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Title: The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England

Author: Joseph Strutt

Editor: William Hone

Release date: May 17, 2015 [eBook #48983]

Language: English

Credits: Produced by deaurider, Christian Boissonnas and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SPORTS AND PASTIMES OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND *** 




 This eBook cover was created by the transcriber.





THE


SPORTS AND PASTIMES


OF THE


PEOPLE OF ENGLAND:


 INCLUDING THE


RURAL AND DOMESTIC RECREATIONS,

MAY GAMES, MUMMERIES, SHOWS, PROCESSIONS, PAGEANTS, & POMPOUS SPECTACLES

FROM

THE EARLIEST PERIOD TO THE PRESENT TIME.


BY JOSEPH STRUTT.


ILLUSTRATED BY

One Hundred and Forty Engravings.


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-DAY BOOK, TABLE BOOK, YEAR BOOK, ETC.


LONDON:

PRINTED FOR THOMAS TEGG,

73, CHEAPSIDE.

1845.




J. Haddon, Printer, Castle Street, Finsbury.




[Pg v]




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 published
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 interesting
facts, an Index seemed indispensable; and
a very copious one is annexed. The Two former
editions were without.


[Pg vi]
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 accomplished.


W. Hone.


Newington Green, 1830.




[Pg ix]




CONTENTS.





INTRODUCTION.




A GENERAL 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
PERIOD, IN ENGLAND.
PAGE




I. Object of the Work, to describe the Pastimes and trace
their Origin—II. The Romans in Britain—III. The Saxons—IV.
The Normans—V. Tournaments and Justs—VI. Other Sports of
the Nobility, and the Citizens and Yeomen—VII. Knightly
Accomplishments—VIII. Esquireship—IX. Military Sports
patronized by the Ladies—X. Decline of such Exercises—XI.
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 Century—XVII. Old Sports of the
Citizens of London—XVIII. Modern Pastimes of the Londoners—XIX.
Cotswold and Cornish Games—XX. Splendour of the ancient Kings
and Nobility—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—XXVII.
Queen Elizabeth at Kenelworth Castle—XXVIII. Love of Public
Sights illustrated from Shakspeare—XXIX. Rope-dancing, tutored
Animals, and Puppet-shows—XXX. Minstrelsy, Bell-ringing,
&c.—XXXI. Baiting of Animals—XXXII. Pastimes formerly on
Sundays—XXXIII. Royal Interference with them—XXXIV. Zeal against
Wakes and May-Games—XXXV. Dice and Cards—XXXVI. Regulation
of Gaming for Money by Richard Cœur de Lion, &c.—XXXVII.
Statutes against Cards, Ball-play, &c.—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.
xv




BOOK I.
[Pg x]


  RURAL EXERCISES PRACTISED BY PERSONS OF RANK.		




CHAPTER I.




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 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. 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
1




CHAPTER II.




I. Hawking practised by the Nobility—II. Its Origin not well
known;—a favourite Amusement with the Saxons—III. Romantic 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. 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. Fowling and Fishing;—the Stalking Horse;—Lowbelling
24




CHAPTER III.




I. Horse-racing known to the Saxons—II. Races in Smithfield,
  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 Monarchs encouragers
  of Horse-racing;—Races on Coleshill-heath
40




BOOK II.
[Pg xi]


  RURAL EXERCISES GENERALLY PRACTISED.		




CHAPTER I.




I. The English famous for their Skill in Archery—II. The use of
the Bow known to the Saxons and 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. Ordinances in its
Favour;—the Fraternity of St. George established—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
48




CHAPTER II.




I. 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—VIII. Of Spears—IX. Of Quoits—X.
Swinging of Dumb Bells—XI. Foot Races—XII. The Game of
Base—XIII. Wrestling much practised formerly—XIV. Prizes for—XV.
How performed—XVI. Swimming—XVII. Sliding—XVIII. Skating—XIX.
Rowing—XX. Sailing
71




CHAPTER III.




I. 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 England—VII. A famous Woman Player—VIII.
Hand-ball played for Tansy Cakes—IX. Fives—X. Ballon-ball—XI.
Stool-ball—XII. Hurling—XIII. Foot-ball;—Camp-ball—XIV.
Goff;—Cambuc;—Bandy-ball—XV. Stow-ball—XVI. Pall-mall—XVII.
Ring-ball—XVIII. Club-ball—XIX. Cricket—XX. Trap-Ball—XXI.
Northen-spell—XXII. Tip-cat 
91




BOOK III.
[Pg xii]


  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—XVIII. When the
Tournament 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
111




CHAPTER II.




I. Ancient Plays—II. Miracle Plays, Dramas from Scripture, &c.
continued several Days—III. The Coventry Play—IV. 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 modern Puppet-show Man—XXII. Moving Pictures described
150




CHAPTER III.
[Pg xiii]




I. 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 by Gleemen—VIII. The Harp an
Instrument of Music much used by the Saxons—IX. The Norman
Minstrels, and their different Denominations and Professions—X.
Troubadours—XI. Jestours—XII. Tales and Manners 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
170




CHAPTER IV.




I. The Joculator—II. His different Denominations and extraordinary
Deceptions—III. His Performances ascribed to Magic—IV. Asiatic
Jugglers—V. Remarkable Story from Froissart—VI. Tricks of the
Jugglers ascribed to the Agency of the Devil; but more reasonably
accounted for—VII. John Rykell, a celebrated Tregetour—VIII.
Their various Performances—IX. Privileges of the Joculators at
Paris.—The King's Joculator an Officer of Rank—X. The great
Disrepute of modern Jugglers
197




CHAPTER V.




I. Dancing, Tumbling, and Balancing, part of the Joculator's
Profession—II. Performed by Women—III. Dancing connected with
Tumbling—IV. Antiquity 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 Feats—XXVII. The Posture-Master's
Tricks—XXVIII. The Mountebank—XXIX. The Tinker—XXX. The
Fire-Eater
207




CHAPTER VI.

[Pg xiv]




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 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 Masquerades—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-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
239




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. Supposed 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 Bull—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—XXI. Throwing at Cocks—XXII.
Duck-hunting—XXIII. Squirrel-hunting—XXIV. Rabbit-hunting
266




BOOK IV.
[Pg xv]


  DOMESTIC AMUSEMENTS OF VARIOUS KINDS; AND PASTIMES
      APPROPRIATED TO PARTICULAR SEASONS.		




CHAPTER I.




I. Secular Music fashionable—II. Ballad-singers encouraged
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
Henry—XVI. Billiards—XVII. Mississippi—XVIII. The Rocks of
Scilly—XIX. Shove-groat—XX. Swinging—XXI. Tetter-totter—XXII.
Shuttle-cock
286




CHAPTER II.




I. Sedentary Games—II. Dice-playing;—Its Prevalency and Bad
Effects—III. Ancient 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
305




CHAPTER III.




I. The 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—

[Pg xvi]
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 
339




CHAPTER IV.




I. Popular manly Pastimes imitated by Children—II. Horses—III.
Racing and Chacing—IV. Wrestling and other Gymnastic
Sports—V. Marbles, and Span-counter—VI. Tops, &c.;—The Devil
among the Tailors—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 Pastimes;—Mock Honours at
Boarding-schools—XIV. Houses of Cards;—Questions and
Commands;—Handy-dandy;—Snap-dragon;—Push-pin;—Crambo;—Lotteries
—XV. Obsolete Pastimes-XVI. Creag;—Queke-board;—Hand in and Hand
out;—White and Black, and Making and Marring;—Figgum;—Mosel
the Peg;-Hole about the Church-yard;—Penny-prick;—Pick-point,
&c.;—Mottoes, Similes, and Cross-purposes;—The Parson has lost
his Cloak
379







[Pg xvii]




INTRODUCTION.


A GENERAL 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.—II. The
Romans in Britain.—III. The Saxons.—IV. The Normans.—V. Tournaments
and Justs.—VI. Other Sports of the Nobility, and the Citizens and Yeomen.—VII.
Knightly Accomplishments.—VIII. Esquireship.—IX. Military Sports
patronized by the Ladies.—X. Decline of such Exercises—XI. 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 Century.—XVII. Old Sports of
the Citizens of London.—XVIII. Modern Pastimes of the Londoners.—XIX.
Cotswold and Cornish Games.—XX. Splendour of the ancient Kings and Nobility.—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.—XXVII. Queen Elizabeth at Kenelworth Castle.—XXVIII.
Love of Public Sights illustrated from Shakspeare.—XXIX. Rope-dancing, tutored
Animals, and Puppet-shows.—XXX. Minstrelsy, Bell-ringing, &c.—XXXI.
Baiting of Animals.—XXXII. Pastimes formerly on Sundays.—XXXIII.
Royal Interference with them.—XXXIV. Zeal against Wakes and May-Games.—XXXV.
Dice and Cards.—XXXVI. Regulation of Gaming for Money by
Richard Cœur de Lion &c.—XXXVII. Statutes against Cards, Ball-play, &c.—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.
[Pg xviii]
War, policy, and other contingent circumstances, may effectually
place men, at different times, 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, therefore,
of the contemporary historians on these important subjects
leaves us without 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 intelligence,
I shall studiously endeavour to avoid all controversial
and conjectural arguments. I mean also to treat 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, however,
I shall make it my business to render as concise as the
nature of the subject will permit them to be.


 II.—THE ROMANS IN BRITAIN.


We learn, from the imperfect hints of ancient history, that, when
the Romans first invaded Britain, her inhabitants were 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 education, and constant pursuit of such
amusements as best suited the profession of a soldier; including
hunting, running, leaping, swimming, and other exertions requiring
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 progenitors; and their
[Pg 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 against 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 the Saxons
appear to have been such as were common among the ancient
northern nations; and most of them consisted of robust exercises.
In an old Chronicle of Norway,

[1]
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 rowing; 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 excelled
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 ᵹlıᵹman, represented by the
engraving No. 50,

[2]
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
[Pg xx]
the tools of the smith;

[3]
I can traverse the snow on skates of
wood; I excel in shooting with the bow; I use the oar with
facility; I can sing to the harp; and I compose verses."

[4]
 The
reader will, I doubt not, anticipate me in my observation, that
the acquirements of Kolson indicate a much more liberal education
than those of the Norwegian monarch: it must, however,
be observed, that Kolson lived in an age posterior to him; and
also, that he made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, which may
probably account in great measure for his literary qualifications.
Yet, we are well assured that learning did not form any prominent
feature in the education of a young nobleman during the
Saxon government: it is notorious, that 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 his notice, and 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.

[5]


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,
hawking, leaping, running, wrestling, casting of darts, and
other 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 soldier, and only requisite in the gloomy recesses
of the cloister.


Among the vices of the Anglo-Saxons may be reckoned their
[Pg xxi]
propensity to gaming, and especially with the dice, which they
derived from their ancestors; for Tacitus

[6]
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
who 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 moreover,
that a large portion of the night was appropriated to the
pursuit of these sedentary amusements. In the reign of Canute
the Dane, this practice was sanctioned by the example of royalty,
and followed by the nobility. Bishop Ætheric, 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.

[7]
The clergy, however, were prohibited
from playing at games of chance, by the ecclesiastical canons
established in the reign of Edgar.

[8]


 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, indeed,
that the elder William and his immediate successors restricted
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.

[9]
 By these restrictions the general
practice of hunting was much confined, but by no means prohibited
in certain districts, and especially to persons of opulence
who possessed extensive territories of their own.


 V.—TOURNAMENTS AND JUSTS.


Among the pastimes introduced by the Norman nobility,
none engaged the general attention more than the tournaments
and the justs. The tournament, in its original institution, was
[Pg xxii]
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 gallantry
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,

[10]
which strongly marks the prevalence of this taste in the times
alluded to. It may be thus rendered in English:






If wealth, sir knight, perchance be thine,


In tournaments you're bound to shine


Refuse—and all the world will swear


You are not worth a rotten pear.
        
[11]






 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 particulars,
we may refer to the romances of the middle ages; and,
generally speaking, dependence may be placed upon their information.
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, receives
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
great antiquity, and describes the large hall belonging to an
[Pg xxiii]
English nobleman, with the guests seated at table, 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 manners of the time in which
the poet lived, when no man of consequence travelled abroad
without his hawk 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 lyggen on the flour adoun.






The picture is perfect, when referred to his own time; but
bears not the least analogy to Athenian grandeur. In the romance
called The Knight of the Swan, it is said of Ydain duchess
Roulyon, that she caused her three sons to be brought up in
"all maner of good operacyons, vertues, and maners; and when
in their adolescence they were somwhat comen to the age of
strengthe, they," their tutors, "began to practyse them in
shootinge with their bow and arbelstre,

[12]
 to playe with the sword
and buckeler, to runne, to just,

[13]
 to playe with a poll-axe, and
to wrestle; and they began to bear harneys,

[14]
 to runne horses,
and to approve them, as desyringe to be good and faythful
knightes to susteyne 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 ludus
Trojæ, or Troy game, described by Virgil.

[15]
 These amusements,
according to Fitz Stephen, who lived in the reign of Henry II.,
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
[Pg xxiv]
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 arms, and some their legs; but
youth," says my author, "emulous of glory, seeks these exercises
preparatory against the time that war shall demand their
presence." The like kind of pastimes, no doubt, were practised
by the young men in other parts of the kingdom.


 VII.—KNIGHTLY ACCOMPLISHMENTS.


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 the truth, and
invincible courage. Hunting and hawking skilfully were 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 held 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 in
any countrey: and so in harping and on instruments of musike
he applied 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,

[16]
 and chase, and of all manner of vermains;

[17]
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 measures
of blowing thou art the beginner, and of all the termes
[Pg xxv]
of hunting and hawking thou art the beginner."

[18]
 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 provyd in dauncyng
and in songs that the ladies coulde think were convenable for a
nobleman to conne;

[19]
 but in every thinge 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,

[20]
shotyng, and castyng of the barre, ne found he his maister."

[21]


 VIII.—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.

[22]
Ipomydon, a king's son and heir, in the romance that bears
his name, written probably at the commencement of the fourteenth
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.


Afterward, to serve in halle
    [Pg xxvi]


Both to grete and to smalle;


Before the kynge mete to kerve;


Hye and low fayre to serve.


Both of howndes and hawkis game,


After, he taught hym all; and same,


In 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.
        
[23]






Here we find reading mentioned; which, however, does not
appear to have been of any great importance in the middle ages,
and is left out in the Geste of King Horne, another metrical
romance,

[24]
 which seems to be rather more ancient than the former.
Young Horne is placed under the tuition of Athelbrus, the king's
steward, who is commanded to teach him the mysteries of hawking
and hunting, to play upon the harp,






Ant toggen o' the harpe


With his nayles sharpe,






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 repetition
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 office is well described in the poem denominated
the Squyer of Lowe Degree:

[25]






There he araied him in scarlet red,


And set a chaplet upon his hedde;


A belte about his sydes two,


With brode barres to and fro;


A horne 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 deynty meates that were dere.—


—And, when the squyer had done so,
    [Pg xxvii]


He served them all
        
[26] to and fro.


Eche man hym loved in 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 coronations
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 displaying
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, I 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 muscular
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
[Pg xxviii]
and delicate. This example of the nobility was soon followed
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 common
mind; for, the vulgar readily acquiesced with the relaxation
of meritorious exertions, and fell into the vices of the
times, resorting 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, and 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, were occasionally exercised,
and with great brilliancy, so far as pomp and finery could
contribute to make them attractive, till the end of the succeeding
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 populace, who, being delighted
with such shows of grandeur, were thereby diverted from reflecting
too deeply upon the grievances they sustained. It is,
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 VII.


Henry VII. patronized the gentlemen and officers of his
court in the practice of military exercises. The following extract
may serve as a specimen of the manner in which they were
appointed to be performed: "Whereas it ever hath bene of old
antiquitie used in this realme of most noble fame, for all lustye
gentlemen to passe the delectable season of summer after divers
[Pg xxix]
manner and sondry fashions of disports, as in hunting the red
and fallowe deer with houndes, greyhoundes, and with the
bowe; also in hawking with hawkes of the tower; and other
pastimes of the field. And bycause it is well knowen, that
in the months of Maie and June, all such disports be not convenient;
wherefore, in eschewing of idleness, the ground of all
vice," and to promote such exercises as "shall be honourable,
and also healthfull 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 gracious
licence, to furnish certain articles concerning the feates
of armes hereafter ensuinge:"—"In the first place; On the
twenty-second daye of Maie, there shall be a grene tree sett up
in the lawnde of Grenwich parke; whereupon shall hange, by
a grene lace, a vergescu

[27]
 blanke; upon which white shield it
shal be lawful for any gentleman that will answer the following
chalenge to subscribe his name.—Secondly; The said two
gentlemen, with their two aides, shal be redye on the twenty-thirde
daie 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 commers, at the feate called the Barriers, with
the casting-speare, and the targett, and with the bastard-sword,

[28]
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 two gentlemen, with their two aiders,
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 hedded with the morne,

[29]
 and seven
strokes with the sword, point and edge rebated, without close, or
griping one another with handes, upon paine of punishment as the
judges for the time being shall thinke requisite.—Fourthly; And
it shall not be lawfull to the challengers, nor to the answearers,
with the bastard sword to give or offer any foyne

[30]
 to his match,
upon paine of like punishment.—Fifthly; The challengers shall
bringe into the fielde, the said daies and tymes, all manner of
[Pg xxx]
weapons concerning the said feates, that is to saye, casting
speares hedded with mornes, and bastard swords with the edge
and point rebated; and the answerers to have the first choise."

[31]


 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 example.
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.

[32]
 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 the great
horse, charging dexterously with the lance at the tilt, leaping, and
running, were necessary accomplishments for a man of fashion.

[33]
The pursuits and amusements of a nobleman are placed in a different
point of view by an author of the succeeding century;

[34]
 who,
describing the person and manners of Charles lord Mountjoy,
regent of Ireland, in 1599, says, "He delighted in study, in gardens,
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.


[Pg xxxi]


 XIV.—PRINCELY EXERCISES UNDER JAMES I.


We are by no means in the dark respecting the education of
the nobility in the reign of James I.; we have, from that monarch'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 remarkable
publication, entitled ΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΟΝ ΔΩΡΟΝ, or, a Kinge's
Christian Dutie towards God," I shall select such parts as respect
the recreations said to be proper for the pursuit of a
nobleman, without presuming to make any alteration in the
diction 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 debarre
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 comœdians and balladines
to win their bread with: but the exercises that I would have
you to 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 be a faire and good
horseman: use, therefore, to ride and danton great and courageous
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 greyhound hunting

[35]
 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 warres so neere
as hunting doeth in making a man hardie and skilfully ridden
in all grounds, and is more uncertain and subjec. to mischances;
[Pg xxxii]
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 emptie, would be patent to pernicious
idleness—I will not therefore agree with the curiositie
of some learned men of our age in forbidding cardes, dice, and
such like games of hazard:

[36]
 when it is foule and stormie weather,
then I say, 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 companie
comœdians or balladines."


 XV.—REVIVAL OF LEARNING.


The discontinuation of bodily exercises afforded a proportionable
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 prejudices
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 VIII., "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."

[37]
 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 hammer
and wrestling," says Peacham, in his Complete Gentleman,
[Pg xxxiii]
published in 1622, "I hold them exercises not so well beseeming
nobility, but rather the soldiers in the camp and the prince's
guard." On the contrary, sir William Forest, in his Poesye
of Princelye Practice, a MS. in the Royal Library,

[38]
 written in the
year 1548, laying down the rules for the education of an heir
apparent to the crown, or prince of the blood royal, writes thus:






So must a prince, at some convenient brayde,


In featis of maistries bestowe some diligence:


Too ryde, runne, leape, or caste by violence


Stone, barre, or plummett, or suche other thinge,


It not refusethe any prince or 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 1508,
has made a shepherd boast of his skill in archery; to which he
adds,






I can dance the raye; I can both pipe and sing,


If I were mery; I can both hurle and sling;


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 1660,
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, wrestling,
leaping, running, fencing, mustering, swimming, playing
with wasters, foils, foot-balls, balowns, running at the quintain,
and the like, are common recreations of country folks: riding
[Pg xxxiv]
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 the
Londoners, he says, "They 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 frequently
use; dancers on ropes, jugglers, comedies, tragedies,
artillery gardens, and cock-fighting." He then goes on: "Ordinary
recreations we have in winter, as cards, tables, dice,
shovelboard, chess-play, the philosopher's game, small trunks,
shuttle-cock, 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 reasonable
recreations, if in season; as are May-games, wakes,
and Whitson-ales, if not at unseasonable hours, are justly permitted.
Let them," that is, the common people, "freely feast,
sing, dance, have puppet-plays, hobby-horses, tabers, crowds,

[39]
and bagpipes:" let them "play at ball and barley-brakes;"
and afterwards, "Plays, masks, jesters, gladiators, tumblers,
and jugglers, are to be winked at, lest the people should do
worse than attend them."


A character in the Cornish Comedy, written by George Powell,
and acted at Dorset Garden in 1696, says, "What is a gentleman
without his recreations? With these we endeavour to pass
away that time which otherwise would lie heavily upon our
hands. Hawks, hounds, setting-dogs, and cocks, with their
appurtenances, are the true marks of a country 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, and then an hundred or two
pounds are soon won, for I never fight a battle under."
[Pg xxxv]


 XVII.—OLD SPORTS OF THE CITIZENS OF LONDON.


In addition to the May-games, morris-dancings, pageants
and 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:

[40]
 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 especially
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, playing
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 recreations
on the celebration of these festivals, according to the testimony
of both the authors just mentioned. The first tells us
that they played upon citherns,

[41]
 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 continue
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
to 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.






[Pg xxxvi]


 XVIII.—MODERN 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.

[42]
"The modern sports of the citizens," says the editor, "besides
drinking, are cock-fighting, bowling upon greens, playing at
tables, or backgammon, cards, dice, and billiards; also musical
entertainments, 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 foot-ball,
wrestling, cudgels, nine-pins, shovelboard, cricket, stow-ball,
ringing of bells, quoits, pitching the bar, bull and bear baitings,
throwing at cocks, and, what is worst of 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, swimming
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 scating, sliding, and shooting."
Duck-hunting was also a favourite amusement, but 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
kingdom.


 XIX.—COTSWOLD AND CORNISH GAMES.


Before I quit this division of my subject, I shall mention the
annual celebration of games upon Cotswold Hills, in Gloucestershire,
to which prodigious multitudes constantly resorted.
Robert Dover, an attorney, of Barton on the Heath, in the
county of Warwick, was forty years the chief director of these
pastimes. They consisted of wrestling, cudgel-playing, leaping,
pitching the bar, throwing the sledge, tossing the pike, with
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
[Pg xxxvii]
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."

[43]
 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 Heywood the epigrammatist:

[44]






He fometh like a bore, the beaste should 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 Germans,
lovers of show, liking to be followed wherever they go
by whole troops of servants, who wear their master's arms in
silver."

[45]
 This was no new propensity: the English nobility at
all times affected great parade, seldom appearing abroad without
large trains of servitors and retainers; and the lower classes
of the people delighted in gaudy shows, pageants, and processions.


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,
[Pg xxxviii]
and by the English tuuf: it was made with feathers of various
colours, in the form of a globe, and fastened upon a pole."

[46]
It is unnecessary to multiply citations; for which reason, 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 appointed
for the honour and safety of that prince's person.

[47]
 The
examples of royalty were followed by the nobility and persons
of opulence.


In the middle ages, the love of show was carried to an extravagant
length; and as a man of fashion was nothing less than
a man of letters, those studies that were best calculated to improve
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. The noblemen had their
privy counsellors, treasurers, marshals, constables, stewards,
secretaries, chaplains, heralds, pursuivants, pages, henchmen
or guards, trumpeters, and all the other officers of the royal
court.

[48]
 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 expense
of common decency.

[49]
 If we turn to the third Book of
Fame, a poem written by our own countryman Chaucer, we
shall find a perfect picture of these tumultuous court entertainments,
drawn, I doubt not, from reality, and perhaps without
[Pg xxxix]
any exaggeration. It may be thus expressed in modern language:
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

[50]
 seated on various seats below them,
who 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,

[51]
 pipes of various kinds, and some of them made
with green corn,

[52]
 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,"

[53]
 or any other new-devised
measures. Apart from these were stationed the trumpeters and
players on the clarion; and other seats were occupied by different
musicians playing variety of mirthful tunes. There were
also present large companies of jugglers, magicians, and tregetours,
who exhibited surprising tricks by the assistance of natural
magic.


Vast sums of money were expended in support of these absurd
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 fully on this subject hereafter.

[54]


 XXII.—CIVIC SHOWS.


The pageantry and shows 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
[Pg xl]
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, the
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 required,
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 business
it was to destroy 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;

[55]
 but the pageants and orations have been
long discontinued, and the show itself is so much contracted,
that it is in reality altogether unworthy of such an appellation.
[Pg xli]


 XXIII.—SETTING OUT OF PAGEANTS.


In an old play, the Historie of Promos and Cassandra, part
the second, by George Whetstone, printed in 1578,

[56]
 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:

[57]
 "Duke Jossua; Hector of Troy;
kyng David; emperour Alexander; Judas Machabyes; emperour
Julyus Cæsar; kyng Arthur; emperour Charlemagne; and
syr Guy of Warwycke;" but the place of the latter was frequently,
and I believe originally, supplied by Godefroy, earl
of Bologne: it appears, however, that any of them might be
changed at pleasure: Henry VIII. 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

[58]
 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 apparelled
lyke greene men at the mayor's feast, with clubbs of
fyreworks;" whose office, we are told, was to keep a clear passage
in the street, "that the kyng and his trayne might pass with
ease."—In another dramatic performance of later date, Green'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 I die; and have three
pageants carried before me, besides a ship and an unicorn." The
following passage occurs in Selden's Table Talk, under the
article Judge, "We see the pageants in Cheapside, the lions
[Pg xlii]
and the elephants; but we do not see the men that carry them
we see the judges look big like lions; but we do not see who
moves 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 pantomimical trickery exhibited at the time that the princess
Mary went in procession through the city of London, the day
before her coronation:—At the upper end of Grace-church-Street
there was 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 trumpetter
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 of
Kenelworth Castle for the reception of queen Elizabeth.

[59]
Holinshed, speaking of the spectacles exhibited at London,
when Philip king of Spain, with Mary his consort, made their
public entry in the city, calls them, in the margin of his
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 Corineus, and the other Gog-magog, holding
betweene them certeine Latin verses, which, for the vaine ostentation
of flatterye, I overpasse."

[60]
 He then adds: "From the
[Pg xliii]
bridge they passed to the conduit in Gratious-street, which was
finely painted; and, among other things," there exhibited,
"were the Nine Worthies; of these king Henry VIII. was one.
He was painted in harnesse,

[61]
 having in one hand a sword, and
in the other hand a booke, whereupon was written Verbum Dei.

[62]
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 Winchester,
then lord chancellor, where he met with a very severe
reprimand, and was ordered to erase the inscription; to which
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 it."

[63]


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 contrary,
they were frequently personified by human beings uncouthly
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,

[64]
 one camel, one
ass, one dragon, six hobby-horses, and sixteen naked boys.
This ordinance among the Harleian MSS.

[65]
 is dated 1564. In
another MS. in the same library, it is said, "A. D. 1599, Henry
Hardware, esq. the mayor, was a godly and zealous man;" he
[Pg xliv]
caused "the gyauntes in the midsomer show to be broken,"
and "not to goe; the devil in his feathers," alluding perhaps to
some fantastic representation not mentioned in the former ordinance,
"he put awaye, and the cuppes and cannes, and the
dragon and the naked boys." In a more modern 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."

[66]
 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 of
the festival of St. John the Baptist, in 1661; and as the following
computation of the charges for the different 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 the
"father and mother giants." Another article specifies "three
yards of buckram for the mother's and daughter's hoods;" which
seems to prove that three of these stupendous pasteboard personages
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
hireing of bays for the same, and a man to carry it, three
[Pg xlv]
pounds six shillings and eight pence." The bays mentioned in
this and the succeeding article was hung round the bottom of
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 to an iron handle
underneath the frame. In the bill of charges for "the merchant'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 tinfoil,
and the Cupid with skins, so as to appear to be naked,
"and also for two men to carry them, one pound sixteen shillings
and eightpence. For making anew the four beastes
called the unicorne, the antelop, the flower-de-luce, and the
camell, one pound sixteen shillings and fourpence apiece, and
for eight men to carry them, sixteen shillings. For four hobby-horses,
six shillings and eightpence apiece; and for four boys
to carry them, four shillings. For hance-staves, garlands, and
balls, for the attendants upon the mayor and sheriffs, 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 terminate
with the pageants and processions: the evening was
generally concluded with festivity and diversions of various
kinds to please the populace. These amusements are well described
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 Lordes of London, black letter, no date:

[67]—






————Let nothing that's magnifical,


Or that may tend to London's graceful state,


Be unperformed, as showes and solemne feasts,


Watches in armour, triumphes, cresset lights.


Bonefires, belles, and peales of ordinaunce


And pleasure. See that plaies be published,


Mai-games and maskes, with mirthe and minstrelsie.


Pageants and school-feastes, beares and puppet-plaies.






[Pg xlvi]
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 London,
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.

[68]


 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 entertainments,
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.

[69]
 His daughter Elizabeth appears
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 progresses
or excursions to various parts of the kingdom.

[70]
 I shall
simply give the outlines of a succession of entertainments contrived
to divert her when she visited the earl of Leicester at
Kenelworth 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;

[71]
 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,
[Pg xlvii]
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 were different
sorts of fruits in silver bowls, the gift of the goddess Pomona;
on the third pair were different 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 return
by Gascoigne the poet, so disguised as to represent a
savage man, who paid her many high-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.


[Pg xlviii]
On Wednesday was another grand hunting.


On Thursday she was amused with a grand bear-beating, to
which were added tumbling and fireworks. 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 appropriated
to her sex.


On Friday, the weather being unfavourable, there were no
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 Hock 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 person
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
Elizabeth 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 off 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."

[72]
 This story has been applied
to the performance above mentioned, but I 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
[Pg xlix]
the part of Arion was performed without defect, and the song
well executed.


On Tuesday the Coventry play was repeated, because the
queen had not seen the whole of it on Saturday.


On Wednesday, the twentieth of the same month, she departed
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 FROM
SHAKSPEARE.


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, not a holiday fool there but would
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."

[73]
 Indeed, we may observe that a cow
with two heads, a pig with six legs, or any other unnatural
production, with proper management, are pretty certain fortunes
to the possessors.


 XXIX.—ROPE-DANCING, TUTORED ANIMALS, AND PUPPET-SHOWS.


They also take great delight in seeing men and animals perform
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 off cannons. These exhibitions, for all of them
[Pg l]
have in reality been brought to public view, are ridiculed by
the Spectator, in a paper dated the 3d of April, 1711. The
author pretends that he received the following letter from a
sho-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 in 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 any
reasonable creature.

[74]
 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 entertainment
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 under the little piazza in Covent-garden, and
the managers of the Italian opera; which is mentioned in a preceding
paper

[75]
 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. though
indeed with different success. The sparrows and chaffinches
[Pg li]
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 candles; 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 week
with a pair of new elders."


From the same source of information, in a subsequent paper,

[76]
we may find a catalogue of the most popular spectacles exhibited
in London at the commencement of the last century.
Our author has introduced a projector, who 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 Alexander
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 fortune;
at the same time Clench of Barnet

[77]
 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, Quintus
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,
[Pg lii]
if 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, representing
Alexander the Great upon a Dromedary, which, nevertheless,
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 entertain
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 had taken the hint from "several Performances
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."

[78]


 XXX.—MINSTRELSY, BELL-RINGING, &c.


The people of this country in all ages delighted in secular
music, songs, and theatrical performances;

[79]
 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 numbers
beyond all reasonable proportion, inflamed their pride, increased
their avarice, and corrupted their manners; so that at
[Pg liii]
length they lost the favour they had so long enjoyed among the
higher classes of society; and, the donations of the populace
not being sufficient for their support, they fell away from affluence
to poverty, and wandered about the country in a contemptible
condition, dependent upon the casual rewards they
might occasionally pick up at church-ales, wakes, and fairs.

[80]


Hentzner, who wrote at the conclusion of the sixteenth century,
says, "the English excel in dancing and music, for they
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 hands
to get up into some belfry and ring the bells for hours together for
the sake of exercise."

[81]
 Polydore Vergil mentions another remarkable
singularity 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 customary
with other nations;

[82]
 and with respect to the Christmas
prince, or lord of the misrule, he was, as the same author informs
us, a personage almost peculiar to this country.

[83]


 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 attracted
their attention, and manifested a great degree of barbarism,
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 diversions of bull-baiting, and prize-fighting,
with the like ingenious recreations of the bear-garden. I wish
[Pg liv]
I knew how to answer this reproach which is cast upon us,
and excuse the death of so many innocent cocks, bulls, dogs,
and bears, as have been set together by the ears, or died an
untimely death, only to make us sport."

[84]


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 among them of the highest rank and most finished education,
being brought by degrees, no doubt, to sacrifice their
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
writing's of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, "vaine playes
and interludes;"

[85]
 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."

