edgar's oration to Dunstan, the mimi, or 
 minstrels, are said to sing and dance ; and, in the Saxon canons 
 made in that king's reign, A.D. 960, (Can. 58,) it is ordered that 
 no priest shall be a poet, j-ceop, or exercise the mimical or his- 
 trionical art, in any degree, public or private.^ Lye renders 
 the words " ne snige I7ij-an sbfrge," nee ullo modo scurram agat. 
 Upon this subject we shall have occasion to speak more fully 
 hereafter. 
 
 ' Bartholia de causis contemp. a Dauis Mortis, lib. i. cap. 2, et Woimii Lit. Run. 
 ad finim. 
 
 ' Spel. Concil. torn. i. p. 4o5.
 
 172 
 
 SPORTS AND PASTIMES 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 IV.— NATURE OF THE PERFORMANCES BY THE GLEEMEN. 
 
 Representations of some of these pastimes are met with oc- 
 casionally in the early Latin and Saxon manuscripts; and where 
 they do occur, we uniformly find that the illuminators, being 
 totally ignorant of ancient customs and the habits of foreign 
 nations, have not paid the least regard to propriety in the de- 
 picting of either, but substituted those of their own time, and 
 by this means they have, without design on their part, become 
 the communicators of much valuable information. The following 
 observations upon two very early paintings will, I doubt not, 
 in great measure confirm the truth of this assertion. 
 
 49. Anglo-Saxon Dance. — VIIJ. Century. 
 
 This engraving represents two persons dancing* to the nuisic 
 of the horn and the trumpet, and it does not appear to be a 
 common dance in which they are engaged ; on the contrary, their 
 attitudes are such as must have rendered it very difficult to per- 
 form. On the next page is a curious specimen of a performer's art.
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 OF THK pr:oi>LE of England 
 
 173 
 
 50. Anglo-Saxon Gleeman. — X. Century. , 
 
 We here see a man throwing three balls and three knives al- 
 ternately into the air, and catching- them one by one as they fall, 
 but returning them again in a regular rotation. To give the 
 greater appearance of difficulty to this feat, it is accompanied 
 with the music of an instrument resembling the modern violin. 
 It is necessary to add, that these two figures, as well as those 
 dancing, previously exhibited, form a part only of two larger 
 paintings, which, in their original state, are placed as frontispieces 
 to the Psalms of David ; and in both, the artists have repre- 
 sented that monarch seated upon his throne in the act of playing 
 upon the harp or the lyre, and surrounded by the masters of 
 sacred music. In each the king is depicted considerably larger 
 than the other performers, a compliment usually paid to saints 
 and dignified persons; which absurdity has been frequently 
 practised by the more modern painters. The inferior figures 
 form a sort of border to the sides and bottom of the royal por- 
 trait. In addition to the four figures upon the engraving, No. 49, 
 and exclusive of the king, there are four more, all of them in- 
 strumental performers ; one playing upon the horn, another
 
 174 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK III. 
 
 Upon the trumpet, and the other two upon a kind of tabor or 
 drum, which, hoAvever, is beaten with a single drum-stick : the 
 manuscript in which this illumination is preserved, was written 
 as early as the eighth century, and is in the Cotton Collection 
 at the British Museum.^ The engraving, No. 50, is from a 
 painting on another manuscript in the same collection,^ more 
 modern than the former by full two centuries, which contains 
 four figures besides the royal psalmist ; the two not engraved 
 are musicians : the one is blowing a long trumpet supported by a 
 staff he holds in his left hand, and the other is winding a crooked 
 horn. In a short prologue, immediately preceding the psalms, 
 we read as follows : " David, filius Jesse, in regno suo quatuor 
 elegit qui psalmos fecerunt, id est Asaph, iEman, iEthan, et 
 Idithun;" which may be thus translated literally, " David, the 
 son of Jesse, in his reign elected four persons who composed 
 psalms, that is to say, Asaph, iEman, ^Ethan, and Idithun." 
 In the painting these four names are separately appropriated, 
 one to each of the four persons there represented ; the player 
 upon the violin is called Idithun, and iEthan is tossing up the 
 knives and the balls. 
 
 I have been thus particular in describing these curious 
 delineations, because I think they throw much light upon 
 the profession of the Anglo-Saxon gleeman, and prove that 
 his exhibitions were diversified at a very early period ; for 
 the reader, I doubt not, will readily agree with me, that dancing 
 and sleights of hand were better calculated for secular pastimes, 
 than for accompaniments to the solemn performances of sacred 
 psalmody. The honest illuminators having no ideas, as I before 
 observed, of foreign or ancient manners, saw not the absurdity 
 of making the Jewish monarch a president over a company of 
 Saxon gleemen ; they had heard, no doubt, that these personss 
 whose names they found recorded in the book of Psalms, were 
 poets and musicians; and therefore naturally concluded that 
 they were gleemen, because they knew no others who performed 
 in that double capacity but the gleemen : they knew also, that 
 these facetious artists were greatly venerated by persons of the 
 highest rank, and their company requested by kings and princes, 
 who richly rewarded them for the exercise of their talents, and 
 for this reason, conceived that they were proper companions for 
 the royal psalmist. 
 
 ' Vespasian. A. i. ' Tiberius, C. vi.
 
 CHAP. HI. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 175 
 
 v.— A ROYAL PLAYER WITH THREE DARTS. 
 
 The sleight of casting up a certain number of sharp instru" 
 ments into the air, and catching them alternately in their fall, 
 though part of the gleeman's profession, was not entirely con- 
 fined to this practice. Tt is said of Olaf Fryggeson, one of the 
 ancient kings of Norway, that he could play with three darts 
 at once, tossing them in the air, and always kept two up while 
 the third was down in his hand.' Our Saxon joculator, how- 
 ever, has the advantage of the monarch by adding the three 
 balls, which of course must have made the trick more ditiicult 
 to be performed. 
 
 VL— BRAVERY OF A MINSTREL IN THE CONQUEROR'S ARMY. 
 
 The celebrated minstrel Taillefer, who came into Englana 
 with William the Norman, was a waiTior as well as a musician. 
 He was present at the battle of Hastings, and appeared at the 
 head of the conqueror's army, singing the songs of Charlemagne 
 and of Roland ; but previous to the commencement of the action, 
 he advanced on horseback towards the army of the English, 
 and, casting his spear three times into the air, he caught it as 
 often by the iron head ; and the fourth time he threw it among 
 his enemies, one of whom he wounded in the body : he then 
 drew his sword, which he also tossed into the air as many times 
 as he had done his spear, and caught it ^ith such dexterity, 
 that those who saw him attributed his manoeuvres to the power 
 
 of enchantment. 
 
 L'un dit al altre ki co veit, 
 Ke CO esteit enchantement.^ 
 
 After he had performed these feats he galloped among the 
 English soldiers, thereby giving the Normans the signal of 
 battle ; and in the action it appears he lost his life. 
 
 VII.— OTHER PERFORMANCES BY GLEEMEN. 
 
 One part of the gleeman's profession, as early as the tenth 
 century, was, teaching animals to dance, to tumble, and fo put 
 themselves into variety of attitudes, at the command of their 
 masters. 
 
 ' Pontoppidan. Hist. Norway, p. 148. 
 
 ' Wace, Hist, de tutles Reys de Brittaigne, continued by Geoffrai Gaimer, MS. in 
 the Royal Library, marked 13 A. xjri.
 
 SPORTS AND PASTIMES 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 51. Anglo-Saxon Gleemen's Bear Dance. — X. Century. 
 
 This engraving is the copy of a curious though rude deli- 
 neation, being little more than an outline, which exhibits a spe- 
 cimen of this pastime. The principal joculator appears in the 
 front, holding a knotted switch in one hand, and a line attached 
 to a bear in the other ; the animal is lying down in obedience 
 to his command ; and behind them are two more figures, the 
 one playing upon two flutes or flageolets, and elevating his left 
 leg while he stands upon his right, supported by a staff* that 
 passes under his armpit; the other dancing, in an attitude ex- 
 ceedingly ludicrous. This performance takes place upon an 
 eminence resembling- a stage made with earth ; and in the ori- 
 ginal a vast concourse are standing round it in a semicircle as 
 spectators of the sport, but they are so exceedingly ill drawn, 
 and withal so indistinct, that I did not think it worth the pains 
 to copy them. The dancing, if I may so call it, of the flute 
 player, is repeated twice in the same manuscript. I have thence 
 selected two other figfures. 
 
 I 
 
 62. Anglo-Saxon Harper and Hoppestere. — X. Centirv.
 
 CHAP. IlT. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 177 
 
 Here we see a youth playing- upon a Iiarp with only four 
 strings, and apparently singing at the same time, while an elderly 
 man is performing the part of a buffoon or posture master, holding 
 up one of his legs, and hopping upon the other to the music. 
 Both these drawings occur in a MS. psalter in the Harleian Col 
 lection,^ written in Latin, and apparently about the middle of 
 the tenth century. It contains many drawing's, all of them ex- 
 ceedingly rude, and most of them merely outlines. We shall have 
 occasion farther on to speak more largely concerning all these 
 kinds of diversions. 
 
 VIII.— THE HARP USED BY THE SAXONS. 
 
 The bards and the scalds most assuredly used the harp to ac- 
 company their songs and modulate their voices. The Saxou 
 gleemenand joculators followed their example, and are frequently 
 called harpers for that reason ; but, at the same time, it is equally 
 certain, that they were well acquainted with several other in- 
 struments of music, as the violin, or something- very similar to 
 it; pipes or flutes of various kinds; horns and trumpets; to 
 which may be added the tabor, or drum. The harp, indeed, 
 was the most popular, and frequently exercised by persons who 
 did not follow the profession of gleemen. We learn from Bede, 
 an unquestionable authority, that, as early as the seventh cen- 
 tury, it was customary at convivial meetings to hand a harp 
 from one person to another, and every one who partook of the 
 festivity played upon it in his turn, singing a song to the music 
 for merriment sake.^ Bede says, Omnes per ordinem cantare 
 debent ; and king Alfred translates the word cantare be heajipan 
 pn^an, sing to the harp. The historian adds, that Caedmon, 
 not being acquainted with such sort of songs, gat up when he 
 saw the harp, cytharam, brought near him, and went home ; 
 the king adds the reason, Sonne apaj* he poja j'ceome, then arose 
 he for shame, not being able to comply with the general prac- 
 tice. Probably this was not the practice when the professional 
 harper was present, whose province it was to amuse the company. 
 
 IX.— THE NORMAN MINSTRELS. 
 
 Soon after the Conquest, these musicians lost the ancient 
 Saxon appellation of gleemen, and were called ministraulx, in 
 
 » No. 603. a Bede's Eccles. Hist. lib. iv. cap. 2 i. 
 
 N
 
 l78 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK III. 
 
 English minstrels, a term well known in Normandy some tune 
 Defore. They were, however, called harpers by the English 
 rhymists; but the Norman name minstrel was much more com- 
 monly used. As the minstrel's art consisted of several branches, 
 the professors were distinguished by different denominations, 
 as, " rimours, chanterres, conteours, jougleours or jongleurs, 
 ^estours, lecours, and troubadours or trouvers;" in modern 
 language, rhymers, singers, story-tellers, jugglers, relators of 
 heroic actions, buffoons, and poets ; but all of them were in- 
 cluded under the general name of minstrel. In the Latin, 
 ministerellus, or ministrallus, is also called mimus, mimicus, 
 histrio, joculator, versificator, cantor, and scurra. An eminent 
 French antiquary says of the minstrels, that some of them them- 
 selves composed the subjects they sang or related, as the trouvers 
 and the conteurs ; and some of them used the compositions of 
 others, as the jogleours and the chanteurs. He farther remarks, 
 that the trouvers may be said to have embellished their pro- 
 ductions with rhyme, while the contours related their histories 
 in prose; the jugleours, who in the middle ages were famous 
 for playing upon the vielle, accompanied the songs of the trou- 
 vers. The vielle was a stringed instrument, sounded by the 
 turning of a wheel within it, resembling that which we frequently 
 see about the streets played by the Savoyards, vulgarly called 
 a hurdy-gurdy. These jugleours were also assisted by the 
 chanteurs : and this union of talents rendered the compositions 
 more harmonious and more pleasing to the auditory, and in- 
 creased their rewards, so that they readily joined each other, and 
 travelled together in large parties.' It is, however, very certain, 
 that the poet, the songster, and the musician, were frequently 
 united in the same person. 
 
 X.— TROUBADOURS. 
 
 The Norman rhymers appear to have been the genuine de- 
 scendants of the ancient Scandinavian scalds ; they Mere well 
 known in the northern part of France long* before the appearance 
 of the provincial poets called troubadours, and trouvers, that is, 
 finders, probably from the fertility of their invention. The 
 troubadours brought with them into the north a new species of 
 lang-uage called the Roman language, which in the eleventh and 
 
 ' Fauchef , Origine de la Langue et Poesie Franfoise, 1581 , liv. i. chap. viii. fol. 72. 
 
 L
 
 CHAP. III. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 179 
 
 twelfth centuries was commonly used in the southern province^ 
 of France, and there esteemed as the most perfect of any in 
 Europe. It evidently originated from the Latin, and was the 
 parent of the French tongue ; and in this language their songs 
 and their poems were composed. • These poets were much ad- 
 mired and courted, being, as a very judicious modern writer^ 
 says, the delight of the brave and the favourites of the fair ; 
 because they celebrated the achievements of the one and the 
 beauties of the other. Even princes became troubadours, and 
 wrote poems in the provincial dialect ; among others, a monarch 
 of our own country certainly composed verses of this kind. 
 The reader will, I doubt not, readily recollect the common 
 Ktory of Richard I., who, being closely confined in a castle 
 belonging to the duke of Austria, was discovered by his favourite 
 minstrel Blondel, a celebrated troubadour, through the means 
 of a poem composed by the poet, in conjunction with his royal 
 master. The story is thus related in a very ancient French author, 
 quoted by Claude Fauchet : Blondel, seeing- that his lord did 
 not return, though it was reported that he had passed the sea 
 from Syria, thought that he was taken by his enemies, and pro- 
 bably very evilly entreated ; he therefore determined to find 
 him, and for this purpose travelled through many countries 
 without success : at last he came to a small town, near which was 
 a castle belonging to the duke of Austria; and, having learned 
 from his host that there was a prisoner in the castle who had been 
 confined for upwards of a year, he went thither, and cultivated 
 an acquaintance with the keepers; for a minstrel, says the author, 
 can easily make acquaintance. However, he could not obtain 
 a sight of the prisoner, nor learn his quality ; he therefore 
 placed himself near to a window belonging to the tower wherein 
 he was shut up, and sang a few verses of a song m hich had 
 been composed conjointly by him and bis patron. The king, 
 hearing the first part of the song, repeated the second ; which 
 convinced the poet, that the prisoner was no other than Richard 
 himself. Hastening therefore into England, he acquainted the 
 barons with his adventure, and they, by means of a large sum 
 of money, procured the liberty of the monarch.^ 
 
 ' Le Grand, Fables, ou Contes des 12. 13. biecles, torn. v. 
 
 * Dr. Henry, Hist. Brit. vol. viii. sect. 3. chap. 5. p. 602- 
 
 * Fauchet des anciens Poets Franfois, liv. ii. chap. vii. p . 92 ; and see Walpole 
 Royal and Noble Authors, vol. i. p. 6. 
 
 N 2
 
 180 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK III. 
 
 XI.— JESTOURS. 
 
 The conteurs and the jestours, who are also called dissours, 
 and segg-ers, or sayers, and, in the Latin of that time, fabulatores, 
 and naratores, were literally, in English, tale-tellers, who recited 
 either their own compositions or those of others, consisting of 
 popular tales and romances, for the entertainment of public 
 companies, on occasions of joy and festivity. Gower, a writer 
 contemporary with Chaucer, describing the coronation of a 
 Roman emperor, says, 
 
 When every ministrell had playde. 
 
 And every dissour had sayde. 
 
 Which was most pleasaunt in his ear.' 
 
 In a manuscript collection of Old Stories, in the Harleian Li- 
 brary, we read of a king who kept a tale-teller on purpose to 
 lull him to sleep every night; but some untoward accident 
 having prevented him from taking his repose so readily as usual, 
 he desired the fabulator to tell him longer stories ; who obeyed, 
 and began one upon a more extensive scale, and fell asleep him- 
 self in the midst of it. 
 
 XII.— TALES AND MANNERS OF THE JESTOURS. 
 
 The jestours, or, as the word is often written in the old Englisli 
 dialect, gesters, were the relaters of the gestes, that is, the 
 actions of famous persons, whether fabulous or real ; and these 
 stories were of two kinds, the one to excite pity, and the other 
 to move laughter, as we learn from Chaucer : ^ 
 
 And jestours that tellen tales. 
 Both of wepying and of game. 
 
 The tales of game, as the poet expresses himself, were short 
 jocular stories calculated to promote merriment, in which the 
 reciters paid little respect to the claims of propriety, or even of 
 common decency. The tales of game, however, were much 
 more popular than those of weeping-, and probably for the very 
 reason that ought to have operated the most powerfully for their 
 suppression. The gestours, M'hose powers were chiefly employed 
 in the hours of conviviality, finding by experience that lessons 
 of instruction were much less seasonable at such times, than 
 idle tales productive of mirth and laughter, accommodated 
 
 ' Confessio Amai.tis, lib. vii. The thirde boke of Fame.
 
 CHAP. III. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 181 
 
 tbeir narrations to the general taste of the times, regardless of 
 the mischiefs they occasioned by vitiating the morals of their 
 hearers; hence it is, that the author of the Vision of Pierce the 
 Ploughman calls them contemptibly " japers, and juglers, and 
 ianglers of gests." ^ He describes them also as haunters of 
 taverns and common ale-houses, amusing the lower classes of 
 the people with " myrth of minstrelsy and losels tales," loose 
 vulgar tales, and calls them tale-tellers and " tutelers in ydell," 
 tutors of idleness, occasioning their auditory, " for love of tales, 
 in tavernes to drink," where they learned from them to jangle 
 and to jape, instead of attending to their more serious duties , 
 he therefore makes one to say, 
 
 I can not parfitly my pater noster as the priest it singeth, 
 But I can ryms of Rohen Hode, and Randol erl of Chester 
 But of our Lord or our Lady I lerne nothing at all : 
 I am occupied every daye, holy daye, and other, 
 With idle tales at the ale.^ — 
 
 He then blames the opulent for rewarding these " devils dis- 
 sours," as he calls them, and adds, 
 
 He is worse than Judas that givetli a japer silver.^ 
 
 The japers, I apprehend, were the same as the bourdours, 
 or rybauders, an inferior class of minstrels, and properly called 
 jesters in the modern acceptation of the word ; whose wit, like 
 that of the meny-andrews of the present day, consisted in low 
 obscenity, accompanied with ludicrous gesticulation. They 
 sometimes, however, found admission into the houses of the 
 opulent. Knighton indeed mentions one of these japers who 
 was a favourite in the English court, and could obtain any grant 
 from the king " a burdando," that is, by jesting. They are 
 well described by the poet: 
 
 As japers and janglers, Judas chyldren, 
 Fayneth them fantasies, and fooles them maketh.'* 
 
 It was a very common and a very favourite amusement, so late 
 as the sixteenth century, to hear the recital of verses and moral 
 speeches, learned for that purpose, by a set of men who obtained 
 their livelihood thereby, and who, without ceremony, intruded 
 themselves, not only into taverns and other places of public 
 resort, but also into the houses of the nobility. 
 
 ' Edition of 1550. 
 
 * The ale here evidently implies the place where ale was sold. Ibid. pas^. J. 
 
 * A reward. Ibid. pass. xi. * P. Ploughman, pass, primus
 
 18j2 sports and pastimes book mi. 
 
 Xni FURTHER ILLUSTRATION OF THEIR PRACTICES. 
 
 The different talents of the minstrels are sarcastically described 
 by an ancient French poet ; ' who, supposing a company of 
 them assembled in the hall of an opulent nobleman, says, the 
 count caused it ta be made known to them, that he Mould give 
 his best new scarlet robe to the minstrel who should occasion 
 the most merriment, either by ridiculous words or by actions, 
 la meillor truffe — dire ne faire. This proposal occasioned them 
 to strive with each other ; some of them imitated the imbecility 
 of drunkards, others the actions of fools, some sang, others 
 piped, li autre note, which properly signifies the pricking, or 
 writing of musical notes, but it is also applied to the playing 
 upon pipes and other musical instruments by note ; some talked 
 nonsense, and some made scurrilous jests; those who understood 
 the juggler's art played upon the vielle, cil qui sevent la joug- 
 lerie vielant ; and here it may be noted, that the vielle seems to 
 have been an instrument of music chiefly used by the jugglers ; 
 others of them depended on the narration of quaint fables, which 
 were productive of much laughter. So far the poet ; and, if 
 his statement be not very distant from the truth. Me shall not 
 wonder at the outcry of our moral and religious writers against 
 such a mean and mercenary set of men, who were ready at 
 command to prostitute their abilities to the worst of purposes, 
 and encourage the growth of immorality and dissipation ; the 
 charge indeed is heavy, but I fear it will be found to stand upon 
 ft strong and permanent foundation. 
 
 XIV.— PATRONAGE, PRIVILEGES, AND EXCESSES OF THE 
 MINSTRELS. 
 
 There is great reason to conclude that the professors of music 
 were more generally encouraged, and of course more numerous 
 in this country, subsequent to the Norman conquest, than they 
 had been under the government of the Saxons. We are told, 
 that the courts of princes swarmed with poets and minstrels. 
 The earls also and great barons, who in their castles emulated 
 the pomp and state of royalty, had their poets and minstrels : 
 they formed part of their household establishment ; and, ex- 
 clusive of their wages, were provided with board, lodging, and 
 
 Fabiliaux et Contes, edit. Par. torn. ii. p. 161.
 
 CHAP. IIT. OF THE PEOPLE OF KNGLAND. 183 
 
 clothing- by their patrons, and frequently travelled witli them 
 when they went from home. 
 
 These minstrels, as well as those belonging to the court, were 
 permitted to perform in the rich monasteries, and in the man- 
 sions of the nobility, which they frequently visited in large 
 parties, and especially upon occasions of festivity. Ihey en 
 tered the castles without the least ceremony, rarely waiting for 
 any previous invitation, and there exhibited their performances 
 for the entertainment of the lord of the mansion and his guests. 
 They were, it seems, admitted without any difficulty, and hand- 
 somely rewarded for the exertion of their talents. 
 
 It was no uncommon thinjj- with the itinerant minstrels to find 
 admission into the houses of the opulent. The Saxon and the 
 Danish gleemen followed the armies in the time of war, and 
 had access to both the camps without the least molestation. 
 The popular story of king Alfred, recorded by William of 
 Malmsbury and other writers, may be mentioned in proof of 
 this assertion. He, it is said, assumed the character of a glee- 
 man, sub specie mimi — ut joculatoriae professor artis,' and en- 
 tered the Danish camp, where he made such observations as 
 were of infinite service. To this we may add the authority of 
 Ingulphus, whose words are, singens se joculatorem, assumpta 
 cithara, Scc.^ This stratagem was afterwards repeated by AnlafT, 
 or AulafF, the Dane, who was equally successful. He assumed, 
 says the historian, professionem mimi, the profession of the 
 mimic, "who by this species of art makes a daily gain;" and 
 then adds, " being commanded to depart, he took with him the 
 reward for his song."^ 
 
 The extensive privileges enjoyed by the minstrels, and the 
 long continuance of the public favour, inflated their pride and 
 made them insolent; they even went so far as to claim their 
 reward by a prescriptive right, and settled its amount according 
 to the estimation they had formed of their own abilities, and the 
 opulence of the noblemen into whose houses they thought 
 proper to intrude. The large gratuities collected by these 
 artists not only occasioned great numbers to join their frater 
 nity, but also induced many idle and dissipated persons to 
 assume the characters of minstrels, to the disgrace of the pro- 
 fession. These evils l)ecame at last so notorious, that in the 
 reign of king Edward 11. it was thought necessary to restrain 
 
 • Malmsb. lib. ii. cap. 4. •' Hist. p. 869. ^ Ibid, lib ii. cap. 6.
 
 IM SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK III. 
 
 them by a public edict, which sufficiently explains the nature 
 of the grievance. It states, that many indolent persons, under 
 the colour of minstrelsy, intruded themselves into the residences 
 of the wealthy, where they had both meat and drink, but were 
 not contented without the addition of large gifts from the house- 
 holder. To restrain this abuse, the mandate ordains, that no 
 person should resort to the houses of prelates, earls, or barons, 
 to eat, or to drink, who was not a professed minstrel ; nor 
 more than three or four minstrels of honour at most in one 
 day, meaning, 1 presume, the king's minstrels and those retained 
 by the nobility, except they came by invitation from the lord of 
 the house. 
 
 Thus we read in the old romance of Launfel, 
 
 They had menstrelles of moche honours, 
 FyJelers, sytolyrs, and trompoters. 
 
 The edict also prohibits a professed minstrel from going to the 
 house of any person below the dignity of a baron, unless invited 
 by the master; and, in that case, it commands him to be con- 
 tented with meat and drink, and such reward as the house- 
 keeper willingly offered, without presuming to ask for any 
 thing. For the first offence the minstrel lost his minstrelsy, and 
 for the second he was obliged to forswear his profession, and 
 was never to appear again as a minstrel.^ This edict is dated 
 from Langley, 6, an. 9 Edward II. A.D. 1315. 
 
 XV.— A GUILD OF MINSTRELS. 
 In little more than a century afterwards, the same grievances 
 Decame again the subject of complaint ; and in the ninth year 
 of Edward IV. it was stated, that certain rude husbandmen 
 and artificers of various trades had assumed the title and livery 
 of the king's minstrels, and, imder that colour and pretence, 
 had collected money in divers parts of the kingdom, and com- 
 mitted other disorders; the king therefore granted to Walter 
 Haliday, marshal, and to sever) others, his own minstrels, named 
 by him, a charter, by M'hich he created, or rather restored, a 
 fraternit}', or perpetual guild, such as the king understood the 
 brothers and sisters of the fraternity of minstrels to have pos- 
 sessed in former time; and we shall see, a little further on, that the 
 minstrel's art, or part of it at least, was practised by females in 
 the time of the Saxons. This fraternity was to be governed by 
 
 App. to Leland'a Collect, vol. vi. p. S6.
 
 CHAP. III. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. Jgg 
 
 a marshal appointed for life, the same office as that anciently 
 possessed by the king of the minstrels,* and two wardens^ ^ho 
 were empowered to admit members into the guild, and to regulate 
 and govern, and to punish, when necessary, all such as exer- 
 cised the profession of minstrels throughout the kingdom. The 
 minstrels of Chester, who had by charter several peculiar pri- 
 vileges, are excepted in this act. 
 
 XVI.— ABUSES AND DECLINE OF MINSTRELSY. 
 It does not appear that much good was effected by the fore- 
 going institution ; it neither corrected the abuses practised by 
 the fraternity, nor retrieved their reputation, which declined 
 apace from this period. Under queen Elizabeth, the minstrels 
 had lost the protection of the opulent ; and their credit was sunk 
 so low in the public estimation, that, by a statute in the thirty- 
 ninth year of her reign against vagrants, they were included 
 among the rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy beggars, and sub- 
 jected to the like punishments. This edict also affected all 
 fencers, bearwards, common players of interludes (with the 
 exception of such players as belonged to great personages, and 
 were authorised to play under the hand and seal of their 
 patrons), as well as minstrels wandering abroad, jugglers, 
 tinkers, and pedlars; and seems to have given the death's 
 wound to the profession of the minstrels, who had so long- en- 
 joyed the public favour, and basked in the sunshine of pros- 
 perity. The name, however, remained, and was applied to 
 itinerant fiddlers and other musicians, Avhose miserable state is 
 thus described by Putenham, in his Arte of English Poesie, 
 printed in 1589:^ " Ballads and small popular musickes sung 
 by these cantabanqui upon benches and barrels heads, where 
 they have none other audience than boyes or countrye fellowes 
 that passe by them in the streete, or else by blind harpers, or 
 such like taverne minstrels that give a fit of mirth for a groat ; 
 and their matters being for the most part stories of old time, as 
 the tale of sir Topas, Bevis of Southampton, Guy of Warwick, 
 Adam Bell and Clymme of the Clough, and such other old 
 romances or historical rhimes, made purposely for the recrea- 
 tion of the common people at Christmas dinners and bride ales, 
 and in tavernes and alehouses, and such other places of base 
 
 ' At this time there was also a sergeant of the minstrels. See Essay on Ancient 
 Minstrels, Reliques of Ancient Poetry, vol. i. 
 * Bonk ii. chap. 9.
 
 186 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK II!. 
 
 resort.'* Bishop Hall, the satirist, adverts to the low estate of 
 the minstrels at this time, in the two last lines of the following 
 couplet : 
 
 Much better tbau a Paris-garden beare, 
 Or prating puppet on a theatre, 
 Or Mimoes whistHng to his tabouret, 
 Selhng a laughter for a cold meales meat.' 
 
 It is necessary, however, to observe, that public and private 
 bands of musicians were called minstrels for a considerable time 
 after this period, and without the least indication of disgrace ; 
 but then the appellation seems to have been confined to the in- 
 strumental performers, and such of them as were placed upon 
 a regular establishment : the musicians of the city of London, 
 for instance, were called indifferently waits and minstrels.^ In 
 the reign of Henry VII. there were musicians belonging to the 
 royal household, called stryng minstrels. 
 
 We hear of the itinerant musicians again in an ordinance from 
 Oliver Cromwell, dated 1656, during his protectorship, which 
 prohibits " all persons commonly called fidlers, or minstrells," 
 from " playing, fidling, and making music, in any inn, alehouse, 
 or tavern;" and also from " proflTering themselves, or desireing, 
 or intreating any one to hear them play, or make music in the 
 places aforesaid." The only vestige of these musical vagrants 
 now remaining-, is to be found in the blind fiddlers wandering 
 about the country, and the ballad singers, who frequently ac- 
 company their ditties with instrumental music, especially the 
 fiddle, vulgarly called a crowd, and the guitar. And here we 
 may observe, that the name of fiddlers was applied to the 
 minstrels as early at least as the fourteenth century ; it occurs 
 in the Vision of Pierce the Ploughman,^ where we read, " not 
 to fare as a fydeler, or a frier, to seke feastes." It is also used, 
 but not sarcastically, in the poem of Launfel.^ 
 
 XVII.— MINSTRELS WERE SATIRISTS AND FLATTERERS. 
 
 The British bards employed their musical talents in the praise 
 of heroic virtue, or in the censure of vice, apparently without 
 any great expectation of reward on the one hand, or fear of 
 punishment on the other. The Scandinavian scalds celebrated 
 
 ' Lib. iv. sat. i. * Stow's Survey of Lend. p. 81 and Si 
 
 * Pass. xi. * See p. 164.
 
 CHAP. 111. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 187 
 
 the valiant actions of tlieir countrymen in appropriate verses ; 
 and sometimes accompanied the warriors to the field of battle, 
 that they might behold their exploits and describe them with 
 more accuracy. The gleemen of the Saxons imitated their pre- 
 decessors, and attached themselves to the persons of princes and 
 chieftains, and retained their favour by continual adulation. The 
 minstrels of the Normans trod in the same steps, but seem to 
 have been more venal, and ready at all times to flatter or to 
 satirize, as best suited their interest, without paying much regard 
 to justice on either side. 
 
 XVIII.— ANECDOTES OF OFFENDING MINSTRELS. 
 
 Is is said of William Longchamp, bishop of Ely, chancellor 
 and justiciary of England, who was also the Pope's legate, and 
 a great favourite of Richard I., that he kept a number of poets 
 in his pay, to make songs and poems in his praise ; and also, 
 that with great gifts he allured many of the best singers and 
 minstrels from the continent, to sing those songs in the public 
 streets of the principal cities in England.' 
 
 It was, on the other hand, a very dangerous employment to 
 censure the characters of great personages, or hold their actions 
 up to ridicule ; for, though the satirist might be secure at the 
 moment, he was uncertain that fortune would not one day or 
 another put him into the power of his adversary, which was the 
 case with Luke de Barra, a celebrated Norman minstrel; who, in 
 his songs having made very free with the character of Henry I. of 
 England, by some untoward accident fell into the hands of the 
 irritated monarch. He condemned him to have his eyes pulled 
 out : and, when the earl of Flanders, who was present, pleaded 
 warmly in his favour, the king replied : " This man, being a 
 wit, a poet, and a minstrel, composed many indecent songs against 
 me, and sung them openly to the great entertainment of mine 
 enemies ; and, since it has pleased God to deliver him into my 
 hands, I will punish him, to deter others from the like petu- 
 lance." The cruel sentence was executed, and the miserable 
 satirist died soon after with the wounds he had received in 
 struggling with the executioner.^ The gratification of a mean 
 
 ' Benedict. Abbas, sub an. 1190. Hoveden writes thus : " Cantores et joculatores 
 de illo canerent iu plateis ; ut jam dicebatur ubique quod non erat talis in orbe ; " de- 
 claring every where that his equal was not in the world. Hist. p. 103. 
 
 » Orderic. Vitalis, Eccles. Hist. pp. 880, 881.
 
 188 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK III 
 
 revenge is a strong- mark of a little mind; and this inhumanity 
 reflects great discredit upon the king : it would have been 
 noble in him to have pardoned the luifortunate culprit. 
 
 i\gain, in the reign of king Edward II., at the solemnization 
 of the feast of Pentecost in the great hall at Westminster, when 
 that prince was seated at dinner in royal state, and attended by 
 the peers of the realm, a woman habited like a minstrel, riding 
 upon a great horse trapped in the minstrel fashion, entered the 
 hall, and, going round the several tables, imitated the gestures 
 of a mimic,' and at length mounted the steps to the royal table, 
 upon which she deposited a letter; and, having so done, she 
 turned her horse, and saluting all the company, retired. The 
 letter was found to contain some very severe reflections upon the 
 conduct of the monarch, which greatly angered him; and the 
 actress, being* arrested by his command, discovered the author 
 of the letter, who acknowledged the oflTence and was pardoned ; 
 but the door-keeper, being reprimanded on account of her ad- 
 mission, excused himself, by declaring it had never been custo- 
 mary to prevent the entry of minstrels and persons in disguise- 
 ments, upon the supposition that they came for the entertain- 
 ment of his majesty .2 This woman had probably assumed the 
 habit of a man, and a female was chosen on this occasion, ac- 
 cording to the opinion of an eminent modern author, Dr. Percy, 
 bishop of Dromore,^ because, upon detection, her sex might 
 plead for her, and disarm the kmg's resentment. It is, how- 
 ever, certain that at this time, and long before it, there were 
 women who practised the minstrel's art, or at least some branches 
 of it. We read of the glee-maidens, or female minstrels, 
 from gilp-meben and glypienbe-maben, in the Saxon records ; 
 and I believe, that their province in general was to dance and 
 to tumble, whence they acquired the name of tomblesteres, from 
 the Saxon tumbian, to dance or tumble, and saylours, from 
 salio, to leap or dance, in the time of Chaucer, who uses both 
 these denominations.'* 
 
 ' The author uses these words : " Intravit quaedam mulier ornata histrionali habitu, 
 equum bonuminsidens histrionaliterphaleratum.quEe snensas more histrionemcircuivit," 
 &c. 'J'ho. Walsingiiana, Hist. Anglse sub an. 1317, p. 85. 
 
 ' Non esse moris domus regiae histriones ab ingressu quemlibet pro!)ibere. 
 
 ^ Essay upon Ancient Minstrels, in Reliques of Anciept Poetiy. 
 
 '• The f.rst in the Pardoner's Tale, and the last in the Romance of the Rose. See 
 the article on tumbling and dancing in a succeeding section.
 
 CHAP. III. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. ISO 
 
 XIX.— THE DRESS OF THE MINSTRELS. 
 It is very clear, that the minstrels wore a peculiar kind of 
 dress by which they might readily be distinguished : the woman 
 above mentioned is expressly said to have been habited like a 
 mimic or a minstrel, and by that means obtained admission without 
 the least difficulty to the royal presence. I remember also a 
 story recorded in a manuscript, written about the reign of Ed- 
 ward III., of a young man of family, who came to a feast, 
 where many of the nobility were present, in a vesture called a 
 coat bardy, cut short in the German fashion, and resembling 
 the dress of a minstrel. The oddity of his habit attracted the 
 notice of the company, and especially of an elderly knight, to 
 whom he was well known, who thus addressed him: " Where, 
 my friend, is your fiddle, your ribible, or such-like instrument 
 belonging to a minstrel ? " " Sir," replied the young man, " I 
 have no crafte nor science in using such instruments." " Then," 
 returned the knight, " you are much to blame ; for, if you choose 
 to debase yourself and your family by appearing in the garb 
 of a minstrel, it is fitting you should be able to perform his 
 duty."^ On a column in Saint Mary's church at Beverley in 
 Yorkshire is the following inscription : " This pillar made the 
 mynstrylls;" its capital is decorated with five men in short 
 coats, and one of them holds an instrument like a lute.^ The 
 minstrels retained in noblemen's families wore their lords' livery ; 
 and those appertaining to the royal household did the same. 
 The edict of Edward IV. against the pretended minstrels, men- 
 tioned above, expressly says, that they assumed the name, and the 
 livery or dress, of the king's own minstrels.^ The queen had 
 also minstrels in her service, who probably wore a livery dif- 
 ferent from those of the king for distinction-sake. In a com- 
 putus of expences, an. 11 Edw. III. in the Cotton Library, is 
 this entry : " Johanni de Mees de Lorem. et Petro de Wurgund. 
 ministrallis dominae reginse, facientibus ministralsias suas coram 
 domino rege apud Eboracum ; " for which they received from 
 the king's own hand six shillings and eight pence each.^ The 
 following lines, which are somewhat to the purpose, occur in 
 an old historical poem, in the Harleian Collection : they relate 
 
 » Harl. MS. 1764. - Sir John Hawkin's History of Music, vol. il. p. 298. 
 
 3 See p. 184. * MS. Nero, C viii.
 
 190 SPORTS AND PASTIMES ROOK III. 
 
 to sir Kdwaid Stanley, who is highly praised by the author for 
 his great skill in playing upon all kinds of instruments : 
 
 He stood before the kinge, doubtless tbis was true, 
 lu a fayre gowne of cloth of gold, and of tiisbewe, 
 Lyke no common mynstrel, to shew taveme mirth. 
 But lyke a noble man, both of lands, and of birth.' 
 
 And again, in the history of John Newchombe, the famous 
 clothier of Newbury, usually called Jack of Newbury, it is 
 said, " They had not sitten long, but in comes a noise ^ of mu- 
 sicians in tawnie coats; who, putting off their caps, asked if 
 they would have any music ? " 
 
 It appears that the minstrels sometimes shaved the crowns of 
 their heads like the monks, and also assumed an ecclesiastical 
 habit ; this was probably an external garment only, and used 
 when they travelled from place to place. The succeeding anec- 
 dote will prove that the ecclesiastics and the mimics were not 
 always readily distinguished from each other: Two itinerant 
 priests coming towards night to a cell of the Benedictines near 
 Oxford, they there, upon the supposition of their being mimics, 
 or minstrels, gained admittance ; but the cellarer, the sacrist, 
 and others of the brethren, disappointed in the expectation they 
 had formed of being entertained with mirthful performances, 
 and finding them to be nothing more than two indigent eccle- 
 siastics, beat them, and turned them out of the monastery .^ 
 
 XX.— THE KING OF THE MINSTRELS. 
 The king's min&trel, frequently in Latin called joculator regis 
 or the king's juggler, was an officer of rank in the courts of the 
 Norman monarchs. He had the privilege of accompanying his 
 master when he journeyed, and of being near his person ; and 
 probably was the regulator of the royal sports, and appointed 
 the other minstrels belonging to the household ; for which 
 reason, I presume, he was also called the king, or chief of the 
 minstrels. At what time this title was first conferred on him 
 does not appear : we meet with it, however, in an account 
 of the public expenditures made in the fifth year of Edward I. ; 
 at which time, the king of the minstrels, whose name was Robert, 
 
 • Harl. MS. 541. 
 
 • The word noise signifies a company. The reader will find the applicatioo of many 
 3uch terms to diflerent trades and professions in p. !24. 
 
 » Hiflt. and Antiq. Oxon. lib. i. p. 67, sub an. 1224.
 
 CHAP. HI. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 191 
 
 received his master's pay for military services.' The same name, 
 with the same title annexed to it, occurs again in a similar re- 
 cord, dated the fourth year of Edward II. ; when he, in com- 
 pany with various other minstrels, exhibeted before the king- and 
 his court, then held in the city of York ; and received forty 
 marks, to be by him distributed among the fraternity .^ 
 
 The title of royalty was not confined to the king's chieK min- 
 strel : it was also bestowed upon the regent of other companies 
 of musicians, as we find in a charter granted by John of Gaunt, 
 duke of Lancaster, to the minstrels of Tutbury in Stafl^brdshire. 
 This document he addresses, under his seal, at the castle of 
 Tutbury, August 24, in the fourth year of Richard II., to nostra 
 beneameleroy des ministraulx, his well beloved the king of the 
 minstrels ; and concedes to him full power and commission to 
 oblige the minstrels belonging to the honour of Tutbury to per- 
 form their services and minstrelsies in the same manner that they 
 had been accustomed to be done in ancient times.^ In a ballad 
 intituled " The marriage of Robin Hood and Clorinda the 
 Queen of Tutbury Feast," ^ written probably after the disgrace 
 of the minstrels, this officer is called the king of the fidlers. 
 The poet supposes himself to have been present at the wedding, 
 and witness of the facts he relates; and therefore he speaks 
 thus: 
 
 This battle was fought near to Titbury town, 
 
 When tlie bagpipes baited the bull, 
 lam king of the fidlers, and swear 'tis a truth. 
 And I call him that doubts it a gul). 
 
 Claude Fauchet, a French author of eminence, before quoted, 
 speaking concerning the title of king', formerly given to many 
 officers belonging to the court, makes these observations : " I 
 am well assured, the word king* signifies comptroller, or head, 
 as the chief heralds are called kings at arms, because it belonged 
 solely to them to regulate the ceremonies of the justs and tour- 
 naments." He then applies this reasoning to the Roy des Ribaulx, 
 an officer in the ancient court of France ; ^ and says, his charge 
 
 * " Regi Roberto miuistrallo, scut, ad arma commoranti ad vadia regis, capientur 
 per diem 12 en." &c. MS. Cott. Vespasianus, C. xvi. 
 
 * " Regi Roberto, et aliis ministrallis diversis, facientibus ministralsias suas coram 
 rege et aliis magnatibus, de dono ipsius regis, per manus dicti regis Roberti, recipi- 
 entis denarios ad participandum inter eosdemj apud Eboracumj 20 die Feb. 40 marc." 
 MS. Cott. Nero, C. viii. 
 
 3 Dugd. Monast. vol. i. fol. 355. ■• CoUectioji of Old Ballads, London, 1723. 
 
 * Chaucer, in the Romance of the Rose, where the title Roy des Ribaulx occurs 
 in the original, translates it " king of harlotes."
 
 102 SPORTS AND PASTIMES 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 was to clear the palace oi" indolent and disorderly persons, Avho 
 followed the court, and had no business there ; and had his 
 title as king of vagabonds, because he was the examiner and 
 corrector of dissolute persons.^ In like manner, I presume, in 
 this country, the king of the minstrels was the governor and 
 director of the fraternity over which he presided. The title was 
 dropped in the reign of Edward IV., and that of marshal be- 
 came its substitute. 
 
 XXL— REWARDS GIVEN TO MINSTRELS. 
 
 In the middle ages, the courts of princes, and the residences 
 of the opulent, were crowded with minstrels ; and such large 
 sums of money were expended for their maintenance, that the 
 public treasuries were often drained. Matilda, queen to Henry I., 
 is said to have lavished the greater part of her revenue upon 
 poets and minstrels, and oppressed her tenants to procure more.- 
 She was, however, by no means singular in so doing, as the 
 invectives of the monks sufficiently demonstrate. These selfisa 
 professors of religion grudged every act of munificence that 
 was not applied to themselves, or their monasteries ; and could 
 not behold the good fortune of the minstrels without expressing 
 their indignation ; which they often did in terms of scurrilous 
 abuse, calling them janglers, mimics, buffoons, monsters of 
 men, and contemptible scoffers. They also severely censured 
 the nobility for patronizing and rewarding such a shameless set 
 of sordid flatterers, and the populace for frequenting their ex- 
 hibitions, and being delighted with their performances, which 
 diverted them from more serious pvirsuits, and corrupted their 
 morals.^ On the other hand, the minstrels appear to have been 
 ready enough to give them ample occasion for censure; and, 
 indeed, I apprehend that their own immorality and insolence 
 contributed more to their downfal, than all the defamatory de- 
 clamations of their opponents. The ecclesiastics were mightily 
 pleased with the conduct of the emperor Henry III., because, at 
 his marriage with Agnes of Poictou, he disappointed the poor 
 minstrels who had assembled in great multitudes on the occasion, 
 giving them neither food nor rewards, but " sent them away," 
 
 * Origines des Diguitez et Magistrals de France, fol. 43. 
 " Will. Malmsb. p. 93, col. 1. 
 
 ' Johan. Sarisburiensis de Nugis Curial. lib. i. cap. 8 ; lib. iii. cap. 7. Mali. Paris, 
 in Vit. Hen. 111. sub an. Isi51, &c.
 
 CHAP, III. OF THE FEOPLK OF ENGLAND. 193 
 
 says a monkish author, " with empty purses, and hearts full of 
 sorrow." ^ But to go on. 
 
 The rewards given to the minstrels did not always consist in 
 money, but frequently in rich mantles and embroidered vest- 
 ments : they received, says Fauchet, great presents from the 
 nobility, who would sometimes give them even the robes with 
 which they were clothed. It vi'as a common custom in the 
 middle ages to give vestments of different kinds to the minstrels. 
 In an ancient poem, cited by Fauchet, called La RobeVermeille, 
 or, The Red Robe, the wife of a vavaser, that is, one who, holding- 
 of a superior lord, has tenants under him, reproaches her hus- 
 band for accepting a robe ; " Such gifts," says she, " belong to 
 jugglers, and other singing men, who receive garments from the 
 nobility, because it is their trade : 
 
 S'appartient a ces jorgleoura, 
 Et a ces autres chanteours, 
 Quils ayent de ces chevaliers, 
 Les robes car c'est lor raestier." ' 
 
 These garments the jugglers failed not to take with them to 
 other courts, in order to excite a similar liberality. Another 
 artifice they often used, which was, to make the heroes of their 
 poems exceedingly bountiful to the minstrels, who appear to 
 have been introduced for that purpose: thus, in the metrical 
 romance of Ipomedon, where the poet speaks of the knight's 
 
 marriage, he says — 
 
 Ipomydon gaff, in that stound, 
 
 To mynstrelles five hundred pound.' 
 
 The author of Pierce the Ploughman, who lived in the reign 
 of Edward III., gives the following general description of the 
 different performances of the minstrels, and of their rewards, at 
 that period : 
 
 I am mynstrell, quoth that man ; my name is Activa Vita ; 
 All Idle iche hate,'* for All Active is my name ; 
 A wafirer* well ye wyt ; and serve many lordes. 
 And few robes I get, or faire furred gownes. 
 Could I lye, to do* men laugh ; then lachen'' I should 
 Nother mantill, nor money, amonges lords minstrels : 
 And, for ^ I can neither taber, ne trumpe, ne tell no gestes, 
 Fartin ne fislen, at feastes, ne harpen ; 
 
 • " Infinitum histrionum et joculatorum multitudinem, sine cibo ct muneribus, va 
 cuam et moerentum abire permisit." Chron. Virtziburg. 
 
 ' Origine de la Langue et Poesie Franpoise, lib. i. cap. 4. 
 
 » Harl. MS. 2252. •• All idleness I hate. » A confectioner. 
 
 * That is, if he could tell falsehoods to make men laugh. 
 7 Lack, or want. ' Because. 
 
 O
 
 104 SPORTS AND PASTIMES HOOK III. 
 
 Jape, ne juggle, ne gentlUy pype, 
 
 Ne neither saylen ne saute,' ne singe to the gytteme , 
 
 I have no good giftes to please the great lordes. 
 
 And, if we refer to history, we shall find that the poets are 
 not incorrect in their statement. Gaston earl of Foix, whose 
 munificence is much commended by Froissart, lived in a style of 
 splendour little inferior to that of royalty. The historian, 
 speaking of a grand entertainment given by this nobleman, 
 which he had an opportunity of seeing, says, " Ther wer many 
 mynstrells, as well of his own, as of straungers ; and each of 
 them dyd their devoyre, in their faculties.^ The same day the 
 earl of Foix gave to the heraulds and minstrelles the som of five 
 hundred frankes; and gave to the dukeof Tourayn's minstrelles 
 gownes of cloth of gold, furred with ermyne, valued at two 
 hundred frankes."^ 
 
 Respecting the pecuniary rewards of the minstrels, we have, 
 among others, the following accounts. At the marriage of 
 Elizabeth, daughter of Edward I. to John earl of Holland, every 
 king's minstrel received forty shillings.'* In the fourth of Ed- 
 ward II. Perrot de la Laund, minstrel to lord Hugh de Nevill, 
 received twenty shillings for perforjning his minstrelsy before 
 the king.^ In the same year, Janino la Cheveretter, who is called 
 Le Tregettour,^ was paid at one time forty shillings, and at 
 another twenty, for the same service ; and John le Mendlesham, 
 the boy'' of Robert le Foil, twenty shillings;^ the same sum 
 was also given to John le Boteller, the boy of Perrot Duzedeys, 
 for his performances ; and, again, Perrot Duzedeys, Roger the 
 Trumpeter, and Janino le Nakerer, all of them king's minstrels, 
 received from the king sixty shillings for the like service. 
 
 XXII.— PAYMENTS TO MINSTRELS. 
 
 In the eighth year of Edward III., licence was granted to 
 Barbor the Bagpiper, to visit the schools for minstrels in parts 
 
 * Dance, nor jump. Pass. xiv. ' Duty in their several stations. 
 ' Lord Berners' Froissart, vol. iv. cap. 41. 
 
 * Anstis, Ord. Gart. vol. ii. p. 303. 
 
 * Liber de Computis Garderobae, MS. Cott. Lib. Nero, C. viii. fol.82. 
 
 * Cheveretter, or bagpiper; from chevre, a bagpipe, and tregettor, or juggler, a 
 slight of hand player j Ibid. See more on this subject in the next chapter relating to 
 the joculator. 
 
 7 Garcionis ; from the French garfon, a boy, or lad. In this instance it probably 
 means an apprentice, or servant. Ibid. p. 83. 
 
 8 Another entry specifies twenty shillings paid to Robert le Foil to buy himself bocla- 
 rium, a buckler, to play, ad ludendum, before the king. ibid. p. 85.
 
 CHAP. III. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 195 
 
 beyond the seas,' with thirty shillings to bear his expenses. 
 Licence was also granted to Morlan the Bagpiper, to visit the 
 minstrels' schools ; and forty shillings for his expenses.^ A. 
 little lower we find a present of five shillings made by the 
 king to a minstrel, for performing his minstrelsy before 
 the image of the Blessed Virgin.^ In the eleventh year of the 
 same reign, John de Hoglard, minstrel to John de Pulteney, 
 was paid forty shillings for exhibiting before the king at Hat- 
 field, and at London ;"* and to Roger the Trumpeter, and to the 
 minstrels his associates, performing at the feast for the queen's 
 delivery, held at Hatfield, ten pounds.^ In the ninth year of 
 H< nry VII. " Pudesay the piper in bagpipes," received six 
 shillings and eight pence from the king, for his performance.^ 
 In the fourteenth year of his reign, five pounds were paid to 
 three stryng-mynstrels for wages, but the time is not specified ; 
 m a subsequent entry, however, we find that fifteen shillings 
 were given to " a stryng-mynstrel, for one moneth's Avages;" 
 also to a " straunge taberer, in reward, sixty-six shillings and 
 eight pence.'^^ 
 
 XXIII.— WEALTH OF CERTAIN MINSTRELS. 
 
 In the middle ages, the professors of minstrelsy had the 
 opportunity of amassing much wealth ; and certainly some of 
 them were men of property. In Domesday Book, it appears 
 that Berdic, the king's joculator, had lands in Gloucestershire ;^ 
 Raher, or Royer, mimus rex, the mimic, or minstrel, be- 
 longing to Henry I., was the fovmder of the hospital and 
 priory of Saint Baitholomew, in West Smithfield;^ and the 
 minstrels contributed towards building the church of Saint 
 Mary, at Beverley in Yorkshire, as the inscription on one of 
 the pillars plainly indicates ; '" though, it must be owned, their 
 general character does not bear the marks of prudence, as the 
 reader must have observed in the perusal of this section. 
 
 ' " Scolas ministrallis in partibus trans mare." Liber de Computis Garderobe, 
 MS. Cott. Lib. Nero, C. viii. p. 276. 
 a Ibid. 
 " Facienti ministialsiam suam coram imagine Beatae Mariie in Veltam, rege pre- 
 sente, 5 sol." Ibid. p. 277. 
 
 Ibid. p. 290. » Ibid. 
 
 8 MS. in the Remembrancer's Ofl&ce. See the extract in Dr. Henry's British History, 
 voL vi. Appendix, No. V. 
 
 T From another MS. in the same office. Ibid. 
 * See the next chapter, under the account of the joculators. 
 » Lelaud's Collectanea, pp. 61. 99. '" See p. 189. 
 
 Og;
 
 196 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK III 
 
 XXIV.— MINSTRELS SOMETIMES DANCING MASTERS. 
 
 It has already been observed, that the name of minstrels was 
 frequently applied to instrumental performers, who did not 
 profess any other branch of the minstrelsy. In an old morality 
 called Lusty Juventus, it is said. 
 
 Who knoweth where is ere a mynstrel 1 
 
 By the Masse, I would fayne go daunce a fit.' 
 
 This passage calls to my memory a circumstance recorded by 
 Fauchet, which proves that the minstrels were sometimes dancing 
 masters. " I remember," says he, " to have seen Martin Baraton, 
 an aged minstrel of Orleans, who was accustomed to play upon 
 the tambourine at weddings, and on other occasions of festivity. 
 His instrument was silver, decorated with small plates of the 
 same metal,^ on which were engraved the arms of those he had 
 taught to dance." 
 
 ' Garrick's Collection of Old Plays. 
 
 • " Un tabourin d'argent sem^ de plaques aussi d'arg«nt." Ori'iine de la L^n^ne 
 et Poeeie Franfoise, lib. i. cap. viii, fol. 75^ 

 
 CHAP. IV OF TIIF, PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 197 
 
 CHAPTER ly. 
 
 I. The Joculator. — II. His dififerent Denominations and extraordinary Deceptions. — 
 HI. His Performances ascribed to Magic. — IV. Asiatic Jugglers. — V. Re- 
 markable Story from Froissart. — VI. Tricks of the Jugglers ascribed to the Agency 
 of the Devil ; but more reasonably accounted for. — VII. John Rykell, a cele- 
 brated Tregetour. — VIII. Their various Performances. — IX. Privileges of the 
 Joculators at Paris. — The King's Joculatoi an Oflicer of Rank. — X. The great 
 Disrepute of modern Jugglers. 
 
 I.— THE JOCULATOB 
 
 The joculator, or the jugglour of the Normans, was frequently 
 included under the collective appellation of minstrel. His pro- 
 fession originally was very comprehensive, and included the 
 practice of all the arts attributed to the minstrel ; and some of the 
 jugglers were excellent tumblers. Joiuville, in the Life of St. 
 Louis and Charpentier, quotes an old author, who speaks of a 
 joculator, qui sciebat tombare.- He was called a gleeman in 
 the Saxon era, and answers to the juggler of the more modern 
 times. Li the fourteenth century, he was also denominated a 
 tregetour, or tragetour, at which time, he appears to have been 
 separated from the musical poets, who exercised the first 
 branches of the gleeman's art, and are more generally consi- 
 dered as minstrels. 
 
 II.— DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS OF THE JOCULATOR, AND HIS 
 EXTRAORDINARY DECEPTIONS. 
 
 The name of tregetours was chiefly, if not entirely, appro- 
 priated to those artists who, by slight of hand, with the assist- 
 ance of machinery of various kinds, deceived the eyes of the 
 spectators, and produced such illusions as were usually sup- 
 posed to be the effect of enchantment ; for which reason they 
 were frequently ranked with magicians, sorcerers, and witches ; 
 and, indeed, the feats they performed, according to the de- 
 scriptions given of them, abundantly prove that they were no 
 contemptible practitioners in the arts of deception. Chaucer, 
 who, no doubt, had frequently an opportunity of seeing the 
 tricks exhibited by the tregetours in his time, says, ' There 
 
 • Supplement to Du Cange.
 
 1P8 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK III. 
 
 I eawe playenge jogelours, magyciens, trageteours, phetonysses, 
 charmeresses, olde witches, and sorceresses," &c.' He speaks of 
 them in a style that may well excite astonishment : " There are," 
 says he, " sciences by which men can delude the eye with divers 
 appearances, such as the subtil tregetours perform at feasts. In 
 a large hall they will produce water with boats rowed up and 
 down upon it." In the library of Sir Hans Sloane, at the British 
 Museum, is a MS.^ which contains " an experiment to make the 
 appearance of a flode of water to come into a house." The di- 
 rections are, to steep a thread in the liquor produced from snakes' 
 eggs bruised, and to hang it up over a basin of water in the 
 place where the trick is to be performed. The tregetours, no 
 doubt, had recourse to a surer method. Chaucer goes on to 
 say, " Sometimes they will bring in the similitude of a grim 
 lion, or make flowers spring up as in a meadow ; sometimes 
 they cause a vine to flourish, bearing white and red grapes; or 
 show a castle built with stone ; and when they please, they 
 cause the whole to disappear." He then speaks of " a learned 
 clerk," who, for the amusement of his friend, showed to him 
 " forests full of wild deer, where he saw an hundred of them 
 slain, some with hounds and some with arrows ; the hunting- 
 being finished, a company of falconers appeared upon the banks 
 of a fair river, where the birds pursued the herons, and slew 
 them. He then saw knights justing upon a plain;" and, by 
 way of conclusion, " the resemblance of his beloved lady 
 dancing; which occasioned him to dance also." But, when 
 " the maister that this magike wrought thought fit, he clapped 
 his hands together, and all was gone in an instante." ^ Again, 
 in another part of his works, the same poet says. 
 
 There saw I Coll Tregetoar, 
 Upon a table of sycamour, 
 Play an uncouthe thynge to tell ; 
 I sawe hym cary a wyude-mell 
 Under a walnote sbale.* 
 
 III.— THE JOCULATORS' PERFORMANCES ASCRIBED TO MAGIC. 
 
 Chaucer attributes these illusions to the practice of natural 
 magic. Thus the Squire, in his Tale, says, 
 
 An appearance made by some magyke, 
 As jogglours playen at their festes grete. 
 
 ' Chaucer, House of Fame, book iii. * No. 1315. 
 
 ' Frankeleyn's Tale. * House of Fame, book iii.
 
 CHAP. IV. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 199 
 
 And a^ain, in the third book of the House of Fame, 
 
 And clerkes eke whi( h conne well 
 All tbis magyke naturell. 
 
 Meaning, I suppose, an artful combination of different poAvers 
 of nature in a manner not generally understood ; and therefore 
 he makes the Devil say to the Sompner in the Friar's Tale, ^ I 
 can take any shape that pleases me ; of a man, of an ape, or of 
 an angel ; and it is no wonder, a lousy juggler can deceive you; 
 and I can assure you my skill is superior to his." I need not 
 say, that a greater latitude was assigned to what the poet calls 
 natural magic in his days, than will be granted in the present 
 time. 
 
 IV.— ASIATIC JUGGLERS. 
 
 Sir John Mandevile, who wrote about the same period as 
 Chaucer, speaks thus of a similar exhibition performed before 
 the Great Chan : " And then comen jogulours, and enchaunt- 
 ours, that doen many marvaylles ; " for they make, says he, 
 the appearance of the sun and the moon in the air ; and then 
 they make the night so dark, that nothing can be seen ; and 
 again they restore the day-light, with the sun shining brightly; 
 then they " bringen-in daunces, of the fairest damsels of the 
 world, and the richest arrayed,'" afterwards they make other 
 damsels to come in, bringing cups of gold, full of the milk of 
 divers animals, and give drink to the lords and ladies; and 
 then "they make knyghts jousten in armes fulle lustily," Mdio 
 run together, and in the encounter break their spears so rudely, 
 that the splinters fly all about the hall.' They also bring in a 
 hunting of the hart and of the boar, with hounds running at them 
 open-mouthed; and many other things they do by the craft of 
 their enchantments, that are " marvellous to see." In another 
 part he says, " And be it done by craft, or by niovomancy, T 
 wot not." 2 
 
 v.— REMARKABLE STORY FROM FROISSART. 
 
 The foregoing passages bring to my recollection a curious 
 piece of history related by Froissart, which extends the practice 
 of these deceptions far beyond the knowledge of the modern 
 
 • The original runs thus : " And they runnen togidre a great randoum ; and they 
 frunchen togidre full fiercely, and they breken thare speres so rudely, that the tron- 
 cbouns flen in sprotes and peces alle about the halle." Mandevile's Travels, p. 255. 
 I have modernized the English in many places, for sometimes it is hardly intelligible. 
 
 » Ibid.
 
 200 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK III. 
 
 jugglers. When, says that author, the duke of Anjou and 
 the earl of Savoy were lying with their army before the city of 
 Naples, there was " an enchaunter, a connhig man in nigro- 
 mancy, in the Marches of Naples." This man promised to 
 the duke of Anjou, that he would put him in possession 
 of the castle of Leufe, at that time besieged by him. The duke 
 was desirous of knowing by what means this could be effected ; 
 and the magician said, " I shall, by enchauntment, make the 
 ayre so thicke, that they within the castell will think there is a 
 great brydge over the sea, large enough for ten men a-breast 
 to come to them; and when they see this brydge, they will 
 readily yeilde themselves to your mercy, least they should be 
 taken perforce." And may not my men, said the duke, pass 
 over this bridge in reality? To this question the juggler art- 
 fully replied, '• I dare not, syr, assure you that; for, if any one 
 of the men that passeth on the brydge shall make the sign of 
 the cross upon him, all shall go to noughte, and they that be 
 upon it shall fall into the sea.'' The earl of Savoy was not 
 present at this conference ; but being afterwards made ac- 
 quainted with it, he said to the duke, " I know well it is the 
 same enchaunter, by whom the queene of Naples and syr Othes 
 of Bresugeth were taken in this castle ; for he caused, by his 
 crafte, the sea to seeme so high, that they m ithin were sore 
 abashed, and wend all to have died ; ' but no confidence," con- 
 tinued he," ought to be placed in a fellow of this kind, who has 
 already betrayed the queen for hire; and now, for the sake of 
 another reward, is willing to give up the man whose bounty he 
 has received." The earl then commanded the enchanter to be 
 brought before him ; when he boasted that, by the power of bis 
 art, he had caused the castle to be delivered to sir Charles de la 
 Paye, who was then in possession of it ; and concluded his 
 speech with these words: " Syr, I am the man of the world 
 that syr Charles reputeth most, and is most in fear of." " By 
 my fayth," replied the earl of Savoy, " ye say well; and I will 
 that syr Charles shall know that he hath great wrong to feare 
 you : but I shall assure hym of you^ for ye shal never do more 
 enchauntments to deceyve hym, nor yet any other." So saying, 
 he ordered him to be beheaded ; and the sentence was instantly 
 put into execution before t!ie door of the earl's tent. " 'Ihus," 
 
 ' That is, ihey were flighted, esi'ecting to be drowned by the ribinjj of the water.
 
 CHAP. IV. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 201 
 
 adds our author, '* ended the mayster enchantour : and so lie 
 was payed bys wages according- to his desertes."^ 
 
 I'L— TRICKS OF THE JUGGLERS ASCRIBED TO INFERNAL AGENCY ; 
 BUT MORE REASONABLY ACCOUNTED FOR. 
 
 Our learned monarch James I. was perfectly convinced that 
 hese, and other inferior feats exhibited by the tregetours, could 
 only be performed by tiie agency of the Devil, " who," says he, 
 " will learne them many juglarie tricks, at cardes and dice, to 
 ileceive men's senses thereby, and such innumerable false prac- 
 tiques, which are proved by over-many in this age."^ It is not, 
 however, very easy to reconcile with common sense the knowledge 
 the king pretended to have had of the intercourse between 
 Satan and his scholars the conjurers; unless his majesty had 
 been, what nobody, I trust, suspects him to have been, one of 
 the fraternity. But, notwithstanding the high authority of a 
 crowned head in favour of Beelzebub, it is the opinion of some 
 modern writers, that the tricks of the jugglers may be ac- 
 counted for upon much more reasonable, as well as more 
 natural, principles. These artists were greatly encouraged in 
 the middle ages ; they travelled in large companies, and carried 
 with them, no doubt, such machinery as was necessary for the 
 performance of their deceptions ; and we are all well aware, that 
 very surprising things may be exhibited through the medium 
 of a proper apparatus, and with the assistance of expert con- 
 federates. A magic lanthorn will produce appearances almost 
 as wonderful as some of those described by sir John Mandevile 
 to p'^rsons totally ignorant of the existence and nature of such a 
 machine. The principles of natural philosophy were very little 
 known in those dark ages ; and, for that reason, the spectators 
 were more readily deceived. In our own times Ave have had 
 several exhibitions that excited much astonishment; such as an 
 image of wax, suspended by a ribband in the middle of a large 
 room, which answered questions in various languages; an 
 automaton chess-player, that few professors of the game could 
 beat; 3 and men ascending the air without the assistance of 
 
 ' Froissart's Chronicle by lord Rerners, vol. iii, chap. 392, fol. 272. 
 
 * Daemonologie. 
 
 3 See " The Conjuror Unveiled," a small pamphlet translated from the French ; 
 which gives a full account of these curious pieces of meclianism, and of several others 
 equally surprising.
 
 202 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK III. 
 
 wings : yet these phenomena are considered as puerile, now the 
 secrets upon which their performance depends have been di- 
 vulged. But, returning to the tregetour, we shall find that he 
 often performed his feats upon a scaffold erected for that pur- 
 pose ; and probably, says a late ingenious writer,^ received his 
 name from the trebuchet, or trap-door, because he frequently 
 made use of such insidious machines in the displayment of his 
 operations. Chaucer has told us, that Coll the tregetor exhi- 
 bited upon a table; and other authors speak of "juggling upon 
 the boardes," which clearly indicates the use of a stage or 
 temporary scaffold. Now, let us only add the machinery proper 
 for the occasion, and all the wonders specified in the foregoing 
 passages may be reduced to mere pantomimical deceptions, as- 
 sisted by slight of hand, and the whole readily accounted for 
 without any reference to supernatural agency 
 
 VII.— JOHN RYKELL, A CELEBRATED TREGETOUR. 
 
 In the fourteenth century, the tregetours seem to have been 
 in the zenith of their glory ; from that period they gradually 
 declined in the popular esteem ; their performances \vere more 
 confined, and of course became less consequential. Lidgate, 
 m one of his poems,^ introduces Death speaking to a famous 
 tregetour belonging to the court of king Henry V. in this 
 manner 
 
 Maister John Rykell, sometime tregitour 
 
 Of noble Henry kinge of Englonde, 
 And of France the mighty conqueror ; 
 
 For all the sleightes, and turnyng of thvne honde, 
 
 Thou must come nere this dance, I understonde ; 
 Nought may avail all thy conclusions, 
 
 For Detho shortly, nother on see nor land. 
 Is not descey ved by no illusions.^ 
 
 To this summons the sorrowful juggler replies: 
 
 ' Mr. 'J'yrwhitt, in his excellent edition of Chaucer's " Canterbury Tales," vol. iii. 
 p. 299. 
 