[86]
 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 himself,
"they make the theatre a place of assignation, and meet
for worse purposes than merely seeing the play."

[87]
 A contemporary
writer, endeavouring to prove the impropriety of an
established form of prayer for the church service, among other
[Pg lv]
arguments, uses the following: "He," meaning the ministers
"posteth it over as fast as he can galloppe; for, eyther he 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 beare or a bull to be baited, or else a jackanapes
to ride on horsebacke, 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."

[88]
 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 light and windy ball aloft with hand or foote;


Some others trie their skill in gonnes; some wrastell all the day;


And some to schooles 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.
        
[89]






 XXXIII.—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 frequently permitted to
run at random, without the least restraint from reason and moderation,
and, what is still worse, without that strict adherence
[Pg lvi]
to the truth which the seriousness of the subject necessarily required.
It must be granted, however, that the continued remonstrances
from the grave and religious parts of the community
were not without effect. In 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 interludes
should be banished upon Sabbath days;"

[90]
 but this restriction,
I apprehend, was confined to the jurisdiction of the
lord mayor; for, it is certain that such amusements were publicly
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."

[91]
 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 were
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 lawfull recreations and honest exercises
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, Whitson-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 unlawfull games to be used upon Sundayes onely, as beare
[Pg lvii]
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; which
occasioned many serious complaints from the puritanical party;
but, three years afterwards, a pamphlet was published which
defended the principles of the declaration;

[92]
 wherein the author,
who was a high church-man, endeavours to fine away the objections
of its opponents. In one part

[93]
 he says, "those recreations
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 their holydayes they keep throughout the yeare,


Are full of vile idolatry, and heathen like appeare.


I shew not here their daunces 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.
        
[94]






 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 before
me inveighs greatly against the erecting and decorating
of the May-poles;

[95]
 among others, he uses the following arguments:
"Most of these May-poles are stollen; yet they give
out that the poles are given to them; when, upon thorow examination,
'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
[Pg lviii]
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 considerable
summ it would amount to!" So much for his reasoning.
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 practical
fanaticks; viz. ignorants, atheists, papists, drunkards,
swearers, swash-bucklers, maid-marrions, morrice-dancers,
maskers, mummers, May-pole stealers, health-drinkers, gamesters,
lewd men, light women, contemners of magistrates, affronters
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 which the May-pole is supposed to be addressing
itself to one who is passing by it. The last lines run thus:






Now, traveller, learn 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 strengthening,
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 do.


[Pg lix]


 XXXV.—DICE AND CARDS.


The Saxons and the Danes, as we have observed already,

[96]
 were
much addicted to gaming; and the same destructive propensity
was equally prevalent among the Normans. The evil consequences
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 diffused
among mankind; and in most nations the same strong measures
that have been adopted here are found to be absolutely necessary
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
CŒUR DE LION, &c.


Towards the close of the twelfth century, we meet with a
very curious edict relative to gaming, and which shows how generally
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 I. of
England, and Philip of France, during the crusade in 1190:
It prohibits any person in the army beneath the degree of a
[Pg lx]
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 attendants
were restricted to the sum of twenty shillings; and, if
they exceeded, they were to be whipped naked through the
army for three days.

[97]


 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:

[98]
 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 proclamation
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;

[99]
 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
[Pg lxi]
masters' houses.

[100]
 We learn from Stow, that these holidays extended
"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."

[101]
 The recreations prohibited
by proclamation in the reign of Edward III., exclusive of the
games of chance, are thus specified; throwing of stones,

[102]
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 forbidden
from any particular evil tendency in themselves, but because
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

[103]
 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;

[104]
 which list was considerably augmented in the
succeeding reigns, and especially in the eighteenth year of
Henry VIII., when bowling, loggating, playing at tennice,
dice, cards and tables, or backgammon, were included.

[105]


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,

[106]
 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.


[Pg lxii]


 XXXVIII.—PROHIBITIONS 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, inadequate
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,

[107]
 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 with in places belonging
to common drinking-houses, for which reason their play is seldom
productive of much benefit, but more frequently becomes
the prelude to drunkenness and debauchery. This evil has
[Pg lxiii]
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 I speak of the ancient exercises of
the long bow, by the citizens of this city, now almost clean
left off and forsaken? I overpass 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."

[108]
 He also tells us, that "Northumberland
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 deserted
by that noble family, the gardens were converted into
bowling-alleys, and the other parts of the estate 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 city 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."

[109]
 And
here we may add the following remark from an author somewhat
more ancient than Stow:

[110]
 "common bowling-alleyes are
privy mothes that eat up the credit of many idle citizens, whose
gaynes at home are not able to weigh downe theyr 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, our 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
[Pg lxiv]
stature; and we may add to them E. O. tables, as also other
tables for gambling distinguished by the appellation of Rouge
et Noir, Pharo-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 recreations
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
highest 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, hunting, and swift horse running


Are changit all in wrangus, wynning;


There is no play but cartes and dyce, &c.
        
[111]






 XLI.—LADIES' PASTIMES—NEEDLE-WORK.


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 skilfulness
of the Saxon and Norman ladies in handling the needle,
embroidering, and working in tapestry; and that their performances
were not only held in very high estimation at home, but
were equally prized upon the continent, where none were produced
that could be placed in competition with them.

[112]


[Pg lxv]


 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 servitude
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.

[113]


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 we find it
expressly declared in the metrical romance of Ipomydon. The
passage alluded to runs thus:






When they had dyned, as I you saye,


Lordes and ladyes yede to playe;


Some to tables, and some to chesse,


With other gamys more or lesse.
        
[114]






In another poem, by Gower,

[115]
 a lover asks his mistress, when
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 of
Henry VIII., says, that when she was young,






With stoole and with needyl she was not to seeke,


And other practiseings for ladyes meete;


To pastyme at tables, tick tacke or gleeke,


Cardis and dyce—&c.
        
[116]






 XLIII.—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
seem to have been rather unfashionable among them in the
seventeenth century; for Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy,
speaks of their pastimes as much better suited to the modesty
and softness of the sex. "The women," says he, "instead of
laborious studies, have curious needle-works, cutworks, spinning,
bone-lace making, with other pretty devices to adorn
[Pg lxvi]
houses, cushions, carpets, stool-seats," &c.

[117]
 Not but some of
these masculine females have occasionally made their appearance:
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 of
the Spectators,

[118]
 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 neglects
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. The 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 recollected,
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 excuse
the frequent quotations which he will meet with, which in
general I have given verbatim; and this I have done for his
satisfaction, as well as my own, judging it much fairer to stand
upon 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 invention,
neither do they contain a single figure that has not its
proper authority. Most of the originals are exceedingly ancient,
[Pg lxvii]
and all the copies are faithfully made without the least unnecessary
deviation. As specimens of the art of design they have
nothing to recommend them to the modern eye, but as portraitures
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.


January, 1801.




[Pg 1]


SPORTS AND PASTIMES


OF THE


PEOPLE OF ENGLAND.






BOOK I.


RURAL EXERCISES PRACTISED BY PERSONS OF RANK.






CHAPTER I.


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 Saxons
subsequently;—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 those 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. 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,

[119]
 written at
the commencement of the fourteenth century. These compositions
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
[Pg 2]
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, which naturally, in my opinion, claims the priority of
place.


 II.—HUNTING AMONG THE BRITONS.


Dio Nicæus, 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.

[120]
 Strabo also says, that the
dogs bred in Britain were highly esteemed upon the continent,
on account of their excellent qualities for hunting; and these
qualities, he seems to hint, were natural to them, and not the
effect of tutorage by their foreign masters.

[121]
 The information
derived from the above-cited authors, does not amount to a proof
that the practice of hunting was familiar with the Britons collectively;
yet it certainly affords much fair argument in the
support of such an opinion; for it is hardly reasonable to suppose
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,

[122]
 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 were obnoxious
to the chase; we know however, at least, that the hare
was not anciently included; for Cæsar tells us, "the Britons
did not eat the flesh of hares, notwithstanding the island abounded
[Pg 3]
with them." And this abstinence, he adds, arose from a principle
of religion;

[123]
 which principle, no doubt, prevented them
from being worried to death: a cruelty reserved for more enlightened
ages.


We do not find, that, during the establishment of the Romans
in 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 privileges;
for, had any severity been exerted to prevent the destruction
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 gradually
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 of
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."

[124]
It is certain that, whenever a temporary peace gave leisure for
relaxation, hunting was one of the most favourite pastimes followed
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 grandson
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
[Pg 4]
hunting of wild beasts,"

[125]
 His successor, Edgar, remitted the
pecuniary payment on condition of receiving annually the skins
of three hundred wolves.

[126]
 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 predecessor,
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 England,
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 sufficient 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."

[127]
 He was equally pleased with hawking, and every day,
after divine service, he spent his time in one or other of these
favourite pastimes.

[128]
 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.

[129]
 Travelling thus
accompanied, was not a singular trait in the character of a nobleman
at this period.


[Pg 5]





1. Swine Hunting—IX. Century.




The above engraving represents a Saxon chieftain, attended
by his huntsman and a couple of hounds, pursuing the wild
swine in a forest, taken from a manuscriptal painting of the
ninth century in the Cotton Library.

[130]





2. Spearing a Boar—XIV. Century.




The above is a representation of the manner of attacking the
wild boar, from a manuscript written about the commencement
of the fourteenth century, in the possession of Francis Douce, Esq.





3. The Unearthing of a Fox.




The preceding engraving is from a manuscript in the Royal
Library,

[131]
 written about the same time as the latter.


[Pg 6]


 VI.—HUNTING AMONG THE NORMANS OPPRESSIVELY EXERCISED.


During the tyrannical government of William the Norman,
and his two sons who succeeded him, the restrictions concerning
the killing of game were by no means meliorated. The privileges
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 overthrown;
not the least regard being paid to the miseries of the
suffering 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 Hampshire,
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.

[132]
 This park, Stowe tells us, was
the first made in England. The royal example was first followed
by Henry earl of Warwick, who made a park at Wedgenoke,
near Warwick, to preserve his deer and other animals for hunting;
after this the practice of park-making became general
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. "In 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 without interruption." He adds, addressing himself
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
[Pg 7]
not be involved in ruin, or even accused of treason."

[133]
 If this
picture of Norman tyranny be correct, it exhibits a melancholy
view of the sufferings to which the lower classes of the people
were exposed; in short, it appears that, these haughty Nimrods
considered the 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 spoils 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.

[134]


In the reign of Edward I. this favourite amusement was reduced
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 III. 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,

[135]
 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 upwards
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.

[136]


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 fair weather, the two former his dull and cloudy.

[137]
 One
[Pg 8]
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 glittering 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 Lamme, he facetiously replied, "Lamb,
call you him? I know not what kind of lamb he is, but I am
sure he has got a fleece upon his back."

[138]
 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,






Man-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.
        
[139]






These pursuits are said by latter writers to have been destructive
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 support.
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 following
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 unprecedented
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
[Pg 9]
for hunting, but even for disturbing of the game. If a gentleman,
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 appointed,
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.

[140]
 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.

[141]
 This prince also
prohibited the exercise of hunting, or hawking, upon the sabbath
day.

[142]


The severity of the game laws was rather increased, than
abated, under the governance of the four first Norman monarchs.
Henry II. is said to have relaxed their efficacy; rather, I presume,
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.

[143]
 This charter was afterwards confirmed by his son
Henry III. and the succeeding monarchs.


 IX.—HUNTING BY THE CLERGY.


Another clause in the 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,

[144]
 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
[Pg 10]
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 themselves,
for they suppose them to be no hunters, as the earls and
barons 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."

[145]


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.

[146]


The prevalence of these excesses occasioned the restrictions,
contained in an edict established in the thirteenth year of
Richard II. which prohibits any priest, or other clerk, not possessed
of a benefice to the yearly amount of ten pounds, from
keeping a greyhound, or any other dog for the purpose of hunting;
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.

[147]
 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 forbade
the clergy to spend their time in hunting and hawking:
and for this purpose, having obtained permission from Hugo
[Pg 11]
Pertroleonis, the Pope's legate, he caused a law to be made,
authorising him to convene the offenders before the secular
judges, and there to punish them.

[148]
 The establishment of this
edict was probably more to show his power, than really to restrain
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.

[149]
 In the succeeding century
an abbot of Leicester surpassed all the sportsmen of the
time in the art of hare hunting;

[150]
 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. Fitzstephen
assures us, that Thomas à Becket, being sent as ambassador
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.

[151]


The clergy of rank, at all times, had the privilege of hunting
in their own parks and inclosures; and therefore, that they might
not be prevented from following this favourite pastime, they took
care to have such receptacles for game belonging to their priories.
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.

[152]
 At the end of a book
of Homilies in MS., in the Cotton Library,

[153]
 written about the
reign of Henry VI., is a poem containing instructions to priests
in general, and requiring them, among other things, not to engage
in "hawkynge, huntynge, and dawnsynge."


 XI—HUNTING AND HAWKING BY LADIES.


The ladies often accompanied the gentlemen in hunting parties;
upon these occasions it was usual to draw the game into a
[Pg 12]
small compass by means of inclosures, and temporary stands
were made for them to be spectators of the 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 romance
are said to be fond of the sports of the field. In an old
poem entitled the "Squyer of lowe degre,"

[154]
 the king of Hungary
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 the bugles there yblow


With theyr bugles in that place,


And seven score raches at his rechase






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 valuable
present in former times,

[155]
 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,"

[156]
 a princess tells the
knight, that if he was inclined to hunt, she would, as an especial
mark of her favour, give him on excellent greyhound, so
swift that no deer could escape from his pursuit—


[Pg 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. Century.




We 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
[Pg 14]
means singular, is taken from a manuscript in the Royal Library,
written and illuminated early in the fourteenth century.

[157]
 We
may also observe, that, upon these occasions, the female Nimrods
dispensed with the method of riding best suited to the modesty
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 huntresses
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 observed
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.

[158]


Queen Elizabeth was extremely fond of the chase, and the
nobility who 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 following
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."

[159]
 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."

[160]


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.

[161]


[Pg 15]





5. Hunting Dresses.—XV. Century.




 XII.—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 Middlesex,
and Surry."

[162]
 Hence we find, that these privileges were
of ancient standing. They were also confirmed by the succeeding
charters. Fitzstephen, who wrote towards the close of the reign
of Henry II., says, that the Londoners delight themselves with
hawks and hounds, for they have the liberty of hunting in Middlesex,
Hertfordshire, all Chilton, and in Kent to the waters of
Grey,

[163]
 which differs somewhat from the statement in the charter.
These exercises were not much followed by the citizens of London
at the close of the sixteenth century, not for want of taste
[Pg 16]
for the amusement, says Stow, but for leisure to pursue it.

[164]
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 Collection,

[165]
I shall select the three following stanzas only.








Next once a year into Essex a hunting they go;


To see 'em pass along, O 'tis a most pretty shew;


Through Cheapside and Fenchurch-street, and so to Aldgate pump,


Each man with '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 made 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 from favour, or as a reward for their services.
Richard I. 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.

[166]


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 Edward
I.; he was to provide a man, called "veltarius," or huntsman,

[167]
to lead three greyhounds when the king went into Gascony
so long as a pair of shoes, valued at fourpence, should last him.

[168]


[Pg 17]


 XIII.—TWO EARLY TREATISES ON HUNTING.


I have mentioned two treatises upon hunting, in a former part
(the first section) of this chapter; the earliest of them was originally
written in French, by William Twici, or Twety, grand
huntsman to king Edward II.

[169]
 I have 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 Gyfford is joined to that of Twety, and both of them are
said to be "maisters of the game" to king Edward,

[170]
 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.

[171]
 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 Sopewell,
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.

[172]


The second class contains the names of the beasts of the chase,
[Pg 18]
and they are five; that is to say, the buck, the doe, the fox,
the martin, and the roe.

[173]


In the third class we find three, that are said to afford "greate
dysporte" in the pursuit, and they are denominated, the grey
or badger, 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 more multifarious,
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. In 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 stinking
flight.

[174]


 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 Constantine
the king of Wales, and claimed in its stead the annual production
of three hundred wolves' skins; because, say the historians,
the extensive woodlands and coverts, abounding at that
time in Britain, afforded 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
[Pg 19]
than is consistent with the truth, as certain documents clearly
prove.


The words of William of Malmsbury relative to wolves in
Edgar's time are to this purport. "He, Edgar, 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 ulterius posse invenire professus;
it was said that he could not find anymore;"

[175]
 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 I. Robert de Umfranville, knight, held the lordship,
&c. of Riddlesdale, in the county of Northumberland, by service
of defending that part of the country from enemies and "wolves."

[176]
Also in the forty-third year of Edward III. Thomas Engaine
held lands in Pitchley, in the county of Northampton, by service
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.

[177]
 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.

[178]


 XVI.—DOGS OF THE CHASE.


In the manuscripts before mentioned we find the following
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 mastiff 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 serviceable
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 writers, upon the subject of hunting, have thought
[Pg 20]
proper to enumerate. In the sixteenth century the list is enlarged;
besides those already named, we find bastards and mongrels,
lemors, kenets, terrours, butcher's hounds, dunghill dogs,
trindel-tail'd dogs, "pryckereard" curs, and ladies small puppies.

[179]


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 Normans,
and certainly was in force in the reign of Henry I.

[180]


 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 purpose.
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;

[181]
 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 necessary
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 their
assistants, were commanded to erect a sufficient number of temporary
buildings

[182]
 for the reception of the royal family and their train;
[Pg 21]
and, if I understand my author clearly, these buildings were directed
to be covered with green boughs,

[183]
 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 yeomen
of the king's bow, and the grooms of his tutored greyhounds,

[184]
had in charge to secure the king's standing, and prevent
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 permitted
to have a share in the pastime; who might either shoot
at them with 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 preparations
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.

[185]


[Pg 22]


 XVIII.—HUNTING TERMS—SEASONS FOR HUNTING.


There was a peculiar kind of language invented by the sportsmen
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 of
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 mules;
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 martins;
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 creation,
but it was extended to the various ranks and professions
of men, as the specimen, which I cannot help adding, will sufficiently
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 serjeants;
an untruth of sompners; a multiplying of husbands; an
incredibility of cuckolds; a safeguard of porters; a stalk of foresters;
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
malepertness 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
[Pg 23]
applied to inanimate things, as a caste of bread, a cluster of
grapes, a cluster of nuts, &c.


I shall now conclude this long, and, I fear, tedious chapter
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;

[186]
 the roebuck from Easter to
Michaelmas; the roe from Michaelmas to Candlemas; the hare
from Michaelmas to Midsummer; the wolf as the fox; and the
boar from the Nativity to the Purification of our Lady.




[Pg 24]




CHAPTER II.



I. Hawking practised by the Nobility.—II. Its Origin not well known;—A favourite
Amusement with the Saxons.—III. Romantic 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. 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. Fowling
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 falconry
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 probably
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,

[187]
 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.

[188]
 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.

[189]
 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.

[190]


Sebastian Brant, a native of Germany, the author of a work
entitled Stultifera Navis, the Ship of Fools, published towards
[Pg 25]
the conclusion of the fifteenth century, accuses his countrymen
of bringing their hawks and hounds into the churches, and interrupting
the divine service; which indecency he severely reprobates
and with the greatest justice. The passage is thus
translated by Alexander Barclay:

[191]






Into the church then comes another sotte,


Withouten devotion, jetting up and down,


Or to be seene, and showe his garded cote.


Another on his 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 devotion 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 lived
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.

[192]
 Pliny 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.

[193]
 An English writer, upon what authority I know not,
says, that hawking was first invented and practised by Frederic
Barbarossa, when he besieged Rome.

[194]
 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 determined;
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.

[195]
 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
[Pg 26]
a young man of rank. Alfred the great is commended for his
early proficiency in this, as well as in other fashionable amusements;

[196]
he is even said to have written a treatise upon the subject
of hawking, but there is no such work at present in existence,
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.

[197]
 This amusement continued to
be a fashionable one to the end of the Saxon æra. Byrhtric,
a Saxon nobleman, who died towards the end of the tenth century,
among other valuable articles, left by will, to earl Ælfric,
two hawks, and all his heaꝺoꞃ hunꝺaꞅ which Lambarde renders
hedge-hounds; spaniels, I suppose, for the purpose of flushing
the game.

[198]
 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
time to hunting or hawking.

[199]


 III.—ROMANTIC STORY RELATIVE TO HAWKING.


The monkish writers, after the conquest, not readily accounting
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 hawking
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
[Pg 27]
great 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 unfortunate
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. It 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 circumstances,
in his poetical life of king Edmund, who was the
tutelar saint of the abbey to which he belonged.

[200]
 On the other
[Pg 28]
hand, every one who is acquainted with the history of the Anglo-Saxons
must know, that the Danish pirates had infested the
coasts of England, and committed many dreadful depredations,
long before the time assigned for the above event; and the success
of the first parties encouraged others to make the like attempts.


 IV.—GRAND FALCONER OF FRANCE.


Hawking is often mentioned, says a modern author, in the
capitularies of the eighth and ninth centuries. The grand fauconnier
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 kingdom,
and even within the verge of the court; and the king
never rode out upon any occasion of consequence without this
officer attending upon him.

[201]


In Doomsday-book, a hawk's airy

[202]
 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;

[203]
 and every day he either hunted, or went
to the river

[204]
 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 afforded the most diversion. The author last
quoted, speaking of the earl of Flanders, says, he was always
at the river,

[205]
 where his falconer cast off 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-tutored
[Pg 29]
birds;

[206]
 so also Chaucer, in the rhime of sir Thopas,
says that he could hunt the wild deer,






And ryde on haukynge by the ryver,


With grey gos hawke in hande.
        
[207]






An anonymous writer, of the seventeenth century, records the
following anecdote: "Sir Thomas Jermin, going out with his
servants, and brooke hawkes one evening, at Bury,

[208]
 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

[209]
 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 himself amaine, threw off his jerkin,
and besought his worshippe not to be offended, for he would off
with his doublet too, to give him content."

[210]





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 commencement
of the tenth; in the Cotton Library.

[211]
 Another drawing
upon the same subject, with a little variation, occurs in a Saxon
manuscript, somewhat more modern.

[212]
 The two following engravings
are from drawings in a manuscript, written early in
the fourteenth century, preserved in the Royal Library.

[213]
 We
see a party of both sexes hawking by the water side; the falconer
[Pg 30]
is frightening the fowls to make their rise, and the hawk
is in the act of seizing upon one of them.

[214]





7. Hawking—XIV. Century.







8. Ladies Hawking—XIV. Century.




[Pg 31]


 VI.—FONDNESS OF LADIES AND THE CLERGY FOR HAWKING.


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,

[215]
in the thirteenth century, they even excelled the men in knowledge
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 by 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 without the other
being included; for those who delighted in hawking were generally
proficients in hunting also.

[216]


 VII.—DECLINE OF HAWKING.


The practice of hawking declined, from the moment the musket
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 century,
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
[Pg 32]
hawk on foot, 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 VIII. 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."

[217]


 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
jesses, 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 were 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 musical;
not both of one sound, but the one a semitone below the
[Pg 33]
other;

[218]
 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
with 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' tongues by 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,


And spoile the mounting of your hawke.
        
[219]






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 frequently
occur; at Hampton Court, in the jewel house, were seven
hawkes' gloves embroidered.

[220]


 X.—EARLY TREATISES ON HAWKING—SUPERSTITIOUS CURE
OF HAWKS.


We have a poetical fragment, written in old Norman French,
as early as the thirteenth century, containing some general observations
respecting the management of hawks, which the author
informs us he found in a book made for, or by, the good king
Edward.

[221]
 Wanley, in his catalogue of the Harleian manuscripts,
suspects there is some mistake in the name; and that this fragment
is really part of a treatise upon hawking, which he tells us
was written by king Alfred; but I rather think the author is
[Pg 34]
correct in this particular; for another manuscript

[222]
 in English,
and about a century more modern, treating upon the same subject,
has the following indication at the close, "Here endith the
booke of haukyng, 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 supposition
is partly justified by the extreme partiality he had for this
diversion.

[223]


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: also, 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."

[224]
 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.


 XI.—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.

[225]
 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
[Pg 35]
to carry the same to the sheriff 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 whom 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 sheriff; on the contrary, if he was an unqualified man,
the hawk 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.

[226]
 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.

[227]
 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 Bermondsey,
in Southwark; but this piece of sacrilege was committed
during divine service in the choir, and the hawk was the
property of the bishop.

[228]


In the reign of Henry VII. a restrictive act was established,
prohibiting any man from bearing a hawk bred in England,
called a nyesse,

[229]
 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;

[230]
 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 decreed, that if any
person was convicted of taking from the nests, or destroying the
[Pg 36]
eggs 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 other 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.

[231]
 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 behaviour
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 considered
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 exercised
were esteemed presents worthy the acceptance of a king
or an emperor. In the eighth year of the reign of Edward III.
the king of Scotland sent him 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.

[232]
 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—


[Pg 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.

[233]

The gos-hawk, for a yeoman.

The tercel, for a poor man.

The sparrow-hawk, for a priest.

The musket, for a holy water clerk.

The kesterel, 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 the year 1377, an. 1 Richard II.; but A. D. 1537, the 27th year
of Henry VIII., it was converted into stables for that monarch's
horses, and the hawks were removed.

[234]


 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
they were to be applied to the different kinds of birds assembled
in companies. A sege of herons, and of bitterns; an herd
of swans, of cranes, and of curlews; a dopping of sheldrakes;

[235]
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
[Pg 38]
brood of hens; a building of rooks; a murmuration of starlings;
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 hunting and hawking. I shall select
a few observations that occur respecting the former; but with
regard to the latter, I have not met with any particulars sufficiently
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 chaff-nets
for smaller birds;

[236]
 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 with trappings, so as to conceal the sportsman
from the game he intended to shoot at. It was particularly
useful to the archer, by affording him an opportunity of approaching
the birds unseen by them, so near that his arrows
might easily reach them; but as this method was frequently
inconvenient, and often impracticable, the fowler had recourse
to art, and caused a canvass figure to be stuffed, 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 VIII., we frequently find the allowance
of certain quantities of stuff for the purpose of making
"stalking coats, and stalking hose for the use of his majesty."

[237]


There is also another method of fowling, which, says my
author, for I 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
[Pg 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."

[238]


The pipe-call, mentioned by Burton, is noticed under a different
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.

[239]


I shall just observe, that there are twelve prints, published
by John Overton, upon the popular subjects of hunting, hawking,
and fishing, &c. engraved by Hollar, from designs by Francis
Barlow, which perfectly exemplify the manner in which those
pastimes were practised, somewhat more than a century back.




[Pg 40]




CHAPTER III.



I. Horse-racing known to the Saxons.—II. Races in Smithfield, 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 Monarchs
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 understand
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."

[240]
 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 were considered
as presents well worthy the acceptance of kings and princes.


When Hugh, the head of the house of the Capets, afterwards
monarchs of France, solicited the hand of Edelswitha, the sister
of Athelstan, he sent to that prince, among other valuable presents,
several running-horses,

[241]
 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.


 II.—RACES IN SMITHFIELD.


The first indication of a sport of this kind occurs in the description
of London, written by Fitzstephen, who lived in the
reign of Henry II. 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 were
matched against each other; his words are to this effect,

[242]
 "When
a race is to be run by this sort of horses, and perhaps by others,
[Pg 41]
which also in their kind are strong and fleet, a shout is immediately
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,"

[243]
 it is
said,






In somer at Whitsontyde,


Whan knightes most on horsebacke ride;


A cours, let they make on a daye,


Steedes, and Palfraye, for to assaye;


Whiche horse, that best may ren,


Three myles the cours was then,


Who that might ryde him shoulde


Have forty pounds of redy golde.






Commenius in his vocabulary, entitled "Orbis Sensualium
Pictus," published towards the conclusion of the sixteenth century,
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

[244]
 tells us, that horse-racing,
which had formerly been practised at Easter-tide, "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
[Pg 42]
pastimes. "It had been customary," says a Chester antiquary,

[245]
"time out of mind, upon Shrove Tuesday, for the company of
saddlers belonging to the city of Chester, to present to the drapers
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,"

[246]
 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."

[247]
 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,

[248]
"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 were collected of the citizens, to a sum for
that purpose."

[249]
 By the author's having added, that the winner
at this race was 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 corporation;
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 different
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,

[250]
 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
[Pg 43]
Middleton, which won him the plate; and being master of the
race, he would not suffer the horses of master Massey, of Puddington,
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; which thing caused all the gentry
to relinquish our races ever since."


 V.—STAMFORD RACES.


Races something similar to those above mentioned, are described
by Butcher,

[251]
 as practised in the vicinity of the town of
Stamford, in Lincolnshire. "A concourse," says he, "of noblemen
and gentlemen meet together, in mirth, peace, and amity,
for the exercise of their swift running-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 received
many of his fines in the one or the other;

[252]
 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 like sports of the field.


In the reign of Edward III. the running-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.

[253]
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
two running-horses, which I presume were very valuable, because
he gave the person who brought them no less than one
hundred shillings for his reward.

[254]


[Pg 44]


 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 the heroes who figure in their
romances; and rated at prodigious prices; for instance, in an
ancient poem,

[255]
 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 oon favell, thatt other Lyard:


Yn this worlde, they hadde no pere;
        
[256]


Dromedary, neither destrere,
        
[257]


Stede, rabyte, ne cammele,
        
[258]


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?


Says't thou this colt shall prove a swift pac'd steed,


Onely because a Jennet did him breed?


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.
        
[259]






 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
[Pg 45]
ranked with hunting 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.

[260]
 One of the puritanical
writers

[261]
 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,

[262]
 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 quite 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.—


—— Another makes racing a trade,


And dreams of his projects to come;


And many a crimp match has made,


By bubbing another man's groom.
        
[263]






 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 performance
of such sports, and prizes were appointed as rewards for
[Pg 46]
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 I. 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.

[264]
 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;

[265]
 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,

[266]
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 Bainton 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 patroniser
of this pastime, and established an academy for riding,
and his queen not only continued the bounty of her predecessors,
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.


[Pg 47]
In one of the Spectators, we meet with the following advertisement,
extracted, as we are told, from a paper called the Post
Boy:

[267]
 "On the ninth of October next will be run for on Coleshill
Heath, in Warwickshire, a plate of six guineas 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 under, 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.




[Pg 48]




BOOK II.


RURAL EXERCISES GENERALLY PRACTISED.






CHAPTER I.



I. The English famous for their Skill in Archery.—II. The Use of the Bow known to the
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. Ordinances
in its Favour;—The Fraternity of St. George established.—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.


 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 destruction;
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 admiration
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 acquainted
with the use of the bow; a knowledge they derived at
[Pg 49]
an early period from their progenitors. The Scandinavian 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.

[268]
 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 anterior
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 bow as a weapon of war. The action itself might be
nothing more than a wanton piece of cruelty; and cruelty seems
to have been a prominent feature in the character of those lawless
plunderers.


 III.—FORM OF THE SAXON BOW


Representations of the bow occur frequently in the Saxon
manuscripts; and from one of them in the Cotton Library, written
about the eighth century,

[269]
 I have selected the following.





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 shooting
at a bird; and from the adornment of his girdle, appears to
[Pg 50]
have been no bad marksman. The first represents Esau going
to seek venison for his father, and the second, Ishmael, after
his expulsion from the house of Abraham, and residing in the
desert.





10. Saxon Bow and Arrow.—X. Century.




This engraving is made from a manuscript of the tenth century
in the Cotton Library.

[270]
 The bow is curiously ornamented
having 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 presume
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 throughout
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 Thopas "He was a good archere."

[271]


 V.—ARCHERY PRACTISED BY LADIES.


In the seventeenth century archery was much commended as an
exercise becoming a gentleman to practise, and greatly conducive
to health.

[272]
 The ladies also were fond of this amusement, and by
a previous representation

[273]
 from an original drawing in a manuscript
of the fourteenth century, we see it practised by one who
has shot at a deer, and wounded it with great adroitness; and in
[Pg 51]
another previous engraving

[274]
 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.

[275]
 It is said of Margaret, the daughter of Henry VII.,
that when she was on her way towards Scotland, a hunting
party was made for her amusement in Alnwick Park, where she
killed a buck with an arrow.

[276]
 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 Cowdrey,
in Sussex, on the Monday, August 17, 1591, "Her highness
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."

[277]


 VI.—THE CROSS-BOW.


The foregoing observations refer chiefly to the long-bow, so
called, to distinguish it from the arbalist,

[278]
 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 probably gave rise to the lock on the modern musket.
Bayle, explaining the difference 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
[Pg 52]
that period. On the continent, where probably it originated,
its appearance might be somewhat earlier. Our historians
assure us that Richard I. was wounded by an arrow from a bow
of this kind, while he was reconnoitring the walls of the castle
of Chalezun; which wound was the occasion of his death.
William Brito seems to attribute the introduction of the cross-bow
to this monarch, who, he says, first showed it to the French.

[279]


In the twenty-third year of the reign of Edward I. the earl
of Warwick had in his army a number of soldiers called Ballistarii,

[280]
and this word is translated cross-bow men by our chronological
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.

[281]


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 weapons,
and assisted the French upon that memorable occasion;
but their efforts were 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;

[282]
 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 different 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.

[283]


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
[Pg 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.

[284]





11. Practising with the Cross-Bow.




Below is an engraving from a painting on another manuscript
in the Royal Library much more modern.

[285]





12. Cross-Bow Shooting at the Butts.—XVI.
    Century.




[Pg 54]
Here we find exhibited a school for practice; and the manner
in which the archers shot at the butts, or dead marks, a pastime
frequently alluded to by the authors of the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries.


In the reign of Henry VII. the cross-bow was forbidden by
law to be used;

[286]
 and, soon after his son ascended the throne,
it was found necessary to renew the prohibition;

[287]
 yet, notwithstanding
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.

[288]
 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. Stow speaks
of a large close, called the Tazell, let in his 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.

[289]
 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.


 VIII.—BOWS AND ARROWS ORDERED TO BE KEPT.


But, to return from this digression: as far back as the thirteenth
century, every person not having a greater annual revenue
in land than one hundred pence, was obligated to have in his
possession a bow and arrows, with other arms offensive and defensive;
and all such as had no possessions, but could afford
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 are, "Ark et setes hors de foreste et en foreste
ark et piles."

[290]
 The word pile I believe is derived from the Latin,
[Pg 55]
pila, a ball; and I 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 soone shot, and fleeth oftymes fer


But the fooles bolte, and the marke, cum few times ner.
        
[291]






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.


Notwithstanding the manifest advantages accruing to the nation
from the practice of archery, it seems to have been much neglected
even at a time when the glory of the English archers was
in its zenith, I mean in the reign of Edward III.; which occasioned
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 pursuit
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 II.; but
probably its good effects were merely temporary. And in the fifth
year of Edward IV. an ordinance was made, commanding every
Englishman and Irishman dwelling in England, 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 in the poetical legends is called "shooting about."


In the sixteenth century we meet with heavy complaints respecting
[Pg 56]
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 understand
the author's meaning in this passage, unless the word
games 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.

[292]


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 commission
was granted by James I.

[293]
 to many persons of quality;
in which were recited and established the good statutes, ordinances,
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 VIII.; 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 I. confirmed this
commission, or granted another to the same purpose.


 X.—ORDINANCES IN FAVOUR OF ARCHERY.—CROSS-BOWS,
  &c.


In the reign of Henry VIII. 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
bowyers, the fletchers, 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
[Pg 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 himself
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 assizes,
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 Christopher
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."

[294]


I may just add, that in addition to the hand-guns, I meet
with other instruments of like kind mentioned in the reign of
[Pg 58]
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 half
shot;

[295]
 but in the beginning of the seventeenth century the word
artillery was used in a much more extensive sense, and comprehended
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, chambers,
harguebusses, calivers, petronils, pistols, and dags.
"This," says he, "is the artillerië 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.


 XI.—PRICES ORDAINED FOR BOWS.


In the reign of Edward IV. an ordinance was established,
which compelled the bowyers of London to sell the best bow-staves
at three shillings and fourpence each; which was confirmed
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 shillings.

[296]


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 II.

[297]
 some attempts were then made by the nobility
to revive this manly pastime. I shall only quote the four following
lines:—






Forsake your lov'd Olympian games awhile,
        
[298]


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
[Pg 59]
was continued to the year 1633; but it appears to have been a
mere sinecure.

[299]


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 us,

[300]
 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, tapering
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 which 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 made 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
[Pg 60]
archer aimed his arrow at sir Hugh Mountgomerye, with such
skill, that it hit him on the breast, and the poet elegantly says,






The grey-goose-winge 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 were 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 was an ell long, adorned with peacocks'
feathers, and bound at the notching with white silk.

[301]






With them they had an hundred bowes,


The stringes were well ydight;


An hundred shefe of arrows good


With hedes burnish'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 thriftely


Well coude he dresse his tackle yomanly;


His arrowes drouped not with fethers lowe,


And in hande he bare a myghty bowe.
        
[302]






The adornment of these arrows with peacocks' feathers is not
[Pg 61]
to be considered as a mere poetical flourish, for we have sufficient
testimony, that such plumage was actually used.

[303]


But, returning to our author, he informs us, that the English
arrows had forked heads and broad-heads, yet he thought, that
round pointed heads resembling a bodkin were 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 required,
or at the will of the archer, being sometimes deep and
narrow, and sometimes broad and not deep.


 XIII.—DIRECTIONS FOR ARCHERY.


Having thus furnished the archer with his necessary accoutrements,
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.

[304]
 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
arrow should rest between the fore-finger and the middle finger
of the right hand.

[305]
 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,
[Pg 62]
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 children,"
says he, "if sufficient pains are taken with them at the
onset, may much more easily be taught to shoot well, than men,"
because the latter have frequently more trouble to unlearn
their bad habits, than was primitively requisite to learn them
good ones.

[306]


 XIV.—MARKS FOR SHOOTING AT.


The marks usually shot at by the archers for pastime, were,
"butts, prickes, and roavers." 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.

[307]


The Cornish men are spoken of as 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 roaving in the other, for
the prickes, the first corrupters of archery, through too much
preciseness, were formerly scarcely known, and little practised."

[308]
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.

[309]
 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.


[Pg 63]





13. 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 Royal
Library.

[310]


 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.

[311]
 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.


Hall

[312]
 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 whistling
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 sound
was occasioned by holes being made in the arrow heads, and
[Pg 64]
that such weapons were used upon military occasions, and
especially as signals;

[313]
 but not, I presume, before the time mentioned
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, will 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."

[314]
 According to the story, the
king

[315]
 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
up, but at so great a distance from each other, that,






By fyfty space our kyng sayde


Tho markes were to longe.—


On every syde a rose garlande,


The shot under the lyne.


Whoso faileth of the rose garland, said Robyn,


His takyll he shal tyne;
        
[316]


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 companions;
but,






At the last shot, that Robyn shot,


For all his frendes fore,


Yet he fayled of the garland.


Three fyngers and more—






[Pg 65]
of course his "takill" was forfeited, which he presented to the
king, saying,






Syr abbot, I deliver thee myne arrowe.






The second poem is also of the ballad kind, and apparently
as old as the former,

[317]
 wherein Adam Bell, Clym of the Cloughe,
and William Cloudesle, are introduced to shoot before the king.
The butts, or dead marks set up by the king's archers, were censured
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

[318]
 from each other; his first attempt
in shooting at them, contrary to the expectation of the
king, was successful, for it is said,






Cloudesle with a bearyng arowe
        
[319]


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 he might
not be intimidated by seeing the arrow directed towards him:
one hundred and twenty yards

[320]
 were measured from the stake,
and Cloudesle went to the end of the measurement; he first entreated
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 styffe and stronge.






Then Cloudesle cleft the apple in two,


As many a man myght se,


Over Gods forbode,
        
[321]
        sayde the kynge,


That thou sholde shote at me.








[Pg 66]


 XVII.—SUPERIORITY OF ANCIENT BOWMEN.


If we were to judge of the merits of the ancient bowmen from
the practice 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.

[322]
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, repeatedly
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 commended
as a manly and gentleman-like exercise.


I remember about four or five years back,

[323]
 at a meeting of the
society of archers, in their ground near Bedford Square, the
Turkish 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 arrows 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 with vast precision
to that distance,

[324]
 which the ambassador did not, he had
no mark, and his arrows fell exceedingly wide of each other.


[Pg 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 hundred
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."

[325]
 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 merveyled;
so the kynge gave him a rewarde,"

[326]
 and for this curious
feat he afterwards obtained the by-name of "Fote in
Bosome."


 XVIII.-THE DUKE OF SHOREDITCH.


The same monarch, Henry VIII., 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 companies,
proceeded in a pompous march from Merchant Taylors
Hall, consisting of three thousand archers, sumptuously apparelled;
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."

[327]
 Nine
hundred and forty-two of the archers had chains of gold about
[Pg 68]
their necks. This splendid company was guarded by four thousand
whifflers and billmen, besides pages and footmen. They
passed through Broad-street, the residence of their captain, and
thence into Moorfields, by Finsbury, and so on to Smithfield,
where having performed several evolutions, they shot at a target
for honour.

[328]


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.

[329]


 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 queen to Henry VII.

[330]






See where he shoteth at the butts,


And with hym are lordes three;


He weareth a gowne of velvette blacke,


And 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,

[331]
 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 were 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.

[332]
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 continued
[Pg 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."

[333]


King Edward VI., though not so conspicuous as his father
or his uncle, was nevertheless an encourager of archery, and
frequently amused himself with the bow. This appears from
his own diary.

[334]


Charles I. was an archer, as appears from the dedication of a
treatise, called the "Bowman's Glory;" and Catherine of Portugal,
queen to Charles II., was probably much pleased with
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, "Reginæ Catharinæ
Sagittarii." This badge was made in the year 1676, by the
contribution of sir Edward Hungerford and others.

[335]


 XX.—PRIZES FOR ARCHERY.


I find but little said respecting the rewards bestowed upon
the best bowmen; the London fraternity are said to have shot
for pastime or for honour; however, 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 appropriated
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 shote, al of the best,


The prize should bear away.


And he that shoteth al of the best,


Furthest, fayre and lowe,


At a payre of goodly buttes,


Under the grene wood shaw


A ryght good arrowe he shal have,
        [Pg 70]


The shaft of sylver whyte,


The head, and fethers of riche 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 "goode arrowe, for
best worthie was he."




[Pg 71]




CHAPTER II.


I. 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.—VIII. Of Spears.—IX. Of Quoits.—X. Swinging of Dumb Bells.—XI.
Foot Races.—XII. The Game of Base.—XIII. Wrestling much practised
formerly.—XIV. Prizes for.—XV. How performed.—XVI. 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 high
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 who 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,"

[336]
 that
is, with exceedingly great precision. Again we are told, that
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.

[337]
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.

[338]
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
nations. It is altogether uncertain, whether the ancient inhabitants
[Pg 72]
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, from a manuscript
of that age in the Cotton Library.

[339]
 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.





14. 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.

[340]


[Pg 73]





15. Manner of holding the Sling.




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. Those slings appear to
have been chiefly used in besieging of cities, and on board of
ships in engagements by sea. The following engraving represents
a sling of this kind, from a drawing supposed to have
been made by Matthew Paris, in a MS. at Bennet College,
Cambridge.

[341]





16. Slings of 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,

[342]
 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 discharging 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 superseded
by the bow at the commencement of the fifteenth century,
as the following verses plainly indicate: they occur in a manuscript
poem in the Cotton Library,

[343]
 entitled, "Knyghthode
[Pg 74]
and Batayle," written about that time, which professedly 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 mighty cast of stonys;


And stonys in effecte, are every where,


And slynges are not noyous for to beare.






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 retaining
them as military weapons; neither does he confine their
use to any body or rank of soldiers, but indiscriminately recommends
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; it 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 great 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 was 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 exercise
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.

[344]
 "The discus
[Pg 75]
of the ancients," says Dr. Johnson,

[345]
 "is sometimes called 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 amusements
practised by the young Londoners on holidays, was casting
of stones,

[346]
 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.

[347]


 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 pastimes
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 competitor
[Pg 76]
in distance; and of skill, when the spear was cast at a
quintain, or any other determined mark. According to Fitzstephen,
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."

[348]


 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 evidently
to have derived its origin from the ancient discus, and
with us in the present day it is a circular plate of iron perforated
in the middle, not always of one size, but larger or
smaller to suit the strength or conveniency of the several candidates.
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 of
quoits to the other, and the nearest of them to the hob are reckoned
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 such quoit had interfered, then A would
[Pg 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 with poises of lead or other
metal;" this notable pastime, I apprehend, bore some resemblance
to the Skiomachia,

[349]
 or fighting with a man's own shadow, mentioned
in one of the Spectators:

[350]
 "It consisted," says the author,
"in 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."


 XI.—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 of
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 naturally
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.


[Pg 78]
In former times, according to Commenius,

[351]
 it was customary
for the places appropriated to pedal races to be railed in on either
side, and the prize-giver 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;

[352]
 and a poetical writer in the Cotton manuscript, "Of
Knyghthode and Batayle," before cited,

[353]
 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 smyte first in fight, and also whenne,


To take a place our foemen will forrenne


And take it erst, also, to serche or sture,


Lightly to come and go, rennynge is sure.


Rennyng is also right good at 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,

[354]
 and in some places Prisoners' Bars; and as the
success of this pastime depends upon the agility of the candidates
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
[Pg 79]
avenues of the palace at Westminster,

[355]
 during the sessions of
Parliament, because of the interruption it occasioned to the
members and others in passing to and fro as their business required.
It is also spoken of by Shakespear as a game practised
by the boys:






He with two striplings, lads more like to run


The country base, than to commit such slaughter,


Made good the passage.
        
[356]






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 soon alternately, until as many are
out as choose to run, every one pursuing the man he first followed,
and no other; and if he overtake him near enough to touch him,
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 considerable
sum of money, which afforded much entertainment to
the spectators. In Essex they play this game with the addition
of two prisons, which are stakes driven into the ground, parallel
with the home boundaries, and about thirty yards from them;
and every person who is touched on either side in the chase,
[Pg 80]
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 opponents
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 deliverance.
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 figure
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 assured,
from time immemorial, been celebrated for their expertness
in this pastime, and are universally said to be the best
wrestlers in the kingdom. To give a Cornish hug is a proverbial
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.

[357]
 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.

[358]


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.

[Pg 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 with the Londoners, a battle ensued, and
many of the latter were severely wounded in making their retreat
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.

[359]
 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.

[360]
 In the month of August, about the feast
of St. Bartholomew, adds this very accurate historian, there
were divers days spent in wrestling; the lord mayor, aldermen,
and sheriffs, being present in a large tent pitched for that purpose
near Clerkenwell;

[361]
 upon this occasion the officers of the city,
namely, the sheriffs, serjeants, and yeomen, the porters of the
king's beam or weighing-house,

[362]
 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, continues
he, the wrestling is only practised on the afternoon of St.
Bartholomew's day.

[363]
 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,

[364]
 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
[Pg 82]
two at a time." He adds a circumstance not recorded by the
historian: "After this 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."

[365]


From the time that wrestling became unfashionable 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 FOR WRESTLING.


We may have observed, that the reward proposed for the best
wrestlers in the contest between the Londoners and the inhabitants
of Westminster, as mentioned above, was a ram. Anciently
this animal was the prize most usually given upon such occasions,
and therefore in the rhyme of sir Thopas, Chaucer says
of the Knight,






Of wrastling was there none his pere,


Where any Ram shulde stonde.
        
[366]






And again, in his character of the miller,






————for over al ther he cam,


At wrastlyng he wolde have away the Ram.
        
[367]






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,

[368]
 is certainly more ancient than the time of Chaucer.





17. Ancient Wrestling.




[Pg 83]
In modern times the prizes were not 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,

[369]








——Unto Bernisdale,


As he went, by a bridge was a wrastling,


And there taryed was he,


And there was all the best yemen,


Of all the west countrey.


A full fayre game there was set up;


A white bull, up ypyght;


A great courser 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 hat, as a recompence to him who gives the most falls."

[370]


 XV.—WRESTLING, HOW PERFORMED.





18. Another Representation.




The manner in which this pastime was exhibited in the western
parts of England, at the distance of two centuries, is thus described
by Carew, an author then living. "The beholders then
cast, or form themselves into a ring, in the empty 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 friendship,
they fall presently to the effect of anger; for each striveth
[Pg 84]
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 activities,
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."

[371]


The Greeks had a pastime called Hippas,

[372]
 which, we are told,
was one person riding upon the shoulders of another, as upon a
horse;

[373]
 a sport of this kind was in practice with us at the commencement
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,

[374]
 and the other
in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, dated 1344.

[375]


[Pg 85]





20.




This seems to bear more analogy to wrestling than to any
other sport, for which reason I have given it a place in the present
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.

[376]
 Peacham, describing the requisites
for a complete gentleman, mentions swimming as one;
and particularly recommends it to such as were inclined to follow
a military profession. In this he seems to have followed an
old poetical writer,

[377]
 who speaks in this manner:—






To swymme, is eke to lerne in sommer leson.


Men fynde not a bridge, so often as a flood,


Swymmyng to voyde; and chase an hoste wil eson.


Eke after rayne the rivers goeth wood,
        
[378]


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,

[379]
 in the following manner:—


[Pg 86]






Take two strong men and in Temese
        
[380]
        cast them,


And both naked as a needle, ther non sikerer
        
[381]
         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 ne 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 bulrushes,
and with corks where the rushes cannot readily be procured;
particularly in the neighbourhood of London, where
we are told, two centuries back, there were men who could teach
the art of swimming well, and, says the author, "for commoditie
of river and water for that purpose, there is no where better."

[382]


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 Encyclopædia 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
kingdom, 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 following-couplet
[Pg 87]
in a song written upon that occasion

[383]
 plainly
proves:






While the rabble in sledges run giddily round,


And nought but a circle of folly is found.






 XVIII.—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.

[384]
 I cannot by any means ascertain
at what time skating made its first appearance in England,
but we find some traces 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 striking it against the ice, and
moved with celerity equal, says the author, to a bird flying
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
them 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 Sensualium
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 in the front.


[Pg 88]
Some modern writers have asserted, that "the 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."

[385]
 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 winding with much adroitness, have readily in
succession described upon the ice the form 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.

[386]
 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."

[387]
 The reader may possibly call to his recollection
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.

[388]
 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,

[389]
 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.
If we refer to two engravings

[390]
 whereon both these sports are
[Pg 89]
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, was 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 Westminster
by water was made A. D. 1453, by John Norman, then
lord mayor, for which he was highly commended by the
watermen.


When 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 occasions
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-known
annual legacy of Thomas Dogget, a comedian of some
celebrity at the commencement of the last century, which provides
three prizes to be claimed by three young watermen, on
condition they prove victorious in rowing from the Old Swan
Stairs near London Bridge, to the White Swan at Chelsea. The
contest takes place upon the first of August; the number of
competitors upon this occasion is restricted to six, who 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
[Pg 90]
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 Cumberland
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, where a vessel is
moored at a distance from the stairs, and the sailing boat that
first passes this mark upon her return obtains the victory.




[Pg 91]




CHAPTER III.


I. 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 England.—VII.
A famous Woman Player.—VIII. Hand-ball played for Tansy Cakes.—IX.
Fives.—X. Balloon-ball.—XI. Stool-ball.—XII. Hurling.—XIII.
Foot-ball;—Camp-ball.—XIV.
Goff;—Cambuc;—Bandy-ball.—XV. Stow-ball.—XVI.
Pall-mall.—XVII. Ring-ball.—XVIII. 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 I
have 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 the Lydians;

[391]
 succeeding writers
have affirmed, that a female of distinction named Anagalla, 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 Phœacia, and at the same time taught her
how to use it;

[392]
 this piece of history is partly derived from Homer,
who introduces the princess of Corcyra with her maidens, amusing
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.
        
[393]






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.


 II.—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
[Pg 92]
life of Saint Cuthbert,

[394]
 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,

[395]
 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 celebrated
game of ball;

[396]
 every party of boys carrying their own
ball;" for it does not appear that those belonging to one school contended
with those of another, but that the youth of each school diverted
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 word bastion,

[397]
 meaning a bat or cudgel; others
again have taken it for foot-ball,

[398]
 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 support
an argument on either side, I see no reason why it should
not be rendered hand-ball.

[399]


 IV.—BALL PLAY IN FRANCE.


The game of hand-ball is called by the French palm play,

[400]
because, says St. Foix, a modern author, originally "this exercise
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 with 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
[Pg 93]
racket derived its origin."

[401]
 During the reign of Charles 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,

[402]
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 interruption
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 Vocabulary
of Commenius,

[403]
 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.

[404]


 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 Remembrancer'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
attached to this diversion; which propensity, as Hall assures
[Pg 94]
us,

[405]
 "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 perceyved 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."

[406]
 Among the additions that
king Henry VIII. made to Whitehall, if Stowe be correct, were
"divers fair tennis-courts, bowling-allies, and a cock-pit."

[407]


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.

[408]
 Charles II. frequently diverted
himself with playing at tennis, and had particular kind of dresses
made for that purpose. So had Henry VIII. In the wardrobe
rolls we meet with tenes-cotes for the king, also tennis-drawers
and tennis-slippers.

[409]


 VII.—A FAMOUS WOMAN PLAYER.


A French writer speaks of a damsel named Margot, who resided
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.

[410]


 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.

[411]
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.

[412]


[Pg 95]
Anciently the mayor, aldermen, and sheriff of Newcastle,
accompanied with a great number of burgesses, used to go every
year at the feasts of Easter and Whitsuntide to the Forth, 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.

[413]


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 same
gate, whereupon he caused it to be shut up."

[414]


 IX.—FIVES.


Hand-tennis still continues to be played, though under a different
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 succeeding
passage seems to indicate. In 1591, when queen Elizabeth
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."

[415]


 X.—BALLOON-BALL.


The balloon or wind-ball resembled the follis of 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."
        
[416]






The balloon-ball, was a large ball made of double leather, which
being filled with wind by means of a ventil, says Commenius,

[417]
[Pg 96]
was driven 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
originated from the hand-ball, and was, I apprehend, first
played in England without the assistance of the bracer; this
supposition will be perfectly established if it be granted, and
I see no reason why it should not, that the four figures represented
below are engaged in the balloon-ball play: the original
delineation occurs in a manuscript of the fourteenth century in
the Royal Library.

[418]





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 representation,
the pastime consisted in merely beating the ball
from one to the other.





22. Hand-Ball.—XIV. Century.




[Pg 97]


These figures are taken from a manuscript in the Harleian
Library,

[419]
 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,

[420]
 it is a play where balls are driven
from 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 antagonist,
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
which 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 appropriated
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
[Pg 98]
play of Don Quixote, acted at Dorset Gardens in 1694,

[421]
 sufficiently
indicate:






Down in a vale on a summer's day,


All the 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,

[422]
 whose words are these: "Hurling taketh his denomination
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 woune
the game; but herein consisteth one of Hercules his labours, for
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
[Pg 99]
which they call butting." 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 but nor hand-fast
under the girdle, he who hath the ball must but 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 neyther
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 ball 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 centuries
ago, for it is mentioned in a book published in the reign
of queen Elizabeth,

[423]
 and is there railed "a clubbe" or "hurle
batte."


[Pg 100]


 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 determine at what period the game of foot-ball
originated; it does not however, to the best of my recollection,
appear among the popular exercises before the reign
of Edward III., and then, in 1349, it was prohibited by a public
edict;

[424]
 not, perhaps, from any particular objection to the sport
in itself, but because it co-operated, with other favourite amusements,
to impede the progress of archery.


When a match at foot-ball is made, two parties, each containing
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 ball, 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

[425]
 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 James I.
to say, "From this court I debarre all rough and violent exercises,
[Pg 101]
as the foot-ball, meeter for lameing than making able
the users thereof."

[426]


The rustic boys made use of a blown bladder without the covering
of leather by way of foot-ball, putting peas and horse beans
withinside, which occasioned a rattling as it was kicked about:






—And nowe in the winter, when men kill the fat swine,


They get the bladder and blow it great and thin,


With many beans and peason put within:


It ratleth, soundeth, and shineth clere and fayre,


While it is throwen and caste up in the 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.
        
[427]






"It had been the custom," says a Chester antiquary,

[428]
 "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,

[429]
 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,

[430]
 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 goff is much practised.
It requires much room to perform this game with propriety,
[Pg 102]
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 reign of Edward III. the Latin name cambuca

[431]
was applied to this pastime, and it derived the denomination,
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
[Pg 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:

[432]
"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 warning 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 he 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 I., quoted
above, pall-mall was a pastime not unlike goff, but if the definition
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, wins." 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
[Pg 104]
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

[433]
 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 distance
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.


 XVIII.—CLUB-BALL.


Club-ball is a pastime clearly distinguished from cambuc
or goff, in the edict above mentioned established by Edward III.
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,

[434]
 exhibits
a female figure in the action of throwing the ball to a man who
elevates his bat to strike it.


[Pg 105]





24. Club-Ball.—XIV. Century.




Behind the woman at a little distance appear in the original
delineation several other figures of both sexes, waiting attentively
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,

[435]
 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
either of these instances how the game was determined.





25. Club-Ball.—XIII. Century.




[Pg 106]


 XIX.—CRICKET.


From the club-ball originated, I doubt not, that pleasant and
manly exercise, distinguished in modern times by the name of
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.

[436]
 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 nimble 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 off 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 off 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
[Pg 107]
station, which he touches with his bat and then returns to his
wicket. 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 antagonists
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 regulations
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.

[437]





26.: Trap-Ball.—XIV. Century.




[Pg 108]


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 batsman,
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 which requires much more dexterity
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 striker
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,
[Pg 109]
and if it appears to his antagonist to rest at a sufficient distance
to justify the striker's call, he obtains his number; but when a
contrary opinion 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.


 XXI.—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 between
them is simply who shall strike it to the greatest distance
in a given number of strokes; the length of each stroke is measured
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 distance
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.


 XXII.—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 contrivance
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
[Pg 110]
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
shall 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 opposite 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.




[Pg 111]




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.—XVIII. When the Tournament
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 certain
rules, and practised by the knights and their esquires for diversion
or gallantry, was anciently called a tournament: yet
these amusements frequently differed materially from each other,
and have been distinguished accordingly by various denominations
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, were 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;

[438]
 I shall in this place be a little more particular
with respect to the nature and distinction of these celebrated
diversions.


[Pg 112]


 II.—THE QUINTAIN.


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.

[439]
 Afterward a staff or spear was fixed in
the earth, and a shield being hung upon it, was the mark to
strike at:

[440]
 the dexterity of the performer consisted in smiting
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,

[441]
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 contrived
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.

[442]
 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 for
his unskilfulness.

[443]


[Pg 113]


 III.—VARIOUS QUINTAINS.


The quintain in its original state was not confined to the
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,

[444]
 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 he calls 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 shield in the same manner as he
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 soldier
performing his exercise, which is here copied.





27. The Pel Quintain—XIV. Century.




[Pg 114]


Below is the quintain in the form of a Saracen, from Pluvinel.





28. The Saracen Quintain.




An English poet who has taken up the subject of chivalry
under the title of "Knighthood and Battle,"

[445]
 describes the
attack of the pel in the following curious manner:








Of fight, the disciplyne, and exercise


Was this. To have a pale or pile upright
        
[446]


Of mannys hight,
        
[447]
        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
        
[448]
         to welde.






This fanne and mace whiche either doubil wight,


Of shelde, and swayed in conflicte, 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
        
[449]
        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 be cloos,
        
[450]
        and preste
        
[451]
        thy foe to smyte,


Lest of thyne own dethe thou be to wite.






Empeche
        
[452]
        his head, his face, have at his gorge,
        
[453]
[Pg 115]


Beare at the breste, or sperne him one the side.


With myghte knyghtly poost,
        
[454]
        ene as Seynt George


Lepe o thy foe; looke if he dare abide:


Will he not flee? 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 weapons 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,
        
[455]


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 hert and eye uppon the pile or pale,


Shoot nyghe or onne; and if so be thou ride


On horse, is eck
        
[456]
        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,

[457]
 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
[Pg 116]
javelins, heavier than common, and fought at the pel as if they
were opposing an adversary, &c.

[458]


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.

[459]


 V.—THE WATER QUINTAIN.


To the best of my recollection, Fitzstephen is the first of our
writers who 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, with a shield strongly attached to it;
and a boat being previously placed at some distance, is driven
swiftly towards 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.

[460]
 The water
quintain, taken from a manuscript of the fourteenth century, in
the Royal Library,

[461]
 where a square piece of board is substituted
for the shield, is represented below.





29. The Water Quintain—XIV. Century.




[Pg 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 circumstance
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.

[462]
 Some
have thought, these fellows were 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.

[463]


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
of 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, contented
themselves with running at this mark on foot. The following
representation of a lad mounted on a wooden horse
with four wheels, and drawn by two of his comrades tilting
at the immoveable quintain, is taken from a MS. in the Bodleian
Library at Oxford, dated 1344.

[464]





30. Fixed Quintain—XIV. Century.




[Pg 118]
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
horse-shoe.





31. Moveable 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 practised
in London, as well in the summer as in the winter, but
especially at the feast of Christmas. I have seen," continues
my author, "a quintain set upon Cornhill by Leadenhall, where
[Pg 119]
the attendants of the lords of merry disports have run 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."

[465]
 But the form of the modern quintain
is more fully described by Dr. Plott, in his History of Oxfordshire:

[466]
"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 I 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 Warwickshire,
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 company
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 bag, 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
the race should be performed on horseback or on foot; and
some put forth with spurs, would run his race byas, among the
[Pg 120]
thickest of the throng, that down they came together hand over
head. Another while he directed his course to the quintane, 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."

[467]
 This whimsical description may possibly
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 without 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. Century.




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.

[468]


 X.—THE HUMAN QUINTAIN.


I shall here say a few words concerning the human quintain,
which has escaped the notice of most of the writers upon this
subject; it is, however, 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
[Pg 121]
defensive, and parry their blows with his shield. A representation
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 sufficiently
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."

[469]
 The satirist Hall, who wrote in the time of
Elizabeth, evidently alludes to a custom of this kind, in a satire

[470]
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.






 XI.—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 support
behind; and the business, I presume, of the tilter, was to overthrow
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.


[Pg 122]





34.




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.




[Pg 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
end, and are contending which shall dispossess the other of
his hold.





37.




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.

[471]





38.




 XII.—RUNNING AT THE RING.


Tilting or, as it is most commonly called, running at the ring,
was also a fashionable pastime in former days; the ring is evidently
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 alla quintana," which with us
is called running at the ring: the learned author produces
several quotations to the same purpose.

[472]
 Commenius also, in
his vocabulary,

[473]
 says, "At this day tilting at the quintain is
[Pg 124]
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 top of the lance.





39. The Ring in Tilting.




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
the ring to suit the conveniency of the performer. The following
engraving, also from Pluvinel, represents the method of performing
the exercise.





40. Tilting at the Ring.




At the commencement of the seventeenth century, the pastime of
running at the ring was reduced to a science. Pluvinel, who
treats this subject at large, says, the length of the course was
measured, and marked out according to the properties of the
horses that were to run: for one of the swiftest kind, one
[Pg 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 running towards it.

[474]


In tilting at the ring, three courses were allowed to each candidate;
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.

[475]


 XIII.—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, according
to the laws of chivalry, might be made exclusive of the
tournament.

[476]


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 right to engage in the former
without 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 originated
from a childish pastime practised by the Roman youths
[Pg 126]
called Ludus Troiæ (the Troy game), said to have been so named
because it was derived from the Trojans, and first brought into
Italy by Ascanius the son of Æneas. Virgil has given a description
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 præfixa hastilia ferro.—Æneid.
    lib. v. l. 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, from far


Loud with a shout, and with his sounding 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 diff'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.

[477]


The same kind of sports, or others bearing close resemblance
to them, were established in this kingdom in the twelfth century,
and probably at a much earlier period. Fitzstephen, an author
then living, informs us, "that every Sunday in Lent, immediately
after dinner, it was customary for great crowds of young Londoners
mounted on war horses, well trained, to perform the
necessary turnings and evolutions, to ride into the fields in distinct
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 not received
the honour of knighthood, came from the king's court, and from
[Pg 127]
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 infensi.—Æneid. lib. v. l. 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 splendour,
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.

[478]
 The word behordicum will, however, admit of a more
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 levée.


Li jouvencel behordent par la prée.






[Pg 128]
Which will run thus in English: They raised a quintain in the
midst of a meadow, and the youth tilted at it with their lances.

[479]
In fact, I apprehend, it might be applied to any of the military
exercises performed by the young men, either for pastime
or improvement. Menestrier says, they formerly used hollow
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 originated
from the following circumstance related by Hoveden.

[480]
 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 began, 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, "quidam miles optimus de familia regis Franciæ." 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 provided
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 same
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.


[Pg 129]


 XVI.—TOURNAMENTS.


Our word tournament, or tournoyement, which signifies to
turn or wheel about in a circular manner,

[481]
 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,

[482]
 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, which certainly
bore a much greater similitude to a real engagement,
especially when they were divided into large parties, and meeting
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 afterwards enter the lists as combatants at these tournaments;
which law indeed, continues he, has been ill observed
by the succeeding kings, and in our time by Henry II., who, unfortunately
for France, was killed at the justs he made in honour
of his daughter's marriage. It was, in fact, very common for
some of the combatants to be beat or thrown from their horses,
trampled upon and killed upon the spot, or hurt most grievously.
Indeed, a tournament at this period was rarely finished without
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 consequently
interdicted by the ecclesiastical decrees.


The following quotation from an ancient manuscript romance,
in the Harleian collection, entitled Ipomydon,

[483]
 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
[Pg 130]
moreover, that the champion who remained unhorsed at the conclusion
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.


Tournementis atyred in the felde,


A thousand armed with spere and shelde;


Knyghtis began togedre to ryde,


Some were unhorsyd on every side,


Ipomydon 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,
        
[484]


Horse and man both went to grounde.