 2 " The Daunce of Macabre," translated, or rather paraphrased, from the 
 French. In this Daunce, Death is represented addressing himself to persons of 
 all ranks and ages. John Lydgate was a monk of St. Edmondsbury Abbey. 
 MS. Harl.No. 116. 
 
 3 The meaning is, that Beat! will come shortly, and not be deceived by any falsa 
 appearances.
 
 CHAP. IV. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 203 
 
 What may availe mankynde naturale 1 
 
 Not any crafte schevid ' by apparance. 
 Or course of steres above celestial. 
 
 Or of heavens all the influence, 
 
 Ageynst Deth to stonde at defence. 
 Lygarde-de-mayne ^ now helpith me right noughte : 
 
 Farewell, my craft and all such sapience ; 
 For Deth hath mo masteries'* than I have wroughte. 
 
 In " The Disobedient Child," an old morality, or interlude, 
 written by Thomas Ing*iland in the reig^n of queen Elizabeth, 
 a servant, describing the sports at his master's M^edding, says. 
 
 What juggling was there upon the boardes ! 
 
 What thrusting of knyves through many a nose ! 
 What bearynge of formes ! what holdinge of swordes ! 
 
 What puttynge of botkyns throughe legge and hose !* 
 
 These tricks approximate nearly to those of the modern jug- 
 glers, who have knives so constructed, that, when they are 
 applied to the legs, the arms, and other parts of the human 
 figure, they have the appearance of being thrust through them • 
 the bearing- of the forms, or seats, I suppose, was the balancing 
 of them ; and the holding of swords, the flourishing them 
 about in the sword-dance ; which the reader will find described 
 in the succeeding chapter. 
 
 VIII — VARIOUS PERFORMANCES OF THE JOCULATORS. 
 
 Originally, as we have before observed, the profession of the 
 joculator included all the arts attributed to the minstrels ; and 
 accordingly his performance was called his minstrelsy in the 
 reign of Edward II., and even after he had obtained the appel- 
 lation of a tregetour.'' We are well assured, that playing upon 
 the vielle^ and the harp, and singing of songs, verses, and 
 
 ' Schevid, for achieved, that is to say, performed. 
 
 * Or any astrological judgment derived from the stars or their influence ; for the 
 jugglers usually pretended to be astrologers and soothsayers. See the Essay on 
 Ancient Minstrels, prefixed to the Reliques of Ancient Poetry, by the bishop of 
 Dromore. 
 
 ' Legerdemain ; a corrupted word, derived from the French, signifying properly 
 slights of hand, such as are usually performed by the modern juggle.a. 
 
 * More cunning tricks. 
 
 * Garrick's Collection of Old Plays, K. vol. ii 
 
 * " Janino le tregettor, facienti ministralsiam suam coram rege," &c. ; that is, to 
 Janino the tregetour. for performing his minstrelsy before the king, in his chamher 
 near the priory of Swincshead, twenty shillings. Lib. Comput. Garderobae on. 
 4 Edw. II. fol. 86. MS. Cott. Nero, C. viii. 
 
 ' The same as the modern hurdy-gurdy
 
 204 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK UK 
 
 poems taken from popular stories;^ togetber \\ith dancing-, 
 tumbling, and otber feats of agility, formed a principal part 
 of tbe joculator's occupation at tbe commencement of the 
 thirteenth century ; and probably so they might in the days of 
 Chaucer. Another part of the juggler's profession, and which 
 constituted a prominent feature in his character, was teaching 
 bears, apes, monkeys, dogs, and various other animals, to 
 tumble, dance, and counterfeit the actions of men : but we 
 shall have occasion to enlarge upon this subject a few pages 
 farther on. 
 
 In a book of customs, says St. Foix,^ made in the reign of 
 Saint Louis, for the regulation of the duties to be paid upon 
 the little chatelet at the entrance into Paris, Ave read, that a 
 merchant, who brought apes to sell, should pay four deniers ; 
 but, if an ape belonged to a joculator, this man, by causing the 
 animal to dance in the presence of the toll-man, was privileged 
 to pass duty-free, with all the apparatus necessary for his per- 
 formances : hence came the proverb, " Pay in money ; the ape 
 pays in gambols." Another article specifies that the joculator 
 might escape the payment of the toll by singing a couplet of a 
 song before the collector of the duty. 
 
 Comenius, I take it, has given us a proper view of the jug- 
 gler's exhibition, as it was displayed a century and a halfback, 
 in a short chapter entitled Prestigise, or Sleights.^ It consists of 
 four divertisements, including the joculator's own performances; 
 and the other three are tumbling and jumping through a hoop; 
 the grotesque dances of the clown, or mimic, who, it is said, 
 appeared with a mark upon his face ; and dancing upon the tight 
 rope. The print at the head of his chapter is made agreeably 
 to the English custom, and differs a little from the original 
 description. In the latter it is said, " The juggler sheweth 
 sleights out of a purse." In the print there is no purse repre- 
 sented ; but the artist is practising with cups and balls in the 
 
 ' Their performances are thus described by a French poet who wrote in tlie year 
 1230: 
 
 C'il juggleurs in pies estarent, 
 S'ont vielles et harpes prisses 
 Chansons, sons, vers, et reprises, 
 Et gestes chante nos out. 
 
 Du Cange, in voce Joculator. 
 See also sir John Hawkins's History of iMusic, vol ii. -Ji. 
 
 • Essais Hist, sur Paris, vol.ii. p. 39. 
 
 * " Oibis Sensualium Pictus," by Hoole, lfi38 ; chap. 131
 
 CHAP. IV. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 205 
 
 manner they are used at present. The tumbler is walking- upon 
 his hands. The rope-dancing is performed by a woman holding 
 a balancing pole ; and on the same rope a man, probably 
 " clown to the rope," is represented hang-ing by one leg with 
 his head downwards. In modern times, the juggler has united 
 songs and puppet-plays to his show. 
 
 IX.— PRIVILEGES OF THE JOCULATORS AT PARIS— THE KING'S 
 JOCULATOR. 
 
 The ioculator regis, or king's juggler, was anciently an 
 officer of note in the royal household ; and we find, from 
 Domesday Book, that Berdic, who held that office in the reign 
 of the Conqueror, was a man of property.^ In the succeeding- 
 century, or soon afterwards, the title of rexjuglatorum, or king- 
 of the jugglers, was conferred upon the chief performer of the 
 company, and the rest, I presume, were under his control. The 
 king's juggler continued to have an establishment in the royal 
 household till the time of Henry VIII. ;2 and in his reign the 
 office and title seem to have been discontinued. 
 
 X.— GREAT DISREPUTE OF MODERN JUGGLERS. 
 
 The profession of the juggler, with that of the minstrel, had 
 fallen so low in the public estimation at the close of the reign 
 of queen Flizabeth, that the performers were ranked, by the 
 moral writers of the time, not only with " ruffians, blasphemers, 
 thieves, and vagabonds ; " but also with " Heretics, Jews, 
 Pagans, and sorcerers;" ^ and, indeed, at an earlier period they 
 were treated with but little more respect, as appears from the 
 following lines in Barclay's Eclogues : 
 
 Jugglers and pipers, bourders and flatterers, 
 Baudes and janglers, and cursed adouteres.'' 
 
 In another passage, he speaks of a disguised juggler, and a 
 vile jester or bourder;^ by the word disguised he refers, per- 
 
 ' " Glowecesterscire. Berdic, joculator regis, hsbet iij villas, et ibi v car. ; nil 
 redd." Extract from Domesday. 
 
 * Essay on Ancient Minstrels, prefixed to bishop Percy's Reliques of Ancient 
 Poetry, vol. i. p. xciii. 
 
 ^ A Treatise against Dicing, Dauncing, vaine Playes, or Erterhides, &c. by John 
 Northbrooke, printed at London in the time of Elizabeth. 
 
 * Egloge the tliird, at the end of Brant's " Ship of Fools," by Barclay, printec' 
 A.D. 1508. J J f 
 
 * " Mirrour of Good Manners," translated from the Latin by Barclay, who was a 
 uriest and monk of Ely.
 
 206 
 
 SPORTS AND PASTIMES 
 
 BOOK ir. 
 
 haps, to the clown, or mimic ; who, as Comenius has just 
 informed us, danced '* disguised with a vizard." In more 
 modern times, by way of derision, the juggler was called a 
 hocus-pocus,^ a term applicable to a pick-pocket, or a common 
 cheat ; and his performances were denominated juggelling 
 castes.- 
 
 ' Or hokos-pokos, as by Ben Jonson, in " The Staple for Newes." See p. 153. 
 This is the earliest mention I have found of this term. It occurs again in the Seven 
 Champions, by John Kirk, acted in 1663 ; " My mother could juggle as well as any 
 hocus-pocus in the world." 
 
 ' " Play8« confuted," by Stephen Gosson ; no date, bai writtcoi about 1 .'iSU.
 
 CHAP. V. OF THK PI<:OPLK OF ENGLAND. 207 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Dancing, Tumbling, and Balancing, part of the Joculator's Profession. — 11. I'er- 
 formed by Women. — III. Dancing couuected with Tumbling. — IV. Antiquity of 
 Tun.bling — much encouraged. — V. Various Dances described. — VI. The Glee- 
 men's Dances. — VII. Exemplification of Gleemen's Dances. — VIIT. The Sword 
 Dance — IX. Rope-Dancing and wonderful Performances on the Rope. — X. Rope- 
 Dancing from the Battlements of St. Paul's. — XI. Rope-Dancing from St. Paul's 
 Steeple.— XII. Rope-Dancing from All Saints' Church, Hertford. — XIII. A 
 Dutchman's Feats on St. Paul's Weathercock. — XIV. Jacob Hall the Rope- 
 Dancer. — XV. Modern celebrated Rope- Dancing. — XVI. Rope-Dancing- at 
 
 Sadler's Wells XVII. Fool's Dance. — XVIII. Morris Dance. — XIX. Egg 
 
 Dance. — XX. Ladder Dance. — XXI. Jocular Dances. — XXII. Wire-Dancing. — 
 XXIII. Ballette Dances.— XXIV. Leaping and Vaulting.— XXV. Balancing.— 
 XXVI. Remarkable Feats.— XX VII. The Posture-Master's Tricks.— XXVIII. 
 Tho Mountebank.— XXIX. The Tinker.— XXX. The Fire-Eater. 
 
 I.— JOCULATORS' DANCING. 
 Dancing, tumbling-, and balancing, with variety of other exer- 
 cises requiring skill and agility, were originally included in the 
 performances exhibited by the gleemen and the minstrels ; and 
 they remained attached to the profession of the joculator after 
 he was separated from those who only retained the first branches 
 of the minstrel's art, that is to say, poetry and music. 
 
 II.— WOMEN DANCERS AND TUMBLERS. 
 The joculators were sometimes excellent tumblers ; yet, ge- 
 nerally speaking, I believe that vaulting, tumbling, and ba- 
 lancing, were not executed by the chieftain of the gleeman's 
 company, but by some of his confederates ; and very often this 
 part of the show was performed by females, who were called 
 glee-maidens, (Da&en-jlypienb, by the Saxons ; and tumbling 
 women, tomblesteres, and tombesteres, in Chaucer, derived 
 from the Saxon word 'comban, to dance, vault, or tumble. 
 The same poet, in the Romance of the Rose, calls them saylours, 
 or dancers, from the Latin word salio. They are also denomi- 
 nated sauters, from saut in French, to leap. Hence, in Pierce 
 Ploughman, one says, " I can neither saylen ne saute." They 
 are likewise in modern language called balancing women, or 
 tymbesteres, players iipon the tymbrel. which they also ba-
 
 208 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK 11 f. 
 
 lanced occasionally, as >ve shall find a little farther on. It is 
 almost needless to add, that the ancient usage of introducing 
 females for the performances of these difficult specimens of 
 art and agility, has been successively continued to the present 
 day. 
 
 III.— DANCING CONNECTED WITH TUMBLING. 
 
 Dancing, in former times, was closely connected with those 
 feats of activity now called vaulting and tumbling ; and such 
 exertions often formed part of the dances that were publicly ex- 
 hibited by the gleemen and the minstrels ; for which reason, 
 the Anglo-Saxon writers frequently used the terms of leaping- 
 and tumbling for dancing-. Both the phrases occur in the Saxon 
 versions of St. Mark's Gospel ; where it is said of the daughter 
 of Herodias, that she vaulted or tumbled, instead of danced, 
 before king Herod.^ In a translation of the seventh century, in 
 the Cotton Library ,2 it says she plsegebe, ^ gelicabe Pejiobe ; she 
 jumped, or leaped, and pleased Herod. In another Saxon 
 version of the eleventh century, in the Royal Library,^ she 
 cumbebe, -] hic hcobe Pejiobe ; she tumbled, and it pleased Herod. 
 A third reads, Herodias' daughter cumbobe faejie, tumbled there, 
 &C.'* These interpretations of the sacred text might easily arise 
 from a misconception of the translators, who, supposing that no 
 common dancing could have attracted the attention of the mon- 
 arch so potently, or extorted from him the promise of a reward 
 so extensive as that they found stated in the record ; therefore 
 referred the performance to some wonderful displayments of 
 activity, resembling those themselves might have seen exhibited 
 by the glee-maidens, on occasions of solemnity, in the couri^ of 
 Saxon potentates. We may also observe, that the like expli- 
 cation of the passage was not only received in the Saxon ver- 
 sions of the Gospel, but continued in those of nmch more 
 modern date; and, agreeably to the same idea, many of the 
 illuminators, in depicting this part of the holy history, have 
 represented the damsel in the action of tumbling, or, at least, of 
 walking upon her hands. Mr. Brand, in his edition of Bourne's 
 Vulgar Antiquities, has quoted one in old English that reads 
 thus : " When the daughter of Herodyas was in comyn, and had 
 tomblyde and pleside Harowde." I have before me a MS. of 
 the Harleian Collection,'* in French, in the thirteenth century, 
 
 ' St. Mark, chap. vi. ver. 22. ^ Nero, D. iv. 
 
 5 No. 1 , A. xiv. ■• No. 22.73. fol. 45.
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 
 
 •209 
 
 written by some ecclesiastic, which relates to the church fasts 
 and festivals. Speaking- of the death of John Baptist, and 
 finding this tumbling- damsel to have been the cause, tho pious 
 author treats her with much contempt, as though she had been 
 one of the dancing girls belonging to a company of jugglers, 
 who in his time, it seems, were not considered as paragons of 
 virtue any more than they are in the present day. He says of 
 her, " Bien saveit treschier e tumber; " which may be rendered, 
 " She was Mell skilled in tumbling and cheating- tricks." And 
 accordingly we find the ibllowing representation. 
 
 53. Heropias Tumbling. 
 
 Herodias is so drawn in a book of Prayers in the Kovat 
 Library.' There is the subjoined representation a century ao** 
 a half earlier. 
 
 54. Hehodias Tumbling vv-jth her Servant, 
 
 Her servant stand" by her side. The drawing occurs in n 
 series of Scripture histories in the Harleian Collection,^ written 
 and illuminated at the commencement of the thirteenth centurj 
 
 ' No, 2, B.^vii. 
 
 « No. 15UT
 
 210 SPORTS AND PASTIMRS BOOK III. 
 
 IV.— ANTIQUITY OF TUMBLING. 
 The exhibition of dancing', connected with leaping' and 
 tumbling, for the entertainment of princes and noblemen on 
 occasions of festivity, is of high antiquity. Homer mentions 
 two dancing tumblers, who stood upon their heads,^ and moved 
 about to the measure of a song, for the diversion of Menelalis 
 and his courtiers, at the celebration of his daughter's nuptials. 
 It seems that the astonishment excited by the difficulty of such 
 performances, obviated the absurdity, and rendered them agree- 
 able to persons of rank and affluence. The Saxon princes 
 encouraged the dancers and tumblers ; and the courts of the 
 Norman monarchs were crowded with them : we have, indeed, 
 but few of their exertions particularised ; for the monks, through 
 whose medium the histories of the middle ages have generally been 
 conveyed to us, were their professed enemies: it is certain, how- 
 ever, notwithstanding the censure promulgated in their disfavour, 
 that they stood their ground, and were not only well received, 
 but even retained, in the houses of the opulent. No doubt, 
 they were then, as in the present day, an immoral and dissolute 
 set of beings, who, to promote merriment, frequently descended 
 to the lowest kinds of buffoonery. We read, for instance, of a 
 tumbler in the reign of Edward II. who rode before his majesty, 
 and frequently fell from his horse in such a manner, that the 
 king was highly diverted, and laughed exceedingly,^ and re- 
 warded the performer with the sum of twenty shillings, which at 
 that period was a very considerable donation. A like reward of 
 twenty shillings was given, by order of Henry VIII., to a strange 
 tumbler, that is, I suppose, an itinerant who had no particular 
 establishment; a like sum to a tumbler who performed before 
 him at lord Bath's; and a similar reward to the " tabouretts and a 
 tumbler," probably of the household.^ It should seem that these 
 artists were really famous mirth-makers; for, one of them had the 
 address to excite the merriment of that solemn bigot queen Mary. 
 " After her majesty," observes Strype, " had reviewed the royal 
 pensioners in Greenwich Park, there came a tumbler, and played 
 many pretty feats, the queen and cardinal Pole looking on ; 
 whereat she was observed to laugh heartily."* 
 
 ' Odyssey, lib. iv. lia. 18. The original word is KvjSig rjrtjpe, saltatores qui se in 
 capita dejicmut. 
 
 * " De queux le roi rya grantement." Roll of Expenses in Ibe reign of ki'ig 
 Edward II. in the possession of Thomas Astle, esq. 
 
 » From a MS. in tlie Remembrancer's Office, an. 13 Hen. VIU, 
 
 * Eccles. Mem. vol. iii. p.312, cap. 39.
 
 CHAP, V 
 
 OF THE PEOPLIS OF ENGLAND. 
 
 211 
 
 v.— VARIOUS DANCES. 
 
 Among the pastimes exhibited for the amusement of queei\ 
 Elizabeth at Kenilworth castle, there were shown, as Laneham 
 says, before her highness, surprising feats of agility, by an Italian, 
 " in goings, turnings, tiunblings, castings, hops, jumps, leaps, 
 skips, springs, gambauds, somersaults, caprettings, and flights, 
 forward, backward, sideways, downward, upward, and with 
 sundry windings, gyrings, and circumflections," which he per- 
 formed with so much ease and lightness, that words are not 
 adequate to the description ; " insomuch that I," says Laneham, 
 " began to doubt whether he was a man or a spirit ; " and after- 
 wards, " As for this fellow, I cannot tell what to make of him ; 
 save that I may guess his back to be metalled like a lamprey, 
 that has no bone, but a line like a lute-string.'" So lately as 
 the reign of queen Anne, this species of performance continued 
 to be fashionable ; and in one of the Tatlers we meet with the 
 following passage : " I went on Friday last to the Opera ; and 
 was surprised to find a thin house at so noble an entertaimnent, 
 'till I heard that the tumbler was not to make his appearance 
 that night." 2 
 
 Three ancient specimens of the tumbler's art are subjoined 
 
 55. Tumbling. — XIII. Century. 
 
 This engraving represents a woman bending herself back« 
 wards, from a MS. of the thirteenth century, in the Cotton 
 Library.^ 
 
 ' Laneham's Letter, in Mr. Nichols B Progresses of Queen Elizab<: th, pp. 15, 17. 
 » No. 1 15, dated Jan. 3, 1709. 3 Domilian, A. 2. 
 
 P 2
 
 2\2 
 
 SPOUTS AND PASTIMES 
 
 BOOK Hi. 
 
 56. Tumbling —XIV. Century. 
 
 In this second representation a man is performing tne same 
 feat, but in a more extraordinary manner. The original is con- 
 tained in a MS. in the library of sir Hans Sloane.^ 
 
 57. Tumbling. — XIV. Century 
 
 This representation of a girl turning over upon her hands, is 
 from a MS. in the Bodleian Library at Oxford.^ Both these 
 MSS. are of the fourteenth century. Feats of activity by tum- 
 blers were then, as at present, enlivened with music. 
 
 » No. 335. " No. 264.
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 
 
 213 
 
 VI.— THE GLEEMEN'S DANCES. 
 
 It is not by any means my intention to insinuate, from what has 
 been said in the foregoing pages, that there were no dances per- 
 formed by the Saxon gleemen and their assistants, but such as 
 consisted of vaulting and tumbling: on the contrary, 1 trust it 
 •nay be proved, that their dances were varied and accommodated 
 to the taste of those for whom the performance was appro- 
 priated ; being calculated, as occasion required, to excite the 
 admiration and procure the applause of the wealthy or the 
 vulgar. 
 
 VII.— EXEMPLIFICATION OF GLEEMEN'S DANCES. 
 
 We have already noticed a dance, represented by the en- 
 graving- No. 50, from a painting of the tenth century, the most 
 ancient of the kind that I have met wiih.* The crouching atti- 
 f:udes of the two dancers, point out great difficulty in the part 
 they are performing, but do not convey the least indication of 
 vaulting' or tumbling. Attitudes somewhat similar I have seun 
 occur in some of the steps of a modern hornpipe. 
 
 58. GLtEMEN's Dance. — IX. Ckntury. 
 
 Here, also, we find a young man dancing singly to the music 
 of two flutes and a lyre; and the action attempted to be ex- 
 pressed by the artist is rather that of ease and elegancy of mo- 
 tion, than of leaping', or contorting of the body in a violent 
 manner. It is evident that this delineation, which is fromaLatm 
 and Saxon MS. of the ninth century, in the Cotton Library,- was 
 
 » Oa p. 173. 9 Cleopatra, C.viii.
 
 214 
 
 SPORTS AND PASTIMES 
 
 BOOX Hi. 
 
 intended for the representation of part of the gleenian's exhibi- 
 tion ; for the designer has crowded into the margin a number of 
 heads and parts of figures, necessarily incomplete from want of 
 room, who appear as spectators ; but these are much confused, 
 and in some places obliterated, so that they could not have been 
 copied with any tolerable effects The dance represented by the 
 engraving No. 51, from a MS. of the ninth century,^ in which 
 the musician bears a part, I take to be of the burlesque kind, 
 and intended to excite laughter by the absurdity of the gestures 
 practised by the performers ; but that in the following engraving, 
 from a MS. of the fourteenth century, in the Royal Library ,2 
 has more appearance of elegance. 
 
 59. Dancing to a Bear. 
 
 This dance is executed by a female ; and probably the per- 
 fection of the dance consisted in approaching and receding from 
 the bear with great agility, so as to prevent his seizing upon 
 her, and occasioning any interruption to the performance, which 
 the animal, on the other hand, appears to be exceedingly desirous 
 of effecting, being unmuzzled for the purpose, and irritated by 
 the scourge of the juggler. 
 
 VIII.— THE SWORD-DAISCE. 
 
 There is a dance which was probably in great repute ainong^ 
 the Anglo-Saxons, because it was derived from their ancestors 
 the ancient Germans; it is called the sword-dance; and the 
 performance is thus described by Tacitus r^ "One public di- 
 version was constantly exhibited at all their meetings ; young 
 men, M'ho, by frequent exercise, have attained to great per- 
 
 ' On p 176. 
 
 ♦ No. 2, B. viii. 
 
 3 Tacit, tlo INIorib. (Jt riu. lap. '2i.
 
 CH4P. V. 
 
 OF THK PEOPLK OF ENGLAND. 
 
 215 
 
 fection in that pastime, strip themselves, and dance among 
 the points of swords and spears with most wonderful agility, 
 and even M'ith the most elegant and graceful motions. They 
 do not perform this dance for hire, but for the entertain- 
 ment of the spectators, esteeming their applause a sufficient re- 
 ward."' This dance continues to be practised in the northern 
 parts of England about Christmas time, when, says Mr. Brand, 
 " the fool-plough goes about ; a pageant that consists of a 
 number of sword-dancers dragging a plough, with music," 
 The writer then tells us that he had seen this dance performed 
 very frequently, with little or no variation from the ancient 
 method, excepting only that the dancers of the present day, 
 when they have formed their swords into a figure, lay them 
 upon the ground, and dance round them. 
 
 1 have not been fortunate enough to meet with any delineation 
 that accords with the foregoing descriptions of the sword-dance; 
 but in a Latin manuscript of Prudentius with Saxon notes, 
 written in the ninth century, and now in the Cotton Library ,2 a 
 military dance of a difl^erent kind occurs. It is exceedingly 
 curious, and has not, that I recollect, been mentioned by any 
 of our writers. The drawing is copied below. 
 
 60. Sword-Dance 
 
 ' The reader may fijd a more particular account, of the varioug mofjoiis and figu.es 
 formed by the dancers, from Olaiis Magnus, in Mr. Brand's rxotes upon tlie 14th 
 chapter of Bourne's V^ulgar Antiqui'ies, p. 175- 
 
 " Cleopatra. C. viii.
 
 216 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK III. 
 
 This drawing represents two men, equipped in martial iiat^Its, 
 and each of them armed with a sword and a shield, engaged in 
 a combat; tlie performance is enlivened by the sound of a horn; 
 the musician acts in a double capacity, and is, together wiih a 
 female assistant, dancing round them to the cadence of the 
 music; and probably the actions of the combatants were also 
 regulated by the same measure. 
 
 Early in the last century, and, I doubt not, long before that 
 period, a species of sword-dance, usually performed by young 
 women, constituted a part of the juggler's exhibition at Bartho- 
 lomew fair. I have before me two bills of the shows there pre- 
 sented some time in the reign of queen Anne. The one speaks 
 of " dancing with several naked swords, performed by a child 
 of eight years of age ; " which, the showman assures us, had 
 given " satisfaction to all persons." The other, put forth, it 
 seems, by one who belonged to Sadler's Wells, promises the com- 
 pany, that they shall see " ayoung woman dance with the swords, 
 and upon a ladder, surpassing all her sex." Both these bills 
 were printed in the reign of queen Anne ; the first belonged to 
 a showman named Crawley ; ' and the second to James Miles, 
 from Sadler's Wells, who calls his theatre a music booth, and 
 the exhibition consisted chiefly of dancing. The originals are 
 in the Harleian Library .2 About thirty years back,^ I remember 
 to have seen at Flockton's, a much noted but very clumsy jug- 
 gler, a girl about eighteen or twenty years of age, who came 
 upon the stage with four naked swords, two in each hand ; when 
 the music played, she turned round with great swiftness, and 
 formed a great variety of figures with the swords, holding them 
 over her head, down by hersidps, behind her, and occasionally 
 she thrust them in her bosom. The dance generally continued 
 about ten or twelve minutes ; and, when it was finished, she 
 stopped suddenly, without appearing to be in the least giddy 
 from the constant reiteration of the same motion. 
 
 IX.— THE ROPE-DANCE. 
 This species of amusement is certainly very ancient. Terence, 
 in the prologue to Hecyra, complains that the attention of the 
 public was drawn from his play, by the exhibitions of a rope- 
 dancer : 
 
 Ita populus studio siupidus in funambulo 
 Aniraum occuporat. 
 
 ' See p. 166. » No 5951. ^ [Before 1300,]
 
 CHAP. V. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND 217 
 
 We are well assured, that dancing upon the rope constituted 
 a part of the entertainment presented to the public by the min- 
 strels and joculators ; and we can trace it as far back as the 
 thirteenth century : but whether the dancers at that time ex- 
 hibited upon the slack or tig-lit rope, or upon both, cannot easily 
 be ascertained ; and we are equally in the dark respecting- the 
 extent of their abilities: but, if we may judge from the existing- 
 specimens of other feats of agility performed by them or their 
 companions, we may fairly conclude that they were by no means 
 contemptible artists. 
 
 When Isabel of Bavaria, queen to Charles VI. of France, 
 made her public entry into Paris, among- other extraordinary 
 exhibitions prepared for her reception was the following, re- 
 corded by Froissart, who was himself a witness to the fact : 
 " There was a mayster' came out of Geane; he had tied a corde 
 upon the hyghest house on the brydge of Saynt Michell over 
 all the 'houses, and the other ende was tyed to the hyghest 
 tower of our Ladye's churche; and, as the queue passed by, 
 and was in the great streat called Our Ladye's strete ; bycause 
 it was late, this sayd mayster, wyth two brinnynge^ candelles 
 in hys handes, issued out of a littel stage that he had made on 
 the heyght of our Lady's tower, synginge^ as he went upon the 
 cord all alonge the great strete, so that all that sawe him hadde 
 marvayle how it might be; and he bore still in hys handes the 
 two brinnynge candelles, so that hemyght be well sene all over 
 Parys, and two myles without the city. He was such a tonibler, 
 that his lightnesse was greatly praistd." In the French, " Molt 
 fist d'appertices tant que la legierete de lui, et toutes ses oeuvres 
 furent molt prisees ; " " He gave them many proofs of his skill, 
 so that his agility and all his performances were highly es- 
 teemed." The manner in Avhich this extraordiniary feat was 
 carried into execution is not so clear as might be wished. The 
 translation justifies the idea of his walking- down the rope; but 
 ihe words of Froissart are, " S'asbit sur eel corde, et il vint 
 tout au long de la rue;" that is, literally, he seated himself 
 upon the cord, and became all along the street; which indicates 
 his sliding down, and then the trick will bear a close resem- 
 blance to those that follow. But St. Foix, on the authority of 
 
 ' I have followed the old English translation by lord Bemers. The French is 
 '■ TOaistre engigtieur," which may be rendered " master juggler." Vol. iv. thap. 38, 
 fol. 47. 
 
 ' Burning or lighted candles, in the French chierges ardans. ^ Sinr-ing.
 
 218 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK 111. 
 
 anotlier historian, says, he descended dancino^ upon the cord ; 
 and, passing; between the curtains of blue taffety, ornamented 
 with large fleurs-de-lis of gold, which covered the bridge, he 
 placed a crown upon the head of Isabel, and then r< mounted 
 upon the cord.' 
 
 X.—ROPE-DANCING FROiAI THE BATTLEMENTS OF ST. PAUL'S. 
 
 A performance much resembling the foregoing was exhibited 
 before king Edward VI. at the time he passed in procession 
 through the city of London, on Friday, the nineteenth of February, 
 1546, previous to his coronation. " When the king," says the 
 author, " was advanced almost to St. George's church,^ in Paul's 
 church-yard, there was a rope as great as the cable of a ship, 
 stretched in length from the battlements of Paul's steeple, with 
 a great anchor at one end, fastened a little before the dean of 
 Paul's house-gate ; and, when his majesty approached near the 
 same, there came a man, a stranger, being a native of Arragon, 
 lying on the rope with his head forward, casting his arms and 
 legs abroad, running on his breast on the rope from the battle- 
 ments to the ground, as if it had been an arrow out of a bow, 
 and stayed on the ground. Then he came to his majesty, and 
 kissed his foot ; and so, after certain words to his highness, he 
 departed from him again, and went upwards upon the rope till 
 he came over the midst of the church-yard ; where he, having 
 a rope about him, played certain mysteries on the rope, as 
 tumbling, and casting one leg from another. Then took he the 
 rope, and tied it to the cable, and tied himself by the right leg 
 a little space beneath the wrist of the foot, and hung by one leg 
 a certain space, and after recovered himself again with the said 
 rope and unknit the knot, and came down again. Which stayed 
 his majesty, with all the train, a good space of time."^ 
 
 XL— ROPE-DANCING FROM ST. PAUL'S STEEPLE. 
 
 This trick was repeated, though probably by another ]>er- 
 tbrmer, in the reign of queen Mary; for, according to Holinshed, 
 amono- the various shows prepared for the reception of Philij) 
 king of Spain, was one of a man who "came dowiie upon a 
 rope, tied to the battlement of Saint Paule's church, with his 
 
 ' Essais sur Paris, vol. ii. p. 42. 
 
 » It should be St. Gregory's church, which stood on tiio south sitle of S». Paul's 
 nearly opposite to the Dean's Gateway. 
 * Archwologia, vol. vii.
 
 CHAP. V. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 210 
 
 head before, neither staieing* himself with hand or foot; which," 
 aads the autbor, " shortlie after cost him his life."' 
 
 XII.— ROPE-DANCING FROM ALL SAINTS' CHURCH, HERTFORD. 
 
 A similar exploit was put in practice, about fifty years back,^ 
 HI different parts of this kinodom; I received the following- ac- 
 count of the manner in which it v/as carried into execution at 
 Hertford from a friend of mine,^ who assisted the exhibitor in 
 adjusting- his apparatus, and saw his performance several times : 
 A rope was stretched from the top of the tower of All Saints' 
 church, and brought obliquely to the ground about fourscore 
 yards from the bottom of the tower, where, being drawn over 
 two strong- pieces of wood nailed across each other, it was 
 made fast to a stake driven into the earth ; two or three feather 
 beds were then placed upon the cross timbers, to receive the 
 performer when he descended, and to break his fall. He was 
 also provided with a flat board having a groove in the midst of 
 it, which he attached to his breast ; and when he intended to 
 exhibit, he laid himself upon the top of the rope, with his head 
 downwards, and adjusted the groove to the rope, his legs being 
 held by a person appointed for that purpose, until such time as 
 he had properly balanced himself. He was then liberated, and 
 descended with incredible swiftness from the top of the tower 
 to the feather-beds, which prevented his reaching- the ground. 
 This man had lost one of his legs, and its place was supplied by a 
 wooden leg, which was furnished on this occasion with a quan- 
 tity of lead sufficient to counterpoise the weight of the other. 
 He performed this three times in the same day ; the first time, 
 he descended without holding any thing in his hands ; the second 
 time, he blew a trumpet ; and the third, he held a pistol in each 
 hand, which he discharged as he came down. 
 
 XIII.— A DUTCHMAN'S FEATS ON ST. PAUL'S WEATHERCOCK. 
 To the foregoing extraordinary exhibitions we may add 
 another equally dangerous, but executed without the assistance 
 of a rope. It was performed in the presence of queen Mary in 
 her passage through London to Westminster, the day before 
 her coronation, in 1553, and is thus described by Holinshed:* 
 
 ' Holinshed, Cliron. vol. iii. p. 11:21. * [Before 1800.) 
 
 •* Mr. John Carringion, of Bacon's, Id the parish of Bramfield, near Hertford. 
 * Jlolinshed, Cliron. vol iii. p. 1091.
 
 •2S0 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK III. 
 
 " When she came to Saint Paule's church-yard against the school 
 master Heywood sat in a pageant under a vine, and made to het 
 an oration in Latin ; and then there was one Peter, a Dutchman, 
 that stoode upon the weathercocke of Saint Paul's steeple, 
 holding a streamer in his hands of five yards long, and waving | 
 
 thereof. He sometimes stood on one foot, and shook the other, 
 and then he kneeled on his knees, to the great marvell of all 
 the people. He had made two scaffolds under him ; one above 
 the cross, having torches and streamers set upon it, and another 
 over the ball of the cross, likewise set with streamers and torches, 
 which could not burn, the wind was so great." The historian 
 informs us, that " Peter had sixteene pounds, thirteene shillings, 
 and foure pence, given to him by the citie for his costs and 
 panics, and fcr all his stuffe.'* 
 
 XIV.— JACOB HALL THE ROPE-DANCER. 
 
 In the reign of Charles H. there was a famous rope-dancer 
 named Jacob Hall, whose portrait is still in existence.' The 
 open-hearted duchess of Cleveland is said to have been so 
 partial to this man, (hat he rivalled the king- himself in her 
 affections, and received a salary from her grace. 
 
 XV.— MODERN CELEBRATED ROPE-DANCING. [ 
 
 Soon after the accession of James H. to the throne, a Dutch 
 woman made her appearance in this country; and " when," says 
 a modern author, " she first danced and vaulted upon the rope '^■ 
 
 in London, the spectators beheld her with a pleasure mixed ^ 
 
 with pain, as she seemed every moment in danger of breaking & 
 
 her neck." This woman was afterwards exceeded by Signora i 
 
 Violante, who not only exhibited many feats which required % 
 
 more strength and agility of body than she was mistress of, but 
 had also a stronger head, as she performed at a much greater 
 distance from the ground than any of her predecessors. Signer 
 Violante was no less excellent as a rope-dancer. The spectators 
 were astonished, in the reign of George II., at seeing the famous 
 Turk dance upon the rope, balance himself on a slack wire 
 without a poise, and toss up oranges alternately with his hands ; 
 but this admiration was considerably abated when one of the 
 oranges happened to fall, and appeared by the sound to be a 
 
 ' Granger, Biog. Hist. vol. iv. p. 349, 
 
 J
 
 CHAP. V. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 221 
 
 ball of painted lead. Signor and Signora Spinacuta were not 
 inferior to the Turk. " The former danced on the rope (in 1768) 
 at the Little Theatre in the Haymarket, Avith two boys tied to his 
 feet. But what is still more extraordinary, a monkey has lately 
 performed there, both as a rope-dancer and an equilibrist, such 
 tricks as no man was thought equal to before the Turk appeared 
 in England." ^ 
 
 ROPE-DANCING AT SADLER'S WELLS, &c. 
 
 During the last century, Sadler's Wells was a famous nursery 
 for tumblers, balance-masters, and dancers upon the rope and 
 upon the wire. These exhibitions have of late years lost much 
 of their popularity : the tight-rope dancing, indeed, is still 
 continued there^ by Richer, a justly celebrated performer. This 
 man certainly displays more ease and elegance of action, and 
 much greater agility, upon the rope, than any other dancer that 
 1 ever saw : his exertions at all times excite the astonishment, 
 while they command the applause of the spectators. 
 
 I shall only observe, that the earliest representation of rope- 
 dancing- which 1 have met with occurs in a little print affixed to 
 one of the chapters of the vocabulary of Commenius, translated 
 by Hoole;^ where a woman is depicted dancing upon the tight- 
 rope, and holding a balance charged with lead at both ends, 
 according to the common usage of the present day ; '* and be- 
 hind her we see a man, with his hand downwards, and hanging 
 upon the same rope by one of his legs. This feat, with others 
 of a similar kind, are more usually performed upon the slack 
 rope, which at the same time is put into motion; the performer 
 frequently hanging by one foot, or by both his hands, or in 
 a variety of different manners and attitudes; or by laying him- 
 self along upon the rope, holding it with his hands and feet, 
 the latter being crossed, and turning round with incredible swift- 
 ness, which is called roasting the pig. 
 
 XVIL— FOOL'S DANCE. 
 
 The fool's dance, or a dance performed by persons equipped 
 in the dresses appropriated to the fools, is very ancient, and 
 
 ' Granger, vol. iv. pp. 352, 353. * [In 1801.] 
 
 ^ Orbis Secsualium Pictus, A.D. 1658. 
 Richer dances with great facility without any balance, and walks down the rope 
 into the pit, and ascends again. He also adds a variety of other performances.
 
 222 
 
 SPORTS AND PASTIMES 
 
 BOOK in. 
 
 oriaiiially, T apprehend, formed a part of the pag-eant heionging 
 to the festival of fools. This festival was a religious mummery, 
 usually held at Christmas time; and consisted of various cere- 
 monials and mockeries, not only exceedingly ridiculous, but 
 shameful and impious.^ A vestige of the fool's dance, preserved 
 in a MS. in the Bodleian Library,^ written and illuminated in 
 the reign of king Edward III. and completed in 1344, is copied 
 below. 
 
 61. A Fool's Dance. — XIV. Century. 
 
 In this representation of the dance, it seems conducted with 
 some degree of regularity ; and is assisted by the music of the 
 regals and the bagpipes.^ The dress of the musicians resembles 
 that of the dancers, and corresponds exactly with the habit of 
 the court fool at that period.'* I make no doubt, tic morris- 
 dance, which afterwards became exceedingly popular in this 
 
 ' An account of this festival may be found in the account of Christmas Garties, 
 book iv. chap. iii. sect. 9 
 ' No. 964. 
 
 * [In the drawing the musicians face the dancers : they are planed below tht^m in 
 the above engraving to suit the present page.] 
 
 ♦ [Mr. Douce is of opinion, that the dance set forth above by Mr. Strutt, from ll «• 
 Bcd.'eian MS., did not form a part of the festival of fools.J
 
 rilAP. V. OF TIIR PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. '?2S 
 
 country, orig-inated from the fool's dance ; and thence we trace 
 the bells which characterised the morris-dancers. The word 
 morris applied to the dance is usually derived from Morisco. 
 M'hich in the Spanish languag-e signifies a Moor, as if the dance 
 had been taken from the Moors; but 1 cannot help considerino- 
 this as a mistake, for it appears to me that the Morisco or Moor 
 dance is exceedingly different from the morris-dance formerly 
 practised in this country ; it being performed by the castanets, 
 or rattles, at the end of the fingers, and not with bells attached 
 to various parts of the dress. In a comedy called Variety, 
 printed in 1649, we meet with this passage: " like a Bacchanalian, 
 dancing the Spanish Morisco, with knackers at his fingers." This 
 dance was usually, I believe, performed by a single person, which 
 by no means agrees with the morris-dance. Sir John Hawkins ' 
 observes that, within the memory of persons living, a saraband 
 danced by a Moor constantly formed part of the entertainment 
 at a puppet-show ; and this dance was always performed with 
 the castanets. I shall not pretend to investigate the derivation 
 of the word morris; though probably it might be found at 
 home : it seems, however, to have been applied to the dance in 
 modern times, and, I trust, long after the festival to which it 
 originally belonged was done away and had nearly sunk into 
 oblivion. 
 
 XVIII.— MORRIS-DANCE. 
 
 The morris-dance was sometimes performed by itself, but was 
 much more frequently joined to processions and pageants, and 
 especially to those appropriated for the celebration of the May- 
 games. On these occasions, the Hobby-horse, or a Draoon, 
 with Robin Hood, the maid Marian, and other characters, sup- 
 posed to have been the companions of that famous outlaw, 
 made a part of the dance. In latter times, the morris was fre- 
 quently introduced upon the stage. Stephen Gosson, who wrote 
 about 1579, m a little tract entitled Playes Confuted, speaks 
 of " dauncing of gigges, galiardes, and morisces, with hobbi- 
 horses," as stage performances. 
 
 The garments of the morris-dancers, as we observed before, 
 were adorned with bells, which were not placed there merely 
 for the sake of ornament, but were to be sounded as they 
 danced. These bells were of unequal sizes, and differently 
 
 ' History of Music, vol.iv. p. 388.
 
 224 SPORTS AND PASTIMES I!0<<K i I f . 
 
 denominated, as the fore bell, the second bell, the treble, the 
 tenor or great bell, and mention is also made of double bells. 
 In the third year of queen Elizabeth, two dozen of morris-bells 
 were estimated at one shilling.' The principal dancer in the 
 morris was more superbly habited than his companions, as ap- 
 pears from a passage in an old play, The Blind Beggar of 
 Bednal Green, by John Day, 1659, wherein it is said of one of 
 the characters, " He wants no cloths, for he hath a cloak laid 
 on with gold lace, and an embroidered jerkin ; and thus he is 
 marching hither like the foreman of a morris." 
 
 I do not find that the morris-dancers were confined to any 
 particular number: in the ancient representation of this dance 
 given by the engraving No. 61, there are five, exclusive of the 
 two musicians. A modern writer speaks of a set of morris- 
 ancers who went about the country, consisting of ten men who 
 danced, besides the maid Marian, and one who played upon 
 the pipe and tabor.^ 
 
 The hobby-horse, which seems latterly to have been almost 
 inseparable from the morris-dance, was a compound figure ; the 
 resemblance of the head and tail of a horse, with a light wooden 
 frame for the body, was attached to the person who was to per- 
 form the double character, covered with trappings reaching to 
 the ground, so as to conceal the feet of the actor, and prevent 
 its being seen that the supposed horse had none. Thus equipped, 
 he was to prance about, imitating the curvetings and motions of 
 a horse, as we may gather from the following speech in an old 
 tragedy called the Vow-breaker, or Fair Maid of Clifton, by 
 William Sampson, 1636. "Have I not practised my reines, my 
 carreeres, my prankers, my ambles, my false trotts, my smooth 
 ambles, and Canterbury paces — and shall the mayor put me, 
 besides, the hobby-horse? I have borrowed the fore-horse bells, 
 his plumes, and braveries ; nay, I have had the mane new shorn 
 and frizelled. — Am I not going to buy ribbons and toys of sweet 
 Ursula for the Marian — and shall I not play the hobby-horse? 
 Provide thou the dragon, and let me alone for the hobby-horse." 
 And afterwards : " Alas, Sir! 1 come only to borrow a few rib- 
 bandes, bracelets, ear-rings, wyertyers, and silk girdles, and 
 handkerchers, for a morris and a show before the queen — I come 
 to furnish the hobby-horse." 
 
 ' Archaeologia, vol.i. p. 15. See also the Witc)i of Edmonton, a tragi-comeJy by 
 William Rowley, printed in 1658. 
 
 ^ See Johnson's Dictionary, word Morris-dance.
 
 CHAP. V. OP THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 225 
 
 XIX.— THE EGG-DANCE. 
 
 I am not able to ascertain the antiquity of this dance. The 
 indication of such a performance occurs in an old comedy, en- 
 titled The longer thou livest, the more Foole thou art, by 
 William Wager,^ in the reign of queen Elizabeth, where we 
 meet with these lines : 
 
 Upon my one foote pretely I can hoppe, 
 And daunce it trimley about an egge. 
 
 Dancing upon one foot was exhibited by the Saxon gleemen, 
 and probably by the Norman minstrels, but more especially by 
 the women-dancers, who might thence acquire the name of hop» 
 pesteres, which is given by Chaucer. A vestige of this deno- 
 mination is still retained, and applied to dancing, though some- 
 what contemptuously ; for an inferior dancing-meeting is gene- 
 rally called a hop. A representation of the dance on one foot, 
 taken from a manuscript of the tenth century, appears by the 
 engraving No. 52,^ where the gleeman is performing to the 
 sound of the harp. 
 
 Hopping matches for prizes M^ere occasionally made m tin? 
 sixteenth century, as we learn from John Hey woode the epigram- 
 matist. In his Proverbs, printed in 1566, are the following 
 lines : 
 
 Where wooers hoppe in and out, long time may bring 
 Him that hoppeth best at last to have the ring — 
 — I hoppyng without for a ringe of a lushe. 
 
 And again, in the Four P's, a pky by the same author, one of the 
 characters is directed " to hop upon one foot; " and another says, 
 
 Here were a hopper to hop for the ring. 
 
 Hence it appears a ring was usually the prize, and given to 
 him who could hop best, and continue to do so the longest. 
 But to return to the egg-dame. This performance was com- 
 , mon enough about thirty years back,^ and was well received 
 at Sadler's Wells ; where 1 saw it exhibited, not by simply 
 hopping round a single egg, but in a manner that much in- 
 creased the difficulty. A number of eggs, I do not precisely 
 recollect how many, but I believe about twelve or fourteen, 
 were placed at certain distances marked upon the stage; the 
 dancer, taking his stand, was blind-folded, and a hornpipe 
 being played in the orchestra, he went through all the paces 
 
 ' Garrick's Collection of Old Plays, 1 vol. 18ino. ' See p. 176. 
 
 ' [Reckoning from 1801.]
 
 226 
 
 SPORTS AND PASTIMES 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 and figures of the dance, passing backwards and forwards be- 
 tween the eggs without touching one of them. 
 
 XX.— THE LADDER-DANCE. 
 So called, because the performer stands upon a ladder, which 
 he shifts from place to place, and ascends or descends without 
 losing the equilibrium, or permitting it to fall. This dance was 
 practised at Sadler's Wells at the commencement of the last 
 century, and revived about thirty years back. It is still con- 
 tinued there ^ by Dubois, who calls himself the clown of the 
 Wells, and is a very useful actor, as well as an excellent per- 
 former upon the tight-rope. In the reign of queen Anne, James 
 Miles, who declared himself to be a performer from Sadler's 
 Wells, kept a music-booth in Bartholomew Fair, where he ex- 
 hibited nineteen different kinds of dances ; among them were a 
 wrestler's dance, vaulting upon the slack rope, and dancing upon 
 the ladder; the latter, he tells us, as well as the sword-dance, 
 was performed by "a young woman surpassing all her sex." 2 
 —An Inventory of Playhouse Furniture, quoted in the Tatler^ 
 under the article, Materials for Dancing, specifies masques, 
 castanets, and a ladder of ten rounds. I apprehend the ladder- 
 dance originated from the ancient pastime of walking or dancmg 
 upon very high stilts. A specimen of such an exhibition is 
 here given from a MS. roll in the Royal Library, written and 
 illuminated in the reign of Henry III.^ The actor is exercising 
 fi double function, that is-, of a musician, and of a dancer. 
 
 ' [In 1801 -] 
 
 62. Stilt Dancing, — XIII. Centurv. 
 s Harl. Lib. 5931. ^ Vol. i. No. 42. 
 
 ♦ 14, B. \
 
 CHAP.V. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLi-ND. 227 
 
 XXL— JOCULAR DANCES. 
 
 In the Roman de la Rose, we read of a dance, the name of 
 which is not recorded, performed by two young women lightly 
 clothed. The original reads, " Qui estoient en pure cottes, et 
 tresses a menu tresse ; " which Chaucer renders, " In kyrtels, 
 and none other wede, and fayre ytressed every tresse." The 
 French intimates that their hair was platted, or braided in small 
 braids. The thin clothing, 1 suppose, was used then, as it is 
 now upon like occasions, to show their persons to greater ad- 
 vantage. In their dancing they displayed a variety of singular 
 attitudes; the one coming as it were privately to the other, and, 
 when they were near together, in a playsome manner they 
 turned their faces about, so that they seemed continually to kiss 
 each other 
 
 They threw yfere 
 
 Ther mouthes, so that, through ther play, 
 
 It semed as they kyste alway. — Chaucer's translation. 
 
 A dance, the merit of which, if I mistake not, consisted in 
 the agility and adroitness of the performer, has been noticed 
 already, and is represented by the engraving No. 51;' and like- 
 wise in No. 59,^ where a woman is dancing, and eluding the pur- 
 suit of a bear made angry by the scourge of his master. The 
 various situations of the actress and the disappointment of the 
 animal excited, no doubt, the mirth as well as the applause of 
 the spectators. 
 
 Many of the ancient dances were of a jocular kind, and some- 
 times executed by one person : we have, for instance, an ac- 
 count of a man who danced upon a table before king' Edward II. 
 The particulars of the dance are not specified ; but it is said, 
 that his majesty laughed very heartily at the performance : " Et 
 lui fist tres gmndement rire."^ It probably consisted of quaint 
 attitudes and ridiculous gesticulations. The king, however, was 
 so delighted, that he gave a reward of fifty shillings to the 
 dancer, which was a great sum in those days. A few years 
 ago,4 there was a fellow that used to frequent the different 
 public-houses in the metropolis, who, mounting a table, would 
 stand upon his head with his feet towards the ceiling, and make 
 all the different steps of a hornpipe upon it for the diversion 
 of the company. His method of performing was to place a 
 
 ' On p. 176. « On p. 214. 
 
 * Rot. Comput. temp. Edw. IL penes T. Astle, esq. * [Before 1801.] 
 
 Q 2
 
 228 
 
 SPORTS AND PASTIMKS 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 porter-pot upon the table, raised high enough for his feet to 
 touch the ceiling, Avhen his head was upon the pot. I have been 
 told that many publicans would not permit him to come into 
 their houses, because he had damaged their ceiling, and in some 
 places danced part of it down. An exhibition nearly as ridi- 
 culous is heie represented from a MS. in the Royal Library. 
 
 63. Remarkable Dance. — XIII. Century 
 
 Here we perceive a girl dancing upon the shoulders of the 
 joculator, who at the same time is playing upon the bagpipes- 
 and aopears to be in the action of walking forwards. 
 
 XXII.— WIRE-DANCING. 
 Wire-dancing, at least so much of it as I have seen exhibited, 
 appears to me to be misnamed : it consists rather of various 
 feats of balancing, the actor sitting, standing, lying, or walking, 
 upon the wire, which at the same time is usually swung back- 
 wards and forwards ; and this, I am told, is a mere trick, to give 
 the greater air of difficulty to the performance. Instead of 
 dancing, I would call it balancing upon the wire. 
 
 XXIII.— BALLETTE-DANCES. 
 The orand figure-dances, and ballettes of action, as they are 
 called, of the modern times, most probably surpass in splendour 
 the ancient exhibitions of dancing. They first appeared, I be- 
 lieve, at the Opera-house ; but have since been adopted by the 
 two royal theatres, and imitated with less splendour upon the 
 
 ' 14. E. ill.
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 
 
 229 
 
 summer stages. These spectacles are too extensive by far in 
 their operations, and too multifarious to be described in a gene 
 ral work like this: suffice it to say, they are pantominiical re 
 presentations of historical and poetical subjects, expressed by 
 fantastical gestures, aided by superb dresses, elegant music, and 
 beautiful scenery; and sorry am I to add, they have nearly 
 eclipsed the sober portraitures of real nature, and superseded 
 in the public estimation the less attractive lessons of good sense, 
 
 XXIV.— LEAPING AND VAULTING. 
 There are certain feats of tumbling and vaulting that have 
 no connexion with dancing, such as leaping and turning Avith 
 the heels over the head in the air, termed the somersault, cor- 
 ruptly called a somerset. Mrs. Piozzi, speaking of Robert Carr, 
 earl of Somerset, and favourite of James I., says, " and the 
 Kommerset, still used by tumblers, taken from him." ^ The 
 word, however, was in use, and applied by the tumblers to the 
 feat above mentioned, before the birth of Carr. There was 
 also the feat of turning round with great rapidity, alternately 
 bearing upon the hands and feet, denominated the fly-flap. In 
 a satirical pamphlet, entitled The Character of a Quack Doctor, 
 published at London, 1676, the empiric, boasting- of his cures, 
 says, " The Sultan Gilgal, being violently afilicted with a spas- 
 mus, came six hundred leagues to meet me in a go-cart : I gave 
 him so speedy an acquittance from his dolor, that the next night 
 he danced a saraband with fly-flaps and somersets," &c. : but 
 this is evidently conjoining the three for (he sake of ridicule. 
 The performance of leaping through barrels without heads, and 
 through hoops, especially the latter, is an exploit of long 
 standing: we find it represented in the annexed engraving- from 
 a drawing in an ancient manuscript. 
 
 61. A Feat in ti'e XIV. CENTunv. 
 * Retiosiiection of Eighteen MandreJ Years, vol. ii. j). ^'ii.
 
 23() SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK HI. 
 
 Two boys are depicted holding- the hoop, and the third pre- 
 paring to leap through it, having deposited his cloak upon the 
 ground to receive him. 
 
 William Stokes, a vaulting master of the seventeenth century, 
 boasted, in a publication called The Vaulting Master, &c. 
 printed at Oxford in 1652, that he had reduced " vaulting to 
 a method." In his book are several plates containing different 
 specimens of his practice, which consisted chiefly in leaping over 
 one or more horses, or upon them, sometimes seating himself in 
 the saddle and sometimes standing upon the same. All these 
 feats are now' performed at Astley's, and at the circus in 
 St. George's Fields, with many additional acquirements; and 
 the horses gallop round the ride while the actor is going 
 through his manoeuvres: on the contrary, the horses belonging 
 to our vaulter remained at rest during the whole time of his 
 exhibition. 
 
 A show-bill for Bartholomew Fair, during the reign of queen 
 Anne^ announces "the wonderful performances of that most 
 celebrated master Simpson, the famous vaulter, who, being 
 lately arrived from Italy, will show the world what vaulting is !" 
 The bill speaks pompously : how far his abilities coincided with 
 the promise, I cannot determine, for none of his exertions are 
 specified. But the most extraordinary vaulter that has appeared 
 within my memory Avas brought forward in 1799, at the Circus. 
 He was a native of Yorkshire, named Ireland, then about 
 eighteen years of age, exceedingly well made, and upwards 
 of six feet high. He leaped over nine horses standing side by 
 side and a man seated upon the mid-horse; he jumped over a 
 garter held fourteen feet high; and at another jump kicked a 
 bladder hanging sixteen feet at least from the ground ; and, 
 for his own benefit, he leaped over a temporary machine re- 
 presenting a broad-wheeled waggon with the tilt. These as- 
 tonishing specimens of strength and agility were perfonued, 
 without any trick or deception, by a fair jump, and not with the 
 somersault, which is usually practised on such occasions. After 
 a run of ten or twelve yards, he ascended an inclined plane, 
 constructed with thick boards, and about three feet in height 
 at one end; from the upper part of this plane he made his 
 spring, and having performed the leap, was received into a 
 carpet held by six or eight men. I examined this apparatus 
 
 [In 1801.] 2 In a Tolume of Miscellaneous Papers, BibJ. Ilarl. :-i93\.
 
 CHAP. V. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 231 
 
 very minntely, and am well persuaded that he received no 
 assistariioe trom any elasticity in the boards, they being too 
 thick to afford him any, and especially at the top, where they 
 were made fast to the frame that supported them ; nor from any 
 other kind of artificial spring. It may readily be supposed that 
 exertions of such an extraordinary nature could not be long 
 continued without some disastrous accident ; and accordingly, 
 in the first season of his engagement, he sprained the tendon 
 of his heel so violently, that he could not perform for nearly 
 two years afterwards. 
 
 XXV,— BALANCING. 
 
 Under this head perhaps may be included several of the 
 performances mentioned in the preceding pages, and especially 
 the throwing of three balls and three knives alternately into the 
 air, and catching them as they fall, as represented by the en^ 
 graving No 60, from a MS. of the eighth century. This trick, 
 in my memory, commonly constituted a part of the puppet- 
 showman's exhibition ; but I do not recollect to have seen it 
 extended beyond four articles ; for instance, two oranges and 
 two forks; and the performer, by way of conclusion, caught 
 the oranges upon the forks. 
 
 In the Romance of the Rose, we read of tymbesteres, or 
 balance-mistresses, who, according to the description there given, 
 played upon the tymbres, or timbrels, and occasionally tossing 
 them into the air, caught them again upon one finger. The pas- 
 sage translated by Chaucer, stands thus : 
 
 There was manye a tymbestere — 
 — Couthe hei »-.&fte full parfytly : 
 The tymbres up full subtelly 
 They cast, and hent full ofte 
 Upon a fynger fay re and softe, 
 That they fayled never mo.' 
 
 Towards the close of last summer (1799) I saw three itinerant 
 nuisicians parading the streets of London ; one of their turned 
 the winch of an organ which he carried at his back, another 
 
 ' In the original French it is said, 
 
 " et timberesses, 
 
 Q"ji moult savoient bien juer, 
 Qui lie finoient de ruer 
 Le timbre en liaut, si recueilloient 
 Sus I'.u doi conques enfailloient."
 
 232 
 
 SPORTS AND PASTIMES 
 
 BOOK UJ. 
 
 blew a reed-pipe, and tlie third played on a tambourine ; the 
 latter imitated the timbesters above mentioned^ and frequently 
 during" the performance of a tune cast up the instrument into the 
 air three or four feet higher than his head, and caught it, as it 
 returned, upon a sing-le finger ; he then whirled it round with 
 an air of triumph, and proceeded in the accompaniment without 
 losing time, or occasioning the least interruption. 
 
 XXVI.— REMARKABLE FEATS OF BALANCING. 
 Subjoined are a few specimens of the ancient balance-master's 
 
 art. 
 
 Balancing. — XIV. Century. 
 
 This engraving, from a MS. in the Bodleian Library,' represents 
 a girl, as the length of the hair seems to indicate, habited like 
 a boy, and kneeling on a large broad board, supported horizon- 
 tally by two men ; before her are three swords, the points in- 
 clined to each other, and placed in a triangular form ; she is 
 pointing to them with her right hand, and holds in her left a 
 email instrument somewhat resembling a trowel, but I neither 
 know its name nor its use. 
 
 66. Balancing. — XIV. Century. 
 
 1 he nian in this engraving, from a drawing in a MS. book of 
 prayers possessed by Francis Douce, esq., is performing a very 
 
 > No. 264.
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 
 
 233 
 
 difficult operation : he has placed one sword upright upon the 
 hilt, and is attempting to do the like with the second ; at the 
 same time his attitude is altogether as surprising as the trick 
 itself. Feats similar to 
 
 67. Balancing. — XIV. Century. 
 
 I have seen carried into execution, and especially that of ba- 
 lancing a wheel. 
 
 68. XIV. Ckntuhv, 
 
 This was exhibited about the year 1799, at Sadler's Wells, by 
 a Dutchman, who not only supported a wheel upon his shoulder, 
 but also upon his forehead and his chin : and he afterwards 
 extended the performance to two wheels tied together, with a 
 boy standing upon one of them. The latter engravings are 
 from the MS. in the Bodleian Library just referred to. The 
 following is from a MS. Psalter formerly belonging to J. Ives, 
 esq. of Yarmouth.
 
 234 
 
 SPORTS AND PASTIMKS 
 
 BOOK ill. 
 
 69. Balancing. — XIV. Centubv. 
 
 In the middle of the eighteenth century, there was a very 
 celebrated balance-master, named Mattocks, who made his ap- 
 pearance also at the Wells; among- other tricks, he used to 
 balance a straw with great adroitness, sometimes on one hand, 
 sometimes on the other ; and sometimes he would kick it with 
 his foot to a considerable height, and catch it upon his nose, 
 his chin, or his forehead. His fame was celebrated by a song- 
 set to music, entitled Balance a Straw, which became exceedingly 
 popular. The Dutchman mentioned above perfopjned the same 
 sort of feat with a small peacock's feather, >vhich he blew into 
 the air, and caught it as it fell on different [larts of his face in 
 a very surprising manner. 
 
 XXVII.— THE POSTURE-MASTER. 
 
 The display of his abilities consisted in twisting" and contorting 
 his body into strange and unnatural attitudes. This art was, in
 
 t'II.Vl>. V. 
 
 OF THE PEOPLK OF ENGLAND. 
 
 2:35 
 
 tloubt, practised by the jugglers in former ages; and a singular 
 specimen of it, delineated on the last mentioned Bodleian MS , 
 in the reign of Edward III., is here represented. 
 
 70. A Posture-Mastek, — XIV. Centuhy. 
 
 The performer bends himself backwards, with his head turned 
 up between liis hands, so as nearly to touch his feet; and in this 
 situation he hangs by his hams upon a pole, supported by two 
 of his confederates. 
 
 The posture-master is frequently mentioned by the writers of 
 the two last centuries; but his tricks are not particularised. Th'r 
 most extraordinary artist of this kind that ever existed, it is said 
 Avas Joseph Clark, who, "though a well-made man, and rathei 
 gross than thin, exhibited in the most natural manner almost every 
 species ^of deformity and dislocation; he could dislocate his 
 vertebrae so as to render himself a shocking- spectacle; he could 
 also assume all the uncouth faces that he had seen at a Quaker's 
 meeting, at the theatre, or any other public place." To this 
 man a paper in the Guardian evidently alludes, wherein it is 
 said: " ! reuiensber a very whimsical fellow, commonly known 
 by the name of the posture-master, in Charles the Second's 
 reign, who was the plague of all the tailors about town. He 
 would send for one of them to take measure of him ; but would 
 so contrive it as to have a most immoderate rising in one of his 
 shoulders ; when his clothes were brought home and tried upon 
 him, the deformity was removed into the other shoulder ; upon 
 which the taylor begged pardon for the mistake, and mended 
 it as fast as he could ; but, on another trial, found him as 
 straight-shouldered a man as one wouUl desire to see, but a 
 little unfortunate in a hump back. In short, this wandering- 
 tumour puzzled all the workmen about town, who found it im-
 
 '2S6 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK. Ill 
 
 possible to accommodate so changeable a customer." ^ He resided 
 in Pall Mall, and died about the beginning of king William's 
 reign. Granger tells us he was dead in the year 1697.^ There 
 was also a celebrated posture-master, by the name of Higgins, 
 in the reign of queen Anne, who performed between the acts at 
 the theatre royal in the Haymarket, and exhibited " many won- 
 derful postures," as his own bill declares:^ I know no farther 
 of him. In the present day, the unnatural performances of the 
 posture-masters are not fashionable, but seem to excite disgust 
 rather than admiration in the public mind, and for this reason 
 they are rarely exhibited. 
 
 XXVllI.— THE MOUNTEBANK. 
 
 I may here mention a stage-performer whose show is usually 
 enlivened with mimicry, music, and tumbling-; I mean the 
 mountebank. It is uncertain at what period this vagrant dealer 
 in physic made his appearance in England : it is clear, however, 
 that he figured away with much success in this country during 
 the two last centuries ; he called to his assistance some of the 
 performances practised by the jugglers ; and the bourdour, or 
 merry-andrew, seems to have been his inseparable companion . 
 hence it is said in an old ballad, entitled Sundry Trades and 
 Callings, 
 
 A mountebank without liis fool 
 Is in a sorrowful case. 
 
 The mountebanks usually preface the venaing of their medi- 
 cines with pompous orations, in which they pay as little regard 
 to truth as to propriety. Shakspeare speaks of these wandering 
 empirics in very disrespectful terms : 
 
 As nimble jugglers tbat deceive the eye. 
 Disguised cheaters, prating mountebanks, 
 And many such like libertines of sin. 
 
 In the reign of James II. " Hans Buling, a Dutchman, was 
 well known in London as a mountebank. He was," says 
 Granger,'* " an odd figure of a man, and extremely fantastical in 
 his dress; he was attended by a monkey, which he had trained to 
 act the part of a jack-pudding, a part which he had formerly 
 acted himself, and which was more natural to him than that o^ 
 
 ' No. 102. Julj 8, 1713. 
 
 ■■^ Biog. Hist. vol. iv. See also Pliilos. Trans. No. 242, for July, 16i'8. 
 
 ' Misceli. Collect. Harl. Lib. No. 5931. * Biog. Hist. vol. iv. p. 350.
 
 CHAP. V OF THE PKOPLE OF ENGLAND. 237 
 
 a professor of physic." The ignorance and the impudence of 
 the mountebanks are ridiculed in the Spectator, and especially 
 in that paper which concludes with an anecdote of one who ex- 
 hibited at Hammersmith.' He told his audience that he had 
 been " born and bred there, and, having- a special regard for 
 the place of his nativity, he was determined to make a present 
 of five shillings to as many as would accept it : the whole 
 crowd stood agape, and ready to take the doctor at his word • 
 when, putting his hand into a long bag, as every one was ex- 
 pecting his crown-piece, he drew out a handful of little packets, 
 each of which, he informed the spectators, was constantly sold 
 for five shillings and sixpence, but that he would bate the odd 
 five shillings to every inhabitant of that place. The whole as- 
 sembly immediately closed with this generous offer, and took off 
 all his physic, after the doctor had made them vouch that there 
 were no foreigners among them, but that they were all Hammer- 
 smith men." 
 
 XXIX.— THE TINKER. 
 Another itinerant, who seems in some degree to have rivalled 
 the lower classes of the jugglers, was the tinker ; and accordingly 
 he is included, with them and the minstrels, in the act against 
 vagrants established by the authority of queen Elizabeth.^ His 
 performances were usually exhibited at fairs, Avakes, and other 
 places of public resort: they consisted in low buffoonery and 
 ludicrous tricks to engage the attention and move t' laughter 
 of the populace. Some of them are specified in the followino- 
 speech from The Two Maides of Moreclacke, an old dramatic 
 performance, printed in 1609 : " This, madame, is the tinker of 
 Twitnam. I have seenehim licke out burning firebrands with 
 his tongue, drink twopence from the bottome of a full pottle of 
 ale, fight with a niasty,^ and stroke his mustachoes with his 
 bloody-bitten fist, and sing as merrily as the soberest querester." 
 
 XXX.— THE FIRE-EATER. 
 