The Heraudes
        
[485]
        gaff the child the gree,
        
[486]


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 own historians, tells us,

[487]
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,

[488]
 in which 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
[Pg 131]
his hand "too heavy," he gave up the contest, and acknowledged
him to be the conqueror. The knights of the earl's party
were angry when 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 probability
the consequences would have been very serious.


 XVII.—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 Menestrier,

[489]
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 following
passage in an old English romance, among the Harleian
manuscripts:

[490]
 "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 eache stake two kyngs of armes, 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.


 XVIII.—WHEN THE TOURNAMENT WAS FIRST PRACTISED.


It is impossible to ascertain the precise period when tournaments
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 Comminus,
at the siege of Constantinople, invented tilts and tournaments;

[491]
but this is certainly a mistake. The French and the
Germans both claim the honour. The historian, Nithard, mentions
[Pg 132]
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; for
he 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.

[492]
 Most of the
German writers, however, make the emperor Henry I., surnamed
L'oiseleur, who died in 936, the institutor of these pastimes;
but others attribute their origin to another Henry, at least
a century posterior. The French, on their side, quote an ancient
history,

[493]
 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 upwards of sixty years posterior to that event. The manner
of performing the tournament, as then used, says Lambarde,
"not being at the tilt, as I 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 frequented
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."

[494]
 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.

[495]
But Richard I. having, as it is said, observed that the French
practising frequently in the tournaments, were more expert in
[Pg 133]
the use of their arms than the English, permitted his own
knights to establish the like martial sports in his dominions;
but at the same time 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; between
Stamford and Wallingford; between Brakely and Mixeberg;
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.

[496]
 How long these imposts
continued to be collected does not appear; but tournaments
were occasionally exhibited with the utmost display of magnificence
in the succeeding reigns, being not only sanctioned by
royal authority, but frequently instituted at the royal command,
until 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.


All military men, says Fauchet,

[497]
 who bore the title of knights
or esquires, were not indiscriminately received at these tournaments:
there were certain laws to which those who presented
themselves became subject, and which they swore to obey before
they were permitted to enter the lists.


In one of the Harleian manuscripts,

[498]
 I met with the following
ordinance for the conducting of the justs and tournaments according
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,

[499]
 lords, knights, and esquires, ladies,
and gentlewomen; you are hereby acquainted, that a superb
achievement at arms, and a grand and noble tournament will be
held in the parade

[500]
 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,
[Pg 134]
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 attached

[501]
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 expose
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 exposed
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 arms 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:

[502]
 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;"

[503]
 being
[Pg 135]
the notice, I 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:"

[504]
 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 wait upon him
and give him his sword, or truncheon, as occasion might require;
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 combatants
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 tournament,
had the privilege of wearing the blazon of arms of
those by whom the sport was instituted; besides which they
were entitled to six ells of scarlet cloth as their fee, and had all
their expenses defrayed during the continuation of the tournament:
by the law of arms they had a right to the helmet of
[Pg 136]
every knight when he made his first essay at the tournament,
which became their perquisite as soon as the sports were concluded;
they also claimed every one of them six crowns as nail
money, for affixing the blazon of arms 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,

[505]
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.

[506]





41. Preparation for a Tournament




[Pg 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 parliament,
containing the following regulations relative to the tournaments,
which regulations were said to have been established
at the request of all the nobility of England.

[507]
 The act prohibits
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, should wear a sword or a
dagger,

[508]
 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 tournament.
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 imprisonment
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 horseback,
[Pg 138]
were strictly forbidden to be armed with any kind 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 constable;
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."

[509]


 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, we 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 demanded
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 referred to them respecting the
awardment of the prizes;

[510]
 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
for justs and tournaments made by John Tiptoft, earl of Worcester,

[Pg 139]
at the command of Edward IV., in the sixth year of his
reign, conclude thus: "Reserving always to the queenes highness
and the ladyes there present, the attribution and gift of the
prize after the manner and forme accustomed."

[511]


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 being often included
in the latter, and usually took place when the grand tournamental
conflict was finished. But at the same time it was perfectly
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 discharged
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:

[512]
 "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 the lance; for
it is to be observed, that he who has paid his helmet at the tournament
is freed from the payment of a second helmet at the
[Pg 140]
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."


 XXVI.—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.

[513]
 During the government of Henry III. the just assumed
a different appellation, and was also called the Round
Table game.

[514]
 This name was derived from a fraternity of knights
who frequently justed with each other, and accustomed themselves
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. Athenæus,
cited by Du Cange,

[515]
 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 Pendragon,
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 Mortimer,

[516]
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, we are
told, a great influx of foreigners, who came either to initiate themselves,
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 afforded to the young nobility an
[Pg 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, who also instituted a round
table at his court, and by that means drew thither many German
and Italian knights who were coming to England.

[517]
 The contest
between the two monarchs seems to have had the effect of destroying
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 alteration
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 together,
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 without
heads of iron; and the excellency of the performance consisted
in striking the opponent upon the front of his helmet, so
as to beat him backwards from his horse or break the spear.
Froissart[2] mentions a trick used by Reynaud de Roy, at a tilting
match between him and John de Holland: he fastened his helmet
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 Roy 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
[Pg 142]
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.

[518]


Below is a representation of the just, taken from a manuscript
in the Royal Library,

[519]
 of the thirteenth, or early in the fourteenth
century, where two knights appear in the action of tilting
at each other with the blunted spears.

[520]





42. Justing.—XIV. Century.




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 performing the justs, the two combatants rode on
[Pg 143]
separate sides of the barrier, and were thereby prevented from
running their horses upon each other.


 XXVIII.—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 presided
as judges paramount over the sports, and their determinations
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 mentions
this,

[521]
 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.

[522]"
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.

[523]


 XXIX.—GREAT SPLENDOUR 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 champions,
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,
[Pg 144]
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 minstrels
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, afforded
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 prohibited
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 were attached to the pedestal,
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 under 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 possession of sir Frederic
Eden, with whose permission this copy, about the same size as
the original, makes its appearance here.


[Pg 145]





43. A Justing Toy.




[Pg 146]


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 Maximilian
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 Knights 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 tournaments;
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,

[524]
and justing upon the ice by the young Londoners.

[525]
 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.
[Pg 147]
The original delineation occurs in a beautiful MS. book of
prayers, written in the fourteenth century, in the possession of
F. Douce, esq.





45. Boys Tilting in Pastime.




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.

[526]





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.

[527]
 When queen Elizabeth visited Sandwich
in 1573, 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 together,
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."

[528]
 The same kind of laughable pastime was practised at
[Pg 148]
London, 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 against 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.

[529]
 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

[530]
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,
[Pg 149]
with such swordes as the king shall ordain, until eighteen strokes
be given by one of them to the other; 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,

[531]
 frequently referred
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," hurteth
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 offer, and granted their petition; at the same
time he promised to reward the best performer at the justs royal
with a ring of gold set with a ruby; and the best performer at
the tournament with another golden ring set with a diamond,
equal in value to the former.


Upon some particular occasions the 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.




[Pg 150]




CHAPTER II.


I. Ancient Plays.—II. Miracle Plays, Dramas
from Scripture, &c. continued several
days.—III. The Coventry Play.—IV. 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 modern 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.


 II.—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.

[532]
 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,

[533]
was written by Geofrey, a Norman, afterwards abbot of Saint
Albans: he was sent over into England by abbot Richard, to

[Pg 151]
take upon him the direction of the school belonging to that
monastery, but coming too late, he went to Dunstable and taught
there, where he caused his play to be performed about the year
1110, and borrowed from the sacrist of Saint Albans capæ
chorales, 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
their composition.

[534]


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.D. 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.

[535]
 In the succeeding reign,
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 attended by
most of the nobility and gentry of the realm.


 III.—THE COVENTRY PLAY.


The last of these performances, no doubt, bore a close analogy
to the well known mystery entitled Corpus Christi, or Ludus
Coventriæ, 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.

[536]
 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 concluding
with the last judgment. In the first pageant, or act, the
[Pg 152]
Deity is represented seated on his throne by himself, delivering
a speech of forty lines beginning thus:






"Ego sum de Alpha 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, "To
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, whence it received its title. Dugdale says,

[537]
for the performance of these plays they had theatres for the
several scenes very large and high, placed upon wheels, and
drawn to all the 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

[538]
 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
first 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,


[Pg 153]






"Most dowtyd man, I am lyvynge upon the grounde,


Goodly besene with many a ryche harlement;


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 constituted
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.

[539]


 VI.—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 consisted of
moral reasonings in praise of virtue and condemnation of vice,
on which account they were called Moralities; and these performances
requiring some degree of invention, laid the foundation
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 personified
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
[Pg 154]
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 Anatomie of Abuses, printed
A.D. 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. The propensity
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 Preludium to
the Careless Shepherdess, a pastoral tragi-comedy by Thomas
Goffe, in 1656, where several characters are introduced upon the
stage as spectators, waiting for the commencement of the performance.
One of them says:






Why, I would have a fool in every act,


Be 't comedy or tragedy: I've laugh'd


Until I cr'yd again, to see what faces


The 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 Changling 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.






[Pg 155]


A boy then comes upon the stage, and the first speaker inquires
for the Fool; but being told he is not to perform that
night, he says—






Well, since there will be nere a fool i' th' play,


I'll 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 the 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 different
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 by
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;

[540]
 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 notwithstanding
the exertions of their clerical rivals, who diligently
endeavoured to bring them into disgrace, by bitterly inveighing
against the filthiness and immorality of their exhibitions.

[541]
 On the
other hand, the itinerant players sometimes invaded the province
of the church-men, 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 themselves
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
[Pg 156]
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, intermixed
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 prohibited
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.

[542]


 VIII.—INTERLUDES.


The interludes, which, I presume, formed a material part of
the performances exhibited by the secular players, were certainly
of a jocular nature, consisting probably of facetious or
satirical dialogues, calculated to promote mirth, and therefore
they are censured by Matthew Paris

[543]
 as "vain pastimes." Something
of this kind was the representation made before king
Henry VIII. at Greenwich, in 1528, thus related by Hall:
"Two persons plaied a dialogue, the effect whereof was, whether
riches were better than love; and, when 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 betweene
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 berd, 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 satirical
nature; and, when occasion required, they took another
turn, and became the agents of flattery and adulation: both
[Pg 157]
these purposes were answered by the following dialogue, 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 VIII. 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 Puissance
brideled him. This horse was meant by the Frenche
kyng,

[544]
 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 adversity;
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 hye degre


Into misery, and ended wretchedly.
        
[545]






 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 churchwardens
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 declaimed
against by the religious writers of the sixteenth century;
and Bonner, bishop of London, in 1542, the thirty-third
year of the reign of Henry VIII., 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, within
their churches or chapels.


[Pg 158]


 XI.—CORNISH MIRACLE PLAYS.


In Cornwall 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 guary-miracle, in
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 representing
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."

[546]
 In the Harleian Library
is preserved a miracle play of this kind in the Cornish language,
written by William Gordon, A. D. 1611, 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
in the other parts of the kingdom, and when the establishment
of regular plays had taken place.

[547]


[Pg 159]


 XII.—CHARACTER OF THE OLD ITINERANT PLAYERS.


The itinerant players often exhibited their performances upon
temporary scaffolds as late as the reign 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.

[548]


 XIII.—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.

[549]
 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 white 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; fourteen
tunics of English linen painted; and fourteen other tunics
embroidered with stars of gold.

[550]
 How far these plays were enlivened
by dialogues, or interlocutory eloquence 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 instruct the mind.


The magnificent pageants and disguisings frequently exhibited
[Pg 160]
at court in the succeeding times, and especially in the reign of
Henry VIII., no doubt originated from the ludi above mentioned.
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 pantomime."

[551]


The reader may form some judgment of the appearance the
actors made upon these occasions, from the following:





47. Mummers.—XIV. Century.




These, and the other figures in the subjoined engraving, are
taken from a beautiful manuscript in the Bodleian Library,
written and illuminated in the reign of Edward III.

[552]





48. Mummers.—XIV. Century.




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.


[Pg 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,

[553]
 "there came," says the historian,
"into the greate hall, a mount called the riche mount.
This mount was set full of riche flowers of silke, and especially
of brome

[554]
 slippes full of poddes, the branches were grene sattin,
and the flowers flat gold of damaske which signified Plantagenet:
on the top stood a goodly bekon

[555]
 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."

[556]
 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 pageantry
disappeared.

[557]


 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,

[558]
[Pg 162]
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 five 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,

[559]
 with the arms of the emperor; the third was
a rosyer,

[560]
 with the 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

[561]
 was after
the fashion of Inde, with kerchiefes of pleasaunce

[562]
 hached
with fyne gold, 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 cave in 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."

[563]


 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
[Pg 163]
English 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 reformation,
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."

[564]
The rhimes originally belonging to the play, I presume, were
omitted upon the above-mentioned occasion;

[565]
 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 followed
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.

[566]


 XVI.—DECLINE OF SECULAR PLAYS.


The secular plays, as we have seen, consisted of a medley of
different 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
[Pg 164]
sufficient to enable them to appear with 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, exhibited
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 attached
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 Devil usually carried away the Iniquity, or Evil,
at the conclusion of the drama;

[567]
 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," reverses 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 entertainment
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
[Pg 165]
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."


 XVII.—ORIGIN OF PUPPET-PLAYS.


Previous to the invention of puppets, or rather to the incorporating
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 sixteenth
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 office 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

[568]
 continue to be exhibited in Smithfield at Bartholomew-tide,
though with very little traces of their former
greatness; indeed, of late years, they have become unpopular,
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.

[569]
 Powel,
a famous puppet-show man, is mentioned in one of the early
papers of the Spectator,

[570]
 and his performances are humorously
contrasted with those of the Opera House. At the same time
[Pg 166]
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 collection
of advertisements and title-pages among the Harleian
MSS.

[571]
 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 admiration
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
with 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 Humorous
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
[Pg 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, intermixed
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 offensive
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 puppet-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."

[572]


 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 absurdities
of the puppet-show, except the discourses, are retained
in the pantomimes, the difference consisting principally in the
substitution of living puppets for wooden ones; but it must 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 machinery,
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,

[573]
 a puppet-show was exhibited at the court
end of the town, with the Italian title Fantoccini, which greatly
[Pg 168]
attracted the notice of the public, and was spoken of as an
extraordinary performance: it was, however, no more than a
puppet-show, with the motions constructed upon better principles,
dressed 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 in 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, counter-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 represented.
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 different
[Pg 169]
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 described,
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 I 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 music.




[Pg 170]




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
by Gleemen.—VIII. The Harp an Instrument of Music much used by the Saxons.—IX.
The Norman Minstrels, and their different Denominations, and professions.—X.
Troubadours.—XI. Jestours.—XII. Tales and Manners 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, "celebrated
the noble actions of illustrious persons in heroic poems
which they sang to the sweet sounds of the lyre;"

[574]
 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."

[575]
 Their songs and their music
are said, by the same writer, to have been so exceedingly affecting,
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."


[Pg 171]


 II.—THE NORTHERN SCALDS.


The scalds

[576]
 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 appendages to royalty, and even
the inferior chieftains had their poets to record their actions and
indulge their vanity.


 III.—THE ANGLO-SAXON GLEEMEN.


Upon the establishment of the Saxons in Britain, these poetical
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. Glıƿ or Gliᵹman; hence Gliᵹᵹamen, glee-games,
are properly explained in Somner's Lexicon, by merry tricks,
jests, sports, and gambols, which were expressive of their new
acquirements: Heaꞃpeꞃe, 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, ꞅceop, or exercise the mimical or histrionical
art, in any degree, public or private.

[577]
 Lye renders
the words "ne ænıᵹe Ƿıꞅan ᵹlıƿıᵹe," nec ullo modo scurram agat.
Upon this subject we shall have occasion to speak more fully
hereafter.


[Pg 172]


 IV.—NATURE OF THE PERFORMANCES BY THE GLEEMEN.


Representations of some of these pastimes are met with occasionally
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 depicting
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.—VIII. Century.




This engraving represents two persons dancing to the music
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 perform.
On the next page is a curious specimen of a performer's art.


[Pg 173]





50. Anglo-Saxon Gleeman—X. Century.




We here see a man throwing three balls and three knives alternately
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 represented
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 portrait.
In addition to the four figures upon the engraving, No. 49,
and exclusive of the king, there are four more, all of them instrumental
performers; one playing upon the horn, another
[Pg 174]
upon the trumpet, and the other two upon a kind of tabor or
drum, which, however, 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.

[578]
 The engraving, No. 50, is from a
painting on another manuscript in the same collection,

[579]
 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, Æman, Æthan, 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, Æman, Æthan, 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 Æthan 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 persons,
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.


[Pg 175]


 V.—A ROYAL PLAYER WITH THREE DARTS.


The sleight of casting up a certain number of sharp instruments
into the air, and catching them alternately in their fall,
though part of the gleeman's profession, was not entirely confined
to this practice. It 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.

[580]
 Our Saxon joculator, however,
has the advantage of the monarch by adding the three
balls, which of course must have made the trick more difficult
to be performed.


 VI.—BRAVERY OF A MINSTREL IN THE CONQUEROR'S ARMY.


The celebrated minstrel Taillefer, who came into England
with William the Norman, was a warrior 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 with such dexterity,
that those who saw him attributed his manœuvres to the power
of enchantment.






L'un dit al altre ki co veit,


Ke co esteit enchantement.
        
[581]






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 to put
themselves into variety of attitudes, at the command of their
masters.


[Pg 176]





51. Anglo-Saxon Gleemen's Bear
    Dance.—X. Century.




This engraving is the copy of a curious though rude delineation,
being little more than an outline, which exhibits a specimen
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 exceedingly
ludicrous. This performance takes place upon an
eminence resembling a stage made with earth; and in the original
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 figures.





52. Anglo-Saxon Harper and
    Hoppestere.—X. Century.




[Pg 177]


Here we see a youth playing upon a harp 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 Collection,

[582]
written in Latin, and apparently about the middle of
the tenth century. It contains many drawings, all of them exceedingly
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 accompany
their songs and modulate their voices. The Saxon
gleemen and 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 instruments
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 century,
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.

[583]
 Bede says, Omnes per ordinem cantare
debent; and king Alfred translates the word cantare be heaꞃpan ꞅınᵹan,
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, ðonne aꞃaꞅ he ꝼoꞃ ꞅceome, then arose
he for shame, not being able to comply with the general practice.
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
[Pg 178]
English minstrels, a term well known in Normandy some time
before. They were, however, called harpers by the English
rhymists; but the Norman name minstrel was much more commonly
used. As the minstrel's art consisted of several branches,
the professors were distinguished by different denominations,
as, "rimours, chanterres, conteours, jougleours or jongleurs,
jestours, lecours, and troubadours or trouvers;" in modern
language, rhymers, singers, story-tellers, jugglers, relaters of
heroic actions, buffoons, and poets; but all of them were included
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 themselves
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 productions
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 trouvers.
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 increased
their rewards, so that they readily joined each other, and
travelled together in large parties.

[584]
 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 descendants
of the ancient Scandinavian scalds; they were 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
language called the Roman language, which in the eleventh and
[Pg 179]
twelfth centuries was commonly used in the southern provinces
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.

[585]
 These poets were much admired
and courted, being, as a very judicious modern writer

[586]
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
story 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 probably
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 which had
been composed conjointly by him and his 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.

[587]


[Pg 180]


 XI.—JESTOURS.


The conteurs and the jestours, who are also called dissours,
and seggers, 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.
        
[588]






In a manuscript collection of Old Stories, in the Harleian Library,
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 himself
in the midst of it.


 XII.—TALES AND MANNERS OF THE JESTOURS.


The jestours, or, as the word is often written in the old English
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:

[589]






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, whose 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
[Pg 181]
their 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
janglers of gests."

[590]
 He describes them also as haunters of
taverns and common alehouses, 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 Roben 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.
        
[591]—






He then blames the opulent for rewarding these "devils dissours,"
as he calls them, and adds,






He is worse than Judas that giveth a japer silver.
        
[592]






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 merry-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.
        
[593]






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.


[Pg 182]


 XIII.—FURTHER ILLUSTRATION OF THEIR PRACTICES.


The different talents of the minstrels are sarcastically described
by an ancient French poet;

[594]
 who, supposing a company of
them assembled in the hall of an opulent nobleman, says, the
count caused it to be made known to them, that he would 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 jouglerie
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, we 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
a 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, exclusive
of their wages, were provided with board, lodging, and
[Pg 183]
clothing by their patrons, and frequently travelled with 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 mansions
of the nobility, which they frequently visited in large
parties, and especially upon occasions of festivity. They entered
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 handsomely
rewarded for the exertion of their talents.


It was no uncommon thing 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 gleeman,
sub specie mimi—ut joculatoriæ professor artis,

[595]
 and entered
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, &c.

[596]
 This stratagem was afterwards repeated by Anlaff,
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."

[597]


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 fraternity,
but also induced many idle and dissipated persons to
assume the characters of minstrels, to the disgrace of the profession.
These evils became at last so notorious, that in the
reign of king Edward II. it was thought necessary to restrain
[Pg 184]
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 householder.
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, I 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,


Fydelers, 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 contented
with meat and drink, and such reward as the housekeeper
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.

[598]
 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
became 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, under that colour and pretence,
had collected money in divers parts of the kingdom, and committed
other disorders; the king therefore granted to Walter
Haliday, marshal, and to seven others, his own minstrels, named
by him, a charter, by which he created, or rather restored, a
fraternity, or perpetual guild, such as the king understood the
brothers and sisters of the fraternity of minstrels to have possessed
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
[Pg 185]
a marshal appointed for life, the same office as that anciently
possessed by the king of the minstrels,

[599]
 and two wardens, who
were empowered to admit members into the guild, and to regulate
and govern, and to punish, when necessary, all such as exercised
the profession of minstrels throughout the kingdom. The
minstrels of Chester, who had by charter several peculiar privileges,
are excepted in this act.


 XVI.—ABUSES AND DECLINE OF MINSTRELSY.


It does not appear that much good was effected by the foregoing
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 subjected
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 enjoyed
the public favour, and basked in the sunshine of prosperity.
The name, however, remained, and was applied to
itinerant fiddlers and other musicians, whose miserable state is
thus described by Putenham, in his Arte of English Poësie,
printed in 1589:

[600]
 "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 recreation
of the common people at Christmas dinners and bride ales,
and in tavernes and alehouses, and such other places of base
[Pg 186]
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 than a Paris-garden beare,


Or prating puppet on a theatre,


Or Mimoes whistling to his tabouret,


Selling a laughter for a cold meales meat.
        
[601]






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 instrumental
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.

[602]
 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 "proffering 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 accompany
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,

[603]
 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.

[604]


 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
[Pg 187]
the valiant actions of their 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 predecessors,
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.


It 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.

[605]


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 petulance."
The cruel sentence was executed, and the miserable
satirist died soon after with the wounds he had received in
struggling with the executioner.

[606]
 The gratification of a mean
[Pg 188]
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 unfortunate culprit.


Again, 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,

[607]
 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 offence and was pardoned;
but the door-keeper, being reprimanded on account of her admission,
excused himself, by declaring it had never been customary
to prevent the entry of minstrels and persons in disguisements,
upon the supposition that they came for the entertainment
of his majesty.

[608]
 This woman had probably assumed the
habit of a man, and a female was chosen on this occasion, according
to the opinion of an eminent modern author, Dr. Percy,
bishop of Dromore,

[609]
 because, upon detection, her sex might
plead for her, and disarm the king's resentment. It is, however,
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 ᵹılƿ-meꝺen and ᵹlẏƿıenꝺe-maꝺen, 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 ꞇumbıan, to dance or tumble, and saylours, from
salio, to leap or dance, in the time of Chaucer, who uses both
these denominations.

[610]


[Pg 189]


 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 Edward
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."

[611]
 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.

[612]
 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, mentioned
above, expressly says, that they assumed the name, and the
livery or dress, of the king's own minstrels.

[613]
 The queen had
also minstrels in her service, who probably wore a livery different
from those of the king for distinction-sake. In a computus
of expences, an. 11 Edw. III. in the Cotton Library, is
this entry: "Johanni de Mees de Lorem. et Petro de Wurgund.
ministrallis dominæ reginæ, facientibus ministralsias suas coram
domino rege apud Eboracum;" for which they received from
the king's own hand six shillings and eight pence each.

[614]
 The
following lines, which are somewhat to the purpose, occur in
an old historical poem, in the Harleian Collection: they relate
[Pg 190]
to sir Edward 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 this was true,


In a fayre gowne of cloth of gold, and of tilshewe,


Lyke no common mynstrel, to shew taverne mirth,


But lyke a noble man, both of lands, and of birth.
        
[615]






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

[616]
 of musicians
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 anecdote
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 ecclesiastics,
beat them, and turned them out of the monastery.

[617]


 XX.—THE KING OF THE MINSTRELS.


The king's minstrel, 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,
[Pg 191]
received his master's pay for military services.

[618]
 The same name,
with the same title annexed to it, occurs again in a similar record,
dated the fourth year of Edward II.; when he, in company
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.

[619]


The title of royalty was not confined to the king's chief minstrel:
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 Staffordshire.
This document he addresses, under his seal, at the castle of
Tutbury, August 24, in the fourth year of Richard II., to nostre
bene ame le roy 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 perform
their services and minstrelsies in the same manner that they
had been accustomed to be done in ancient times.

[620]
 In a ballad
intituled "The marriage of Robin Hood and Clorinda the
Queen of Tutbury Feast,"

[621]
 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 the bagpipes baited the bull.


I am king of the fidlers, and swear 'tis a truth,


And I call him that doubts it a gull.






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 tournaments."
He then applies this reasoning to the Roy des Ribaulx,
an officer in the ancient court of France;

[622]
 and says, his charge
[Pg 192]
was to clear the palace of indolent and disorderly persons, who
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.

[623]
 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 became
its substitute.


 XXI.—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.

[624]
She was, however, by no means singular in so doing, as the
invectives of the monks sufficiently demonstrate. These selfish
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 exhibitions,
and being delighted with their performances, which
diverted them from more serious pursuits, and corrupted their
morals.

[625]
 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 downfall, than all the defamatory declamations
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,"
[Pg 193]
says a monkish author, "with empty purses, and hearts full of
sorrow."

[626]
 But to go on.


The rewards given to the minstrels did not always consist in
money, but frequently in rich mantles and embroidered vestments:
they received, says Fauchet, great presents from the
nobility, who would sometimes give them even the robes with
which they were clothed. It was 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 Robe Vermeille,
or, The Red Robe, the wife of a vavaser, that is, one who, holding
of a superior lord, has tenants under him, reproaches her husband
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 à ces jorgleours,


Et à ces autres chanteours,


Quils ayent de ces chevaliers,


Les robes car c'est lor mestier."
        
[627]






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.
        
[628]






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,
        
[629]
        for All Active is my name;


A wafirer
        
[630]
        well ye wyt; and serve many lordes,


And few robes I get, or faire furred gownes.


Could I lye, to do
        
[631]
        men laugh; then lachen
        
[632]
        I should


Nother mantill, nor money, amonges lords minstrels:


And, for
        
[633]
        I can neither taber, ne trumpe, ne tell no gestes,


Fartin ne fislen, at feastes, ne harpen;


Jape, ne juggle, ne gentilly pype,
    [Pg 194]


Ne neither saylen ne saute,
        
[634]
        ne singe to the gytterne,


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.

[635]
 The same day the
earl of Foix gave to the heraulds and minstrelles the som of five
hundred frankes; and gave to the duke of Tourayn's minstrelles
gownes of cloth of gold, furred with ermyne, valued at two
hundred frankes."

[636]


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.

[637]
 In the fourth of Edward
II. Perrot de la Laund, minstrel to lord Hugh de Nevill,
received twenty shillings for performing his minstrelsy before
the king.

[638]
 In the same year, Janino la Cheveretter, who is called
Le Tregettour,

[639]
 was paid at one time forty shillings, and at
another twenty, for the same service; and John le Mendlesham,
the boy

[640]
 of Robert le Foll, twenty shillings;

[641]
 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
[Pg 195]
beyond the seas,

[642]
 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.

[643]
 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.

[644]
 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 Hatfield,
and at London;

[645]
 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.

[646]
 In the ninth year of
Henry VII. "Pudesay the piper in bagpipes," received six
shillings and eight pence from the king, for his performance.

[647]
In the fourteenth year of his reign, five pounds were paid to
three stryng-mynstrels for wages, but the time is not specified;
in a subsequent entry, however, we find that fifteen shillings
were given to "a stryng-mynstrel, for one moneth's wages;"
also to a "straunge taberer, in reward, sixty-six shillings and
eight pence."

[648]


 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;

[649]
Raher, or Royer, mimus rex, the mimic, or minstrel, belonging
to Henry I., was the founder of the hospital and
priory of Saint Bartholomew, in West Smithfield;

[650]
 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;

[651]
 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.


[Pg 196]


 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 minstrel?


By the Masse, I would fayne go daunce a fit.
        
[652]






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,

[653]
 on which were engraved the arms of those he had
taught to dance."




[Pg 197]




CHAPTER IV.


I. The Joculator.—II. His different Denominations and
extraordinary Deceptions.—III.
His Performances ascribed to Magic.—IV. Asiatic Jugglers.—V. Remarkable
Story from Froissart.—VI. Tricks of the Jugglers ascribed to the Agency
of the Devil; but more reasonably accounted for.—VII. John Rykell, a celebrated
Tregetour.—VIII. Their various Performances.—IX. Privileges of the
Joculators at Paris.—The King's Joculator an Officer of Rank.—X. The great
Disrepute of modern Jugglers.


 I.—THE JOCULATOR.


The joculator, or the jugglour of the Normans, was frequently
included under the collective appellation of minstrel. His profession
originally was very comprehensive, and included the
practice of all the arts attributed to the minstrel; and some of the
jugglers were excellent tumblers. Joinville, in the Life of St.
Louis and Charpentier, quotes an old author, who speaks of a
joculator, qui sciebat tombare.

[654]
 He was called a gleeman in
the Saxon era, and answers to the juggler of the more modern
times. In 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 considered
as minstrels.


 II.—DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS OF THE JOCULATOR, AND HIS
EXTRAORDINARY DECEPTIONS.


The name of tregetours was chiefly, if not entirely, appropriated
to those artists who, by sleight of hand, with the assistance
of machinery of various kinds, deceived the eyes of the
spectators, and produced such illusions as were usually supposed
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 descriptions
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
[Pg 198]
I sawe playenge jogelours, magyciens, trageteours, phetonysses,
charmeresses, olde witches, and sorceresses," &c.

[655]
 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.

[656]
 which contains "an experiment to make the
appearance of a flode of water to come into a house." The directions
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."

[657]
 Again,
in another part of his works, the same poet says,






There saw I Coll Tregetour,


Upon a table of sycamour,


Play an uncouthe thynge to tell;


I sawe hym cary a wynde-mell


Under a walnote shale.
        
[658]






 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.






[Pg 199]


And again, in the third book of the House of Fame,






And clerkes eke which conne well


All this magyke naturell.






Meaning, I suppose, an artful combination of different powers
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 enchauntours,
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," who
run together, and in the encounter break their spears so rudely,
that the splinters fly all about the hall.

[659]
 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 nicromancy, I
wot not."

[660]


 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
[Pg 200]
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 conning man in nigromancy,
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 artfully
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 acquainted
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 within were sore
abashed, and wend all to have died;

[661]
 but no confidence," continued
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 his
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 the door of the earl's tent. "Thus,"
[Pg 201]
adds our author, "ended the mayster enchantour: and so he
was payed hys wages according to his desertes."

[662]


 VI.—TRICKS OF THE JUGGLERS ASCRIBED TO INFERNAL AGENCY;
BUT MORE REASONABLY ACCOUNTED FOR.


Our learned monarch James I. was perfectly convinced that
these, and other inferior feats exhibited by the tregetours, could
only be performed by the agency of the Devil, "who," says he,
"will learne them many juglarie tricks, at cardes and dice, to
deceive men's senses thereby, and such innumerable false practiques,
which are proved by over-many in this age."

[663]
 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 accounted
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 confederates.
A magic lanthorn will produce appearances almost
as wonderful as some of those described by sir John Mandevile,
to persons 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 we 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;

[664]
 and men ascending the air without the assistance of
[Pg 202]
wings: yet these phenomena are considered as puerile, now the
secrets upon which their performance depends have been divulged.
But, returning to the tregetour, we shall find that he
often performed his feats upon a scaffold erected for that purpose;
and probably, says a late ingenious writer,

[665]
 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 tregetour exhibited
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, assisted
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 were more
confined, and of course became less consequential. Lidgate,
in one of his poems,

[666]
 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 thyne bonde,


Thou must come nere this dance, I understonde;


Nought may avail all thy conclusions,


For Dethe shortly, nother on see nor land,


Is not desceyved by no illusions.
        
[667]






To this summons the sorrowful juggler replies:


[Pg 203]






What may availe mankynde naturale?


Not any crafte schevid
        
[668]
         by apparance,


Or course of steres above celestial
        
[669],


Or of heavens all the influence,


Ageynst Deth to stonde at defence.


Lygarde-de-mayne
        
[670]
         now helpith me right noughte:


Farewell, my craft and all such sapience;


For Deth hath mo masteries
        
[671]
         than I have wroughte.