 The first article in the foregoing quotation brings to my recol- 
 lection the extraordinary performances of a professed fire-eater, 
 whose name was Powel, well known in different parts of the 
 
 ' Vol. viii. No. 572 ; see also vol. vi. No. 441. » gge p. 135. 
 
 ' Or mastiff dog.
 
 2Ji8 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK HI. 
 
 kingdom about forty years ago. Among other wonderful feats, 
 I saw him do the following : — He ate the burning coals from 
 the fire; he put a large bunch of matches lighted into his 
 mouth, and blew the smoke of the sulphur through his nostrils ; 
 he carried a red-hot heater round the room in his teeth ; and 
 broiled a piece of beef-steak upon his tongue. To perform this, 
 he lighted a piece of charcoal, which he put into his mouth be- 
 neath his tongue, the beef was laid upon the top ; and one of the 
 spectators blew upon the charcoal, to prevent the heat decreasing, 
 till the meat was sufficiently broiled. By way of conclusion, he 
 made a composition of pitch, brimstone, and other combustibles, 
 to which he ad tied several pieces of lead ; the whole was melted 
 in an iron ladle, and then set on fire; this he called his soup ; and, 
 taking it out of the ladle with a spoon of the same metal, he ate 
 it in its state of liquefaction, and blazing furiously, without ap- 
 pearing to sustain the least injury. And here we may add the 
 whimsical trickery of a contemporary artist, equal to the above 
 in celebrity, who amused the public, and filled his pockets, by 
 eating stones, which, it is, said he absolutely cracked between his 
 teeth, and afterwards swallowed.
 
 CHAP. VI. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. "^tV,) 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 I. Animals, how tutored by the Jugglers.— Tricks performed by Bears. — II. Tricks 
 performed by Apes and Monkeys. — III. By Horses among the Sybarites. — IV. In 
 tlie tliirteenth Century. — V. In Queen Anne's Reign. — VI. Origin of the Exlii- 
 bitions at Astley's, the Circus, &c. — VII. Dancing Dogs. — VIII. The Hare 
 beating a Tabor, and learned Pig. — IX. A Dancing Cock. — The Deserter Bird. — 
 X. Imitations of Animals. — XI. Mummings an i Masquerades. — XII. Mumming 
 to Royal Personages. — XIII. Partial Imitations of Animals. — XIV. The Horse 
 in the Morris-iiance. — XV. Counterfeit Voices of Animals. — XVI, Animals 
 trained for Baiting. — XVII Paris Garden. — XVIII. Bull and Bear Baiting 
 
 patronised by Royalty. — XIX. How performed. — XX. Bears and Bear-wards. 
 
 XXI. Baiting in Queen Anne's time. — XXII. Sword Play, &c. — XXIII. Public 
 Sword Play.— XXIV. Quarter Staff.— XXV. Wrestling, &c. in Bear Gardens— 
 XXVI. Extraordinary Trial of Strength. 
 
 I. ANIMALS HOW TUTORED BY JUGGLER 
 
 One great part of the joculator's profession was the teaching 
 of bears, apes, horses, dogs, and other animals, to imitate the 
 actions of men, to tumble, to dance, and to perform a variety 
 of tricks, contrary to their nature; and sometimes he learned 
 himself to counterfeit the gestures and articulations of the brutes. 
 The engravings which accompany this chapter relate (o both 
 these modes of diverting the public, and prove the invention of 
 them to be more ancient than is generally supposed. The tutored 
 bear lying down at the command of his master, represented by 
 the engraving No. 51,' is taken from a manuscript of the tenth 
 century ; and the bear in No. 59^ is from another of the four- 
 teenth. I have already had occasion to mention these two deli- 
 neations; ivd the two following, from a manuscript in the 
 Bodleian Library,^ require no explanation. 
 
 7^,- TuTOitEn Bear. — XIV. Century. 
 On p. 176. • On p. 814. • No. itVt
 
 240 
 
 SPORTS AND PASTIMES 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 72. Tutored Bear. — XIV. Century 
 
 The next represents 
 
 7S. A Bear standing on his Head. 
 
 This and the following are from a book of prayers in the 
 harieian Collection/ written towards the close of Hie thirteenth 
 centurv. 
 
 TK Beab and Monkey. 
 « No. 6h63.
 
 CHAP. VI. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND.' 241 
 
 I shall only observe, that there is but one among these si^ 
 drawings in which the animal is depicted with a muzzle to pre* 
 vent him from biting. The dancing bears have retained theii 
 place to the present time, and they frequently perform in th« 
 public streets for the amusement of the multitude; but the 
 miserable appearance of their masters plainly indicates the 
 scantiness of the contributions they receive on these occasions. 
 
 IL— TRICKS PERFORMED BY APES AND MONKEYS. 
 
 Thomas Cartwright, in his Admonition to Parliament against 
 the Use of the Common Prayer, published in 1572, says, " If 
 there be a bear or a bull to be baited in the afternoon, or a 
 jackanapes to ride on horseback, the minister hurries the service 
 over in a shameful manner, in order to be present at the show." 
 We are not, however, hereby to conceive, that these amusements 
 were more sought after or encouraged in England than they 
 were abroad. " Our kings," says St. Foix, in his History of 
 Paris, " at their coronations, their marriages, and at the baptism 
 of their children, or at the creation of noblemen and knights, 
 kept open court; and the palace was crowded on such occa- 
 sions with cheats, buffoons, rope-dancers, tale-tellers, jugglers, 
 and pautomimical performers. They call those," says he, 
 "jugglers, who play upon the vielle, and teach apes, bears," 
 and perhaps we may add, dogs, " to dance." ^ 
 
 Apes and monkeys seem always to have been favourite actors 
 in the joculator's troop of animals. A specimen of the per- 
 formance of a monkey, as far back as the fourteenth century, 
 is represented by the last engraving; and the followino- is from 
 another of the same date, already referred to, in the Bodleian 
 Library.2 
 
 74. A TUMBLING Ape 
 Essais Hist, sur Paris, vol. ii. p. 178, » Nd. 2{>4
 
 242 * SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK III. 
 
 Leaping" or tumbling over a chain or cord held by the jugg-ler, 
 as Me here see it depicted, was a trick well received at Bartho- 
 lomew fair in the time of Ben Jonson; and in the induction, or 
 prologue, to a comedy written by him, which bears that title, 
 in 1614, it is said, "He," meaning the author, "has ne're a 
 sword and buckler man in his fayre; nor a juggler with a well 
 educated ape to come over the chaine for the king of England, 
 and back again for the prince, and sit still on his haunches for 
 the pope and the king of Spaine." In recent times, and probably 
 in more ancient times also, these facetious mimics of mankind 
 were taught to dance upon the rope, and to perform the part of 
 the balance-masters. In the reign of queen Anne, there was 
 exhibited at Charing Cross, " a wild hairy man," who, we are 
 told, danced upon the tight rope " with a balance, true to the 
 music;" he also " walked upon the slack rope" while it was 
 swinging, and drank a glass of ale ; be " pulled off his bat, 
 and paid his respects to the company ; " and " smoaked tobacco," 
 according to the bill, " as well as any Christian." ^ But all 
 these feats were afterwards outdone by a brother monkey, men- 
 tioned before, who performed many wonderful tricks at the 
 Hayrnarket theatre, both as a rope-dancer and an equilibrist.^ 
 
 III.— TRICKS PERFORMED BY HORSES AMONG THE SYBARITES. 
 
 The people of Sybaris, a city in Calabria, are proverbial on 
 account of their effeminacy ; and it is said that they taught 
 their horses to dance to the music of the pipe; for Avhich reason, 
 their enemies the Crotonians, at a time when they were at Avar 
 with them, brought a great number of pipers into the field, and 
 at the commencement of the battle, they played upon their 
 pipes; the Sybarian horses, hearing the sound of the music, 
 began to dance ; and their riders, unable to manage them as 
 they ought to have done, were throAvn into confusion, and de- 
 feated Avith prodigious slaughter. This circumstance is men- 
 tioned by Aristotle; and, if not strictly true, proves, at least 
 that the teaching of animals to exceed the bounds of action 
 prescribed by nature was not unknown to the ancients,^ 
 
 ' From a Miscellaneous Collectiou of Papers, HarL Lab. 5931. 
 
 ' Granger, Biog. Hist. vol. iv. p. 35S. 
 
 ' Ainsworth's Latin Dictionary, wotvl Sybaris.
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 
 
 243 
 
 IV.— TRICKS PERFORMED BY HORSES IN THE XIII. CENTURY. 
 
 We are told that, in the thirteenth century, a horse was ex- 
 hibited by the joculators, which danced upon a rope ; and oxen 
 were rendered so docile as to ride upon horses, holding- trum- 
 pets to their mouths as though they were sounding them.^ Ac- 
 cordingly we find the representation of several surprising tricks 
 performed by horses, far exceeding those displayed in the 
 present day. A manuscript of the fourteenth century, in the 
 Royal Library ,2 contains the following- cruel diversion; 
 
 76. A Horse baited with Dogs. 
 
 Another manuscript, more ancient by at least half a century, 
 in the same collection, represents 
 
 77. A Horse dancing to the Pipe and Tabor. 
 
 In the often cited Bodleian MS.^ of the fourteenth century, is 
 
 ' Mem sur Anc. Cheval. torn. i. p. 247. 
 » No. 264. 
 
 fl 2 
 
 •■' No. 2, B. Tii.
 
 244 
 
 SPORTS ANI> PASTIMES 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 78. Another Horse. 
 
 Here the horse is rearing up and attacking the joculator, M'ho 
 opposes him with a small shield and a cudgel. These mock 
 combats, to which the animals were properly trained, were con- 
 stantly regulated by some kind of musical instrument. The two 
 following performances, also delineated from the last mentioned 
 manuscript, are more astonishing than those preceding them* 
 
 79. HoBSE AND Tabor. 
 
 In this instance, the horse is standing upon his hinder feet, 
 and beating with his fore feet upon a kind of tabor or drum 
 held by his master. In the following is the same 
 
 80. House AND Tabor.
 
 CHAP. VI. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 24.5 
 
 The animal is exhibiting a similar trick with his hinder teet, 
 and supports himself upon his fore feet. The original drawings, 
 represented by these engravings, are all of them upwards of 
 four hundred and fifty years old ; and at the time in which they 
 were made the joculators were in full possession of the public 
 favour. 
 
 Here it is deemed worthy to note, that in the year 1612, at 
 a grand court festival, Mons. Pluvinel, riding-master to Louis 
 Xlll. of France, with three other gentlemen, accompanied by 
 six esquires bearing their devices, executed a grand ballette- 
 dance upon managed horses.^ Something of the same kind is 
 done 2 at Astley's and the Circus; but at these places the 
 dancing is performed by the horses moving upon their four 
 feet according to the direction of their riders; and of course it 
 is by no means so surprising as that exhibited by the latter en- 
 gravings. 
 
 v.— TRTCKS BY HORSES IN QUEEN ANNE'S REIGN. 
 Horses are animals exceedingly susceptible of instruction, 
 and their performances have been extended so far as to bear the 
 appearance of rational discernment. In the Harleian Library ^ 
 is a show-bill, published in the reign of queen Anne, which is 
 thus prefaced: " To be seen, at the Ship upon Great Tower 
 Hill, the finest taught horse in the world." The abilities of the 
 animal are specified as follows ; " He fetches and carries like 
 a spaniel dog. If you hide a glove, a handkerchief, a door 
 key, a pewter bason, or so small a thing as a silver two-pence, 
 he will seek about the room till he has found it; and then he 
 will bring it to his master. He will also tell the number of 
 spots on a card, and leap through a hoop ; with a variety of 
 other curious performances." And we may, I trust, give full 
 credit to the statement of this advertisement; for a horse equally 
 scientific is to be seen in the present day'* at Astley's amphi- 
 theatre; this animal is so small, that he and his keeper frequently 
 parade the streets in a hackney coach. 
 
 VI.— ORIGIN OF HORSE EXHIBITIONS AT ASTLEY'S, THE CIRCUS, &c. 
 
 Riding upon two or three horses at once, with leaping, dancing, 
 and performmg various other exertions of agilitv upon their 
 
 » Menestrier. Trait, de lournois, p. 218. In 1800.] 
 
 ' No, 5938. " [A.D. 18(K).]
 
 246 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK III. 
 
 backs while they are in full speed, is, I believe, a modern 
 species of exhibition, introduced to public notice about forty 
 years back by a man named Price, who displayed his abilities 
 at Dobney's near Islington ; soon afterwards, a competitor by 
 the name of Sampson made his appearance ; and he again was 
 succeeded by Astley. The latter established a riding-school 
 near Westminster bridge, and has been a successful candidate 
 for popular favour. These performances originally took place 
 in the open air, and the spectators were exposed to the weather 
 which frequently proving unfavourable interrupted the show, 
 and sometimes prevented it altogether ; to remedy this incon- 
 venience, Astley erected a kind of amphitheatre, completely 
 covered, with a ride in the middle for the displayment of the 
 horsemanship, and a stage in the front, with scenes and other 
 theatrical decorations ; to his former divertisements he then added 
 tumbling, dancing, farcical operas, and pantomimes. The suc- 
 cess he met with occasioned a rival professor of horsemanship 
 named Hughes, who built another theatre for similar per- 
 formances not far distant, tOM'hich he gave the pompous title 
 of the Royal Circus. Hughes was unfortunate, and died some 
 years back ; but the Circus has passed into other hands ; and 
 the spectacles exhibited there in the present day' are far more 
 splendid than those of any other of the minor theatres. 
 
 VII.— DANCING DOGS. 
 I know no reason why the joculators should not have made 
 the dog one of their principal brute performers : the sagacity of 
 this creature and its docility could not have escaped their notice; 
 and yet the only trick performed by the dog, that occurs in the 
 ancient paintings, is simply that of sitting upon his haunches 
 in an upright position, which he might have been taught to do 
 with very little trouble, as in the following engraving from the 
 Bodleian MS. finished in 1344, and in others that will presently 
 appear. 
 
 81. Doc. — XIV. Century. 
 • [1800,]
 
 CHAP. Vf, OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 247 
 
 Neither do I recollect that dogs are included in the list of 
 animals formerly belong-ing to the juggler's exhibitions, though, 
 no doubt, they ought to have been ; for, in Ben Jonson's play 
 of Bartholmew Fay re, first acted in 1614, there is mention 
 made of " dogges that dance the morrice," without any indi- 
 cation of the performance being a novelty. Dancing dogs, in 
 the present day, make their appearance in the public streets of 
 the metropolis; but their masters meet with very little encou- 
 ragement, except from the lower classes of the people, and 
 from children ; and of course the performance is rarely worthy 
 of notice. At the commencement of the last century, a company 
 of dancing dogs was introduced at Southwark fair by a puppet- 
 showman named Crawley. He called this exhibition " The Ball of 
 Little Dogs;" and states in his bill, that they came from Lovain; 
 he then tells us, that " they performed by their cunning tricks 
 wonders in the world of dancing;" and adds, " you shall see 
 one of them, named marquis of Gaillerdain, whose dexterity is 
 not to be compared ; * he dances with madame Poncette his 
 mistress and the rest of their company at the sound of instru- 
 ments, all of them observing so well the cadence, that they 
 amaze every body." At the close of the bill, he declares that 
 the dogs had danced before the queen [Anne] and most of the 
 nobility of England. But many other " cunning tricks," and 
 greatly superior to those practised by Crawley's company, have 
 been performed by dogs some few years ago, at Sadler's Wells, 
 and afterwards at Astley's, to the great amusement and disport 
 of the polite spectators. One of the dogs at Sadler's Wells 
 acted the part of a lady, and was carried by two other dogs ; 
 some of them were seated at a table, and waited on by others ; 
 and the whole concluded with the attack and storming' of a fort, 
 entirely performed by dogs. 
 
 VIII.— THE HARE AND TABOR, AND LEARNED PIG. 
 It is astonishing what may be effected by constant exertion 
 and continually tormenting even the most timid and untractable 
 animals; for no one would readily believe that a hare could have 
 been sufficiently emboldened to face a large concourse of spec- 
 tators without expressing its alarm, and beat upon a tambourine 
 in their presence ; yet such a performance was put in practice 
 not many years back, and exhibited at Sadler's Wells ; and, if 
 
 ' His meaning, I suppose, is tLat tLe performance of this dog was not to be equalled.
 
 248 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK 111. 
 
 I mistake not, in several other places in and about the metro- 
 polis. Neither is this whimsical spectacle a recent mvention. 
 A bare that beat the tabor is mentioned by Jonson, in his comedy 
 of Bartholmew Fayre, acted at the commencement of the seven- 
 teenth century ; and a representation of the feat itself, taken 
 from a drawing' on a manuscript upwards of four hundred years 
 old, in the Harleian Collection,' is given below. 
 
 82. Hare and Tabor. 
 
 And here I cannot help mentioning a very ridiculous show of 
 a learned pig", which of late days attracted much of the public 
 notice, and at the polite end of the town. This pig, which in- 
 deed was a large unwieldy hog, being taught to pick up letters 
 written upon pieces of cards, and to arrange them at command, 
 gave great satisfaction to all who saw him, and filled his tor- 
 menter's pocket with money. One would not have thought that 
 a hog had been an animal capable of learning: the fact, how- 
 ever, is another proof of what may be accomplished by assiduity; 
 for the showman assured a friend of mine, that he had lost three 
 very promising brutes in the course of training, and that the 
 phenomenon then exhibited had often given him reason to des- 
 pair of success. 
 
 IX.— A DANCING COCK AND THE DESERTER BIRD. 
 The joculators did not confine themselves to the tutoring of 
 quadrupeds, but extended their practice to birds also ; and a 
 curious specimen of their art appears by the following engraving-, 
 from a drawing on th*^ same MS. in the Harleian Collection 
 whence iSo. 81 was tak-n. 
 
 ' No. 6.^63.
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 OF THE i>EOPLE OF ENGLAND. 
 
 249 
 
 83. A Cock dancing on Stilts to the Music of a Pipe and Tabor. 
 
 In the present day, this may probably be considered as a 
 mere effort of the illuminator's fancy, and admit of a doubt 
 whether such a trick was ever displayed in reality: but many 
 are yet living who were witnesses to an exhibition far more sur- 
 prising, shown at Breslaw's, a celebrated juggler, who per- 
 formed at London 'somewhat more than twenty-years ago:^ it was 
 first shown in the vicinity of Pall Mall, in 1789, at five shillings 
 each person ; the price was afterwards reduced to half-a-crown ; 
 and finally to one shilling-. A number of little birds, to the 
 amount, I believe, of twelve or fourteen, being taken from different 
 cages, were placed upon a table in the presence of the spectators; 
 and there they formed themselves into ranks like a company ot 
 soldiers : small cones of paper bearing some resemblance to 
 grenadiers' caps were put upon their heads, and diminutive imi- 
 tations of muskets made with wood, secured under their left 
 wings. Thus equipped, they marched to and fro several times ; 
 when a single bird was brought forward, supposed to be a de- 
 serter, and set between six of the musketeers, three in a row, 
 who conducted him from the top to the bottom of the table, on 
 the middle of which a small brass cannon charged with a little 
 gunpowder had been previously placed, and the deserter Avas 
 situated in the front part of the cannon ; his guards then divided, 
 three retiring on one side, and three on the other, and he was 
 left standing by himself. Another bird was immediately pro- 
 duced ; and, a lighted match being put into one of his claws, 
 he hopped boldly on the other to the tail of the cannon, and, ap- 
 plying the match to the priming, discharged the piece without 
 the least appearance of fear or agitation. The moment the ex- 
 
 ' In Cockspur-street, opposite the Hayraarket. 
 
 ' [Before 18(K).]
 
 25() SPORTS AND PASTIMES ROOK III. 
 
 plosion took place, the deserter fell down, and lay, apparently 
 motionless, like a dead bird ; but, at the command of his tutor 
 he rose again ; and the cages being brought, the feathered 
 soldiers were stripped of their ornaments, and returned into them 
 in perfect order. 
 
 X.— IMITATIONS OF ANIMALS. 
 
 Among the performances dependent on imitation, that of as- 
 suming the forms of different animals, and counterfeiting tlieir 
 gestures, do not seem to have originated with the jugglers; for 
 this absurd practice, if I mistake not, existed long before these 
 comical artists made their appearance, at least in large com- 
 panies, and in a professional way. There was a sport common 
 among the ancients, which usually took place on the kalends of 
 January, and probably formed a part of the Saturnalia, or feasts 
 of Saturn. Jt consisted in mummings and disguisements; for 
 the actors took upon themselves the resemblance of wild beasts, 
 or domestic cattle, and wandered about from one place to another; 
 and he, I presume, stood highest in the estimation of his fellows 
 who best supported the character of the brute he imitated. This 
 whimsical amusement was exceedingly popular, and continued to 
 be practised long after the establishment of Christianity; it was, 
 however, much opposed by the clergy, and particularly by 
 Paulinus bishop of Nola, in the ninth century, who in one of 
 his sermons tells us, that those concerned in it were wont to 
 clothe themselves with skins of cattle, and put upon them the 
 heads of beasts.' What effect his preaching may have had at 
 the time, I know not : the custom, however, was not totally 
 suppressed, but may be readily traced from vestiges remaining 
 of it, to the modern times. Dr. Johnson, in his Journey to the 
 Western Islands of Scotland, says a gentleman informed him, 
 that, at new year's eve, in the hall or castle of the laird, 
 where at festivals there is supposed to be a very numerous com- 
 pany, one man dresses himself in a cow-hide, on which other 
 men beat with sticks ; he runs with all this noise round the 
 house, which all the company quits in a counterfeited fright ; 
 the door is then shut, and no re-admission obtained after their 
 pretended terror, but by the repetition of a verse of poetry, 
 which those acquainted with the custom are provided with.^ 
 
 ' Du Cange, Gloss, in vocibus Cervula et Kalendtc. 
 
 ' Ste also Bourne's Vulgar Errors, edited Ity Brand, j). 17J.
 
 CHAP. VI OP THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 25^1 
 
 The ancient court ludi, described in a former chapter,' are cer- 
 tainly off-shoots from the Saturnalian disfigurements ; and from 
 the same stock we may pertinently derive the succeeding 
 masquings and disguisements of the person frequently practised 
 at certain seasons of the year ; and hence also came the modern 
 masquerades. Warton says, that certain theatrical amusements 
 were called mascarades very anciently in France. These were 
 probably the court ludi.^ 
 
 XL— MUMMTNGS AND MASQUERADES. 
 
 In the middle ages, mummings were very common. Mumm 
 IS said to be derived from the Danish word mumme, or momme 
 in Dutch, and signifies to disguise oneself with a mask : hence 
 a mummer; which is properly defined by Dr. Johnson to be a 
 masker, one who performs frolics in a personated dress. The 
 following verse occurs in Milton's Samson Agonistes, line 1325: 
 
 Jugglers and dancers, antics, mummers, mimics. 
 
 s\t court, as well as in the mansions of the nobility, on occa- 
 sions of festivity, it frequently happened that the whole com- 
 pany appeared in borrowed characters; and, full licence of 
 speech being granted to every one, the discourses were not 
 always kept within the bounds of decency.^ These spectacles 
 M'ere exhibited with great splendour in former times and par- 
 ticularly during the reign of Henry VIII. :^ they have ceased, 
 hoM'ever, of late years to attract the notice of the opulent ; and 
 the regular masquerades which succeeded them, are not sup- 
 ported at present with that degree of mirthful spirit which, we 
 are told, abounded at their institution ; and probably it is for 
 lliis reason they are declining so rapidly in the public esti- 
 mation. 
 
 The mummeries practised by the lower classes of the people 
 usually took place at the Christmas holidays ; and such persons 
 as could not procure masks rubbed their faces over with soot, or 
 painted them; hence Sebastian Brant, in his Ship of Fools,^ al- 
 luding to this custom, says, 
 
 The one hath a visor ugley set on liis face, 
 Another hatli on a vile counterfaite vesture. 
 
 Or painteth his visage with fume in such case. 
 That what he is, himself is scantily sure. 
 
 ' Chap. ii. sect. xiii. p. 159. ^ History of English Poetry, vol. i. p. 237. 
 
 * Mem. Anc. Cheval. torn. ii. p. 68. * See a description of two of tliem, p. 161. 
 
 * Translated Ly Alexander Barclay, and printed by Pynson in 1508.
 
 262 SPORTS AND PASTIMES JJOOK III. 
 
 It appears that many abuses were committed under tlie sanc- 
 tion of these disg-uisements ; and for this reason an ordniance 
 was established, by which a man was liable to punishment who 
 appeared in the streets of London with " a painted visage.'" 
 In the third year of the reign of Henry VIII. it was ordained 
 that no persons should appear abroad like mummers, covering 
 their faces with vizors, and in disguised apparel, under pain of 
 imprisonment for three months. The same act enforced the 
 penalty of 20*. against such as kept vizors in their houses for 
 the purpose of mumming.^ 
 
 Bourne, in his Vulgar Antiquities,^ speaks of a kind of 
 mumming practised in the North about Chrstmas time, which 
 consisted in " changing of clothes between the men and the 
 women, who, when dressed in each other's habits, go," says he, 
 " from one neighbour's house to another, and partake of their 
 Christmas cheer, and make merry with them in disguise, by 
 dancing and singing and such like merriments." 
 
 XII.— MUMMING TO ROYAL PERSONAGES. 
 
 Persons capable of well-supporting assumed characters were 
 frequently introduced at public entertainments, and also in the 
 pageants exhibited on occasions of solemnity; sometimes they 
 were the bearers of presents, and sometimes the speakers of 
 panegyrical orations. Froissart tells us, that, after the corona- 
 tion of Isabel of Bavaria, the queen of Charles VI. of France, 
 she had several rich donations brought to her by mummers in 
 different disguisements; one resembling- a bear, another an 
 unicorn, others like a company of Moors, and others as Turks 
 or Saracens."* 
 
 When queen Elizabeth was entertained at Kenilworth castle, 
 various spectacles were contrived for her amusement, and some 
 of them produced without any previous notice, to take her as it 
 were by surprise. It happened about nine o'clock one evening, 
 as her majesty returned from hunting, and was riding by torch- 
 light, there came suddenly out of the wood, by the road-side, a 
 man habited like a savage, covered with ivy, holding- in one of 
 his hands an oaken plant torn up by the roots, who placed himself 
 before her, and, after holding some discourse with a counterfeit 
 echo, repeated a poetical oration in her praise, which was well 
 
 ' Stop's Survey, fol. 680. 2 Northbrooke's Treatise, p. 105. 
 
 * Ciap.xvi, * Chron. torn. i. iv. chap. 157, lord Berncrs' translation.
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 OF THE PEOP'^E OF ENGLAND. 
 
 253 
 
 leceived. This man was Thomas Gascoyne the poet; and the 
 verses he spoke on the occasion were his own composition. The 
 circumstance took place on the 10th of July, 1575.' 
 
 The savage men, or wodehouses, as they are sometimes called, 
 frequently made their appearance in the public shows; they 
 were sometimes clothed entirely with skins, and sometimes they 
 were decorated with oaken leaves, or covered, as above, with 
 ivy. 
 
 XIII PARTIAL IMITATIONS OF ANIMALS, 
 
 The jugg-lers and the minstrels, observing* how lightly these 
 ridiculous disguisements were relished by the people in general, 
 turned their talents towards the imitating of different animals, 
 and rendered their exhibitions more pleasing by the addition of 
 their new acquirements. Below are specimens of their perform- 
 ances, from the Bodleian MS. before cited.^ 
 
 ,V g'SU. 
 
 84. XIV. Century. 
 
 This presents to us the resemblance of a stag. The following* 
 from the same MS., pictures a goat walking erectly on his indei 
 feet. 
 
 8'>. XIV. Century 
 
 ' See Nichols's Progrespes, voLi. 
 
 » No. 86.
 
 254 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK III, 
 
 Neither of these fictitious animals have any fore legs ; but to 
 the first the deficiency is supplied by a staff, upon which tne 
 actor might recline at pleasure ; his face is seen through an aper- 
 ture on the breast ; and, I doubt not, a person was chosen to 
 play this part with a face susceptible of much grimace, which 
 he had an opportunity of setting* forth to great advantage, with a 
 certainty of commanding the plaudits of his beholders. It was 
 also possible to heighten the whimsical appearance of this dis- 
 guise by a motion communicated to the head ; a trick the man 
 might easily enough perform, by putting one of his arms into 
 the hollow of his neck; and probably the neck was made pliable 
 for that purpose. In the subjoined delineation, from the same M8., 
 we find a boy, with a mask resembling the head of a dog, pre- 
 senting a scroll of parchment to his master. 
 
 86. XIV. Century. 
 
 In the original there are two more boys, who are following 
 disguised in a similar manner, and each ot them holding a like 
 scroll of parchment. The wit of this performance, I protest, I 
 cannot discover. 
 
 XIV.— THE HORSE IN THE MORRIS-DANCE. 
 
 The prancing and curveting of horses was counterfeited in 
 the hobby-horse, the usual concomitant of the morris-dance. 1 
 have already spoken on this subject; ^ and shall only add in this 
 place an anecdote of prince Henry, the eldest son of James I. — 
 " Some of his highness's young gentlemen, together with him- 
 self," says my author, " imitating in sport the curveting and 
 high-going of horses, one that stood by said that they were like 
 a company of horses ; M'hich his highness noting, answered, ' Is 
 it not better to resemble a horse, which is a generous and 
 courageous beast, ilian a dull slow-going ass as you are?'" The 
 
 ' Page aa.i.
 
 CHAP. VI. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND, 295 
 
 prince, we are told, was exceedingly young- at the time he made 
 this reply.' 
 
 XV.— COUNTERFEIT VOICES OF ANIMALS. 
 
 I have not been able to ascertain how far the ancient jugglers 
 exerted their abilities in counterfeiting the articulation of animals ; 
 but we may reasonably suppose they would not have neglected 
 so essential a requisite to make their imitations perfect. 
 
 In the reign of queen Anne, a man whose name was Clench, a 
 native of Barnet, made his appearance at London. He per- 
 formed at the corner of Bartholomew-lane, behind the Royal 
 Exchange. His price for admittance was one shilling each per- 
 son. I have his advertisement before me;^ which states that he 
 " imitated the horses, the huntsmen, and a pack of hounds, a 
 sham doctor, an old woman, a drunken man, the bells, the flute, 
 the double curtell, and the organ with three voices, by his own 
 natural voice, to the greatest perfection." He then professes 
 himself to " be the only man that could ever attain to so great 
 an art." He had, however, a rival, who is noted in one of the 
 papers of the Spectator, and called the whistling man. His ex- 
 cellency consisted in counterfeiting the notes of all kinds of 
 singing birds.^ The same performance was exhibited in great 
 perfection by the bird-tutor associated with Breslaw the juggler, 
 mentioned a few pages back.'* This man assumed the name of 
 Rosignol,^ and, after he had quitted Breslaw, appeared on the 
 stage at Covent-garden theatre, where, in addition to his imita- 
 tion of the birds, he executed a concerto on a fiddle without 
 strings ; that is, he made the notes in a wonderful manner Avith 
 his voice, and represented the bowing by drawing a small 
 truncheon backwards and forwards over a stringless violin. His 
 performance was received with great applause ; and the success 
 he met with produced many competitors, but none of them 
 equalled him : it was, however, discovered, that the sounds 
 were produced by an instrument contrived for the purpose, con- 
 cealed in the mouth ; and then the trick lost all its reputation. Six 
 years ago,^ I heard a poor rustic, a native of St. Al ban's, imitate, 
 with great exactness, the whole assemblage of animals belonging 
 
 ' The author, whose name does not appear, declares himself to have been witness 
 to the facts he records. MS. Harl. 6391. 
 
 9 Miscell. Collect. Harl. Lib. No. 115. » y^i viii. No. 570. 
 
 ♦ See p. 249. s Literally, nightingale. c |^3efore 1800.]
 
 256 SPORTS AND PASTIMKS BOOK UI 
 
 to a. farm-yard; but especially he excelled in counterfeiting- the 
 grunting of swine, the squeaking of pigs, and the quarrelling 
 of two dogs. 
 
 XVI.— ANIMALS TRAINED FOR BAITING. 
 
 Training of bulls, bears, horses, and other animals, for the pur- 
 pose of baiting them with dogs, was certainly practised by the 
 jugglers ; and this vicious pastime has the sanction of high anti- 
 quity. Fitz-Stephen, who lived in the reign of Henry II., tells 
 us that, in the forenoon of every holiday, during the winter 
 season, the young Londoners were amused with boars opposed 
 to each other in battle, or with bulls and full-grown bears baited 
 by dogs.' This author makes no mention of horses ; and I be- 
 lieve the baiting of these noble and useful animals was never 
 a general practice: it was, however, no doubt, partially per- 
 formed; and the manner in which it was carried into execution 
 appears by the engraving No. 76.^ Asses also were treated with 
 the pame inhumanity; but probably the poor beasts did not afford 
 sufficient sport in the tormenting, and therefore were seldom 
 brought forward as the objects of this barbarous diversion. 
 
 XVII.— PARIS GARDEN. 
 There were several places in the vicinity of the metropolis set 
 apart for the baiting of beasts, and especially the district of 
 Saint Savour's parish in Southwark, called Paris Garden; 
 which place contained two bear-gardens, said to have been 
 the first that were made near London ; and in them, according 
 to Stow, were scaffolds for the spectators to stand upon:^ 
 and this indulgence, we are told, they paid for in the fol- 
 lowing manner : " Those who go to Paris Garden, the Bell 
 Savage, or Theatre, to behold bear-baiting, enterludes, or fence- 
 play, must not account of any pleasant spectacle, unless first 
 they pay one pennie at the gate, another at the entrie of the 
 scaffold, and a third for quiet standing."'* One Sunday after- 
 noon in the year 1582, the scaffolds being overcharged with 
 spectators, fell down during the performance; and a great 
 number of persons were killed or maimed by the accident.* 
 
 • Description of London. See also Stow's Survey, p. 78. 
 
 • On p. 243. ' Survey of Loudon, ubi supra. 
 
 • Lambarde's Perarohalatioa of Kent, published A.D. 1570, p. 248. 
 
 ' Surve3 of London, ubi supra. See also the Introduction to this work.
 
 CHAP. VI. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 267 
 
 XV;iI.~BULL AND BEAK-BAITING PATRONIZED BY ROYALTY. 
 
 Bull and bear-baiting is not encouraged by persons of rank 
 and opulence in the present day ; and when practised, which 
 rarely happens, it is attended only by the lowest and most des- 
 picable part of the people ; which plainly indicates a general 
 refinement of manners and prevalency of humanity among 
 the moderns ; on the contrary, this barbarous pastime was 
 highly relished by the nobility in former ages, and counte- 
 nanced by persons of the most exalted rank, without exception 
 even of the fair sex. Erasmus, who visited England in the 
 reign of Henry VIII., says, there were " many herds of bears 
 maintained in this country for the purpose of baiting." * When 
 queen Mary visited her sister the princess Elizabeth during her 
 confinement at Hatfield-house, the next morning, after mass, a 
 grand exhibition of bear-baiting was made for their amusement, 
 with which, it is said, " their highnesses were right well con- 
 tent." 2 Queen Elizabeth, on the 25th of May, 1559, soon 
 after her accession to the throne, gave a splendid dinner to the 
 French ambassadors, who afterwards were entertained with the 
 baiting of bulls and bears, and the queen herself stood with 
 the ambassadors looking on the pastime till six at night. The 
 day following, the same ambassadors went by water to Paris 
 Garden, where they saw another baiting of bulls and of bears ;2 
 and again, twenty-seven years posterior, queen Elizabeth re- 
 ceived the Danish ambassador at Greenwich, who was treated 
 with the sight of a bear and bull-baiting, " tempered," says 
 Holinshed, " with other merry disports;"'* and, for the diver- 
 sion of the populace, there was a horse with an ape upon his 
 back; which highly pleased them, so that they expressed "their 
 inward-conceived joy and delight with shrill shouts and variety 
 of gestures."® 
 
 XIX.— BULL AND BEAR-BAITING, HOW PERFORMED. 
 The manner in which these sports were exhibited towards the 
 close of the sixteenth century, is thus described by Hentzner,^ 
 
 ' ErasmiAdagia, p. 361. ' life of Sir Thomas Pope, sect. hi. p. 85. 
 
 ' Nichols's Progresses, vol. i. p. 40. * Chronicle of Eng. vol. iii. fol. 1552. 
 
 * Nichols's Progresses, vol. ii. p. 228. 
 
 8 Itinerary, printed in Latin, A. D. 1 598. See lord Orford's translation. Straw- 
 berry Hill, p. 42. 
 
 S
 
 258 
 
 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK III. 
 
 who was present at one of the performances : " There is a place 
 built in the form of a theatre, which serves for baiting" of bulls 
 and bears ; they are fastened behind, and then worried by great 
 English bull-dogs; but not without risque to the dog-s, from the 
 horns of the one and the teeth of the other ; and it sometimes 
 happens they are killed on the spot ; fresh ones are immediately 
 supplied in the places of those that are wounded or tired. To 
 this entertainment there often follows that of whipping" a blinded 
 bear, which is performed by fit'e or six men standing" circularly 
 with whips, which they exercise upon him without any mercy, 
 as he cannot escape because of his chain; he defends himself 
 with all his force and skill, throwing* down all that come within 
 his reach, and are not active enough to get out of it, and tearing" 
 the whips out of their hands, and breaking them." Laneham* 
 speaking" of a bear-baiting- exhibited before queen Elizabeth m 
 1575, says, " It was a sport very pleasant to see the bear, -^r-'^h 
 his pink eyes learing after his enemies, approach ; the nim^^^'^- 
 ness and wait of the dog to take his advantage; and the force 
 and experience of the bear again to avoid his assaults : if he were 
 bitten in one place, how he would pinch in another to get free ; 
 that if he were taken once, then by what shift with biting, with 
 clawing, with roaring, with tossing, and tumbling, he would 
 work and wind himself from them ; and, when he was loose, to 
 shake his ears twice or thrice with the blood and the slaver 
 hanging about his physiognomy." The same writer tells us, 
 that thirteen bears were provided for this occasion, and they 
 were baited with a great sort of ban-dogs.^ In the foregoing 
 relations, we find no mention made of a ring put into the nose 
 of the bear when he was baited ; which certainly was the more 
 modern practice ; hence the expression by the duke of New- 
 castle, in the Humorous Lovers, printed in 1617: " I fear the 
 wedlock ring more than the bear does the ring in his nose." 
 
 XX.— BEARS AND BEAR-WARDS. 
 
 When a bear-baiting was about to take place, the same was 
 publicly made known, and the bear- ward previously paraded 
 the streets with his bear, to excite the curiosity of the populace, 
 and induce them to become spectators of the sport. The animal, 
 
 ' Nichols's Progresses, vol. i. fo), 249.
 
 CHAP. VI. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 259 
 
 on these occasions, was usually preceded by a minstrel or two, 
 and carried a monkey or baboon upon his back. In the Humorous 
 Lovers, the play just now quoted, "Tom of Lincoln" is men- 
 tioned as the name of " a famous bear ; " and one of the cha- 
 racters pretending to personate a bear-ward, says, " I'll set up 
 my bills, that the gamesters of London, Horsleydown, South- 
 wark, and Newmarket, may come in and bait him here before 
 the ladies ; but first, boy, go fetch me a bagpipe ; we will walk 
 the streets in triumph, and give the people notice of our sport." 
 
 XXL— BAITING IN QUEEN ANNE'S TIME. 
 
 The two following advertisements,^ which were published in 
 the reign of queen Anne, may serve as a specimen of the elegant 
 manner in which these pastimes were announced to the public: 
 
 " At the Bear Garden in Hockley in the Hole, near Clerken- 
 well Green, this present Monday, there is a great match to be 
 fought by two Dogs of Smithfield Bars against two Dogs of 
 Hampstead, at the Reading Bull, for one guinea to be spent ; 
 five lets goes out of hand ; which goes fairest and farthest in 
 wins all. The famous Bull of fire-works, which pleased the 
 gentry to admiration. Likewise there are two Bear-Dogs to jump 
 three jumps apiece at the Bear, which jumps highest for ten 
 shillings to be spent. Also variety of bull-baiting and bear- 
 baiting; it being a day of general sport by all the old gamesters ; 
 and a bull-dog to be drawn up with fire-works. Beginning at 
 three o'clock." 
 
 " At William Well's bear-garden in Tuttle-fields, Westminster, 
 this present Monday, there will be a green Bull baited ; and 
 twenty Dogs to fight for a collar; and the dog that runs farthest 
 and fairest wins the collar ; with other diversions of bull an<l 
 bear-baiting. Beginning at two of the clock." 
 
 XXII.— SWORD-PLAY. 
 
 The sword-dance, or, more properly, a combat with swords 
 and bucklers, regulated by music, was exhibited by the Saxon 
 gleemen. We have spoken on this subject in a former chapter, 
 and resume it here, because the jugglers of the middle ages were 
 famous for their skill in handling the sword, 
 
 ' In a Miscellaneous Collection of Bills and Title-pages, Harl. Lib. No. 15. 
 
 s a
 
 260 
 
 SPORTS AN/> PASTIMES 
 
 ItOOK III. 
 
 Sword-Play. — XIII. Century. 
 
 This combat, represented from a manuscript of the thirteenth 
 century, in the Royal Library,^ varies, in several respects, from 
 that in the engraving No. 60;^ though both, I presume, are dif- 
 ferent modifications of the same performance, as well as that 
 below, from a manuscript in the Royal Library,^ which is carried 
 into execution without the assistance of a minstrel. 
 
 88. Sword-Play. — XIII. Century. 
 
 These combats bore some resemblance to those performed by 
 the Roman gladiators ; for which reason the jugglers were some- 
 times called gladiators by the early historians; " Mimi, salii, 
 balatrones, eemiliani, gladiatores, paloestritoe — et tota jocula- 
 torum copia, &c." '* It also appears that they instituted schools 
 for teaching the art of defence in various parts of the kingdom, 
 and especially in the city of London, M-here the conduct of the 
 masters and their scholars became so outrageous, that it was 
 necessary for the legislature to interfere ; and, in the fourteenth 
 
 ' No. 14, E. iii. See p. 215. » No. 20, D.i 
 
 * Johan. Sariaburiensia de fJugis Curialium, lib. i. cap. viii. p. 34.
 
 CHAP. VI. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 261 
 
 year of the reign of Edward I. A. D. 128G, an edict was pub- 
 lished by royal authority, which prohibited the keeping- of such 
 schools, and the public exercise of swords and bucklers, " eskir- 
 mer au bokeler." 
 
 It is said that many robberies and murders were committed by 
 these gladiators ; hence the appellation of swash buckler, a term 
 of reproach. " from swashing," says Fuller, " and making a noise 
 on the buckler, and ruffian, which is the same as a swag- 
 gerer. West Smithfield was formerly called Ruffian Hall, 
 where such men usually met, casually or otherwise, to try 
 masteries with sword and buckler ; more were frightened 
 than hurt, hurt than killed therewith, it being accounted un- 
 manly to strike beneath the knee. But since that desperate 
 traytor Rowland Yorke first used thrusting with rapiers, swords 
 and bucklers are disused." ' Jonson, in the induction to his 
 play called Bartholomew Fair, speaks of " the sword and buck- 
 ler age in Smithfield ;" and again, in the Two Angry Women of 
 Abbington, a comedy by Henry Porter, printed in 1599, we 
 have the following observation : " Sword and buckler fight 
 begins to grow out of use ; I am sorry for it ; I shall never see 
 good manhood again ; if it be once gone, this poking fight of 
 rapier and dagger will come up ; then a tall man, that is, a 
 courageous man, and a good sword and buckler man, will be 
 spitted like a cat or a rabbit." 
 
 Such exercises had been practised by day and by night, 
 to the great annoyance of the peaceable inhabitants of the 
 city ; and by the statute of Edward I. the oflfenders were 
 subjected to the punishment of imprisonment for forty days ; to 
 which was afterwards added a mulct of forty marks.^ These 
 restrictions certainly admitted of some exceptions ; for it is well 
 known that there were seminanes at London, wherein youth 
 were taught the use of arms, held publicly after the institution 
 of this ordinance. " The art of defence and use of weapons," 
 says Stow, " is taught by professed n.asters;"^ but these most 
 probably were licensed by the city governors, and under their 
 control. The author of a description of the colleges and 
 schools in and about London, which he calls " The Third Uni- 
 versity of England," printed in black letter in 1615, says, " In 
 
 ' Worthies of England, A. D. 1662. 
 
 ' Maitland's History of London, book i. chap. xi. 
 
 ' Survey of London, chap. ii.
 
 262 
 
 SPORTS AND PASTIMES 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 this city," meaning London, " there be manie professors of the 
 science of defence, and very skilful men in teaching the best 
 and most offensive and defensive use of verie many weapons, as 
 of the long-sword, back-sword, rapier and dagger, single rapier, 
 the case of rapiers, the sword and buckler, or targate, the pike, 
 the halberd, the long-staff, and others.^ Henry VIII. made the 
 professors of this art a company, or corporation, by letters 
 patent, wherein the art is intituled The Noble Science of Defence. 
 The manner of the proceeding of our fencers in their schools is 
 this ; first, they which desire to be taught at their admission 
 are called scholars, and, as they profit, they take degrees, and 
 proceed to be provosts of defence ; and that must be wonne by 
 public trial of their proficiencie and of their skill at certain 
 weapons, which they call prizes, and in the presence and view 
 of many hundreds of people ; and, at their next and last prize 
 well and sufiSciently performed, they do proceed to be maisters 
 of the science of defence, or maisters of fence, as we commonly 
 call them." The king ordained, " that none, but such as have 
 thus orderly proceeded by public act and trial, and have the 
 approbation of the principal masters of their company, may 
 profess or teach this art of defence publicly in any part of 
 England." Stow informs us, that the young Londoners, ou 
 holidays, after the evening prayer, were permitted to exercise 
 themselves with their wasters and bucklers before their masters' 
 doors. This pastime, I imagine, is represented by a drawing 
 in the Bodleian MS.2 from whence the annexed engraving is 
 taken, where clubs or bludgeons are substituted for swords. 
 
 89. Buckler-Play. — XIV. Century. 
 
 The bear-gardens were the usual places appropriated by the 
 masters of defence for public trials of skill. These exhibitions 
 
 * I apprehend he means the quarter-stalf. 
 
 * Dated 1344. No. 264
 
 CHAP. VI. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 263 
 
 were outrageows to humanity, and only fitted for the amusement 
 of ferocious minds; it is therefore astonishing- that they should 
 have been frequented by females ; for, who could imag-ine that 
 the slicing of the flesh from a man's cheek, the scarifying of 
 his arms, or laying the calves of his legs upon his heels, were 
 spectacles calculated to delight the fair sex, or sufficiently at- 
 tractive to command their presence. The manner of performing 
 a prize-combat, at the commencement of the last century, is well 
 described, and the practice justly reprobated, in one of the 
 papers belonging to the Spectator : ' but these exhibitions were 
 not without their trickery, as we may find by another paper ^ ia 
 the same volume. 
 
 XXIII.— PUBLIC SWORD-PLAY. 
 
 The following show-bill, dated July 13, 1709, contains the 
 common mode of challenging and answering used by the com- 
 batants ; it is selected from a great number now lying before 
 me;^ and, being rather curious, 1 shall transcribe it without 
 making any alteration. 
 
 " At the Bear Garden in Hockley in the Hole, near Clerken- 
 well Green, a trial of skill shall be performed between Two 
 Masters of the noble Science of Defence on Wednesday next, 
 at two of the clock precisely. 
 
 " I George Gray, born in the city of Norwich, who have 
 fought in most parts of the West Indies, namely, Jamaica and 
 Barbadoes, and several other parts of the world, in all twenty- 
 five times, and upon a stage, and never yet was worsted, and 
 being now lately come to London, do invite James Harris to 
 meet and exercise at these following weapons, namely, bacK- 
 sword, sword and dagger, sword and buckler, single falchon, 
 and case of falchons." 
 
 '* I James Harris, Master of ttie said noble Science of De- 
 fence, who formerly rid in the horse-guards, and hath fought a 
 hundred and ten prizes, and never left a stage to any man, will 
 not fail, God willing, to meet this brave and bold inviter at tLe 
 time and place appointed ; desiring sharp swords, and from him 
 no favour. No person to be upon the stage but the seconds. 
 Vivat Regina!" 
 
 ^ Vol. vi. No. 436. * No. 449. 
 
 ' In a Miscellaneous Collection of Title-pages, Bills, &c. in the Harieiau Library, 
 marked 115. '
 
 264 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK III. 
 
 XXIV.— QUARTER-STAFF. 
 
 In another challenge the quarter-staff is added to the list of 
 weapons named on these occasions. Quarter-staff Dr. Johnson 
 explains to be "A staff of defence, so called, I believe, from the 
 manner of using it; one hand being placed at the middle, and 
 the other equally between the end and the middle." ' The quarter- 
 staff was formerly used by the English, and especially in the 
 western parts of the kingdom. I have seen a small pamphlet 
 with this title : " Three to One ; being an English-Spanish com- 
 bat, performed by a western gentleman of Tavy stock, in Devon- 
 shire, with an English quarter-staff, against three rapiers and 
 poniards, at Sherries in Spain,^ in the presence of the dukes, 
 condes, marquisses, and other great dons of Spain, being the 
 council of war ; " to which is added, " the author of this booke, 
 and actor in this encounter, being R. Peecke." On the same 
 page there is a rude wooden print, representing the hero with 
 his quarter-staff, in the action of fighting with the three 
 Spanyards, who are armed with long swords and daggers. 
 Caulfield has copied this print in his Assemblage of Noted 
 Persons. 
 
 XXV WRESTLING, &c. IN BEAR-GARDENS. 
 
 Wrestling, and such other trials of strength and activity as 
 had formerly been exhibited in the spectacles of the minstrels 
 and jugglers, were at this period transferred to the bear-gardens, 
 where they continued in practice till the total abolition of those 
 polite places of amusement. 
 
 XXVI.— EXTRAORDINARY TRIAL OF STRENGTH. 
 
 I shall conclude this chapter with the two following instances 
 of bodily power, recorded by our historians. The first is of 
 Courcy, earl of Ulster ; who, in the presence of John king of 
 England and Philip of France, cut through a helmet of steel with 
 one blow of his sword, and struck the weapon so deeply into the 
 post upon which the helmet was placed, that no one but him- 
 self was able to draw it out again.^ The secoad is mentioned 
 
 • Dictionary, word Quarter-staff. * Nov. 15, 1626. 
 
 • Fuller's Worthies in Somersetshire.
 
 CHAP. VI. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 265 
 
 by Froissart;^ who tells us that, one Christmas-day, the earl of 
 Foix, according to his usual custom, " held a great feast ; and, 
 after dyner, he deperted out of the hall, and went up into a 
 galarye, of twenty-four stayres of heyght. It being exceedingly 
 cold, the erle complained that the fire was not large enough ; 
 when a person named Ervalton, of Spayne, went down the 
 stayres, and beneth in the court he sawe a great meny of asses 
 laden with woode, to serve the house : than he went, and tooke 
 one of the greatest asses, with all the woode, and layde hym on 
 hys backe, and went up al the stayres into the galary ; and dyd 
 caste downe the asse, with al the woode, into the chimney, and 
 the asse's fete upward: whereof the erle of Foix had greate 
 joye ; and so hadde all thy that wer ther, and had mervele of 
 his strength." 
 
 ' Vol. iv. chap, ^3^ fol. 24. lord Jiemers' translatiou.
 
 2()G 
 
 SPORTS AND PASTIMES 
 
 BOOK III 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Ancient Specimens of Bowling — Poem on Bowling. — II. Bowling-greens first 
 made by the English. — III. Bowling-alleys. — IV. Long-bowling. — V. Supposed 
 Origin of Billiards. —VI. Kayles. — VII. Closh.— VIII. Loggats.— IX. Nine- 
 pins — Skittles. — X. Dutch-pins — XI. Four-corners. — XII. Half-bowi. — XIII. 
 Nine-holes.— XIV. John Bull.— XV. Pitch and Hustle.— XVI. Bull-baiting iu 
 
 Towns and Villages. — XVII. Bull-running — At Stamford, &c XVIII. At Tut- 
 
 bury. — XIX. Badger-baiting. — XX. Cock-fighting. — XXI. Throwing at Cocks. — 
 XXII. Duck-hunting. — XXIII. Squirrel-hunting. — XXIV. Rabbit-huntintr. 
 
 I.— ANCIENT BOWLING— POEM ON BOWLING. 
 
 The pastime of bowling, whether practised upon open greens 
 or in bowl ing--al leys, was probably an invention of the middle 
 ages. I cannot by any means ascertain the time of its intro- 
 duction ; but I have traced it back to the thirteenth century. 
 The earliest representation of a game played with bowls, that I 
 have met with, occurs in a MS. in the Royal Library,^ as here 
 represented. 
 
 a 
 
 90. Bowling.— XIII. Century. 
 
 Here two small cones are placed upright at a distance from 
 each other; and the bu-sinessof the players is evidently to bowl 
 at them alternately; the successful candidate being he who 
 could lay his bowl the nearest to the mark. The French, 
 according to Cotgrave, had a similar kind of game, called 
 Carreau, from a square stone which, says he, "is laid in level 
 
 ' No, 20, E. iv.
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 
 
 267 
 
 with and at the end of a bowling-alley, and in the midst thereof 
 an upright point set as the mark whereat they bowl." The fol- 
 lowing engraving, from a drawing in a beautiful MS. Book of 
 Prayers, in the possession of Francis Douce, esq., represents two 
 other bowlers; but they have no apparent object to play at, 
 unless the bowl cast by the first may be considered as such by 
 the second, and the game require him to strike it from its place. 
 
 91. Bowling. — XIV. Century. 
 
 Below these we see three persons engaged in the pastime of 
 bowling ; and they have a small bowl, or jack, according to the 
 modern practice, which serves them as a mark for the direction 
 of their bowls: the action of the middle figure, whose bowl is 
 supposed to be running towards the jack, will not appear by 
 any means extravagant to such as are accustomed to visit the 
 bowling-greens. 
 
 92. Bowling. — XIV. Century. 
 
 The following little poem, by William Stroad, which I found 
 in " Justin Pagitt's Memorandum Book," ' one of the Harleian 
 manuscripts at the British Museum,^ expresses happily enough 
 the turns and chances of the game of bowls : 
 
 < Page 41. 
 
 » No. 1026.
 
 268 SPORTS AND PASTIMES IJOOK 111. 
 
 A PARALLEL BETWIXT BOWLING AND PREFERMENT. 
 
 Preferment, like a game at boules, 
 
 To feede our hope hath clivers play : 
 Heere quick it runns, there soft it roules , 
 
 The betters make and shew the way 
 On upper ground, so great allies 
 
 Doe many cast on their desire ; 
 Some up are thrust and forc'd to rise. 
 
 When those are stopt that would aspire. 
 
 Some, whose heate and zeal exceed, 
 
 Thrive well by rubbs that curb their haste. 
 And some that languish in their speed 
 
 Are cherished by some favour's blaste ; 
 Some rest in other's cutting out 
 
 The fame by whom themselves are made ; 
 Some fetch a compass farr about, 
 
 And secretly the marke invade. 
 
 Some get by knocks, and so advance 
 
 Their fortune by a boysterous aime : 
 And some, who have the sweetest chance. 
 
 Their en'mies hit, and win the game. 
 The fairest casts are those that owe 
 
 No thanks to fortune's giddy s;vay ; 
 Such honest men good bowlers are 
 
 Whose own true bias cutts the way. 
 
 In the tbree delineations just represented, we may observe 
 that the players have only one bowl for each person : the 
 modern bowlers have usually three or four. 
 
 II.— BOWLING-GREENS FIRST MADE BY THE ENGLISH. 
 Bowling-greens are said to have originated in England;' 
 and bowling upon them, in my memory, was a very popular 
 amusement. In most country towns of any note they are to be 
 found, and some few are still remaining in the vicinity of the 
 metropolis ; but none of them, I believe, are now so generally 
 frequented as they were accustomed to be formerly. 
 
 III.— BOWLING-ALLEYS. 
 
 The inconveniency to which the open greens for bowling were 
 necessarily obnoxious, suggested, I presume, the idea of making 
 
 • Encyclopaedia Britannica, in voce.
 
 CHAP. VII. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLANP, 269 
 
 bowling--alleys!, which, being covered over, rviight be used when 
 the weather would not permit the pursuit of the pastime abroad ; 
 and therefore they were usually annexed to the residences of the 
 opulent ; wherein if the ladies were not themselves performers, 
 they certainly countenanced the pastime by being spectators ; 
 hence the king of Hungary, in an old poem entitled The Squyer 
 of Low Degree, says to his daughter, " to amuse you in your 
 garden 
 
 An hundredth knightes, truly tolde, 
 Shall play with bowles in alayes colde." 
 
 Andrew Borde, in his Dicturie of Helthe, describing a 
 nobleman's mansion, supposes it not to be complete without 
 " a bowling-alley." Among the additions made by Henry VHI. 
 at Whitehall, were " divers fair tennice-courtes, bowling-alleys, 
 and a cock-pit." 
 
 It appears that soon after the introduction of bowling-alleys 
 they were productive of very evil consequences ; for they be- 
 came not only exceedingly numerous, but were often attached 
 to places of public resort, which rendered them the receptacles 
 of idle and dissolute persons ; and were the means of promoting- 
 a pernicious spirit of gambling among the younger and most un- 
 wary part of the community. The little room required for making 
 these bowling-alleys was no small cause of their multiplication, 
 particularly in great towns and cities. In the fifteenth and six- 
 teenth centuries these nurseries of vice were universally decried, 
 and especially such of them as were established within the city 
 and suburbs of London,^ where the ill effects arising from them 
 were most extensive. 
 
 IV.— LONG-BOWLING. 
 
 Bowling-alleys, I believe, were totally abolished before I 
 knew London ; but I have seen there a pastime which might 
 originate from them, cal/ed long-bowling. It was performed in 
 a narrow enclosure, about twenty or thirty yards in length, and 
 at the farther end was placed a square frame with nine small 
 pins upon it ; at these pins the players bowled in succession ; 
 and a boy, who stood by the frame to set up the pins that were 
 beat down by the bowl, called out the number, which was 
 
 > Stow's Survey, p. 496. •' Ibid, pp 85, 158.
 
 270 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK III. 
 
 placed to the account of the player ; and the bowl was returned 
 by the means of a small trough, placed with a gradual descent 
 from the pins to the bowlers, on one side of the enclosure. Some 
 call this game Dutch-rubbers. 
 
 Bowling, according to an author in the seventeenth century, 
 is a pastime " in which a man shall find great art in choosing out 
 his ground, and preventing the winding, hanging, and many 
 turning advantages of the same, whether it be in open wilde 
 places, or in close allies ; and for his sport, the chusing of the 
 bowle is the greatest cunning ; your flat bowles being best for 
 allies, your round byazed bowles for open grounds of advantage, 
 and your round bowles, like a ball, for green swarthes that are 
 plain and level." * 
 
 v.— SUPPOSED ORIGIN OF BILLIARDS. 
 
 Below is a representation which seems to bear some analogy 
 to bowling. 
 
 93. A CURIOUS ANCIENT PaSTIME. 
 
 Here the bowls, instead of being cast by the hand, are driven 
 with a battoon, or mace, through an arch, towards a mark at a 
 distance from it ; and hence, I make no doubt, originated the 
 game of billiards, which formerly was played with a similar kind 
 of arch and a mark called the king, but placed upon the table 
 instead of the ground. The improvement by adding the table 
 answered two good purposes; it precluded the necessity for the 
 player to kneel, or stoop exceedingly, when he struck the bowl 
 and accommodated the game to the limits of a chamber. 
 
 VI.— KAYLES. 
 
 Kayles, written also cayles and keiles, derived from the French 
 word quilles, was played with pins, and no doubt gave origin 
 to the modern game of nine-pins ; though primitively the kayle- 
 
 ' *' Country Contentments," published in 1.615.
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 
 
 271 
 
 pins do not appear to have been confined to any certain number, 
 as we may observe by the two following engravnigs: 
 
 94. Kayles. — XIV. Century. 
 
 In this engraving, from a Book of Prayers in the possession 
 of Francis Douce, esq., the pastime of kayles is playing with six 
 pms. The annexed is from another drawing on a MS. in the 
 Royal Library.' 
 
 95. Kayles.— XIV. Century. 
 
 Here the pastime is played with eight pins ; and the form of 
 these pins is also different, but that might depend entirely upon 
 the fancy of the makers. One of them, in both cases, is taller 
 than the rest. 
 
 The arrangement of the kayle-pins differs greatly from that 
 of the nine-pins, the latter being placed upon a square frame in 
 three rows, and the former in one row only. The two delinea- 
 tions here copied represent that species of the game called 
 club-kayles, " jeux de quilles a baston," so denominated from 
 the club or cudgel that was thrown at them. 
 
 VII.— CLOSH. 
 The game of cloish, or closh, mentioned frequently in the 
 ancient statutes,^ seems to have been the same as kayles, oi dt 
 
 ' No. 2, B. vii. 
 
 * An. 17 Edw. IV. cap. 3 ; again 18 and 20 Hen. VTII. &c. ; in both which acts this 
 game is prohibited.
 
 272 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK III. 
 
 least exceedingly like it: cloish was played with pins, which 
 were thrown at with a bowl instead of a truncheon, and pro- 
 bably differed only in name from the nine-pins of the present 
 time. 
 
 VIII.— LOGGATS. 
 This, I make no doubt, was a pastime analogous to kayles and 
 cloish, but played chiefly by boys and rustics, who substituted 
 bones for pins. " Loggats," says sir Thomas Hanmer, one of the 
 editors of Shakespeare, " is the ancient name of a play or game, 
 which is one of the unlawful games enumerated in the thirty- 
 third statute of Henry VIII. : it is the same which is now called 
 kittle-pins, in which the boys often make use of bones instead 
 of wooden pins, throwing at them with another bone instead 
 of bowling," Hence Shakespeare, in Hamlet, speaks thus ; 
 ** did these bones cost no more the breeding, but to play at 
 loggats with them? " And this game is evidently referred to in 
 an old play, entitled The longer thou livest the more Fool thou 
 art, published in the reign of queen Elizabeth,* where a dunce 
 boasts of his skill 
 
 At skales, and the playing with a sheepes-joynte. 
 
 n skales, or kayles, the sheepes-joynte was probably the bone 
 used instead of a bowl. 
 
 IX.— NINE-PINS— SKITTLES. 
 
 The kayle-pins were afterwards called kettle, or kittle-pins; 
 and hence, by an easy corruption, skittle-pins, an appellation 
 well known in the present day. The game of skittles, as it is 
 now played, differs materially from that of nine-pins, though 
 the same number of pins are required in both. In performing 
 the latter, the player stands at a distance settled by mutual 
 consent of the parties concerned, and casts the bowl at the pins : 
 the contest is, to beat them all down in the fewest throws. In 
 playing at skittles, there is a double exertion ; one by bowling, 
 and the other by tipping : the first is performed at a given 
 distance, and the second standing close to the frame upon which 
 the pins are placed, and throwing the bowl through in the midst 
 of them ; in both cases, the number of pins beaten down before 
 the return of the bowl, for it usually passes beyond the frame, 
 
 • Garrick't Collection, vol. i. 18.
 
 CHAP. VII. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 273 
 
 are called fair, and reckoned to the account of the player ; but 
 those that fall by the coming- back of the bowl are said to be 
 foul, and of course not counted. One chalk or score is reckoned 
 for every fair pin ; and the game of skittles consists in obtai\iing 
 thirty-one chalks precisely : less loses, or at least gives the an- 
 tagonist a chance of winning the game ; and more requires the 
 player to go again for nine, which must also be brought exactly, 
 to secure himself. 
 
 The preceding quotation from Hanmer intimates that the 
 kittle-pins were sometimes made with bones; and this assertion 
 is strengthened by the language of a dramatic writer, the author 
 of the Merry Milk-maid of Islington, in 1680, who makes one of his 
 characters speak thus to another : " I'll cleave you from the skull 
 to the twist, and make nine skittles of thy bones." 
 
 X.— DUTCH-PINS. 
 
 Dutch-pins is a pastime much resembling skittles ; but the 
 pins are taller and slenderer, especially in the niiddle pin, which 
 is higher than the rest, and called the king-pin. The pins are 
 nine in number, and placed upon a frame in the manner of 
 skittles; and the bowls used by the performers are very large, 
 but made of a light kind of wood. The game consists of thirty- 
 one scores precisely ; and every player first stands at a certain 
 distance from the frame, and throws his bowl at the pins, which 
 is inqn-operly enough called bowling-; afterwards he approaches 
 the frame and makes his tipp by casting the bowl among the 
 pins, and the score towards the game is determined by the 
 number of them beaten down. If this pin be taken out singly, 
 when the bowl is thrown from a distance, the game is won ; this 
 instance excepted, it reckons for no more than the other pins. 
 
 XI.— FOUR-CORNERS, 
 
 Is so called from four large pins which are placed singly at 
 each angle of a square frame. The players stand at a distance, 
 which may be varied by joint consent, and throw at the pins a 
 large heavy bowl, which sometimes weighs six or eight pounds. 
 The excellency of the game consists in beating them down by 
 the fewest casts of the bowl.
 
 274 SPORTS AND PASTIMES ROOK III. 
 
 XII.— HALF-BOWL. 
 
 This is one of the games prohibited by Edward IV. ; ' and 
 received its denomination from being played with one half of a 
 sphere of wood. Half-bowl is practised to this day in Hertford- 
 shire, where it is commonly called rolly-poUy ; and it is best 
 performed upon the floor of a room, especially if it be smooth 
 and level. There are fifteen small pins of a conical form re- 
 quired for this pastime ; twelve of which are placed at equal 
 distances upon the circumference of a circle of about two feet 
 and a half diameter; one of the three remaining pins occupies 
 the centre ; and the other two are placed without the circle at 
 the back part of it, and parallel with the bowling-place, but 
 so as to be in a line with the middle pin ; forming a row of five 
 pins, including two of those upon the circumference. In playing 
 this game, the bowl, when delivered, must pass above the pins, 
 and round the end-pin, without the circle, before it beats any of 
 them down ; if not, the cast is forfeited : and, owing to the great 
 bias of the bowl, this task is not very readily performed by such 
 as have not made themselves perfect by practice. The middle pin 
 is distinguished by four balls at the top ; and, if thrown down, is 
 reckoned for four towards the game ; the intermediate pin upon 
 the circle, in the row of five, has three balls, and is reckoned for 
 three ; the first pin without the circle has two balls, and is 
 counted for two; and the value of all the others singly is but 
 one. Thirty-one chalks complete the game ; which he who first 
 obtains is the conqueror. If this number be exceeded, it is a 
 matter of no consequence : the game is equally won. 
 
 XIII.— NINE-HOLES. 
 
 This is mentioned as a boyish game, played at the commence- 
 ment of the seventeenth century. I have not met with any de- 
 scription of this pastime ; but I apprehend it resembled a modern 
 one frequently practised at the outskirts of the metropolis; and 
 said to have been instituted, or more probably revived, about 
 1780, asa succedaneum for skittles, when the magistrates caused 
 the skittle grounds in and near London to be levelled, and the 
 frames removed. Hence some say the game of nme-holes was 
 
 ' An. 17 Edw. TV. cap. 8; the prohibition extends also to closh and kajles.
 
 CHAP. VII. OF THE PEOPLE OK ENGLAND. 275 
 
 called " Bubble the Justice," on the supposition that it could not 
 be set aside by the justices, because no such pastime was named 
 in the prohibitory statutes; others give this denomination to a 
 different game: the name by which it is now most generally 
 known is " Bumble-puppy;" and the vulgarity of the term is 
 well adapted to the company by whom it is usually practised. 
 The game is simply this; nine holes are made in a square board, 
 and disposed in three rows, three holes in each row, all of them 
 at equal distances, about twelve or fourteen inches apart ; to 
 every hole is affixed a numeral, from one to nine, so placed as 
 to form fifteen in every row. The board, thus prepared, is fixed 
 horizontally upon the ground, and surrounded on three sides 
 with a gentle acclivity. Every one of the players being fur- 
 nished with a certain number of small metal balls, stands in his 
 turn, by a mark made upon the ground, about five or six feet 
 from the board ; at Avhich he bowls the balls ; and according 
 to the value of the figures belonging* to the holes into which they 
 roll, his game is reckoned ; and he m ho obtains the highest num- 
 ber is the winner. Doctor Johnson confounds this pastime with 
 that of kayles, and says, "it is a kind of play still retained in 
 Scotland, in which nine holes, ranged in threes, are made in 
 the ground, and an iron bullet rolled in among them." ' 
 
 1 have formerly seen a pastime practised by school-boys, called 
 nine-holes: it was played with marbles, which they bowled at a 
 board, set upright, resembling a bridge, with nine small arches, 
 all of them numbered ; if the marble struck against the sides of 
 the arches, it became the property of the boy to whom the board 
 belonged ; but, if it went through any one of them, the bowler 
 claimed a number of marbles equal to the number upon the arch 
 it passed through. 
 
 XIV JOHN BULL. 
 
 This is the name of a modern pastime, which may be played 
 in the open air, or in a room. A square flat stone, being laid 
 level on the surface of the ground, or let into the floor, is sub- 
 divided into sixteen small squares ; in every one of these com- 
 Dartments a number is affixed, beginning from one ; the next in 
 value being five, the next ten ; thence passing on by tens to an 
 hundred, and thence again, by hundreds, to five hundred. These 
 numbers are not placed regularly, but contrasted, so that those 
 
 ' Dictionary, word knyL 
 T2
 
 27C S>PORTS AND PASTIMES KOOK III. 
 
 of the smallest value are nearest to those of the highest ; and in 
 some instances, as I am informed, the squares for the greater 
 numbers are made much smaller than those for the small ones. 
 On reaching five hundred a mark is made, at an optional dis- 
 tance from the stone, for the players to stand ; who, in succession, 
 throw up one halfpenny or more, and make their score according 
 to the number assigned to the compartment in which the half^ 
 penny rests, which must be within the square; for, if it lies upon 
 one of the lines that divide it from the others, the cast is for- 
 feited, and nothing scored. Tm o thousand is usually the game ; 
 but this number is extended or diminished at the pleasure of the 
 g^amesters. 
 
 XV.— PITCH AND HUSTLE. 
 
 This is a game connnonly played in the fields by the lowest 
 classes of the people. It requires two or more antagonists, who 
 pitch or cast an equal number of halfpence at a mark set up at 
 a short distance ; and the owner of the nearest halfpenny claims 
 the privilege to hustle first; the next nearest halfpenny entitles 
 the owner to a second claim ; and so on to as many as play. 
 When they hustle, all the halfpence pitched at the mark are 
 thrown into a hat held by the player who claims the first chance; 
 after shaking them together, he turns the hat down upon the 
 ground ; and as many of them as lie with the impression of the 
 head upwards belong to him; the remainder are then put into 
 the hat a second time, and the second claimant performs the 
 same kind of operation ; and so it passes in succession to all the 
 players, or until all the halfpence appear with the heads upwards. 
 Sometimes they are put into the hands of the player, instead of 
 a hat, who shakes them, and casts them up into the air ; but in 
 both instances the heads become his property : but if it should 
 so happen, that, after all of them have hustled, there remain 
 some of the halfpence that have not come with the heads 
 uppermost, the first player then hustles again, and the others in 
 succession, until they do come so. 
 
 XVI.— BULL-BAITING IN TOWNS AND VILLAGES. 
 
 I have already informed my readers, that bull-baiting, or 
 worrying of bulls with dogs, was one of the spectacles exhibited
 
 CHAP. VII. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 277 
 
 by the jugglers and their successors,^ It is also necessary to 
 observe, that this cruel pastime was not confined to the bound- 
 aries of the bear-gardens ; but was universally practised on 
 various occasions, in almost every town or village thiou<»hout 
 the kingdom, and especially in market towns, where Me find it 
 was sanctioned by the law ; ^ and in some of them, I believe, 
 the bull-rings, to which the unfortunate animals Mere fastened, 
 are remaining to the present hour. It may seem strange, that 
 the legislature should have permitted the exercise of sucl: a 
 barbarous diversion, which was frequently productive of much 
 mischief by draMing together a large concourse of idle and dis- 
 sipated persons, and affording them an opportunity of com- 
 mitting- many gross disorders with impunity. Indeed a public 
 bull-baiting" rarely ended without some riot and confusion. A 
 circumstance of this sort is recorded in the annals of the city oi 
 Chester. The author^ tells us, that " a bull Mas baited at the 
 high-cross, on the second of October, (1619,) according to the 
 ancient custome for the mayor's farewell out of his office; ii 
 chaunced a contention fell out betMixt the butchers and the 
 bakers of the cittye aboute their dogges then fyghtynge; they 
 fell to blowes ; and in the tumult of manye people m oulde not 
 be pacifyed ; so that the mayor, seeing there was greate abuse, 
 being citezens, could not forbeare, but he in person hymself 
 went out amongst them, to have the peace kept ; but they hi 
 their rage, lyke rude and unbroken felloMes, did lytill regarde 
 hym. In the ende, they Mere parted ; and the begynners of 
 the sayde brawle, being found out and examined, M'ere com- 
 mytted to the northgate. The mayor smotte freely among- them 
 and broke his white stafte; and the ciyer Thomas KnoMstlev 
 brake his mase ; and the brawle ended." 
 
 XVII.— BULL-RUNNING AT STAMFORD, &c. 
 This is another barbarous diversion somewhat different from 
 bull-baiting', and much less known : I do not recollect that it 
 was regularly practised in any part of the kingdom, excepting 
 at Stamford, in Lincolnshire, and at Tutbury, in Staffordshire. 
 The traditionary origin of the bull-running at Stamford, and the 
 manner in M'hich it m as performed in the seventeenth centurv, 
 
 ' Sec p. 243. 
 
 ' One of the city laws liowever prohibits the baiting a bull, a bear, or a horse in the 
 open streets of London, under the penalty of 20 shillings. Stow's Survey, p. 6o"6. 
 ^ FVobahly the iirst Hanil.ii Ifolmes, a niuivt of that city. MS. Harl. ^125.
 
 278 SPOUTS AND PASTIMES BOOK III 
 
 are given bv Butcher, in his Survey of that town;- and this 
 account I shall lay before my readers, in the author's own words. 
 " The bull-running is a sport of no pleasure, except to such as 
 take a pleasure in beastliness and mischief: it is performed 
 just the day six weeks before Christmas. The butchers of the 
 town, at their own charge, against the time provide the wildest 
 bull they can get. This bull over night is had into some 
 stable or barn belonging to the alderman. The next morning, 
 proclamation is made by the common bellman of the town, round 
 about the same, that each one shut up their shop-doors and 
 gates, and that none, upon pain of imprisonment, offer to do 
 any violence to strangers ; for the preventing whereof, the town 
 being a great thoroughfare, and then being term-time, a guard 
 is appointed for the passing of travellers through the same, with- 
 out hurt ; that none have any iron upon their bull-clubs, or other 
 staff, which they pursue the bull with. Which proclamation 
 made, and the gates all shut up, the bull is turned out of the 
 alderman's house ; and then hivie-skivy, tag and rag, men, 
 women, and children, of all sorts and sizes, with all the dogs in 
 the town, promiscuously running after him with their bull-clubs, 
 spattering dirt in each other's faces, that one would think them 
 to be so many furies started out of hell for the punishment of 
 Cerberus, &c. And, which is the greater shame, I have seen 
 persons of rank and family, of both sexes,^ following this bulling- 
 business. 1 can say no more of it, but only to set forth the anti- 
 quity thereof as tradition goes. William earl of Warren, the 
 first lord of this town in the time of king John, standing upon 
 his castle walls in Stamford, saw two bulls fighting for a cow in 
 a meadow under the same. A butcher of the town, owner of 
 one of the bnlls, set a great mastiff-dog upon his own bull, who 
 forced him up into the town ; when all the butchers' dogs, great 
 and small, followed in pursuit of the bull, which, by this time 
 made stark mad with the noise of the people and the fierceness 
 of the dogs, ran over man, woman, and child, that stood in his 
 way. This caused all the butchers and others in the town to rise 
 up, as it were, in a kind of tumult." The sport so highly di- 
 verted the earl, who, it seems, was a spectator, that " he gave all 
 those meadows in which the two bulls had been fighting, perpe- 
 
 ' First published A.D. 1646. This transcript is from the edit, of 1717, cap. x. 
 pp. 76, 77. 
 
 * This passage lie has Latinized in theae words : " Seuatores isi;ijoiuui geutium et 
 matrouae de eodeni gradii."
 
 CHAP. VII. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 279 
 
 tiially as a common to the butchers of tlie town, after the first 
 grass is eaten, to keep their cattle in till the time of slaughter, 
 upon the condition that, on the anniversary of that <lay, they 
 should yearly find, at their own expense, a mad bull for the con 
 tinuance of the sport. 
 
 XVllI.— BULL-RUNNING AT TUTBURY. 
 The company of minstrels belonging to the manor of Tut- 
 bury had several peculiar privileges granted to them by a 
 charter from John of Gaunt duke of Lancaster.' In this charter 
 it is required of the minstrels to perform their respective services, 
 upon the day of the assumption of our Lady, (the L5th of 
 August,) at the steward's court, held for the honour of Tutbury, 
 according to ancient custom. They had also, it seems, a privilege, 
 exclusive of the charter, to claim upon that day a bull from 
 the prior of Tutbury.- Li the seventeenth century, these services 
 were performed the day after the assumption ; and the bull was 
 given by the duke of Devonshire, as the prior's representative. 
 
 The historian of Staffordshire^ informs us, that a dinner was 
 provided for the minstrels upon this occasion, which being- 
 finished, they went anciently to the abbey gate, but of late years 
 to " a little barn by the town side, in expectance of the bull to 
 be turned forth to them." The animal provided for this purpose 
 had his horns sawed off, his ears cropped. Lis tail cut short, h\% 
 body smeared over with soap, and his noSe blown full of beaten 
 pepper, in order to make him as mad as it was possible for him 
 to be. Whence, " after solemn proclamation first being made by 
 the steward, that all manner of persons should give way to the 
 bull, and not come near him by forty teet, nor by any means to 
 hinder the minstrels, but to attend to his or their own satieties, 
 every one at his peril ; he was then put forth, to be caught by 
 the minstrels, and none other, within the county of Stafford, be- 
 tween the time of his being turned out to them, and the setting 
 of the sun, on the same day; which if they cannot doe, but the 
 bull escapes from them untaken, and gets over the river into 
 Derbyshire, he continues to be lord Devonshire's property: on 
 the other hand, if the minstrels can take him and hold him so 
 
 > See p. 191. 
 
 ■^ Histrioncs — habebunt ununi Tauruin de Priore de Tutebury, Inspex. temp. 
 Hen. VI. Dugdale's Monast. vol. ii. p. 355. 
 
 3 Dr. Plott.-— In his natural liistory of ibis county tbe reader will find a full account 
 of the serTict;s, &c. perfornied liy the minstrels upon this day, pp. 437, 438, -i;i9.
 
 280 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK III. 
 
 ]oi)g as to cut off but some small matter of his hair, and bring- 
 the same to the market cross, in token that they have taken him ; 
 the bull is brought to the bailiff's house in Tutbury, and there 
 collared and roped, and so conveyed to the bull-ring in the 
 High-street, where he is baited with dogs ; the first course al- 
 lotted for the king, the second for the honour of the town, and 
 the third for the king of the minstrels;' this done, the minstrels 
 claim the beast, and may sell, or kill and divide him amongst 
 them according to their pleasure." The author then adds, " this 
 rustic sport, which they call bull-running, should be annually 
 performed by the minstrels only; but now a-days, they are as- 
 sisted by the promiscuous multitude, that flock thither in great 
 numbers, and are mvich pleased with it ; though sometimes, 
 through the emulation in point of manhood that has been long* 
 cherished between the Staftbrdshire and Derbyshire men, perha[)s 
 as much mischief may have been done, as in the bull-fighting ^ 
 practised at Valentia, Madrid, and other places in Spain."^ The 
 noise and confusion occasioned by this exhibition is aptly des- 
 cribed in The Marriage of Robin Hood and Clorinda, Queen d 
 Titbury Feast,"* a popular ballad published early in the last 
 century : 
 
 Before we came to it, we heard a strange shoutiug. 
 
 And all that were in it looked madly. 
 For some were a bull-back, some dancing a morrice, 
 
 And some singing Arthur O'Bradley ' 
 
 XIX.— BADGER-BAITING 
 May also be placed in this chapter. In order to give the 
 better effec't to this diversion, a hole is dug in the ground for 
 the retreat of the animal ; and the dogs run at him singly in 
 succession; for it is not usual, 1 believe, to permit any more 
 than one of them to attack him at once ; and the dog which 
 approaches him with the least timidity, fastens upon him the 
 most firmly, and brings him the soonest from his hole, is 
 accounted the best. The badger was formerly called the grey," 
 hence the denomination of grey-hounds applied to a well known 
 species of dogs, on account of their having been generally used 
 in the pursuit of this animal. 
 
 * A title conferred upon the chief minstrel. See p. 191. 
 
 * " Jeu de Taureau." 
 
 ' Whence he derives this sport ; to which however it bears but little analogy See 
 Mr. Pegge's dissertation upon bull-baiting. A rchaeologia, vol. il. 
 
 * Collect, of Old Ballads, pub. London, 1723
 
 CHAP. VII OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 281 
 
 XX.— COCK-flGHTING. 
 
 This barbarous pastime, which claims the sanction of high 
 antiquity, was practised at an early period by the Grecians, and 
 probably still more anciently in Asia. It is a very common 
 sport, and of very long- standing, in China.' It was practised 
 by the Romans : ^ with us, it may be traced back to the twelfth 
 century ; at which period we are certain it was in usage, and 
 seems to have been considered as a childish sport. " Every 
 year," says Fitzstephen, " on the morning- of Shrove-Tuesday, 
 the school-boys of the city of London^ bring game cocks to 
 iheir masters, and in the fore part of the day, till dinner time, 
 they are permitted to amuse themselves with seeing them fight." 
 Probably the same custom prevailed in other cities and great 
 towns. Stow having cited the preceding passage from Fitz- 
 stephen, adds, " cocks of the game are yet," that is at the close 
 of the sixteenth century, " cherished by divers men for their 
 pleasures, much money being laid on their heads when they 
 fight in pits, whereof some are costly made for that purpose."^ 
 The cock-pit was the school, and the master the controller and 
 director of the pastime. This custom, according to Mr. Brand, 
 "was retained in many schools in Scotland within the last 
 century, and perhaps may be still in use there: the school- 
 masters claimed the runaway cocks as their perquisites ; and 
 these were called fugees, ' corrupt, I suppose,' says he, ' of 
 refugees.' " ^ 
 
 In the reign of Edward III. cock-fighting became a fashion- 
 able amusement ; it was then taken up more seriously than it 
 formerly had been, and the practice extended to grown persons ; 
 even at that early period it began to be productive of pernicious 
 consequences, and was therefore prohibited in 1366 by a public 
 proclamation, in which it was ranked with other idle and un- 
 lawful pastimes. But notwithstanding it was thus degraded 
 and discountenanced, it still maintained its popularity, and in 
 defiance of all temporary opposition has descended to the modern 
 
 ' Philos. Transact, vol. xix. p. 591. 
 
 2 For a full explauation of the manner of cock-fighting among tlie ancient Greeks 
 and Romans, see ameraoir upon that subject by the late Rev. Mr. Pegge, Archa^oiot'ia, 
 vol. iii. p. 132. '^ 
 
 ^ Description of Loudon ; temp. Hen. II. 
 
 '' Survey of London, p. 76. ' Bourne's Antiq. Vulgares by Brand, p. 233.
 
 282 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK III. 
 
 times. Among the additions made by Henry VIII. to the palace 
 at Whitehall, was a cock-pit;^ which indicates his relish for 
 the pastime of cock-fighting ; and James I. was so partial to 
 this diversion, that he amused himself in seeing it twice a week.^ 
 Exclusive of the royal cock-pit, we are told there was formerly 
 one in Dury-lane, another in Jewin-street, and if the following 
 story be founded on fact, a third in Shoe-lane : " Sir Thomas 
 Jerniin, meaning to make himself merry, and gull all the 
 cockers, sent his man to the pit in Shoe-lane, with an hundred 
 pounds and a dunghill cock, neatly cut and trimmed for the 
 battle; the plot being well layd the fellow got another to throw 
 the cock in, and fight him in sir Thomas Jermin's name, while 
 he betted his hundred pounds against him; the cock was matched, 
 and bearing sir Thomas's name, had many betts layd upon his 
 head ; but after three or four good brushes, he showed a payre 
 of heeles : every one wondered to see a cock belonging to sir 
 Thomas cry craven, and away came the man with his money 
 doubled." 3 
 
 1 shall not expatiate upon the nature and extent of this 
 fashionable divertisement ; but merely mention a part of it called 
 the Welch main, which seems to be an abuse of the modern 
 times; and as a late judicious author justly says, " a disgrace 
 to us as Englishmen." ■* It consists of a certain or given number 
 of pairs of cocks, suppose sixteen, which fight with each other 
 until one half of them are killed; the sixteen conquerors are 
 pitted a second time in like manner, and half are slain; the 
 eight survivors, a third time; the four, a fourth time; and the 
 remaining two, a fifth time : so that " thirty-one cocks are sure 
 to be inhumanly murdered for the sport and pleasure of the 
 spectators." I am informed that the Welch main usually consists 
 of fourteen pair of cocks, though sometimes the number might 
 be extended. 
 
 In the old illuminated manuscripts we frequently meet with 
 paintings representing cocks fighting ; but I do not recollect to 
 have seen in any of them the least indication of artificial spurs; 
 the arming their heels with sharp points of steel is a cruelty, I 
 
 - Stow's Survey of London, p. 496. 
 
 * Mons. de la Boderie's Letters, vol. i. p. .55. 
 
 MS. Harl. 639.5, written in the leign of .'ames L, and bearing this title : " Merry 
 Pat-sages and Jeasts." 
 
 * Rev. Mr. Pegge, in his memoir on cock-fighting, Archajol. vol. lii. p. \%t.
 
 CHAP. VII. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 283 
 
 trust, unknown in former ages to our ancestors. 1 have been 
 told tlie artificial spurs are sometimes made with silver. 
 
 In addition to what has been said, I shall only observe, that 
 the ancients fought partridges and quails as well as cocks ; in 
 like manner, says Burton, as the French do now;^ how far, 
 if at all, the example has been followed in England, I know 
 not. 
 
 XXI.— THROWING AT COCKS. 
 
 If the opposing of one cock to fight with another may be 
 justly esteemed a national barbarism, what shall be said of a 
 custom more inhuman, which authorised the throwing at them 
 with sticks, and ferociously putting them to a painful and 
 lingering death? I know not at what time this unfortunate 
 animal became the object of such wicked and wanton abuse: 
 the sport, if such a denomination may be given to it, is certainly 
 no recent invention, and perhaps is alluded to by Chaucer,^ in 
 the Nonnes Priests' Tale, when he says, 
 
 " There was a cocke, 
 
 For that a priestes' sonne gave hym a knocke, 
 Upon bis legges, when he was yonge and nice, 
 He made him for to lose his benefice." 
 
 The story supposes the cock to have overheard the young 
 man ordering his servant to call him at the cock-crowing ; upon 
 which the malicious bird forbore to crow at the usual time, 
 and owing to this artifice the youth was suffered to sleep till 
 the ordination was over. 
 
 Throwing at cocks was a very popular diversion, especially 
 among the younger parts of the community. Sir Thomas Moore, 
 who wrote in the sixteentli century, describing the state of 
 childhood, speaks of his skill in casting a cok-stele, that is, a 
 stick or cudgel to throw at a cock. It was universally practised 
 upon Shrove-Tuesday. If the poor bird by chance had its legs 
 broken, or was otherwise so lamed as not to be able to stand, 
 the barbarous owners were wont to support it with sticks, in 
 order to prolong the pleasure received from the reiteration of its 
 torment. The magistrates, greatly to their credit, have for 
 some years past put a stop to this wicked custom, and at present 
 it is nearly, if not entirely, discontinued in every part of the 
 kingdom. 
 
 ' Anatoiny of RlelaucboJy, published A. D. 1660. • Canterbury Tal«.
 
 284 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK III. 
 
 Heath, in his account of the Scilly Islands,* speaking- of 
 St. Mary's, says, " on Shrove-Tuesday each year, after the 
 throwing- at cocks is over, the boys of this island have a custom 
 of throwing- stones in the evening- against the doors of the 
 dwellers' houses; a privilege they claim from time immemorial, 
 and put in practice without control, for finishing- the day's sport; 
 the terms demanded by the boys are pancakes or money, to 
 capitulate. Some of the older sort, exceeding- the bounds of 
 this whimsical toleration, break the doors and window shutters, 
 &c. sometimes making- a job for the siu'geon as well as for the 
 smith, glazier, and carpenter." 
 
 In some places it was a common practice to put the cock into 
 an earthen vessel made for the purpose, and to place him in 
 such a position that his head and tail might be exposed to view; 
 the vessel, with the bird in it, was then suspended across the 
 street, about twelve or fourteen feet from the ground, to be 
 thrown at by such as chose to make trial of their skill ; two- 
 pence was paid for four throws, and he who broke the pot, and 
 delivered the cock from his confinement, had him for a reward. 
 At North Walsham, in Norfolk, about 1760, some wags put an 
 owl into one of these vessels ; and having- procured the head 
 and tail of a dead cock, they placed them in the same position 
 as if they had appertained to a living- one : the deception Avas 
 successful, and at last, a labouring- man belong-ing- to the town, 
 after several fruitless attempts, broke the pot, but missed his 
 prize; for the owl being- set at liberty, instantly flew away, to 
 his great astonishment, and left him nothing- more than the 
 head and tail of the dead bird, with the potsherds, for his 
 money and his trouble; this ridiculous adventure exposed him 
 to the continual laughter of the town's people, and obliged him 
 to quit the place, to which, I am told, he returned no more. 
 
 XXII.— DUCK-HUNTING. 
 This is another barbarous pastime, and for the performance 
 it is necessary to have recourse to a pond of water sufficiently 
 extensive to give the duck plenty of room for making- her escape 
 from the dogs when she is closely pursued ; which she does by 
 diving as often as any of them come near to her. Duck-hunting 
 was much practised in the neighbourhood of London about 
 thirty or forty year* ago; but of late it is gone out of fashion ; 
 
 • Published at Londou, 1750.
 
 CHAP. VII. OF THE PEOPIF. OF F,NGLAN1>. 285 
 
 yet I cannot help thinking, that the deficiency, at present, of 
 places proper for the purpose, has done more towards the 
 abolishment of this sport than any amendment in the nature 
 and inclinations of the populace. 
 
 Sometimes the duck is tormented in a different manner, with- 
 out the assistance of the dogs ; by having an owl tied upon her 
 back, and so put into the water, where she frequently dives in 
 order to escape from the burden, and on her return for air, the 
 miserable owl, half drowned, shakes itself, and hooting, frightens 
 the duck ; she of course dives again, and replunges the owl 
 into the water; the frequent repetition of this action soon 
 deprives the poor bird of its sensation, and generally ends in 
 its death, if not in that of the duck also. 
 
 XXIII.— SQUIRREL-HUNTING. 
 This is a rustic pastime, and commonly practised at Christmas- 
 time and at Midsummer ; those who pursue it find plenty of 
 exercise ; but nothing can excuse the wantonly tormenting so 
 harmless an animal. 
 
 XXIV.— RABBIT-HUNTING. 
 Hentzner, who visited England at the close of the sixteenth 
 century, mentions this diversion, and assures us that he saw 
 it performed in the presence of the lord mayor of London, when 
 the annual wrestling was concluded: his words are as follow; 
 " after this is over, a parcel of live rabbits are turned loose among 
 the crowd, which are pursued by a number of boys, who • en- 
 deavour to catch them with all the noise they can make ^
 
 9M 
 
 BOOK IV. 
 
 DOMESTIC AMUSEMENTS OF VARIOUS KINDS; AND 
 PAS'l'IMES APPROPRIATED TO PARTICULAR SEASONS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 I. Secular Rlusic fashionable.— II. Ballad-singeis enconraged by the Populace. — III. 
 Music Houses. — IV. Origin of Vauxhall. — V. Ranelagh. — VI. Sadler's Wells. — 
 VII. Marybone Gardens — Operas — Oratorios. — VIII. Bell-ringing. — IX. Its 
 Antiquity. — X. Hand-bells. — XI. Burlesque Music. — XII. Dancing. — XIII. Its 
 Antiquity, &c. — XIV. Shovel-board. — XV. Anecdote of Prince Henrj-. — XVI. 
 BiUiards.— XVII. Mississipi.— XVIII. The Rocks of Scilly.— XIX. Steve 
 groat. — XX. Swinging. — XXI. Tetter-totter. — XXII. Shuttle-cock. 
 
 I.— SECULAR MUSIC FASHIONABLE 
 
 The national passion for secular music admitted of little or no 
 abatement by the disgrace and dispersion of the minstrels. Pro- 
 fessional musicians, both vocal and instrumental, were afterwards 
 retained at the court, and also in the mansions of the nobility. 
 In the sixteenth century, a knowledge of music was considered 
 as a genteel accomplishment for persons of high rank. Henry 
 VHI. not only sang well, but played upon several sorts of in- 
 struments ; he also wrote songs, and composed the tunes ^ for 
 them ; and his example was followed by several of the nobility, 
 his favourites. An author, who lived in the reign of James I. 
 says, " We have here," that i.*:, in London, " the best musi- 
 cians in the kingdom, and equal to any in Europe for their skill, 
 either in composing and setting of tunes, or singing, and playing 
 upon any kind of instruments. The musicians have obtained of 
 our sovereign lord the king, his letters patent to become a society 
 and corporation." 2 To which we may add, that the metrooolis 
 never abounded more, if so much as at present, with excellent 
 
 ' Hall, in the life of that monarch. 
 
 2 A. D. 1604, in the second year of the reign of James I. Treatise on College 
 and Schools in and about London, printed 1616.
 
 CHAP. I. SPOUTS AND PASTIMES, &C. 287 
 
 musicians, not such only as maice a profession of music, but with 
 others who pursue it merely for their amusement; nor must we 
 omit the fair sex; with them the study of music is exceedingly 
 fashionable ; and indeed there are few young ladies of family 
 who are not in some decree made acauainted with its rudi- 
 ments.^ 
 
 II.— PUBLIC BALLAD-SINGERS. 
 
 The minstrel being deprived of all his honours, and having 
 lost the protection of the opulent, dwindled into a mere singer 
 of ballads, which sometimes he composed himself, and usually 
 accompanied his voice with the notes of a violin. The subjects 
 of these songs were chiefly taken from popular stories, calculated 
 to attract the notice of the vulgar, and among' them the nmsical 
 poets figured away at wakes, fairs, and church-ales^.^ Warton 
 speaks of two celebrated trebles ; the one called Outroaringe 
 Dick ; and the other Wat Wimbas, who occasionally made 
 twenty shillings a day by ballad-singing ; ^ which is a strong- 
 proof that these itinerants were highly esteemed by the common 
 people. 
 
 ITL— MUSIC HOUSES. 
 Towards the close of the seventeenth century, the professed 
 musicians assembled at certain houses in the metropolis, called 
 music houses, where they performed concerts, consisting of 
 vocal and instrumental music, for the entertainment of the public ; 
 at the same period there were music booths at Smithfield during 
 the continuance of Bartholomew fair. An author of the time,'* 
 however, speaks very contemptibly of these music meetings, pro- 
 fessing that he " had rather have heard an old barber'' rmg 
 Whittington's bells upon a cittern than all the music the houses 
 afforded." There were also music-clubs, or private meetings 
 
 • Some time ago the spinnet was a favourite instrument among the ladies ; afterwards 
 the guitar ; and now the harpsichord, or forte-piano. 
 
 2 See p. 186. 
 
 3 At Braint'ee fair in Essex. Hist. Eng. Poet. vol. iii. p. 292. This was a century 
 and a hi«lf back, when twenty shilHngs was a considerable sum. The ancient ballade 
 have frequently this colophon : ' Printed by A. B. and are to be sold at the stalls 
 of the ballad-singers." But an ordinance published by Oliver Cromwell against the 
 strolling fiddlers, silenced the ballad-singers, and obliged the sellers to shut up shop 
 Hawkins, Hist. Music, vol. iv. p. 113. 
 
 '' Edward Ward, author of the London Spy, part xi. p. 255. 
 
 * The barbers formerly were often musicians, and usually kept a lute, a viol, or 
 bome other musical instrument, in their shops, to amuse their customers while waiting ; 
 at present, the newspaper is substituted for the instrument of music.
 
 288 SPOUTS ANDJ»ASTIME.S IJOOK 111. 
 
 for the practice of music, which were exceedirgiy fashionnble 
 witli people of opulence. Hence, ni The Citizen turned 
 Gentleman, a comedy by Edw. Ravenscroft, published in 1675. 
 the citizen is told that, in order to appear like a person of 
 consequence, it was necessary for him " to have a music club 
 once a week at his house." The music houses first mentioned 
 were sometimes supported by subscription ; and from them 
 orig"inated three places of public entertainment well known in 
 the present day ; namely, Vauxhall, Ranelagh, and Sadler's 
 Wells. 
 
 IV.— ORIGIN OF VAUXHALL. 
 Spring- Gardens, now better known by the name of Vauxhall 
 Gardens, is mentioned in the Antiquities of Surrey, by Aubrey, 
 who informs us, that sir Samuel Moreland " built a fine room 
 at Vauxhall, (in 1667,) the inside all of looking-glass, and 
 fountains very pleasant to behold ; which," adds he, " is much 
 visited by strangers. It stands in the middle of the garden, 
 covered with Cornish slate, on the point whereof he placed a 
 punchanello, very well carved, which held a dial ; but the 
 winds have demolished it.'" " The house," says a more 
 modern author, sir John Hawkins,^ " seems to have been re- 
 built since the time that sir Samuel Moreland owelt in it; 
 and, there being a large garden belonging to if, planted 
 with a great number of stately trees, and laid out in shady 
 walks, it obtained the name of Spring Gardens ; and, the 
 house being converted into a tarern, or place of entertainment, 
 it was frequented by the votaries of pleasure." This account 
 is perfectly consonant with the following passage in a paper 
 of the Spectator,^ dated May 20, 1712: " We now arrived at 
 Spring Gardens, which is exquisitely pleasant at this time of 
 the year. When I considered the fragrancy of the walks and 
 bowers, with the choirs of birds that sung upon the trees, and 
 the loose tribe of people that walked underneath their shades, 
 I could not but look upon the place as a kind of Mahometan 
 paradise." In 1730 the house and gardens came into the hands 
 of a gentleman w hose name was Jonathan Tyers, who opened 
 it with an advertisement of a " ridotto al fresco;""* a term 
 which the people of this country had till then been strangers to. 
 
 ' Vol. i. p. 12. 2 Hist. Music, vol. v. p. 3.i2. 
 
 » Vol. V. No. 383. "• Or entertainment of music in the open air.
 
 CHAP. I. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 289 
 
 These entertainments were several times repeated in the course 
 of the summer, and numbers resorted to partake of them; 
 which encouraged the proprietor to make his garden a place 
 of musical entertainment for every evening during the summer 
 season : to this end he was at great expense in decorating the 
 gardens with paintings; he engaged an excellent band of mu- 
 sicians, and issued silver tickets for admission at a guinea each ; 
 and receiving great encouragement, he set up an organ in the 
 orchestra ; and in a conspicuous part of the gardens erected 
 a fine statue of Handel, the work of Roubiliac, a very famous 
 statuary, to whom we owe several of the best monuments in 
 Westminster Abbey. 
 
 v.— RANELAGH. 
 
 The success of this undertaking was an encouragement to 
 another of a similar kind. A number of persons purchased 
 the house and gardens of the late earl of Ranelagh ; they 
 erected a spacious building* of timber, of a circular form, and 
 within it an organ, and an orchestra capable of holding a 
 numerous band of performers. The entertainment of the auditors 
 during the performance is, either Malking round the room, or 
 refreshing themselves with tea and coffee in the recesses thereof, 
 which are conveniently adapted for that purpose. Sir John 
 Hawkins ^ says, " The performance here, as at Vauxhall, is 
 instrumental, intermixed with songs and ballad airs, calculated 
 rather to please the vulgar than gratify those of a better taste." 
 
 VI.— SADLER'S WELLS. 
 
 We meet with what is said to be " a true account of Sadler's 
 Well," in a pamphlet published by a physician at the close of 
 the seventeenth century .2 " The water," says he, "of this well, 
 before the Reformation, was very much famed for several extra- 
 ordinary cures performed thereby, and was thereupon accounted 
 sacred, and called Holy-well. The priests belonging to the 
 priory of Clerkenwell using to attend there, made the people 
 believe that the virtues of the water proceeded from the efficacy 
 of their prayers ; but at the Reformation the well was stopped, 
 
 ' Hist, of Music, vol. v. pp. 332, 333. 
 
 » It is said to be written by T. G. doctor in physic, and was published A, D. 1684.
 
 290 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK IV. 
 
 upon the supposition that the frequenting of it was altogether 
 superstitious ; and so by degrees it grew out of remembrance, 
 and was wholly lost until then found out ; when a gentleman 
 named Sadler, who had lately built a new music-house there, 
 and being surveyor of the highways, had employed men to dig- 
 gravel in his garden, in the midst Avhereof they found it stopped 
 up and covered with an arch of stone. " ^ After the decease of 
 Sadler, one Francis Forcer, a musician and composer of songs, 
 became occupier of the well and music-room; he was succeeded 
 by his son, who first exhibited there the diversion of rope-dancing 
 and tinnblingj^ v/hich were then performed abroad in the garden. 
 There is now a small theatre appropriated to this purpose, fur- 
 nished with a stage, scenes, and other decorations proper for 
 the representation of dramatic pieces and pantomimes. The 
 diversions of this place are of various kinds, and form upon 
 the whole a succession of performances very similar to those 
 displayed in former ages by the gleemen, the minstrels, and the 
 jugglers. 
 
 VII.— MARY-BONE GARDENS— ORATORIOS. 
 
 To the three preceding places of public entertainment, we 
 may add a fourth, not now indeed in existence, but which about 
 thirty years back^ was held in some degree of estimation, and 
 much frequented ; I mean Mary -bone Gardens; where, in 
 addition to the music and singing-, there were burlettas and 
 fire-works exhibited. The site of these gardens is now covered 
 with buildings. There were also other places of smaller note 
 where singing and music were introduced, but none of them of 
 any long continuance ; for being much frequented by idle and 
 dissolute persons, they were put down by the magistrates. 
 
 The success of these musical assemblies, I presume, first sug- 
 gested the idea of introducing operas upon the stage, which were 
 contrived at once to please the eye and delight the ear ; and this 
 double gratification, generally speaking, was procured at the 
 expense of reason and propriety. Hence, also, we may trace 
 the establishment of oratorios in England. I need not say that 
 this noble species of dramatic music was brought to great 
 perfection by Handel : the oratorios produced by him display 
 m a wonderful manner his powers as a composer of music ; 
 
 * A. D. 1683. * Hawkins, ut supra. * [About 1770.J
 
 CHAP. I. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 291 
 
 and they continue to be received with that enthusiasm of 
 applause which they most justly deserve. Under this title, 
 oratorios, are included several of his serenatas, as Acis and 
 Galatea, Alexander's Feast, &c.; but generally speaking-, the 
 subjects of the oratorios are taken from the Scriptures, and there- 
 fore they are permitted to be performed on the Wednesdays and 
 Fridays in Lent when plays are prohibited. 
 
 VIIL— BELL- RINGING. 
 
 It has been remarked by foreigners that the English are 
 particularly fond of bell-ringing ; ' and indeed most of our 
 churches have a ring of bells in the steeple, partly appropriated 
 to that purpose. These bells are rung upon most occasions of 
 joy and festivity, and sometimes at funerals, when they are 
 muffled, and especially at the funerals of ringers, with a piece 
 of woollen cloth bound about the clapper, and the sounds then 
 emitted by them are exceedingly unmelodious, and well fitted 
 to inspire the mind with melancholy. Ringing of rounds ; that 
 is, sounding every bell in succession, from the least to the 
 greatest, and repeating the operation, produces no variety; on 
 the contrary, the reiteration of the same cadences in a short 
 time becomes tiresome : for which reason the ringing of changes' 
 has been introduced, wherein the succession of the bells is 
 shifted continually, and by this means a varied combination of 
 different sounds, exceedingly pleasant to the ear, is readily pro- 
 duced. This improvement in the art of ringing is thought to 
 be peculiar to the people of this country .2 Ringing the bells 
 backwards is sometimes mentioned, and probably consisted in 
 beginning with the largest bell and ending with the least; it ap- 
 pears to have been practised by the ringers as a mark of contempt 
 or disgust. 
 
 IX.— ANTIQUITY OF BELL-RINGING. 
 
 When bell-ringing first arose in England cannot readily be 
 ascertained. It is said that bells were invented by Paulinu-s 
 bishop of Nola,^ at the commencement of the fifth century. In 
 680, according to Venerable Bede, they were used in Brittany, and 
 thence perhaps brought into this country. Ingulphus speaks of 
 them as well known in his time, and tells us, " that Turketullus, 
 
 ' See the Introduction. ' Hawkins's Hist, of Music, vol. iv. p. 211. 
 
 * A city of Campania — about the year 400. 
 
 U g
 
 292 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK IV, 
 
 the first abbot of Croyland, gave six bells to that monastery; 
 that is to say, two great ones, which he named Bartholomew 
 and Betteline ; two of a middling size, called Turketulum and 
 Beterine; and two small ones, denominated Pega and Bega; 
 he also caused the greatest bell to be made, called Gudhlac, 
 which was tuned to the other bells, and produced an admirable 
 harmony not to be equalled in England." ^ TurketuUus died 
 in 875. 
 
 According to the ritual of the Romish church, the bells were 
 not only blessed and exorcised, but baptized as those above 
 mentioned, and anointed with holy oil.^ After these ceremonies 
 had passed it was believed that the evil spirits lurking in the 
 air might be driven away by their sound. The general use of 
 bells is expressed in the two following Latin lines: 
 
 " Laudo Deum verum — plebem voco — congrego clerum — 
 Defunctos ploro — pestum fugo — festa decoro." 
 
 That is, to praise the true God — to call the people— to congre- 
 gate the clergy — to bemoan the dead — todiive away pestilential 
 disorders — to enliven the festivals. 
 
 I know not how far the pastime of bell-ringing attracted the 
 notice of the opulent in former times ; at present it is confined 
 to the lower classes of the people, who are paid by the parish 
 for ringing upon certain holidays. At weddings, as well as 
 upon other festive occurrences, they usually ring the bells in 
 expectance of a pecuniary reward. 
 
 X.— HAND-BELLS 
 
 These, which probably first appeared in the religious pro- 
 cessions, were afterwards used by the secular musicians, and 
 practised for the sake of pastime. The joculator dancing before 
 the fictitious goat, depicted by the engraving No. 85, has two 
 large hand-bells, and nearly of a size; but in general, they are 
 regularly diminished, from the largest to the least; and ten or 
 twelve of them, rung in rounds or changes by a company of 
 ringers, sometimes one to each bell, but more usually every 
 ringer has two. I have seen a man in London, who I believe 
 is now living,^ ring twelve bells at one time; two of them 
 were placed upon his head, he held two in each hand, one was 
 affixed to each of his knees, and two upon each foot,- all of 
 
 ' Hist. Abat. Croyland. Ingulphus died 1109. 
 
 2 See CLauncy's Hist, of Hertfordshire, p. 383. ' [In 1800.";
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 OP THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 
 
 293 
 
 which he managed with great adroiUiess, and performed a vast 
 variety of tunes. 
 
 The small bells were not always held in the hand ; they were 
 sometimes suspended upon a stand, and struck with hammers, 
 by which means one person could more readily play upon them. 
 An example of this kind, taken from a manuscript in the Royal 
 Library,* is given below. 
 
 96. Hand-bells. — XIV. Century. 
 
 The figure in the original is designed as a representation of 
 king David, and affixed to one of his psalms. 
 
 XL— BURLESQUE MUSIC. 
 The minstrels and joculators seem to have had the knack of 
 converting every kind of amusement into a vehicle for merri- 
 ment, and among others, that of music has not escaped them 
 
 1 No. 20. B. xi.
 
 294 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK IV 
 
 Here we see one of these drolls holding a pair of bellows by 
 way of a fiddle, and using* the tongs as a substitute for the bow. 
 
 97. BUHLESQUE iMuSIt!. 
 
 This, and such like vagaries, were frequently practised m 
 the succeeding times ; and they are neatly r'idiculed in one of 
 the papers belonging to the Spectator,^ where the author mentions 
 "a tavern keeper who amused his company with whistling of 
 different tunes, which he performed by applying the edge of a 
 case knife to his lips. Upon laying down the knife he took up 
 a pair of clean tobacco pipes, and after having slid the small 
 ends of them over a table in a most melodious trill, he fetched 
 a tune out of them, whistling to them at the same time in concert. 
 In short the tobacco pipes became musical pipes in the hands 
 of our virtuoso, who," says the writer, " confessed ingenuously 
 that he broke such quantities of pipes that he almost broke 
 himself, before he brought this piece of music to any tolerable 
 perfection." 2 This man also " played upon the frying-pan and 
 gridiron, and declared he had layed down the tongs and key 
 because it was unfashionable." I have heard an accompaniment 
 to the violin exceedingly well performed with a rolling-pin and 
 a salt-box, by a celebrated publican named Price, who kept the 
 Green Man, formerly well known by the appellation of the 
 Farthing Pye House, at the top of Portland Row, St. Mary-le- 
 bone. I have also seen a fellow who used to frequent most of 
 the public houses in and about the town, blow up his cheeks 
 with his breath, and beat a tune upon them with bis fists, which 
 feat he seemed to perform with great facility. The butchers 
 have a sort of rough music, made with marrow-bones and cleavers, 
 which they usually bring forward at weddings; and in the Knave 
 in Grain, a play first acted in 1640,*^ ringing of basons is men- 
 tioned. This music, or something like it T believe, is repre- 
 sented by the engraving No. 57. 
 
 ' Vol. V. No. 570. * Ibid. 
 
 ' Garrick's Col. oM piays, G. vol. ii.
 
 CHAP. !. OK THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 295 
 
 XII.— DANCING. 
 
 To what has been said upon this subject in a forrper chapter,* 
 I shall liere add a few words more, and consider it as performed 
 for amusement only. In the middle ages dancing was reckoned 
 among- the genteel accomplishments necessary to be acquired 
 by both sexes ; and in the romances of those times, the character 
 of a hero was incomplete unless he danced excellently.^ The 
 knights and the ladies are often represented dancing together, 
 which in the MS. poem of Launfal, in the Cotton Collection,' is 
 called playing: 
 
 The quene yede to the formeste ende, 
 Betweene Launfal and Gauweyn the hende,* 
 
 And after her ladyes bryght ; 
 To daunce they wente alle yn same, 
 To see them playe hyt was fayr game, 
 
 A lady and a knyght ; 
 They had menstrellfs of moche honours, 
 Fydelers, sytolyrs, and trompetors. 
 
 And else hyt were unright. 
 
 The poet then tells us, they continued their amusement great 
 part of a summer's day, that is, from the conclusion of dinner 
 to the approach of night. 
 
 Dancing was constantly put in practice among the nobility 
 upcn days of festivity, and was countenanced by the example 
 of the court. After the coronation dinner of Richard II., the 
 remainder of the day was spent in the manner described by the 
 foregoing poem ; for the king, the prelates, the nobles, the 
 kniglifs, and the rest of the company, danced in Westminster 
 Hall to the music of the minstrels.* Sir John Hawkins mentions 
 a dance called pavon, from pavo, a peacock, which nn'ght have 
 been proper upon such an occasion. " It is," says he, " a grave 
 and majestic dance ; the method of dancing it anciently was by 
 gentlemen dressed with caps and swords, by those of the long 
 robe in their gowns, by the peers in their mantles, and by the 
 ladies in gowns with long trains, the motion whereof in dancing 
 resembled that of a peacock."^ Several of our monarchs are 
 praised for their skill in dancing, and none of them more than 
 
 ' Book iii. chap, v, p. 207. ' See the Introduction. ' Caligula, A 2. fol. 53. 
 
 * Polite, courteous. ' Rym. Feed, torn, vii. p. 160. col. 2. 
 
 * Ilist. Music, vol. iii. p. tiii5.
 
 396 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK IT 
 
 Henry VIIT., who was peculiarly partial to this fashionable 
 exercise. In his time, and in the reign of his daughter Elizabeth, 
 the English, generally speaking, are said to have been good 
 dancers ; and this commendation is not denied to them even by 
 foreign writers. Polydore Virgil praises the English for their 
 skill in dancing,* and Hentzner says, " the English ex cell in 
 
 danceing." ^ 
 
 «. 
 
 XIII.— ANTIQUITY, &c. OF DANCING. 
 
 The example of the nobility was followed by the middling- 
 classes of the community ; they again were imitated by their 
 inferiors, who spent much of their leisure time in dancing, and 
 especially upon holidays ; which is noticed and condemned with 
 great severity by the moral and religious writers, as we may 
 find by turning to the Introduction. Dancing is there called a 
 heathenish practice, and said to have been productive of filthy 
 gestures, for which reason it is ranked with other wanton sports 
 unfit to be exhibited. An old drama without date, but probably 
 written early in the reign of Elizabeth, entitled A new Interlude 
 and a Mery, of the Nature of the four Elements,^ accuses the 
 people at large, with " loving pryncypally disportes, asdauns- 
 ynge, syngynge, toys, tryfuls, laiighynge, and gestynge; for," 
 adds the author, " connynge they set not by." ^ But Sebastian 
 Brant, in his Ship of Fooles, is much more severe upon this 
 subject. I shall give the passage as it is paraphrased by Barclay :* 
 
 The priestes, and clerkes, to daunce have no sbame ; 
 
 The frere, or monke in his frocke and cowle, 
 
 Must daunce ; and the doctor lepeth to play the foole. 
 
 He derives the origin of dancing from the Jews, when they 
 worshipped the golden calf: 
 
 Before this ydoll dauncing, botli wife and man 
 Despised God ; thus dauncing first began. 
 
 The damsels of London, as far back as the twelfth century, 
 spent the evenings on holidays in dancing before their masters' 
 doors. Stow laments the abolition of this " open pastime," 
 which he remembered to have seen practised in his youth,^ and 
 considered it not only as innocent in itself, but also as a preveu- 
 
 111. 
 
 ' Hist. Angl. » Itinerary. ' Garrick's Col. I, vol. 
 
 * That is, learning they esteem not. First printed by Pynson, A. D. 1508. 
 
 ' Stow died A. D. 1605, aged 80. Survey of London, by Strype, vol. i. p. 251.
 
 CHAP I. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 297 
 
 tiVe to worse deeds " within doors," which he feared would 
 follow the suppression. The country lasses perform this exercise 
 upon the greens, where it is said they dance all their rustic 
 ?sieasures, rounds, and jiggs.' We read also of dancing the 
 Raye,2 or Reye, as it is written by Chaucer, and which appears 
 to have been a rustic dance, and probably the same as that now 
 called the Hay, where they lay hold of hands, and dance round 
 in a ring. A dance of this kind occurs several times in the 
 Bodleian MS.,^ dated A. D. 1344, whence many of the engravings 
 which elucidate this work are taken. Chaucer speaks also of 
 love-dances, and springs, as well known in his time;"* but none 
 of them are described. Of late years dancing is generally 
 thought to be an essential part of a young female's education, 
 and is commonly taught her at the boarding-school ; and per- 
 haps, when used with moderation, may not be improper. But 
 some of the dances that the girls are permitted to perform are 
 justly to be censured ; among these may be ranked one called 
 Hunt the Squirrel, in which, while the woman flies the man 
 pursues her, but as soon as she turns, he runs away, and she 
 is obliged to follow; and theKissing-dance, the same, I suppose, 
 as the Cushion-dance mentioned by Hey wood at the commence- 
 ment of the seventeenth century:* both of them are discom- 
 mended in a paper of the Spectator." 
 
 XIV.— SHOVEL-BOARD. 
 
 Among the domestic pastimes, playing at shovel-board claims 
 a principal place. In former times the residences of the nobility, 
 or the mansions of the opulent, were not thought to be complete 
 without a shovel-board table; and this fashionable piece of 
 furniture was usually stationed in the great hall.'' The tables 
 for this diversion were sometimes very expensive, owing to the 
 great pains and labour bestowed upon their construction. " It 
 is remarkable," says Dr. Plott, in his History of Staffordshire, 
 " that in the hall at Chartley the shuffle-board table, though 
 ten yards one foot and an inch long, is made up of about two 
 hundred and sixty pieces, which are generally about eighteen 
 
 • A Woman Killed with Kindness. Trag. by Thomas Heywood, 3d edit. A. D. 
 1617, Garrick's Collect E, vol. iv. 
 
 » See the Introduction. ' No. 264. * House of Fame, book iii. 
 
 * See note ', above. • Vol. i. No. 76. '' See the Introduction.
 
 298 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK IV. 
 
 inches long, some few only excepted, that are scarce a foot, 
 which, being laid on longer boards for support underneath, are 
 so accurately joined and glewed together, that no shuffle-board 
 whatever is freer from rubbs or casting. — There is a joynt also 
 in the shuffle-board at Madeley Manor exquisitely well done." 
 
 The length of these tables, if they be perfectly smooth and 
 level, adds to their value in proportion to its increase ; but they 
 rarely exceed three feet or three feet and a half in width. At 
 one end of the shovel-board there is a line drawn across parallel 
 with the edge, and about three or four inches from it; at four feet 
 distance from this line another is made, over which it is necessary 
 for the weight to pass when it is thrown by the player, otherwise 
 the go is not reckoned. The players stand at the end of the 
 table, opposite to the two marks above mentioned, each of them 
 having four flat weights of metal, which they shove from them 
 one at a time alternately: and the judgment of the play is, to 
 give sufficient impetus to the weight to carry it beyond the 
 mark nearest to the edge of the board, which requires great 
 nicety, for if it be too strongly impelled, so as to fall from 
 the table, and there is nothing to prevent it, into a trough 
 placed underneath for its reception, the throw is not counted ; 
 if it hangs over the edge, without falling, three are reckoned 
 towards the player's game; if it lie between the line and the 
 edge without hanging over, it tells for two ; if on the line, and 
 not up to it, but over the first line, it counts for one. The 
 game, when two play, is generally eleven ; but the number is 
 extended when four or more are jointly concerned. I have seen 
 a shovel-board-table at a low public-bouse in Benjamin-street, 
 near Clerkenwell-green, which is about three feet in breadth 
 and thirty-nine feet two inches in length, and said to be the 
 longest at this time in London. 
 
 XV.— ANECDOTE OF PRINCE HEMRY. 
 
 There certainly is not sufficient variety in this pastime to render 
 it very attractive, but in point of exercise it is not inferior to 
 any of the domestic amusements ; for which reason it was 
 practised by the nobility in former ages, when the weather would 
 not admit of employment abroad. Prince Henry, the eldest 
 son of James I., occasionally exercised himself in this manner, 
 as the following anecdote may prove: it is recorded by one of
 
 CHAP. 1. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. '2i)i) 
 
 his nttendants, who declares that he was present at the time, 
 and that he has not attributed to him a single sentence not 
 uttered by him in t'his or any other of the anecdotes related by 
 him ; ' and therefore I will give it in the author's own words : — 
 " Once when the prince was playing at shoffleboard, and in 
 his play changed sundry pieces, his tutor, being desirous that 
 even in trifles he should not be new-fangled, said to him, that 
 he did ill to change so oft ; and therewith took a piece in his 
 hand, and saying that he would play well enough therewith 
 without changing, threw the piece on the board ; yet not so 
 well but the prince, smileing thereat, said. Well throwne. Sir. 
 Whereupon Master Newton telling him, that he would not 
 strive with a prince at shoffleboard, he answered, You gowns- 
 men should be best at such exercises, being not meete for those 
 that are more stirring. Yes, quoth Master Newton, I am meete 
 for whipping of boyes. And hereupon the prince answered, 
 You need not vaunt of that which a ploughman or cartdriver 
 can dee better than you. Yet 1 can doe more, said Master 
 Newton, for I can governe foolish children. The prince res- 
 pecting him, even in jesting, came from the further end of the 
 table, and smiling, said, while he passed by him, Hee had 
 neede be a wise man himselfe that could doe that." 
 
 XVI.— BILLIARDS. 
 
 This pastime, which in the present day has superseded the 
 game of shovel-board, and is certainly a more elegant species 
 of amusement, admits of more variety, and requires at least 
 an equal degree of skill in the execution. The modern manner 
 of playing at billiards, and the rules by which the pastime is 
 regulated, are so generally known, that no enlargement upon 
 the subject is necessary. The invention of this diversion is at- 
 tributed to the French, and probably with justice; but at the 
 same time I cannot help thinking it originated from an ancient 
 game played with small bowls upon the ground ; or indeed that 
 it was, when first instituted, the same game transferred from 
 the ground to the table.^ At the commencement of the last 
 century, the billiard-table was square, having only three 
 pockets for the balls to run in, situated on one of the sides ; 
 
 ' MS. Harl. 6391 . 
 
 • See p. 270, and the representation of the ground billiards by the engraving No. 93.
 
 300 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK IV. 
 
 that is, at each corner one, and the third between them. About 
 the middle of the table was placed a small arch of iron, and in 
 a right line, at a little distance from it, an upright cone called 
 the king. A representation of the billiard-table, according to 
 this description, may be found in the frontispiece to a little duo- 
 decimo treatise called The School of Recreation, published in 
 1710. At certain periods of the game it was necessary for the 
 balls to be driven through the one and round the other, without 
 beating either of them down ; and their fall might easily be 
 effected because they were not fastened to the table; this is 
 called the French game ; and much resembled the Italian method 
 of playing, known in England by the name of Trucks, which 
 also had its king at one end of the table. Billiards are first 
 mentioned as an unlawful game towards the close of the last 
 reign, when billiard-tables were forbidden to be kept in public- 
 houses, under the penalty of ten pounds for every offence.' 
 
 XVII.— MISSISSIPI. 
 
 This is played upon a table made in the form of a parallelo- 
 gram. It much resembles a modern billiard-table, excepting 
 that, instead of pockets, it has a recess at one end, into which 
 the balls may fall ; and this recess is faced with a thin board 
 equal in height to the ledge that surrounds the table ; and in it 
 are fifteen perforations, or small arches, every one of them sur- 
 mounted by a number from one to fifteen inclusive, the highest 
 being placed in the middle, and the others intermixed on either 
 side. The players have four or six balls at pleasure. These 
 balls, which are usually made of ivory, and distinguished from 
 each other by their colour, some being red and some white, they 
 cast alternately, one at a time, against the sides of the table, 
 whence acquiring an angular direction, and rolling to the arches, 
 they strike against the intervening parts, or pass by them. In 
 the first instance the cast is of no use; in the second the value 
 of the numbers afiixed to the arches through which they run is 
 placed to the score of the player; and he who first attains one 
 hundred and twenty wins the game. This pastime is included 
 in the statute above mentioned relating to billiards, and the 
 same penalty is imposed upon the publican who keeps a table 
 in his house for the purpose of playing. 
 
 ' By Stat. 30 Geo. II.
 
 CHAP. I. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 30). 
 
 XVIll.— THE ROCKS OF SCILLY. 
 
 Tl'is diversion requires a table oblong- in its form, and curved 
 at the top, which is more elevated than the bottom. There is a 
 HdIIow trunk affixed to one side, which runs nearly the whole 
 length of the table, and is open at both ends. The balls are 
 put in singly at the bottom, and driven through it by the means 
 of a round batoon of wood. When a ball quits the trunk it is 
 impelled by its own gravity towards the lower part of the table, 
 where there are arches similar to those upon the mississipi-table, 
 and numbered in like nmnner ; but it is frequently interrupted 
 in its descent by wires inserted at different distances upon the 
 table, which alter its direction, and often throw it entirely out 
 of the proper track. The game is reckoned in the same manner 
 as at mississipi, and the cast is void if the ball does not enter 
 any of the holes. 
 
 XIX.— SHOVE-GROAT, &c. 
 
 Shove-groat, named also Slyp-groat, and Slide-thrift, are 
 sports occasionally mentioned by the writers of the sixteenth 
 and seventeenth centuries, ane probably were analogous to the 
 modern pastime called Justice Jervis, or Jarvis, which is confined 
 to common pot-houses, and only practised by such as frequent 
 the tap-rooms. It requires a parallelogram to be made with 
 chalk, or by lines cut upon the middle of a table, about twelve 
 or fourteen inches in breadth, and three or four feet in length : 
 which is divided, latitudinally, into nine equal partitions, m 
 every one of which is placed a figure, in regular succession from 
 one to nine. Each of the players provides himself with a 
 smooth halfpenny, which he places upon the edge of the table, 
 and striking it with the palm of his hand, drives it towards the 
 marks ; and according to the value of the figure affixed to the 
 partition wherein the halfpenny rests, his game is reckoned ; 
 which generally is stated at thirty-one, and must be made pre- 
 cisely : if it be exceeded, the player goes again for nine, which 
 must also be brought exactly, or the turn is forfeited ; and if 
 the halfpenny rests upon any of the marks that separate the 
 partitions, or overpasses the external boundaries, the go is void. 
 It is also to be observed, that the players toss up to determine 
 who shall go first, which is certainly a great advantage. Some
 
 302 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK IV. 
 
 add a tenth partition, with the number ten, to the marks above 
 mentioned J and then they play with four halfpence, which are 
 considered as equivalent to so many cards at cribbage; and 
 the game is counted, in like manner, by fifteens, sequences, 
 pairs, and pairials, according- to the numbers appertaining- to 
 the partitions occupied by the halfpence. 
 
 XX.— SWINGING. 
 This is a childish sport, in which the perforraer is seated upon 
 the middle of a long rope, fastened at both ends, a little distance 
 from each other, and the higher above his head the better. The 
 rope we call the Swing, but formerly it was known by the 
 name of Meritot, or Merry-trotter. ^ This simple pastime was 
 not confined to the children, at least in the last century, but 
 practised by grown persons of both sexes, and especially by 
 the rustics. Hence Gay : 
 
 On two near elms the slacken'd cord 1 bung, 
 Now high, now low, my Bloiizalinda swung. 
 
 It was also adopted at the watering-places by people of fashion, 
 and the innovation is justly ridiculed in the Spectator.^ 
 
 Of late years a machine has been introduced to answer the 
 purpose of the swing. It consists of an axletree, with four or 
 six double arms inserted into it, like the spokes of a large 
 water-wheel ; every pair of arms is connected at the extremities 
 by a round rod of iron, of considerable thickness, and upon 
 it a box is suspended, resembling the body of a post-chaise, 
 which turns about and passes readily between the two spokes, 
 in such a manner as to continue upright whatever may be the 
 position of its supporters. These carriages usually contain two 
 or three persons each, and being filled with passengers, if I 
 may be allowed the term, the machine is put into action, when 
 they are successively elevated and depressed by the rotatory 
 motion. This ridiculous method of riding was in vogue for the 
 space of two summers, and was exhibited at several places in 
 the neighbourhood of London; and the places where the 
 
 ' The first occurs in Chaucer ; the second in the vocabulary called Orbis SensoRHum 
 Pictus, as translated by Hoole, chap, cxxxvi. In Latin it is called Oscillum, and 
 thus described by an old author ; Oscillum est genus ludi, &c.. In English to this 
 effect ; Oscillum is a sort of game played with a rope depending from a beam, in 
 which a boy or a girl being seated, is driven backwards and forwards. Speght's 
 Glossary to Chaucer. 
 
 • Vol. viii. No. 496 ; and again No. 492 in the same volume.
 
 CHAP. I. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 303 
 
 machines were erected frequented by persons of both sexes, 
 and by some whose situation in life, one might have thought, 
 would have prevented their appearance in such a mixed, and 
 generally speaking, vulgar company ; but the charms of novelty 
 may be pleaded in excuse for many inadvertencies. 
 
 The Grecian boys had a game called in Greek E\KU(Triv?a,» 
 which I have seen played by the youth of our own country ; 
 it was performed by the means of a rope passed through a hole 
 made in a beam, and either end held by a boy, who pulls the 
 rope, in his turn, with all his strength ; and by this means both 
 of them are alternately elevated from the ground. 
 
 XXI.— TITTER-TOTTER. 
 
 To the foregoing we may add another pastime well known 
 with us by the younger part of the community, and called 
 Titter-totter. It consists in simply laying one piece of timber 
 across another, so as to be equipoised ; and either end being 
 occupied by a boy or a girl, they raise or depress themselves 
 m turn. This sport was sometimes played by the rustic lads 
 and lasses, as we find from Gay : 
 
 Across the fallen oak the plank I laid. 
 
 And myself pois'd against the tott'ring maid ; 
 
 High leap'd the plank, adown Buxoma fell, &c. 
 
 XXII.— SHUTTLE-COCK. 
 
 This a boyish sport of long standing. It is represented by 
 the following engraving from a drawmg on a MS. in the possession 
 of Francis Douce, esq. 
 
 98. Shuttle-cock. — XIV. CtwTUnT 
 3 Eustatioa ad Iliad. G.
 
 304 SPORTS AND PASTIMES JJOOK IV. 
 
 It appears to have been a fashionable pastime among grown 
 persons in the reign of James I. In the Two Maids of More- 
 clacke, a comedy printed in 1609, it is said, " To play at shuttle- 
 cock methinkes is the game now." And among the anecdotes 
 related of prince Henry, son to James 1., is the following: 
 " His highness playing at shittle-cocke, with one farr taller 
 than himself, and hittyng him by chance with the shittle-cock 
 upon the forehead, * This is,' quoth he, ' the encounter of David 
 with Goliath.'" t 
 
 ^. Harl MS. 6391.
 
 CHAP. II. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 805 
 
 CHAPTER IL 
 
 I. Sedentary Games. — II. Dice-playing ; — Its Prcvalency and bad Effects. — III An- 
 cient Dice-box ; — Anecdote relating to false Dice. — IV. Chess ; — Its Antiquity. 
 — V. The Morals of Chess. — VI. Early Chess-play in France and England. — 
 VII. The Chess-board. — VIII. The Pieces, and their Form. — IX. The various 
 Games of Chess. — X. Ancient Games similar to Chess. — XI. The Philosopher's 
 Game. — XII. Draughts, French and Polish. — XIII. Merelles, or Nine Mens'. 
 Morris. — XIV. Fox and Geese. — XV. The Solitary Game. — XVI. Backgammon, 
 anciently called Tables ; — The different Manners of playing at Tables. — XVII 
 Backgammon, its former and present estimation. — XVIII. Domino. — XIX. Cards, 
 when invented. — XX. Card-playing much practised. — XXI, Forbidden. — XXII. 
 Censured by Poets. — XXIII. A specimen of ancient Cards. — XXIV. Games 
 formerly played with Cards. — XXV. The Game of Goose — and of the Snake.— 
 XXVI. Cross and Pile 
 
 I.— SEDENTARY GAMES. 
 
 This chapter is appropriated to sedentary games, and in treating 
 upon most of them I am under the necessity of confining myself 
 to very narrow limits. To attempt a minute investigation of their 
 properties, to explain the different manners in which they have 
 been played, or to produce all the regulations by which they 
 have been governed, is absolutely incompatible with my present 
 design. Instead, therefore, of following the various writers 
 upon these subjects, whose opinions are rarely in unison, through 
 the multiplicity of their arguments, I shall content myself by 
 selecting such of them as appear to be most cogent, and be ex- 
 ceedingly brief in my own observations. 
 
 II.— DICE PLAY— ITS PREVALENCY AND BAD EFFECTS. 
 There is not, I believe, any species of amusement more ancient 
 than dice-playing; none has been more universally prevalent, 
 and, generally speaking, none is more pernicious in its conse- 
 quences. It is the earliest, or at least one of the most early 
 pastimes in use among the Grecians. Dice are said to have 
 been invented, together with chess, by Palamedes, the son of 
 Nauplius, king of Eubcea.' Others, agreeing to the time of the 
 invention of dice, attribute it to a Greek soldier named Alea, 
 
 ' Palamed. de Alea. lib. i. cap. 18. 
 X
 
 306 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK IV. 
 
 and therefore say that the game was so denominated.^ But 
 Herodotus 2 attributes both dice and chess to the Lydians, a 
 people of Asia; in which part of the world, it is most probable, 
 they originated at some very remote but uncertain period. We 
 have already seen that the ancient Germans, even in their state 
 of barbarism, indulged the propensity for gambling with the 
 dice to a degree of madness, not only staking all they were 
 worth, but even their liberty, upon the chance of a throw, and 
 submitted to slavery if fortune declared against them.^ The 
 Saxons, the Danes, and the Normans their descendants, were 
 all of them greatly addicted to the same infatuating pastime. 
 One would not, at first sight, imagine that the dice could afford 
 any great variety of amusement, especially if they be abstractedly 
 considered; and yet John of Salisbury, in the twelfth century, 
 speaks of ten different games of dice then in use; but as he has 
 only given us the names, their properties cannot be investigated. 
 He calls it,'* " The damnable art of dice-playing." Another 
 author, contemporary with him, says, " The clergymen and 
 bishops are fond of dice-playing."^ 
 
 Ill— ANCIENT DICE-BOX— ANECDOTE RELATING TO FALSE DICE. 
 The common method of throwing the dice is with a hollow 
 cylinder of wood, called the dice-box, into which they are put, 
 and thence, being first shaken together, thrown out upon the 
 table ; but in one of the prints which occur in the Vocabulary 
 of Commenius,^ we meet with a contrivance for playing with 
 the dice that does not require them to be numbered upon their 
 faces. This curious machine '' is copied below. 
 
 99. Old Dice-box. 
 
 The dice are thrown into the receptacle at the top, whence 
 they fall upon the circular part of the table below, which is 
 
 ' Isidorus Originutn, lib. xviii. cap. 60. ^ Lib. i. 
 
 * See the Introduction. * De Nug. Curialium, lib. i. cap. 5. 
 
 » Orderic. Vital, p. 550. « Orbis Sensualium Pictus, translated by Hoole, .fi58. 
 
 ' 1^ Latin, Pyrgus, Turricula, et Frittillus,
 
 CHAP. n. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. -307 
 
 divided into six compartments, numbered as the dice usually are; 
 and according- to the value of the figures affixed to the compart- 
 ments into which they fall the throw is estimated. Perhaps the 
 inner part of the circle, with the apparatus above it, was so con- 
 structed as to move round with great rapidity when the dice 
 were put into the tunnel. It would then be analogous to the 
 E O tables of the present day, wherein a ball is used, and the 
 game is determined by the letters E or O being marked upon 
 the compartment into which it falls. The E O tables may have 
 derived their origin from the above contrivance. 
 
 Dice-playing has been reprobated by the grave and judicious 
 authors of this country for many centuries back ; the legislature 
 set its face against it at a very early period; ' and in the suc- 
 ceeding statutes promulgated for the suppression of unlawful 
 games, it is constantly particularised and strictly prohibited. 
 