In "The Disobedient Child," an old morality, or interlude,
written by Thomas Ingeland in the reign of queen Elizabeth,
a servant, describing the sports at his master's wedding, 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!

[672]






These tricks approximate nearly to those of the modern jugglers,
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 appellation
of a tregetour.

[673]
 We are well assured, that playing upon
the vielle

[674]
 and the harp, and singing of songs, verses, and
[Pg 204]
poems taken from popular stories;

[675]
 together with dancing,
tumbling, and other feats of agility, formed a principal part
of the joculator's occupation at the 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,

[676]
 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, we 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 performances:
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 juggler's
exhibition, as it was displayed a century and a half back,
in a short chapter entitled Prestigiæ, or Sleights.

[677]
 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 represented;
but the artist is practising with cups and balls in the
[Pg 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 hanging 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 joculator 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.

[678]
 In the succeeding
century, or soon afterwards, the title of rex juglatorum, 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.;

[679]
 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 Elizabeth, 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;"

[680]
 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.
        
[681]






In another passage, he speaks of a disguised juggler, and a
vile jester or bourder;

[682]
 by the word disguised he refers, perhaps,
[Pg 206]
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,

[683]
 a term applicable to a pick-pocket, or a common
cheat; and his performances were denominated juggling
castes.

[684]




[Pg 207]




CHAPTER V.


I. Dancing, Tumbling, and Balancing, part of the Joculator's
Profession.—II. Performed
by Women.—III. Dancing connected with Tumbling.—IV. Antiquity 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 Feats.—XXVII. The Posture-Master's Tricks.—XXVIII.
The Mountebank.—XXIX. The Tinker.—XXX. The Fire-Eater.


 I.—JOCULATORS' DANCING.


Dancing, tumbling, and balancing, with variety of other exercises
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, generally
speaking, I believe that vaulting, tumbling, and balancing,
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, Maꝺen-ᵹlẏƿıenꝺ, by the Saxons; and tumbling
women, tomblesteres, and tombesteres, in Chaucer, derived
from the Saxon word ꞇomban, 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 denominated
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 upon the tymbrel, which they also balanced
[Pg 208]
occasionally, as we 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 exhibited
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.

[685]
 In a translation of the seventh century, in
the Cotton Library,

[686]
 it says she plæᵹeꝺe, ⁊ ᵹelıcaꝺe Heꞃoꝺe; she
jumped, or leaped, and pleased Herod. In another Saxon
version of the eleventh century, in the Royal Library,

[687]
 she
ꞇumbeꝺe, ⁊ hıꞇ lıcoꝺe Heꞃoꝺe; she tumbled, and it pleased Herod.
A third reads, Herodias' daughter ꞇumboꝺe þæꞃe, tumbled there,
&c.[4] 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 monarch
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 courts of
Saxon potentates. We may also observe, that the like explication
of the passage was not only received in the Saxon versions
of the Gospel, but continued in those of much 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,

[688]
 in French, in the thirteenth century,
[Pg 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, the 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 well skilled in tumbling and cheating tricks." And
accordingly we find the following representation.





53. Herodias Tumbling.




Herodias is so drawn in a book of Prayers in the Royal
Library.

[689]
 There is the subjoined representation a century and
a half earlier.





54. Herodias Tumbling with her Servant.




Her servant stands by her side. The drawing occurs in a
series of Scripture histories in the Harleian Collection,

[690]
 written
and illuminated at the commencement of the thirteenth century.


[Pg 210]


 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,

[691]
 and moved
about to the measure of a song, for the diversion of Menelaüs
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 agreeable
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, however,
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,

[692]
 and rewarded
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.

[693]
 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."

[694]


[Pg 211]


 V.—VARIOUS DANCES.


Among the pastimes exhibited for the amusement of queen
Elizabeth at Kenilworth castle, there were shown, as Laneham
says, before her highness, surprising feats of agility, by an Italian,
"in goings, turnings, tumblings, 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 performed
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 afterwards,
"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."

[695]
 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 entertainment,
'till I heard that the tumbler was not to make his appearance
that night."

[696]


Three ancient specimens of the tumbler's art are subjoined.





55. Tumbling.—XIII. Century.




This engraving represents a woman bending herself backwards,
from a MS. of the thirteenth century, in the Cotton
Library.

[697]


[Pg 212]





56. Tumbling—XIV. Century.




In this second representation a man is performing the same
feat, but in a more extraordinary manner. The original is contained
in a MS. in the library of sir Hans Sloane.

[698]





57. Tumbling.—XIV. Century.




This representation of a girl turning over upon her hands, is
from a MS. in the Bodleian Library at Oxford.

[699]
 Both these
MSS. are of the fourteenth century. Feats of activity by tumblers
were then, as at present, enlivened with music.


[Pg 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 performed
by the Saxon gleemen and their assistants, but such as
consisted of vaulting and tumbling: on the contrary, I trust it
may be proved, that their dances were varied and accommodated
to the taste of those for whom the performance was appropriated;
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 engraving
No. 50, from a painting of the tenth century, the most
ancient of the kind that I have met with.

[700]
 The crouching attitudes
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 seen
occur in some of the steps of a modern hornpipe.





58. Gleemen's Dance.—IX. Century.




Here, also, we find a young man dancing singly to the music
of two flutes and a lyre; and the action attempted to be expressed
by the artist is rather that of ease and elegancy of motion,
than of leaping, or contorting of the body in a violent
manner. It is evident that this delineation, which is from a Latin
and Saxon MS. of the ninth century, in the Cotton Library,

[701]
 was
[Pg 214]
intended for the representation of part of the gleeman's exhibition;
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 effect. The dance represented by the
engraving No. 51, from a MS. of the ninth century,

[702]
 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,

[703]
has more appearance of elegance.





59. Dancing to a Bear.




This dance is executed by a female; and probably the perfection
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-DANCE.


There is a dance which was probably in great repute among
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:

[704]
 "One public diversion
was constantly exhibited at all their meetings; young
men, who, by frequent exercise, have attained to great perfection
[Pg 215]
in that pastime, strip themselves, and dance among
the points of swords and spears with most wonderful agility,
and even with the most elegant and graceful motions. They
do not perform this dance for hire, but for the entertainment
of the spectators, esteeming their applause a sufficient reward."

[705]
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.


I 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,

[706]
 a
military dance of a different 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.




[Pg 216]
This drawing represents two men, equipped in martial habits,
and each of them armed with a sword and a shield, engaged in
a combat; the performance is enlivened by the sound of a horn;
the musician acts in a double capacity, and is, together with 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 Bartholomew
fair. I have before me two bills of the shows there presented
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 company,
that they shall see "a young 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;

[707]
 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.

[708]
 About thirty years back,

[709]
 I remember
to have seen at Flockton's, a much noted but very clumsy juggler,
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 her sides, 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 stupidus in funambulo


Animum occupârat.






[Pg 217]
We are well assured, that dancing upon the rope constituted
a part of the entertainment presented to the public by the minstrels
and joculators; and we can trace it as far back as the
thirteenth century: but whether the dancers at that time exhibited
upon the slack or tight 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, recorded
by Froissart, who was himself a witness to the fact:
"There was a mayster

[710]
 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 quene passed by,
and was in the great streat called Our Ladye's strete; bycause
it was late, this sayd mayster, wyth two brinnynge

[711]
 candelles
in hys handes, issued out of a littel stage that he had made on
the heyght of our Lady's tower, synginge

[712]
 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 he myght be well sene all over
Parys, and two myles without the city. He was such a tombler,
that his lightnesse was greatly praised." In the French, "Molt
fist d'appertices tant que la legierete de lui, et toutes ses œuvres
furent molt prisées;" "He gave them many proofs of his skill,
so that his agility and all his performances were highly esteemed."
The manner in which this extraordinary 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
the words of Froissart are, "S'asbit sur cel corde, et il vint
tout au long de la rue;" that is, literally, he seated himself
upon the cord, and he came all along the street; which indicates
his sliding down, and then the trick will bear a close resemblance
to those that follow. But St. Foix, on the authority of
[Pg 218]
another historian, says, he descended dancing 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 remounted
upon the cord.

[713]


 X.—ROPE-DANCING FROM 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,

[714]
 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 battlements
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."

[715]


 XI.—ROPE-DANCING FROM ST. PAUL'S STEEPLE.


This trick was repeated, though probably by another performer,
in the reign of queen Mary; for, according to Holinshed,
among the various shows prepared for the reception of Philip
king of Spain, was one of a man who "came downe upon a
rope, tied to the battlement of Saint Paule's church, with his
[Pg 219]
head before, neither staieing himself with hand or foot; which,"
adds the author, "shortlie after cost him his life."

[716]


 XII.—ROPE-DANCING FROM ALL SAINTS' CHURCH, HERTFORD.


A similar exploit was put in practice, about fifty years back,

[717]
in different parts of this kingdom; I received the following account
of the manner in which it was carried into execution at
Hertford from a friend of mine,

[718]
 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 quantity
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:

[719]
[Pg 220]
"When she came to Saint Paule's church-yard against the school
master Heywood sat in a pageant under a vine, and made to her
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
paines, and for all his stuffe."


 XIV.—JACOB HALL THE ROPE-DANCER.


In the reign of Charles II. there was a famous rope-dancer
named Jacob Hall, whose portrait is still in existence.

[720]
 The
open-hearted duchess of Cleveland is said to have been so
partial to this man, that 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 II. 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
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. Signor
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
[Pg 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, with 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."

[721]


XVI.—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

[722]
 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
I 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 I have met with occurs in a little print affixed to
one of the chapters of the vocabulary of Commenius, translated
by Hoole;

[723]
 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;

[724]
 and behind
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 himself
along upon the rope, holding it with his hands and feet,
the latter being crossed, and turning round with incredible swiftness,
which is called roasting the pig.


 XVII.—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
[Pg 222]
originally, I apprehend, formed a part of the pageant belonging
to the festival of fools. This festival was a religious mummery,
usually held at Christmas time; and consisted of various ceremonials
and mockeries, not only exceedingly ridiculous, but
shameful and impious.

[725]
 A vestige of the fool's dance, preserved
in a MS. in the Bodleian Library,

[726]
 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.

[727]
 The dress of the musicians resembles
that of the dancers, and corresponds exactly with the habit of
the court fool at that period.

[728]
 I make no doubt, the morris-dance,
which afterwards became exceedingly popular in this
[Pg 223]
country, originated 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,
which in the Spanish language signifies a Moor, as if the dance
had been taken from the Moors; but I cannot help considering
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

[729]
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 Dragon,
with Robin Hood, the maid Marian, and other characters, supposed
to have been the companions of that famous outlaw,
made a part of the dance. In latter times, the morris was frequently
introduced upon the stage. Stephen Gosson, who wrote
about 1579, in 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
[Pg 224]
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.

[730]
 The principal dancer in the
morris was more superbly habited than his companions, as appears
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-dancers
who went about the country, consisting of ten men who
danced, besides the maid Marian, and one who played upon
the pipe and tabor.

[731]


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 perform
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! I come only to borrow a few ribbandes,
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."


[Pg 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, entitled
The longer thou livest, the more Foole thou art, by
William Wager,

[732]
 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 hoppesteres,
which is given by Chaucer. A vestige of this denomination
is still retained, and applied to dancing, though somewhat
contemptuously; for an inferior dancing-meeting is generally
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,

[733]
 where the gleeman is performing to the
sound of the harp.


Hopping matches for prizes were occasionally made in the
sixteenth century, as we learn from John Heywoode the epigrammatist.
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 rushe.






And again, in the Four P's, a play 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-dance. This performance was common
enough about thirty years back,

[734]
 and was well received
at Sadler's Wells; where I saw it exhibited, not by simply
hopping round a single egg, but in a manner that much increased
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 blindfolded, and a hornpipe
being played in the orchestra, he went through all the paces
[Pg 226]
and figures of the dance, passing backwards and forwards between
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 continued
there

[735]
 by Dubois, who calls himself the clown of the
Wells, and is a very useful actor, as well as an excellent performer
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 exhibited
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."

[736]—An
Inventory of Playhouse Furniture, quoted in the Tatler

[737]
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 dancing
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.

[738]
 The actor is exercising
a double function, that is, of a musician, and of a dancer.





62. Stilt Dancing.—XIII. Century.




[Pg 227]


 XXI.—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, I suppose, was used then, as it is
now upon like occasions, to show their persons to greater advantage.
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;

[739]
 and likewise
in No. 59,

[740]
 where a woman is dancing, and eluding the pursuit
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 sometimes
executed by one person: we have, for instance, an account
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 grandement rire."

[741]
 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,

[742]
 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
[Pg 228]
porter-pot upon the table, raised high enough for his feet to
touch the ceiling, when 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 ridiculous
is here 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 appears to be in the action of walking forwards.

[743]


 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 backwards
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 grand 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 believe,
at the Opera-house; but have since been adopted by the
two royal theatres, and imitated with less splendour upon the
[Pg 229]
summer stages. These spectacles are too extensive by far in
their operations, and too multifarious to be described in a general
work like this: suffice it to say, they are pantomimical representations
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 with
the heels over the head in the air, termed the somersault, corruptly
called a somerset. Mrs. Piozzi, speaking of Robert Carr,
earl of Somerset, and favourite of James I., says, "and the
sommerset, still used by tumblers, taken from him."

[744]
 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 afflicted with a spasmus,
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 the 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.





64. A Feat in the XIV. Century.




[Pg 230]


Two boys are depicted holding the hoop, and the third preparing
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

[745]
 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 manœuvres: 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

[746]
 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 was 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 representing
a broad-wheeled waggon with the tilt. These astonishing
specimens of strength and agility were performed,
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
[Pg 231]
very minutely, and am well persuaded that he received no
assistance from 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 engraving
No 50, 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 passage
translated by Chaucer, stands thus:






There was manye a tymbestere—


—Couthe her crafte full parfytly:


The tymbres up full subtelly


They cast, and hent full ofte


Upon a fynger fayre and softe,


That they fayled never mo.
        
[747]






Towards the close of last summer (1799) I saw three itinerant
musicians parading the streets of London; one of them turned
the winch of an organ which he carried at his back, another
[Pg 232]
blew a reed-pipe, and the 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 single 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.





65. Balancing.—XIV. Century.




This engraving, from a MS. in the Bodleian Library,

[748]
 represents
a girl, as the length of the hair seems to indicate, habited like
a boy, and kneeling on a large broad board, supported horizontally
by two men; before her are three swords, the points inclined
to each other, and placed in a triangular form; she is
pointing to them with her right hand, and holds in her left a
small instrument somewhat resembling a trowel, but I neither
know its name nor its use.





66. Balancing.—XIV. Century.




The man in this engraving, from a drawing in a MS. book of
prayers possessed by Francis Douce, esq., is performing a very
[Pg 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 balancing
a wheel.





68. XIV. Century.




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.


[Pg 234]





69. Balancing.—XIV. Century.




In the middle of the eighteenth century, there was a very
celebrated balance-master, named Mattocks, who made his appearance
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 performed the same
sort of feat with a small peacock's feather, which he blew into
the air, and caught it as it fell on different parts 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
[Pg 235]
doubt, 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-Master.—XIV. Century.




The performer bends himself backwards, with his head turned
up between his 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. The
most extraordinary artist of this kind that ever existed, it is said
was Joseph Clark, who, "though a well-made man, and rather
gross than thin, exhibited in the most natural manner almost every
species of deformity and dislocation; he could dislocate his
vertebræ 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: "I remember 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 would 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 impossible
[Pg 236]
to accommodate so changeable a customer."

[749]
 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.

[750]
 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 wonderful
postures," as his own bill declares:

[751]
 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.


 XXVIII.—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 his fool


Is in a sorrowful case.






The mountebanks usually preface the vending of their medicines
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 that 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,

[752]
 "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 of
[Pg 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 exhibited
at Hammersmith.

[753]
 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 expecting
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 assembly
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 Hammersmith
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.

[754]
 His
performances were usually exhibited at fairs, wakes, and other
places of public resort: they consisted in low buffoonery and
ludicrous tricks to engage the attention and move the laughter
of the populace. Some of them are specified in the following
speech from The Two Maides of Moreclacke, an old dramatic
performance, printed in 1609: "This, madame, is the tinker of
Twitnam. I have seene him licke out burning firebrands with
his tongue, drink two-pence from the bottome of a full pottle of
ale, fight with a masty,

[755]
 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 recollection
the extraordinary performances of a professed fire-eater,
whose name was Powel, well known in different parts of the
[Pg 238]
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 beneath
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 added 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 appearing
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.




[Pg 239]




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
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 Masquerades.—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-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 to 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,

[756]
 is taken from a manuscript of the tenth
century; and the bear in No. 59

[757]
 is from another of the fourteenth.
I have already had occasion to mention these two delineations;
and the two following, from a manuscript in the
Bodleian Library,

[758]
 require no explanation.





71. Tutored Bear.—XIV. Century.




[Pg 240]





72. Tutored Bear.—XIV. Century.




The next represents





73. A Bear standing on his Head.




This and the following are from a book of prayers in the
Harleian Collection,

[759]
 written towards the close of the thirteenth
century.





74. Bear and Monkey.




[Pg 241]


I shall only observe, that there is but one among these six
drawings in which the animal is depicted with a muzzle to prevent
him from biting. The dancing bears have retained their
place to the present time, and they frequently perform in the
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.


 II.—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 occasions
with cheats, buffoons, rope-dancers, tale-tellers, jugglers,
and pantomimical performers. They call those," says he,
"jugglers, who play upon the vielle, and teach apes, bears,"
and perhaps we may add, dogs, "to dance."

[760]


Apes and monkeys seem always to have been favourite actors
in the joculator's troop of animals. A specimen of the performance
of a monkey, as far back as the fourteenth century,
is represented by the last engraving; and the following is from
another of the same date, already referred to, in the Bodleian
Library.

[761]





75. A tumbling Ape.




[Pg 242]


Leaping or tumbling over a chain or cord held by the juggler,
as we here see it depicted, was a trick well received at Bartholomew
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; he "pulled off his hat,
and paid his respects to the company;" and "smoaked tobacco,"
according to the bill, "as well as any Christian."

[762]
 But all
these feats were afterwards outdone by a brother monkey, mentioned
before, who performed many wonderful tricks at the
Haymarket theatre, both as a rope-dancer and an equilibrist.

[763]


 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 which reason,
their enemies the Crotonians, at a time when they were at war
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 thrown into confusion, and defeated
with prodigious slaughter. This circumstance is mentioned
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.

[764]


[Pg 243]


 IV.—TRICKS PERFORMED BY HORSES IN THE XIII. CENTURY.


We are told that, in the thirteenth century, a horse was exhibited
by the joculators, which danced upon a rope; and oxen
were rendered so docile as to ride upon horses, holding trumpets
to their mouths as though they were sounding them.

[765]
 Accordingly
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,

[766]
 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.

[767]
 of the fourteenth century, is


[Pg 244]





78. Another Horse.




Here the horse is rearing up and attacking the joculator, who
opposes him with a small shield and a cudgel. These mock
combats, to which the animals were properly trained, were constantly
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. Horse 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. Horse and Tabor.




[Pg 245]


The animal is exhibiting a similar trick with his hinder feet,
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
XIII. of France, with three other gentlemen, accompanied by
six esquires bearing their devices, executed a grand ballette-dance
upon managed horses.

[768]
 Something of the same kind is
done

[769]
 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 engravings.


 V.—TRICKS 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

[770]
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

[771]
 at Astley's amphitheatre;
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 performing various other exertions of agility upon their
[Pg 246]
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 inconvenience,
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 success
he met with occasioned a rival professor of horsemanship
named Hughes, who built another theatre for similar performances
not far distant, to which 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

[772]
 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. Dog.—XIV. Century.




[Pg 247]


Neither do I recollect that dogs are included in the list of
animals formerly belonging to the juggler's exhibitions, though,
no doubt, they ought to have been; for, in Ben Jonson's play
of Bartholmew Fayre, first acted in 1614, there is mention
made of "dogges that dance the morrice," without any indication
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 encouragement,
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;

[773]
 he dances with madame Poncette his
mistress and the rest of their company at the sound of instruments,
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 spectators
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
[Pg 248]
I mistake not, in several other places in and about the metropolis.
Neither is this whimsical spectacle a recent invention.
A hare that beat the tabor is mentioned by Jonson, in his comedy
of Bartholmew Fayre, acted at the commencement of the seventeenth
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,

[774]
 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 indeed
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 tormenter's
pocket with money. One would not have thought that
a hog had been an animal capable of learning: the fact, however,
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 despair
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 the same MS. in the Harleian Collection
whence No. 81 was taken.


[Pg 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 surprising,
shown at Breslaw's, a celebrated juggler, who performed
at London

[775]
 somewhat more than twenty-years ago:

[776]
 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 of
soldiers: small cones of paper bearing some resemblance to
grenadiers' caps were put upon their heads, and diminutive imitations
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 deserter,
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 was
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 produced;
and, a lighted match being put into one of his claws,
he hopped boldly on the other to the tail of the cannon, and, applying
the match to the priming, discharged the piece without
the least appearance of fear or agitation. The moment the explosion
[Pg 250]
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 assuming
the forms of different animals, and counterfeiting their
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 companies,
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. It 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.

[777]
 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 company,
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.

[778]
[Pg 251]
The ancient court ludi, described in a former chapter,

[779]
 are certainly
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.

[780]


 XI.—MUMMINGS 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.






At court, as well as in the mansions of the nobility, on occasions
of festivity, it frequently happened that the whole company
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.

[781]
 These spectacles
were exhibited with great splendour in former times and particularly
during the reign of Henry VIII.

[782]
 they have ceased,
however, of late years to attract the notice of the opulent; and
the regular masquerades which succeeded them, are not supported
at present with that degree of mirthful spirit which, we
are told, abounded at their institution; and probably it is for
this reason they are declining so rapidly in the public estimation.


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,

[783]
 alluding
to this custom, says,






The one hath a visor ugley set on his face,


Another hath on a vile counterfaite vesture,


Or painteth his visage with fume in such case,


That what he is, himself is scantily sure.






[Pg 252]


It appears that many abuses were committed under the sanction
of these disguisements; and for this reason an ordinance
was established, by which a man was liable to punishment who
appeared in the streets of London with "a painted visage."

[784]
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 20s. against such as kept vizors in their houses for
the purpose of mumming.

[785]


Bourne, in his Vulgar Antiquities,

[786]
 speaks of a kind of
mumming practised in the North about Christmas 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 coronation
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.

[787]


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
[Pg 253]
received. 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.

[788]


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 jugglers 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 performances,
from the Bodleian MS. before cited.

[789]





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 hinder
feet.





85. XIV. Century.




[Pg 254]


Neither of these fictitious animals have any fore legs; but to
the first the deficiency is supplied by a staff, upon which the
actor might recline at pleasure; his face is seen through an aperture
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 disguise
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 MS.,
we find a boy, with a mask resembling the head of a dog, presenting
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 of 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. I
have already spoken on this subject;

[790]
 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 himself,"
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; which his highness noting, answered, 'Is
it not better to resemble a horse, which is a generous and
courageous beast, than a dull slow-going ass as you are?'" The
[Pg 255]
prince, we are told, was exceedingly young at the time he made
this reply.

[791]


 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 performed
at the corner of Bartholomew-lane, behind the Royal
Exchange. His price for admittance was one shilling each person.
I have his advertisement before me;

[792]
 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 excellency
consisted in counterfeiting the notes of all kinds of
singing birds.

[793]
 The same performance was exhibited in great
perfection by the bird-tutor associated with Breslaw the juggler,
mentioned a few pages back.

[794]
 This man assumed the name of
Rosignol,

[795]
 and, after he had quitted Breslaw, appeared on the
stage at Covent-garden theatre, where, in addition to his imitation
of the birds, he executed a concerto on a fiddle without
strings; that is, he made the notes in a wonderful manner with
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, concealed
in the mouth; and then the trick lost all its reputation. Six
years ago,

[796]
 I heard a poor rustic, a native of St. Alban's, imitate,
with great exactness, the whole assemblage of animals belonging
[Pg 256]
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 purpose
of baiting them with dogs, was certainly practised by the
jugglers; and this vicious pastime has the sanction of high antiquity.
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.

[797]
 This author makes no mention of horses; and I believe
the baiting of these noble and useful animals was never
a general practice: it was, however, no doubt, partially performed;
and the manner in which it was carried into execution
appears by the engraving No. 76.

[798]
 Asses also were treated with
the same 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:

[799]
and this indulgence, we are told, they paid for in the following
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."

[800]
 One Sunday afternoon
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.

[801]


[Pg 257]


 XVIII.—BULL AND BEAR-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 despicable
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 countenanced
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."

[802]
 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 content."

[803]
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;

[804]
and again, twenty-seven years posterior, queen Elizabeth received
the Danish ambassador at Greenwich, who was treated
with the sight of a bear and bull-baiting, "tempered," says
Holinshed, "with other merry disports;"

[805]
 and, for the diversion
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."

[806]


 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,

[807]
[Pg 258]
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 dogs, 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 five 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 in
1575, says, "It was a sport very pleasant to see the bear, with
his pink eyes learing after his enemies, approach; the nimbleness
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.

[808]
 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 Newcastle,
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,
[Pg 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 mentioned
as the name of "a famous bear;" and one of the characters
pretending to personate a bear-ward, says, "I'll set up
my bills, that the gamesters of London, Horsleydown, Southwark,
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."


 XXI.—BAITING IN QUEEN ANNE'S TIME.


The two following advertisements,

[809]
 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 Clerkenwell
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 fireworks, 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 fireworks. 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 and
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.


[Pg 260]





87. Sword-Play—XIII. Century.




This combat, represented from a manuscript of the thirteenth
century, in the Royal Library,

[810]
 varies, in several respects, from
that in the engraving No. 60;

[811]
 though both, I presume, are different
modifications of the same performance, as well as that
below, from a manuscript in the Royal Library,

[812]
 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 sometimes
called gladiators by the early historians; "Mimi, salii,
balatrones, æmiliani, gladiatores, palæstritæ—et tota joculatorum
copia, &c."

[813]
 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, where the conduct of the
masters and their scholars became so outrageous, that it was
necessary for the legislature to interfere; and, in the fourteenth
[Pg 261]
year of the reign of Edward I. A. D. 1286, an edict was published
by royal authority, which prohibited the keeping of such
schools, and the public exercise of swords and bucklers, "eskirmer
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 swaggerer.
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 unmanly
to strike beneath the knee. But since that desperate
traytor Rowland Yorke first used thrusting with rapiers, swords
and bucklers are disused."

[814]
 Jonson, in the induction to his
play called Bartholomew Fair, speaks of "the sword and buckler
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 offenders were
subjected to the punishment of imprisonment for forty days; to
which was afterwards added a mulct of forty marks.

[815]
 These
restrictions certainly admitted of some exceptions; for it is well
known that there were seminaries 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 masters;"

[816]
 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 University
of England," printed in black letter in 1615, says, "In
[Pg 262]
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.

[817]
 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 sufficiently 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, on
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.

[818]
 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
[Pg 263]
were outrageous 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 imagine 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 attractive
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:

[819]
 but these exhibitions were
not without their trickery, as we may find by another paper

[820]
 in
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 combatants;
it is selected from a great number now lying before
me;

[821]
 and, being rather curious, I shall transcribe it without
making any alteration.


"At the Bear Garden in Hockley in the Hole, near Clerkenwell
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 the said noble Science of Defence,
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 the
time and place appointed; desiring sharp swords, and from him
no favour. No person to be upon the stage but the seconds.
Vivat Regina!"


[Pg 264]


 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."

[822]
 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 combat,
performed by a western gentleman of Tavystock, in Devonshire,
with an English quarter-staff, against three rapiers and
poniards, at Sherries in Spain,

[823]
 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 himself
was able to draw it out again.

[824]
 The second is mentioned
[Pg 265]
by Froissart;

[825]
 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."




[Pg 266]




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. Supposed
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 Bull.—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.—XXI. Throwing at Cocks.—XXII.
Duck-hunting.—XXIII. Squirrel-hunting.—XXIV. Rabbit-hunting.


 I.—ANCIENT BOWLING—POEM ON BOWLING.


The pastime of bowling, whether practised upon open greens
or in bowling-alleys, was probably an invention of the middle
ages. I cannot by any means ascertain the time of its introduction;
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,

[826]
 as here
represented.





90. Bowling.—XIII. Century.




Here two small cones are placed upright at a distance from
each other; and the business of 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
[Pg 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 following
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,"

[827]
 one of the Harleian
manuscripts at the British Museum,

[828]
 expresses happily enough
the turns and chances of the game of bowls:


[Pg 268]


A PARALLEL BETWIXT BOWLING AND PREFERMENT.








Preferment, like a game at boules,


To feede our hope hath divers 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 sway;


Such honest men good bowlers are


Whose own true bias cutts the way.








In the three 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;

[829]
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
[Pg 269]
bowling-alleys, which, being covered over, might 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 Dictarie of Helthe, describing a
nobleman's mansion, supposes it not to be complete without
"a bowling-alley." Among the additions made by Henry VIII.
at Whitehall, were "divers fair tennice-courtes, bowling-alleys,
and a cock-pit."

[830]


It appears that soon after the introduction of bowling-alleys
they were productive of very evil consequences; for they became
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 unwary
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 sixteenth
centuries these nurseries of vice were universally decried,
and especially such of them as were established within the city
and suburbs of London,

[831]
 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, called 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
[Pg 270]
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."

[832]


 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-pins
[Pg 271]
do not appear to have been confined to any certain number,
as we may observe by the two following engravings:





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
pins. The annexed is from another drawing on a MS. in the
Royal Library.

[833]





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 delineations
here copied represent that species of the game called
club-kayles, "jeux de quilles à 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,

[834]
 seems to have been the same as kayles, or at
[Pg 272]
least exceedingly like it: cloish was played with pins, which
were thrown at with a bowl instead of a truncheon, and probably
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,

[835]
 where a dunce
boasts of his skill






At skales, and the playing with a sheepes-joynte.






In 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,
[Pg 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 obtaining
thirty-one chalks precisely: less loses, or at least gives the antagonist
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 middle 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 improperly 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.


[Pg 274]


 XII.—HALF-BOWL.


This is one of the games prohibited by Edward IV.;

[836]
 and
received its denomination from being played with one half of a
sphere of wood. Half-bowl is practised to this day in Hertfordshire,
where it is commonly called rolly-polly; 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 required
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 commencement
of the seventeenth century. I have not met with any description
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, as a 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 nine-holes was
[Pg 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 furnished
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 which 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 who obtains the highest number
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."

[837]


I 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 subdivided
into sixteen small squares; in every one of these compartments
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
[Pg 276]
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 distance
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 lo the compartment in which the halfpenny
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 forfeited,
and nothing scored. Two thousand is usually the game;
but this number is extended or diminished at the pleasure of the
gamesters.


 XV.—PITCH AND HUSTLE.


This is a game commonly 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
[Pg 277]
by the jugglers and their successors.

[838]
 It is also necessary to
observe, that this cruel pastime was not confined to the boundaries
of the bear-gardens; but was universally practised on
various occasions, in almost every town or village throughout
the kingdom, and especially in market towns, where we find it
was sanctioned by the law;

[839]
 and in some of them, I believe,
the bull-rings, to which the unfortunate animals were fastened,
are remaining to the present hour. It may seem strange, that
the legislature should have permitted the exercise of such a
barbarous diversion, which was frequently productive of much
mischief by drawing together a large concourse of idle and dissipated
persons, and affording them an opportunity of committing
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 of
Chester. The author

[840]
 tells us, that "a bull was 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; it
chaunced a contention fell out betwixt the butchers and the
bakers of the cittye aboute their dogges then fyghtynge; they
fell to blowes; and in the tumult of manye people woulde 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 in
their rage, lyke rude and unbroken fellowes, did lytill regarde
hym. In the ende, they were parted; and the begynners of
the sayde brawle, being found out and examined, were commytted
to the northgate. The mayor smotte freely among them
and broke his white staffe; and the cryer Thomas Knowstley
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 which it was performed in the seventeenth century,
[Pg 278]
are given by Butcher, in his Survey of that town;

[841]
 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, without
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,

[842]
 following this bulling-business.
I can say no more of it, but only to set forth the antiquity
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 bulls, 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 diverted
the earl, who, it seems, was a spectator, that "he gave all
those meadows in which the two bulls had been fighting, perpetually
[Pg 279]
as a common to the butchers of the 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 day, they
should yearly find, at their own expense, a mad bull for the continuance
of the sport."


 XVIII.—BULL-RUNNING AT TUTBURY.


The company of minstrels belonging to the manor of Tutbury
had several peculiar privileges granted to them by a
charter from John of Gaunt duke of Lancaster.

[843]
 In this charter
it is required of the minstrels to perform their respective services,
upon the day of the assumption of our Lady, (the 15th 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.