 Supposing the play to be fair on either side, the chances 
 upon the dice are equal to both parties ; and the professed gamb- 
 lers being- well aware of this, will not trust to the determination 
 of fortune, but have recourse to many nefarious arts to circum- 
 vent the unwary; hence we hear of loaded dice, and dice of 
 the high cut. The former are dice made heavier on one side 
 than the other by the insertion of a small portion of lead ; and 
 the latter may be known by the following- anecdote in an anony- 
 mous MS. written about the reign of James I., and preserved 
 in the Harleian Collection.^ " Sir William Herbert, playing at 
 dice with another gentleman, there rose some questions about 
 a cast. Sir William's antagonist declared it was a four and a 
 five ; he as positively insisted that it was a five and six ; the 
 other then swore, with a bitter imprecation,^ that it was as he 
 had said : Sir William then replied, ' Thou art a perjured 
 knave ; for give me a sixpence, and if there be a four upon the 
 dice, I will return you a thousand pounds ; ' at which the other 
 was presently abashed, for indeed the dice were false, and of 
 a high cut, without a four." The dice are usually made of bone 
 or ivory, but sometimes of silver, and probably of other metals. 
 The wife of the unfortunate Arden of Feversham, sent to 
 Mosbie, her paramour, apair of silver dice, in order to reconcile 
 
 ' " Nee ludant ad aleufavel taxillos," Decret. Concil. Vigom. A. D. 1240, directed 
 to tlis clergy. 
 
 s No. esy.'). Art. 69. 
 
 ■* " As false as dicers' oaths," is H pioverbial expression, and used hy Shakspeare 
 is Hamlet, act iii. scene 4. 
 
 X 2
 
 {\')S SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK IV. 
 
 a disagreement that had subsisted between them, and occasioned 
 his abstaining from her company.* 
 
 IV.— C El ESS— ITS ANTIQUITY. 
 
 This noble, or, as it is frequently called, royal past'ime, is 
 said, by some authors, to have originated, together with dice- 
 playing, at the siege of Troy ; and the invention of both is 
 attributed to Palamedes, the son of Nauplius, king of Euboea; ^ 
 others make Diomedes, and others again, Ulysses, the inventor 
 of chess.^ The honour has also been attributed to Ledo and 
 Tyrrhene, t\vo Grecians, and brothers, who being much pressed 
 by hunger, sought to alleviate their bodily sufferings by diverting 
 the mind.'* None of these stories have any solid foundation for 
 their support ; and I am inclined to follow the opinion of Dr. 
 Hyde and other learned authors, who readily agree that the 
 pastime is of very remote antiquity, but think it first made its 
 appearance in Asia. 
 
 V THE MORALS OF CHESS. 
 
 John de Vigney wrote a book which he called The Moraliza- 
 tionof Chess, wherein he assures us that this game was invented 
 by a philosopher named Xerxes in the reign of Evil Merodach, 
 king' of Babylon, and was made known to that monarch in 
 order to engage his attention and correct his manners. " There 
 are three reasons," says de Vigney, " which induced the philo- 
 sopher to institute this new pastime: the first, to reclaim a 
 wicked king ; the second, to prevent idleness ; and the third, 
 practically to demonstrate the nature and necessity of nobleness.'* 
 He then adds, " The game of chess passed from Chaldea into 
 Greece, and thence diffused itself all over Europe." I have fol- 
 lowed a MS. copy at the Museum in the Harleian Library.'^ Our 
 countryman Chaucer, on what authority I know not, says it was 
 
 — Athalus that made the game 
 
 First of tlie chesse, so was his name.' 
 
 The Arabians and the Saracens, who are said to be admirable 
 players at chess, have new-modelled the story of de Vigney 
 
 ' An. 5 Ed. VI. A. D. lool, Holinshed, vol. iii. p. 1062. 
 
 * Palamed. de Aleatoribus, cap. 18. 
 
 ' Lepistre Othea, MS. " Ulixes fu un baron de Grece de grant soubtillete, et en 
 temps du siege de Troye il trouva le gieu des esches," &c. Ulysses was a baron of 
 Greece, exceedingly wise, and during the siege of Troy invented the game of chess. 
 Harl. Lib. 4431. ♦ Ency. Brit, word Chess. 
 
 No. 1275. 6 Dream of Love.
 
 CHAP. II. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 30^ 
 
 and adapted it to their own country, changing the name of the 
 philosopher from Xerxes to Sisa.' 
 
 VI.— EARLY CHESS-PLAY IN FRANCE AND ENGLAND. 
 It is impossible to say wnen me game of chess was first brought 
 into this kingdom ; but we have good reason to suppose it to 
 have been well known here at least a century anterior to the 
 Conquest, and it was then a favourite pastime with persons of 
 the highest rank. Canute the Dane, who ascended the throne 
 of England A. D. 1017, Avas partial to this pastime.^ The fol- 
 lowing story is told of William, duke of Normandy, afterwards 
 king of England. When a young man, he was invited to the 
 court of the French king, and during his residence there, being 
 one day engaged at chess with the king's eldest son, a dispute 
 arose concerning the play; and William, exasperated at some- 
 what his antagonist had said, struck him with the chess-board ; 
 which obliged him to make a precipitate retreat from France, 
 in order to avoid the consequences of so rash an action.^ A 
 similar circumstance is said by Leland to have happened in 
 England.'* John, the youngest son of Henry II., playing at 
 chess one day with Fulco Guarine, a nobleman of Shropshire, 
 a quarrel ensued, and John broke the head of Gnarine Avith the 
 chess-board, who in return struck the prince such a blow that 
 he almost killed him. It seems, however, that Fulco found 
 means of making- his peace with king Henry, by whom he was 
 knighted, with three of his brethren, a short time afterwards. 
 John did not so easily forgive the affront ; but, on the contrary, 
 showed his resentment long after his accession to the English 
 throne, by keeping him from the possession of Whittington 
 Castle, to which he was the rightful heir.^ It is also said of 
 this monarch, that he was engaged at chess when the deputies 
 from Rouen came to acquaint him that the city was besieged 
 by Philip king of France, but he would not hear them out till 
 he had finished the game. In like manner Chailes I. was 
 plaving at chess when he was told that the final resolution of 
 the Sco^s was to sell him to the parliament; and he was so little 
 discomposed by the alarming intelligence, that he continued the 
 game with great composure.^ Several other instances to the 
 same purpose might be produced, but these may suffice; and 
 in truth, I know not wliat interpretf>tion to put upon such 
 
 ' Encyclop. Franfoise, in voce Echecs. - See the Innoductioii. 
 
 ' See IJurton's Anatomy of Melancholy. * Collect, vol. i. p. ii64. 
 
 * Ibid. * Ency. Brit, wovii Che&s.
 
 310 
 
 SPORTS AND PASTIMES 
 
 BOOK IV. 
 
 extraordinary conduct; it proves at least that the fascinating- 
 powers of this fashionable diversion are very extensive upon 
 the minds of those who pursue it earnestly. 
 
 VII.— THE CHESS-BOARD. 
 The number of the pieces and the manner in which they are 
 placed do not appear to have undergone much, if any, variation 
 for several centuries. The following* is the most ancient repre- 
 senfatioii of the pastime that I have met Avith. 
 
 100. Ancient-Chess-play. 
 
 This engraving- is fromadrawing inabeautifully illuminated MS, 
 preserved in the British Museum among the Harleian Collection.' 
 This MS. was written at the close of the fourteenth century, 
 and bears every mark of being the very copy presented to Isabel 
 
 • No. 4431.
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 
 
 3J1 
 
 of Bavaria, the queen of Charles VI. of France. Her portrait, 
 very neatly finished, occurs twice, and that of the king- her 
 husband once. The author of this MS. makes Ulysses to be 
 the inventor of chess; and the painting is intended to represent 
 that chieftain engaged with some other Grecian hero who is 
 come to visit and play the game with him, the two by-standers, 
 I presume, are the umpires to decide the matter in case of any 
 dispute. 
 
 The Cotton Library contains a MS. of the thirteenth century 
 M'ith the following : 
 
 101. Chess-board. — XIV. Century. 
 
 In this representation is exhibited the manner of placing- the 
 pieces, which are thus called in Latin verse : 
 
 Miles et Alphinus, rex, roc, regina pcdinus. 
 
 The same MS. supplies a perfect singularity : 
 
 102. Circular Chess-board. — XIV Century. 
 
 It will be observed that the pieces are also placed on the 
 above board.
 
 312 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK IV. 
 
 VIIT.— CHESS-PIECES, AND THEIR FORM. 
 
 The names of the chess pieces, as they are given in the fore- 
 going- manuscript, are these: Rey — Reyne, or Force — ^Roc — Alfin 
 — Chivaler — Poun : — that is, 1. The King — 2. The Queen, or 
 Ferce'— 3. The Rock— 4. The Alfin— 5. The Knight— 6. The 
 Pawn. Their forms are annexed. 
 
 4 2 3 4 
 
 103. Chessmen. — XIV. Century. 
 
 In modern times the roc is corruptedly called a rook, but 
 fornierly it signified a rock or fortress, or rather, perliaps, the 
 keeper of the fortress ; the alfin was also denominated by the 
 French fol, and with us an archer, and at last a bishop. 
 
 IX.— THE VARIOUS GAMES OF CHESS. 
 
 In a manuscript in the Royal Library ,2 written about the same 
 time as that last mentioned, we find no less than forty-four 
 different names given to so many games of chess, and some of 
 them are played more ways than one, so that in the whole they 
 may be said to amount to fifty-five ; and under every title there 
 are directions for playing the game, but I apprehend they would 
 be of little use to a modern player. I shall, however, give the 
 several denominations as they occur, with an attempt at a trans- 
 lation. If the learned reader should find that I have mistaken 
 the meaning of any of these titles, which is very likely to be 
 the case, he will consider the difficulty I had to encounter, and 
 remember I give the translation with diffidence. 
 
 1. Guy de chivaler, played three ways — 2. De dames^-^. 
 De damoyseles — 4. De alfins, two ways — 5. De anel — 6. De 
 covenant — 7. De propre confusion — 8. Mai assis — 9. Cotidian, 
 two ways — 10. Poynt estraunge, two ways — 11. Ky perde sey 
 sauve — -12. Ky ne doune ces ke il eyme, ue prendrant ke disire 
 — 13. Bien trove — 14. Beal petit — 15. Mieut vaut engyn ke 
 force — 16. Ky est larges est sages — 17. Ky doune ganye — 18. 
 Ly enginous e ly coveytous — 19. Covenaunt fet ley — 20. Ve 
 pres sen joyst ke loyns veyt — 21. Meschief fet hom penser — 
 22. I. a chace de chivaler — 23. La chace de ferce et de chivaler 
 
 • In Chaucer's Dream this piece is called fors and feers. " 13 A. xsiii.
 
 CHAP. 11. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 313 
 
 — 24. Bien fort — 25. Fol si prent — 26. Ly envoyons — 27. Le seon 
 sey envoye — 28. Le veyl conu — ^29. Le haut enprise — 30. De 
 cundut— -31. Ky put se preiige — 32. La batalie sans array — 33. 
 Le tret emble, two ways — 34. Ly desperes — 35. Ly marvelious, 
 two ways — 36. Ne poun ferce home fet — 37. Muse vyieyn — 38. 
 De dames et de danioyceles — 39. Fol si sey fie, two ways — 40. 
 Mai veysyn, two ways — 41. Je mat de ferces — 42. Flour de 
 guys — 43. La batalie de rokes — 44. Double eschec. 
 
 1. The knig-hts' game — 2. The ladies' game — 3. The damsels' 
 game — 4. The game of the alfins — 5. The ring — 6. The agree- 
 ment — 7. Self-confounded — 8. Ill placed or bad enough — 9. 
 Day by day — 10. The foreign point — IL The loser wins — 12. 
 He that gives not what he esteems, shall not take that he desires 
 — 13. Well found — 14. Fair and small — 15. Craft surpasses 
 strength — 16. He thac is bountiful is wise — 17. Who gives 
 gains— 18. Subtilty and covetousness — 19. Agreement makes 
 law — 20. He sees his play at hand who sees it at a distance 
 — ^21. Misfortunes make a man think — 22. The chace of the 
 knight — 23. The chace of the queen and the knight — 24. Very 
 strong — ^25. He is a fool if he takes — 26. The messengers — 
 27. Sent by his own party — 28. The old one known — 29. The 
 high place taken — 30. Perhaps for conduit, managed or con- 
 ducted — 31. Take if you can — 32. The battle without arrange- 
 ment — 33. The stolen blow — 34. The desperates — 35. The 
 wonder — 36. A pawn cannot make a queen — 37. The clown's 
 lurking place — 38. The ladies and the damsels — 39. A fool if 
 he trusts — 40. Bad neighbour — 41. I mate the queen— 42. The 
 flower or beauty of the games — ^43. The battle of the rooks — 
 44. Double chess. 
 
 X.— ANCIENT GAMES SIMILAR TO CHESS. 
 The ancient pastimes, if more than one be meant, which bear 
 the names of Indus latrunculorum, Indus calculorum, et Indus 
 scrupulorum, have been generally considered as similar to chess, 
 if not precisely the same; but the authors of the Encyclopedic 
 Fran9oise, assure us they did not bear any resemblance to it, 
 at least in those essential parts of the game which distinguish 
 it from all others; but were played with stones, shells, or 
 counters. The ancients, we are told, used little stones, shells, 
 and nuts, in making their calculations without the assistance of 
 writing. These little stones Avere called by the Greeks \pnfoi, 
 and calculi or scrupuli by the Romans; and such articles, it is
 
 314 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK IV, 
 
 supposed, were employed by them in playing the games above 
 mentioned. This method of reckoning passed frocfi the Greeks 
 to the Romans, but when luxury introduced itself at Rome, 
 the stones and shells were laid aside, and counters made with 
 ivory became their substitutes. If the foregoing observations 
 be well founded, we may justly conclude that the Indus calcu- 
 lorum which Homer mentions as a pastime practised by his 
 heroes, called in Greek irtrog or vretrirog, consisted in a certain ar- 
 rangement and combination of numbers, every piece employed 
 in the game being marked with an appropriate number, and 
 probably might resemble a more modern pastime, which still 
 retains the Greek name of Rithmomachia, from api9fiog, numerus, 
 et naxi, pugna, expressive of a battle with numbers, said by 
 some to have been invented by Pythagoras,' and by others to 
 be more ancient : with us it is called the Philosopher's Game, 
 and seems indeed to have been well calculated for the diversion 
 of soldiers, because it consists, not only in a contention for 
 superiority by the skilful adjustment of the numbers, but in 
 addition, allows the conqueror to triumph and erect his trophy 
 in token of the victory ; this part of the game, we are told, 
 requires much judgment to perform with propriety, and if the 
 player fails, his glories are but half achieved. 
 
 XI.— THE PHILOSOPHER'S GAME. 
 
 We have some account of the philosopher's game, but very 
 loosely drawn up, in a manuscript in the Sloanian Library ^ at 
 the British Museum. It is called, says the author, " a number 
 fight," because in it men fight and strive together by the art 
 of counting or numbering how one may take his adversary's 
 king and erect a triumph upon the deficiency of his calculations. 
 It is then said, " you may make your triumph as well with your 
 enemy's men taken, as with your own not taken." 
 
 The board or table for playing this game is made in the form 
 of a parallelogram just as long again as it is broad; it is 
 divided into eight squares the narrow way, and extended to 
 sixteen the other, and bears the resemblance of two chess-boards 
 fastened together : the chequers in like manner being alternately 
 black and white, and two persons only at one time can properly 
 play the game ; to either party is assigned twenty -four soldiers, 
 
 ' And revived by Claud. Bruxer and others, A. D. 1514. Burton's Descrip. of 
 Leicestershire, under Lougbborough, p. 182. 
 » No. 451
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 
 
 315 
 
 which constitute his army, (hoste, in the original,) and one of 
 them is called the Pyramis or king: one third of these pieces are 
 circular, which form two rows in the front of the army ; one third 
 are triangular, which are placed in the middle ; and one third ^ 
 are square, which bring up the rear, and one of these situated 
 in the fifth row is the Pyramis. The men belonging to the two 
 parties are distinguished by being black and M'hite, and every 
 one of them is marked with an appropriate number. There 
 were sometimes added to these numbers certain signs or algebraic 
 figures, called cossical signings, which increased the intricacy 
 of the game. The army that presents a front of even numbers 
 is called the even hoste, and the other the odd hoste. The two 
 armies at the commencement of the play are drawn up in the 
 order represented below.' 
 
 C5 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 00 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 rH 
 O 
 
 
 
 
 CO 
 
 
 CO 
 
 00 
 
 104. 
 
 90^^ BH 
 OO^^ BB 
 
 105. The Philosopheu's Game. 
 
 ' [rhe white pieces above, No. 104, should be to the left, and be opposed by the 
 olacks, No. 105, on the right; that is to say, were the engravings on the present page 
 divided by the scissars, and placed as represented in Mr. Strutt's print, the rounp 
 whites would be opposite to the round blacks.]
 
 316 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK IV. 
 
 It was my wish to have subjoined a general outline of the 
 method of playing the game, but the author is so exceedingly 
 obscure in his phraseology, and negligent in his explanations, 
 that I found it impossible to follow him with the least degree of 
 satisfaction/ It is, however, certain, that the great object of 
 each player is to take the king from his opponent, because he 
 who succeeds may make his triumph and erect his trophy. 
 
 Burton, speaking of this pastime, in his i\natomy of Melan- 
 choly,2 calls it the Philosophy Game, and thinks it " not con- 
 venient for students ; " to which he adds, " the like I say of 
 Dr. Fulke's Metromachia, and his Ouronomachia, with the rest 
 of those intricate, astrological, and geometrical fictions, for such 
 as are mathematically given, and other curious games." Dr. 
 Fulke was a Cambridge man, and his book was printed at 
 London 1566. 
 
 XII DRAUGHTS— fRENCH AND POLISH. 
 
 This pastime is well known in the present day ; and I believe 
 there are now in London as excellent draught-players as ever 
 existed. Draughts, no doubt, is a modern invention, and easier 
 to be learnt than chess, because it is not so intricate ; for the 
 pieces are of equal value till they become kings, and can only 
 move one way, that is, diagonally; but, like chess, it depends 
 entirely upon skill, and one false move frequently occasions the 
 loss of the game. There are two methods of playing at draughts, 
 the one commonly used in England, denominated the French 
 Game, which is played upon a chess-board, and the other called 
 the Polish Game, because, I presume, the first was invented in 
 France and the latter in Poland. This requires a board with 
 ten squares or chequers in each row, and twenty men, for so 
 the pieces are usually named. The draught-man is called in 
 French dame. The meji in the Polish game can only move 
 forwards as they do in the French game, but they have the 
 privilege of taking backwards as well as forwards; and the 
 king, if not opposed by two men close together, can move from 
 one corner of the board to the other. The Polish game admits 
 of most variety, and is, in my opinion, infinitely the best; but 
 it is little known in this country, and rarely played, except by 
 
 ' The printed edition of Claud. Bruxer, who revived this play, in which no doubt 
 it is fully explained, I have not seen. It is said to have been published by Hen. Ste- 
 phanus, A. D. 1514. 
 
 ' Pan ii, sx-t. 2. mem. 4.
 
 CHAP. IT. 
 
 OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 
 
 317 
 
 foreigners. 
 
 We have a recent publication upon the French 
 game of draughts, which fully explains the nature of the pastime, 
 and points out most of the important moves, published by 
 Sturges, who, I am told, is an excellent player. 
 
 XIII.— MERELLES— NINE MENS' MORRIS. 
 
 Merelles, or, as it was formerly called in England, nine mens' 
 morric, and also five-penny morris, is a game of some antiquity. 
 Cotgrave describes it as a boyish game, and says it was played 
 here commonly with stones, but in France with pawns, or men, 
 made on purpose, and they were termed merelles ; hence the 
 pastime itself received that denomination. It was certainly 
 much used by the shepherds formerly, and continues to be 
 used by them, and other rustics, to the present hour. But it is 
 very far from being confined to the practice of boys and girls. 
 The form of the merelle-table, and the lines upon it, as it ap- 
 peared in the fourteenth century, is here represented. 
 
 106. Ml-RELLES. 
 
 These lines have not been varied. The black spots at every 
 angle and intersection of the lines are the places for the men to 
 be laid upon. The men are different in form or colour for dis- 
 tinction sake ; and from the moving these men backwards or 
 forwards, as though they were dancing a morris, I suppose the 
 pastime received the appellation of nine mens' morris; but 
 why it should have been called five-penny morris, I do not 
 know. The manner of playing is briefly this; two persons, 
 having each of them nine pieces, or men, lay them down al- 
 ternately, one by one, upon the spots ; and the business of either 
 party is to prevent his antagonist from placing three of his
 
 31§ SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK IV. 
 
 pieces so as to form a row of three, without the intervention of 
 an opponent piece. If a row be formed, he that made it is at 
 liberty to take up one of his competitor's pieces from any part 
 he thinks most to his own advantage ; excepting he has made a 
 row, which must not be touched if he have another piece upon 
 the board that is not a component part of that row. When all 
 the pieces are laid down, they are played backwards and for- 
 wards, in any direction that the lines run, but only can move from 
 one spot to another at one time : he that takes off all his anta- 
 gonist's pieces is the conqueror. The rustics, when they have 
 not materials at hand to make a table, cut the lines in the same 
 form upon the ground, and make a small hole for every dot. They 
 then collect, as above mentioned, stones of different forms or 
 colours for the pieces, and play the game by depositing them 
 in the holes in the same manner that they are set over the dots 
 upon the table. Hence Shakspeare, describing the effects of a 
 wet and stormy season, says, 
 
 The folds stand empty in the drownea field. 
 And crows are fatted with the mnirain flock, 
 The nine mens' morris is filled up with mud. 
 
 XIV.— FOX AND GEESE. 
 
 This is a game somewhat resembling tiiRt of merelles in the 
 manner the pieces are moved, but in other respects, as well as 
 in the form of the table, it differs materially ; the intersection 
 and angles are more numerous, and the dots of course increased, 
 which adds to the number of the moves. 
 
 107. Fox AND Geese. 
 
 To play this game there are seventeen pieces, called geese, 
 which are placed as we see them upon the engraving, and the
 
 CHAP. II. OF THK PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 3lD 
 
 fox ill the middle, distinguished either by his size or difference 
 of colour, as here, for instance, he is black. The business of 
 the game is to shut the fox up, so that he cannot move. All the 
 pieces have the power to move from one spot to another, in the di- 
 rection of the right lines, but cannot pass over two spots at one 
 time. It is to be observed, that this board is sometimes made 
 with holes bored through it, where the dots are made, and pegs 
 equal to the number of geese put into them, and the fox is dis- 
 tinguished by being larger and taller than the rest. The geese 
 are not permitted to take the fox if he stands close to them,, but 
 the fox may take a goose, in like case, if the spot behind it be 
 unoccupied, or not guarded by another goose; and if all be 
 taken, or the number so reduced that the fox cannot be blocked, 
 the game is won. The great deficiency of this game is, that the 
 fox must inevitably be blocked if the geese are played by a 
 skilful hand ; for which reason, I am told, of late some players 
 have added another fox ; but this I have not seen. 
 
 XV.— THE SOLITARY GAME. 
 
 This is so denominated because it is played by one person 
 only. It is said to have been invented by an unfortunate man 
 who was several years kept in solitary confinement at the Bastile 
 in Paris. The board for this pastime is of a circular form, and 
 perforated with holes at half an inch distance from each other, 
 to the amount of fifty or sixty. A certain number of pegs are 
 then fitted to these holes, but not enough to fill them all ; and 
 the manner of playing the game is, to pass one of the pegs 
 over another into a hole that is unoccupied, taking the peg so 
 passed from the board, and to continue doing so till all the 
 pegs but one are taken away ; which is an operation much more 
 difficult to perform than any one could readily imagine who had 
 not made the attempt. It must be remembered that only one 
 peg can be passed over at a time, and that no peg can be put 
 over another, unless it stands close to it without an intervening 
 hole. 
 
 XVI.— BACKGAMMON, OR TABLES. 
 
 The game of chess, and most of the pastimes derived from 
 it, depend entirely upon the skill of the players, and afford no
 
 320 
 
 SPORTS AND PASTIMES 
 
 BOOK IV. 
 
 chance of success to an indifferent one if his antagonist be 
 possessed of more knowledge in moving the pieces than himself. 
 Therefore, in order to bring two players of unequal talents 
 nearer to a level, other diversions were invented, in which both 
 chance and skill were united, as we see they are in the game 
 at tables, which in Latin is called tabularum Indus, and in 
 French tables. Hence the following line in the romance of 
 Parise la Duchesse : 
 
 Puis aprist ii as tables et escbas joier ; 
 
 Then he learned to play at tables and at chess.' The game of 
 tables is better known at present by the name of Backgammon. 
 This pastime is said to have been discovered about the tenth 
 century ,2 and the name derived from two Welsh words signifying 
 " little battle." But I trust, as before observed, that the deri- 
 vation may be found nearer home. The words are perfectly 
 Saxon, as Bac, or Boec, and gamen, that is, Back Game; so 
 denominated because the performance consists in the players 
 bringing their men back from their antagonists' tables into their 
 own ; or because the pieces are sometimes taken up and obliged 
 to go back, that is, re-enter at the table they came from. The 
 ancient form of the backgammon-table is represented by the 
 annexed engraving : 
 
 108. Tables. — XIII. Century. 
 
 The original of the engravitig occurs in a beautifully illu- 
 minated manuscript in the Harleian Collection.^ The table, 
 as here delineated, is not divided in the middle, but the points. 
 
 ' Du Cange, Gloss, ia voce Tabula. 
 * No. 1527. 
 
 2 See the Introduction
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 
 
 ^21 
 
 on either side, are contained in a single compartment. Annexed 
 IS the representation of a backgammon-table at least a century 
 more modern. 
 
 l09. Tables. — XIV. Century. 
 
 In this the division is fairly made, but the points are not 
 distinguished by different colours, according to the present, and 
 indeed more ancient usage. The writer of the latter manuscript, 
 which is in the King's Library,' says, « There are many methods 
 of playing at the tables with the dice. The first of these, and 
 the longest, is called the English game, Ludus Anglicorum, 
 which is thus performed : he who sits on the side of the board 
 marked 1 — 12 has fifteen men (homines) in the part marked 
 •24, and he wh.o sits on the side marked 13 — 24 has a like 
 number of men in the part 1. They play with three dice, or 
 else with two, allowing always (semper, that is, at every throw) 
 six for a third die. Then he who is seated at 1 — 12 must bring 
 all his men placed at 24 through the partitions (paginas), from 
 
 24 to 19, from 18 to 13, and from 12 to 7, into the division 6- I 
 
 and then bear them oflT; his opponent must do the same from 1 
 to 7, thence to 12, thence to 18, into the compartment 19—24- 
 and he who first bears oflT all his men is conqueror." Here we 
 may observe, that the most material circumstances in which the 
 game differed, at this remote period, from the present method of 
 playing it, are, first, in having three dice instead of two, or 
 reckoning a certain number for the third ; and secondly, in 
 placing- all the men within the antagonist's table, which, if 1 
 do not mistake the author, must be put upon his ace point. But 
 to go on: " There is," says he, "another game upon the tal)les 
 ' No. 13, A. xviii.
 
 322 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK IV 
 
 called Paunie Carfe, which is played with two dice, and requires 
 four players, that is, two on either side ; or six, and then three 
 are opposed to three." He then speaks of a third g-ame, called 
 **LudusLambardorum, the Game of Lombardy, and thus played: 
 he who sits on the side marked 13 — 24 has his men at 6, and 
 his antagonist has his men at 19 ; " which is chang-ing the ace 
 point in the English game for the size point: and this alteration 
 probably shortened the game. He then mentions the five fol- 
 lowing variations by name only; the Imperial game, the Pro- 
 vincial game, the games called Baralie, Mylys, and Fay lis. 
 
 XVII —BACKGAMMON— ITS FORMER AND PRESENT ESTIMATION. 
 
 At the commencement of the last century backgammon was a 
 very favourite amusement, and pursued at leisure times by most 
 persons of opulence, and especially by the clergy, which occa- 
 sioned dean Swift, when writing to a friend of his in the country, 
 sarcastically to ask the following question : " In what esteem 
 are you with the vicar of the parish ; can you play with him 
 at backgammon?" But of late years this pastime is become 
 unfashionable, and of course it is not often practised. The tables, 
 indeed, are frequently enough to be met with in the country 
 mansions; but upon examination you will generally find the 
 men deficient, the dice lost, or some other cause to render 
 them useless. Backgammon is certainly a diversion by no means 
 fitted for company, which cards are made to accommodate in a 
 more extensive manner ; and therefore it is no wonder they have 
 gained the ascendancy. 
 
 XVIII.— DOMINO. 
 
 This is a very childish sport, imported from France a few 
 years back, and could have nothing but the novelty to recom- 
 mend it to the notice of grown persons in this country. It con- 
 sists of twenty-eight small oblong- and flat pieces of ivory or 
 bone, and all of the same size and shape. The back of every 
 piece is plain, and sometimes black ; the face is white, divided 
 into two parts by a line in the middle, and marked with a double 
 number, or with two different numbers, or with a number and a 
 blank, and one of them is a double blank. The numbers are 
 the same as those upon the dice, from one to six inclusive.
 
 CHAP. II. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 32'J 
 
 When two play, the whole of the pieces, which are ridiculously 
 enough called cards, are hustled about the table with their 
 faces downwards, and each of them draw seven or nine, ac- 
 cording- to agreement, and the remaining- pieces are undiscovered 
 until the hand is played, which is thus performed : the right 
 of first playing being' cut for, he who obtains it lays down one 
 of his pieces, and the other is to match one of the numbers 
 marked upon it with a similar number marked upon a piece of 
 his own, which he lays close to it; the other then matches one 
 of the open numbers in like manner ; and thus they continue 
 alternately to lay down their pieces as long- as they can be 
 matched ; and he who first gets rid of all his pieces wins the 
 game : but if it so happen, as it often does, that neither of them 
 have exhausted their pieces, nor can match the open numbers 
 on the table, they tlien discover w hat remains on both sides, and 
 he whose pieces contain the fewest spots obtains the victory. 
 Sometimes four play, in which case they deal out six cards to 
 each, leaving only four upon the table, and then play on in 
 rotation. 
 
 XIX.— CARDS— WHEN INVENTED. 
 
 The general opinion respecting- the origin of playing-cards 
 is, that they were first made for the amusement of Charles VI. 
 of France, at the time he was afflicted with a mental derange- 
 ment, which commenced in 1392, and continued for several years. 
 The proof of this supposition depends upon an article in the 
 treasury registers belonging to that monarch, which states that a 
 payment of fifty-six sols was made to Jacquemin Gringonneur, 
 painter, for three packs of cards gilded and painted with divers 
 colours and diflferent devices, to be carried to the king for his 
 diversion.^ If it he granted, and I see no reason why it should 
 not, that this entry alludes to playing-cards, the consequences 
 that have been deduced from it, do not necessarily follow ; I 
 mean, that these cards were the first that were made, or that 
 Gringonneur was the inventor of them ; it by no means pre- 
 cludes the probability of cards having been previously used 
 in France, but simply states that those made by him were gilt 
 
 ' The whole pa&sage runs thus : " Donne a Jacqemin Gringonneur, peiutre, pour 
 trais jeux de cartes, a or et a diverse couleurs de plusieurs devises, pour porter vers 
 le (lit Seigneur Roy pour son abatement, ciuquante-six sol Parisis." St. Foix, Essaia 
 sur Paris, torn. i. p. 341. 
 
 Y 2
 
 324 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK IV. 
 
 and diversified with devices in variegated colours, the better to 
 amnse the unfortunate monarch. 
 
 Some, allowing" that Gringonneur was the first maker of 
 playing-cards, place the invention in the reign of Charles V., 
 upon the authority of Jean de Saintre, who was page to that 
 monarch ; he mentions card-playing in his chronicle ; for he 
 was an author. The words he uses are these; " Et vous qui 
 etes noyseux joueux de cartes et de des. — And you who are 
 contentious play at cards and at dice."' This would be suf- 
 ficient evidence for the existence of cards before the ascension of 
 Charles VI. to the throne of France, if it could be proved that 
 the page did not survive his master; but, on the other hand, if 
 he did, they may equally be applied to the amusements of the 
 succeeding reign. 
 
 XX.— CARD-PLAYTNG MUCH PRACTISED. 
 A prohibitory edict against the usage of cards was made in 
 Spain considerably anterior to any that have been produced 
 in France. In Spain, as early as A. D. 1387, John I., king 
 of Castile, in an edict, forbade playing of cards and dice 
 in his dominions. The provost of Paris, January 22, A. D. 
 1397, published an ordinance, prohibiting the manufacturing- 
 part of the people from playing at tennice, dice, cards, &c.- 
 which has inclined several modern writers upon this subject to 
 refertheinventionof cards from France to Spain; and the names 
 of some of the cards, as well as of many of the most ancient 
 games, being evidently derived from the Spanish language, are 
 justly considered as strong corroborating arguments in favour 
 of such an opinion. Such, for instance, as primero and the 
 principal card in the game quinola; ombre and the cards 
 spadill, manill, basto, punto, matador, quadrille, a species of 
 ombre, &c. The suit of clubs upon the Spanish cards is 
 not the trefoils as with us, but positively clubs, or cudgels, 
 of which we retain the name, though we have lost the figures; 
 the original name is bastos. The spades are swords, called in 
 Spain e!<padas ; in this instance we retain the name and some 
 faint resemblance of the figure.^ 
 
 • Chronic, de Petit Jean de Saiutre, cap. 15. 
 
 ' Bullet, p. 18. See also Mr. Gough on Card-playing, Arcbseologia, vol. riii. p. 
 152 et seq. 
 
 * See the hon. Daines Barrington on Card-playing, Arcbasologia, vol. viii. p. 135 
 et seq.
 
 CHAP. H. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 325 
 
 A very intelligent writer upon the origin of engraving-, baron 
 Heineken, asserts that playing-cards were invented in Germany, 
 where they were used towards the latter end of the fourteenth 
 century ; but his reasons are by no means conclusive. He says 
 they were known there as early as the year 1376.* 
 
 An author of our own country produces a passage cited from 
 a wardrobe computus made in 1377, the sixth year of Edward I., 
 which mentions a game entitled, " the four kings ; " ^ and hence 
 with some degree of probability he conjectures that the use of 
 playing-cards was then known in England, which is a much 
 earlier period than any that has been assigned by the foreign 
 authors. It is the opinion of several learned writers well ac- 
 quainted with Asiatic history, that cards were used in the eastern 
 parts of the world long before they found their way into Europe.^ 
 If this position be granted, when we recollect that Edward I. 
 before his accession to the throne resided nearly five years in 
 Syria, it will be natural enough to suppose that he might have 
 learned the game of "the four kings" in that country, and in- 
 troduced it at court upon his return to England. An objection, 
 which indeed at first sight seems to be a very powerful one, has 
 been raised in opposition to this conjecture : it is founded upon 
 the total silence of every kind of authority respecting the sub- 
 ject of card-playing from the time that the above-mentioned 
 entry was made to 1464, an early period in the reign of Edward 
 IV., including an interval of one hundred and eighty-six years. 
 An omission so general, it is thought, would not have taken place, 
 if the words contained in that record alluded to the usage of 
 playing-cards. A game introduced by a monarch could not 
 fail of becoming fashionable; and if it continued to be practised 
 in after times, must in all probability have been mentioned 
 occasionally in conjunction with other pastimes then prevalent. 
 But this silence is by no means a proof that the game of " the 
 four kings" was not played with cards, nor that cards did not 
 continue to be used during the whole of the above-mentioned 
 interval in the higher circles, though not perhaps with such 
 
 ' Heineken, Idee generale d'une Collection des Estanipes, pp. 237, 249.^ 
 
 * " Waltero Sturton, ad opus Regis, ad ludenduni ad quatuor reges," viii s. vd 
 
 Anstis, History of the Garter. 
 
 3 Warton says it seems probable that the Arabians were the inventors of cards, which 
 
 they communicated to the Coustantinopolitau Greeks. Hist. Eug. Poetry, vol. ii. p. 
 
 316. Indeed it is very likely they were brought into tlie western parts of Europe 
 
 during the crusades.
 
 326 SPORTS AND PASI'IMES BOOK iV 
 
 abuses as were afterwards practised, and which excited the re- 
 prehension of the moral and religious writers. Besides, at the 
 time that cards were first introduced, they were drawn and 
 painted by the hand without the assistance of a stamp or plate ; 
 it follows of course that much time was required to complete a 
 set or pack of cards ; and the price they bore no doubt was 
 adequate to the labour bestowed upon them, which necessardy 
 must have enhanced their ralue beyond the purchase of the 
 under classes of the people. For this reason it is, 1 presume, 
 that card-playing, though it might have been known in England, 
 was not much practised until such time as inferior sets of cards, 
 proportionably cheap, were produced for the use of the com- 
 monalty, which seems to have been the case when Edward IV. 
 ascended the throne, for in 1463, early in his reign, an act was 
 established on a petition from the card-makers of the city of 
 London, prohibitiug the importation of playing-cards; ' and 
 soon after that period card-playing became a very general pas- 
 time. 
 
 The increasing demand for these objects of amusement, it is 
 said, suggested the idea of cutting the outlines appropriated to 
 the different suits upon separate blocks of wood and stamping 
 them upon the cards ; ^ the intermediate spaces between the out- 
 lines were filled up with various colours laid on by the hand. 
 This expeditious method of producing cards reduced the price 
 of them, so that they might readily be purchased by almost 
 every class of persons : the common usage of cards was soon 
 productive of serious evils, which all the exertions of the legis- 
 lative power have not been able to eradicate.^ 
 
 Another argument against the great antiquity of playing-cards 
 is drawn from the want of paper proper for their fabrication. 
 We certainly have no reason to believe that paper made with 
 linen rags was produced in Europe before the middle of the 
 fourteenth century, and even then the art of paper-making does 
 not appear to have been carried to any great perfection. It is 
 also granted that paper is the most proper material we know of 
 for the manufacturing of cards ; but it will not therefore follow 
 
 • Henry's Hist. Brit. vol. v. book v. cap. vii. 
 
 * And hence originated the noble and beneficial art of printing. These printing 
 blocks are traced back to the year 1423, and probably were produced at a much earlier 
 period. Id^e g^nerale d'une Collect, des Estampes, ut sup. 
 
 ' An old Scotch poem, cited by Warton, speaks of cards and dice as fashionable 
 Amusements, but of evil tendency. Hist. Poet. vol. ii. p. 316.
 
 CHAP. II. OF THE PKOPLE OF ENGLAND. 327 
 
 lliat they could not possibly be made with any other; and if we 
 admit of any other, the objection will fall to the ground. 
 
 XXL— CARD-PLAYING FORBIDDEN. 
 
 Card-playing- appears to have been a very fashionable court 
 amusement in the reign of Henry VII. In an account of money 
 disbursed for the use of that monarch, an entry is made of one 
 hundred shillings paid at one time to him for the purpose of 
 playing- at cards.* The princess Margaret, his daughter, pre- 
 vious to her marriage with James IV., king of Scotland, under- 
 stood the use of cards. She played with her intended husband 
 at Harbottle Castle ; the celebration of their nuptials took place 
 A. D. 1503, she being then only fourteen years of age.^ Cathe- 
 rine of Spain, the consort of prince Arthur, afterwards married 
 to Henry VIII. his brother, is said in her youth to have been 
 well acquainted with the art of embroidery and other works of 
 the needle proper for ladies to know, and expert in various 
 courtly pastimes; and she could play at "tables, tick-tacke or 
 gleeke, with cardis and dyce."^ 
 
 The universality of card-playing in the reign of this monarch 
 is evident from a prohibitory statute being necessary to prevent 
 apprentices from using cards except in the Christmas holidays, 
 and then only in their masters' houses.^ Agreeable to this pri- 
 vilege. Stow,' speaking of the customs at London, says, " from 
 All-Hallows eve to the day following Candlemas-day, there 
 was, among other sports, playing at cards for counters, nails, 
 and points, in every house, more for pastime than for gain."^ 
 But this moderation, I apprehend, was by no means general, for 
 several contemporary Mriters, are exceedingly severe in their 
 reflections upon the usage of cards, which they rank with dice, 
 and consider both as destructive to morality and good order.^ 
 
 ' Extract from a MS. in the Remembrancer's Office, dated December 26, an. 9 
 Hen. VII. 
 
 * Addit. to Leland's Collect, vol. iii. p. 285. 
 
 3 Sir Will. Forrest. See Warton's Hist. Poet. vol. iii. sect. 36, p. 311. 
 
 < The same statute forbade any householder to permit card-playing in his house 
 under the penalty of six shillings and eight pence for every oflfence. Stat. an. 11 
 Hen. VII. cap. 2. 
 
 * Stow's Survey. By points he means narrov*' ribbons with which one part of the 
 dress was attached to the other. 
 
 « Especially Stephen Gossor, in his School of Abuse, printed A. D 1579; and 
 John Northbrooke, in a Treatise against Diceing, Card-playing, Dancing, ice. without 
 date, but apparently published soon after the former.
 
 328 SPORTS AND PASTTMES BOOK IV. 
 
 XXIL— CARD-PLAYING CENSURED BY POETS. 
 
 Henry VIII. preferred the sports of the field, and such pass- 
 times as promoted exercise, to sedentary amusements ; his at- 
 tachment to dice he gave up at an early part of his life ; and I 
 do not recollect that Hall the historian, who is so minute in 
 describing the various sources of entertainment pursued by this 
 athletic monarch, ever mentions cards as one of them : I am, 
 indeed, Mell aware that Shakspeare speaks of his " playing at 
 primero with the duke of Suffolk;" and it is very possible, that 
 the poet might have had some authority for so doing. Sir 
 William Forrest, who wrote at the close of his reign, and pre- 
 sented a poetical treatise entitled The Poesye of Princylye 
 Practice, to his son Edward VI., speaks therein of the pas- 
 times proper for the amusement of a monarch, and says, he 
 may after dinner indulge himself with music, or otherwise 
 
 Alt tables, chesse or cardis awhile himselfe repose ; 
 
 but adds, that " syttynge pastymes are seldom found good, es- 
 pecially in the day-time ;" he therefore advises the pursuit of 
 those that afforded both air and exercise.^ In another part of 
 his poem he speaks in strong terms against the practice of 
 card-playing, as productive of idleness, especially when it is 
 followed by the labouring people, in places of common resort : 
 
 Att ale bowse too sit, at mack or at mall. 
 Tables or dyce, or that cardis men call. 
 Or what oother game owte of season dwe. 
 Let them be punysched without all rescue.* 
 
 Forrest^s manuscript is in the Royal Library,^ and at the 
 commencement of the poem he is represented presenting it to 
 king Edward VI. The author of an old morality, entitled 
 Hycke Scorner,^ written probably some time before this poem 
 by Forrest, has placed the card-players with such company as 
 evinces he had not a good opinion of their morals : 
 
 Walkers by nyglit, with gret murderers, 
 Overthwarte with gyle, and joly carders. 
 
 ' Cap. ix. ' Cap. liz. ^ Nq. 17, D. iij. 
 
 * Ulack letter, without date, printed by Wvukyn de Worde. Garrick's Collection 
 of Old Plays.
 
 CHAP. IT. OF THE PEOPLE OP ENGLAND. U99 
 
 And also in Barclay's translation of the Ship of Fooles, by 
 Sebastian Brant, printed by Pynson in 1508, are these lines : 
 
 The damnable lust of caries and of dice. 
 And other games, prohibite hy the lawe. 
 
 It is not, however, necessary to produce any further evidence 
 from the writers of the former times to prove the evil tendency of 
 card-playing", when it is indulged beyond the limits of dis- 
 cretion. Too many instances of ruin and destruction may be 
 brought forward in the present day to convince us of the justness 
 of their censures. 
 
 XXIIL— ANCIENT CARDS. 
 
 The early specimens of playing-cards that have been pro- 
 duced, differ very little in their form from those now used. 
 Thi« form is certainly the most convenient for the purposes as- 
 siguco to them, and has been most generally adopted. We 
 shall, however, prove, that it was subject to variation. The 
 figures and devices that constitute the different suits of the cards 
 seem anciently to have depended upon the taste and invention 
 of the card-makers; and they did not bear the least resemblance 
 to those in present use. 
 
 It has been observed, that outlines made upon blocks of wood 
 were stamped upon the cards, and afterwards filled up by the 
 hand ; but, soon after the invention of engraving upon copper, 
 the devices were produced by the graver, and sufficiently 
 finished, so that the impressions did not require any assistance 
 from the pencil. It appears also, that the best artists of the 
 time were employed for this purpose. I am exceedingly happy 
 to have it in my power to lay before my readers a curious spe- 
 cimen of ancient engraved cards, in the possession of Francis 
 Douce, esq., with whose permission they are added to this work. 
 I have chosen one from each of the different suits, namely, the 
 King of Columbines, the Queen of Rabbits, the Knave of 
 Pinks, and the Ace of Roses ; which answered to the spades, 
 the clubs, the diamonds, and the hearts, of the moderns. The 
 annexed engravings are of the same size as the originals. They 
 are nearly square, and, originally, 1 have no doubt but they 
 were perfectly so.
 
 333 
 
 iPORTS AND PASTIMES 
 
 ROOK IV. 
 
 110. The Kino of CoLUMDiNEg. 
 
 111. The Queen of Rabbits. 
 
 ^ntitnt otartrfii^
 
 :h.\i'. n. 
 
 OF TUK PEOPLE OF P:NGLANi). 
 
 031 
 
 112. The Knave of Pinks. 
 
 11 3. The Ace of Roses. 
 
 Ancient arartr^*
 
 332 
 
 SPORTS AND PASTIMES 
 
 BOOK IV. 
 
 Upon the other cards belonging to the pack the number of 
 the flowers or animals answered to the pips at present, with the 
 addition of numeral figures corresponding with the devices, that 
 they might be readily distinguished without the trouble of count- 
 ing tl ^m. The originals of these cards, I make no doubt, are 
 the work of Martin Schoen, a well-known and justly celebrated 
 German artist ; and Mr. Douce is in possession of part of another 
 set, which evidently appear to be the production of Israel Van 
 Mecheln, who was contemporary with Schoen. Mecheln outlived 
 Martin Schoen a considerable time ; the latter died in 1486, and 
 the former in 1523. The earliest print that I have seen by 
 Mecheln with a date is 1480; but he practised the art of en- 
 graving some time prior to that period. 
 
 A set or pack of cards, but not equally ancient with those 
 above mentioned, were in the possession of Dr. Stukeley : the 
 four suits upon them consisted of bells, of hearts, of leaves, 
 and ol acorns ; by which, the doctor imagined, were represented 
 the four orders of men among us: the bells are such as are 
 usually tied to the legs of the hawks, and denoted the nobility ; 
 the hearts were intended for the ecclesiastics; the leaves alluded 
 to the gentry, who possess lands, woods, manors, and parks; 
 the acorns signified the farmers, peasants, woodmen, park- 
 keepers, and hunters. But this definition will, I trust, be 
 generally considered as a mere effusion of fancy. It is remark- 
 able that in these cards there are neither queens nor aces ; but 
 the former are supplied by knights, the latter have no substitute. 
 Dr. Stukeley's cards were purchased at his sale by Mr. Tuttet, 
 and again at his sale by Mr. Gough, in whose possession they 
 now remain.^ The last gentleman has given a full description 
 of them in a paper upon the subject of card-playing, in the 
 Archseologia.^ The figured cards, by us denominated court 
 cards, were formerly called coat cards; and originally, I con- 
 ceive, the name implied coated figures, that is, men and women 
 who wore coats, in contradistinction to the other devices of flowers 
 and animals not of the human species. The pack or set of 
 cards, in the old plays, is continually called a pair of cards; 
 which has suggested the idea that anciently two packs of cards 
 were used, a custom common enough at present in playing at 
 quadrille; one- pack being laid by the side of the player who is 
 to deal the next time. But. this supposition rests entirely upon 
 
 ' [In 1800.] 
 
 ' Vol. vii. p. 152 et seq.
 
 CHAP. 11. OF THF. PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 333 
 
 tlie application of the term itself, without any othei kind of 
 proof whatever : and seems, indeed, to be entirely overturned 
 by a passage in a very old play entitled The longer thou 
 livest the more Foole thou art; in which Idleness desires Moros 
 the clown to look at " his booke," and shows him " a paire of 
 cardes." • In a comedy called A Woman killed with Kindness, 
 a pair of cards and counters to play with are mentioned. 
 
 XXIV.— GAMES FORMERLY PLAYED WITH CARDS. 
 
 Primero is reckoned among the most ancient games of cards 
 known to have been played in England ; each player, we are 
 told, had four cards dealt to him one by one ; the seven was the 
 highest card in point of number that he could avail himself 
 of, which counted for twenty-one; the six counted for sixteen, 
 the five for fifteen, and the ace for the same; but the two, the 
 three, and the four, for their respective points only. The knave 
 of hearts was commonly fixed upon for the quinola, which the 
 player might make what card or suit he thought proper; if 
 the cards were of different suits the highest number won the 
 primero, if they were all of one colour he that held them won 
 the flush.2 
 
 Prime, mentioned by Sir John Harrington in his satirical 
 description of the fashionable court games, published in 1615, 
 the hon. Daines Barrington thinks was not the same as primero; 
 he has not, however, specified the difference between them. 
 The poet says, 
 
 The first game was the best, when free from crime, 
 The courtly gamesters all were in their prime. 
 
 Trump. A game thus denominated in the old plays is perhaps 
 of equal antiquity with primero, and at the latter end of the 
 sixteenth century was very common among the lower classes of 
 people. Dame Chat, in Gammer Gurton's Needle, says to 
 Dicon, "we be set at trump, man, hard by the fire, thou shalt set 
 upon the king; " and afterwards to her maid, 
 
 Come hither, Dol ; Del, sit down and play this game. 
 And as thou sawest me do, see thou do even the same ; 
 
 There are five trumps besides the queen, the hindmost thou shall find her 
 Take heed of Siia Glover's wife, she hath an eye behind her.* 
 
 ' Garrick's Collect, vol. i. 18. 
 
 * Hon. Daines Bsurrington on Card-playing, Archaeologia, vol. viii. 
 ' This play is said to have been first acted A. D. 1561 ; the edition I quote from 
 is dated 1575.
 
 334 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK IV 
 
 Trump IS thought to have borne some resemblance to tlie modern 
 game of whist. 
 
 Gresco is mentioned in conjunction with primero in the 
 comedy of Eastward Hoe; ^ " he would play his hundred pounds 
 at gresco and primero as familiarly as any bright piece of crim- 
 son of them all." 
 
 Sir John Harrington, after having mentioned prime, proceeds 
 to enumerate the games that succeeded in the following manner : 
 
 The second game was post,^ until with posting 
 
 They paid so fast, 'twas time to leave their hosting. 
 
 Then thirdly follow'd heaving of the maw, 
 
 A game without civility or law. 
 
 An odious play, and yet in court oft seen, 
 
 A saucy knave to trump both king and queen. 
 
 Then follow'd lodam.' 
 
 Now noddy follow'd next. — 
 The last game now in use is banckerout,^ 
 Which will be plaid at still I stand in doubt. 
 Until lavalta tume the wheels of time 
 And makes it come aboute again to prime. 
 
 Gleek is mentioned with primero in Green's Tu quoque, 
 where one of the characters proposes to play at twelve-penny 
 gleek, but the other insists upon making it for a crown at least. 
 
 Coeval with gleek we find Mount Saint, or more properly 
 Cent, in Spanish Cientos, or hundred, the number of points 
 that win the game. Thus in a play by Lewis Machin, called 
 the Dumb Knight, the third edition printed in 1608, the queen 
 says of this game, "the name is taken from hundreds;" and 
 afterwards to Philocles, " you are a double game, and I am no 
 less; there is an hundred, and all cards made but one knave."* 
 Mount Saint was played by counting, and probably did not 
 differ much from Picquet, or picket, as it was formerly written, 
 which is said to have been played with counters, and to have 
 been introduced in France about the middle of the seventeenth 
 century. Picket is mentioned in Flora's Vagaries, printed in 1670. 
 
 New Cut is mentioned in A Woman killed with Kindness, a 
 play M riiten by Thomas Heywood, third edition, 1617, where 
 one of the characters says, " if you will play at new cut, I am 
 soonest hitter of any one heere for a wager." 
 
 ' Written by Jonson, Chapman, and Marlow, and printed A.D. 1605. 
 
 * Called also post and pair. 
 
 ' Called Saint Lodam by Mr. Barrington, I know not upon what authority, Arcb»c- 
 lofjia, ut supra. 
 
 ■* Perhaps the same with bankafalet mentioned in the Complete Ganir-'iter. 
 
 • See also Mr. Barrington, ut supra.
 
 CHAP. IF. OF THR PEOPLF. OF KNGLAND. 335 
 
 Knave out of Doors occurs also in the same play, together 
 with Ruff, which is proposed to be played with honours; 
 double ruff", and English ruff, with honours, are mentioned in 
 the Complete Gamester, published in 1674, and is distinguished 
 from French ruff. 
 
 Lansquenet is a French game, and took its name from the 
 Lansquenets, or light German troops, employed by the kings 
 of France in the fifteenth century.^ 
 
 Basset, said by Dr. Johnson to have been invented at Venice, 
 was a very fashionable game towards the close of the seventeenth 
 century. 
 
 Ombre was brought into England by Catherine of Portugal, 
 queen to Charles IL 
 
 Quadrille, a modern game, bears great analogy to ombre, 
 with the addition of a fourth player, which is certainly a great 
 improvement. 
 
 Whist, or as it was formerly written, whisk, is a game now 
 held in high estimation. At the commencement of last century, 
 according to Swift, it was a favourite pastime with clergymen, 
 who played the game with swabbers ; these were certain cards 
 by which the holder was entitled to part of the stake, in the 
 same manner that the claim is made for the aces at quadrille. 
 Whist, in its present state of improvement, may properly be 
 considered as a modern game, and was not, says the hon. 
 Daines Barrington, played upon principles till about fifty years 
 ago, when it was much studied by a set of gentlemen who fre- 
 quented the Crown coffee-house in Bedford-row. Mr. Barrin<r. 
 ton's paper on card-playing in the Archseologia, was published 
 in 1787, and the author says that the first mention he finds of 
 the game of whist is in the Beaux Stratagem, a comedy by Geo. 
 Farquhar, pub. A. D. 1707. He also thinks that whist might 
 have originated from the old game of trump. Cotgrave explains 
 the French word triomphe in this manner; the game called ruff, 
 or trump; also the ruff, or trump in it. 
 
 To the games already mentioned we may add the following; 
 Put, and the High Game; Plain Dealing, Wit and Reason, 
 Costly Colours, Five Cards, Bone Ace,"^ Queen J^azareen^ 
 Lanterloo, Penneech, Art of Memory, Beast, Cribhage, and 
 All Fours. Nearly all these games may be found in a small 
 
 ' Bullet, Rechercbes Hist, sur Cartes a jouer, p. 152. 
 
 ' Perhaps this may be the same as the game called Ace of Heartfl, prohibited wrth 
 all lotteries by cards and dice, an. 1? Geo. II. cap. 38, sect. 2.
 
 335 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK IV. 
 
 book entitled the Complete Gamester, with the directions how- 
 to play them. Crimp, mentioned in the Spectator,^ I take to 
 be a game played with the cards, and one might be led to think 
 the same of Roulet by the wording of the act 18 Geo, II. by 
 which it is prohibited. The words are, " And whereas a certain 
 pernicious game, called Roulet, or Roly-poly, is daily practised," 
 the act then directs " that no place shall be kept for playing at 
 the said game of roulet, or roly-poly, or any other game with 
 cards or dice," &c. 
 
 XXV.— THE GAME OF GOOSE— AND OF THE SNAKE. 
 
 In addition to the pastimes mentioned in the preceding pages, 
 I shall produce two or three more; and they are such as require 
 no skill in the performance, but depend entirely upon chance 
 for the determination of the contest. 
 
 We have a childish diversion usually introduced at Christmas 
 lime, called the Game of Goose. This game may be played 
 by two persons; but it will readily admit of many more; v 
 originated, I believe, in Germany, and is well calculated to makf 
 children ready at reckoning the produce of two given numbers. 
 The table for playing at goose is usually an impression from a 
 copper-plate pasted upon a cartoon about the size of a sheet 
 almanack, and divided into sixty-two small compartments 
 arranged in a spiral form, with a large open space in the midst 
 marked with the number sixty-three ; the lesser compartments 
 have singly an appropriate number from one to sixty-two in- 
 clusive, beginning at the outmost extremity of the spiral lines. 
 At the commencement of the play, every one of the competitors 
 puts a stake into the space at No. 63. There are also different 
 forfeitures in the course of the game that are added, and the 
 whole belongs to the winner. At No. 5 is a bridge which claims 
 a forfeit at passing; at 10, an alehouse where a forfeit is exacted 
 and to stop two throws ; at 30, a fountain where you pay for 
 washing ; at 42, a labyrinth which carries you back to 23 ; at 
 52, the prison where you must rest until relieved by another 
 casting the same throw; at 58, the grave whence you begin the 
 game again ; and at 61, the goblet where you pay for tasting.^ 
 The game is played with two dice, and every player throv.'s m 
 his turn as he sits at the table : he must have a counter or some 
 
 ' Vol. V. No. 323. 
 
 ' See Des Lust und Spiel Hauses, published at Bude 1680.
 
 CHAP. II. OF THE VEOPI E OF ENGLAND. 837 
 
 Other small mark which he can distinguish from the marks of 
 his antagonists, and according- to the amount of the two numbers 
 thrown upon the dice he places his mark; that is to say, if he 
 throws a four and a five, which amount to nine, he places his 
 mark at nine upon the table, moving- it the next throw as many 
 numbers forward as the dice permit him, and so on until the 
 game be completed, namely, when the number sixty-three is 
 made exactly; all above it the player reckons back, and then 
 throws again in his turn. If the second thrower at the beo-innino- 
 of the game casts the same number as the first, he takes up his 
 piece, and the first player is obliged to begin the game ao-ain. 
 If the same thing happens in the middle of the game, the first 
 player goes back to the place the last came from. It is called 
 the game of the goose, because at every fourth and fifth com- 
 partment in succession a goose is depicted, and if the cast thrown 
 by the player falls upon a goose, he moves forward double the 
 number of his throw. 
 
 We have also the Game of Snake, and the more modern 
 Game of Matrimony, with others of the like kind; formed upon 
 the same plan as that of the goose, but none of them, according 
 to my opinion, are in the least improved by the variations. 
 
 XXVI.— CROSS AND PILE, 
 
 Cross and pile, or with us head or tail, is a silly pastime well 
 enough known among the lowest and most vulgar classes of the 
 community, and tr whom it is at present very properly confined • 
 formerly, however, iv \e\d a higher rank, and was introduced 
 at the court. Edward II. was partial to this and such like 
 frivo!3us diversions, and spent much of his time in the pursuit 
 of them. In one of his wardrobe rolls we meet with the following 
 entries: "Item, paid to Henry, the king's barber, for money 
 which he lent to the king to play at cross and pile, five shillings. 
 Item, paid to Pires Barnard, usherof the king's chamber, money 
 which he lent the king, and which he lost at cross and pile; 
 to Monsieur Robert Wattewille eightpence." ' 
 
 A halfpenny is generally now used in playing this game; but 
 any other coin with a head impressed on one side will answer 
 the purpose: the reverse of the bead being called the tail 
 without respect to the figure upon it, and the same if it wa*< 
 blank. Anciently the English coins were stamped on one side 
 
 ' Antiq. Repert. vol. ii. p. 58. 
 Z
 
 338 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK IV. 
 
 with a cross. One person tosses the balfpenny up and the other 
 calls at pleasure head or tail; if his call lies uppermost when 
 the halfpenny descends and rests upon the ground, he wins ; 
 and if on the contrary, of course he loses. Cross and pile is 
 evidently derived from a pastime called Ostrachinda, Oo-i-paicev^a, 
 known in ancient times to the Grecian boys, and practised by 
 them upon various occasions ; having procured a shell, it was 
 seared over with pitch on one side for distinction sake, and the 
 other side was left white; a boy tossed up this shell and his 
 antagonist called white or black, Nw| et vnspa, (literally night 
 and day), as he thought proper, and his success was determined 
 by the white or black part of the shell being uppermostc
 
 CHAP n.. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND, 339 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 , 'ITie Lord of Misrule said to be peculiar to the English. — II. A Court Officer.— 
 III. The Master of the King's Revels. — IV. The Lord of Misrule and his 
 Conduct reprobated. — V. The King of Christmas — of the Cockneys — VI. A 
 King of Christmas at Norwich. — VII. The King of the Bean. — VIII. Whence 
 originated.— IX. The Festival of Fools.— X. The Boy Bishop.— XI. The Fool- 
 Plough. — XII. Easter Games. — XIII. Shrove-Tuesday. — XIV. Hock-Tuesday. 
 —XV. May-Games.— XVI. The Lord and Lady of the May.— XVII. Grand 
 May-Game at Greenwich. — XVIII. Royal May-Game at Shooter's-hill. — XIX. 
 May Milk-Maids.— XX. May Festival of the Chimney Sweepers. — XXI. Whitsun- 
 Games. — XXII. The Vigil of Saint John the Baptist, how kept. — XXIII. Its 
 supposed origin. — XXIV. Setting of the Midsummer Watch. — XXV. Processions 
 on Saint Clement's and Saint Catherine's day. — XXVI. Wassails. — XXVII. 
 Sheep-shearing and Harvest-home. — XXVIII. Wakes. — XXIX. Sunday Festivals. 
 — XXX. Church Ales. — XXXI. Fairs, and their diversions and abuses. — XXXII. 
 Bonfires.— XXXIII. Illuminations.— XXXIV. Fireworks.— XXXV. London 
 Fireworks. — XXXVI. Fireworks on Tower-hill, at Public Gardens, and in 
 Pageants. 
 
 I.— THE LORD OF MISRULE PECULIAR TO ENGLAND. 
 
 It is said of the English, that formerly they were remarkable 
 for the manner in which they celebrated the festival of Christmas; 
 at which season they admitted variety of sports and pastimes 
 not known, or little practised in other countries.' The mock 
 prince, or lord of misrule, whose reign extended through the 
 greater part of the holidays, is particularly remarked by foreig-n 
 writer"*, who consider him as a personage rarely to be met with 
 out of England ; - and, two or three centuries back, perhaps 
 this observation might be consistent with the truth; but I trust 
 we shall upon due examination be ready to conclude, that 
 anciently this frolicksome monarch was well known upon the 
 continent, where he probably received his first honours. In 
 this kingdom his power and his dignities suffered no dimi- 
 nution, but on the contrary were established by royal authority, 
 and continued after they had ceased to exist elsewhere. But 
 even with us his government has been e^ctinct for many years, 
 and his name and his offices are nearly forgotten. In some 
 great families, and also sometimes at court, thisofilc^r was called 
 
 ' See Introduction. ^ Polydore Vergil de Rerum Invent. lib. v. cap 2. 
 
 Z 2
 
 340 SPORTS AND PASTIMES KOOK IV. 
 
 the Abbot of Misrule. Leiand says, " This Christmas '■ I saw 
 no disguiseings at court, and right few playes ; but there was 
 an abbot of misrule that made much sport, and did right well 
 his office."^ In Scotland he was called the Abbot of Unreason, 
 and prohibited there in 1555 by the parliament.^ No doubt in 
 many instances the privileges allowed to this merry despot were 
 abused, and not unfrequently productive of immorality ; the 
 institution itself, even if we view it in its most favourable light, 
 is puerile and ridiculous, adapted to the ages of ignorance, when 
 more rational amusements were not known, or at least not 
 fashionable. 
 
 II.— THE LORD OF MISUULE A COURT OFFICER. 
 
 Holingshed, speaking of Christmas, calls it, " What time 
 there is alwayes one appointed to make sporte at courte called 
 commonly lorde of misrule, whose office is not unknowne to such 
 as have bene brought up in noblemens' houses and among great 
 housekeepers, which use liberal feasting in the season." ^ Again : 
 *' At the fe^st of Christmas," says Stow, " in the king's court 
 wherever he chanced to reside, there was appointed a lord of 
 misrule, or master of merry disports ; the same merry fellow 
 made his appearance at the house of every nobleman and person 
 of distinction, and among the rest the lord mayor of London 
 and the sheriffs had severally of them their lord of misrule, 
 ever contending, without quarrel or offence, who should make 
 the rarest pastimes to delight the beholders ; this pageant poten- 
 tate began his rule at All-hallow eve, and continued the same 
 till the morrow after the Feast of the Purification; in which 
 space there were fine and subtle disguisings, masks, and mum- 
 meries."^ 
 
 HI.— THE MASTER OF THE KING'S REVELS. 
 
 In the fifth year of Edward VI., at Christmas time, a gentle- 
 man named George Ferrers, who was a lawyer, a poet, and 
 an historian, was appointed by the council to bear this office; 
 " and he," says Holingshed, " being of better calling than com- 
 monly his predecessors had been before, received all his commis- 
 sions and warrauotes by the name of master of the kinge's pas- 
 times; which gentleman so well supplied his office, both of shew 
 
 > An. 4 Hen. VII. A. D. 1489. ' Collect, fol, iii. Append, p. 256. 
 
 > See Warton's Hist. Eng. Poetry, vol. i. p. 381. 
 
 Ciiron. of Brit. vol. hi. fol 1317. * Survey of London, p. 79,
 
 CHAP. 111. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 341 
 
 of sundry sights, and devises of rare invention, and in act of 
 divers interludes, and matters of pastime, played by persons, 
 as not only satisfied the common sorte, but also were verie well 
 liked and allowed by the council, and others of skill in lyke 
 pastimes; but best by the young- king- himselfe, as appeared 
 by his princely liberalitie in rewarding that service." It was 
 certainly an act of much policy in the council to appoint so 
 judicious and respectable an officer for the department at this 
 lime, and was done in order to counteract by shows and pastimes 
 the discontent that prevailed, and divert the mind of the king 
 from reflecting too deeply upon the condemnation of his uncle 
 (he duke of Somerset. 
 
 /v.— THE LORD OF MISRULE— AND HIS CONDUCT REPROBATED. 
 
 This master of merry disports was not confined to the court, 
 nor to the houses of the opulent, he was also elected in various 
 parishes, where, indeed, his reign seems to have been of shorter 
 date. Philip Stubbs, M-ho lived at tlie close of the sixteenth 
 century, places this whimsical personage, with his followers, in 
 a very degrading point of view.' I shall give the passage in 
 the author's own words, and leave the reader to comment upon 
 them. " First of all, the wilde heades of the parish flocking 
 togither, chuse them a graund captaine of mischiefe, Avhom they 
 innoble with the title of Lord of Misrule ; and him they crowne 
 with great solemnity, and adopt for their king. This king 
 annoynted chooseth forth twentie, fourty, threescore, or an hun- 
 dred lustie guttes, like to himself, to Avaite upon his lordly 
 majesty, and to guar<Ie his noble person. Then every one of 
 these men he investeth with his liveries of greene, yellow, or 
 some other light wanton colour, and as though they were not 
 gawdy ynough, they bedecke themselves with scarflfes, ribbons, 
 and laces, hanged all over with gold ringes, pretious stones, 
 and other jewels. This done, they tie aboute either legge 
 twentie or fourtie belles, with riche handkerchiefes in their 
 handes, and sometimes laide acrosse over their shoulders and 
 neckes, borrowed, for the most part, of their pretie mopsies 
 and loving Bessies. Thus all thinges set in order, then have they 
 their hobby horses, their dragons, and other antiques, together 
 
 Anatomie of Abuses, priated A. D. 1593.
 
 ;34*2 SPORTS AND PASTIMi;S BOOK IV. 
 
 with their baudie pipers, and thundriiig drummers, to strike 
 up the devil's daunce Avith all. Then march this heathen com- 
 pany towards the church, their pypers pyping, their drummers 
 thundring-, their stumpes daunciiig, their belles jyngling, their 
 handkerchiefes fluttering- aboute their heades like madde men, 
 their hobbie horses and other monsters skirmishing amongst the 
 throng : and in this sorte they go to the church, though the 
 minister be at prayer or preaching-, dauncing and singing like 
 devils incarnate, with such a confused noise that no man can 
 heare his owne voyce. Then the foolish people they looke, 
 they stare, they laugh, they fleere, and mount upon the formes 
 and pewes to see these goodly pageants solemnized. Then after 
 this, aboute the church they go againe and againe, and so 
 fourthe into the churche yard, where they have commonly their 
 sommer-halls, their bowers, arbours, and banquetting-houses 
 set up, wherein they feast, banquet, and daunce all that day, 
 and parad venture all that night too ; and thus these terrestrial 
 furies spend the sabbath day. Then, for the further innobling 
 of this honourable lardane, lord I should say, they have cer- 
 taine papers wherein is painted some babelerie' or other of 
 imagerie worke, and these they call my Lord of Misrule's badges 
 or cognizances. These they give to every one that will give 
 them money to maintain them in this their heathenish devilrie-, 
 and who will not show himself buxome to them and give them 
 money, they shall be mocked and flouted shamefully; yea, and 
 many times carried upon a cowlstaffe, and dived over heade 
 and eares in water, or otherwise most hombly abused. And 
 besotted are some, that they not only give them money, 
 but weare their badges or cognizances in their hates or cappes 
 openly. Another sorte of fantastical 1 f boles bring to these 
 helhounds, the Lord of Misrule and his complices, some bread, 
 some good ale, some new cheese, some old cheese, some cus- 
 tardes, some cracknels, some cakes, some flauns, some tartes, 
 some creame, some meat, some one thing, and some another." 
 Hence it should seem the Lord of Misrule was sometimes presi- 
 dent over the sununer sports. The author has distinguished this 
 pageantry from the May-games, the wakes, and the church- 
 ales, of which, I should otherwise have thought, it might have 
 been a component part. 
 
 ' Childish, trifling.
 
 CHAP. HI. OF THE ITOPLE OF ENGLAND. 343 
 
 v.— THE KING OF CHRISTMAS. 
 The society belonging to Lincoln's-inn had anciently an officer 
 chosen at this season, who was honoured with the title of king 
 of Christmas-day, because he presided in the hall upon that 
 day. This temporary potentate had a marshal and a steward 
 to attend upon him. The marshal, in the absence of the monarch, 
 was permitted to assume his state, and upon New-Year's-day 
 he sat as king in the hall when the master of the revels, during 
 the time of dining, supplied the marshal's place. Upon Chil- 
 dermas-day they had another officer, denominated the King of 
 the Cockneys, who also presided on the day of his appointment, 
 and had his inferior officers to wait upon him.' 
 
 VI.— A KING OF CHRISTMAS AT NORWICH. 
 
 In the history of Norfolk ^ mention is made of a pageant 
 exhibited at Norwich upon a Shrove Tuesday, which happened 
 in the month of March, " when one rode through the street, 
 having his horse trapped with tyn foyle and other nyse dis- 
 gysynges, crowned as Kyng of Christmas, in token that the 
 season should end with the twelve moneths of the year; and 
 afore^ hym went yche^ moneth dysgysyd as the season requiryd." 
 
 VII.— THE KING OF THE BEAN. 
 
 The dignified persons above mentioned were, I presume, 
 upon an equal footing with the King of the Bean, whose reign 
 commenced upon the vigil of the Epiphany, or upon the day 
 itself. We read that, some time back, " it was a common 
 Christmas gambol in both our universities, and continued," at 
 the commencement of the last century, " to be usual in other 
 places, to give the name of king or queen to that person whose 
 extraordinary good luck it was to hit upon that part of a divided 
 cake which was honoured above the others by having a bean 
 in it."^ The reader will readily trace the vestige of this custom, 
 though somewhat differently managed, and without the bean, 
 in the present method of drawing, as it is called, for king 
 and queen upon Twelfth-day. I will not pretend to say iu 
 
 ' Dugdale's Origines Juridiciales, fol. 247. * By Blomfield, vol. ii. p. 3. 
 
 ^ Before. •• Each. • Bourne's Antiq. Vulg. chap. xvii.
 
 344 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK IV. 
 
 ancient times, for the title is by no means of recent date, that 
 the election of this monarch, the King of the Bean, depended 
 entirely upon the decision of fortune: the words of an old 
 kalendar belonging to the Romish church' seem to favour a 
 contrary opinion ; they are to this effect : On the fifth of January, 
 the vigil of the Epiphany, the Kings of the Bean are created ;2 
 and on the sixth the feast of the kings shall be held, and also of 
 the queen ; and let the banqueting be continued for many days. 
 At court, in the eighth year of Edward III., this majestic title 
 was conferred upon one of the king's minstrels, as we find by 
 an entry in a computus so dated, which states that sixty shillings 
 were given by the king, upon the day of the Epiphany, to Regan 
 the trumpeter and his associates, the court minstrels, in the name 
 of King of the Bean.^ 
 
 VIII.— WHENCE THESE MOCK DIGNITIES WERE DERIVED. 
 
 Selden asserts,'* and in my opinion with great justice, that 
 all these whimsical transpositions of dignity are derived from 
 the ancient Saturnalia, or Feasts of Saturn, when the masters 
 waited upon their servants, who m ere honoured with mock titles, 
 and permitted to assume the state and deportment of their lords. 
 These fooleries were exceedingly popular, and conthmed to be 
 practised long- after the establishment of Christianity, in defiance 
 of the threatenings and the remonstrances of the clergy, who, 
 finding it impossible to divert the stream of vulgar prejudice per- 
 mitted them to be exercised, but changed the primitive object of 
 devotion ; so that the same unhallowed orgies, which had disgraced 
 the worship of a heathen deity, were dedicated, as it was called, 
 to the service of the true God, and sanctioned by the appellation 
 of a Christian institution. From this polluted stock branched 
 out variety of unseemly and immoral sports; but none of them 
 more daringly impious and outrageous to common sense, than 
 the Festival of Fools, in which the most sacred rites and cere- 
 monies of the church were turned into ridicule, and the ecclesi- 
 astics themselves participated in the abominable profanations. 
 The following outlines of this absurd diversion will no doubt be 
 thought sufficient. 
 
 ' Cited by Mr. Brand, notes to Bourno, p. 205. ' P.eges Fabis creantur. 
 
 3 In nonaiiie Regis de Fab^. MS. Cott. Nero, C. viii. 
 * Table Talk, London, 1689, tiUe Cbiistmas.
 
 CHAP. III. OF THE PEOPLE Of ENGLAND. 345 
 
 IX.— THE FESTIVAL OF FOOLS. 
 
 In eacli of the cathedral churches there was a bishop, or an 
 archbishop of fools, elected ; and in the churches immediately 
 dependent upon the papal see a pope of fools. These mock 
 pontiffs had usually a proper suit of ecclesiastics who at- 
 tended upon them, and assisted at the divine service, most of 
 them attired in ridiculous dresses resembling- pantomimical 
 players and buffoons ; they were accompanied by large crowds 
 of the laity, some being- disguised with masks of a monstrous 
 fashion, and others having their faces smutted ; in one instance 
 to frighten the beholders, and in the other to excite their 
 laughter: and some, again, assuming- the habits of females, 
 practised all the wanton airs of the loosest and most abandoned 
 of the sex. During the divine service this motley crowd were 
 not contented >vith singing- of indecent songs in the choir, but 
 some of them ate, and drank, and played at dice upon the altar, 
 by the side of the priest who celebrated the mass. After the 
 service they put filth into the censers, and ran about the 
 church, leaping, dancing, laughing-, sing-ing, breaking- obscene 
 jests, and exposing themselves in the most unseemly atti- 
 tudes with shameless impudence.' Another part of these 
 ridiculous ceremonies was, to shave the precentor of fools 
 upon a stage erected before the church, in the presence of the 
 populace; and during the operation, he amused them with 
 lewd and vulgar discourses,^ accompanied by actions equally 
 reprehensible. The bishop, or the pope of fools, performed 
 the divine service habited in the pontifical garments, and gave 
 his benediction to the people before they quitted the chjrch. 
 He was afterw ards seated in an open carriage, and drawn about 
 to the different parts of the town, attended by a large train of 
 ecclesiastics and laymen promiscuously mingled together ; and 
 many of the most profligate of the latter assumed clerical habits 
 in order to give their impious fooleries the greater effect ; they 
 had also Mith them carts filled with ordure, which they threw 
 occasionally upon the populace assembled to see the procession.^ 
 These spectacles were always exhibited at Christmas-time, or 
 near to it, but not confined to one particular day. It was some- 
 
 ' Circular Letter addressed to the Clergy of France, by P. de Blois, published in 
 1U4. 
 " Register de Eglise de S. Stephen de Dijon, 1494. ' P. de Blois, ut supra.
 
 346 SPORTS AND PASTIMES 
 
 BOOK IV 
 
 tunes on Christmas-aay, and on the feasts of St. Stephen, St. 
 John, the Innocents, the Circumcision, the Epiphany, &c.' 
 When the ceremony took place upon St. Steplien's-day, they 
 sang-, as part of the mass, a burlesque composition called the 
 Prose of the Ass, or the Fool's Prose. It was performed by a 
 double choir, and at intervals, in place of a burden, they imi- 
 tated the braying of an ass. Upon the festival of St. John 
 the Evangelist they had another arrang-ement of ludicrous 
 sentences, denominated the Prose of the Ox, equally repre- 
 hensible.2 These exhibitions were highly relished by the popu- 
 lace at large, and crept into the monasteries and nunneries, 
 where toey were practised by the female votaries of religion. 
 
 X.— THE BOY- BISHOP 
 
 Grotesque ceremonies, something similar to those above 
 mentioned, certainly took place in England ; but probably 
 they were not carried to that extent of impiety, nor so grossly 
 offensive to decency. We bad a king of the fools, but his 
 office Avas suppressed at an early period, and not, that I re- 
 member, revived in the succeeding times. A Rex Stultorum, 
 in Beverley church, was prohibited in 1391.^ The election and 
 the investment of the boy-bishop was certainly derived from 
 the festival of fools. It does not appear at what period this 
 idle ceremony was first established, but probably it was ancient, 
 at least we can trace it back to the fourteenth century. In all 
 the collegiute churches, at the feast of St. Nicholas, or of the 
 Holy Innocents, and frequently at both, it was customary for 
 on«i of the children of the choir, completely apparelled in the 
 episcopal vestments, with a mitre and crosier, to bear the title 
 and state of a bishop. He exacted a ceremonial obedience 
 from his fellows, who being dressed like priests, took possession 
 of the church, and performed all the ceremonies and offices 
 which might have been celebrated by a bishop and his preben- 
 daries : Warton, and the author of the manuscript he has fol- 
 lowed, add, " the mass excepted ; " but the proclamation of 
 Henry VIII. for the abolition of this custom, proves they did 
 " singe masse." Colet, dean of St. Paul's, though he was " a 
 wise and good man ' countenanced this idle farce; and in the 
 
 1 Encyclopedic Franfoise, article Fete des Fous. * TLeoph. Raynaud. 
 
 * Dugdale's IMonast. vol. iiv. Appendix vii.
 
 CHAP. MI. * OF THE PKOPLE OF ENGLAND. 347 
 
 statutes for his school * at St. Paul's, expressly orders that the 
 scholars " shall, every Childermas, that is, Innocents-day, 
 come to Paule's churche, and hear the Childe Byshop's^ ser- 
 mon, and after be at hygh masse, and each of them offer a 
 penny to the childe byshop; and with them the maisters and 
 surveyors of the scliole."^ To this Warton adds, " I take this 
 opportunity of intimating- that the custom at Eton of going ad 
 montem, originated from the ancient and popular practice of 
 these theatrical processions in collegiate bodies.^ After having 
 performed the divine service, the boy-bishop and his associates 
 went about to different parts of the town, and visited the reli- 
 gious houses, collecting money. These ceremonies and proces- 
 sions vvere formally abrogated by proclamation from the king 
 and council, in 1542, the thirty -third year of Henry VIII.; the 
 concluding clause of the ordinance runs thus: " Whereas here- 
 tofore dyvers and many superstitious and chyldysh observances 
 have been used, and yet to this day are observed and kept in 
 many and sundry places of this realm upon St. Nicholas, St. 
 Catherines, St. Clements, and Holy Innocents, and such like 
 holydaies; children^ be strangelie decked and apparayled to 
 counterfeit priests, bishops, and women, and so ledde with 
 songs and dances from house to house, blessing the people, 
 and gathering of money ; and boyes do singe masse, and preache 
 in the pulpits, with such other unfittinge and inconvenient 
 usages, which tend rather to derysyon than enie true giorie to 
 God, or honor of his sayntes."^ This idle pageantry was 
 revived by his daughter Mary ; and in the second year of her 
 reign an edict, dated November 13, 1554, was issued from the 
 bishop of London to all the clergy of his diocese, to have a 
 boy-bishop in procession/ The year following, '' the child 
 bishop, of Paules church, with his company,'' were admitted 
 into the queen's privy chamber, where he sang before her on 
 Saint Nicholas-day and upon Holy Innocents-day.^ Again 
 the next year, says Strype, " on Saint Nicholas-even, Saint 
 Nicholas, that is, a boy habited like a bishop in pontifical ibus,^ 
 went abroad in most parts of London, singing after the old 
 fashion; and was received with many ignorant but well-disposed 
 
 ' A. D. 1512. Warton, Hist^ Eng. Poetry, vol. i. p. 248 ; and vol. iii. p. 390, 
 » Of St. Paul's cathedral. » Knight's Life of Colet, p. 362. 
 
 * Hist. Poet, ut supra. » Boys. « MS. Cott, Tiberius B. i. 
 ' Strype's Eccl. Mem. vol. iii. chap. 39. p. 310. 
 
 • Ibid. chap. 35. p. 202. " Ibid. chap. 39. p, 310.
 
 348 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK IV. 
 
 people into their houses, and had as much good cneer as ever 
 was wont to be had before." After the death of Mary this Lilly 
 mummery Avas totally discontinued. We may observe, that 
 most of the churches in which these mock ceremonies were 
 performed, had dresses and ornaments proper for the occasion, 
 and suited to the size of the wearers, but in every other respect 
 resembling- those appropriated to the real dignitaries of the 
 church ; hence it is we frequently meet with entries of diminu- 
 tive habits and ornaments in the church inventories, as una 
 mitra parva cum petris pro episcopo puerorum, that is, a small 
 mitre with jewels for the bishop of the boys.^ 
 
 XL— THE FOOL-PLOUGH. 
 
 Cards, dice, tables, and most other games prohibited by the 
 public statutes at other seasons of the year, were toleratea 
 during the Christmas holidays, as well as disguisements and 
 mummings; and in some parts of the kingdom vestiges of 
 these customs are to be found to the present day. " In the 
 north," says Mr. Brand,^ at Christmas time " fool-plough goes 
 about ; a pageant that consists of a number of sword-dancers 
 dragging a plough about with music, and one, or sometimes 
 two of them attired in a very antic dress ; as the Bessy in the 
 grotesque habit of an old woman, and the Fool almost covered 
 with skins, a hairy cap on his head, and the tail of some animal 
 hanging down liis back: the office of one of these characters is 
 to go about rattling a box among the spectators of the dance to 
 collect their little donations ; and it is remarkable that in somo 
 places where this pageant is retained, they plough up the soil 
 before any house where they receive no reward." The pageant 
 and the dance seem to be a composition of gleanings of several 
 obsolete customs followed anciently. The Fool and the Bessy 
 are plainly fragments of the festival of fools.^ 
 
 The fool-plough was, perhaps, the yule-plough ; it is also 
 called the white-plough, because the gallant young men that 
 compose the pageant appear to be dressed in their shirts 
 without coats or waistcoats ; upon which great numbers of 
 ribbands folded into roses are loosely stitched. Mr. Brand 
 adds, " it appears to be a very airy habit for this cold season, 
 but they have warm waistcoats under it." 
 
 ■ Invent. York Cathedral. See also Dugdale's Hist cf St. Paul's, p. 205. 
 '■' Additions to Bourne's Autiq. Vulg. cha;). 14. p. 17;». ^ Jbid.
 
 CHAP. III. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 349 
 
 In g"eiier?il Plough-Monday, or the first Monday after Twelfth- 
 day, is the Ploughmen's Holiday, when they beg for the plough- 
 money to drink. In Essex and Suffolk, at Shrove-tide or upon 
 Shrove-Tuesday, after the confession, it was usual for the 
 farmer to permit his ploughman to go to the barn blindfolded, and 
 " thresh the fat hen," saying, " if you can kill her then give it 
 thy men; and go you and dine on fritters and pancakes." ' 
 
 XII.— EASTER GAMES. 
 
 In the islands of Scilly it was customary of late years at this 
 eason for " the young people to exercise a sort of gallantry 
 called goose dancing, when the maidens are dressed up for 
 young men, and the young men for maidens ; thus disguised 
 they visit their neighbours in companies, where they dance, and 
 make jokes upon what has happened in the island; when every 
 one is humorously told their own without offence being taken ; 
 by this sort of sport, according to yearly custom and toleration, 
 there is a spirit of wit and drollery kept up among the people. 
 V/hen the music and dancing is done, they are treated witli 
 liquor, and then they go to the next house of entertainment.** ^ 
 
 XIII.— SHROVE-TUESDAY, &c. 
 
 Cock-fighting, and throwing at cocks on Shrove-Tuesday, 
 and playing at hand-ball for tansy-cakes at Easter-tide, have 
 been already mentioned, with other trifling sports which are 
 comprised under their appropriate heads, and need not to be 
 repeated; but, according to Stow, the week before Easter, 
 " great shows were made by bringing a twisted tree, or with, as 
 they termed it, into the king's palace, and into the houses of the 
 nobility and gentry." I am not certain whether the author 
 means that this custom was confined to the city of London, or 
 whether it extended to other parts of England.^ It is now 
 obsolete. 
 
 XIV.— HOKE-DAY, OR HOCK-DAY. 
 This popular holiday, Quindena Paschoe, mentioned by Mat- 
 thew Paris and other ancient writers, was usually kept on the 
 
 ' See Walton's Hist. Eng. Poet. vol. iii. p. 307. 
 2 Heath's Islands of Scilly, 1750, p. 12.5. 
 s Survey of Lond. p. 79.
 
 350 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK IV 
 
 Tuesday' following the second Sunday after Easter-day; and 
 distinguished, according to Joliu Rouse,^ by various sportive 
 pastimes, in which the towns-people, divided into parties, were 
 accustomed to draw each other with ropes. Spelman is more 
 definite, aiid tells us, " they consisted in the men and women 
 binding each other, and especially the women the men," and 
 hence it was called Binding-Tuesday.^ Cowel informs us that 
 it was customary in several manors in Hampshire for " the men 
 to hock the women on the Monday, and the women the men 
 upon the Tuesday ; that is, on that day the women in merriment 
 stop the ways with ropes and pull the passengers to them, de- 
 siring something to be laid out in pious uses in order to obtain 
 their freedom."'' Such are the general outlines of this singular 
 institution, and the pens of several able m riters have been em- 
 ployed in attempting to investigate its origin.'^ Some think it was 
 held in commemoration of the massacre of the Danes, in the reign 
 of Ethelred the Unready, on Saint Brice's-day;® others, that it 
 was in remembrance of the death of Hardicanute, which hap- 
 pened on Tuesday the 8th of June, 1041, by which event the 
 English were delivered from the intolerant government of the 
 Danes : and this opinion appears to be most probable. The 
 binding part of the ceremony might naturally refer to the abject 
 state of slavery in which the wretched Saxons were held by their 
 imperious lords ; and the donations for " pious uses," may be 
 considered as tacit acknowledgments of gratitude to heaven for 
 freeing the nation from its bondage. In the churchwarden's 
 accounts for the parish of Lambeth for the years 1515 and 1516, 
 are several entries of hock monies received from the men and the 
 women for the church service. And here we may observe, that 
 the contributions collected by the fair sex exceeded those made 
 by the men." 
 
 Hock-day was generally observed as lately as the sixteenth 
 century. We learn from Spelman that it was not totally dis- 
 continued in his time. Dr. Plott, who makes Monday the prin- 
 cipal day, has noticed some vestiges of it at the distance of fift 
 years, but now it is totally abolished. 
 
 ' M. Paris Hist. Aug. sub anno 1152. 
 
 ' Or Ross, the Warwickshire historian. Edita Heame, p. 105. 
 
 ' Gloss, under the title Hock-day. * Hist. Hampshire. 
 
 * See a Memoir by the Rev. ^Ir. Jenne, Archaeologia, vol. \ii. p. 224 
 
 * A. D. 1002. But the time of the year does not agree. St. Brice's-dav i« il. 
 13th of Novomber. 
 
 '' Memoir, ut supra. 
 
 ♦
 
 CHAP. MI, OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. .•^'>I 
 
 XV MAY- GAMES. 
 
 The celebration of the May-games, at which we have only 
 g-lanced in a former part of the work,^ will require some en- 
 largement in this chapter. " On the calends or first of May," 
 aays Bourne,^ " commonly called May-day, the juvenile part of 
 both sexes were wont to rise a little after midnight and walk to 
 some neighbouring wood, accompanied with music and blowing 
 of horns, where they break down branches from the trees, and 
 adorn them with nosegays and crowns of flowers; when this is 
 done, they return with their booty homewards about the rising 
 of the sun, and make their doors and windows to triumph with 
 their flowery spoils ; and the after part of the day is chiefly 
 spent in dancing round a tall poll, which is called a May-poll ; 
 and being placed in a convenient part of the village, stands 
 there, as it were, consecrated to the Goddess of Flowers, with- 
 out the least violation being oflTered to it in the whole circle of 
 the year." 
 
 This custom, no doubt, is a relic of one more ancient, prac- 
 tised by the Heathens, who observed the last four days in April, 
 and the first of May, in honour of the goddess Flora. An old 
 Romish calendar, cited by Mr. Brand, says, on the 30th of 
 April, the boys go out to seek May-trees, " Maii arbores a pueris 
 exquirunter." Some consider the May-pole as a relic of 
 Druidism ; but I cannot find any solid foundation for such an 
 opinion. 
 
 It should be observed, that the May-games were not always 
 celebrated upon the first day of the month ; and to this we may 
 add the following extract from Stow : " In the month of May 
 the citizens of London of all estates, generally in every parish, 
 and in some instances two or three parishes joining together, had 
 their several mayings, and did fetch their may-poles with divers 
 warlike shows ; with good archers, morrice-dancers, and other 
 devices for pastime, all day long ; and towards evening they had 
 stage-plays and bonfires in the streets. These great mayings 
 and may-games were made by the governors and masters 
 of the city, together with the triumphant setting up of the 
 great shaft or principal may-pole in Cornhill before the parish 
 
 ' Page 223, and luuodurtior.. * Antiq. Vulgares, chap. 25.
 
 352 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK IV. 
 
 church of Saint Andrew," ^ which was thence called Saint 
 Andrew Undershaft. 
 
 No doubt the May-games are of long standing, though the 
 time of their institution cannot be traced. Mention is made of 
 the May-pole at Cornhill, in a poem called the " Chaunce of 
 the Dice," attributed to Chaucer. In the time of Stow, who 
 died in 1605, they were not conducted with so great splendour 
 as they had been formerly, owing' to a dangerous riot which 
 took place upon May-day, 1517, ^^ ^^^ ninth year of Henry Vlll. 
 on which occasio^i several foreigners were slain, and two of the 
 ringleaders of the disturbance Mere hanged. 
 
 Stow has passed unnoticed the manner in which the May- 
 poles were usually decorated; this deficiency I shall suppiy 
 from Philip Stubs, a contemporary writer, one who saw these 
 pastimes in a very ditlerent point of view, and some may think his 
 invectives are more severe than just ; however, 1 am afraid the 
 conclusion of them, though perhaps much exaggerated, is not al- 
 together without foundation. He writes thus:^ " Against Maie- 
 day, Whitsunday, or some other time of the year, every parish, 
 towne, or village, assemble themselves, both men, women, and 
 children; and either all together, or dividing themselves into 
 companies, they goe some to the woods and groves, some to the 
 hills and mountaines, some to one place, some to another, where 
 they spend all the night in pleasant pastimes, and in the morning 
 they return, bringing with them birclie boughes and branches of 
 trees to deck their assemblies withal. But their chiefest jewel 
 they bring from thence is the Maie-pole, which they bring home 
 with great veneration, as thus — they have twentie or fourtie 
 yoake of oxen, every oxe having a sweete nosegaie of flowers 
 tied to the tip of his homes, and these oxen drawe home the 
 May-poale, their stinking idol ^ rather, which they covered all 
 over with flowers and hearbes, bound round with strings from 
 the top to the bottorae, and sometimes it was painted with va- 
 riable colours, having two or three hundred men, women, and 
 children following it with great devotion. And thus equipped 
 it was reared with handkerchiefes and flagges streaming on the 
 top, they strawe the ground round about it, they bind green 
 
 ' Survey of London , p. 80. 
 
 * In his Anatomie of Abuses, rrinUd in 159j. 
 
 * The May-pole is treated with little le»- ceremony by the_ Rev ThomasHal], another 
 Reformist, cited in the Introduction.
 
 CHAP, in, OF THE PEOPLE OV ENGLAND. 35'i 
 
 boughs about it, they set uji summer halles, bowers, and ar- 
 bours hard by it, and then fall they to banquetting- and feasting;, 
 to leaping- and dauncing- about it, as the heathen people did at 
 the dedication of their idolls. I have heard it crediblie reported, 
 by men of great gravity, credite, and reputation, that of fourtie, 
 threescore, or an hundred maides going to the wood, there have 
 scarcely the third part of them returned home againe as they 
 went." 
 
 In the churchwarden's account for the parish of St. Helen's 
 in Abingdon, Berks, dated 1566, the ninth of Elizabeth, is the 
 following article: " Payde for setting up Robin Hoode's bower, 
 eighteenpence ;" that is, a bower for the reception of the fictitious 
 Robin Hood and his company, belonging to the May-day 
 pageant.^ 
 
 XVI.— THE LORD AND LADY OF THE MAY. 
 
 It seems to have been the constant custom, at the celebration 
 of the May-games, to elect a Lord and Lady of the May, who 
 probably presided over the sports. On the thirtieth of May, 
 1567, in the fourth year of queen Mary, " was a goodly May- 
 game in Fenchurch-street, with drums, and guns, and pikes; 
 and with the nine worthies who rode, and each of them made 
 his speech, there was also a morrice dance, and an elephant and 
 castle, and the Lord and Lady of the May appearing to make up 
 the show." 2 We also read that the Lord of the May, and no 
 doubt his Lady also, was decorated with scarfs, ribbands, and 
 other fineries. Hence, in the comedy called The Knight of the 
 Burning Pestle, written by Beaumont and Fletcher in 1611, a 
 citizen, addressing himself to the other actors, says, " Let Ralph 
 come out on May-day in the morning, and speak upon a con- 
 duit, with all his scarfs about him, and his feathers, and his rings, 
 and his knacks, as Lord of the May." His request is complied 
 with, and Ralph appears upon the stage in the assumed cha- 
 racter, where he makes his speech, beginning in this manner: 
 
 With gilded staff and crossed scarf the May Lord here I stand. 
 
 The citizen is supposed to be a spectator, and Ralph is his ap- 
 prentice, but permitted by him to play in the piece. 
 
 At the commencement of the.sixteenth century, or perhaps still 
 earlier, the ancient stories of Robin Hood and his frolicsome 
 
 ' Archajologia, vol. i. cap. -J, p. li. 
 
 - Strype'sEccles. Mem. vol.iii. cap. 4y, p..S77. 
 
 <2 4
 
 354 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK IV 
 
 companions seem to have been new-modelled, and divided into 
 separate ballads, which much increased their popularity; for 
 this reason it was customary to personify this famous outlaw, 
 with several of his most noted associates, and add them to the 
 pag-eantry of the May-games. He presided as Lord of the May; 
 and a female, or rather, perhaps, a man habited like a female, 
 called the Maid Marian, his faithful mistress, was the Lady of 
 the May. His companions were distinguished by the title of 
 " Robin Hood's 3Ien," and were also equipped in appropriate 
 dresses ; their coats, hoods, and hose were generally green. 
 Henry VHL, in the first year of his reign, one morning, by 
 Way of pastime, came suddenly into the chamber where the 
 queen and her ladies were sitting. He was attended by twelve 
 noblemen, all apparelled in short coats of Kentish kendal, with 
 hoods and hosen of the same ; each of them had his bow, with 
 arrows, and a sword, and a buckler, " like outlawes, or Robyn 
 Hode's men." The queen, it seems, at first was somewhat 
 affrighted by their appearance, of which she was not the least 
 apprised. This gay troop performed several dances, and then 
 departed." ' 
 
 Bishop Latimer, in a sermon which he preached before king- 
 Edward VL, relates the following anecdote, which proves the 
 great popularity of the May pageants. " Coming," says he, 
 " to a certain town on a holiday to preach, I found the church 
 door fast locked. I taryed there half an houre and more, 
 and at last the key was found, and one of the parish comes 
 to me and sayes, Syr, this is a busy day with us, we cannot 
 hear you ; it is Robin Hoode's day ; the parish are gone abroad 
 to gather for Robin Hood; I pray you let ^ them not. I was 
 fayne, therefore, to give place to Robin Hood. T thought my 
 rochet would have been regarded ; but it would not serve, it 
 was faine to give place to Robin Hoode's men."^ In Garrick's 
 Collection of Old Plays'* is one entitled "A new Playe of 
 Robyn Hoode, for to be played in the May-games, very pleas- 
 aunte and full of Pastyme," printed at London by William 
 Copland, black letter, without date. This playe consists of 
 short dialogues between Robyn Hode, Lytell John, Fryer 
 Tucke, a potter's boy, and the potter. Robyn fights with the 
 fnar. who afterwards becomes his chaplain ; he also breaks the 
 
 ' Hall, in Vit. Hen. VTII. fol. vl ' Hinder or prevent 
 
 * Latimer's Sermons, printed 1589 * K. vol. x.
 
 CHAP. 111. OF Tin? PEOPLE OF ENGLANn. 356 
 
 ooy's pots, and commits several otlier absurdities. The language 
 of the piece is extremely low, and full of ribaldry. 
 
 XVII.— GRAND MAY-GAME AT GREENWICH. 
 
 It lias been observed that the May-games were not confined 
 to the first day of the month, neither were they always concluded 
 in one day ; on the contrary, I have now before me a manu- 
 script,' written apparently in the reign of Henry VII., wherein 
 a number of gentlemen, professing themselves to be the servants 
 of the Lady May, promise to be in the royal park at Greenwich, 
 day after day, from two o'clock in the afternoon till five, in 
 order to perform the various sports and exercises specified in 
 the agreement ; that is to say, 
 
 On the 14th day of May they engage to meet at a place ap- 
 pointed by the king, armed with the " harneis ^ thereunto 
 accustomed, to kepe the fielde, and to run with every coinmer 
 eight courses." Four additional courses were to be granted to 
 any one who desired it, if the time would permit, or the queen 
 was pleased to give them leave ; agreeable to the ancient custom 
 by which the ladies presided as arbitrators at the justs.^ 
 
 On the 15th the archers took the field to shoot at " the 
 standard with flight arrows." 
 
 On the 16th they held a tournament with " swords rebated 
 to strike with every commer eight strokes," according to the 
 accustomed usage. 
 
 On the 18th, for I suppose Sunday intervened, they were to 
 be ready to " wrestle with all commers all manner of ways," 
 according to their pleasure. 
 
 On the 19th they were to enter the field, to fight on foot at 
 the barriers, with spears in their hands and swords rebated 
 by their sides, and with spear and sword to defend their barriers : 
 there were to be eight strokes with the spear, two of them 
 " with the foyne," or short thrust, and eight strokes with the 
 sword ; " every man to take his best advantage with gript or 
 otherwise." 
 
 On the 20th they were to give additional proof of their strength 
 by casting " the barre on foote, and with the arme, bothe heavit 
 
 » Harl. Lib. 69. 
 
 ^ I suppose the author means tilting armour, for the purpose of justing, here 
 called running of courses. 
 » See p. 143. 
 
 2 A «
 
 356 SPORTS ANu PASTIMES I OOK IV, 
 
 and hight." I do not clearly understand this passage, but sup- 
 pose it means by lifting and casting aloft. 
 
 . On the 21st they recommenced the exercises, which were to 
 be continued daily, Sundays excepted, through the remaining 
 part of May, and a fortnight in the month of June. 
 
 XVIII.— ROYAL MAY-GAME AT SHOOTER'S HILL. 
 
 Henry VIII., when young, delighted much in pageantry, 
 and the early part of his reign abounded with gaudy shows ; 
 most of them were his own devising, and others contrived for 
 his amusement. Among the latter we may reckon a May-game 
 at Shooter's hill, which was exhibited by the officers of his 
 guards; they in a body, amounting to two hundred, all of them 
 clothed in green, and headed by their captain, who personated 
 Robin Hood, met the king one morning as he was riding to 
 take the air, accompanied by the queen and a large suite of the 
 nobility of both sexes. The fictitious foresters first amused 
 them with a double discharge of their arrows ; and then, their 
 chief approaching the king, invited him to see the manner in 
 which he and his companions lived. The king complied with 
 the request, and the archers, blowing their horns, conducted 
 him and his train into the wood under the hill, where an arbour 
 was made with green boughs, having a hall, a great chamber, 
 and an inner chamber, and the whole was covered with flowers 
 and sweet herbs. When the company had entered the arbour, 
 Robin Hood excused the want of more abundant refreshment, 
 saying to the king, " Sir, we outlaws usually breakfast upon 
 venison, and have no other food to offer you." The king and 
 queen then sat down, and were served with venison and wine ; 
 and after the entertainment, with which it seems they were well 
 pleased, they departed, and on their return were met by two 
 ladies riding in a rich open chariot, drawn by five horses. 
 Every horse, according to Holingshed, had his name upon his 
 head, and upon every horse sat a lady, Avith her name written. 
 On the first horse, called Lawde, sat Humidity ; on the second, 
 named Memeon, sat lady Vert, or green ; on the third, called 
 Pheton, sat lady Vegitive ; on the fourth, called Rimphon, sat 
 lady Pleasaunce; on the fifth, called Larapace, sat Sweet 
 Odour.' Both of the ladies in the chariot were splendidly 
 
 Hal), in Vit. Hen. VHI. au. 2, p. vi.
 
 t;HAI». III. OF THF, PEOPIE OF ENGLAND. 367 
 
 apparelled ; one of them personified the Lady May, and the 
 other Lady Flora, " who," we are told, " saluted the king with 
 divers goodly songs, and so brought him to Greenwich." 
 
 We may here just observe that the May-games had attracted 
 the notice of the nobility long before the time of Henry ; and 
 agreeable to the custom of the times, no doubt, was the following 
 curious passage in the old romance called The Death of Arthur: 
 " Now it befell in the moneth of lusty May, that queene Gue- 
 never called unto her the knyghtes of the round table, and 
 gave them warning that, early in the morning, she should ride 
 on maying into the woods and fields beside Westminster." The 
 knights were all of them to be clothed in green, to be well 
 horsed, and every one of them to have a lady behind him, fol- 
 lowed by an esquire and two yeomen, &c.' 
 
 XIX.— MAY MILK-MAIDS. 
 
 " It is at this time," that is, in May, says the author of one 
 of the papers in the Spectator,^ " we see the brisk young wenches, 
 in the country parishes, dancing round the Maypole. It is 
 likewise on the first day of this month that we see the ruddy 
 milk-maid exerting herself in a most sprightly manner under 
 a pyramid of silver tankards, and like the virgin Tarpeia, op- 
 pressed by the costly ornaments which her benefactors lay upon 
 her. These decorations of silver cups, tankards, and salvers, 
 were borrowed for the purpose, and hung round the milk-pails, 
 with the addition of flowers and ribbands, which the maidens 
 carried upon their heads when they went to the houses of their 
 customers, and danced in order to obtain a small gratuity from 
 each of them. In a set of prints called Tempest's Cryes of 
 London, there is one called the merry milk-maid's, whose proper 
 name was Kate Smith. She is dancing with the milk-pail deco- 
 rated as above mentioned, upon her head.^ Of late years the 
 plate, with the other decorations, were placed in a pyramidical 
 form, and carried by two chairmen upon a wooden horse. The 
 maidens walked before it, and performed the dance without 
 any incumbrance. I really cannot discover what analogy the 
 silver tankards and salvers can have to the business of the milk- 
 
 ' See an account of this book iu the Introduction, 
 s Vol. V. No. 365, first published A. D. 1712. 
 ' See Granger's Biog. Hist. vol. iv. p. 334,
 
 858 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK IV. 
 
 maids. I have seen them act with much more propriety upon 
 this occasion, when in place of these superfluous ornaments they 
 substituted a cow. The animal had her horns gilt, and was 
 nearly covered with ribbands of various colours, formed into 
 bows and roses, and interspersed with green oaken leaves and 
 bunches of flowers. 
 
 XX.— MAY FESTIVAL OF THE CHIMNEY-SWEEPERS. 
 
 The chimney-sweepers of London have also singled out the 
 first of May for their festival ; at which time they parade the 
 streets in companies, disguised in various manners. Their 
 dresses are usually decorated with gilt paper, and other mock 
 fineries; they have their shovels and brushes in their bands, 
 which they rattle one upon the other; and to this rough music 
 they jump about in imitation of dancing. Some of the larger 
 companies have a fiddler with them, and a Jack in the Green, 
 as well as a Lord and Lady of the May, who follow the minstrel 
 with great stateliness, and dance as occasion requires. The 
 Jack in the Green is a piece of pageantry consisting of a hollow 
 frame of wood or wicker-work, made in the form of a sugar- 
 loaf, but open at the bottom, and sufliciently large and high 
 to receive a man. The frame is covered with green leaves and 
 bunches of flowers interwoven with each other, so that the man 
 within may be completely concealed, who dances with his com- 
 panions, and the populace are mightily pleased with the oddity 
 of the moving pyramid. 
 
 XXL— WHITSUN GAMES. 
 
 The Whitsuntide holidays were celebrated by various pas- 
 times commonly practised upon other festivals ; but the Monday 
 after the Whitsun week, at Kidlington in Oxfordshire, a fat 
 lamb was provided, and the maidens of the town, having their 
 thumbs tied behind them, were permitted to run after it, and 
 she who with her mouth took hold of the lamb was declared 
 tlie Lady of the Lamb, which, being killed and cleaned, but 
 with the skin hanging upon it, was carried on a long pole before 
 the lady and her companions to the green, attended with music, 
 and a morisco dance of men, and another of women. The rest 
 of the day was spent in mirth and merry glee. Next day the
 
 CHAP. III. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 359 
 
 lamb, partly baked, partly boiled, and partly roasted, was 
 served up for the lady's feast, where she sat, " majestically at 
 the upper end of the table, and her companions with her," the 
 music playing- during the repast, which, being finished, the 
 solemnity ended.' 
 
 XXII.— MIDSUMMER EVE FESTIVAL. 
 
 On the Vigil of Saint John the Baptist, commonly called 
 Midsummer Eve, it was usual in most country places, and also 
 in towns and cities, for the inhabitants, both old and young, 
 and of both sexes, to meet together, and make merry by the 
 side of a large fire made in the middle of the street, or in some 
 open and convenient place, over which the young men frequently 
 leaped by way of frolic, and also exercised themselves with 
 various sports and pastimes, more especially with running 
 wrestling, and dancing. These diversions they continued till 
 midnight, and sometimes till cock-crowing ; ^ several of the 
 superstitious ceremoiu'es practised upon this occasion are con- 
 tained in the following verses, as they are translated by Barnabe 
 Googe, from the fourth book of The Popish Kingdome, written 
 in Latin by Tho. Neogeorgus : the translation was dedicated tf 
 queen Elizabeth, and appeared in 1570. 
 
 Then dotli the joyful! feast of John the Baptist take his turne, 
 When honfiers great, with loftie flame, in every towue doe burne : 
 And yong men round about with maides doe daunce in every streete, 
 With garlands wrought of Mother-wort, or else with Vervaine sweete 
 And many other flowres faire, with Violets in their handes 
 Whereas they all do fondly thiuke, that whosoever stands, 
 And thorow the flowres beholds the flame, his eyes shall feele no paine. 
 When thus till night they daunced have, they through the fire amaine 
 With striving mindes doe run, and all their hearbes they cast therin. 
 And then, with wordes devout and prayers, they solemnely begin, 
 Desiring God that all their illes may there confounded bee, 
 Whereby they thinke through all that yeare, from Agues to be free. 
 
 At London, in addition to the bonfires, " on the eve of this 
 saint, as well as upon that of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, every 
 man's door was shaded with green birch, long fennel, Saint 
 John's wort, orpin, white lilies, and the like, oinamented with 
 garlands of beautiful flowers. They, the citizens, had also 
 
 ' Blount's Ancient Tenures, p. 49. ' Bourne's Antiq. vol. ix. chap. 27
 
 3G0 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK IV. 
 
 lamps of glass with oil burning in them all night; and some 
 of them hung out branches of iron, curiously wrought, con- 
 taining hundreds of lamps lighted at once, which made a very 
 splendid appearance." This information we receive from Stow, 
 who tells us that, in his time. New Fish-street and Thames- 
 street were peculiarly brilliant upon ihese occasions. 
 
 XXIII.— SUPPOSED ORIGIN OF THE MIDSUMMER VIGIL. 
 
 The reasons assigned for making bonfires upon the vigil of 
 Saint John in particular are various, for many writers have 
 attempted the investigation of their origin ; but unfortunately 
 all their arguments, owing to the want of proper information, 
 are merely hypothetical, and of course cannot be much depended 
 upon. Those who suppose these fires to be a relic of some 
 ancient heathenish superstition engrafted upon the variegated 
 stock of ceremonies belonging to the Romish church, are not, in 
 my opinion, far distant from the truth. The looking- through 
 the flowers at the fire, the casting of them finally into it, and 
 the invocation to the Deity, with the eflfects supposed to be pro- 
 duced by those ceremonies, as mentioned in the preceding poem, 
 are circumstances that seem to strengthen such a conclusion. 
 
 According- to some of the pious writers of antiquity, they 
 made large fires, Avhich might be seen at a great distance, upon 
 the vigil of this saint, in token that he was said in holy writ to 
 be " a shining light." Others, agreeing with this, add also, 
 these fires Mere made to drive away the dragons and evil spirits 
 hovering in the air ; and one of them gravely says, in some 
 countries they burned bones, which was called a bone-fire ; for 
 " the dragons hattyd nothyng mor than the styncke of brenyng 
 bonys." This, says another, habent ex gentilibus, they have 
 from the heathens. The author last cited laments the abuses 
 committed upon these occasions. " This vigil," says he, "ought 
 to be held with cheerfulness and piety, but not with such merri- 
 ment as is shewn by the profane lovers of this world, Avho make 
 great fires in the streets, and indulge themselves with filthy and 
 unlawful games, to which they add glotony and drunkenness, 
 and the commission of many other shameful indecencies."' 
 
 > MSS. Harl. 2354 and 2391.
 
 CHAP. in. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 351 
 
 XXIV.— SETTING OF THE MIDSUMMER WATCH. 
 
 In former times it was customary in London, and in other 
 great cities, to set the Midsummer watch upon the eve of Saint 
 John the Baptist; and this was usually performed with great 
 pomp and pageantry.^ The following short extract from the 
 faithful historian, John Stow, will be sufficient to show the 
 childishness as well as the expensiveness of this idle spectacle. 
 The institution, he assures us, had been appointed, " tijne out 
 of mind ; " and upon this occasion the sJanding watches 
 *' in bright harness." There was also a marching watch, that 
 passed through all the principal streets. In order to furnish 
 this watch with lights, there were appointed seven hundred 
 cressets ; the charge for every cresset was two shillings and 
 fourpcnce ; every cresset required two men, the one to bear it, 
 and the other to carry a bag with light to serve it. The cresset 
 was a large lanthorn fixed at the end of a long pole, and carried 
 upon a man's shoulder. The cressets were found partly by the 
 different companies, and partly by the city chamber. Every 
 one of the cresset-bearers was paid for his trouble; he had also 
 given to him, that evening-, a strawen hat and a painted badge, 
 besides the donation of his breakfast next morning. The 
 marching watch consisted of two thousand men, most of them 
 being old soldiers of every denomination. They appeared m 
 appropriate habits, with their arms in their hands, and many 
 of them, especially the musicians and the standard bearers, 
 rode upon great horses. There were also divers pageants and 
 morris-dancers with the constables, one half of which, to the 
 amount of one hundred and twenty, went out on the eve of 
 Saint John, and the other half on the eve of Saint Peter. 
 The constables were dressed in " bright harnesse, some over 
 gilt, and every one had a joinet of scarlet thereupon, 
 and a chain of gold ; his henchman following him, and his 
 minstrels before him, and his cresset-light at his side. The 
 mayor himself came after him, well mounted, with his sword- 
 bearer before him, in fair armour on horseback, preceded by 
 the waits, or city minstrels, and the mayor's officers in liveries 
 of worsted, or say jackets party coloured. The mayor was 
 
 Tbe midsummer pageants at Chester are fully described in the Introduction.
 
 362 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK IV» 
 
 surrounded by his footmen and torch-bearers, and followed by 
 two henchmen on large horses. The sheriffs' watches came 
 one after the other in like order, but not so numerous ; for the 
 mayor had, besides his giant, three pageants ; whereas the 
 sheriffs had only two besides their giants, each with their morris- 
 dance and one henchman: their officers were clothed in jackets 
 of worsted, or say party-coloured, but differing from those be- 
 longing to the mayor, and from each other: they had also a 
 great number of harnessed men." ' This old custom of setting 
 the watch in London was maintained until the year 1539, in the 
 3 1st year of Henry VIII. when it was discontinued on account 
 of the expense, and revived in the year 1548, the 2d of Edward 
 VI. and soon after that time it was totally abolished. 
 
 On Midsummer eve it was customary annually at Burford, 
 in Oxfordshire, to carry a dragon up and down the town, with 
 mirth and rejoicing; to which they also added the picture' of 
 a giant. Dr. Plott tells us, this pageantry was continued ni 
 his memory, and says it was established, at least {he dragon 
 part of the show, in memory of a famous victory obtained near 
 that place, about 750, by Cuthred, king of the west Saxons, 
 over Ethebald, king of Mercia, who lost his standard, sur- 
 mounted by a golden dragon,^ in the action. 
 
 XXV.— PROCESSIONS ON ST. CLEMENT'S AND ST. CATHERINE'S 
 
 DAYS. 
 
 The Anniversary of Saint Clement, and that of Saint Cathe- 
 rine, the first upon the 23d, and the second upon the 25th, of 
 November, were formerly particularized by religious proces- 
 sions which had been disused after the Reformation, but again 
 established by queen Mary. In the year she ascended the 
 throne, according to Strype, on the evening of Saint Catherine's 
 day, her procession was celebrated at London with five hundred 
 great lights, which were carried round Saint Paul's steeple ;* 
 and again three years afterwards, her image, if I clearly under- 
 stand my author, was taken about the battlements of the same 
 church Avith fine singing and many great lights.^ But the most 
 splendid show of this kind that took place in Mary's time was 
 the procession on Saint Clement's day, exhibited in the streets 
 
 * Survey of London, pp. 84, 85. 
 
 * Perhaps it should be image, and resembled those commonly used in other pageants. 
 '■' Nat. Hist Oxford, p. 3iB, and Blount's Ancient Tenures, p. 154. 
 
 * Eccl. Memoirs, vol. iii. chap. 39, p. 51. * Ibid. p. 309.
 
 CHAP. 11 r. OF THE PKOPLE OF ENGLAND. 363 
 
 of London: it consisted of sixty priests and clerks in their 
 copes, attended by divers of the inns of court, who went next 
 the priests, preceded by eighty banners and streamers, with the 
 waits or minstrels of the city playing upon different instruments.* 
 
 XXVI.— WASSAILS. 
 
 Wassail, or rather the wassail bowl, which was a bowl of spiced 
 ale, formerly carried about by young women on New-year's eve, 
 who went from door to door in their several parishes singing- 
 a few couplets of homely verses composed for the purpose, and 
 presented the liquor to the inhabitants of the house where they 
 called, expecting a small gratuity in return, Selden alludes to 
 this custom in the following comparison : " The Pope, in sending 
 reliques to princes, does as wenches do by their wassails at New- 
 year's tide, they present you with a cup, and you must drink 
 of a slabby stuff; but the meaning is, you must give them 
 monies ten times more than it is worth." ^ The wassail is said 
 to have originated from the words of Rowena, the dauohter 
 of Hengist ; who, presenting a bowl of wine to Vortigern, the 
 king of the Britons, said, Woes heel, or. Health to you, my lord 
 the king; ( fZaej' hjel lapopb cynning). If this derivation of tJie 
 custom should be thought doubtful, I can only say that it has 
 the authority at least of antiquity on its side. The wassails are 
 now quite obsolete ; but it seems that fifty years back, some 
 vestiges of them were remaining in Cornwall ; but the time of 
 their performance was changed to twelfth-day.^ 
 
 XXVII.— SHEEP-SHEARING AND HARVEST-HOME. 
 
 There are two feasts annually held among the farmers of 
 this country, which are regularly made in the spring, and at 
 the end of the summer, or the beginning of autumn, but not con- 
 fined to any particular day. The first is the sheep-shearing, 
 and the second the harvest-home ; both of them were celebratf'd 
 m ancient times with feasting and variety of rustic pastimes : 
 at present, excepting a dinner, or more frequently a supper, at 
 the conclusion of the sheep-shearing and the harvest, we have 
 little remains of the former customs. 
 
 • Eccl. Memoirs, vol. iii. chap. 49, p. 377 « Table I'alk, 1689, article rope. 
 
 * Heath's Description of Cornwall, p. 445
 
 3(34 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK IV. 
 
 The particular manner in which the sheep-shearing- was cele- 
 brated in old time is not recorded ; but respecting the harvest- 
 honje we meet with several curious observations. Hentzner, a 
 foreign gentleman, who was in England at the close of the six- 
 teenth century, and wrote an account of what he saw here, says, 
 "as we were returning to our inn, (in or near Windsor) we hap- 
 pened to meet some country people celebrating- their harvest- 
 home : their last load of corn they crown with flowers, having 
 besides, an image richly dressed, by which perhaps they signify 
 Ceres ; this they keep movmg about, while the men and women, 
 and men and maid-servants, riding through the streets in the cart, 
 shout as loud as they can till they arrive at the barn." Moresin, 
 another foreign writer, also tells us that he saw " in England, the 
 country people bring home," from the harvest field, I presume 
 he means, " a figure made with corn, round which the men and 
 the women were promiscuously singing, and preceded by a piper 
 or a drum."^ " In the north," says Mr. Brand, "not half a 
 century ago, they used every where to dress up a figure some- 
 thing similar to that just described, at the end of harvest, which 
 they called a kern-baby, plainly a corruption of corn-baby, as 
 the kern, or churn supper, is of corn-supper.^ 
 
 The harvest-supper in some places is called a mell-supper, and 
 a churn-supper. Mell is plainly derived from the French word 
 mesler, to mingle together, the master and servant promiscuously 
 at the same table.^ At the mell-supper, BournC* tells us, " the 
 servant and his master are alike, and every thing is done with 
 equal freedom ; they sit at the same table, converse freely to- 
 gether, and spend the remaining part of the night in dancing- 
 and singing, without any diflference or distinction. " There was," 
 continues my author, " a custom among the heathens much like 
 this at the gathering of their harvest, when the servants were 
 indulged with their liberty, and put upon an equality with their 
 masters for a certain time. Probably both of them originated 
 from the Jewish feast of tabernacles."^ 
 
 XXVIII.— WAKES. 
 
 The wakes when first instituted in this country were established 
 upon religious principles, and greatly resembled the agapce, 
 
 ' Praecedente tibicine aut tympano. Moresin. Deprav. Reliq. Orig. in verbo vacina. 
 
 * BrEind's Observations on Bourne's Vulg. Autiq. cbap. xxxi. p. 303. 
 
 * Ibid. * Valg. Antiq. ut supra. * Ibid.
 
 CHAP. II r. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 365 
 
 AyuTrai, oT love feasts of the early Christians. It seems, how- 
 ever, clear, that they derived their origin from some more 
 ancient rites practised in the times of paganism. Hence Pope 
 Gregory, in his letter to Melitus, a British abbot, says, " where- 
 as the people were accustomed to sacrifice many oxen in honour 
 of dcemons, let them celebrate a religious and solemn festival, 
 and not slay the animals, diabolo, to the devil, but to be eaten 
 by themselves, ad laudem Dei, to the praise of God." - These 
 festivals were primitively held upon the day of the dedication 
 of the church in each district, or the birth-day of the saint whose 
 relics were therein deposited, or to whose honour it was con- 
 secrated ; for which purpose the people were directed to make 
 booths and tents with the boughs of trees adjoining to the churhces, 
 circa easdem ecclesias,^ and in them to celebrate the feast with 
 thanksgiving and prayer. In process of time the people assem- 
 bled on the vigil, or evening preceding the saint's-day, and 
 came, says an old author, " to churche with candellys burnyng, 
 and would wake, and come toward night to the church in their 
 devocion,"" agreeable to the requisition contained in one of the 
 canons established by king Edgar, whereby those who came to 
 the wake were ordered to pray devoutly, and not to betake 
 themselves to drunkenness and debauchery. The necessity for 
 this restriction plainly indicates that abuses of this religious in- 
 stitution began to make their appearance as early as the tenth 
 century. I'he author above cited goes on, " and afterwards the 
 pepul fell to letcherie, and songs, and daunses, with harping 
 and piping, and also to glotony and sinne ; and so tourned the 
 holyness to cursydness; wherefore holy faders ordeyned the 
 pepull to leve that waking and to fast the evyn, but it is called 
 vigilia, that is waking, in English, and eveyn, for of eveyn 
 they were wont to come to churche." In proportion as these 
 festivals deviated from the original design of their institution, 
 they became more popular, the conviviality was extended, and 
 not only the inhabitants of the parish to which the church be- 
 longed were present at them, but they were joined by others 
 from the neighbouring towns and parishes, who flocked together 
 upon these occasions, and the greater the reputation of the tute- 
 lar saint, the greater generally was the promiscuous assembly. 
 
 ' Bede, Eccl. Hist. lib. i. cap. 30. ' Ibid. 
 
 * Homily for the Vigil of St. John Baptist. MS. Harl.
 
 306 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK IV 
 
 The pedlars and hawkers attended to sell their wares, and so 
 by degrees the religious wake was converted into a secular fair. 
 The riot and debaucheries which eventually took place at these 
 nocturnal meetings, became so offensive to religious persons 
 that they were suppressed, and regular fairs established, to be 
 held on the saint's-day, or upon some other day near to it as 
 might be most convenient ; and if the place did not admit of 
 any traffic of consequence, the time was spent in festive mirth 
 and vulgar amusements. These fairs still retain the ancient 
 name of wakes in many parts of the kingdom. 
 
 XXIX.— SUNDAY FESTIVALS. 
 
 ^' In the northern parts of this nation," says Bourne, " the 
 inhabitants of most country villages are wont to observe some 
 Sunday in a more particular manner than the other common 
 Sundays of the year, namely, the Sunday after the day of de- 
 dication of their church," that is, the Sunday after the saint's 
 day to whom the church was dedicated. " Then the people 
 deck themselves in their gaudiest clothes, and have open doors 
 and splendid entertainments for the reception and treating of 
 their relations and friends, who visit them on that occasion from 
 each neighbouring town. The morning is spent for the most 
 part at church, though not as that morning was wont to be 
 spent, with the commemoration of the saint or martyr; nor the 
 grateful remembrance of the builder and endower." Being 
 come from church, the remaining part of the day is spent in 
 eating and drinking, and so is a day or two afterwards, together 
 with all sorts of rural pastimes and exercises, such as dancing 
 on the green, wrestling, cudgelling, and the like. " In the 
 northern parts, the Sunday's feasting is almost lost, and they 
 observe only one day for the whole, which among them is called 
 hopping, I suppose from the dancing and other exercises then 
 practised. Here they used to end many quarrels between 
 neighbour and neighbour, and hither came the wives in comely 
 manner, and they which were of the better sort had their mantles 
 carried v/ith them, as well for show as to keep them from the 
 cold at the table. These mantles also many did use at the 
 churches, at the morrow masses, and at other times." ' 
 
 ' Antiq. Vulg. chap. 30.
 
 CHAP. III. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAM). 367 
 
 XXX.— CHURCH-ALES. 
 
 The Church-ales, called also Easter-ales, and Whitsun-ales 
 from their being sometimes held on Easter-Sunday, and on Whif- 
 Sunday, or on some of the holidays that follow them, certainly 
 originated from the wakes. The churchwardens and other chief 
 parish officers observing the wakes to be more popular than any 
 other holidays, rightly conceived, that by establishing other in- 
 stitutions somewhat similar to them, they might draw together 
 a large company of people, and annually collect from them, 
 gratuitously as it were, such sums of money for the support and 
 repairs of the church, as would be a great easement to the parish 
 rates. By way of enticement to the populace they brewed a certain 
 portion of strong ale, to be ready on the day appointed for the fes- 
 tival, which they sold to them; and most of the better sort, in ad- 
 dition to what they paid for their drink, contributed something 
 towards the collection ; but in some instances the inhabitants of 
 one or more parishes were mulcted in a certain sum according to 
 mutual agreement, as we find by an ancient stipulation,' couched 
 in the following terms : " The parishioners of Elvertoon and those 
 of Okebrook in Derbyshire agree jointly to brew four ales, and 
 every ale of one quarter of malt between this,^ and the feast of 
 Saint John the Baptist next comming, and every inhabitant of 
 the said town of Okebrook shall be at the several ales ; and 
 every husband and his wife shall pay two pence, and every cot- 
 tager one penny. And the inhabitants of Elverton shall have 
 and receive all (he profits comming of the said ales, to the use 
 and behoof of the church of Elverton ; and the inhabitants of 
 Elverton shall brew eight ales betwixt this and the feast of 
 Saint John, at which ales the inhabitants of Okebrook shall come 
 and pay as before rehearsed ; and if any be away one ale, he is 
 to pay at t'oder ale for both." In Cornwall the church-ales 
 were ordered in a different manner ; for there two young men of a 
 parish were annually chosen by their foregoers to be wardens, 
 ** who, dividing the task, made collections among the parishioners 
 of whatever provision it pleased them to bestow ; this they em- 
 ployed in brewing, baking-, and other acates, against Whitson- 
 tide, upon which holidaies the neighbours meet at tne church- 
 
 ' Dotlsworth's MSS. Bid. Bob. vol. 148. fol. 97. 
 
 * That is, the time the contiact was made. .
 
 3(58 SPORTS ANP PASTIMES BOOK IV 
 
 house, and there merely feed on their own victuals, contributing 
 some petty portion to the stock. When the feast is ended, the 
 wardens yield in their accounts to the parishioners ; and such 
 money as exceedeth the disbursements, is layed up in store to 
 defray any extraordinary charges arising in the parish." ^ 
 
 To what has been said upon this subject, I shall only add 
 the following extract from Philip Stubs, an author before quoted, 
 who lived in the reign of queen Elizabeth, whose writings ^ are 
 pointed against the popular vices and immoralities of his time. 
 " In certaine townes," says he, " where drunken Bacchus bears 
 swaie against Christmass and Easter, Whitsunday, or some 
 other time, the churchwardens, for so they call them, of every 
 parish, with the consent of the whole parish, provide half a 
 score or twentie quarters of mault, whereof some they buy of 
 the church stocke, and some is given to them of the parishioners 
 themselves, every one conferring somewhat, according to his 
 ability; which mault being made into very strong ale, or beer, 
 is set to sale, either in the church^ or in some other place assigned 
 to that purpose. Then, when this nippitatum, this huffe-cappe, 
 as they call it, this nectar of life, is set abroach, well is he that 
 can get the soonest to it, and spends the most at it, for he is 
 counted the godliest man of all the rest, and most in God's 
 favour, because it is spent upon his church forsooth. If all be 
 true which they say, they bestow that money which is got 
 thereby for the repaire of their churches and chappels ; they buy 
 bookes for the service, cupps for the celebration of the sacra- 
 ment, surplesses for Sir John, and such other necessaries," &c. 
 He then proceeds to speak upon " the manner of keeping- 
 wakesses (wakes) in England," in a style similar to that above 
 cited, and says they were "the sources of gluttonie and drun- 
 kenness ; " and adds, " many spend more at one of these 
 wakesses than in all the whole year besides." It has before 
 been observed that this author is very severe upon most of the 
 popular sports; but in justice to him I may add, that similar 
 complaints have been exhibited against the church-ales and 
 wakes in times greatly anterior to his existence. And, indeed, 
 if M'e look at the wakes and fairs as they are conducted in the 
 present day, I trust we shall not hesitate to own that th^^y are 
 
 ' Carew's Survey of Cornwall, 1602, book i. p. 68. 
 
 • 'I'Le Anatomic of Abuses, 159.5. 
 
 ' 1 rather think it should be churchyard.
 
 CHAP, III. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 369 
 
 hy iio means proper schools for the improvement of the public 
 morals. 
 
 The ing-enious researcher into the causes of melancholy thinks 
 that these kinds of amusement ought not to be denied to the 
 commonalty.^ Chaucer, in the Ploughman's Tale, reproves 
 -he priests because they were more attentive to the practice of 
 secular pastimes than to the administration of their holy functions, 
 saying" they were expert 
 
 At the wrestlynge and at the wake. 
 
 And chefe chauntours at the nale, 
 Markette beaters, and medlyng make, 
 
 Hoppen and houters with heve and hale. 
 
 XXXI.— FAIRS. 
 
 The church-ales have long- been discontinued ; the wakes are 
 still kept up in the northern parts of the kingdom; but neither 
 they nor the fairs maintain their former importance ; many of 
 both, and most of the latter, have dwindled into mere markets 
 for petty traffic, or else they are confined to the purposes of 
 drinkmg, or the displayment of vulgar pastimes. These pas- 
 ^timcs, or at least such of them as occur to my memory, I shall 
 mention here in a cursory manner, and pass on to the remaining- 
 part of this chapter. In a paper belonging to the Spectator ^ 
 there is a short description of a country wake. " I found," says 
 the author, " a ring of cudgel-players, Avho were breaking- one 
 another's heads in order to make some impression on their mis- 
 tresses' hearts," He then came to " a foot-ball match," and after- 
 wards to " a ring of wrestlers." Here he observes, " the squire 
 of the parish always treats the company every year with a 
 hogshead of ale, and proposes a beaver hat as a recompence 
 to him who gives the most falls." The last sport he mentions 
 is pitching the bar. But he might, and with great propriety, 
 have added most of the games in practice among the lower 
 classes of the people that have been specified in the foregoing- 
 pages, and perhaps the whistling- match recorded in another 
 ^Gper.^ " The prize," we are told, " was one guinea, to be con- 
 crred upon the ablest whistler; that is, he that could whistle 
 clearest, and go through his tune without laughing, to which 
 at the same time he was provoked by the antic postures of a 
 
 ' Burton, Anat. Melancholy, part ii. sect. 2. cap. 4. 
 
 5 Vol. ii. No. 161, first printed 1711. » Vol. iii. No. 
 
 « B
 
 ^10 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK IV. 
 
 merry -an drew, who was to stand upon the stage, and play his 
 tricks in the eye of the performer. There were three competitors ; 
 the two first failed, but the third, in defiance of the zany and 
 all his arts, whistled through two tunes with so settled a coun- 
 tenance that he bore away the prize, to the great admiration of 
 the spectators." This paper was written by Addison, M'ho assures 
 us he was present at the performance, which took place at Bath 
 about the year 1708. To this he adds another curious pastime, 
 as a kind of Christmas gambol, which he had seen also; that 
 is, a yawning match for a Cheshire cheese; the sport began 
 about midnight, when the whole company were disposed to be 
 drowsy ; and he that yawned the widest, and at the same time 
 most naturally, so as to produce the greatest number of yawns 
 from the spectators, obtained the cheese. 
 
 The barbarous and wicked diversion of throwing at cocks 
 usually took place at all the wakes and fairs that were held 
 about Shrovetide, and especially at such of them as were kept 
 on Shrove-Tuesday. Upon the abolition of this inhuman custom, 
 the place of the living birds was supplied by toys made in the 
 shape of cocks, with large and heavy stands of lead, at which 
 the boys, on paying some very trifling sum, were permitted to 
 throw as heretofore; and he who could overturn the toy claimed 
 it as a reward for his adroitness. This innocent pastime never 
 became popular, for the sport derived from the torment of a 
 living' creature existed no longer, and its want was not to be 
 compensated by the overthrowing or breaking a motionless re- 
 presentative ; therefore the diversion was very soon discontinued. 
 
 At present, snuff-boxes, tobacco-boxes, and other trinkets 
 of small value, or else halfpence or gingerbread, placed upon 
 low stands, are thrown at, and sometimes apples and oranges, 
 set up in small heaps; and children are usually enticed to lay 
 out their money for permission to throw at them by the owners, 
 who keep continually bawling, " Knock down one you have 
 them all." A halfpenny is the common price for one throw, 
 and the distance about ten or twelve yards. 
 
 The Jingling Match is a diversion common enough at country 
 wakes and fairs. The performance requires a large circle, en- 
 closed with ropes, which is occupied by as many persons as 
 are permitted to play. They rarely exceed nine or ten. All of 
 these, except one of the most active, who is the jingler, have 
 their eyes blinded with handkerchiefs or napkins. The eyes of
 
 CHAP. III. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 371 
 
 the jingler are not covered, but he holds a small bell in each 
 hand, which he is obliged to keep ringing" incessantly so long 
 as the play continues, which is commonly about twenty minutes, 
 l)ut sometimes it is extended to half an hour. In some places 
 the jingler has also small bells affixed to his knees and elbows. 
 His business is to elude the pursuit of his blinded companions, 
 who follow him, by the sound of the bells, in all directions, 
 and sometimes oblige him to exert his utmost abilities to effect 
 his escape, which must be done within the boundaries of the 
 rope, for the laws of the sport forbid him to pass beyond it. 
 If he be caught in the time allotted for the continuance of the 
 game, the person who caught him claims the prize: if, on the 
 contrary, they are not able to take him, the prize becomes his 
 due. 
 
 Hunting the Pig is another favourite rustic pastime. The 
 tail of the animal is previously cut short, and well soaped, and 
 in this condition he is turned out for the populace to run after 
 him; and he who can catch him Avith one hand, and hold him 
 by the stump of the tail without touching any other part, obtains 
 him for his pains. 
 
 Sack Running, that is, men tied up in sacks, every part of 
 them being enclosed except their heads, who are in this manner 
 lo make the best of their way to some given distance, w^here 
 he who first arrives obtains the prize. 
 
 Smock Races are commonly performed by the young country 
 wenches, and so called because the prize is a holland smock, 
 or shift, usually decorated with ribbands. 
 
 The Wheelbarrow Race requires room, and is performed upon 
 some open green, or in a field free from incumbrances. The 
 candidates are all of them blindfolded, and every one has his 
 wheelbarrow, which he is to drive from the starting-place to a 
 mark set up for that purpose, at some considerable distance. 
 He who first reaches the mark of course is the conqueror. But 
 this task is seldom very readily accomplished; on the contrary, 
 the windings and wanderings of these droll knights-errant, in 
 most cases, produce much merriment. 
 