[844]
 In 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

[845]
 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, his tail cut short, his
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 feet, nor by any means to
hinder the minstrels, but to attend to his or their own safeties,
every one at his peril; he was then put forth, to be caught by
the minstrels, and none other, within the county of Stafford, between
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
[Pg 280]
long 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 allotted
for the king, the second for the honour of the town, and
the third for the king of the minstrels;

[846]
 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 assisted
by the promiscuous multitude, that flock thither in great
numbers, and are much pleased with it; though sometimes,
through the emulation in point of manhood that has been long
cherished between the Staffordshire and Derbyshire men, perhaps
as much mischief may have been done, as in the bull-fighting

[847]
practised at Valentia, Madrid, and other places in Spain."

[848]
 The
noise and confusion occasioned by this exhibition is aptly described
in The Marriage of Robin Hood and Clorinda, Queen of
Titbury Feast,

[849]
 a popular ballad published early in the last
century:






Before we came to it, we heard a strange shouting,


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 effect 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, I 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 greyhounds applied to a well known
species of dogs, on account of their having been generally used
in the pursuit of this animal.


[Pg 281]


 XX.—COCK-FIGHTING.


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.

[850]
 It was practised
by the Romans:

[851]
 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

[852]
 bring game cocks to
their 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 Fitzstephen,
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."

[853]
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 schoolmasters
claimed the runaway cocks as their perquisites; and
these were called fugees, 'corrupt, I suppose,' says he, 'of
refugees.'"

[854]


In the reign of Edward III. cock-fighting became a fashionable
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 unlawful
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
[Pg 282]
times. Among the additions made by Henry VIII. to the palace
at Whitehall, was a cock-pit;

[855]
 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.

[856]
Exclusive of the royal cock-pit, we are told there was formerly
one in Drury-lane, another in Jewin-street, and if the following
story be founded on fact, a third in Shoe-lane: "Sir Thomas
Jermin, 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."

[857]


I 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."

[858]
 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
[Pg 283]
trust, unknown in former ages to our ancestors. I have been
told the 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;

[859]
 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,

[860]
 in
the Nonnes Priests' Tale, when he says,






"——There was a cocke,


For that a priestes' sonne gave hym a knocke,


Upon his 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 sixteenth 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.
[Pg 284]
Heath, in his account of the Scilly Islands,

[861]
 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 surgeon 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 was
successful, and at last, a labouring man belonging 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 years ago; but of late it is gone out of fashion;
[Pg 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, without
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 endeavour
to catch them with all the noise they can make."




[Pg 286]




BOOK IV.


DOMESTIC AMUSEMENTS OF VARIOUS KINDS; AND
PASTIMES APPROPRIATED TO PARTICULAR SEASONS.






CHAPTER I.


I. Secular Music fashionable.—II. Ballad-singers
encouraged 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 Henry.—XVI.
Billiards.—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. Professional
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
VIII. not only sang well, but played upon several sorts of instruments;
he also wrote songs, and composed the tunes

[862]
 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 is, in London, "the best musicians
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."

[863]
 To which we may add, that the metropolis
never abounded more, if so much as at present, with excellent
[Pg 287]
musicians, not such only as make 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 degree made acquainted with its rudiments.

[864]


 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 musical
poets figured away at wakes, fairs, and church-ales.

[865]
 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;

[866]
 which is a strong
proof that these itinerants were highly esteemed by the common
people.


 III.—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,

[867]
however, speaks very contemptibly of these music meetings, professing
that he "had rather have heard an old barber

[868]
 ring
Whittington's bells upon a cittern than all the music the houses
afforded." There were also music-clubs, or private meetings
[Pg 288]
for the practice of music, which were exceedingly fashionable
with people of opulence. Hence, in 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
originated 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."

[869]
 "The house," says a more
modern author, sir John Hawkins,

[870]
 "seems to have been rebuilt
since the time that sir Samuel Moreland dwelt in it;
and, there being a large garden belonging to it, 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 tavern, 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,

[871]
 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 whose name was Jonathan Tyers, who opened
it with an advertisement of a "ridotto al fresco;"

[872]
 a term
which the people of this country had till then been strangers to.

[Pg 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 musicians,
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 walking round the room, or
refreshing themselves with tea and coffee in the recesses thereof,
which are conveniently adapted for that purpose. Sir John
Hawkins

[873]
 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.

[874]
 "The water," says he, "of this well,
before the Reformation, was very much famed for several extraordinary
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,
[Pg 290]
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 whereof they found it stopped
up and covered with an arch of stone."

[875]
 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 tumbling,

[876]
 which were then performed abroad in the garden.
There is now a small theatre appropriated to this purpose, furnished
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

[877]
 was held in some degree of estimation, and
much frequented; I mean Marybone Gardens; where, in
addition to the music and singing, there were burlettas and
fireworks 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 suggested
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
in a wonderful manner his powers as a composer of music;
[Pg 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 therefore
they are permitted to be performed on the Wednesdays and
Fridays in Lent when plays are prohibited.


 VIII.—BELL-RINGING.


It has been remarked by foreigners that the English are
particularly fond of bell-ringing;

[878]
 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 produced.
This improvement in the art of ringing is thought to
be peculiar to the people of this country.

[879]
 Ringing the bells
backwards is sometimes mentioned, and probably consisted in
beginning with the largest bell and ending with the least; it appears
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 Paulinas,
bishop of Nola,

[880]
 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,
[Pg 292]
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."

[881]
 Turketullus 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.

[882]
 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 congregate
the clergy—to bemoan the dead—to drive 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 processions,
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,

[883]
 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
[Pg 293]
which he managed with great adroitness, 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,

[884]
 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.


 XI.—BURLESQUE MUSIC.


The minstrels and joculators seem to have had the knack of
converting every kind of amusement into a vehicle for merriment,
and among others, that of music has not escaped them.
[Pg 294]
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. Burlesque Music.




This, and such like vagaries, were frequently practised in
the succeeding times; and they are neatly ridiculed in one of
the papers belonging to the Spectator,

[885]
 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."

[886]
 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 his 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,

[887]
 ringing of basons is mentioned.
This music, or something like it, I believe, is represented
by the engraving No. 57.


[Pg 295]


 XII.—DANCING.


To what has been said upon this subject in a former chapter,

[888]
I shall here 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.

[889]
 The
knights and the ladies are often represented dancing together,
which in the MS. poem of Launfal, in the Cotton Collection,

[890]
 is
called playing:






The quene yede to the formeste ende,


Betweene Launfal and Gauweyn the hende,
        
[891]


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 menstrelles 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
upon 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
knights, and the rest of the company, danced in Westminster
Hall to the music of the minstrels.

[892]
 Sir John Hawkins mentions
a dance called pavon, from pavo, a peacock, which might 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."

[893]
 Several of our monarchs are
praised for their skill in dancing, and none of them more than
[Pg 296]
Henry VIII., 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,

[894]
 and Hentzner says, "the English excell in
danceing."

[895]


 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,

[896]
 accuses the
people at large, with "loving pryncypally disportes, as daunsynge,
syngynge, toys, tryfuls, laughynge, and gestynge; for,"
adds the author, "connynge they set not by."

[897]
 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:

[898]






The priestes, and clerkes, to daunce have no shame;


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, both 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,

[899]
 and
considered it not only as innocent in itself, but also as a preventive
[Pg 297]
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
measures, rounds, and jiggs.

[900]
 We read also of dancing the
Raye,

[901]
 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.,

[902]
 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;

[903]
 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 perhaps,
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 the Kissing-dance, the same, I suppose,
as the Cushion-dance mentioned by Heywood at the commencement
of the seventeenth century:

[904]
 both of them are discommended
in a paper of the Spectator.

[905]


 XIV.—SHOVEL-BOARD.


Among the domestic pastimes, playing at shovelboard 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 shovelboard table; and this fashionable piece of
furniture was usually stationed in the great hall.

[906]
 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
[Pg 298]
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 shovelboard 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 shovelboard-table at a low public-house 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 HENRY.


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
[Pg 299]
his attendants, 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 this or any other of the anecdotes related by
him;

[907]
 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 gownsmen
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 doe better than you. Yet I can doe more, said Master
Newton, for I can governe foolish children. The prince respecting
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 shovelboard, 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 attributed
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.

[908]
 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;
[Pg 300]
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 duodecimo
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.

[909]


 XVII.—MISSISSIPI.


This is played upon a table made in the form of a parallelogram.
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 surmounted
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 affixed 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.


[Pg 301]


 XVIII—THE ROCKS OF SCILLY.


This diversion requires a table oblong in its form, and curved
at the top, which is more elevated than the bottom. There is a
hollow 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 manner; 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, and 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, in
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 precisely:
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
[Pg 302]
add a tenth partition, with the number ten, to the marks above
mentioned; 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 performer 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.

[910]
 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 I hung,


Now high, now low, my Blouzalinda swung.






It was also adopted at the watering-places by people of fashion,
and the innovation is justly ridiculed in the Spectator.

[911]


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
[Pg 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 Ελκυστινδα,

[912]
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
in 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 drawing on a MS. in the possession
of Francis Douce, esq.





98. Shuttle-cock.—XIV. Century.




[Pg 304]


It appears to have been a fashionable pastime among grown
persons in the reign of James I. In the Two Maids of Moreclacke,
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-cocke
upon the forehead, 'This is,' quoth he, 'the encounter of David
with Goliath.'"

[913]




[Pg 305]




CHAPTER II


I. Sedentary Games.—II. Dice-playing;—Its
Prevalency and bad Effects.—III Ancient
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 exceedingly
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 consequences.
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 Eubœa.

[914]
 Others, agreeing to the time of the
invention of dice, attribute it to a Greek soldier named Alea,
[Pg 306]
and therefore say that the game was so denominated.

[915]
 But
Herodotus

[916]
 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.

[917]
 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,

[918]
 "The damnable art of dice-playing." Another
author, contemporary with him, says, "The clergymen and
bishops are fond of dice-playing."

[919]


 III.—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,

[920]
 we meet with a contrivance for playing with
the dice that does not require them to be numbered upon their
faces. This curious machine

[921]
 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
[Pg 307]
divided into six compartments, numbered as the dice usually are;
and according to the value of the figures affixed to the compartments
into which they fall the throw is estimated. Perhaps the
inner part of the circle, with the apparatus above it, was so constructed
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;

[922]
 and in the succeeding
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 gamblers
being well aware of this, will not trust to the determination
of fortune, but have recourse to many nefarious arts to circumvent
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 anonymous
MS. written about the reign of James I., and preserved
in the Harleian Collection.

[923]
 "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,

[924]
 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, a pair of silver dice, in order to reconcile
[Pg 308]
a disagreement that had subsisted between them, and occasioned
his abstaining from her company.

[925]


 IV.—CHESS—ITS ANTIQUITY.


This noble, or, as it is frequently called, royal pastime, 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 Eubœa;

[926]
others make Diomedes, and others again, Ulysses, the inventor
of chess.

[927]
 The honour has also been attributed to Ledo and
Tyrrheno, two Grecians, and brothers, who being much pressed
by hunger, sought to alleviate their bodily sufferings by diverting
the mind.

[928]
 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 Moralization
of 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 philosopher
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 followed
a MS. copy at the Museum in the Harleian Library.

[929]
 Our
countryman Chaucer, on what authority I know not, says it was






—Athalus that made the game


First of the chesse, so was his name.
        
[930]






The Arabians and the Saracens, who are said to be admirable
players at chess, have new-modelled the story of de Vigney
[Pg 309]
and adapted it to their own country, changing the name of the
philosopher from Xerxes to Sisa.

[931]


 VI.—EARLY CHESS-PLAY IN FRANCE AND ENGLAND.


It is impossible to say when the 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, was partial to this pastime.

[932]
 The following
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 somewhat
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.

[933]
 A
similar circumstance is said by Leland to have happened in
England.

[934]
 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 Guarine with 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.

[935]
 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 Charles I. was
playing at chess when he was told that the final resolution of
the Scots 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.

[936]
 Several other instances to the
same purpose might be produced, but these may suffice; and
in truth, I know not what interpretation to put upon such
[Pg 310]
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 representation
of the pastime that I have met with.





100. Ancient-Chess-play.




This engraving· is from a drawing in a beautifully illuminated MS.
preserved in the British Museum among the Harleian Collection.

[937]
This MS. was written at the close of the fourteenth century,
and bears every mark of being the very copy presented to Isabel
[Pg 311]
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 bystanders,
I presume, are the umpires to decide the matter in case of any
dispute.


The Cotton Library contains a MS. of the thirteenth century
with 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 pedinus.






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.


[Pg 312]


 VIII.—CHESS-PIECES, AND THEIR FORM.


The names of the chess pieces, as they are given in the foregoing
manuscript, are these: Rey—Reyne, or Ferce—Roc—Alfin—Chivaler—
Poun:—that
is, 1. The King—2. The Queen, or
Ferce

[938]—3. The Rock—4. The Alfin—5. The Knight—6. The
Pawn. Their forms are annexed.





103. Chessmen.—XIV. Century.




In modern times the roc is corruptedly called a rook, but
formerly it signified a rock or fortress, or rather, perhaps, 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,

[939]
 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 translation.
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—3.
De damoyseles—4. De alfins, two ways—5. De anel—6. De
covenant—7. De propre confusion—8. Mal assis—9. Cotidian,
two ways—10. Poynt estraunge, two ways—11. Ky perde sey
sauve—12. Ky ne doune ces ke il eyme, ne 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.
La chace de chivaler—23. La chace de ferce et de chivaler—24. Bien
[Pg 313]
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 prenge—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 vyleyn—38.
De dames et de damoyceles—39. Fol si sey fie, two ways—40.
Mal veysyn, two ways—41. Je mat de ferces—42. Flour de
guys—43. La batalie de rokes—44. Double eschec.


1. The knights' game—2. The ladies' game—3. The damsels'
game—4. The game of the alfins—5. The ring—6. The agreement—7.
Self-confounded—8. Ill placed or bad enough—9.
Day by day—10. The foreign point—11. 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 that 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 conducted—31.
Take if you can—32. The battle without arrangement—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 ludus latrunculorum, ludus calculorum, et ludus
scrupulorum, have been generally considered as similar to chess,
if not precisely the same; but the authors of the Encyclopédie
Françoise, 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 were called by the Greeks Ψηφοι,
and calculi or scrupuli by the Romans; and such articles, it is
[Pg 314]
supposed, were employed by them in playing the games above
mentioned. This method of reckoning passed from 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 ludus calculorum
which Homer mentions as a pastime practised by his
heroes, called in Greek πετος or πεσσος, consisted in a certain arrangement
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 αριθμος, numerus,
et μαχι, pugna, expressive of a battle with numbers, said by
some to have been invented by Pythagoras,

[940]
 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

[941]
 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,
[Pg 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 white, 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.

[942]





104.







105. The Philosopher's Game.




[Pg 316]


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.

[943]
 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 Anatomy of Melancholy,

[944]
calls it the Philosophy Game, and thinks it "not convenient
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 men 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
[Pg 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'
morris, 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 appeared
in the fourteenth century, is here represented.





106. Merelles.




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 distinction
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 alternately,
one by one, upon the spots; and the business of either
party is to prevent his antagonist from placing three of his
[Pg 318]
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 forwards,
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 antagonist'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 drowned field,


And crows are fatted with the murrain flock,


The nine mens' morris is filled up with mud.






 XIV.—FOX AND GEESE.


This is a game somewhat resembling that 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
[Pg 319]
fox in 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 direction
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 distinguished
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
[Pg 320]
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 ludus, and in
French tables. Hence the following line in the romance of
Parise la Duchesse:






Puis aprist il as tables et eschas joier;






Then he learned to play at tables and at chess.

[945]
 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,

[946]
 and the name derived from two Welsh words signifying
"little battle." But I trust, as before observed, that the derivation
may be found nearer home. The words are perfectly
Saxon, as Bac, or Bæc, 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 engraving occurs in a beautifully illuminated
manuscript in the Harleian Collection.

[947]
 The table,
as here delineated, is not divided in the middle, but the points,
[Pg 321]
on either side, are contained in a single compartment. Annexed
is the representation of a backgammon-table at least a century
more modern.





109. 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,

[948]
 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 who 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 6-1,
and then bear them off; 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 off 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 I
do not mistake the author, must be put upon his ace point. But
to go on: "There is," says he, "another game upon the tables
[Pg 322]
called Paume Carie, 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 game, called
"Ludus Lumbardorum, 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 changing the ace
point in the English game for the size point: and this alteration
probably shortened the game. He then mentions the five following
variations by name only; the Imperial game, the Provincial
game, the games called Baralie, Mylys, and Faylis.


 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 occasioned
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 recommend
it to the notice of grown persons in this country. It consists
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.
[Pg 323]
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, according
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 then discover what 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 derangement,
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 different devices, to be carried to the king for his
diversion.

[949]
 If it be 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 precludes
the probability of cards having been previously used
in France, but simply states that those made by him were gilt
[Pg 324]
and diversified with devices in variegated colours, the better to
amuse 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."

[950]
 This would be sufficient
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-PLAYING 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.

[951]
which has inclined several modern writers upon this subject to
refer the invention of 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 espadas; in this instance we retain the name and some
faint resemblance of the figure.

[952]


[Pg 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.

[953]


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;"

[954]
 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 acquainted
with Asiatic history, that cards were used in the eastern
parts of the world long before they found their way into Europe.

[955]
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 introduced
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 subject
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
[Pg 326]
abuses as were afterwards practised, and which excited the reprehension
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 necessarily
must have enhanced their value beyond the purchase of the
under classes of the people. For this reason it is, I 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 commonalty,
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, prohibiting the importation of playing-cards;

[956]
 and
soon after that period card-playing became a very general pastime.


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;

[957]
 the intermediate spaces between the outlines
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 legislative
power have not been able to eradicate.

[958]


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
[Pg 327]
that they could not possibly be made with any other; and if we
admit of any other, the objection will fall to the ground.


 XXI.—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.

[959]
 The princess Margaret, his daughter, previous
to her marriage with James IV., king of Scotland, understood
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.

[960]
 Catherine
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."

[961]


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.

[962]
 Agreeable to this privilege,
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."

[963]
But this moderation, I apprehend, was by no means general, for
several contemporary writers 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.

[964]


[Pg 328]


 XXII.—CARD-PLAYING CENSURED BY POETS.


Henry VIII. preferred the sports of the field, and such pastimes
as promoted exercise, to sedentary amusements; his attachment
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, well 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 presented
a poetical treatise entitled The Poesye of Princylye
Practice, to his son Edward VI., speaks therein of the pastimes
proper for the amusement of a monarch, and says, he
may after dinner indulge himself with music, or otherwise






Att tables, chesse or cardis awhile himselfe repose;






but adds, that "syttynge pastymes are seldom found good, especially
in the day-time;" he therefore advises the pursuit of
those that afforded both air and exercise.

[965]
 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 howse 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.
        
[966]






Forrest's manuscript is in the Royal Library,

[967]
 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,

[968]
 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 nyght, with gret murderers,


Overthwarte with gyle, and joly carders.






[Pg 329]


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 cardes and of dice,


And other games, prohibite by 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 discretion.
Too many instances of ruin and destruction may be
brought forward in the present day to convince us of the justness
of their censures.


 XXIII.—ANCIENT CARDS.


The early specimens of playing-cards that have been produced,
differ very little in their form from those now used.
This form is certainly the most convenient for the purposes assigned
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 specimen
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, I have no doubt but they
were perfectly so.


[Pg 330]







110. The King of Columbines.







111. The Queen of Rabbits.




Ancient Cards.




[Pg 331]





112. The Knave of Pinks.







113. The Ace of Roses.


Ancient Cards.




[Pg 332]
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 counting
them. 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 engraving
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 of 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 remarkable
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.

[969]
 The last gentleman has given a full description
of them in a paper upon the subject of card-playing, in the
Archæologia.

[970]
 The figured cards, by us denominated court
cards, were formerly called coat cards; and originally, I conceive,
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
[Pg 333]
the application of the term itself, without any other 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."

[971]
 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.

[972]


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; Dol, 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 shalt find her;


Take heed of Sim Glover's wife, she hath an eye behind her.

[973]






[Pg 334]
Trump is thought to have borne some resemblance to the modern
game of whist.


Gresco is mentioned in conjunction with primero in the
comedy of Eastward Hoe;

[974]
 "he would play his hundred pounds
at gresco and primero as familiarly as any bright piece of crimson
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,
        
[975]
        until with posting


They paid so fast, 'twas time to leave their bosting.


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.
        
[976]——


Now noddy follow'd next.—


The last game now in use is banckerout,
        
[977]


Which will be plaid at still I stand in doubt,


Until lavalta turne the wheele 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."

[978]
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 written 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."


[Pg 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.

[979]


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 II.


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 frequented
the Crown coffee-house in Bedford-row. Mr. Barrington's
paper on card-playing in the Archæologia, 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,

[980]
Queen Nazareen,
Lanterloo, Penneech, Art of Memory, Beast, Cribbage, and
All Fours. Nearly all these games may be found in a small
[Pg 336]
book entitled the Complete Gamester, with the directions how
to play them. Crimp, mentioned in the Spectator,

[981]
 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
time, called the Game of Goose. This game may be played
by two persons; but it will readily admit of many more; it
originated, I believe, in Germany, and is well calculated to make
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 inclusive,
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 19, 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.

[982]
The game is played with two dice, and every player throws in
his turn as he sits at the table: he must have a counter or some
[Pg 337]
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 beginning
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 again.
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 compartment
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 to whom it is at present very properly confined;
formerly, however, it held a higher rank, and was introduced
at the court. Edward II. was partial to this and such like
frivolous 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, usher of the king's chamber, money
which he lent the king, and which he lost at cross and pile;
to Monsieur Robert Wattewille eightpence."

[983]


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 head being called the tail
without respect to the figure upon it, and the same if it was
blank. Anciently the English coins were stamped on one side
[Pg 338]
with a cross. One person tosses the halfpenny 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, Οστρακινδα,
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, Νυξ et ημερα, (literally night
and day), as he thought proper, and his success was determined
by the white or black part of the shell being uppermost.




[Pg 339]




CHAPTER III.


I. The 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.

[984]
 The mock
prince, or lord of misrule, whose reign extended through the
greater part of the holidays, is particularly remarked by foreign
writers, who consider him as a personage rarely to be met with
out of England;

[985]
 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 diminution,
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 extinct for many years,
and his name and his offices are nearly forgotten. In some
great families, and also sometimes at court, this officer was called
[Pg 340]
the Abbot of Misrule. Leland says, "This Christmas

[986]
 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."

[987]
 In Scotland he was called the Abbot of Unreason,
and prohibited there in 1555 by the parliament.

[988]
 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 MISRULE 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."

[989]
 Again:
"At the feast 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 potentate
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 mummeries."

[990]


 III.—THE MASTER OF THE KING'S REVELS.


In the fifth year of Edward VI., at Christmas time, a gentleman
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 commonly
his predecessors had been before, received all his commissions
and warrauntes by the name of master of the kinge's pastimes;
which gentleman so well supplied his office, both of shew
[Pg 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
time, 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
the duke of Somerset.


 IV.—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, who lived at the close of the sixteenth
century, places this whimsical personage, with his followers, in
a very degrading point of view.

[991]
 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, whom 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 hundred
lustie guttes, like to himself, to waite upon his lordly
majesty, and to guarde 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 scarffes, 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
[Pg 342]
with their baudie pipers, and thundring drummers, to strike
up the devil's daunce with all. Then march this heathen company
towards the church, their pypers pyping, their drummers
thundring, their stumpes dauncing, 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 paradventure 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 certaine
papers wherein is painted some babelerie

[992]
 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 horribly abused. And
so 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 fantasticall fooles bring to these
helhounds, the Lord of Misrule and his complices, some bread,
some good ale, some new cheese, some old cheese, some custardes,
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 president
over the summer 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.


[Pg 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 Childermas-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.

[993]


 VI.—A KING OF CHRISTMAS AT NORWICH.


In the history of Norfolk

[994]
 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 disgysynges,
crowned as Kyng of Christmas, in token that the
season should end with the twelve moneths of the year; and
afore

[995]
 hym went yche

[996]
 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."

[997]
 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 in
[Pg 344]
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

[998]
 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;

[999]
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.

[1000]


 VIII.—WHENCE THESE MOCK DIGNITIES WERE DERIVED.


Selden asserts,

[1001]
 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 were honoured with mock titles,
and permitted to assume the state and deportment of their lords.
These fooleries were exceedingly popular, and continued 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 permitted
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 ceremonies
of the church were turned into ridicule, and the ecclesiastics
themselves participated in the abominable profanations.
The following outlines of this absurd diversion will no doubt be
thought sufficient.


[Pg 345]


 IX.—THE FESTIVAL OF FOOLS.


In each 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 attended
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 with 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, singing, breaking obscene
jests, and exposing themselves in the most unseemly attitudes
with shameless impudence.

[1002]
 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,

[1003]
 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 church.
He was afterwards 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 with them carts filled with ordure, which they threw
occasionally upon the populace assembled to see the procession.

[1004]
These spectacles were always exhibited at Christmas-time, or
near to it, but not confined to one particular day. It was sometimes
[Pg 346]
on Christmas-day, and on the feasts of St. Stephen, St.
John, the Innocents, the Circumcision, the Epiphany, &c.

[1005]
When the ceremony took place upon St. Stephen'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 imitated
the braying of an ass. Upon the festival of St. John
the Evangelist they had another arrangement of ludicrous
sentences, denominated the Prose of the Ox, equally reprehensible.

[1006]
These exhibitions were highly relished by the populace
at large, and crept into the monasteries and nunneries,
where they 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 had a king of the fools, but his
office was suppressed at an early period, and not, that I remember,
revived in the succeeding times. A Rex Stultorum,
in Beverley church, was prohibited in 1391.

[1007]
 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 collegiate churches, at the feast of St. Nicholas, or of the
Holy Innocents, and frequently at both, it was customary for
one 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 prebendaries:
Warton, and the author of the manuscript he has followed,
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
[Pg 347]
statutes for his school

[1008]
 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

[1009]
 sermon,
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 schole."

[1010]
 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."

[1011]
 After having
performed the divine service, the boy-bishop and his associates
went about to different parts of the town, and visited the religious
houses, collecting money. These ceremonies and processions
were 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 heretofore
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

[1012]
 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 glorie to
God, or honor of his sayntes."

[1013]
 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.

[1014]
 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.

[1015]
 Again
the next year, says Strype, "on Saint Nicholas-even, Saint
Nicholas, that is, a boy habited like a bishop in pontificalibus,

[1016]
went abroad in most parts of London, singing after the old
fashion; and was received with many ignorant but well-disposed
[Pg 348]
people into their houses, and had as much good cheer as ever
was wont to be had before." After the death of Mary this silly
mummery was 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 diminutive
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.

[1017]


 XI.—THE FOOL-PLOUGH.


Cards, dice, tables, and most other games prohibited by the
public statutes at other seasons of the year, were tolerated
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,

[1018]
 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 his 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 some
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.

[1019]


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."


[Pg 349]
In general 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."

[1020]


 XII.—EASTER GAMES.


In the islands of Scilly it was customary of late years at this
season 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.
When the music and dancing is done, they are treated with
liquor, and then they go to the next house of entertainment."

[1021]


 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.

[1022]
 It is now
obsolete.


 XIV.—HOKE-DAY, OR HOCK-DAY.


This popular holiday, Quindena Paschæ, mentioned by Matthew
Paris and other ancient writers, was usually kept on the
[Pg 350]
Tuesday

[1023]
 following the second Sunday after Easter-day; and
distinguished, according to John Rouse,

[1024]
 by various sportive
pastimes, in which the towns-people, divided into parties, were
accustomed to draw each other with ropes. Spelman is more
definite, and 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.

[1025]
 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, desiring
something to be laid out in pious uses in order to obtain
their freedom."

[1026]
 Such are the general outlines of this singular
institution, and the pens of several able writers have been employed
in attempting to investigate its origin.

[1027]
 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;

[1028]
 others, that it
was in remembrance of the death of Hardicanute, which happened
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.

[1029]


Hock-day was generally observed as lately as the sixteenth
century. We learn from Spelman that it was not totally discontinued
in his time. Dr. Plott, who makes Monday the principal
day, has noticed some vestiges of it at the distance of fifty
years, but now it is totally abolished.


[Pg 351]


 XV.—MAY-GAMES.


The celebration of the May-games, at which we have only
glanced in a former part of the work,

[1030]
 will require some enlargement
in this chapter. "On the calends or first of May,"
says Bourne,

[1031]
 "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, without
the least violation being offered to it in the whole circle of
the year."


This custom, no doubt, is a relic of one more ancient, practised
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
[Pg 352]
church of Saint Andrew,"

[1032]
 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, in the ninth year of Henry VIII.
on which occasion several foreigners were slain, and two of the
ringleaders of the disturbance were hanged.


Stow has passed unnoticed the manner in which the May-poles
were usually decorated; this deficiency I shall supply
from Philip Stubs, a contemporary writer, one who saw these
pastimes in a very different point of view, and some may think his
invectives are more severe than just; however, I am afraid the
conclusion of them, though perhaps much exaggerated, is not altogether
without foundation. He writes thus:

[1033]
 "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 birche 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 hornes, and these oxen drawe home the
May-poale, their stinking idol

[1034]
 rather, which they covered all
over with flowers and hearbes, bound round with strings from
the top to the bottome, and sometimes it was painted with variable
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
[Pg 353]
boughs about it, they set up summer halles, bowers, and arbours
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.

[1035]


 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,
1557, 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."

[1036]
 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 conduit,
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 character,
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 apprentice,
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
[Pg 354]
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
pageantry 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 Men," and were also equipped in appropriate
dresses; their coats, hoods, and hose were generally green.
Henry VIII., 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."

[1037]


Bishop Latimer, in a sermon which he preached before king
Edward VI., 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

[1038]
 them not. I was
fayne, therefore, to give place to Robin Hood. I thought my
rochet would have been regarded; but it would not serve, it
was faine to give place to Robin Hoode's men."

[1039]
 In Garrick's
Collection of Old Plays

[1040]
 is one entitled "A new Playe of
Robyn Hoode, for to be played in the May-games, very pleasaunte
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
friar, who afterwards becomes his chaplain; he also breaks the
[Pg 355]
boy's pots, and commits several other absurdities. The language
of the piece is extremely low, and full of ribaldry.


 XVII.—GRAND MAY-GAME AT GREENWICH.


It has 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 manuscript,

[1041]
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 appointed
by the king, armed with the "harneis

[1042]
 thereunto
accustomed, to kepe the fielde, and to run with every commer
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.

[1043]


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
[Pg 356]
and hight." I do not clearly understand this passage, but suppose
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, with 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 Lampace, sat Sweet
Odour.

[1044]
 Both of the ladies in the chariot were splendidly
[Pg 357]
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 Guenever
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, followed
by an esquire and two yeomen, &c.

[1045]


 XIX.—MAY MILK-MAIDS.


"It is at this time," that is, in May, says the author of one
of the papers in the Spectator,

[1046]
 "we see the brisk young wenches,
in the country parishes, dancing round the May-pole. 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, oppressed
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 decorated
as above mentioned, upon her head.

[1047]
 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-maids.


[Pg 358]
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 hands,
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 sufficiently 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 companions,
and the populace are mightily pleased with the oddity
of the moving pyramid.


 XXI.—WHITSUN GAMES.


The Whitsuntide holidays were celebrated by various pastimes
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
the 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
[Pg 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.

[1048]


 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;

[1049]
 several of the
superstitious ceremonies practised upon this occasion are contained
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 to
queen Elizabeth, and appeared in 1570.






Then doth the joyfull feast of John the Baptist take his turne,


When bonfiers great, with loftie flame, in every towne 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 thinke, 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, ornamented with
garlands of beautiful flowers. They, the citizens, had also
[Pg 360]
lamps of glass with oil burning in them all night; and some
of them hung out branches of iron, curiously wrought, containing
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 these 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 effects supposed to be produced
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, which 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 were 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 bernyng
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 merriment
as is shewn by the profane lovers of this world, who 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."

[1050]


[Pg 361]


 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.

[1051]
 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, "time out
of mind;" and upon this occasion the standing 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
fourpence; 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 in
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
[Pg 362]
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 belonging
to the mayor, and from each other: they had also a
great number of harnessed men."

[1052]
 This old custom of setting
the watch in London was maintained until the year 1539, in the
31st 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

[1053]
 of
a giant. Dr. Plott tells us, this pageantry was continued in
his memory, and says it was established, at least the 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, surmounted
by a golden dragon,

[1054]
 in the action.


 XXV.—PROCESSIONS ON ST. CLEMENT'S AND ST. CATHERINE'S
DAYS.


The Anniversary of Saint Clement, and that of Saint Catherine,
the first upon the 23d, and the second upon the 25th, of
November, were formerly particularized by religious processions
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;

[1055]
and again three years afterwards, her image, if I clearly understand
my author, was taken about the battlements of the same
church with fine singing and many great lights.

[1056]
 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
[Pg 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.

[1057]


 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."

[1058]
 The wassail is said
to have originated from the words of Rowena, the daughter
of Hengist; who, presenting a bowl of wine to Vortigern, the
king of the Britons, said, Wæs hæel, or, Health to you, my lord
the king; (Ƿæꞅ hæl laꝼoꞃꝺ cẏnnınᵹ). If this derivation of the
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.

[1059]


 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 confined
to any particular day. The first is the sheep-shearing,
and the second the harvest-home; both of them were celebrated
in 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.


[Pg 364]
The particular manner in which the sheep-shearing was celebrated
in old time is not recorded; but respecting the harvest-home
we meet with several curious observations. Hentzner, a
foreign gentleman, who was in England at the close of the sixteenth
century, and wrote an account of what he saw here, says,
"as we were returning to our inn, (in or near Windsor) we happened
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 moving 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."

[1060]
 "In the north," says Mr. Brand, "not half a
century ago, they used every where to dress up a figure something
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."

[1061]


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.

[1062]
 At the mell-supper, Bourne

[1063]
 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 together,
and spend the remaining part of the night in dancing
and singing, without any difference 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."

[1064]


 XXVIII.—WAKES.


The wakes when first instituted in this country were established
upon religious principles, and greatly resembled the agapæ,
[Pg 365]
Αγαπαι, or love feasts of the early Christians. It seems, however,
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, "whereas
the people were accustomed to sacrifice many oxen in honour
of dæmons, 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."

[1065]
 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 consecrated;
for which purpose the people were directed to make
booths and tents with the boughs of trees adjoining to the churches,
circa easdem ecclesias,

[1066]
 and in them to celebrate the feast with
thanksgiving and prayer. In process of time the people assembled
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,"

[1067]
 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 institution
began to make their appearance as early as the tenth
century. The 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 belonged
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 tutelar
saint, the greater generally was the promiscuous assembly.


[Pg 366]
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 dedication
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 with 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."

[1068]


[Pg 367]


 XXX.—CHURCH-ALES.


The Church-ales, called also Easter-ales, and Whitsun-ales
from their being sometimes held on Easter-Sunday, and on Whit-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 institutions
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 festival,
which they sold to them; and most of the better sort, in addition
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,

[1069]
 couched
in the following terms: "The parishioners of Elverton and those
of Okebrook in Derbyshire agree jointly to brew four ales, and
every ale of one quarter of malt between this,

[1070]
 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 cottager
one penny. And the inhabitants of Elverton shall have
and receive all the 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 employed
in brewing, baking, and other acates, against Whitson-tide,
upon which holidaies the neighbours meet at the church-house,
[Pg 368]
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."

[1071]


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

[1072]
 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

[1073]
 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 sacrament,
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 drunkenness;"
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 we look at the wakes and fairs as they are conducted in the
present day, I trust we shall not hesitate to own that they are
[Pg 369]
by no means proper schools for the improvement of the public
morals.


The ingenious researcher into the causes of melancholy thinks
that these kinds of amusement ought not to be denied to the
commonalty.

[1074]
 Chaucer, in the Ploughman's Tale, reproves
the 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
drinking, or the displayment of vulgar pastimes. These pastimes,
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

[1075]
there is a short description of a country wake. "I found," says
the author, "a ring of cudgel-players, who were breaking one
another's heads in order to make some impression on their mistresses'
hearts." He then came to "a foot-ball match," and afterwards
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
paper.

[1076]
 "The prize," we are told, "was one guinea, to be conferred
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
[Pg 370]
merry-andrew, 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 countenance
that he bore away the prize, to the great admiration of
the spectators." This paper was written by Addison, who 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 Shrove-tide, 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 representative;
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, enclosed
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
[Pg 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,
but 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 with 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
to make the best of their way to some given distance, where
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
[Pg 372]
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 reverse;
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 way of expressing
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 spectacles
may be considered as merely appendages to the pageants
and pompous shows that usually preceded them; and they
seem to have been instituted principally for the diversion of the
populace. In the reign of Henry 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.

[1077]
And within these forty years

[1078]
 bonfires continued to be made
in London at the city expense, and in certain places at Westminster
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
[Pg 373]
placed bread and good drink upon the tables before their
doors upon the vigil of the festival; but on the festival evening
the 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 made of bitter enemies loving friends;
and also for the virtue that a great fire hath to purge the infection
of the air."

[1079]
 There are many fanciful derivations of the compound
word bonfire; but I perfectly agree with Dr. Johnson,
who thinks the first syllable originated from the French word
bon, good; because these fires 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.

[1080]
 The historian does not speak of these lights as any novelty,
neither is there any reason to conclude that similar illuminations
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 generally
used at this period, were the cressets, or large lanthorns,
which were carried in procession about the street. When they
were laid aside, the windows of the houses were decorated with
lighted 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
[Pg 374]
Majesty's recovery, far surpassed, not only in the number and
brilliancy of the lights, but also in the splendour and beauty of
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-mayor's barge, a foyste

[1081]
for a wafter full of ordinance; in which foyste was a great red
dragon, continually moving and casting forth wildfire; 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 water, 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."

[1082]


Among the spectacles prepared for the diversion of queen
Elizabeth at Kenelworth Castle in 1575, there were displays of
fireworks, which are thus described by Laneham, who was
present.

[1083]
 "On the Sunday night," says he, "after a warning
piece or two,

[1084]
 was a blaze of burning darts flying to and fro,
beams of stars coruscant, streams and hail of fire sparks, lightnings
of wildfire on the water; and on the land, flight and shot
of thunderbolts, all with such continuance, terror, and vehemence,
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."

[1085]


[Pg 375]
On the 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 fireworks,
preceded by "a peale of one hundred chambers,

[1086]
 discharged
from the Snail Mount;" with "a like peale discharged
from the ship Isle, and some great ordinance withal. Then
was there a castle of fireworkes of all sorts, which played in
the fort; answerable to that there was, at the Snail Mount, 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."

[1087]


 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 pyrotechnie, or of fireworkes."

[1088]
 But, so far as
one can judge from the machinery delineated in the books formerly
written upon the subject of firework making, these exhibitions
were very clumsily contrived, consisting chiefly in wheels,
fire-trees, jerbs, and rockets, to which were added, men fantastically
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 Champions
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

[1089]
 have been more excellent in their construction,
more neatly executed, and more variable and pleasing
[Pg 376]
in their effects, than those produced at any former period. It
is certain that the early firework makers were totally unacquainted
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 communicating
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 effect totally destroyed, by the timbers
belonging to one of the wings taking fire through the explosion
of the gunpowder trains communicated by the wooden channels.
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 exhibition.


 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 Tower-hill on the
evening of his Majesty's birth-day. This spectacle has been
discontinued for several years in compliance with a petition for
that purpose made by the inhabitants on account of the inconveniences
they sustained thereby.


Fireworks were exhibited at Marybone Gardens while they
were kept open for public entertainment; and about five-and-twenty
years ago,

[1090]
 Torre, a celebrated French artist, was employed
there, who, in addition to the usual displayment of fire-wheels,
fixed stars, figure pieces, and other curious devices, introduced
pantomimical spectacles, which afforded him an opportunity
[Pg 377]
of bringing forward much splendid machinery, with appropriate
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 wife 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

[1091]
 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 wilde men;

[1092]
 others are frequently distinguished
by the appellation of green men;

[1093]
 and both of them were men
whimsically attired and disguised with droll masks, having large
staves or clubs, headed with cases of crackers. Annexed is





114. A Green Man.




[Pg 378]
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. Below
is





115. A Wodehouse.




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 from a ballad, 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.




[Pg 379]




CHAPTER IV.


I.—Popular manly Pastimes imitated by Children.—
II. Horses.—III. Racing and
Chacing.—IV. Wrestling and other Gymnastic Sports.—V. Marbles, 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 Pastimes;—Mock
Honours at Boarding-schools.—XIV. Houses of Cards;—Questions
and Commands;—Handy-dandy;—Snap-dragon;—Push-pin;—Crambo;—Lotteries.—XV.
Obsolete Pastimes.—XVI. Creag;—Queke-board;—Hand in
and Hand out;—White and Black, and Making and Marring;—Figgum;—Mosel
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 considered
as an essential part of a young man's education; for
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 acquainted
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 substitute
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 discharged
at the other end by the expansion of the compressed air.
Sometimes pellets of clay were used instead of the arrows. Dr.
Johnson in his Dictionary, under the article trunk, has this
quotation from Ray: "In a shooting trunk, the longer it is to a
[Pg 380]
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 compared
to pot-gun reports in a comedy called The Knave in Graine,
printed in 1640.

[1094]


 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;

[1095]
 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 gallopping
and prancing of that noble animal.

[1096]
 This is an amusement
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.

[1097]
 Socrates
also did the same, for which it seems his pupil Alcibiades used
to laugh at him.

[1098]
 If we turn to the engraving No. 45,

[1099]
 we shall
see two boys, each of them having two wands, the one serves for
a horse, and the other for a spear, and thus equipped they are
justing together. The engraving No. 30,

[1100]
 represents a boy
mounted upon a wooden horse, drawn 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 pastimes
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.

[1101]
 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.

[1102]


[Pg 381]


 III.—RACING AND CHACING.


Contending with each other for superiority in racing on foot is
natural to children;

[1103]
 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.

[1104]


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:

[1105]






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 denomination.


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 vigilance
of the seekers and get home uncaught, they go out to hide
again; but so many of them as are caught, on the contrary, become
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 play 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
[Pg 382]
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.

[1106]






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 continued
succession of stooping and leaping. It is mentioned by
Shakspeare in King Henry the Fifth; "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 Cornwall
and Devon.

[1107]
 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
sports, but at the same time very ancient, for they were practised
[Pg 383]
by the Grecian youth; one they called akinetinda, Ακινητινδα,

[1108]
which was a struggle between the competitors who should stand
motionless the longest upon the sole of his foot; the other denominated
ascoliasmos, Ασκωλιασμος,

[1109]
 was dancing or hopping
upon one foot,

[1110]
 the conqueror being he who could hop the most
frequently, and continue the performance longer than any of his
comrades; and this pastime is alluded to by the author of the
old comedy, The longer 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, which was played in this manner: a parallelogram
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 different compartments, which were called
beds; some of them being larger 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 different beds in a regular succession, and every time the
tile was cast, the player's business was 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 was 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.


[Pg 384]
Swimming, sliding,

[1111]
 and of late years skating, may be
reckoned among the boys' amusements; also walking upon
stilts,

[1112]
 swinging, and the pastime of the meritot and see-saw,
or tetter-totter, which have been mentioned already,

[1113]
 together
with most of the games played with the ball,

[1114]
 as well as nine-pins
and skittles.

[1115]


 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 different
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
amusement he spent many hours in playing with little Moorish
boys cum nucibus, with nuts.

[1116]
 The author of one of the Tatlers
calls it "a game of marbles not unlike our common taw."

[1117]


Taw, wherein a number of boys put each of them one or two
marbles in a ring and shoot at them alternately with other
marbles, and he who obtains the most of them by beating them
out of the 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
[Pg 385]
boys for want of both perform it with stones. This sport is
called in French tapper, a word signifying to strike or hit, because
if one counter is struck by the other, the game is won.


 VI.—TOPS, &c.—THE DEVIL AMONG THE TAILORS.


The top was used in remote times by the Grecian boys.
It is mentioned by Suidas, and called in Greek τροχος, and in
Latin turbo. It was well known at Rome in the days of Virgil,

[1118]
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 whipping 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 Henry, the eldest son of James I., and the
author assures us it is perfectly genuine;

[1119]
 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 gate of the towne
a stack of corne 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 taken up, or an additional
part put down, according as those letters lie 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-totum 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
[Pg 386]
to that you put down at first. Toys of this kind are now made
with many sides and letters.


There is a childish pastime which may well be inserted 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 conqueror.
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, Αρτιαζειν, and in
Latin par vel impar. Hence the following line in Horace:


Ludere par, impar; equitare in arundine longâ.


To play at even or odd—to ride upon a long reed or cane.

[1120]


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.

[1121]
 Here we
may add Chuck-farthing, played by the boys at the commencement
of the last century; it probably bore some analogy to pitch
and hustle.

[1122]
 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."

[1123]
 I have seen a game thus
denominated played with halfpence, every one of the competitors
[Pg 387]
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 succession
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 whose halfpenny
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,
Εποστρακισμος,

[1124]
 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 buffet 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 buffeted by them;
the latter takes place when two boys have offended, 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
[Pg 388]
then 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 change place with
him, and the play recommences.


Shuttle-cock has been spoken of in a former chapter, the
engraving, No. 98,

[1125]
 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 must
be exceedingly defective, or strangely perverted, who can proportion
the degree of cruelty to the smallness 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 consequences
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 degrees
made callous to every claim of tenderness and humanity.


I have seen school-boys shooting of flies with a headless pin
impelled through part of a tobacco-pipe, by the means of a
bent cane, and this instrument is commonly called a fly-gun;
from this they have proceeded to the truncating of frogs, and
afterwards 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, are generally
made the victims of youthful cruelty. These inoffensive
[Pg 389]
insects are frequently caught 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, I shall venture to give it. When a
child, I was caught by my mother, who greatly abhorred every
species of cruelty, 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 Butterfly.—XIV. Century.




[Pg 390]


The preceding representation is from a drawing on a manuscript
in the Royal Library.

[1126]


This barbarous sport is exceedingly ancient. We find it
mentioned by Aristophanes in his comedy of The Clouds.

[1127]
 It
is called in the Greek melolonthe, Μηλολονθη, rendered in the Latin
scarabæus, 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 themselves
in the same manner with little birds, substituted for the
beetles.

[1128]


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 significations
to denote a paper kite, and this is the first time I
have found it mentioned. Now, the paper kites are not restricted
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 generally
by the children there than it is in England. From that
country perhaps it was brought to us, but the time of its introduction
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 from those used by the children
at present.


[Pg 391]


 X.—BOB-CHERRY.


This is "a play among children," says Johnson, "in which
the cherry is hung so as to bob against 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 noble 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,

[1129]
 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."

[1130]





119. Diving for Apples.




[Pg 392]


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,

[1131]
 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, Μυια χαλκι.

[1132]
 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
with us appears from these three different representations, all
of them from the Bodleian MS. before mentioned.





120.







121.




[Pg 393]





122. Hoodman Blind.—XIV. Century.




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 I


Quick rose, and read soft mischief in her eye.






"The Chytrinda, Χυτρινδα, 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 this manner:—A single player, called χοτρα, kotra,
and with us the frog, being seated upon the ground, was surrounded
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.

[1133]
 I scarcely need
to add, that the frog in the middle, as it is played in the
present 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.


[Pg 394]





123. Hot-Cockles.







124. Frog in the Middle.




 XII.—COCK-FIGHTING.


I have already spoken at large upon cock-fighting, and
throwing at cocks. I shall only observe that the latter, especially,
was a very common pastime among the boys of this
country till within these few years; and in the following engraving
we have the copy of a curious delineation, which I take
to represent a boyish triumph.





125. Cock-throwing Triumph.




[Pg 395]


The hero supposed to have won the cock, or whose cock
escaped 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 instrument
used upon these occasions. The original painting
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
is readily discovered.





126.




In this, which is from the just cited Bodleian MS., we 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.


[Pg 396]





127.




The originals of both these engravings were made in the fourteenth
century.


The subjoined engraving, also from a drawing in Mr. Douce'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 presume, to touch the water without immerging
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 who 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.

[1134]


In some great Boarding Schools for the fair sex, it is customary,
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
[Pg 397]
to sit conveniently, and is made with two stools, having 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,
and 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 waggons, 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:

[1135]


Ædificare cassus, plostello adjungere mures.


To build little houses, and join mice to the diminutive waggons.


Questions and Commands, a childish pastime, which though
somewhat different in the modern modification, most probably
derived its origin from the basilinda, Βασιλινδα,

[1136]
 of the Greeks, in
which we are told a king, elected by lot, commanded his comrades
what 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.


[Pg 398]


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 word, to which
another finds a rhyme; this, with other trifling amusements, is
mentioned in a paper belonging to the Spectator.

[1137]
 "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
effect:


"Whoever will be wise and command respect let him learn
his letters, and 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
every one read this arrangement and govern himself thereby.


Hearkyn and heare every man and child how that I begynne.






A to amerous, to adventurous; ne anger the too much.


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 dreadfull, and drynk thou not too oft.


E to ellynge, to excellent; ne to ernestfull neyther.


F to fierce, ne too familier 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 merry but as manner asketh.


N to noyous, to nyce, ne nought to newe fangle.


O to orpyd, to oveyrthwarte, and othes do thee 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 of a fall.


A measurable meane way is best for us all.


Explicit."


[Pg 399]


There are two copies of this alphabet among the Harleian
manuscripts, 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 included
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 species
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 subject
to numberless variations. I have, however, set down all
that I can recollect, and described them according to the
manner in which 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.





129.




This engraving represents a kind of a mock procession, where
one of the company, equipped in a royal habit with a crown
upon his head, is walking with his mantle displayed by two
attendants, and preceded by a zany beating a tambourin with
[Pg 400]
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.





130.




This may probably refer to the amusement at wakes and
fairs, where various tasks for pastime sake are frequently assigned
to blindfolded persons, as the Wheelbarrow Race, described
on a preceding page.

[1138]
 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, Αποδιδρασκινδα,

[1139]
 where one
being seated in the midst of his comrades, closed his eyes, or
was blinded by the hand of another, while the rest concealed
themselves, and he who was found by him after he was permitted
to rise, took his place; this was evidently a species of
the pastime called hide and seek. The original of this engraving
is in a MS. of the thirteenth century, in the Royal
Library.

[1140]





131.




[Pg 401]


I am equally at a loss respecting the two next representations.





132.







133.




Those that are standing, and those 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, I have seen played by two persons one of
them alternately holds up 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 middle
seems to be alternately answering to the other two. They are
in the Bodleian MS. of 1344.


Mr. Douce's Book of Prayers of the fourteenth century contains
the following representation.


[Pg 402]





134.




Here we see a rope apparently made fast at both 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





136.


With respect to the two preceding drawings from the frequently
mentioned MS. of 1344, in the Bodleian Library, I can
[Pg 403]
hardly venture a conjecture; unless we may suppose them to
represent two of the ridiculous ceremonies belonging to the Festival
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—FIGGUM—MOSEL
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-eighth
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 seventeenth
year of Edward IV.


White and Black, and also Making and Marring are prohibited
by a public act established in the second and third
years of Philip and Mary.


Figgum 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.

[1141]


Pick-point, Venter-point, Blow-point,

[1142]
 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 way of lottery. To these may be added
another pastime, called Drawing Dun out of the Mire. Chaucer
probably alludes to this pastime in the Manciple's Prologue,
[Pg 404]
where the host seeing the cook asleep, exclaims, "Syr, what
dunne is in the mire."


Mottoes, Similes, and Cross Purposes, are placed among
the childrens' games in a paper belonging to the Spectator.

[1143]
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
all colours, which I suppose is for that purpose."

[1144]




[Pg 405]




FOOTNOTES:







[1] Pontoppidan's History of Norway, p. 248.





[2] On p. 173.





[3] The famous Dunstan was also an excellent blacksmith.





[4] Oläi. Worm. Lit. Run. p. 129; Bartholin. p. 420.





[5] Asser. in Vit. Ælfredi.





[6] De Moribus Germ.





[7] Hist. Ramsien. apud Gale, vol. i. an. 85.





[8] A. D. 960, can. 64, Johnson's Canons.





[9] See p. 6 in the body of the work.





[10] No. 2253, fol. 108.





[11] In the original it is purry poume, that is rotten apple.





[12] The cross-bow.





[13] That is, to practise with lances, two persons running one against the other.





[14] Armour.





[15] See p. 126 of this work.





[16] Hunting.





[17] In the first chapter, p. 17, the reader will find the animals to be hunted divided
into three classes; namely, beasts of venery, beasts of chase, and raskals, or vermin.
The horn was sounded in a different manner according to the class of the beasts
pursued.





[18] Morte Arthur, translated from the French by sir Thomas 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 gentlemen
and lords have so many and so large parkes, only reserved for the purpose of hunting."
And again, "Our progenitors were so delighted with hunting, that the parkes are
nowe growne infinite in number, and are thought to containe more fallow deere
than all the Christian world besides." Itinerary of Fynes Moryson, published in
1617, part iii. book iii. cap. 3.





[19] To learn.





[20] Written also paume; that is, hand-tennice.





[21] Romance of Three Kings' Sons and the King of Sicily, Harl. MS. 326.





[22] Mem. Anc. Cheval. tom. i. p. 16.





[23] Harl. MS. 2252.





[24] Ibid.





[25] Printed by Copeland; black letter, without date; Garrick's Collection, K. vol. ix.







[26] That is, all of the lords and other nobility who were seated in the hall.





[27] For vierge escu, a virgin shield, or a white shield, without any devices, such as
was borne by the tyros in chivalry who had not performed any memorable action.





[28] A sword without edge or point, as it is explained in the following articles.





[29] That is, with heads without points, or blunted so that, they could do no hurt.





[30] Foyne, or foin, signifies to push or thrust with the sword, instead of striking.





[31] Harl. MS. 69.





[32] Hall, in Life of Henry VIII.





[33] Arte of Rhetorike by Tho. Wilson, fol. 67.





[34] Fynes Moryson's Itinerary, published A. D. 1617.





[35] Coursing, I presume, he means.





[36] I here omit a long train of royal reasoning in confutation of the assertions of the
learned men his majesty alludes to in this passage.





[37] Biograph. Brit. p. 1236.





[38] No. 17, D. iii.





[39] Crowd is an ancient name for the violin.





[40] See the first and second chapters in the body of the work.





[41] The words of Fitz Stephen are, "Puellarum cithara ducit choros, et pede libero
pulsatur tellus, usque imminente lunâ." The word cithara, Stow renders, but I think
not justly, timbrels.





[42] Vol. i. p. 257.





[43] Athen. Oxon. ii. col. 812; and see Granger's Biographical History, vol. ii. p. 398
8vo.





[44] In his Proverbs, part I, chap. 11





[45] Scuta ex argento facta.





[46] Bede, Eccl. Hist. lib. ii. cap. 16.





[47] Dr. Henry's Hist. vol. ii. lib. v. cap. 7.





[48] See the Northumberland Family-Book.





[49] Johan. Sarisburiensis, lib. i. c. 8. p. 34.





[50] Smale harpers with ther glees.





[51] Cornmuse and Shalmes—many a floyte and lytlyngehorne.





[52] Pypes made of grene corne are also mentioned in the Romance of the Rose.





[53] These are the author's own words.





[54] In the chapters on Minstrels, Jugglers, &c. pp. 170, 197. The plays and pageants
exhibited at court are described in the chapter treating on Theatrical Amusements,
p. 150.





[55] [Before 1801.]





[56] Garrick's Collection of Old Plays, H. vol. iii.





[57] No. 2220, fol. 7





[58] Or waits, the band of city minstrels.





[59] See further on, p. xlvi.





[60] These passages do not prove that the historian was disgusted with the pageantry,
abstractedly considered, but rather with the occasion of its exhibition; for, he
speaks of the same kind of spectacles, with commendation, both anterior and subsequent
to the present show, which do not appear to have had the least claim for
superiority in point of reason or consistency.





[61] Armour.





[62] "The Word of God;" meaning the Bible published in English by his authority,
which was prohibited in the sanguinary reign of his fanatic daughter.





[63] Holinshed, vol. iii. pp. 1091, 1120, &c.





[64] Called below a flower-de-luce, an animal I am not in the least acquainted with.





[65] No. 1968.





[66] Harl. MS. 2125.





[67] Garrick's Collection of Old Plays.





[68] Cotton MS. Titus, B. i.





[69] See the account of the court ludi in the chapter on Theatrical Exhibitions.





[70] The reader may find accounts of most of these excursions in a work entitled The
Progresses of Queen Elizabeth, in two volumes 4to. published by Mr. Nichols.





[71] This account is chiefly taken from a small pamphlet called Princely Pleasure
at Kenelworth Castle. Progresses, vol. i.





[72] Harl. MS. 6395, entitled Merry Passages and Jests, art. 221.





[73] Tempest, act ii, scene iv.





[74] 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
is treated more fully in the body of the work.





[75] Spectator, vol. i. No. 14.





[76] Spectator, vol. i. No 31, dated Thursday, April 5, 1711.





[77] A man famous at that time for imitating a variety of musical instruments with his
voice, and, among others, the bells. See his bill of performance, at p. 255.





[78] All these pastimes the reader will find particularised, under their proper heads,
in the body of the work.





[79] "To pass over griefe," says an author of our own, "the Italians sleepe, the
English go to playes, the Spaniards lament, and the Irish bowl," &c. Fynes Moryson's
Itinerary, in 1617, part iii. book i. cap. 3.





[80] The reader will find this subject particularly treated on, in the chapter that relates
to minstrels and music, in the body of the work.





[81] Hentzner's Itinerary, published by lord Orford, at Strawberry-hill, pp. 88, 89.





[82] Hist. Angl. lib. xiii.





[83] De Rerum Invent, lib. v. cap. 2.





[84] Tatler, No. 134, dated Thursday, Feb. 16, 1709.





[85] See a pamphlet written by John Northbrooke. published in the reign of queen
Elizabeth, without date.





[86] School of Abuse, published 1579.





[87] Gosson, I hope, was acquainted with the vulgar part of the audience only, or,
which is more probable, spoke from report, and that exaggerated.





[88] Admonition to Parliament, by Tho. Cartwright, published A. D. 1572.





[89] Still, for stay. The Pope's Kingdom, book iv. translated from the Latin of Tho.
Neogeorgus, by Barnabe Googe, and dedicated to queen Elizabeth, A. D. 1570.





[90] John Field, in his Declaration of God's Judgment at Paris Garden, published
A. D. 1503, fol. 9.





[91] Field, ut supra. See also D. Beard's Theatre of God's Judgments.





[92] Entitled, A Treatise concerning the Sabbath, published A. D. 1636.





[93] Page 25.





[94] The Pope's Kingdom, from Neogeorgus by Googe.





[95] Thomas Hall, B. D. Pastor of King's Norton, in his pamphlet entitled Funebria
Floræ; or, the Down-fall of May-Games; published 1660.





[96] See p. xx.





[97] Benedict. Abbas, Vit. Ric. I. edit, à Hearne, tom. ii. p. 610.





[98] The words in the original, as quoted by Du Cange, are these: "Nec ludant ad
aleas vel taxillos, nec 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, that in the time
of Elizabeth, the game of king and queen was understood to mean the playing 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
account of this game in the body of the work.





[99] An. 11 Hen. VII. cap. 2.





[100] 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 eightpence for every offence.





[101] Survey of London, p. 79.





[102] Pilam manualem, pedinam, et bacculoream, et ad cambucam, &c.





[103] Rot. Claus. 39 Ed. III. m. 23.





[104] The magistrates are commanded to seize upon the said tables, dice, cards, boules,
closhes, tennice-balls, &c. and to burn them.





[105] An. 17 Edw. II. cap. 3.





[106] Nul enfaunt ne autres jeur a barres, ne a autres jues nient convenebles come a
oustre chaperon des gentz, ne a mettre en eux, &c. Rot. Pari. an. 6 Edw. III. Harl.
MS. 7058.





[107] [Before 1801.]





[108] Survey of London, p. 85.





[109] It was afterwards converted into small cottages, which were let, at large rents,
to strangers and others, Ibid. p. 158.





[110] Stephen Gosson, in The School of Abuse, 1579.





[111] That is, cards and dice; an old anonymous poem "of Covetice," cited by Warton,
History of Poetry, vol. ii. p. 316.





[112] In the Manners and Customs of the English; the Chronicle of England; and
more particularly in the View of the Dresses of the English; vol. i. p. 73. vol. ii.
p. 140, &c.





[113] See p. xxxv.





[114] Harl. MS. 2252.





[115] Confessio Amantis.





[116] Warton's History of English Poetry, vol. iii. p. 311.





[117] Part ii. sect 2. cap. 4.





[118] No. 57, A. D. 1711.





[119] Vespasian, B. xii. There are also three copies of this MS. but more modern, in
the Royal Library. [See sec. xiii. of the present chapter.]





[120] Dio Nicæus ex Xiphilin.





[121] Lib. iv.





[122] Cæsar Bel. Gal. lib. vi.





[123] Cæsar Bel. Gal. lib. vi.





[124] Asser. in Vit. Ælfredi.





[125] Will. Malmsbury. Hist. Reg. Anglorum, lib. ii. cap. 6.





[126] Ibid. cap. 8.





[127] Ibid. ut sup. cap. 13.





[128] Ibid.





[129] Montfaucon Monarch. Fran. and Ducarel's Anglo-Norman Antiquities.





[130] Tiberius, B. v.





[131] No. 2, B. vii.





[132] Will. Malmsbury, lib. iv.





[133] Johan. Sarisburiensis de Nugis Curialium, lib. i. cap. 4.





[134] Blount's Ancient Tenures, p. 135.





[135] "Fort chiens et chiens de levries," Froissart. Chron. vol. i. cap. 210.





[136] Froissart, vol. iv.





[137] Wellwood's Memoirs, p. 35.





[138] Harl. MS. No. 6395, anonymous, entitled "Merry Passages and Jeasts."





[139] Sir Thomas More's Poems. See also Warton's History of English Poetry, 4to
vol. iii. p. 101.





[140] Constitut. Cnut. Reg. de Forest, apud Spelm. Gloss, et Wilkins, Leg. Sax. p. 146.





[141] Leges Cnuti, apud Lambard, cap. 77.





[142] Ibid. cap. 15.





[143] Carta de Foresta, cap. 11.





[144] Faciat cornare, ibid. cap. 17.





[145] Spelman's Answer to the Apology for Archbishop Abbot.





[146] Canterbury Tales by Chaucer. Numerous quotations might be made from other
writers in addition to those above; but they are sufficient for my purpose.





[147] Stat. 13 Rich. II.





[148] An. 21 Hen. II. A. D. 1157. See Spelman's Answer to the Apology for Archbishop
Abbot.





[149] P. Blensens. epist. lvi. p. 81





[150] Knyghton, apud Decem Script, p. 263.





[151] Stephanid. vit. S. Thom.





[152] Vide Spelman ut supra.





[153] Claudius. A. 2.





[154] Garrick's Collection of Old Plays, K. vol. ix.





[155] The following extracts prove king John to have been exceedingly partial to this
kind of dogs. Rot. Pip. iv. Reg. Johan. A. D. 1203. Rog. constab. Cestriæ debet
D marcas et X palfridos et X laissas Leporariorum, &c. that is, five hundred marks,
ten horses, and ten leashes of greyhounds.—An. xi. Johan. 1210. Rog. de Mallvell
redd. comp, de 1 palfrido velociter currente et 2 laissiüs Leporariorum, one swift running
horse, and six greyhounds.





[156] Garrick's Collec. K. vol. x.





[157] 2. B. vii. [In the original drawing, and on Mr. Strutt's plate, the figures pursuing
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.]





[158] MS. Harl. 6395. Merry Passages and Jeasts, art. 345.





[159] Rowland Whyte to Sir Robert Sidney, dated September 12, A.D. 1600.





[160] Nichols's Progresses, vol. ii.





[161] No. 4431.





[162] Maitland's Hist. London, book i. chap. 6.





[163] Stephanides Descript. London.





[164] Stow's Survey of London, vol. i. p. 157.





[165] "Pills to Purge Melancholy," 1719, vol. iv. p. 42.





[166] Blount's Ancient Tenures.





[167] 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.





[168] E c. An. 34 Edward I. No. 37. Richard Rockesley held the same land by the
same tenure, in the second year of Edward II. Blount ut supra.





[169] Entitled "Art de Venerie le quel Maistre Guillame Twici venour le Roy dangleterre
fist en son temps por aprandre Autres; or the Art of Hunting, which Mr. Wm.
Twici, huntsman to the king of England, made for the instruction of others." See
Warton's Hist. Eng. Poetry, vol. ii. p. 221.





[170] Cotton MS. Vespasian, B. xii.





[171] MS. Harl. This book is entitled "The Maister of the Game."





[172] The Book of St. Albans, I fancy, by mistake, places the wild roe for the wild
boar.





[173] 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.





[174] The word in the original MS. is written fute and fuite, which I conceive to be
French, and then the interpretation I have given of flight will be proper. The meaning
is, that the latter leave a scent behind them when they are chased.





[175] Hist. Reg. Angl. lib. ii. cap.8.





[176] Testa Nevelli.





[177] Memb. 13.





[178] Ibid. See more in Blount's Ancient Tenures.





[179] "Booke of hauking and hunting," without date, reprinted with the title of
"A Jewell for Gentrie." Lond. 1614.





[180] See Blount's Antient Tenures, art. Sutton, &c.





[181] Page 17, sec. xiii.





[182] They are called "trists" or "trestes" in the MS. and might possibly be temporary
stages.





[183] The passage runs thus in the MS. "the fewtrerers ought to make fayre logges of
grene boughes at their trestes," &c.





[184] Chastised greyhoundes, MS.





[185] See Blount's Ancient Tenures.





[186] See the Encyclopedia Britannica, art. Hunting.





[187] See p. 4. sec. v.





[188] See p. 11. sec. x.





[189] Memoirs des Inscrip. tom. ix. p. 542.





[190] See the Regal and Ecclesiastical Antiquities of England.





[191] And printed by Pynson A. D. 1508.





[192] Lib. v. cap. 8.





[193] Pliny Nat. Hist. lib. x. cap. 8.