 The Grinning Match is performed by two or more persons 
 endeavouring to exceed each other in the distortion of their 
 features, every one of them having his head thrust through a 
 horse's collar. 
 
 Smoking Matches are usually made for tobacco-boxes, or 
 
 s B 2
 
 •372 SPORTS AND f AST/MES BOOK IV, 
 
 some other trifling prizes, and may be performed two ways : the 
 first is a trial among the candidates who shall smoke a pipe full 
 of tobacco in the shortest time : the second is precisely the re- 
 verse; for he of them who can keep the tobacco alight within 
 his pipe, and retain it there the longest, receives the reward. 
 
 To these we may add the Hot Hasty-pudding' Eaters, who 
 contend for superiority by swallowing the greatest quantity of 
 hot hasty-pudding in the shortest time; so that he whose throat 
 is widest and most callous is sure to be the conqueror. 
 
 The evening is commonly concluded with singing for laces 
 and ribbands, which divertisement indiscriminately admits of 
 the exertions of both sexes. 
 
 XXXII.— BONFIRES. 
 
 It has been customary in this country, from time immemorial, 
 for the people, upon occasions of rejoicing, or by Avay of ex- 
 pressing their approbation of any public occurrence, to make 
 large bonfires upon the close of the day, to parade the street 
 with great lights, and to illuminate their houses. These spec- 
 tacles may be considered as merely appendages to the pageants 
 and pompous shoAvs that usually preceded them ; and they 
 seem to haro been instituted principally for the diversion of the 
 populace. In the v^ign of Ilenry VII. a letter was sent from 
 the king to the lord-mayor and aldermen of London, commanding 
 them to cause bonfires to be made, and to manifest other signs 
 of rejoicing, on account of the espousals of his daughter Mary.' 
 And within these forty years ^ bonfires continued to be made 
 in London at the city expense, and in certain places at West- 
 minster by order from the court, upon most of the public days 
 of rejoicing-; but of late they have been prohibited, and very 
 justly, on account of the mischief occasioned by the squibs 
 and crackers thrown about by the mob who assembled upon 
 these occasions. 
 
 In London, and probably in other large cities, bonfires were 
 frequently made in the summer season, not only for rejoicing 
 sake, but to cleanse the air. Hence Stow, writing upon this 
 subject, says, " In the months of June and July, on the vigils 
 of festival days, and on the evenings also of those days after 
 sunset, bonfires were made in the streets. The wealthy citizens 
 
 ' See the Introduction, ' f Reckoning from 1800.
 
 CHAP. 111. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 373 
 
 placed bread and good drink upon the tables before their 
 doors upon the vigil of the festival ; but on the festival evening- 
 he same tables were more plentifully furnished with meat and 
 drink, to which not only the neighbours but passengers were 
 also invited to sit and partake, with great hospitality. These 
 were called bonfires, as well of amity among neighbours that, 
 being* before at controversie, were, at these times, by the labour 
 of others, reconciled, and madeof bitter enemies loving friends; 
 and also for the virtue that a great fire hath to purge the infection 
 of the air." ^ There are many fanciful derivations of the com- 
 pound word bonfire ; but I perfectly agree with Dr. Johnson, 
 who thinks the first syllable originated from the French word 
 bon, good ; because these files were usually made upon the 
 receipt of some good news, or upon occasions of public rejoicing. 
 
 XXXIII.— ILLUMINATIONS. 
 
 I do not know at what period illuminations were first used as 
 marks of rejoicing. They are mentioned by Stow, in his Survey 
 of London, who tells us that lamps of glass, to the amount of 
 several hundreds, were hung upon branches of iron curiously 
 wrought, and placed at the doors of the opulent citizens upon the 
 vigils of Saint John the Baptist, and of Saint Peter and Saint 
 Paul.2 The historian does not speak of these lights as any novelty, 
 neither is there any reason to conclude that similar illumina- 
 tions were not made in other great towns and cities as well as 
 in London ; so that the custom might have been of long standing, 
 and probably originated from some religious institution. But 
 the lights, for I can hardly call them illuminations, most gene- 
 rally used at this period, were the cressets, or large lanthorns, 
 which were carried in procession about the street. Wlien they 
 were laid aside, the Avindows of the houses were decorated with 
 lio-hted candles, or the outsides ornamented with lamps of various 
 colours, and placed in variety of forms ; to which may be added, 
 transparent paintings, inscriptions, and variety of other curious 
 and expensive devices, that seem to be almost peculiar to the 
 present age; and certainly the grand illuminations exhibited 
 on the 23d of April, 1789, upon the happy occasion of his 
 
 ' Survey of London. 
 
 * See p. 360. It does not appear tliat these lamps were made with glass of various 
 colours, according to the presen'. fashion. I rather think this improveme? t is per- 
 fectly modem.
 
 374 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK IV. 
 
 Majesty's recovery, far surpassed, not only in the number and 
 brilliancy of the lights, but also in the splendour and beauty ot' 
 the transparencies, every other spectacle of the like kind that 
 has been made in this country, or perhaps in any other. 
 
 XXXIV.— FIREWORKS. 
 
 Fireworks, for pastime, are little spoken of previous to the 
 reign of Elizabeth, and seem to have been of a very trifling 
 nature. We are told, when Ann Bullen was conveyed upon 
 the water from Greenwich to London, previous to her coronation, 
 in 1533, "there went before the lord-mayors barge, a foyste' 
 for a wafter full of ordinance ; in which foyste was a great red 
 dragon, continually moving and casting forth wild-fire; and 
 round about the said foyste stood terrible, monstrous, and wilde 
 men, casting of fire, and making a hideous noise." This vessel 
 with the fireworks, I apprehend, was usually exhibited when 
 the lord mayor went upon the Mater, and especially when he 
 went to Westminster on the lord mayor's day. Hence Morose, 
 in Jonson's comedy of the Silent Woman, says to his visitors, 
 who come with drums and trumpets, " Out of my dores, you 
 sonnes of noise and tumult, begot on an ill May-day, or when 
 the gally-foist is afloate to Westminster; a trumpetter could not 
 be conceived till then."^ 
 
 Among the spectacles prepared for the diversion of queen 
 Elizabeth at Kenel worth Castle in 1575, there were displays of 
 fireworks, which are thus described by Laneham, who was 
 present.^ " On the Sunday night," says he, " after a warning 
 piece or two,"* was a blaze of burning darts flying to and 4ro, 
 beams of stars coruscant, streams and hail of fire sparks, light- 
 nings of wildfire on the water; and on the land, flight and shot 
 of thunderbolts, all ^ith such continuance, terror, and vehe- 
 mence, the heavens thundered, the waters surged, and the earth 
 shook." Another author, Gascoyne, speaks thus: "On the 
 Sunday were fireworks showed upon the water, passing under 
 the water a long space ; and when all men thought they had 
 been quenched, they would rise and mount out of the water 
 again and burne furiously until they were utterlie consumed,"^ 
 
 ' A galley, or small vessel. " Act iv. scene 2. 
 
 ' Nichols's Progresses of Elizabetb, vol. i. 
 
 * I suppose he means t?ie discharge of a cannon or t«o. 
 
 * Princely Pleasures at KenelwoUli Castle, p. 62.
 
 CHAP. HI. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 875 
 
 On (he Thursday following', according to Laneham, " there was 
 at night a shew of very strange and sundry kinds of fireworks 
 compelled by cunning to fly to and fro, and to mount very 
 high into the air upward, and also to burn unquenchable in the 
 water beneath." And again, sixteen years afterwards, the same 
 queen was entertained by the earl of Hertford at Elvetham in 
 Hampshire, and after supper there was a grand display of fire- 
 works, preceded by " a peale of one hundred chambers,' dis- 
 charged from the Snail Mount ; " with " a like peale discharged 
 from the ship Isle, and some great ordinance M'ithal. Then 
 was there a castle of fireworkes of all sorts. Mhich played in 
 the fort; answerable to that there was, at tile iSuaiJ JMoimt, a 
 globe of all manner of fireworkes, as big as a barrel. When 
 these were spent there were many running rockets upon lines, 
 which passed between the Snail Mount and the castle in the 
 fort. On either side were many fire-wheeles, pikes of pleasure, 
 and balles of wildfire, which burned in the water." ^ 
 
 XXXV.— LONDON FIREWORKS. 
 
 A writer, who lived in the reign of James I., assures us there 
 were then " abiding in the city of London men very skilful 
 in the art of pyrotechnic, or of fireworkes."^ But, so far as 
 one can judge from the machinery delineated in the books for- 
 merly written upon the subject of firework making, these exhi- 
 bitions were very clumsily contrived, consisting chiefly in wheels, 
 fire-trees, jerbs, and rockets, to which were added, men fantas- 
 tically habited, who flourished away with poles or clubs charged 
 with squibs and crackers, and fought with each other, or jointly 
 attacked a wooden castle replete with the same materials, or 
 combated with pasteboard dragons running upon lines and 
 " vomitting of fire like verie furies." These men fantastically 
 habited were called green men. Thus, in The Seven Cham- 
 pions of Christendom, a play written by John Kirke, and 
 printed 1638, it is said, " Have you any squibs, any green 
 men, in your shows, and whizzes on lines, Jack-pudding upon 
 the rope, or resin fireworks?" 
 
 I am decidedly of opinion that the fireworks displayed within 
 these last fifty years* have been more excellent in their con- 
 struction, more neatly executed, and more variable and pleasing 
 
 ' Small kind of cannons. * Nichols's Progresses of Elizabeth, vol. ii. p. 19. 
 
 * History of all the Colleges in and about London, printed A. D. 1615 
 
 * [Before 1800.]
 
 876 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK IV. 
 
 in their effects, than those produced at any former period. It 
 is certain that the early firework makers were totally unac- 
 quainted with the nature and properties of the quick-match, 
 which is made with spun cotton, soaked in a strong- solution of 
 saltpetre, and rolled, while wet, in pounded gunpowder, and 
 which, being enclosed in small tubes of paper, communicates 
 the fire from one part of the apparatus to another with astonishing- 
 celerity. The old firework makers were obliged to have recourse 
 to trains of corned gunpowder, conveyed by grooves made in the 
 wood-work of the machinery, when they were desirous of com- 
 municating the fire to a number of cases at once, and especially 
 if they were at a distance from each other, which was not only 
 a very circuitous process, but liable to a variety of unpleasant 
 accidents; and to this cause is attributed the failure of the 
 tremendous firework exhibited in the Green Park in the reign 
 of George II., when the performance was interrupted, and the 
 grandeur of the general eflfect totally destroyed, by the timbers 
 belonging to one of the wings taking fire through the explosio;i 
 of the gunpowder trains communicated by the wooden channel^. 
 This unfortunate accident, in all probability, would not have 
 happened had the communications from one part of the machinery 
 to the other been made with quick-match. I received the above 
 information from a very skilful firework maker belonging to the 
 train of artillery, who had an opportunity of seeing the manner 
 in which the trains were laid, and was present at the exhib'tion. 
 
 XXXIV.— FIREWORKS ON TOWER-HILL, AT PUBLIC GARDENS, AND 
 IN PAGEANTS. 
 
 It was customary, in my memory, for the train of artillery 
 annually to display a grand firework upon ToMer-hill cm th • 
 evening of his Majesty's birth-day. Thks spectacle has beew 
 discontinued for several years in compliance with a petition for 
 that purpose made by the inhabitants on account of the incon- 
 veniences they sustained thereby. 
 
 Fireworks were exhibited at Marybone Gardens while they 
 were kept open for public entertainment ; and about five-and- 
 twenty years ago,^ Torre, a celebrated French artist, was em- 
 ployed there, who, in addition to the usual displayment of fire- 
 M'heels, fixed stars, figure pieces, and other curious devices, in- 
 troduced oantomimical spectacles, which afforded him an oppor 
 
 » [Reckoning from 1800.]
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 OP THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 
 
 377 
 
 tunity of bringing- forward much splendid machinery, with ap- 
 propriate scenery and stage decoration, whereby he gave an 
 astonishing effect to his performances, and excited the admiration 
 and applause of the spectators. I particularly remember two, 
 the Forge of Vulcan, and the Descent of Orpheus to Hell in 
 search of his ay ife Eurydice. The last was particularly splendid : 
 there were several scenes, and one of them supposed to be the 
 Elysian fields, where the flitting backwards and forwards of 
 the spirits was admirably represented by means of a transparent 
 gauze artfully interposed between the actors and the spectators. 
 
 Fireworks have for many years been exhibited at Ranelagh 
 Gardens; they are now^ displayed occasionally at Vauxhall ; 
 and, in an inferior style, at Bermondsey Spa. 
 
 In speaking upon this subject I have mentioned some of the 
 actors formerly concerned in the pyrotechnical shows. Those 
 said above to have been on board the city foyst, or galley, are 
 called monstrous Avilde men ; 2 others are frequently distinguished 
 by the appellation of green men ; * and both of them were men 
 whimsically attired and disguised with droll masks, having large 
 staves or clubs, headed with cases of 'trackers. Annexed is 
 
 114. A Green Mam. 
 
 ' [In 1800.] « See p. 375. 
 
 ' See p. 375 ; and the Introduction ; whence it appears these green men attended 
 the pageants, and precsded the principal persons in the procession to clear the way.
 
 378 
 
 SPORTS AND PASTIMES 
 
 BOOK IV. 
 
 This engraving, representing the character equipped in his 
 proper habit, and flourishing his firework, is from a book of 
 fireworks written by John Bate, and published in 1635. Be- 
 low is 
 
 J 15. A WODEHOVSE. 
 
 This character, which is that of a wild or savage man, was 
 very common in the pageants of former times, and seems to have 
 been very popular. It was in a dress like this, I suppose, 
 that Gascoyne appeared before queen Elizabeth; see p. 253. 
 The figure itself is taken fromabaliad, in black letter, entitled 
 " The mad, merry Pranks of Robin Good Fellow." Bishop 
 Percy, probably with great justice, supposes it to have been 
 one of the stage-disguisements for the representation of this 
 facetious spirit.
 
 Cn^iP IV OF THE PEOVJ.E OF ENGLANn. '^7V 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Popular manly Pastimes imitated by Children. — II. Horses. — JIT. Racing and 
 Chacing. — IV. Wrestling and other Gymnastic Sports. — V. Rlarbles, and Span- 
 counter. — VI. Tops, &c. ; — The Devil among the Taylors. — VII. Even'or Odd — 
 Chuck-halfpenny ; — Duck and Drake. — VIII. Baste the Bear ; — Hunt the Slipper, 
 &c. — IX. Sporting with Insects ; — Kites ; — Windmills. — X. Bob-cherry. — XI. 
 Hoodman-blind ; — Hot-cockles. — XII. Cock-fighting. — XIII. Anonymous Pas- 
 times ; — Mock Honours at Boarding-schools. — XIV. Houses of Cards ; — Ques- 
 tions and Commands; — Handy-dandy; — Snap-dragon ; — Push-pin ; — Crambo; — 
 Lotteries. — XV. Obsolete Pastimes. — XVI. Creag ; — Queke-board ; — Hand in 
 "•ad Hand out ; — White and Black, and Making and Marring ; — figgum ; — JMosel 
 the Peg ; — Hole about the Church-yard ; — Penny-prick ; — Pick-point, &c. ; — 
 Mottoes, Similes, and Cross-purposes ; — The Parson has lost his Cloak. 
 
 I.— POPULAR MANLY PASTIMES IMITATED BY CHILDREN. 
 
 Most of the popular pastimes mentioned in the preceding- pages 
 were imitated by the younger part of the community, and in 
 some degree, at least, became the sports of children. Archery, 
 and the use of missive weapons of all kinds, were formerly con- 
 sidered as an essential part of a young man's education ; tor 
 which reason the bow, the sling, the spear, and other military 
 instruments, were put into his hands at a very early period of 
 his life ; he was also encouraged in the pursuit of such sports 
 as promoted muscular strength, or tended to make him ac- 
 quainted with the duties of a soldier. When the bow and the 
 sling were laid aside in favour of the gun, prudence naturally 
 forbad the putting an instrument of so dangerous a nature into 
 the hands of children; they however provided themselves a sub- 
 stitute for the gun, and used a long hollow tube called a trunk, 
 in which they thrust a small pointed arrow, contrived to fit the 
 cavity with great exactness, and then blowing into the trunk 
 with all their might, the arrow was driven through it and dis» 
 charged at the other end by the expansion of the compressed air. 
 Sometimes pellets of clay were used instead of the arrows. Dr. 
 Johnson m his Dictionary, under the article trunk, has this 
 quotation from Ray : " In a shooting trunk, the longer it is to a
 
 380 SPORTS AND PASTIMES bOOK IV. 
 
 certain limit, the swifter and more forcibly the air drives the 
 pellet." The trunks were succeeded by pot-guns made with 
 hollow pieces of elder, or of quills, the pellets being thrust into 
 them by the means of a ramrod. These were also called pop- 
 guns; and perhaps more properly, from the popping noise they 
 make in discharging the pellets. Big bouncing words are com- 
 pared to pot-gun reports in a comedy called The Knave in Graine, 
 printed in 1640.' 
 
 II.— HORSES. 
 
 Most boys are exceedingly delighted with riding, either on 
 horses or in carriages, and also upon men's shoulders, which we 
 find to be a very ancient sport ;2 and I trust there are but few of 
 my readers who have not seen them with a bough or a wand 
 substituted for a horse, and highly pleased in imitating the gal- 
 lopping and prancing of that noble animal.^ This is an amuse- 
 ment of great antiquity, well known in Greece ; and if report 
 speaks truth, some of the greatest men have joined in it, either 
 to relax the vigour of their own minds for a time, or to delight 
 their children. The Persian ambassadors found Agesilaus, the 
 Lacedemonian monarch, employed in this manner.^ Socrates 
 also did the same, for which it seems his pupil Alcibihdes used 
 to laugh at him.^ If we turn to the engraving No. 45,^ we shall 
 see tM'o boys, each of them having two wands, the one serves for 
 ahorse, and the other for a spear, and thus equipped they are 
 justing together. The engraving No. 30,'' represents a boy 
 mounted upon a wooden horse, draAvn by two of his companions, 
 and tilting at the quintain ; and here we may remark that the 
 bohourts, the tournaments, and most of the other superior pas- 
 times have been subjected to youthful imitation; and that toys 
 were made on purpose to train up the young nobility in the 
 knowledge and pursuit of military pastimes, as may be seen by 
 the engravings Nos. 43 and 44.^ Nay, some writers, and not 
 without the support of ancient documents, derive the origin of 
 all these splendid spectacles from the sportive exercises of the 
 Trojan boys.^ 
 
 > Garrick's Collection, G. vol.ii. * See p. 84. » See p. 254. 
 
 * Plut. in Apophthegm. Laced, et iEUaa. Var. Hist. lib. sii. cap. 15. 
 
 » Val. Max. lib.viii. cap. 8. • See p 147. ' See p. 118. 
 
 • See pp. 144—146. • See p. 125.
 
 CHAP. iV. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 381 
 
 III.— RACING AND CHACING. 
 
 Contending with each other for superiority in racing on foot ls 
 natural to children;' and this emulation has been productive of 
 many different amusements, among which the following seem to 
 be the most prominent. 
 
 Base, or Prisoners' Bars, is described in a preceding part of 
 this work.* 
 
 Hunt the Fox. — In this game one of the boys is permitted to 
 run out, and having law given to him, that is, being permitted 
 to go to a certain distance from his comrades before they pursue 
 him, their object is to take him if possible before he can return 
 home. We have the following speech from an idle boy in The 
 longer thou livest the more Fool thou art, an old comedy, written 
 towards the close of the sixteenth century : ^ 
 
 And also when we play and hunt the fox, 
 outrun all the boys in the schoole. 
 
 Hunt the Hare is the same pastime under a different denomi- 
 nation. 
 
 Harry-racket, or Hide and Seek, called also Hoop and Hide ; 
 where one party of the boys remain at a station called their 
 home, while the others go out and hide themselves ; when they 
 are hid one of them cries hoop, as a signal for those at home to 
 seek after them. If they who are hidden can escape the vigil- 
 ance of the seekers and get home uncaught, they go out to hide 
 again ; but so many of them as are caught, on the contrary, be- 
 come seekers, and those who caught them have the privilege of 
 hiding themselves. 
 
 Thread the Taylor's Needle. — In this sport the youth of both 
 sexes frequently join. As many as choose to piay lay hold of 
 hands, and the last in the row runs to the top, where passing 
 under the arms of the two first, the rest follow ; the first then 
 becoming the last, repeats the operation, and so on alternately 
 as long as the game continues. 
 
 Cat after Mouse ; performed indiscriminately by the boys and 
 the girls. All the players but one holding each other's hands 
 form a large circle; he that is exempted passes round, and 
 striking one of them, immediately runs under the arms of the 
 rest; the person so struck is obliged to pursue him until he be 
 
 ' Seep. 77. * S«e p.78. Garrick'e Collect. I. vol. xviii.
 
 382 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK IV. 
 
 caught, but at the same time he must be careful to pass under 
 the arms of the same players as he did who touched him, or he 
 forfeits his chance and stands out, while he that was pursued 
 claims a place in the circle. When this game is played by an 
 equal number of boys and girls, a boy must touch a girl, and a 
 girl a boy, and when either of them be caught they go into the 
 middle of the ring and salute each other; hence is derived the 
 name of kiss in the ring. 
 
 Barley-brake. — The excellency of this sport seems to have 
 consisted in running well ; but I know not its properties, 
 Johnson quotes these lines from Sidney: 
 
 By neighbours prais'd, she went abroad thereby. 
 At barley-brake her sweet swift feet to try.' 
 
 Puss in the Corner. — A certain number of boys or girls stand 
 singly at different distances ; suppose we say for instance one at 
 each of the four corners of a room, a fifth is then placed in the 
 middle; the business of those who occupy the corners is to keep 
 changing their positions in a regular succession, and of the out- 
 player, to gain one of the corners vacated by the change before 
 the successor can reach it : if done he retains it, and the loser 
 takes his place in the middle. 
 
 Leap Frog. — One boy stoops down with his hands upon his 
 knees and others leap over him, every one of them running 
 forward and stooping in his turn. The game consists in a con- 
 tinued succession of stooping and leaping. It is mentioned by 
 Shakspeare in King Henry the Fffth ; " If I could win a lady 
 at leap-frog, I should quickly leap into a wife:" by Jonson 
 in the comedy of- Bartholomew Fair, " A leap-frogge chance 
 now ; " and by several other more modern writers. 
 
 IV.— WRESTLING AND OTHER GYMNASTIC SPORTS. 
 
 To the foregoing pastimes we may add Wrestling, which 
 was particularly practised by the boys in the counties of Corn- 
 Mall and Devon.2 In the engraving No. 18, we find two lads 
 contending for mastery at this diversion. 
 
 Hopping and Sliding upon one Leg are both of them childish 
 «poits, but at the same time very ancient, for they were practised 
 
 ', Dictionary, word harley-hrnke. ^ See p. 80. 

 
 CHAP. IV. "F THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 383 
 
 by the Grecian youth; one they called akinetinda, AKtvijnvSa^ 
 which was a struggle between the competitors who should stand 
 motionless the longest upon the sole of his foot ; the other de- 
 nominated ascoliasmos, AtrKuXtaafioc,'^ was dancing* or hopping" 
 upon one foot,^ the conqueror being- he who could hop the most 
 frequently, and continue the performance longer than any of his 
 conu'ades; and this pastime is alluded to by the author of the 
 old comedy, The long-er thou livest the more Fool thou art, 
 wherein a boy boasting" of his proficiency in various school 
 games, adds. 
 
 And I hop a good way upon my one legge. 
 
 Among the school-boys in my memory there was a pastime 
 called Hop-Scotch, Mhich was played in this manner: a paral- 
 lelogram about four or five feet wide, and ten or twelve feet in 
 length, was made upon the ground and divided laterally into 
 eighteen or twenty difl^orent compartments, which were called 
 beds; some of them being larg"cr than others. The players 
 were each of them provided with a piece of a tile, or any other 
 flat material of the like kind, which they cast by the hand into 
 the difll'rent beds in a regular succession, and every time the 
 tile was cast, the player's business >vas to hop upon one leg- 
 after it, and drive it out of the boundaries at the end where he 
 stood to throw it ; for, if it passed out at the sides, or rested 
 upon any one of the marks, it was necessary for the cast to be 
 repeated. The boy who performed the whole of this operation 
 by the fewest casts of the tile Mas the conqueror. 
 
 Skipping. — This amusement is probably very ancient. It is 
 performed by a rope held by both ends, that is, one end in each 
 hand, and thrown forwards or backwards over the head and 
 under the feet alternately. Boys often contend for superiority 
 of skill in this game, and he who passes the rope about most 
 times without interruption is the conqueror. In the hop season, 
 a hop-stem stripped of its leaves is used instead of a rope, and 
 in my opinion it is preferable. 
 
 Trundling the hoop is a pastime of uncertain origin, but 
 much in practice at present, and especially in London, where 
 the boys appear with their hoops in the public streets, and are 
 sometimes very troublesome to those who are passing through 
 them. 
 
 ' Joan. Meursi, de Lud. Gnec. ' Polloi, lib. ix. cap. 7 3 gee p. 225.
 
 8u4 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK IV. 
 
 Swimming, sliding,' and of late years skating, may be 
 reckoned among the boys' amusements ; also walking upon 
 stilts,^ swinging, and the pastime of the meritot and see-saw, 
 or tetter-totter, which have been mentioned already,* together 
 with most of the games played with the ball,* as wdl as nine- 
 pins and skittles.^ 
 
 v.— MARBLES AND SPAN-COUNTER. 
 
 Marbles seem to have been used by the boys as substitutes 
 for bowls, and with them they amuse themselves in many dif- 
 ferent manners. I believe originally nuts, round stones, or any 
 other small things that could be easily bowled along, were used 
 as marbles. Those now played with seem to be of more modern 
 invention. It is said of Augustus when young, that by way of 
 ainusemont he spent many hours in playing Mith little Moorish 
 boys cum nucibus, with nuts.^ The author of one of the Tatlers 
 calls it "a game of marbles not unlike our common taw."'' 
 
 Taw, wherein a number of boys put each of them one or two 
 marbles in a ring and shoot at them alternately Avitli other 
 marbles, and he who obtains the most of them by beating them 
 out of *hc ring is the conqueror. 
 
 Nine holes; which consists in bowling of marbles at a wooden 
 bridge with nine arches. There is also another game of marbles 
 where four, five, or six holes, and sometimes more, are made 
 in the ground at a distance from each other ; and the business 
 of every one of the players is to bowl a marble by a regular 
 succession into all the holes, which he who completes in the 
 fewest bowls obtains the victory. 
 
 Boss out, or boss and span, also called hit or span, wherein 
 one bowls a marble to any distance that he pleases, which 
 serves as a mark for his antagonist to bowl at, whose business 
 it is to hit the marble first bowled, or lay his own near enough 
 to it for him to span the space between them and touch both 
 the marbles; in either case he wins, if not, his marble remains 
 where it lay and becomes a mark for the first player, and so 
 alternately until the game be won. 
 
 Span-counter is a pastime similar to the former, but played 
 with counters instead of marbles I have frequently seen the 
 
 » See I'p. 85, 86. Taken from tricks of the jujjglers. See p. 22(>. 
 
 ' See J J.. 302, 303. * fc<-e chap. iii. p. 91, et infra. * bee p. 5!70. 
 
 * SuetoD, iu Vita Aog. cup. 83. ^ No« i^t-
 
 CHAP. IV. OF THE PEOPLE OF KNGl-AND. SbS> 
 
 ooys for want of both perform it with stones. This sport is 
 called in French tapper, a word signifying to strike or hit, be- 
 cause if one counter is struck by the other, the game is won. 
 
 VI.— TOPS, &c.— THE DEVIL AMONG THE TAILOllS. 
 
 The top was used in remote times by the Grecian boys. 
 It is mentioned by Suidas, and called in Greek rpoxo.;, and in 
 Latin turbo. It was well known at Rome in the days of Virgil,' 
 and with us as early at least as the fourteenth century, when 
 its form was the same as it is now, and the manner of using it 
 can admit of but little if any difference. Boys winpping of 
 tops occur in the marginal paintings of the MSS. written at this 
 period. It was probably in use long before. 
 
 In a manuscript at the Museum-' I met with the following 
 anecdote of prince lb iny, the oldest son of James I., and the 
 author assures us it is perfectly genuine ;2 his words are these: 
 " The first tyme that he the prince went to the towne of Sterling 
 to meete the king, seeing a little without the gMte of the towne 
 a stack of come in proportion not unlike to a topp wherewith he 
 used to play; he said to some that were with him, ' loe there 
 is a goodly topp;' whereupon one of them saying, < why doe 
 you not play with it then?' he answered, * set you it up for 
 me and I will play with it.'" 
 
 We have hitherto been speaking of the whip-top ; for the peg- 
 top, I believe, must be ranked among the modern inventions, 
 and probably originated from the te-totums and whirligigs, which 
 seem all of them to have some reference to the tops, saving only 
 that the usage of the te-totum may be considered as a kind of 
 petty gambling, it being marked with a certain number of 
 letters : and part of the stake is ♦^ken up, or an additional 
 part put down, according as those lettei.^ I.e uppermost. The 
 author of Martin. Scriblerus mentions this toy in a whimsical 
 manner :* " He found that marbles taught him percussion, and 
 whirligigs the axis in peretrochio." When I was a boy the 
 te-totunj had only four sides, each of them marked with a 
 letter; a T for take all ; an H for half, that is of the stake; an 
 N for nothing ; and a P for put down, that is, a stake equal 
 
 ' The poet has drawn a simile from thai putime. ^neidos, lib. vii. lin. 378, ct 
 infra. 
 
 » Harl. Lib. No. 6391.
 
 386 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK IV. 
 
 to tbat you put down at first. Toys of this kind are now made 
 M'ith many sides and letters. 
 
 There is a childish pastime which may well be mserted here, 
 generally known by the ridiculous appellation of the Devil 
 among the Tailors; it consists of nine small pins placed like 
 skittles in the midst of a circular board, surrounded by a ledge 
 with a small recess on one side, in which a peg-top is set up 
 by means of a string- drawn through a crevice in the recess; 
 the top when loosed spins about among the pins and beats 
 some, or all of them, down before its motion ceases; the 
 players at this game spin the top alternately, and he who first 
 beats down the pins to the number of one-and-thirty is the con- 
 queror. This silly game, I am told, is frequently to be seen at 
 low public houses, where many idle people resort and play at 
 it for beer and trifling stakes of money. 
 
 VII.— EVEN OR ODD— CHUCK-HALFPENNY— DUCK AND DRAKE. 
 
 Even or Odd is another childish game of chance well known 
 to the ancients, and called in Greek artiazein, Apnailtiv, and in 
 Latin par vel impar. Hence the following line in Horace : 
 
 Ludere par, impar ; equitare in arundine longa. 
 To play at even or odd — to ride upon a long reed or cane.* 
 
 The play consists in one person concealing in his hand a 
 number of any small pieces, and another calling even or odd 
 at his pleasure; the pieces are then exposed, and the victory 
 is decided by counting them ; if they correspond with the 
 call, the hider loses; if the contrary, of course he wins. The 
 Grecian boys used beans, nuts, almonds, and money ; in fact 
 any thing that can be easily concealed in the hand will answer 
 the purpose. 
 
 Cross and Pile is mentioned some pages back.^ Here we 
 may add Chuck-farthing, played by the boys at the connnence- 
 ment of the last century ; it probably bore sonie analogy to pitch 
 and hustle.^ There is a letter in the Spectator supposed to be 
 from the father of a romp, who, among other complaints of 
 her conduct, says, " I catched her once at eleven years old at 
 chuck-farthing among- the boys."^ I have seen a game thus 
 denominated played with halfpence, every one of the compe- 
 
 TH). ii. sat. 3. hue 48. » See p. fi57. ' See p 27o. * Vol. \i. No. 46(i.
 
 CHAP. IV. OP TUE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 387 
 
 titers having a like number, either two or four, and a hole 
 being made in the ground with a mark at a given distance for 
 the players to stand, they pitch their halfpence singly in suc- 
 cession towards the hole, and he whose halfpenny lies the 
 nearest to it has the privilege of coming first to a second mark 
 much nearer than the former, and all the halfpence are given 
 to him; these he pitches in a mass towards the hole, and as 
 many of them as remain therein are his due ; if any fall short 
 or jump out of it, the second player, that is, he Avhose half- 
 penny in pitching lay nearest to the first goer's, takes them 
 and performs in like manner ; he is followed by the others so 
 long as any of the halfpence remain. 
 
 Duck and Drake, is a very silly pastime, though inferior to 
 few in point of antiquity. It is called in Greek epostrakismos, 
 EiroffTpaKicTiios,^ and was anciently played with flat shells, testulam 
 marinam, which the boys threw into the water, and he whose 
 shell rebounded most frequently from the surface before it 
 finally sunk, was the conqueror. With us a part of a tile, a 
 potsherd, or a flat stone, are often substituted for the shells. 
 
 To play at ducks and drakes is a proverbial expression for 
 spending one's substance extravagantly. In the comedy 
 called Green's Tu Quoque, one of the characters, speaking- 
 of a spendthrift, says, *' he has thrown away as much in ducks 
 and drakes as would have bought some five thousand capons."" 
 
 VIII.— BASTE THE BEAR— HUNT THE SLIPPER, &c. 
 
 Baste, or buflTet the bear with hammer and block, are rather 
 appendages to other games than games by themselves, being 
 punishments for failures, that ought to have been avoided ; the 
 first is nothing more than a boy couching down, who is laden 
 with the clothes of his comrades and then buflTeted by them ; 
 the latter takes place when two boys have oflTended, one of 
 which kneeling down bends his body towards the ground, and 
 he is called the block ; the other is named the hammer, and 
 taken up by four of his comrades, one at each arm and one at 
 each leg, and struck against the block as many times as the 
 play requires. 
 
 Hunt the Slipper .—In this pastime a number of boys and 
 girls indiscriminately sit down upon the ground in a ring, with 
 one of their companions standing on the outside ; a slipper is 
 
 * Pollux, lib. ix. cap. 7. 
 2 C 2
 
 388 SPORTS AND PASTIMES 
 
 BOOK IV 
 
 theti produced by those seated in the ring, and passed about 
 from one to the other underneath their clothes as briskly as 
 possible, so as to prevent the player without from knowing- 
 where it is; when he can find it, and detain it, the person in 
 whose possession it was, at that time, must chang-e place with 
 him, and the play recommences. 
 
 Shuttle-cock has been spoken of in a former chapter, the 
 engraving. No. 98,^ affords an ancient representation of the 
 game. 
 
 IX.— SPORTING WITH INSECTS— KITES— WINDMILLS 
 
 Spinning of chafers and of butterflies. — I do not know a 
 greater fault in the nurture of children than the conniving at 
 the wanton acts of barbarity which they practise at an early 
 age upon innocent insects; the judgment of that parent mnst 
 be exceedingly defective, or strangely perverted, who can pro- 
 portion the degree of cruelty fo the small ness of the creature 
 that unfortunately becomes the sufferer. It is but a fly, perhaps 
 he may say, when he sees his child pluck off its wings or its 
 legs by way of amusement ; it is but a fly, and cannot feel 
 much pain ; besides the infant would cry if I was to take it 
 from him, and that might endanger his health, which surely is 
 of more consequence than many flies : but I fear worse conse- 
 quences are to be dreaded by permitting it to indulge so vicious 
 an inclination, for as it grows up, the same cruelty will in all 
 likelihood be extended to larger animals, and its heart by de- 
 grees made callous to every claim of tenderness and humanity. 
 
 I have seen school-boys shooting of flies with a headless pin 
 impelled through port of a tobacco-pipe, by the means of a 
 bent cane, and this instrument is commonly called a fly-gun; 
 from tills they have proceeded to the truncating of frogs, and 
 aft<'rwards to tormenting of cats, with every other kind of 
 animal they dare to attack ; but I have neither time to recollect, 
 nor inclination to relate, the various wanton acts of barbarism 
 that have been practised, arising from the want of checking 
 this pernicious inclination as soon as it begins to manifest in 
 the minds of children. 
 
 The chafers, or May-flies, a kind of beetles found upon the 
 bloom of hemlock in the months of May and June, arc gene- 
 rally made the victims of youthful crueltj. These inoffensive 
 
 ' See p. %n\ 
 
 I
 
 CHAP, IV. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 389 
 
 insects are frequently caiiglit in great quantities, crammed into 
 small boxes without food, and carried in the pockets of school- 
 boys to be taken out and tormented at their leisure, which is 
 done in this manner; a crooked pin having two or three yards 
 of thread attached to it, is thrust through the tail of the chafer, 
 and on its being thrown into the air it naturally endeavours to 
 fly away, but is readily drawn back by the boy, which occasions 
 it to redouble its efforts to escape; these struggles are called 
 spinning, and the more it makes of them, and the quicker the 
 vibrations are, the more its young tormentor is delighted with 
 his prize. 
 
 I am convinced that this cruelty, as well as many others 
 above mentioned, arise from the perpetrators not being well 
 aware of the consequences, nor conscious that the practice of 
 them is exceedingly wicked. I hope the reader will excuse 
 my introducing a story relating to myself; but as it may serve 
 to elucidate the argument, 1 shall venture to give it. When a 
 child, I was caught by my mother, who greatly abhorred every 
 species ofvruelty, in the act of spinning a chafer; I was so 
 much delighted with the performance that I did not observe 
 her coming into the room, but when she saw what I was about, 
 without saying any thing previously to me, she caught me by 
 the ear and pinched it so severely that I cried for mercy ; to 
 the punishment she added this just reproof: " That insect has 
 its feelings as you have ! do you not see that the swift vibrations 
 of its wings are occasioned by the torment it sustains? you 
 have pierced its body without remorse, I have only pinched 
 your ear, and yet you have cried out as if I had killed you." 
 I felt the admonition in its full effect, liberated the poor May* 
 fly, and never impaled another afterwards. 
 
 116. Boy and BuTTiRrLv. — XIV. Century.
 
 I 
 
 390 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK IV 
 
 The preceding representation is from a drawing on a manu- 
 script in the Royal Library .^ 
 
 This barbarous sport is exceedingly ancient. We find it 
 mentioned by Aristophanes in his comedy of The Clouds.^ It 
 is called in the Greek melolonthe, Mt/XoXov^ij, rendered in the Latin 
 scaraboeus, which seems to have been the name of the insect 
 But the Grecian boys were less cruel in the operation than 
 those of modern times, for they bound the thread about the 
 legs of the beetle, instead of thrusting a pin through its tail. 
 We are also told that the former frequently amused them- 
 selves in the same manner with little birds, substituted for the 
 beetles.^ 
 
 The Kite is a paper machine well known in the present day, 
 which the boys fly into the air and retain by means of a long 
 string. It probably received its denomination from having 
 originally been made in the shape of the bird called a kite ; in 
 a short French and English Dictionary published by Miege, 
 A. D. 1690, the words cerf volant, are said among other sig- 
 nifications to denote a paper kite, and this is the first time I 
 have found it mentioned. Now, the paper kites are not re- 
 stricted to any particular form ; they appear in a great diversity 
 of figures, and not unfrequently in the similitude of men and 
 boys. I have been told, that in China the flying of paper 
 kites is a very ancient pastime, and practised much more gene- 
 rally by the children there than it is in England. From that 
 country perhaps it was brought to us, but the time of its intro- 
 duction is unknown to me ; however, I do not find any reason 
 to conclude that it existed here much more than a century, 
 back. 
 
 117. The Paper Windmill. 
 
 This is from a painting nearly five hundred years old; though 
 differs very little in its form froia those used by the children 
 at present. 
 
 » No. 2. b. vii. » Act ii. scene tiie last. • Pollux, lib. ix. cap. 7.
 
 vn \ V, IV, 
 
 OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND* 
 
 381 
 
 X.— BOB-CHERRY. 
 This is "a play among children," says Johnson, "in which 
 the cherry is hung* so as to bob ag-ainst the mouth," or rather 
 so high as to oblige them to jump in order to catch it in their 
 mouth, for which reason the candidate is often unsuccessful. 
 Hence the point in the passage which Johnson quotes from 
 Arbuthnot. " Bob-cherry teaches at once two noblo virtues, 
 patience and constancy; the first in adhering to the pursuit of 
 one end, the latter in bearing a disappointment." 
 
 118. Bob-Cherry. 
 
 In this engraving, taken from a MS. of the fourteenth century, 
 in the Royal Library,' we see a sport of this kind where four 
 persons are playing, but the object they are aiming at is much 
 larger than a cherry, and was probably intended to represent 
 an apple or an orange. " It was customary," we are told by 
 Mr. Brand, " on the eve of All-Hallows, for the young people 
 in the north to dive for apples, or catch at them when stuck 
 at one end of a kind of hanging beam, at the other extremity 
 of which is fixed a lighted candle, and that with their mouths, 
 only having their hands tied behind their back."'^ 
 
 119. PiviNG >0B Apples. 
 No. 2, B. vii. * Additioa to Bourne's Vulk,'. Aaiicj.
 
 SPORTS AND PASTIMES 
 
 BOOK IV 
 
 A pastime something resembling that of diving for the apples, 
 I take it, is represented by the foregoing engraving from a MS. 
 in the Bodleian Library,^ and the business of the boy upon 
 the form, with his head over the vessel of water, is to catch 
 some object contained therein, or to avoid being ducked when 
 the other end of the form is elevated by his companion. 
 
 XI.— HOODMAN BLIND— HOT COCKLES. 
 
 Hoodman Blind, more commonly called Blind Man's Buff, 
 is where a player is blinded and buffeted by his comrades until 
 he can catch one of them, which done, the person caught is 
 blinded in his stead. This pastime was known to the Grecian 
 youth, and called by them myia chalki, Mma x«^'f'.^ It is called 
 Hoodman's Blind because the players formerly were blinded 
 with their hoods. In the Two angry Women of Abington, a 
 comedy, this pastime is called the Christmas-sport of Hobman- 
 Blind. 
 
 The manner in which Hoodman Blind was anciently performed 
 Avith us appears from these three different representations, all 
 of them from the Bodleian MS. before mentioned. 
 
 130. 
 
 ^^^ '/<>>. 
 
 Pollux-, lib.ii.
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 OF THE PEOtjuK OF ENGLAWU. 
 
 3I»a 
 
 i''Z2. HooDMAN Blind. — XIV. Centuhy. 
 
 The players who are blinded have their hoods reversed upon 
 their heads for that purpose, and the hoods of their companions 
 are separately bound in a knot to buffet them. 
 
 Hot Cockles, from the French hautes-coquilles, is a play in 
 which one kneels, and covering his eyes lays his head in another's 
 lap and guesses who struck him. Gay describes this pastime 
 in the following lines: 
 
 As at Hot Cockles once I laid me down. 
 And felt the weighty hand of many a clown, 
 Buxoma gave a gentle tap, and 1 
 Quick rose, and read soft mischief iu her eye. 
 
 " The Chytrinda, xvrpivda, of the Grecians," says Arbuthnot. 
 " is certainly not our hot cockles, for that was by pinching, not 
 by striking;" but the description of the chytrinda, as it is given 
 by an ancient writer, bears little or no resemblance to the game 
 of hot cockles, but is similar to another equally well known 
 with us, and called frog in the middle. The chytrinda took 
 place in thi» manner :— A single player, called x^i-pa, kotra, 
 and with us the frog, being seated upon the ground, was sur- 
 rounded by his comrades who pulled or buffeted him until he 
 could catch one of them; which done, the person caught took 
 his place, and was buffeted in like manner.^ I scarcely need 
 to add, that the frog in the middle, as it is played in the 
 'iresent day, does not admit of any material variation. There 
 was another method of playing this game, according to the 
 same author ; but it bears no reference to either of those above 
 described. The following engravings represent both the pastimes 
 above mentioned, taken from the Bodleian manuscript of 1344 
 last referred to. 
 
 ' Pollux, lib. IX. cap. 7.
 
 3J/4 
 
 SPORTS AND PASVIMRS 
 
 BOOK IV. 
 
 123. Hot-Cockles. 
 
 124. Fbog in the Middle. 
 
 XII.— COCK-FIGHTING. 
 1 have already spoken at large upon cock-fighting, and 
 tlirowing at cocks. I shall only observe that the latter, espe- 
 cially, was a very common pastime among the boys of this 
 country till within these few years; and in the following en- 
 graving we have the copy of a curious delineation, which I take 
 to represent a boyish triumph. 
 
 125 CVck-throwinc Iriumph.
 
 CHAP. IV. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 395 
 
 The hero supposed to have won the cock, or whose cock 
 pscaped unhurt from the danger to which he had been exposed, 
 is carried upon a long pole by two of his companions ; he 
 holds the bird in his hands, and is followed by a third comrade, 
 who bears a flag emblazoned with a cudgel, the dreadful in- 
 strument used upon these occasions. The original paintino- 
 occurs in the manuscript mentioned in the preceding article. 
 
 XIII.— ANONYMOUS PASTIMES— MOCK HONOURS AT BOARDING 
 
 SCHOOLS. 
 
 The two next engravings are representations of a pastime^ 
 the name of which is unknown to me ; but the purpose of it 
 i» readily discovered. 
 
 126. 
 
 In this, which is from the just cited Bodleian MS., M'e see 
 a young man seated upon a round pole which may readily 
 turn either way, and immediately beneath him is a vessel nearly 
 filled with water ; he holds a taper in each hand, and one of 
 them is lighted, and his business, I presume, is to bring them 
 both together And light the other, being careful at the same 
 time not to lose his balance, for that done, he must inevitably 
 fall into the water. 
 
 In the following, from a beautiful book of prayers in the 
 possession of Francis Douce, esq. the task assigned to the youth 
 is still more difficult, as well from the manner in which he is 
 seated, as from the nature of the performance, which here he 
 has completed : that is, to reach forward and light the taper 
 held in his hands from that which is affixed to the end of the 
 pole, and at a distance from him.
 
 SPORTS AND PASTIMES 
 
 BOOK IV 
 
 127. 
 
 The originals of botli these engravings were made in the four- 
 teentli century. 
 
 The su])joined engraving, also from a drawing in Mr. Donee's 
 book of prayers, represents two boys seated upon a form by 
 the side of a water-tub ; both of them with their hands fixed 
 below their knees, and one bending backwards in the same 
 position, intending, I prosunie, to touch the water without im- 
 nierging his head, or falling into it, and afterwards to recover 
 his position. 
 
 128 
 
 This trick being done by the one was probably imitated by 
 the other; I speak however from conjecture only. If it be 
 necessary for him Avho stoops to take any thing out of the water, 
 the pastime will bear some analogy to the diving for apples 
 represented by the engraving No. 119, on a preceding page.' 
 
 In some great Boarding Schools for the fair sex, it is cus- 
 tomary, upon the introduction of a novice, for the scholars to 
 receive her with much pretended solemnity, and decorate a 
 throne in which she is to be installed, in order to hear a set 
 speech, addressed to her by one of the young ladies in the 
 name of the rest. The throne is wide enough for three persons 
 
 ' Page 391.
 
 CFAP. IV. OF THE PEOPLE OF TINGLAND. 397 
 
 to sit conveniently, and is made with two stools, liaving- a 
 tub nearly filled with water between them, and the whole is 
 covered by a counterpane or blanket, ornamented with ribands 
 and other trifling fineries, and drawn very tightly over the two 
 stools, upon each of which a lady is seated to keep the blanket 
 from giving way when the new scholar takes her place ; and 
 these are called her maids of honour. The speech consists of 
 high-flown compliments calculated to flatter the vanity of the 
 stranger; and as soon as it is concluded, the maids of honour 
 rising suddenly together, the counterpane of course gives way, 
 ai d poor miss is unexpectedly immerged in the water. 
 
 XIV.— HOUSES OF CARDS— QUESTIONS AND COMMANDS— HANDY- 
 DANDY— SNAP-DRAGON— PUSH-PIN— CRAMBO— LOTTERIES. 
 
 Building of houses with cards, and such like materials, is 
 a very common amusement with children, as well as drawing 
 little Avaggons, carts, and coaches; and sometimes boys will 
 harness dogs and other animals, and put them to their waggons 
 in imitation of horses. Something of this kind is alluded to 
 by Horace, who writes thus in one of his satires: ^ 
 
 ^dificare cassuB, plostello adjungere mures. 
 To build little houses, and join mice to the diminutive waggons. 
 
 Questions and Commands, a childish pastime, which though 
 somewhat diflTerent in the modern modification, most probably 
 derived its origin from the basilinda, BamXivda,'^ of the Greeks, in 
 which we are told a king, elected by lot, commanded his com- 
 rades Avhat they should perform. 
 
 Handy~dandy, " a play," says Johnson, " in which children 
 change hands and places;" this seems clear enough according 
 to the following quotation from Shakspeare: "See how yond 
 justice rails upon yond simple thief! hark in thine ear; change 
 places ; and handy-dandy which is the justice and which is the 
 thief; " to which is added another from Arbuthnot, " neither 
 cross and pile, nor ducks and drakes, are quite so ancient as 
 handy-dandy." 
 
 Snap-dragon. This sport is seldom exhibited but in winter, 
 and chiefly at Christmas-time; it is simply heating of brandy or 
 some other ardent spirit in a dish with raisins ; when the brandy 
 being set on fire, the young- folks of both sexes standing round 
 it pluck out the raisins, and eat them as hastily as they can, 
 but rarely without burning their hands, or scalding their mouths. 
 
 ' Lib ii. sat, 3. line 47. ^ Pollux, lih. i^. rap. 7.
 
 398 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOCK IV. 
 
 Push-pin is a very silly sport, being- nothing more than simply 
 pushing one pin across another. 
 
 Crambo is a diversion wherein one gives a vrord, to which 
 another finds a rhyme; this, with other trifling amusements, is 
 mentioned in a paper belonging to the Spectator.' " A little 
 superior to these," that is, to persons engaged in cross-purposes, 
 questions, and commands, " are those who can play at crambo, 
 or cap-verses." In this we trace some vestige of a more ancient 
 pastime, much in vogue in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, 
 called the A B C of Aristotle ; which is strongly recommended 
 by the author, one " Mayster Bennet," not only to children, but 
 also to persons of man's estate, if ignorant of letters. The 
 proem to this curious alliterative alphabet is to the following 
 eflTect : 
 
 " Whoever will be wise and command respect let hira leern 
 his letters, «nd look upon the A B C of Aristotle, against 
 which no argument will hold good : It is proper to be known 
 by clerks and knights, and may serve to amend a mean man, 
 for often the learning of letters may save his life. No good 
 man will take offence at the amendment of evil, therefore let 
 *^very one read this arrangement and govern himself thereby. 
 
 Ilearkj'n and heare every man and child how that I begynne. 
 
 A to anieiOiis, to adventurous ; ne anger the too mucb. 
 B to bold, to busy, and board thou not too brode. 
 C to curtes, to cruel, and care not too sore. 
 D to dull, to drradfull, and drynk thou not too oft. 
 E to ellynge, to excellent ; ne to ernestfull neyther. 
 F to fierce, ne too fainilier but frendely of chere. 
 G to glad, to gloryous, and gealosy thou shalt hate 
 H to hasty, to hardy, ne too hevy yn thyne herte. 
 I to jettyng, to jangling, and jape not too oft. 
 K to keeping, to kynd, and ware knaves taches among, 
 L to lothe, to lovyng, to lyberall of goods. 
 M to medlurs, to meiTy but as manner asketh. 
 N to noyous, to nyce, ne nought to newe fangle. 
 O to orpyd, to oveyrthwarte, and othes do tliee hate. 
 P to preysyng, to prevy, ne peerless with prynces. 
 Q to queynt, to querelous, but quyene wele thee may. 
 R to ryetous, to revelyng, ne rage not too moche. 
 S to strange, ne to stervyng, nor stare not too brode. 
 T to taylours, ne tayle wyse, for temperance yt hatyth. 
 V to venemous, to violent, and waste not too mych. 
 W to wyld, ne wrathful, and ne too wyse deeme thee. 
 For fear &f a fall. 
 A measurable mesne way is best for us all. Explicit." 
 
 ' Vol. rii. No. oOK
 
 •CHAP. IV. 
 
 OP THF, PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 
 
 399 
 
 There are two copies of this alphabet among the HarJeian 
 manuscriptfi!, one marked 1706, written in the fourteenth century, 
 and another marked 541 ; whence the above is chiefly taken. 
 At the end of the former we read " XY wyth esed and per se — 
 Amen." 
 
 Lotteries, in which toys and other trifling- prizes were in- 
 cluded to be drawn for by children, were in fashion formerly, 
 but by degrees, and especially since the establishment of the 
 State Lottery, they have been magnified into a dangerous spe* 
 cies of gambling, and are very properly suppressed by the 
 legislature. They were in imitation of the State Lotteries, with 
 prizes of money proportionable to the value of the tickets, and 
 drawn in like manner. These lotteries are called little goes. 
 
 XV.— OBSOLETE PASTIMES. 
 
 I have here attempted to 'give some account of the principal 
 sports practised by the children of this country. I am fully 
 sensible that the list will admit of very many additions, and 
 also that the pastimes which are included in it have been sub- 
 ject to numberless variations. I have, however, set down all 
 that I can recollect, and described them according to the 
 manner in M'hich I have seen the larger part of them performed. 
 It only remains for me to enumerate a few more, which indeed 
 are not well known to me, but may be elucidated hereafter by 
 some more able writer. 
 
 1'29. 
 
 This engraving represents a kind of a mock procession, where 
 one of the company, equipped in a royal habit with a ciown 
 upon his head, is walking with Iiis mantle displayed by two 
 attendants, and preceded by a zany beating a t auibourin with
 
 400 
 
 SPORTS AND PASTIMES 
 
 noOK !V, 
 
 knotted thong. I presume it to be the installation of the King 
 of the Bean, who has already been introduced to the reader. 
 
 Below it are two figures, one of them blinded with his hood, 
 having a club upon his shoulder, and approaching towards an 
 iron cauldron, in order no doubt to strike it with his club. 
 
 s^;ss?*c, 
 
 This may probably refer to the amusement at wakes and 
 fairs, where various tasks for pastime sake are frequently as- 
 signed to blindfolded persons, as the Wheelbarrow Race, de- 
 scribed on a preceding* page.' The drawings from whence the 
 two last engravings are derived, are in the Bodleian MS. of 
 1344 already mentioned. 
 
 The sport in the next representation is quite unknown to me, 
 unless it may be thought to bear some resemblance to the 
 Greek game called apodidraskinda, XTroSiSpaaKivSa,"^ where one 
 being seated in the midst of his comrades, closed his eyes, or 
 was blinded by the band of another,* while the rest concealed 
 themselves, and he who was found by him after he was per- 
 mitted to rise, took his place ; this was evidently a species of 
 the pastime called hide and seek. The original of this en- 
 graving is in a MS. of the thirteenth century, in the Roya 
 Library.^ 
 
 iJi. 
 
 I Page Sri. 
 No. 20. D. jr. 
 
 • Poltui. li!». ix. cfep. 7.
 
 CHAP. IV. OF THE PEOPt.li: OF ENGLAND. 401 
 
 I am equally at a loss respecting the two next representations 
 
 132. 
 
 133. 
 
 Those that are standing, and tliose that are seated below 
 them, are evidently engaged in a similar kind of pastime. The 
 only game within the compass of my knowledge that bears any 
 resemblance to it, T have seen played by two persons one o. 
 them alternately holds np the fingers of his right hand, varying- 
 the number at his pleasure, and the other is obliged to answer 
 promptly by exposing a like number of his fingers, which is 
 called by both, and the least variation on either side loses. In 
 these delineations there are three players, and he in the r.tiddje 
 seems to be alternately answering to the other two. They are 
 in the Bodleian MS. of J 344. 
 
 Mr. Donee's Book of Prayers of the fourteenth «:entury con- 
 tfiins the following representation, 
 
 a n
 
 402 
 
 SPORTS AND PASTIMES 
 
 BOOK 71. 
 
 134. 
 
 Here we see a rope apparently made fast at l)otli ends, and 
 a man laying hold of it with his teeth, by which he seems 
 to support himself. If this be the meaning of the delineator, 
 the trick may properly be classed with those that were exhibited 
 by the minstrels and the joculators. 
 
 135. 
 
 '12^ 
 
 136. 
 
 With respect to the two preceding drawings from the fre- 
 quently mrntioned MS. of l344, in the Bodleian Library, 1 can
 
 CHAP. IV. OF THE PEOPLE OP ENGLAND. 403 
 
 iiardly venture a conjecture; unless we may suppose them to 
 represent two of the ridiculous ceremonies belonging- to the Fes- 
 tival of Fools. I suspect the monks with the nuns in No. 135, 
 are lay people who have assumed the religious habits, for the 
 former have not the tonsure, but their hair is powdered with 
 blue. 
 
 XVI.— CREAG—QUEKE- BOARD -HAND IN AND HAND OUT— WHITE 
 AND BLACK, AND MAKING AND MARRING— FIG GUM— JMOSEL 
 THE PEG- HOLE ABOUT THE CHURCHYARD— PENNY-PRICK. 
 PICK-POINT, &c.— MOTTOES, SIMILES, AND CROSS-PURPOSES— 
 THE PARSON HAS LOST HIS CLOAK. 
 
 Creag is a game mentioned in a computus dated the twenty- 
 eig-hth of Edward I., A. D. 1300, and said to have been played 
 by his son prince Edward. 
 
 Queke Borde, with Hand yn and Hand oute, are spoken of 
 as new games, and forbidden by a statute made in the seven- 
 teenth year of Edward IV. 
 
 White and Black, and also Making and Marring are pro- 
 hibited by a public act established in the second and third 
 years of Philip and Mary. 
 
 Figgunx, is said to be a juggler's game in the comedy of 
 Bartholomew Fayre by Ben Jonson, acted in 1614; to which is 
 added, " the devil is the author of wicked Figgum." In the 
 same play mention is made of crambe (probably crambo), said 
 to be " another of the devil's games." 
 
 Mosel the Pegge, and playing for the hole about the church 
 yard, are spoken of as boys' games, in a comedy called The 
 longer thou livest the more Fool thou art, written in the reign 
 of queen Elizabeth. 
 
 Penny-pricke appears to have been a common game in the 
 fifteenth century, and is reproved by a religious writer of that 
 period.' 
 
 Pick-point, Venter-point, Blow-point,"^ and Gregory, occur 
 in a description of the children's games in the sixteenth century. 
 Blow-point was probably blowing an arrow through a trunk at 
 certain numbers by Avay of lottery. To these may be added 
 another pastime, called Drawing Dun out oj' the Mire. Chaucer 
 probably alludes to this pastime in the Manciple's Prologue, 
 
 Har). MS. SS01. » Harl. MS. 2125. 
 
 2 D 2 
 
 i
 
 404 SPORTS AND PASTIMES, &C. BOOK IV. 
 
 where the host seeing the cook asleep, exclaims, " Syr, what 
 duniie is in the mire." 
 
 Mottoes, Similes, and Cross Purposes, are placed among 
 the childrens' games in a paper belonging to the Spectator.' 
 And the Parson has lost his cloak, in another, where a supposed 
 correspondent writes thus: " I desire to know if the merry game 
 of the parson has lost his cloak is not much in vogue amongst 
 the ladies this Christmas, because I see they wear hoods of 
 'U colours, which I suppose is for that purpose,"' 
 
 » Vol. iii. No. «4''. « \oI. iv. No. M8.
 
 I N D E X. 
 
 A B C of Aristotle, 398. 
 
 Abbot of Rlisrulc, 339, 340. 
 
 Abbots, 8, 9. See Clergy. 
 
 Abingdon, 353. 
 
 Abington Abbey, 26. 
 
 Abraham, 167. 
 
 Ace of Roses, 320. 
 
 Aery of Hawks, 28. 
 
 iElfric, Earl, 26. 
 
 uEraan, 174. 
 
 .ffithan, 174. 
 
 .^theric. Bishop, 21, Introduction. 
 
 Agapae, 364. 
 
 Agesilaus, 380. 
 
 Agnes of Poictou, 192. 
 
 Alauntes, 19. 
 
 Albans, St., 17, 150, 255. 
 
 Alcibiades, 38. 
 
 Alcinous, 91. 
 
 Alea, 305. 
 
 Ales ^Church and Whitsun), 34, 
 Intr. 367. 
 
 Alexander the Great, 22, 51, Intr. 
 
 Alfred, 20, Intr. 
 
 All-hallows, 391. 
 
 Alleys (Bowling), 63, Intr. 268. 
 
 Andromache (a rural), 66, Intr. 
 
 Animals — ^baiting, teaching, imita- 
 ting, &c. 49, 53, Intr. 175, 239, 
 242, 253, 256, 388. 
 
 Anjou, Duke of, 200. 
 
 Anlaff, a Dane, 183. 
 
 Anne, 168, 211, 216, 230, 236, 242, 
 245, 247, 259. 
 
 Lady, daughter of Duke of 
 
 Norfolk, 148. 
 
 Apes, 22, 204, 239, 241, 242, 243, 
 257. 
 
 Apples, diving for, 391, 396. 
 
 Arabians, 308, 325. 
 
 Archbishops, 9. See Clergy. 
 
 Archery, 62, Intr. 48— bow known 
 to Saxons and Danes, ibid — arch- 
 ery of the Normans, 50 — by la- 
 dies, ibid — forms of Saxon bows, 
 ibid — use and practice of the cross- 
 bow, 53 — bows and arrows to be 
 kept, 54, 56 — decay of archery, 
 55 — prices for bows, 58 — equip- 
 ment of an archer, 59 — directions 
 for archery, 61— marks for shooting 
 at, 62, 63 — feats in archery, 64 — 
 ancient bowmen's superiority, 66 
 — a good archer called Arthur, 68 
 — prizes for archery, &c. 69, 73, 
 115. 
 
 Arcubalistarians, 73. 
 
 Arden of Feversham, 307. 
 
 Argument and testimony compared, 
 
 Arion and Harry Goldingham, 48, 
 
 Intr. 
 Aristotle, A B C of, 398. 
 Ark, Noah's, 166. 
 Arms, list of under Elizabeth, 58 — 
 
 at tournaments, 134, 135, 137. 
 Arragon, 161, 327. 
 Arrows, 59, 63, 70. See Archery. 
 Arsnic, to save giants, 44, Int. 
 Art of Memory, 335. 
 Arthur, round table of, 1 40. 
 
 a good archer why called, 68. 
 
 Prince of Wales, 161, 327. 
 
 Artillery, list of, under Elizabeth, 58. 
 
 gardens, 34, Intr. 
 
 Arundell, Robert, a good shnger, 67. 
 
 AsapL, 174. 
 
 Ascanius, 126. 
 
 Asia and Asiatics, 71, 199, 281,306, 
 
 308, 325.
 
 40G 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Asses, Ass-racing, 03, 47, 256, 346. 
 Astley (Amphitheatre), 90, 230, 246, 
 
 247, 265. 
 Athelstan, 18, 31, 40. 
 Attitudes for archery, 61. 
 Augustus, 384. 
 Austria, Duke of, 179. 
 Automaton chess-player, 20 1 . 
 Axes, combats with, 149. See Justs. 
 
 Baboon, 2o9. 
 
 Babylon, 308. 
 
 Back-gammon, 21, Intr. 319. 
 
 Badger, 18, 22, 280. 
 
 Bagpipes, 194, 195. 
 
 Baiting animals with dogs, 52, 53, 
 Intr. 276, 280. 
 
 Balancing, 231, 232, 233, 234, 242. 
 
 Balistarii, 52, 73. 
 
 Ball, games with, 91 to 110, 173, 
 195, 196, 204, 231, 300. 
 
 of little dogs, 167. 
 
 Ballad-singers, 287. See Joculators. 
 
 Balloon-ball, 96. 
 
 Ban-dogs, 2o8. 
 
 Bandy-ball, 101, 102. 
 
 Banners, 134, 135, 136. 
 
 Baptism of Bells, 292. 
 
 Bar, throwing of, 75, 76, 369. 
 
 Baraton, Martin, 196. 
 
 Barbary horses, 42. 
 
 Barber, a bag-piper, 194, 195. 
 
 Barbers, 287, 337. 
 
 Bards, 170. See Minstrels. 
 
 Barge, Lord Mayor's, 307. 
 
 Barley-brake, 382. 
 
 Barlo, Marquis of, 67. 
 
 Barnard Peres, 337. 
 
 Barnet, 255. 
 
 Base, or Prisoners' Bars, 78, 381. 
 
 Bason-ringing, 294. 
 
 Basset, 335. 
 
 Bastard dogs. If). 
 
 swords, 29, Intr. 
 
 Baste the Bear, 387. 
 
 Bastile, 319. 
 
 Bat for hurUng, &c., 91. See Ball. 
 
 Bath, 370. 
 
 , Lord, 210. 
 
 Batting (Bird), 38. 
 
 Battle, tournaments like, 131, 132. 
 
 Bayeaux tapestry, 4. 
 
 Bean, King of the, 343, 400. 
 
 Bears, bear-baiting, bear-garden , &c. 
 48, Intr. 18, 176, 204, 211, 22 7, 
 239, 256, 257, 258, 259, 262, 2iJl. 
 
 game of "Baste the Bear," 3Sr. 
 
 Beast, a game at cards, 385. 
 
 Beasts for hunting, 1 7, 22. 
 
 of chase, 17, 22. 
 
 Beasts of flight, 1 8. 
 
 Becket, Thomas ^, 11. 
 
 Bedford -square archery, 66. 
 
 Beef- steak, dressing of, 236. 
 
 Beelzebub, 153, 201. 
 
 Bell, Adam, 65, 185. 
 
 Bell Savage, shows at the, 356. 
 
 Bells for ringing, hawk-bells, prixe- 
 
 bells, &c. 291, 32, 39, 42, 46, 223, 
 
 S5i. 
 
 (Dumb ), 77. 
 
 Benjamin Street, 298. 
 Benjamites, slingers, 71. 
 Beoric, king's falconer, 27. 
 Berdic, king's joculator, 195, 205. 
 Bermondsey, Southwark, 35, 377. 
 Berners, Juliana, 17. 
 
 , Lord, 17. 
 
 Bessy (the), 348. 
 
 Beverley, 189, 195,346. 
 
 Bevis of Southampton, 185. 
 
 Bewits, or hawk's bells, 32. 
 
 Bible -plays. See Plays. 
 
 Billiards, 270, 299. 
 
 Binding Tuesday, 350. 
 
 Birds, tutoring, catching, imitating, 
 
 &c., 28, 38, 39, 218, 255, 390. 
 
 See Hawking, Partridge, &c. 
 Bishop of Fools, 345. 
 
 -(Boy), 346. 
 
 Bishops, 8, 9, 11. See Clergy. 
 
 Bitterns, 37. 
 
 Blackfriars bridge, 90. 
 
 Bladder (blown), foot-ball, 101. 
 
 Blessing of Bells, 292. 
 
 Blie, 133. 
 
 Blind-man's-buflf", 392, 393. 
 
 Blois, Charles, Earl of, 52. 
 
 Blonde], a minstrel, 179. 
 
 Blow Point, 403. 
 
 Boar-hunting, fighting, &c. S, 17, 
 
 23, 252, 256. 
 Boats, 88, 146. 
 Bob-cherry, 391. 
 Bodmin, 37, Intr. 
 Bone Ace, 335. 
 Bonfires, 360, 372. 
 Boniface, or Winifred, Archbishop 
 
 of Mons, 25. 
 Bonner, Bishop, 157. 
 Borough, Sir Ed. 68. 
 Boss-out, or Boss and Span, 384. 
 Botelcr, John de, 194. 
 Bom-bon, Duke of, 93. 
 Bow and Arrows, 62, Intr. 48, 58, 
 
 63, 73, 379. 
 Bowl (A\''assaii), 363. 
 Bowhng, 62, 68, Intr. 266, 270. 
 Box (Dice), 306. 
 Boxlev, Kent, 165.
 
 INDfi.1:. 
 
 407 
 
 Boy Bishop, 346. 
 
 Boys, 379 to 400. 
 
 Braintree fair, 287. 
 
 Brakely, 133. 
 
 Branclenborow, Marquis cf, 94. 
 
 Bread, 23. 
 
 Breakfast (Royal), 356. 
 
 Breeches formerly worn by ladies, 1 4. 
 
 Breslaw, juggler, 249, 255. 
 
 Bretail, Robert de, 128. 
 
 Bridal (Country), 119. 
 
 British Museum, 79, 99. 
 
 Brittany, 291. 
 
 Broad-street, 68. 
 
 Brunanburgh, victory at, 3. 
 
 Bubble the justice, 274. 
 
 Bucket of water, tilting at, 120. 
 
 Buckingham, 19. 
 
 Buckler-play, 262. 
 
 Bucks. See Deer. 
 
 Buffoons. See Joculators. 
 
 Buling Hans, a mountebank, 236. 
 
 Bull-baiting and Bull-running, 44, 
 
 53, 54, Intr. 256, 267, 259, 276, 
 
 277. 
 
 dogs, 19, 257, 259. 
 
 John, game called, 275. 
 
 Bullen, Anne, 374. 
 
 Bulrushes, 86. 
 
 Bumble-puppy, 274, 275. 
 
 Burford, Ox., 46, 362. 
 
 Burgundy, old Duke of, 93. 
 
 Burlesque Music, 293. 
 
 Burlettas, 290. 
 
 Bury St. Edmund's, 8, 14, 27, 29. 
 
 Butchers' hounds, 20. 
 
 Butt (Water), tilting at, 120, 
 
 Butterfly and boy, 389. 
 
 Butts, archery, 53, 58, 62, 64, 65. 
 
 Byrhtric, a Saxon, 26. 
 
 Caedmon, 177. 
 
 Caiaphas, 153. 
 
 Cakes, tansy, 349. 
 
 Calculation, methods of, 313. 
 
 Caledonians, 19, Intr. 
 
 Calf (Golden), 296. 
 
 Calves-head feast, 42. 
 
 Cambuc, 101. 
 
 Camp-ball, 101. 
 
 Candles, play about lighting, 39&. 
 
 Cane Game, 128. 
 
 Canute, 21, Intr. 4, 10, 309. 
 
 Caparison for a hawk, 32. 
 
 Capet, Hugh, 40. 
 
 Car, Robert, Earl of Somerset, 229. 
 
 Cards, 32, 33, 39, Intr. 323 to 336. 
 
 , Houses of, 397. 
 
 Carpet-working, 66, Intr. 
 Caneauj French game called, 266. 
 
 Cast of Hawks, 36. 
 
 ' ' Castanets, 223. 
 Casting the bar, 75. 
 Charles the Bald, 132. 
 Charms for hawks, 34. 
 Chartley-hall, 297. 
 Chase, beasts of, 17. 
 Chases. See Forests. 
 Cheapside pageants, 41, Intr. 
 Cheats, 241. See Joculators. 
 Cheek-music, 201. 
 Chelsea, 89. 
 Cherry (Bob), 391. 
 Cheshire, 79, 370. 
 Chess, 21, 65, Intr. 300 to 310. 
 Chester, 41, 88, 95, 101, 184, 277. 
 Cheveretter, Janino de, 1 94, 202. 
 Childermas, 346, 347. 
 Childrens' plays, 379 to 400. 
 Chiltrc (The), 15. 
 Chimney-sweepers, 358. 
 China, 281, 390. 
 Chivalry, 27, Intr. 
 Christmas, 118, 156, 222, 251, 252 
 
 285, 327, 339 to 349, 370. 
 Chuck-farthing, 386. 
 Cat, pole-cat, wild-cat, 18, 22, 109. 
 Cat after mouse, 381. 
 Catabanque, 185. 
 Catherine of Portugal, 69, 335. 
 
 of Arragon, 161, 327. 
 
 Cauldron, Iron, a play with, 400. 
 
 Ceres, 364. 
 
 Chabloun, Earl of, 130. 
 
 Chaffinches, 51, Intr. 
 
 Chaffhets, 38. 
 
 Chaldea, 308. 
 
 Chalezun, castle of, 52. 
 
 Challenger to justs and tournaments 
 
 29, Intr. 148, 263. 
 Chan (Great), 199. 
 Changes, ringing of, 291. 
 Charing-cross, a mews, 37, 242. 
 Charlemagne, 175. 
 Charles I. 57, Intr. 56, 69, 309. 
 
 II. 94, Intr. 46, 59, 68, 
 
 220, 235. 
 
 V. of France, 324. 
 
 VI. of France, 76, 217, 252, 
 
 323, 324. 
 
 VII. of France, 311. 
 
 Churches — plays, abuses, festivals, 
 ales, in, 25, 150, 157, 34.5, 346, 
 348, 365, 367. 
 
 Churn, or corn, supper, 364. 
 
 Circus in St. George's-fields, 230, 
 245, 246. 
 
 Clarencienx king at arms, 135. 
 
 Cleavers (marrowbones and), 294. 
 
 Clench of Barnet, 51, Intr. 255.
 
 408 
 
 INDBZ. 
 
 Clereraont, Earl of, 129. 
 
 Clergy, 21, 54, 60, Intr. 8, 9, 11, 
 
 21, 24, 31, 37, 150, 152, 155, 156, 
 157, 183, 190, 192, 241, 256, 306, 
 
 344. 
 Clerkenwell, 81, 263, 289, 298. 
 
 , Marquis of, 67. 
 
 Cleveland, Dutchess of, 221. 
 
 Closh, game of, 271. 
 
 Cloudesle, William, an archer, 91L 
 
 Clown, 204. 
 
 Club-ball, 104, 105. 
 
 Clubs, suit of, 324. 
 
 Clym of tlie C'lough, 65, 185. 
 
 Coaches, hackney — a horse and his 
 
 keeper parading in one, 245. 
 Coat and Badge, rowing for the, 89. 
 Coblers, 22. 
 Cock — cock-fighting, cock-throwing, 
 
 &c. 34, 53, Intr. 248, 349, 370, 
 
 394. 
 Cockchafers, &c. spinning of, 388, 
 
 389. 
 Cock-pit, 281. 
 Cockneys, 343. 
 
 Coleshill Heath, Warwickshire, 47. 
 Colet, Dean, 346. 
 Coll, the tregetour, 202. 
 Colts, 22. 
 Columbines, king of, 327, 328, 329, 
 
 330. 
 Combats (ordeal), lists for, 138. 
 Concerts, 287. 
 
 Conjurer, the dumb, 51, Intr. 
 Constantine of Wales, 3, 18. 
 Constantinople, 131. 
 Cooks, 22. 
 Coots, 32. 
 Corey ra, 91. 
 
 Corineus, giant, 42, Intr. 
 Corners, Four, 273. 
 Cornhill, 118, 351. 
 Cornish and Cornwall, 62, 63, 67, 
 
 80, 98, 158, 363, 367, 3S2. 
 Corpus Christi, mystery called, 151. 
 Costly Colors, 335. 
 Cotswold, game of, 36, I.;tr. 
 Covent Garden theatre, 30, 50, Intr. 
 Coventry Play (the), 48, 49, Intr. 
 
 151. 
 Counters, 327. 
 Country Bridal, 119. 
 
 Plays, 159. Sec Plays. 
 
 Courcy, Earl of Ulster, 264. 
 Court, or Coat, Cards, 332. 
 
 Plays, lif]. See Plays. 
 
 Cow and Cow-hide, 250, 358. 
 Cowdry, in Suss., 14. 
 Crambo, 3.c;S. 
 Cranes, io, Li7. 
 
 Crawl, a showman, 166, 247. 
 
 Creag, 403. 
 
 Cressets, 46, Intr. 247, 37S. 
 
 Cressy, battle of, 52. 
 
 Cribbage, 335. 
 
 Cricket, 106. 
 
 Crimp, 336. 
 
 Criol, Bertram de, 16. 
 
 Crors- bo w , 5 1 . See Archery, 
 
 • - Purposes, 403. 
 
 Cross-and-Pile, 337, 
 Crotonians, 242. 
 Crowds, violins, 34, Intr. 
 Crown coffee-house, 335. 
 Croyland, Abbot of, 291, 292. 
 Cruelty to animals, 388, 389. 
 Cuckolds, 22. 
 Cuckows, 25. 
 Cudgel players, 369. 
 Cumberland sailing society, 90. 
 Cups (prize), 20, 90. 
 Cure of Hawks, 33. 
 Curlews, 37. 
 Curs, 20. See Dogs. 
 Cushion dance, '297. 
 
 working, 66, Intr. 
 
 Cut-work by ladies, 66, Intr. 
 Cuthred, King of W. Saxons, 363. 
 
 Dances, Dancers, Dancing Animals, 
 
 and Rope-dancing, 47, 65, Intr. 
 
 196, 207 to 228, 239 to 259, 295, 
 
 342, 349, 357. 
 Danes, 20, 59, Intr. 26, 48, 49, 183, 
 
 257, 306, 350. 
 Darts, 75, 76. 
 Datchet-mead races, 46. 
 David, 71, 174,293. 
 D'Eu, Count, 93. 
 Dee river, 88. 
 
 Deer, 25, Intr. 9, 17, 18, 20, 22, 54. 
 Defence, science of, 262. 
 Deformity curiously imitated^ 23,>. 
 Delphos Bells, 51. 
 Demihags, 58. 
 Derbyshu-e, 79, 279, 280- 
 Deserter acted, 249 
 Devil and Devils, 153, 201, 365. 
 
 among the Taylors, 386. 
 
 Dsvil's dance, 342. 
 Devonshire, 80, 382. 
 
 Duke of, 279. 
 
 Dice, 32, 33, 59, Intr. 305, 306. 
 
 Diomedes, 308. 
 
 Discus, 74. 
 
 Disquirements, or Mummings, 251. 
 
 Dislocation curiously imitated, 235. 
 
 Diving, 85. 
 
 apple diving, 39 1 . 
 
 Dobney's, near Isling'":^ 91-6.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 409 
 
 Dogget's Coat and Badge, 89. 
 Dogs, 2, 19, 20, 22, 43, 167, 204, 
 
 239, 243, 246, 253, 257, 258, 259, 
 
 276, 284. 
 
 a ball of little dogs, 167. 
 
 Domino, 322. 
 
 Dort in Holland, 33. 
 
 Double wicket, 106. 
 
 Dover, Rob., 36, Intr. 
 
 Doves, 37. 
 
 Dragon (Snap), 397. 
 
 Dragons, 40, Intr. 223, 224, 342, 
 
 360, 362, 363, 374. 
 Dramas. See Plays. 
 Draughts, 316. 
 Draw -bridge on London-bridge, 42, 
 
 Intr. 
 Drawing Dun out of the Mire, 403. 
 Dresses, hunting, 1 5. 
 
 equipment for an archer, 59. 
 
 - Minstrels', 189. 
 
 — caparison of a hawk, 32. 
 
 Drury-lane, 282. 
 Duck-hunting, 284. 
 
 and Owl, 285. 
 
 Ducks and Drakes, 387. 
 
 Duke, appropriate hawks of a, 37. 
 
 of Shoreditch, 67, 68. 
 
 Dumb Bells, 77. 
 
 Dun (drawing out of the Mire), 403. 
 
 Dunghill dogs, 20. 
 
 Dunstable, 150. 
 
 Dunstan, St. 20, Intr. 171. 
 
 Dutch, 39, Intr. 220, 233, 234, 236, 
 
 270, 273. 
 Duzedeys, Perrot, 194. 
 
 Eagles, 34, 37. 
 
 Earls — their hawk, and their tax for 
 
 tournaments, 37, 133. 
 Easter, 41, 94, 116, 349, 367. 
 Eating fire and stones, 236. 
 
 hasty-pudding, 367. 
 
 Ecclesiastics. See Clergy. 
 
 Edelswitha, 40. 
 
 Eden, Sir Fred. 144. 
 
 Edgar, 4, 18,21, 88, 171, 365. 
 
 Edmund, King of East Angles, 27, 
 
 49. 
 Education of Princes, James I. on, 
 
 31, Intr. 
 Edward the Confessor, 26, 34. 
 I. 7, 16, 52, 130, 140, 190, 
 
 194, 260, 325, 403. 
 
 II. 60, Intr. 17, 183, 188, 
 
 191, 20.3, 210, 227, 337. 
 
 III. GO, 61, Intr. 19, 28, 
 
 34, 43, 55, 75, 100, 102, 104, 140, 
 159, 189, 193, 194, 195, 222, 235, 
 281, 344. 
 
 Edward IV. 61, Intr. 5.5, 58, 139, 
 148, 184, 189, 194,274, 32.5, 403. 
 
 VI. 43, Intr. 69, 218, 328, 
 
 340, 354, 362. 
 
 Edwin King of Northumberland, 37, 
 Intr. 
 
 Egerton, Sir P. 43. 
 
 Egg dance, 225. 
 
 Eggs of hawks, 35. 
 
 Elizabeth, 42, 46, 56, Intr. 14, 44, 
 
 45. 58, 67, 77, 95, 99, 119, 121, 
 147, 15L, 162, 185, 203, 205, 224, 
 252, 257, 296, 374, 378. 
 
 , daughter of Ed. I. 194. 
 
 Elk, 18. 
 
 Eltham, Hants, 375. 
 
 Elverton, Derb. 367. 
 
 Elvetham, Hants, 95. 
 
 Elysian Fields, 377. 
 
 Emanuel Comminus, 131. 
 
 Emperors, appropriate hawks of, 37 
 
 — meanness of one, 1 92. 
 Enchanters, 199, 200. 
 Enclosures, 20, 21, 50, 56. 
 Eneas, 126. 
 Engravings in the work, notice of, 
 
 66, Intr. 
 Entertainments, royal and noble, 38, 
 
 46, Intr. 
 
 E. O. tables, 307. 
 
 Epiphany, 344. 
 
 Ervalton of Spain, 265. 
 
 Esau, 50. 
 
 Esquires and Esquireship, 25, Intr. 
 
 37, 115, 135, 137. 
 Essex, 19, 79, 108,349. 
 Ethelbald, King of Mercia, 362. 
 Ethelbert, King of Kent, 25. 
 Ethelred the unready, 350. 
 Eton Montem, 347. 
 Eu, Count d', 93. 
 Euboea, 305, 308. 
 Even or Odd, 386. 
 Evil Merodac, 308. 
 Eurydice, 377. 
 Exorcism of bells, 292. 
 
 Fabulators, 180. See Joculators. 
 Fair sex, 143. See Ladies. 
 Fairs, 366, 369. 
 Falcon, 37. See Hawking. 
 Falconer, 24, 28. 
 Fantoccini, 167. 
 Feathers, 59, 60, 234. 
 Fen church-street, 353. 
 Ferrers, George, 340 . 
 Ferrets, 22. 
 
 Festival of Fools, 844, 345. 
 Fiddle without strings, music with, 
 255.
 
 410 
 
 !NDEX 
 
 Fiddlers, 186. See Minstrels. 
 
 Figgum, 403. 
 
 Fighting of cocks. See Cockfightiiig. 
 
 Fingers, games with, 403. 
 
 Fireworks, 374. 
 
 Fishing and Fowling, 38. 
 
 Fives, 95. 
 
 Flight, beasts of sweet and of stink- 
 ing, 18. 
 
 Flora, 351, 357. 
 
 Florentines, 42, Intr. 
 
 Flower de luce, a beast called, 43, 
 45, Intr. 
 
 Flute, imitation of, 255. 
 
 Foix, Earl of, 7, 194, 264. 
 
 Fol, Rob. le, 194. 
 
 Fool, or Fools, 152, 153, 154, 236. 
 
 Fool's dance, 221, 222. 
 
 . festival, 345. 
 
 bolt, 65. 
 
 - plough, 348. 
 
 Gardens, Mary-bone, 290. 
 
 Northumberland 
 
 public; 
 
 63, Intr. 
 
 — - Paris Garden, 56, Intr 
 
 Foot, standing on one, 383 — contest 
 
 with the feet, 121. 
 
 ball, 100, 369. 
 
 racing, 77, 101. 
 
 Forcer, Francis, musician, 290. 
 Forests (Royal), 21, Intr. 6,9, 17, 
 
 19, 22,34,54, 133. 
 Fote in Bosom, 47. 
 Four Corners, 273. 
 
 Kings, 325. 
 
 Fowling and Fishing, 38. 
 Fox, 5, 17, 18,22, 23, 381. 
 
 and Geese, 318. 
 
 France and French, 28, 92, 94, 131, 
 
 133, 140, 179, 191, 257, 266, 270, 
 
 299, 309, 316, 317, 319, 323, 324. 
 Frederic Barbarossa, 25. 
 Freize jerkin, 29. 
 French Draughts, 316. 
 Friar Tuck, 354. 
 Friars, 22. See Clergy. 
 Frog in the middle, ihc, 393. 
 Frying-pan music, 294. 
 Fulco Guarine, 309. 
 Fulimart, 18. 
 Fulke, Ur. 316. 
 
 Game — names of beasts of sport, 17, 
 
 31, 50. 
 laws, 21, Intr. 4, 6, 8, 20, 
 
 34, 35. 
 
 cocks, 281. See Cockfighting. 
 
 of Goose, 336. 
 
 The solitary Game, 319. 
 
 Gaming, 21, 59 to 62, Intr. 44, 45, 
 
 307, 327, 328. 
 Gardens, Artillery, 34, Intr. 
 — — — — Dorset Garden, 34, Intr. 
 
 256, 257. 
 
 Ranelagh, 289, 377. 
 
 Spring, or Vauxhall, 288. 
 
 Garter, Order of, 141. 
 
 Gascoygne, Thomas, poet, 47, Intr. 
 
 252, 378. 
 Gaston, Earl of Foix, 7, 194, 264. 
 Gaunt, John of, 132, 191, 279. 
 Geese, 22, 37, 349. 
 Genoese, 52, 62. 
 GeofFry, Lord of Previlli, 132. 
 George I. 46. 
 
 II. 376. 
 
 III. 374. 
 
 Germans, 20, 131, 132, 141, 14.";, 
 
 214, 306, 325, 336. 
 Geofrey, Abbot of St. Albans, loO. 
 Giants (pageant), 40, 41, 42, 43, 
 
 Intr. 147, 362. 
 Gladiators, 260. 
 Gleck, 334. 
 Gleemen, 171, 173, 183, 213, 359. 
 
 See Joculators. 
 Globe Tavern, near Hungerford- 
 
 market, 168. 
 Gloves, hawks,' 33. 
 Gloucester, Thomas, Duke of, 138. 
 Goats, 22, 253. 
 
 Godefroy, Earl of Bologne, 41, lulr 
 Goff, game of, 101, 102, 103. 
 Gog-magog, 42, Intr. 
 Golden Calf, 296. 
 Goldfinches, 38. 
 Goldingham, Harry and Arion, 48. 
 
 Intr. 
 Goliah, 71. 
 Goose, game of, 336. 
 
 (Fox and), 318. 
 
 Gordon, Will. 158. 
 Goshawks. See Hawking. 
 Grace, time of, in hunting, 20, 23. 
 Gray, George, fencer, 263. 
 Great Chan, performance by, 199. 
 Greeks, 74, 84, 87, 89, 281, 303, 
 
 305, 308, 313, 314, 325, 338, 380, 
 
 383, 385, 386, 387, 390, 392, 393, 
 
 398, 400, 403. 
 Green, Jack in the, 358. 
 
 man, 294, 375, 377, 378. 
 
 Park, 376. 
 
 Greens (Bowling), 63, Intr. 268. 
 Greenwich, 29, Intr. 156, 161, 162, 
 
 257, 355, 374. 
 Gregory^ Pope, 36 5. 
 Groat (Shove), 301. 
 Grcsco, 333.
 
 INDKX. 
 
 411 
 
 Grey, or Badger, 18, 280. 
 
 waters of, 15 
 
 (Henry de), of Codnor, 16. 
 
 hounds, 7, 14, 16, 19, 20, 21, 
 
 22, 280. 
 Gridiron music, 294. 
 Grief, how counteracted, 52, Intr. 
 Gringonneur, Jacqueinin, 323. 
 Grinning-match, 371. 
 Grooms of tutored greyhounds, 21. 
 Guards, officers of, 356. 
 Guarine, Fulco, 309. 
 Guary miracle (the), 158. 
 Guilford, 1.59. 
 Gums, 31, 379. 
 Gyfford, John, 17. 
 
 Hag-butts, 58. 
 
 Hags (Demi), 58. 
 
 Half-bowl, 274. 
 
 Halgaver Moor, Cornw. 37, Intr. 
 
 Haliday, Walter, 184. 
 
 Hall, Jacob, rope-dancer, 220. 
 
 Hammer-throwing, 32, Intr. 75. 
 
 Hammersmith, 237. 
 
 Hampshire, 350, 
 
 Hampstead, 259. 
 
 Hand-ball, 91, 95, 292, 349. 
 
 ■ guns, 54, 57. See Bow. 
 
 in Hand, 61, Intr. 
 
 Handel, 289, 290. 
 
 Hands — persons equally right and 
 left handed, 71. 
 
 Handy-dandy, 397. 
 
 Hart, 17, 18. See Deer. 
 
 Harvest-home, 363. 
 
 Hastings, 175. 
 
 Hasty-pudding, eating, 372. 
 
 Hatfield, 195. 
 
 House, 257. 
 
 Hawking, 31, 33, Intr. — travelling 
 with hawks, &c. 4, 6, 7, 8, 11— 
 how hawking conducted for ladies, 
 11 — hawks paid in tribute, 16 — 
 early treatise on hawking, &.-c. 17, 
 24 — value of hawks, 24, 25 — 
 hawks, ensigns of nobility, 24 — 
 origin of hawking, 25 — ^hawks and 
 hounds taken to church, 25 — train- 
 ing hawks essential to the educa- 
 tion of a gentleman, 25 — romantic 
 story about hawking, 26 — among 
 Saxons, 29 — decline of hawking, 
 31 — method of hawking, 31 — ca- 
 parison of hawks, 32 — their value, 
 34, 36 — early treatises on hawking, 
 33 — different species of hawks, 
 36, 37 — law against having any 
 but foreign ones, 35 — terms used 
 in hav/king, 37. 
 
 Hay, orRaye, dance, 297. 
 Haye, a fence-work of netting, 20. 
 Haymarket Theatre, 50, Intr. 221. 
 Hazel wands, 62. 
 Head or Tail, 337. 
 Health-drinkers, 58, 63, Intr. 
 
 , public, bonfires for, 372. 
 
 Helmets, 134, 139^ 140, 264. 
 
 Henchmen, 362. 
 
 Hen (threshing the fat), 348. 
 
 Henry I. 20, 187, 195. 
 
 II. 9, 10, 11, 15, 40, 76, 
 
 132, 192, 256, 309. 
 III. 60, Intr. 
 
 9, 72, 81, 
 
 105, 117, 140. 
 
 IV. 7, 17, 151. 
 
 V. 17, 137, 202. 
 
 VI. 11, 81. 
 
 VII. 28, 46, 60, Intr. 11, 
 
 81, 35, 54, 58, 68, 93, 148, 186, 
 195, 327, 352, 357, 372. 
 
 VIII. 30, 41, 43, Intr. S, 
 
 32, 37, 56, 67, 68, 75, 94, 160, 
 161, 205, 251, 252, 254, 262, 269, 
 272, 286, 287, 295, 328, 347, 354, 
 356, 362. 
 
 I. Emperor, 132. 
 
 III. 192. 
 
 II. of France, 129. 
 
 son of James I. 103, 298, 
 
 385. 
 
 Heralds and Heraldry, 17, 135, 138, 
 
 139. 
 Herbert, Sir W. 307. 
 Hercules, 98. 
 Hermits, 22. 
 Herodias, 208, 209. 
 Herons, 34, 37. 
 Hertford, 219. 
 
 Earl of, 375. 
 
 Hertfordshire, 15, 274. 
 
 Heywood, Master of St. Paul's 
 
 School, 220. 
 Hide and Seek, 381, 400. 
 Higgins, a posture-master, 236. 
 High Game, 335. 
 Hinguar, 27. 
 Hippas, 84. 
 Hitchin, Herts, 22. 
 Hobby-horses, 44, Intr. 224, 254, 
 
 341, 342. 
 Hock Tuesday and Hocking, 162. 
 
 349, 350. 
 Hockley in the Hole, 51, Intr. 259, 
 
 263. 
 Hocus Pocus, 206. 
 Hog, learned, 248. 
 Hoglard, John de, 195. 
 Holland, John, Earl of, I'll. 
 Holv Landj 12rt.
 
 412 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Home (Harvest), S63. 
 
 Hoodman-blind, 392, 393. 
 
 Hoods for hawks, 32. 
 
 Hoops, leaping through, &c. 229, 
 383. 
 
 Hopping, 225, 366, 382, 383. 
 
 Horn-blowing, 32, Intr. 12, 19,30, 
 172. 
 
 Horse-collar, grinnina; through, 371. 
 racing and Horses — tribute 
 in horses, &c. Ifi — horses train- 
 ed to conceal sportsmen, 38 — 
 racing in Smithfield, 40 — seasons 
 for racing, 41 — Chester races, 41 
 — Barbary horses, 42 — value of 
 racers, 43 — racers of romance, 44 
 — racing, a liberal pastime, 44 — 
 breed of horses attended to, 44 — 
 royal patrons of racing, 45 — Hyde 
 Park races, 46,47 — Stamford races, 
 43~tricks andperformances by hor- 
 ses, 242 to 246 — horses baited with 
 dogs, &c. 243, 357, 380. 
 
 (Stalking), 38. 
 
 Hospitality on saints' days, &c. 373. 
 
 Hot-cockles, 392, 393. 
 
 Hounds, 7, 11, 12, 19, 20, 21, 25. 
 See Greyhounds. 
 
 Houses (card), 397. 
 
 Hubba, 27. 
 
 Huffe-cap, 368. 
 
 Hug, Cornish, 80. 
 
 Hugh Capet, 40. 
 
 Hughes's Royal Circus, 246. 
 
 Hugo Petroleonis, 10. 
 
 Hungary, King of, 28. 
 
 Hungerford, Sir Ed. 69. 
 
 Hunting, 25, 31, 33, Intr. — more 
 ancient than hawking, 1 — among 
 the Britons, 2 — the Saxons, Danes, 
 and Normans, 3, 4, 5, 6 — hunting 
 swine and the wild-boar, 5 — how 
 conducted for ladies, 1 1 — hunting 
 dresses, 14, 15 — hunting privi- 
 leges of Londoners, 15 — beasts of 
 sport, 17 — early treatises on hunt- 
 ing, 17 — different modes of hunt- 
 ing, 20 — in enclosures, ^0 — -hunt- 
 ing terms, 22. 
 
 (Duck), 284, 285. 
 
 (Squirrel), 285. 
 
 "Hunt the Fox," 381. 
 
 " Hunt the Squirrel," 297. 
 
 *' Hunt the Slipper," 387. 
 
 Hurling, 98. • 
 
 Husbands, 22. 
 
 Hustle (Pitch and), 276. 
 
 Hyde Park, 46, 88. 
 
 Ice sliding, 86, 382, 384. 
 
 Idethun, 174. 
 Illuminations, 373. 
 Imitations of animals, 249 to 256. 
 Infection, bonfires against, 372, 37;?. 
 Iniquity, a dramatic character, 153. 
 Innocents' day, 346, 347. 
 Installation, mock, at schools, 390. 
 Interludes, 156. See Plays. 
 Ireland, a vaulter, 230. 
 Isabel of Bavaria, 217, 252, 310. 
 Ishmael in the desert, 50. 
 Islington, 67. 
 
 Italy and Italians, 52, Intr. 112, 
 120, 133, 141, 211. 
 
 Jack in the Green, 358. 
 of the Clock-house, 164. 
 
 Pudding, 375. 
 
 James I. 31. 56, Intr. 7, 36, 46, 
 56, 201, 229, 254, 282, 298, 304, 
 307, 375. 
 
 II. 167, 220, 236, 286, 
 
 Janglers, 181, 192. See Minstrels. 
 Japers, 181. See Minstrels. 
 Jerkin (Frieze), 29. 
 
 Jermin, Sir T. 29, 282. 
 
 Jervis (Justice), 301. 
 
 Jesses, a hawk's, 32. 
 
 Jestors, Jestours, 180. See Minstrels. 
 
 Jewin-street, 282. 
 
 Jews, 94, 296, 364. 
 
 Jigs, 297. 
 
 Jingling-match, 370. 
 
 Joculators, 197 — their performances 
 ascribed to magic, 198 — Asiatic 
 jugglers, 199 — their tricks account- 
 ed for, 201 — Rykell, a tregetour, 
 202 — privileges of king's jugglers, 
 205 — disrepute of modern jugglers, 
 205 — dancing, tumbling, and ba- 
 lancing by joculators, 205, 208 — 
 Herodias tumbling, 208, 209 — va- 
 rious modes of dancing and tum- 
 bling, 211 — representations of 
 tumbling, 211, 212 — gleemens' 
 dances, 213 — sword-dancing, rope- 
 dancing, 214 to 221 — Morris- 
 !?ance, 223 — the posture-master, 
 235 — mountebanks, 236 — balanc- 
 ing, 231 — the tinker, 237 — ani- 
 mals trained for baiting, &c. by 
 joculators, 239 to 259 — sword- 
 play, 259, 293. See Minstrels. 
 
 John Bull, game called, 275. 
 
 (King), 264, 278, 309. 
 
 I. of Castile, 324. 
 
 of Gaunt, 141, 279. 
 
 de Holland, 141. 
 
 (St.), 12, 16, 34, 43, 209.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 413 
 
 Judges looking big as lions, 41;, Intr. 
 
 Jugglers, 181, 182, 186, 193, ly9. 
 See Minstrels. Joculators. 
 
 Justice Jervis, 301. 
 
 Justinian, 116- 
 
 Justs, 21, 27, 28, Intr. — challenges 
 to, &c. 1 1 1, 148, 263,— difference 
 from tournaments, 125, — law for, 
 133 — -justs represented, 142 — pe- 
 culiarly in honour of the ladies, 
 143 — the lance of the ladies, 143 
 —great splendour of justs, &c. 1 43, 
 146, 335. 
 
 Kayles, 270. 
 
 Kenilworth, 42, 46, Intr. 19, 20, 
 
 117, 140, 162, 211, 252. 
 Kent, 15, 25. 
 
 Kenulph, King of the Mercians, 26. 
 Kern-baby, or Corn-baby, 364. 
 Keygwyn, John, 158. 
 KidUngton, Oxon. 358. 
 King, his hawks, 37. 
 
 birth-day, 376. 
 
 ■ deer. See Deer. 
 duty to God, by James I. 
 
 31, Intr. 
 
 minstrels, 189, 194. 
 
 of the bean, 343, 400. 
 
 Cockneys, 343. 
 
 — jugglers, 205. 
 
 minstrels, 185, 190. 
 
 and Queen, game of, 60. 
 
 Kings, ancient splendour of, 37, Intr. 
 
 88. 
 
 at arms, 135. 
 
 Kissing-dance, 297. 
 Kite-flying, 390. 
 Kittle-pins, 272. 
 Knave of pinks, 328. 
 
 out of doors, 35. 
 
 Kuevyt, Anthony, 57. 
 
 Knights and Knighthood, 22, 24, 
 
 Intr. 37, 120, 125, 133, 135, 
 
 137, 139, 140, 141, 143. 
 Knives, and knives and balls, and 
 
 knives of jugglers, 137, 173, 203, 
 
 231, 294. 
 Knowsley, Thomas, cryer, 277. 
 Kolson, a northern hero, 19, Intr. 
 
 88. 
 
 Lace-making, by ladies, 65, Intr. 
 
 Ladder-dance, 226. 
 
 Ladies, 27, 35, 54, 64 to 66, Intr. 
 11, 13, 14, 22, 29, 30, 31, 37, 50, 
 91, 97, 104, 105, 138, 139, 143,^ 
 148, 257, 263, 287, 366. See also 
 Women. 
 
 Ladies' puppies, 20. 
 
 Lady of the Lamb, 359. 
 
 Lamb, Lady of the, 358. 
 
 Lambeth, 350. 
 
 Lamps (Glass), 373. 
 
 Lance of the Ladies, 143. 
 
 Lances, 125, 139. 
 
 Lansquenet, 335. 
 
 Lanterloo, 335. 
 
 Larks, 51, Intr. 38, 39. 
 
 Latimer, Bishop, 354. 
 
 Laund, Perrot de la, 194. 
 
 Laws, Game. See Game Laws. 
 
 Lazarus, 166. 
 
 Leadenhall, 40, 118. 
 
 Leap-frog, 382. 
 
 Leaping and Vaulting, 229, 230. 
 
 Learned pig, 248. 
 
 Learning, 32, 37, Intr. 
 
 Ledo, a Greek, 308. 
 
 Leicester, Abbot of, 11. 
 
 Earl of, 128. See Kenil- 
 worth. 
 
 Lemors, dogs called, 20. 
 
 Lent, 23, Intr. 126, 151, 290, 334. 
 
 Leopards, 22. 
 
 Letters described by skating, 88. 
 
 Leufe Castle, 200. 
 
 Lincoln's Inn Society, 343. 
 
 Lions, 22. 
 
 Lists and Barriers, 131. See Tour- 
 naments. 
 
 Little Goes, 399. 
 
 Living Quintain, 120. 
 
 Loggats, 271, 272. 
 
 Lombards, 94. 
 
 Lombardy, game of, 322. 
 
 London and Londoners; exercises, 
 pastimes, privileges, &c. of, 23, 
 34, 35, 36, 39, 46, 55, 57, 62, 
 Intr. 16, 55, 56, 57, 66, 69, 75, 
 76, 80, 86, 87, 90, 92, 126, 146, 
 147, 150, 186, 219, 220, 252, 256, 
 261, 262, 269, 274, 281, 284, 286, 
 296, 302, 316, 325, 327, 347, 349, 
 358, 359, 361, 362, 372, 375. See 
 Finsbury, Lord Mayor, Shore- 
 ditch, &c. 
 
 Long Bow. See Bow. 
 
 Long-bowling, 269. 
 
 Longchamp, Bishop, 187. 
 
 Lord and Lady of the May, 353. 
 
 Mayor, 36, 39, 41, Intr. 81 
 
 89, 340, 361, 374. 
 
 of Misrule, 339, 340, 341. 
 
 Lorem, Johan de Mees de, 189. 
 
 Lothbroc, story about, 26. 
 
 Lotteries, childrens', 398. 
 
 Lovain, 247. 
 
 Love-feasts, 364.
 
 414 
 
 INDEX, 
 
 Love perfecting Valor, 143. 
 
 Louis XIII. 245. 
 
 Loufs, Emperor, 132. 
 
 Lowbelling, 38. 
 
 Luce, a beast called, 43, 45, Intr. 
 
 Lydians, 91, 304. 
 
 Lyon, William de, 93. 
 
 Lytell John, 354. 
 
 Maces, 129. 
 
 Mad-bull, bequest about, 278. 
 
 Madely Manor, 298. 
 
 Madrid, 280. 
 
 Magic-lanthorn, 198, 201. 
 
 Mahometan paradise, 288. 
 
 Maid Marian, 353, 354. 
 
 Main (Welch), 282. 
 
 Making and Marring, 403. 
 
 Mall in St. James's Park, 103. 
 
 Mallards, 37. 
 
 Mandeville, Sir J. 199, 201. 
 
 Marbles, 384. 
 
 Margaret, daughter of Henry VII 
 327. 
 
 Margot, a French lady, 94. 
 
 Marian (Maid), 353, 354. 
 
 Marks for shooting at, 62, 65. 
 
 Marriages, game of quintain at, 119. 
 
 Marrow-bones and Cleavers, 294. 
 
 Martins, 17, 18, 22. 
 
 Mary, 41, Intr. 58, 210, 219, 257, 
 347, 362, 372. 
 
 Marybone Gardens, 290, 376. 
 
 Masquerades, 251. 
 
 Mass, burlesque, 346. 
 
 Massey, Master, 43. 
 
 Master of Defence, 262. 
 
 of the game, 17, 20, 21. 
 
 — > of King's revels, 340. 
 
 Match (quick), 376. 
 
 Matilda, Queen of Hen. II. 192. 
 
 Matrimony, game of, 337. 
 
 Mattock, balance-master, 234. 
 
 Maximilian, Emperor, 94, 157. 
 
 May-games, May-day, and May- 
 poles, 57, Intr. 351 to 358. 
 
 Mecheln, Israel Van, 332. 
 
 Melitus (Abbot), 365. 
 
 Men not so easily taught as children, 
 62. 
 
 Mendlesham, John le, 194. 
 
 Menelaus, 210. 
 
 Merchant Taylors' Hall, 67. 
 
 Mercia, 362. 
 
 Merelles, or nine men's morris, 317. 
 
 Meritot,or Merrytrotter, a swing, 302. 
 
 Merhn, 37. 
 
 Merry Andrew, 236, 370. 
 
 makers. See Minstrels. 
 
 Merrythought [Meritot], 302. 
 
 Me.seina, 128. 
 
 Metroraachia, 316. 
 
 Mews at Charing-cross, 3i. 
 
 Mewtas, Peter, 57. 
 
 Middlesex, 15. 
 
 Middleton, Sir T. 42. 
 
 Midsummer Eve, 359, 360. 
 
 Milan, 33. 
 
 Mile-end archers, 68. 
 
 Miles, James, performer, 226. 
 
 MiHtary Sports, 27 to 31, Intr. See 
 Archery, &c. 
 
 Milk-maids (May), 357. 
 
 Mimes, or Mimics, 171. See Min- 
 strels. 
 
 Minstrels, Merrymakers, &c. 52, Intr. 
 170 — northern scalds, 171 — Saxon 
 glecmen, 171, 172 — plays with 
 balls and knives, 173 — a very dis- 
 tinguished minstrel, 175 — Saxon 
 harpers, 177~jestours, 180,181, 182 
 — guild of minstrels, 184 — abuses 
 and decline of minstrelsy, 185 — 
 minstrels satyrists and flatterers, 
 186 — anecdotes and dress of min- 
 strels, 189, 190 — rewards to them, 
 192, 194— their profligacy, 192, 
 205 — sometimes dancing-masters, 
 196— other notices, 279, 286, 287, 
 293, 358, 361, 363. See Jocula- 
 tors. 
 
 Minuets on the Serpentine ice, 88. 
 
 Miracle plays, 150, 158. See Plays. 
 
 Mississippi, 300. 
 
 Mixeberg, 133. 
 
 Moles, 22. 
 
 Monasteries, 346. See Clergy. 
 
 Monday, Plough, 348. 
 
 Mongrels, 20. 
 
 Monkeys, 50, 51, Intr. 204, 221, 
 239, 241, 259. 
 
 Monks, 1 0. See Clergy. 
 
 Mons, Winifred, Archbishop of, 25 
 
 Monson, Sir T. 36. 
 
 Montacute, Lord, 14. 
 
 Montague House, 79. 
 
 Montem (Eton), 347. 
 
 Moody, John, 32. 
 
 Moorfields, 68. 
 
 Moors, 252, 384. 
 
 Moralities, plays called, 153. See 
 Plays. 
 
 More, Sir T. 283. 
 
 Moreland, S. founder of Vauxhall, 
 288. 
 
 Morging, Lord, 68. 
 
 Morisco, Spanish, 223. 
 
 Morlcn, a bagjiiper, 1 95. 
 
 Morris-dancing, 223, £47, 254. 
 
 , Nine Mens', &c. 317.
 
 lNli£V. 
 
 4ir> 
 
 Morris, Sir Chr. 57'. 
 
 Mortimer, Roger de, 140. 
 
 Mosbie, a paramour, 307. 
 
 Moselle the Pegge, 403. 
 
 Mottoes, 403. 
 
 Moving pictures, 168. 
 
 Mount Saint, 334. 
 
 Mountebanks, 236. 
 
 Mountjoy, Charles, Lord, 20, Intr. 
 
 Mules, 22. 
 
 Mummings, or Disguisements, 160, 
 
 250. See Plays. 
 Music and Musicians, 24, Intr. 182, 
 
 286 to 294. See Minstrels. 
 
 houses, 287. 
 
 Muskets, 31, 379. 
 
 Mysteries, plays called, 151. See 
 
 Plays. 
 
 Nails, 327. 
 
 Nakerer, Janino le, 194. 
 
 Naples, 200. 
 
 Nauplius, King of Euboea, 305, 308. 
 
 Nausica, 91. 
 
 Needle-work, 64, Intr. 
 
 Nevill, Hugh de, 194. 
 
 New Cut, 334. 
 
 Forest, 6. 
 
 year, 250, 343, 363. 
 
 Newcastle, 95. 
 Newmarket races, 46. 
 Newton, Master, 103, 298. 
 Nightingales, 28. 
 Nine Worthies, 43, Intr. 
 
 holes, 274. 
 
 mens' morris, 317. 
 
 pins, 272, 384. 
 
 Noah, 16, 158. 
 
 Nobility, 22, 23, 24, 31, 32, 37, 38, 
 
 46, Intr. 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 21, 24, 
 
 111, 125, 137, 139, 183. 
 Nola, Bishop of, 250, 291. 
 Norfolk, 284. 
 — Duke of; Lady Anne, his 
 
 daughter, 148. 
 Norman, John, Lord Mayor, 89. 
 Normans, 20, 21, 59, 64, Intr. 6, 
 
 50, 73, 132, 175, 177, 197, 225, 
 
 306. 
 Norroy, King at Arms, 135. 
 North Walsham, 284. 
 Northamptonshire, 1 9. 
 Northumberland house and gardens, 
 
 63, Intr. 
 Norway, 19, Intr. 
 Norwich, 11, 343. 
 Nunneries, 346. 
 
 Oais, tS. 
 
 Odd (Even and), 386. 
 
 Oatlands, palace of, 14. 
 
 Okebrook, Derb. 367. 
 
 Olaf, Trygession, 19, Intr. 85, 175. 
 
 Olympic g.imes, 78, 80. 
 
 Ombre, 335. 
 
 Opera, 50, Intr. 228, 29O. 
 
 Orange, Prince of, 94. 
 
 Oratorios, 290. 
 
 Ordeal combats, 138. 
 
 Organ, imitation of, 255. 
 
 Orleans, 377. 
 
 Ostrachinda, 338. 
 
 Othes of Bresugeth, Sir, 200. 
 
 Otter, IS. 
 
 Ouronomachia. 316. 
 
 Outroaring Dick, 287. 
 
 Owls, 284, 285. 
 
 Oxen, docility and adornment of, 
 
 243, 285. 
 Oxfordshire, 19. 
 
 Pace, R. 32, Intr. 
 
 Paganica, 102. 
 
 Pageants, 35, 40, 41, Intr. 159, 161 
 
 361, 362, 376. 
 Pages, 25, Intr. 135. 
 Painter, peril of a, 43, Intr. 
 Pair of cards, 332. 
 Palestine, 130. 
 Pall-mall, a game, 31, Intr. 103. 
 
 249. 
 Pancakes, 284. 
 Pancrass, Earl of, 67. 
 Pantheon, Pinkethman's, 16&. 
 Pantomimes, 6, 167. 
 Paper windmill, 390. 
 Paradise, Mahometan, 288. 
 Pardoners, 22. 
 Paris, 204, 217, 241. 
 
 Garden, 56, Intr. 256, 257. 
 
 Matthew, 73. 
 
 Parks, 6. 
 
 Parrot (Popinjay), 54, 57, 62. 
 
 Parson has lost his cloak, 403. 
 
 Partridges, 37, 39, 283. 
 
 Paulinus, Bishop of Nola, 250, 29 1 
 
 Paume Carie, 322. 
 
 Pavon, a dance, 295. 
 
 Paye, Sir Charles de la, 200. 
 
 Peacock-dance, or Pavon, 295. 
 
 Peacocks, 37, 60, 117, 234. 
 
 Pedlers, 22, 185. 
 
 Peecke, R. curious combat of, 264 
 
 Pel-quintain, 113, 119, 120. 
 
 Penneech, 335. 
 
 Penny Pricke, 403. 
 
 Pentecost, 183. 
 
 Perrot de Laund, ig4. 
 
 Persian Ambassador, 380. 
 
 Peter the Dutchman, 220.
 
 416 
 
 iK».»Ey. 
 
 Pharo bank, 64, Intr 
 Pheacia, 91. 
 Pheasants, 37. 
 
 Philip and Mary, 59, Intr. See 
 Mary. 
 
 of France, 141, 264, SOQ. 
 
 Philips, a Merry- Andrew, 167. 
 Philosopher's game, 314. 
 Pick-point. 403. 
 Picts, 19, Intr. 19. 
 Pictures (moving), 168. 
 Pigs, 51, Intr. 5, 248, 370. See Boar. 
 Pile (Cross and), 337. 
 Pinkethman, Mr. 52, Intr. 169. 
 Pinks, Knave of, 329, 331. 
 Pins, wooden, games with, 269. 
 Pipe-call, 39. 
 Pipers, 22, 342. 
 Piquet, or Picket, 334. 
 Pitch and Hustle, 276. 
 Pitchley North, 19. 
 Plain dealing, 335. 
 Plays and Players, 32, 54, Intr. — 
 ancient plays, 150 — their long 
 duration, 151 — Coventry play, 
 ibid — mysteries described, 152 — 
 secular plays, 1 55 — splays perform- 
 ed in churches, 157 — Cornish mi- 
 racle-plays, 158 — court plays, 159 
 — character of old itinerant players, 
 159, 181 — representations of mum- 
 mers, 160 — play in honour of Prin- 
 cess Mary, 161 — of Hock Tuesday, 
 162 — decline of secular plays, 163 
 •^K)rigin of puppet-plays, 104, 165 
 — pantomimes and puppet cha- 
 racters, 167 — moving pictures, 168. 
 See also IMinstrels. 
 Plovers, 37. 
 Plough Fool and Plough Monday, 
 
 348. 
 Plummet, casting the, 75. 
 Plumpton, Sir Rob. 19. 
 Pluvinel, M. riding-master, 245. 
 Poesy, eflFects of, 1 70. 
 Poets, 179. See Minstrels. 
 Points, ribbons, 327. 
 Pole, Cardinal, 210. 
 Poles, May-poles, balancing-poles, 
 
 &c. 123, 205, 351, 352. 
 Polish Draughts, 316. 
 Pope, the, 242. 
 
 of Fools. 345. 
 
 Popinjay (Parrot), 54, 57, 62. 
 Porters, 22. 
 Post-quintain, 113 
 Posture-master, 234, 235. 
 Pot- guns, or Pop-guns, 380. 
 Powel, a puppet-showman, 50. \v*x. 
 »65. 
 
 Powel, a famoxis fire-eater, 2'<7. 
 
 Prayers books, how illuminated, 109 
 123, 209, 232, 240, 267. 395. 
 
 Preville, Geoffry, Lord of, 132. 
 
 Price, predecessor of Astley, 246. 
 
 a burlesque musician, 294. 
 
 Prices ordained for bows, 58. 
 
 Priests. See Clergy. 
 
 Prime and Primero, 328, 333. 
 
 Princes, education of, 31, Intr. 22. 
 
 Printing traced to cards, 326. 
 
 Prisoners' -bars, 78, 381. 
 
 Prizes for archery, wrestling, rowing, 
 at tournaments, &c. 69, 82, 83, 89, 
 90, 133, 138, 139, 143, 149, 192, 
 225, 263, 372. 
 
 called weapons, 262. 
 
 Processions and Pageants, 35, 42, 
 Intr. 361, 362, 395. 
 
 Prose of the Ox and Ass, 346. 
 
 Pryckeared Curs, 20. 
 
 Punch, 51, Intr. 164, 166. 
 
 Pudesey, the piper, 195. 
 
 Puns, royal, 8. 
 
 Puppets and Puppet-shows, 49, Intr. 
 164, 165, 167, 223, 231. 
 
 Puppies, ladies', 20. 
 
 Puritans, their zeal against some pas- 
 times, 55, 57, Intr. 
 
 Push-pin, 398. 
 
 Puss in the corner, 382. 
 
 Putney, 90. 
 
 Pythagoras, 314. 
 
 Quack doctors, 236. 
 Quadrille, 335. 
 Quails, 19, 37, 283. 
 Quarter-stafF, 264. 
 Queen, privileges of, at tournaraenU^ 
 &c. 139. 
 
 Nazareen, 335. 
 
 of Rabbits, 328. 
 
 Queke-borde, 403. 
 
 Questions and Commands, 397. 
 
 Quick-borde, SI, Intr. 
 
 match, 376. 
 
 Quinctus, or Quintas, 115. 
 Quindena Paschae, 349. 
 Quintain, 112 to 121. 
 Quintus Curtius, 51, Intr. 
 Quoits, 75, 76. 
 
 Rabbits, 22, 82, 285. 
 
 , Queen of, 329, 330. 
 
 Races. See Horse-racing, Foot. &c. 
 Raches, hounds called, 6. 
 Racket, 92, 93. 
 Raher, or Royal Minstrel, 195 
 Ram, ancient prize for wrestl'rp. 
 Ranekgh, 289, ""T.
 
 INDl^X. 
 
 417 
 
 Ranelagh, Earl of, 2B9. 
 Raskall, vermin called, 18 
 Rat (White), 18. 
 
 Ratcliffe, John, of Chester, 44, Intr. 
 Raye, or Hay dance, 297. 
 Reclaiminf^ of haAvks, 32. 
 Regan, King's trumpeter, 344. 
 Rein-deer, 18. 
 Rcthniomachia, 314. 
 Rcynaud de Roy, 141. 
 Ribible, 289. 
 
 Richard I. 59, Intr. 16, 02, 59, 128, 
 132, 177, 187. 
 
 II. 10, 37, 55, 138, 151, 
 
 155, 191, 295. 
 Riddlesdale, Manor of, Northumber- 
 land, 19. 
 Riding at the ring. 111, 123. 
 Ridotto al Fresco, 288. 
 Rinaldo and Armida, 50, Intr. 
 Ring-ball, 104. 
 
 J hopping for, 225. 
 
 , tilting at the, 111, 123. 
 
 Ringing bells, .91. 
 
 basins, 294. 
 
 lioavei, archery mark, 62. 
 
 Robin Hood, 64, 223, 224, 353, 354, 
 
 35(5. 
 Roche de Rien, 52. 
 Rochester, Walter, Bishop of, 11. 
 Rocks of Scilly. 301. 
 Rodham, Norfolk, 27. 
 Roe and roebuck, 17, 23, 232. 
 Roger the trumpeter, 194, 195. 
 Roland, 175. 
 
 Rolling-pin and salt-box music, 294. 
 
 Rolly-poUy, 274. 
 
 Rome and Romans, 18, Intr. 25, 
 72, 95, IO2, 115, 125, 281, 313, 
 314. 
 
 Rooks, 38. 
 
 Rope-dancing, &c. 4g, Intr. 204, 
 216, 217, 218, 242, 243, 303, 383, 
 402. 
 
 Roses, ace of, 329, 331. 
 
 Rosignol, imitator of birds' singing, 
 255. 
 
 Roubilliac, 289. 
 
 Rouen, 309. 
 
 Rouge et Noir, 64, Intr. 
 
 Roulet, 336. 
 
 Round Table (the), 140, 141. 
 
 Rowena, daughter of Hengist, 363. 
 
 Rowing matches on the Thames, &c. 
 89. 
 
 Royal breakfast, 356. 
 
 dancing, 295. 
 
 education, 31, Intr. 
 
 entertainments, 38, 46, Intr. 
 
 — — =•- forests, 6, 5*. 
 
 Royal hunting, 20. 
 
 -— _- player with three dartS; 17. 
 Sec Kings. 
 
 Exchange, 255. 
 
 RufF, game of, 335 
 
 Ruffian Hall, Smitlifield called, 26 1 . 
 
 Running. See Horse-racing, Foot- 
 racing, &c. 
 
 (Bull), 277. 
 
 Rustics, curious imitation by onc,2.i(i. 
 
 Rutlandshire, I9. 
 
 Rykell, John, the tregetour, 202. 
 
 Sack running, 371. 
 Sadler, Mr. 290. 
 
 's Wells, 221, 216, 226, 234, 
 
 247, 289. 
 Saddlers, 42. 
 Sailing, 90. 
 Salmon, Mrs. 51. 
 Saint Albans, 17, 150, 255. 
 
 Austin, 15G. 
 
 Bartholomew, Fair, Hospital, 
 
 &c. 81, 195, 216, 230. 
 
 Brice's Day, 350. 
 
 Catharine, 151, 362. 
 
 Clement, 347» 
 
 Cuthbert, 92. 
 
 George, 57. 
 
 James, 80. 
 
 John, 1, 3, 44, Intr. SOP, iiS, 
 
 367, 373. 
 
 Louis, 129, 204. 
 
 Matilda's Hospital, 81. 
 
 Nicholas, 346. 
 
 Paul's church, dean, &c. 36, 
 
 152, 155,218, 219, 373. 
 
 Peter, 361, 373. 
 
 Stephen, 346. 
 
 Saviour's, 356. 
 
 Saintre, Jean de, 324. 
 
 Saints' days, hospitality on, 373. 
 Salt-box and rolling-pin music, 294. 
 Sampson, predecessor of Astley, 246. 
 Sandwich, 147. 
 Saracens, 115, 252, 388. 
 Sarum, 133. 
 Saturnalia, 250, 344. 
 Satirists, 186, 187. 
 Savoy, 130, 178. 
 
 Earl of, 200. 
 
 Saulus, 152. 
 
 Saxons, 18, 20, 29, 37, 59, 64, Intr. 
 
 25, 40, 48, 49, 50, 72, 88, 91, 183, 
 
 184, 187, 188, 208, 210, 214, 225, 
 
 259, 30G, 320, 345, 363. 
 Scalds (Northern), 171, 178. See 
 
 Minstreln. 
 Scandinavians, 171, 178. See Min- 
 
 strelr.
 
 \ 
 
 418 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 School-plays, S79 to 400. 
 
 Scotland, 88, 309. 
 
 Scripture dramas, 150. See Plays. 
 
 phrases used as charms, 3i. 
 
 Seasons (hunting), 22, 23. 
 Seaton, manor of, Kent, 16. 
 Secular music and plays, 155, 287. 
 
 See Music, Plays. 
 Serjeants, 22. 
 Serpentine River, 88. 
 Servants, 35, 65, Intr. 37. 
 Shacklewell, 67. 
 Shadow fighting, 77. 
 Shakespeare, 49, Intr. 
 Sheep-shearing, 363. 
 Sheriffs, 20, 340. 
 Sherries, in Spain, 264. 
 Sherwood Forest, 19, 59. 
 Shields, 29, Intr. 
 Shoe-lane, 282. 
 
 Shoes, quoits sometimes called, 77. 
 Shooters' Hill, 56, 63. 
 
 Shooting. See Archery. 
 
 Shoreditch, Duke of, 67, 68. 
 
 Shovel-boar.d, 30, Intr. 297, 298. 
 
 Sliropshire, 309. 
 
 Shrove Tuesday, or Tide, 42, 92, 101, 
 'J81, 288, 284, 343, 349, 390. 
 
 Shuttle-cock, 303. 
 
 Sicily, 128. 
 
 Sidney, Sir R. 14. 
 
 Sieges, rross-bows used at, 52. 
 
 Similes, 40,3. 
 
 Simpson, Master, a vaulter, 230. 
 
 Singers, ballad-singers, &c. 287, 294, 
 372 See Joculators. 
 
 , imitation of singing birds, 
 
 255. 
 
 Single- wicket, 106. 
 
 Skating, 86, 87. 
 
 Skinner's Well, near Smithfield, 151. 
 
 Skiomackia, 77. 
 
 Skipping, 383. 
 
 Skittles, 272, 384. 
 
 Sledge-hammer throwing, 75. 
 
 Sledges, ice, 86. 
 
 Sleights of jugglers, 204. See Jocu- 
 lators. 
 
 Slide- thrift, 301. 
 
 Sliding on ice, 86, 382, 384. 
 
 Slinging, 52, 71, 72, 73, 74, 379. 
 
 SUpper (Hunt the), 387. 
 
 Slur-bows. See Bows. 
 
 Slyp-groat, 301. 
 
 Smalserhorn Rock, 19, Intr. 
 
 Smithfield, 40, 68, 165, 259, 261, 
 287. 
 
 Smock-racing, 371. 
 
 Smoking apes and matches, 243, 371. 
 
 Snake, game of S'^?. 
 
 Snap-dragon, 397. 
 
 Snatchood, 61, Intr. 
 
 Snipes, 37. 
 
 Socrates, 380. 
 
 Soldiers, 32, 33, Intr. 85, 314. 
 
 Solitary Game (the), 319. 
 
 Somersault, 229, 230. 
 
 Somerset, Duke of, uncle of Ed. VI 
 
 340. 
 Somersetshire, 95. 
 Sompners, 22. 
 Songsters. See Minstreb. 
 Soup, a fire-eater's, 236. 
 Southwark fair, 247. 
 Spades of playing cards, 324. 
 Spain and Spaniards, 52, Intr. 222, 
 243, 280, 324, 334. 
 
 , Ervalton of, 265. 
 
 Span (Counter), 384. 
 Spaniels, 19. 
 Sparrows, 51, Intr. 
 Spears, throwing, balancing, &c. 5, 
 75, 141, 148, 234. 
 
 Spell, Northen, 109, 426. 
 Spendall, Sir J. 166. 
 
 Spinacuta, a rope-dancer, 221 
 
 Spinning by ladies, 65, Intr. 
 
 cockchafers, &c. 388, 38rf. 
 
 Sport, beasts of, names of, 17. 
 
 Spring Gardens, 288. 
 
 Spurs for cock-fighting, 282. 
 
 Spytard (the), a centenarian hart, 18. 
 
 Stalking-horse, 38. 
 
 Stinking flight, beasts of, 18. 
 
 Stone bows. See Bow. 
 
 Stones, slinging, throwing. See 
 SUnging. 
 
 eating, 230. 
 
 Stool-ball, 103. 
 
 Stow- ball, 103. 
 
 Straw-balancing, 234. 
 
 Strength, instances of, 19, Intr. 264. 
 
 Strings for bows, 59. 
 
 Sturges, a great chess player, 317. 
 
 Suffolk, 3*9. 
 
 -, Duke of, 328. 
 
 Sunday, 47, 48, Intr. 8, 342, 355, 
 356, 366. 
 
 Surrey, 15. 
 
 Swallows, 38. 
 
 Swan (the Old), near London bridge, 
 89. 
 
 , White, Chelsea, 89. 
 
 Swans, 35, 36, 37. 
 
 Swash-buckler, 261. 
 
 Sweet flight, beasts of, 18. 
 
 Swimming, 85, 384. 
 
 Swine-hunting, 5. 
 
 Swinging, 122, 302, 384. 
 
 Swords for tournament.';, balancmg
 
 rNOEX. 
 
 419 
 
 (liances, 8:c. 21, 29, Intr. 134., 
 203, 214, 215, 216, 232, 233, 259, 
 260, 263. 
 
 Sybarites, 242. 
 
 Syria, 179, 325. 
 
 Tabernacles, feast of, 364. 
 
 Table, the round, 140. 
 
 Tables, or Backgammon, 21, Intr. 
 
 319. 
 Tabors beat by hares and horses, 208, 
 
 244. 
 Taillefer, a minstrel, 19, Intr. 175 
 Takill an arrow. See Arrows. 
 Talares of the Greeks, 87 
 Tale-tellers, 180. See Joculators. 
 Tambourine, 247. 
 Tansy-cakes, 349. 
 Taper lighting:, 395. 
 Tapestry, 64, Intr. 4. 
 Tapper, or Span-Counter, 384. 
 Targets, 62. 
 Tarpeia, 357. 
 Taw, 384. 
 Taylors, 22, 235. 
 
 (the Devil among the), 385. 
 
 Tazel, place called, 54. 
 Te-totum, 384. 
 
 Tell, William, his feat of archery, 65. 
 Tennis and Tennis-Courts, 94. 95. 
 Terms applied in hunting, 22. 
 
 ■ hawking, 37. 
 
 ' to various trades or 
 
 classes, 22. 
 Terroxirs, dogs called, 20. 
 Testimony and argument, 51. 
 Thames, the, 36, Intr. 89. 
 
 Street, 360. 
 
 Theseus, 22, Intr. 
 Thieves, 22, Intr. 
 Tholomew, Sir, 25, Intr. 
 Thomas a Becket, 1 1. 
 
 of Walsingham, 130. 
 
 Thrace, 25. 
 
 Thread the needle, 381. 
 
 Thresh the fat hen, 348. 
 
 Throwing at cocks, &c. 32, Intr. 283, 
 
 349, 355, 370. 
 Timbrels, 231. 
 Time, division of, 7. 
 Tinkers, or Buffoons, 22, 185, 237. 
 Tip-cat, 6, 109. 
 
 Tiptoft, John, Earl of Worcester, 138. 
 Titter-totter, 303. 
 Tobacco-pipe music, 294. 
 Tongs and bellows music, 294. 
 Topas, Sir, 185. 
 Tops, boys', 385. 
 Torre, a iire-work maker, 376. 
 Totliill-fields, 259. 
 
 Tournaments, 21, 27, 28, Intr. — fa- 
 tal violence at, 129 — interdicted by 
 the chiu-ch, 129 — ^real contest at 
 one, 130— laws for, 133— different 
 from justs, 125 — origin of tourna- 
 ments, ibid — first practice of tour- 
 naments, 131 — account of them in 
 England, 132 — pages and perqui- 
 sites of Kings at Arms, 135 — pre- 
 liminaries of the tournament, 138 
 — lists for ordeal combats, 138 — 
 their great splendour, 1 43 — toys for 
 imitating them, 146, 380 — chal- 
 lenges for them, &c. 148, 380. 
 
 Tower-hiU, 376. 
 
 Toys for childrens' imitation of mar- 
 tial exercises, 144. 
 
 Tragedies, definition of, &c. 157. 
 See Plays. 
 
 Troubadours, 178. 
 
 Tuck, Friar, 354. 
 
 Tufa, a standard, 37, Intr. 
 
 Tuesday. See Hock, Shrove. 
 
 Tixmbling, 207 to 212, 217, 229. 
 
 TurketuUy, Abbot of Croyland, 291 
 
 Turkish ambassador, 66. 
 
 Turks, 220, 252. 
 
 Turre, Essex, manor of, 16. 
 
 Turtles, 37. 
 
 Tutbury, Suffolk, 191, 277, 279. 
 
 Tuttel, Mr. 332. 
 
 Twelfth Eve, &c. 342, 349, 363. 
 
 Twicy, orTwety, William, 17, 349 
 
 Twisted tree, 349. 
 
 Tyers, Jonathan, 288. 
 
 Tykehill, 133. 
 
 Tyrrhene, a Greek, 308. 
 
 Ule games, 34, Intr. See Christmas. 
 
 Ulster, Earl of, Courcy, 264. 
 
 Ulysses, 308, 311. 
 
 Umfraville, Robert de, 19. 
 
 Unearthing a fox, 5. 
 
 Unicorn, 252. 
 
 Universities, 343 — London in 1615, 
 
 called the third university, 26 1 . 
 Uter Pendragon, 140. 
 
 Valentia, 280 
 
 Valor perfected by Love, 1 43. 
 Vaulting, 207, 229. 
 Viuxhall Gardens, 90, 280, 377. 
 Venter Point, 403. 
 Vermin, 24, Intr. 
 Vice, a dramatic character, 153. 
 Vielle, 178. 
 
 Violante, Signora, 220. 
 Vizors, 251, 252. 
 
 Voices of animals and men, miita-> 
 tions of, 255.
 
 420 
 
 rNDEX. 
 
 Vortigern, 363. 
 Vulcan's Forge, 376. 
 Vulture, 37. 
 
 Waits, 41, Intr. 361, 363. 
 
 Wakes, 364. 
 
 Wales, Constantine, King of, 3. 
 
 Wallingford, 133. 
 
 Walloons, 147. 
 
 Walsham (North), 284. 
 
 Walsingham, Thomas of, 130. 
 
 Walter, Bishop of Rochester, 1 1 . 
 
 Wardrobe, old theatrical, 139. 
 
 Warren, Earl of, 278. 
 
 Warwick, 133. 
 
 , Earl of, 52. 
 
 Wassails, 363. 
 
 Wasters and Bucklers, 35. 
 
 WatWimbas, 287. 
 
 Watch, setting the, 39, Intr. 361. 
 
 Water-fowl, 28. 
 
 tilting, 88, 120. 
 
 fireworks on, 374. 
 
 See Rowing, Saihng, Swim- 
 ming, Thames, &c. 
 
 Watteville, M.Robert, 337. 
 
 Wedgenoke Park, 6. 
 
 Welch, 320 — Welch-main, 282. 
 
 Wells, William, bear-garden, of, 259. 
 
 Westminster, 81, 117, 148, 320, 357, 
 372. 
 
 Abbey, 289. 
 
 Hall, 188. 
 
 Palace, 61, Intr. 79. 
 
 Wheelbarrow-racing, 371. 
 
 Wheels, balancing of, 233. 
 
 Wherry (Astley's), 290. 
 
 Whetstone, George, pageant by, 41, 
 Intr. 
 
 Whipping for gamblers, 6, Intr. 
 
 ^Vhirligig, 385. 
 
 Whist, 94, 269, 282. 
 Whistling, 255, 294. 
 
 White and Black, 403. 
 ^^Tiitehall, 94, 269, 282. 
 Whitsuntide, 34, Intr. 41, 309, 358 • 
 Whittington against Rinaldo, 50, 
 
 Intr. 
 Wicker-work, boats of, 88. 
 ^\^ild-bcar, cat, &c. See Boar, Cat, 
 
 &c. 
 AFiliiam I. 21, Intr. 4,6,17.5,309. 
 
 III. 46, 236. 
 
 Wilton, 133. 
 
 Windsor, 140, 1.57, 364. 
 
 Wind-ball, 95. 
 
 mill (paper), 390. 
 
 Winifred, Archbishop of Mons, 26. 
 Wire-dancing, 228. 
 ^Vit and Reason, 335. 
 Wives, 22. See Women. 
 Wodehouse, or Woodhouses, 151, 
 
 378. 
 Wolsey, Cardinal, 156. 
 Wolves, 18, 22, 23. 
 Women, 44, Intr. 184, 188, 207, 
 
 216, 227, 350. See also Ladies. • 
 Woodcocks, 37, 39- 
 Woodstock Park, 6. 
 Worcester, Earl of, 138. 
 Wresthng, 80 to 84, 76, 264, 285, 
 
 355, 359. 
 Wurgund, Peter de, 189. 
 
 Xeres in Spain, 264. 
 Xerxes, a philosopher, 308. 
 
 Yawning-raatch, 370. 
 Yeomen of King's bow, 21. 
 York, 1S9, 191. 
 
 , Duke of, 148. . 
 
 shire, 230. 
 
 Yule Plough, or Fool Plough^, 348. 
 
 Zany, 371. 
 Ziklag, 71. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 J. Haddou, Pfu*ter, Castle Street, Finsbui), i.yudon.
 
 /
 
 61/ 
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 AA 001 076 289 6 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 Santa Barbara 
 
 THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE 
 STAMPED BELOW. 
 
 
 
 mm Ukc nmi 
 
 f<ErD'jUN04^998 2 
 
 Series 9482 
 
 
 
 M
 
 3 1205 00289 5082 
 
 .)
 
 '•!>l$ttw?i»t'l**^^^^^^^ 
 
 
 'mm 
 
 MM