[194] Peacham's Complete Gentleman, p. 183.





[195] Epist. Winifred. See Warton's Hist. Eng. Poet. vol. ii. p. 221.





[196] See p. 3. sec. iii.





[197] This charter was granted A. D. 821. Dugdale's Monasticon, vol. i. p. 100.





[198] See the whole of the curious will in Lambarde's Perambulation of Kent, p. 540.





[199] See p. 4. sec. v.





[200] Lidgate presented this poem to king Henry VI. when that monarch held his court
at Bury. The presentation MS. is yet extant in the Harleian Library, No. 2278.





[201] Walton's Hist. of English Poetry, vol. ii. p. 221.





[202] Aira Accipitris.





[203] Trente fauconniers à cheval, chargez d'oiseaux. Froissart's Chron.
vol. i. cap. 210.





[204] Ou en riviere. Ibid.





[205] Tous jours en riviere. Ibid. cap. 140.





[206] Garrick's Collect. of old Plays, K. vol. x.





[207] Canterbury Tales.





[208] Bury St. Edmund's, in Suffolk.





[209] That is, to the windward; I use the author's own words.





[210] MS. Harl. 6395. Merry Passages and Jeasts, art. 223.





[211] Tiberius, C. vi.





[212] Julius. A. vi.





[213] Marked 2 B. vii.





[214] [The fowls before the falconer in the original drawing are placed below in the
present engraving, to accommodate it to the page.]





[215] Johan. Sarisburiensis, lib. i. cap. 4.





[216] See p. 4. sec. v.





[217] Hall in the life of Henry VIII. sub an. xvi.





[218] These observations are taken from "The Boke of Saint Albans;" a subsequent
edition says, "at least a note under."





[219] "A Woman killed with Kindness," third edition, 1617. Garrick's Coll. E. vol. iv.





[220] MS. Harl. 1419.





[221] "Ke en escrit trove, si cum io lis, el livere al bon Rei Edward." MS. Harl. 978.





[222] MS. Harl. 2340.





[223] See sec. v. p. 4.





[224] In nomine Domini volatilia cœli erunt sub pedibus tuis—Vicit Leo de tribu Juda
radix David Alleluya—Quem iniquus homo ligavit, Dominus per adventum suum
solvet.





[225] Carta de Forresta, cap. xi.





[226] Rot. Parl. 34 Ed. III.





[227] Ibid. 37 Ed. 111.





[228] A. D. 1337. Regist. Adami Orleton. Epis. Wint. fol. 56.





[229] A hawk was called a nyesse, or an eyesse, from her having watery eyes.





[230] Stat. xi. Hen. VII.





[231] Stat. xi. Hen. VII.





[232] Expen. Hosp. Reg. Ed. III. MS. Cott. Nero, C. viii. p. 275





[233] Between this and the next line the author makes the following observation: "These
ben hawkes of toure, and ben bothe illured to be called and reclaymed." Jewel for
Gentrie. Lond. 1614.





[234] Stow's Survey of London.





[235] The sheldrake is a species of wild fowl.





[236] Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, book v. chap. 8. edit Lond. 1660.





[237] Harleian, MS. 2284.





[238] Jewel for Gentrie. Lond. 1614.





[239] Testament of Love, book ii.





[240] Knight of the Swan, Garrick's Collect. K. vol. x.





[241] Equos cursores. Malmsb. de Gest. Reg. Angl. lib. ii. cap. 6.





[242] 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 Mr. White, was made by the late Dr.
Samuel Pegge.]





[243] "Syr Bevys of Hampton," black letter, without date, printed by Wm. Copland.
Garrick's Collect. K. vol. ix.





[244] Bourne Antiq. Vulgares, chap. xxiv.





[245] Probably the elder Randel Holme of Chester, one of the city heralds. MS.
Harl. 2150 fol. 235.





[246] The thirty-first of Henry VIII.





[247] That is Shrove Tuesday.





[248] Probably the younger Randel Holme.





[249] MS. Harl. 2125.





[250] A. D. 1665. and 5 Charles II.





[251] In his Survey of the Town of Stamford, first printed A. D. 1646. chap. 10.





[252] See p. 7. sec. vii.





[253] Bernado de Nictum pro uno cursorio hardo empto de eodem, xxv. marc.
Compot. Garderoba. An. xi. Ed. III. MS. Cot. Nero, C. viii. fol. 219.





[254] Michali de la Were Scut. Regis Navarr. present domino Regi duos equos cursores
ex parte dono Domini sui, de dono Regis. C. sol. Ibid.





[255] MS. Harl. 4690, written early in the fourteenth century.





[256] Peer or equal.





[257] A French word, signifying a large powerful horse.





[258] Steed, rabbit, nor camel.





[259] Lib. iv. fat. 3. Edit. 1599.





[260] Poem of Covetice, quoted by Warton. Hist. English Poetry, vol. ii. p. 316.





[261] John Northbrooke.





[262] Anatomy of Melancholy, part. ii. sec. 2, chap. 4, edit. 1660.





[263] Pills to purge Melancholy, fourth edit. 1719, vol. ii. p. 53.





[264] Ency. Brit, under Race.





[265] Ibid.





[266] Probably Matthew Thomas Baskervile, whose name appears at the end; it was
written about the year 1690. MS. Harl. 4716.





[267] Dated Sept. 11, A.D. 1711. Spectator, vol. iii. No. 173.





[268] Olaii Worm. Lit. Run. p. 129. Barthol. p. 420. Pontoppidan's Hist. Norway,
p. 248.





[269] Claudius, B. iv.





[270] Tiberius, C. vi.





[271] Canterbury Tales.





[272] Peacham's Compleat Gentleman, p. 187. edit. 1622.





[273] Engraving 4, p. 13.





[274] Engraving 5, p. 15.





[275] See book i. ch. i. sec. xvii. p. 21.





[276] Leland's Collect. vol. iv. p. 278.





[277] Nichols's Progresses, vol. ii.





[278] Arcübalista in Latin, and also frequently steel bow in English, because the horns
were usually made with steel.





[279] Camden's Remains.





[280] Nichol. Trivet. Annal.





[281] See Manners and Customs of the English, vol. i.





[282] 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 Berners,] and in several other places.





[283] Ascham's Toxophilus.





[284] 2 B. vii.





[285] 19 C. viii. dated 1496.





[286] Stat. 29 Hen. VII. A. D. 1508.





[287] Stat. 6 Hen. VIII. cap. 13.





[288] Stat. 25 Hen. VIII. cap. 17.





[289] History of London, book ii. p. 482.





[290] Stat. temp. Ed. II. apud Winton.





[291] Heywood's Epigrams and Proverbs, 1566. ch. 13.





[292] Stow's Survey of London, by Strype, vol. ii. p. 257. Stow died A. D. 1605.





[293] Ann. 8 Jacobi prim. Ibid.





[294] Stow's Survey, by Strype, vol. i. p. 250.





[295] Gesta Grayorum, fol. 18, printed 1594. Garrick's Collect. C. vol. 14.





[296] Maitland's London, book v. chap. i.





[297] "Archerye revived," by Robert Shotterel and Thomas D'Urfey, 1676; p. 53.





[298] Alluding, I presume, to tennice, or the balloon ball.





[299] Archæologia, vol. vii. p.58.





[300] In his "Toxophilus, or the schole of shooting," written in 1544, first published
in 1571, republished by Mr. James Bennet in 1761.





[301] "Geste of Robyn Hode." Garrick's Collect. K. vol. x.





[302] Prologue to Canterbury Tales.





[303] Lib. Compotis Garderobæ sub an. 4 Ed. II. page 53, is this entry, Pro duodecim
flecchiis cum pennis de pavonæ emptis pro rege, de 12 den.; that is, For twelve
arrows plumed with peacocks' feathers, bought for the king, twelve pence. MS. Cott.
Lib. Nero, C. viii.





[304] Country Contentments, 1615, chap. viii. p. 107.





[305] Ibid.





[306] Ascham, p. 129, et infra.





[307] Country Contentments.





[308] Survey of Cornwall, by Richard Carew, Esq. 1602. B. i. p. 73.





[309] See sec. x. p.57.





[310] 2 B. vii.





[311] See most of our historians.





[312] An. 7 Hen. VIII. fol. 56





[313] Archæologia, vol. vii. p. 58.





[314] 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 Ancient
Poetry, vol. i.





[315] King Edward IV., I presume, is meant by the poet, for in one of the lines we
read "Edward our comely kynge". Anachronisms of this kind were common enough
in the old ballads.





[316] That is, he shall lose it, or rather, it shall be forfeited.





[317] 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 the
same volume of the Garrick Collection of Old Plays with the Geste of Robyn Hode.





[318] Twenty score paces, says the song.





[319] 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 flight formed the segment of a circle.
See sec. xiv. p. 62.





[320] "Six score paces." Song.





[321] God forbid.





[322] Archæologia, vol. i. p. 58.





[323] [Mr Strutt wrote this in 1800.]





[324] See sec. xvi. p. 65.





[325] Survey of Cornwall, 1602.





[326] In vita Hen. VIII. fol. 8.





[327] Stow's Survey, by Strype, vol. i. p. 250.





[328] Strype's London, vol. i. p. 250.





[329] Archæologia, vol. vii.





[330] MS. Harl. 365, fol. 96.





[331] An. 7 et 9 Hen. VII. MS. in the Remembrancer's Office. See also Appendix to
Dr. Henry's Hist. Brit. vol. vi.





[332] Archæologia, vol. vii.





[333] In Life of Hen. VIII. 1511, fol. 8.





[334] Archæologia, vol. vii.





[335] Ency. Brit.





[336] Judges, chap. xx. ver. 16.





[337] 1 Chron. chap. xii. ver. 2.





[338] 1 Samuel, chap. xvii. and xviii.





[339] Claudius, B. iv.





[340] 14. B. v.





[341] C. v. 16.





[342] Manners and Customs of the English, vol. i.





[343] Titus A. xxiii. part 1, fol. 8.





[344] Iliad, book xxiii.





[345] In his Dictionary, under quoit.





[346] Fitzstephen's Description of London.





[347] Rot. claus. Memb. 23.





[348] Froissart, Lord Berners' translation, vol. iv. chap. 149, fol. 184.





[349] Σκιομαχια.





[350] Vol. ii. No. 115.





[351] Orbis sensualium Pictus.





[352] Compleat Gentleman, 1622.





[353] Titus A. xxiii. part i. page 6. See p. 73. sec. iii.





[354] Johnson's Dictionary, word Base.





[355] "Nul enfaunt ne autres ne jue—à barres." Rot. Parl. MS. Harl. 7057.





[356] Cymbeline.





[357] Worthies of England in Cornwall, p. 197.





[358] Survey of Cornwall, 1602, p. 75.





[359] Matthew Paris. Hist. Ang. sub an. 1222.





[360] Survey of London, p. 78, 85.





[361] The margin says, "at Skinner's Well."





[362] 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.





[363] Survey of London, p. 85.





[364] I presume he means the mace.





[365] Hentzner's Itinerary first published A. D. 1598. Lord Orford's translation,
Strawberry Hill edition, p. 36.





[366] Canterbury Tales.





[367] Prologues to the Canterbury Tales.





[368] 2 B. viii.





[369] Second fit, or part, Garrick's Collect. Old Plays, K. vol. x.





[370] Vol. ii. No. 161, published 1711.





[371] Survey of Cornwall, 1602, p. 75.





[372] Ιππας.





[373] Pollux, lib. ix. cap. 7.





[374] 2 B. vii.





[375] 2464, Bod. 264.





[376] Pontoppidan's Hist. of Norway, p. 148.





[377] MS. Cott. Titus, A. xxiii.





[378] Wood, or wode, signifies wild or mad; and here, that the rain makes the rivers
swell and overpass their bounds.





[379] Edit. 1550, p. 13.





[380] The river Thames.





[381] Sikerer, surer, safer; that is, neither the one nor the other should have any
extraneous assistance, but each should depend entirely upon his own exertions to escape
from the water.





[382] History of all the schools and colleges in and about London, printed A. D. 1615.





[383] In D'Urfey's Collection of Songs, 1719, vol. iii. p. 4.





[384] Oläi. Worm. Lit. Run. p. 129.





[385] Ency. Brit. art. Skating.





[386] Cæsar Bell. Gall. lib. v. cap. 12.





[387] Bartholin, p. 420.





[388] Will. Malms. Mat. West. in the reign of Edgar.





[389] Fitzstephen's Description of London. Stow's Survey.





[390] See book iii. chap. i. sec. v.





[391] Lib. i.





[392] Ælian, lib. ii. Volaterranus, lib. xxix.





[393] Odyssey, by Pope, b. v.





[394] No. lvii.





[395] "Sive enim saltu, sive cursu, sive luctatu," &c. Vita Sancti Cudbereti,
cap. i.





[396] "Lusum pilæ celebrem." Stephanides de ludis.





[397] "The scholars of each school have their ball or bastion in their hands." Survey
of London.





[398] Lord Lyttelton, History of Henry the Second, vol. iii. p. 275; and [Dr. Pegge] the
translator of Fitzstephen, in 1772.





[399] By the word celebrem Fitzstephen might advert to the antiquity of the pastime.





[400] Jeu de paume, and in Latin pila palmaria.





[401] Essais historiques sur Paris, vol. i. p. 160





[402] Laboureur. Sub an. 1368.





[403] Published by Hoole, 1658.





[404] John Heywoode's works, London, 1566.





[405] In the life of Henry V11I. the second year of his reign, fol. 11.





[406] Ibid. fol. 98.





[407] Survey of London, p. 496.





[408] Basilicon Doron, b. iii.





[409] MSS. Harl. 2248 and 6271.





[410] St. Foix Essais Historiques sur Paris, vol. i. p. 160.





[411] Antiquities of the Common People, chap. xxiv.





[412] Table Talk, art. Christmas.





[413] Mr. Brand, in his additions to Bourne.





[414] Fuller's Worthies, published 1662, p. 168.





[415] Progresses of Q. Eliz. by Mr. Nichols, vol. ii. p. 19.





[416] Martial, lib. iv. Epig. 45.





[417] Orbis Sensualium Pictus, cap. 133.





[418] 20. D. iv.





[419] No. 6563.





[420] In his Dictionary; word stool.





[421] See also his Pills to purge Melancholy, vol. i. p. 91.





[422] Survey of Cornwall, 1602, book i. p. 73.





[423] "Philogamus," black letter, without date.





[424] See sec. ix. p. 55.





[425] Ship of Fools, 1508.





[426] Basilicon Doron, book iii.





[427] Barclay ut supra.





[428] I rather think the elder Randel Holmes, one of the city heralds, MS. Harl. 2150,
fol. 235.





[429] An open place near the city. See p. 42





[430] Acted A.D. 1659.





[431] Cambuta vel cambuca. Baculus incurvatus, a crooked club or staff: the word
cambuca was also used for the virga episcoparum, or episcopal crosier, because it
was curved at the top. Du Cange, Glossary, in voce cambuta.





[432] An anonymous author, Harl. MS. 6391.





[433] Orbis Sensualium Pictus, cap. cxxxvi.





[434] No. 264.





[435] 14. B. v.





[436] Pills to purge Melancholy, fourth edition, 1719, vol. ii. p. 172.





[437] See p. 102.





[438] In the Introduction.





[439] Vegetius de re militari, lib. i. cap. xi. et xiv.





[440] "Terræ infixis sudibus scuta apponuntur—Quintanæ ludus scilicet equestris
exerceretur—in
equis lusitari solitum appeusis sudes in terram impactas scutis." Robertus
Monach. Hist Hierosol. lib. v.





[441] Menestrier, Traité des Tournois, Joustes, &c. p. 264.





[442] Menestrier ut supra; Du Cange Gloss, in voce quintana; Pluvinel sur l'exercise de
monter à cheval, part iii. p. 177.





[443] Menestrier, p. 112, et Pluvinel ut supra.





[444] 20. B. xi





[445] Knyghthode 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 upon it.





[446] Set up.





[447] Of man's height.





[448] A mace or club of wood.





[449] Hath not.





[450] Close.





[451] Prompt, swift, ready.





[452] From the French, empêcher, to hinder or withstand, here used for attack.





[453] Throat.





[454] Power, strength.





[455] Than is required, that is in time of real action.





[456] It is the same.





[457] A quincto auctore nomen habebat, vide Joan Meursi, de Ludis Græcorum, in tit
Κονταξ Κυντανος.





[458] Vegetius de re militari. lib. i. cap. xi. et xiv.





[459] Κυντανον χονταξ χωρις της πυρπις, quintanum contacem sine fibula. Cod. de aleatoribus,
lib. iii. tit. 43.





[460] Stephanides Descrip. Lond.





[461] 2 B. vii.





[462] Matthew Paris. Hist. Angl. sub an 1253.





[463] Strype's Stow, &c.





[464] Bod. 264.





[465] Survey of London, p.





[466] First published in 1677.





[467] Laneham in Queen Elizabeth's Progresses, by Mr. Nichols, vol. i. p. 249.





[468] Traité de Tournois, 1669, p. 347.





[469] Le Roman de Giron le courtois. Du Cange, Gloss. in voce quintana.





[470] Lib. iv. Sat. 3.





[471] Referred to in p. 118.





[472] Gloss. in voce quintana.





[473] Orbis Sensualium Pictus, by Hoole, 1658.





[474] Art de monter à cheval, part iii. p. 156.





[475] Menestrier, Traité de Tournoi, p. 112.





[476] Du Cange, Gloss. in voce justa.





[477] Tacitus Annal. lib. xi. Et Suetonius in vit. Claud.





[478] Du Cange, Gloss. in voce bohordicum. The word, somewhat differently spelt,
occurs in Mandat. Reg. Angl. cited by Du Cange, and in Rymer Fœd. tom. v.
p. 223 et alia.





[479] Roman D'Aubrey, MS. apud Du Cange ut supra.





[480] Annal. pars posterior sub an. 1191.





[481] Cotgrave.





[482] Origines des Chevaliers, &c. p. 9.





[483] No. 2252. fol. 64.





[484] A small space of time.





[485] Heralds, whose office it was to superintend the ceremonious parts of the
tournaments.





[486] Reward.





[487] Hist. Angl. fol. 3, A.D. 1274.





[488] Ludum militarum (qui vulgo torneamentum dicitur). Ibid.





[489] Tracte de Tournois.





[490] No. 326.





[491] Complete Gentleman, p. 178.





[492] See more upon this subject in the Encyclopédie François, art. Tournoi.





[493] Chronique de Tours.





[494] Perambulation of Kent, p. 492.





[495] Hist. Angl. A.D. 1179.





[496] Harl. MS. 69.





[497] Origines des Chevaliers, &c.





[498] No. 69.





[499] Or ooyez, for Ouïr, more literally Hear now; and the words are repeated.





[500] Marche, part of the lists I presume, or portion of ground appropriated to the
tournament.





[501] Feront clouer leurs armes, literally nail them; the clouage or nail money, as we
shall see afterwards, was the perquisite of the heralds.





[502] "Mettra sa banier, au commencement dedits bastons et clouera la blason de ses
armes, a lautre vout." The passage is by no means clear; I have therefore given the
words of the original.





[503] A l'aschevier, chevaliers, &c.





[504] Hors chevaliers, &c.





[505] No. 14. E. iii.





[506] The minstrels of the barons are behind them in Mr. Strutt's quarto plate, as in the
MS. illumination; on the present page, the minstrels are placed below the combatants,
in order to accommodate the figures to the space presented by the octavo size.





[507] Harl. MS. 69.





[508] Coutel, literally a knife.





[509] Cotton MS. Nero D. vi. and Harl. MS. 69, ut supra





[510] "Avec une grele de coups." Encyclop. Fran. in voce tournoi.





[511] Harl. MS. 69.





[512] Glossary, in voce justa.





[513] "Pugnæ facere quod justam vocant." Hist. Novellæ, fol. 106, sub an. 1142.





[514] Matthew Paris properly distinguishes it from the tournament. "Non hastiludio,
quod torneamentum dicitur, sed—ludo militari, qui mensa rotunda dicitur." Hist. Angl.
sub an. 1252.





[515] Glossary, in voce mensa rotunda.





[516] Rogerus de Mortuo Mari. Tho. Walsingham. Hist. Angl. sub an. 1280, fol. 3.





[517] Tho. Walsingham. Hist. Angl. sub an. 1344, fol. 154.
Vol. iii. chap. lix.





[518] Froissart, vol. iii. chap. cxxxiii. fol. 148, lord Berners' translation.





[519] No. 14, E. iii.





[520] [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.]





[521] Essais Hist. sur Paris, vol. iii. p. 263.





[522] Ibid. vol. i. p. 327.





[523] As the ladies, say some modern authors, were l'ame, the soul of the justs, it was
proper that they should be therein distinguished by some peculiar homage; and, accordingly
at the termination of a just 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.





[524] See sect. vii. p. 118.





[525] See book ii. chap. ii. sec. xviii. p. 87.





[526] No. 1, B vii.





[527] See what has been said respecting the quintain upon the water, sect. v. p. 116.





[528] Nichols's Progresses, vol. i. p. 56.





[529] No. 69.





[530] Son to king Edward IV., who lost his life with his brother Edward in the Tower.





[531] Titus, A. xxiii, part i. fol. 7.





[532] Fitzstephen's Description of London.





[533] Quendam ludum de sancta Katerina (quam miracula vulgariter appellamus) fecit.
Vitæ Abbat. p. 35





[534] Essay on the Origin of the English Stage, vol. 1.





[535] Stow's Survey of London, p. 76.





[536] Vespasian, D. viii.





[537] Warwickshire, p. 116.





[538] Digby, 113.





[539] See the Manners and Customs of the English, where this subject is treated upon
more largely.





[540] See more upon this subject in the following chapter.





[541] By writing and preaching against them. A monkish author of the twelfth century
says of them, "Etiam illi quo obscænio partibus corporis oculis omnium eam ingerunt
turpitudinem, quam erubescat videre vel cynicus, &c." Joh. Sarisburensis de Nugis
Curialium, lib. i. cap. viii. p. 34.





[542] Dugdale's Monast. vol. ii. p. 568.





[543] Vitæ Abbatum, p. 6.





[544] Or rather we should say, the French king was meant by the horse, &c.





[545] Prologue to the Monk's Tale, which consists of seventeen short stories or tragedies,
of which, he tells us, he had an hundred in his cell.





[546] Survey of Cornwall, Lond. 1602, p. 71.





[547] [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 Keigwin,"
has been carefully edited by Davies 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 translated
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 archæologia. 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 adversary, and of a rustic farce which usually followed
it.]





[548] A treatise against dicing, dancing, vain plays, or interludes, &c.
by John Northbrooke.





[549] Wardrobe roll of Edward III.





[550] Warton's Hist. Eng. Poet. vol. i. p. 238.





[551] Warton, vol. iii. p. 156. See also Dr. Henry, Hist. Brit. vol. vi. book vi. chap. 7.





[552] No. 264. This MS. was completed in the year 1343.





[553] Vita Hen. VIII. fol. 59.





[554] Broom.





[555] Beacon.





[556] Hall's Union. Vita Hen. VIII. fol. 9.





[557] Harl. MS. 69, p. 31.





[558] October the eighth.





[559] Pine apple.





[560] A rose tree.





[561] Head dress.





[562] Pleasaunce was a fine thin species of gauze, which was striped with gold.





[563] Hall, ut sup fol. 59.





[564] Laneham's account of the sports at Kenelworth Castle, in Nichols's Progresses of
queen Elizabeth, vol. i. p. 22.





[565] 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.





[566] Laneham ut supra, p. 24.





[567] See sect. vi. p. 153.





[568] [In 1801.]





[569] See the Introduction.





[570] No. xiv. vol. i. first published in 1711.





[571] No. 5931.





[572] Biogr. Hist. vol. iv. p. 350.





[573] [Before 1801.]





[574] Ammianus Marcell. lib. xv. cap. 9.





[575] Diodorus Siculus, lib. v. cap. 31.





[576] Bartholin de causis contemp. a Danis Mortis, lib. i. cap. 2, et Wormii Lit. Run.
ad finim.





[577] Spel. Concil. tom. i. p. 455.





[578] Vespasian, A. i.





[579] Tiberius, C. vi.





[580] Pontoppidan. Hist. Norway, p. 148.





[581] Wace, Hist. de tut les Reys de Brittaigne, continued by Geoffrai Gaimer, MS. in
the Royal Library, marked 13 A. xxi.





[582] No. 603.





[583] Bede's Eccles. Hist. lib. iv. cap. 24.





[584] Fauchet, Origine de la Langue et Poësie Françoise, 1581, liv. i. chap. viii. fol. 72.







[585] Le Grand, Fables, ou Contes des 12. 13. Siècles, tom. v.





[586] Dr. Henry, Hist. Brit. vol. viii. sect. 3. chap. 5. p. 502.





[587] Fauchet des anciens Poets François, liv. ii. chap. vii. p. 92; and see Walpole
Royal and Noble Authors, vol. i. p. 6.





[588] Confessio Amantis, lib. vii.





[589] The thirde boke of Fame.





[590] Edition of 1550.





[591] The ale here evidently implies the place where ale was sold. Ibid. pass. 1.





[592] A reward. Ibid. pass. xi.





[593] P. Ploughman, pass. primus.





[594] Fabiliaux et Contes, edit. Par. tom. ii. p. 161.





[595] Malmsb. lib. ii. cap. 4.





[596] Hist. p. 869.





[597] Ibid. lib. ii. cap. 6.





[598] App. to Leland's Collect. vol. vi. p. 36.





[599] At this time there was also a sergeant of the minstrels. See Essay on Ancient
Minstrels, Reliques of Ancient Poetry, vol. i.





[600] Book ii. chap. 9.





[601] Lib. iv. sat. i.





[602] Stow's Survey of Lond. p. 84 and 85





[603] Pass. xi.





[604] See p. 184.





[605] Benedict. Abbas, sub an. 1190. Hoveden writes thus: "Cantores et joculatores
de illo canerent in plateis; ut jam dicebatur ubique quod non erat talis in orbe;" declaring
every where that his equal was not in the world. Hist. p. 103.





[606] Orderic. Vitalis, Eccles. Hist. pp. 880, 881.





[607] The author uses these words: "Intravit quædam mulier ornata histrionali habitu,
equum bonum insidens histrionaliter phaleratum, quæ mensas more histrionem circuivit,"
&c. Tho. Walsingham, Hist. Anglæ sub an. 1317, p. 85.





[608] Non esse moris domus regiæ histriones ab ingressu quemlibet prohibere.





[609] Essay upon Ancient Minstrels, in Reliques of Ancient Poetry.





[610] The first 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.





[611] Harl. MS. 1764.





[612] Sir John Hawkin's History of Music, vol. ii. p. 298.





[613] See p. 184.





[614] MS. Nero, C viii.





[615] Harl. MS. 541.





[616] The word noise signifies a company. The reader will find the application of many
such terms to different trades and professions in p. 24.





[617] Hist. and Antiq. Oxon. lib. i. p. 67, sub an. 1224.





[618] "Regi Roberto ministrallo, scut. ad arma commoranti ad vadia regis, capientur
per diem 12 en." &c. MS. Cott. Vespasianus, C. xvi.





[619] "Regi Roberto, et aliis ministrallis diversis, facientibus ministralsias suas coram
rege et aliis magnatibus, de dono ipsius regis, per manus dicti regis Roberti, recipientis
denarios ad participandum inter eosdem, apud Eboracum, 20 die Feb. 40 marc."
MS. Cott. Nero, C. viii.





[620] Dugd. Monast. vol. i. fol. 355.





[621] Collection of Old Ballads, London, 1723.





[622] Chaucer, in the Romance of the Rose, where the title Roy des Ribaulx occurs
in the original, translates it "king of harlotes."





[623] Origines des Dignitez et Magistrats de France, fol. 43.





[624] Will. Malmsb. p. 93, col. 1.





[625] Johan. Sarisburiensis de Nugis Curial. lib. i. cap. 8; lib. iii. cap. 7. Matt. Paris,
in Vit. Hen. III. sub an. 1251, &c.





[626] "Infinitum histrionum et joculatorum multitudinem, sine cibo et muneribus, va
cuam et mœrentum abire permisit." Chron. Virtziburg.





[627] Origine de la Langue et Poësie Françoise, lib. i. cap. 4.





[628] Harl. MS. 2252.





[629] All idleness I hate.





[630] A confectioner.





[631] That is, if he could tell falsehoods to make men laugh.





[632] Lack, or want.





[633] Because.





[634] Dance, nor jump. Pass. xiv.





[635] Duty in their several stations.





[636] Lord Berners' Froissart, vol. iv. cap. 41.





[637] Anstis, Ord. Gart. vol. ii. p. 303.





[638] Liber de Computis Garderobæ, MS. Cott. Lib. Nero, C. viii. fol.82.





[639] Cheveretter, or bagpiper; from chevre, a bagpipe, and tregettor, or juggler, a
slight of hand player; Ibid. See more on this subject in the next chapter relating to
the joculator.





[640] Garcionis; from the French garçon, a boy, or lad. In this instance it probably
means an apprentice, or servant. Ibid. p. 83.





[641] Another entry specifies twenty shillings paid to Robert le Foll to buy himself boclarium,
a buckler, to play, ad ludendum, before the king. ibid. p. 85.





[642] "Scolas ministrallis in partibus trans mare." Liber de Computis Garderobæ,
MS. Cott. Lib. Nero, C. viii. p. 276.





[643] Ibid.





[644] "Facienti ministralsiam suam coram imagine Beatæ Mariæ in Veltam, rege presente,
5 sol." Ibid. p. 277.





[645] Ibid. p. 290.





[646] Ibid.





[647] MS. in the Remembrancer's Office. See the extract in Dr. Henry's British History,
vol. vi. Appendix, No. V.





[648] From another MS. in the same office. Ibid.





[649] See the next chapter, under the account of the joculators.





[650] Leland's Collectanea, pp. 61. 99.





[651] See p. 189.





[652] Garrick's Collection of Old Plays.





[653] "Un tabourin d'argent semé de plaques aussi d'argent." Origine de la Langue
et Poësie Françoise, lib. i. cap. viii. fol. 72





[654] Supplement to Du Cange.





[655] Chaucer, House of Fame, book iii.





[656] No. 1315.





[657] Frankeleyn's Tale.





[658] House of Fame, book iii.





[659] 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 tronchouns
flen in sprotes and peces alle about the halle." Mandevile's Travels, p. 285.
I have modernized the English in many places, for sometimes it is hardly intelligible.





[660] Ibid.





[661] That is, they were frighted, expecting to be drowned by the rising of the water.





[662] Froissart's Chronicle by lord Berners, vol. iii. chap. 392, fol. 272.





[663] Dæmonologie.





[664] See "The Conjuror Unveiled," a small pamphlet translated from the French;
which gives a full account of these curious pieces of mechanism, and of several others
equally surprising.





[665] Mr. Tyrwhitt, in his excellent edition of Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales," vol. iii.
p. 299.





[666] "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.





[667] The meaning is, that Death will come shortly, and not be deceived by any false
appearances.





[668] Schevid, for achieved, that is to say, performed.





[669] 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.





[670] Legerdemain; a corrupted word, derived from the French, signifying properly
slights of hand, such as are usually performed by the modern jugglers.





[671] More cunning tricks.





[672] Garrick's Collection of Old Plays, K. vol. ii.





[673] "Janino le tregettor, facienti ministralsiam suam coram rege," &c.; that is, to
Janino the tregetour, for performing his minstrelsy before the king, in his chamber
near the priory of Swineshead, twenty shillings. Lib. Comput. Garderobæ, an.
4 Edw. II. fol. 86. MS. Cott. Nero, C. viii.





[674] The same as the modern hurdy-gurdy.





[675] Their performances are thus described by a French poet who wrote in the year
1230:







C'il juggleurs in pies esturent,


S'ont vielles et harpes prisses


Chansons, sons, vers, et reprises,


Et gestes chante nos ont.


Du Cange, in voce Joculator.






See also sir John Hawkins's History of Music, vol ii. 44.







[676] Essais Hist. sur Paris, vol. ii. p. 39.









[677] "Orbis Sensualium Pictus," by Hoole, 1658; chap. 131.







[678] "Glowecesterscire. Berdic, joculator regis, habet iij villas, et ibi v car.; nil
redd." Extract from Domesday.







[679] Essay on Ancient Minstrels, prefixed to bishop Percy's Reliques of Ancient
Poetry, vol. i. p. xciii.







[680] A Treatise against Dicing, Dauncing, vaine Playes, or Enterludes, &c. by John
Northbrooke, printed at London in the time of Elizabeth.







[681] Egloge the third, at the end of Brant's "Ship of Fools," by Barclay, printed
A.D. 1508.







[682] "Mirrour of Good Manners," translated from the Latin by Barclay, who was a
priest and monk of Ely.







[683] 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."







[684] "Playes confuted," by Stephen Gosson; no date, but written about 1580.







[685] St. Mark, chap. vi. ver. 22.







[686] Nero, D. iv.







[687] No. 1, A. xiv.







[688] No. 2253. fol. 45.







[689] No. 2, B. vii.







[690] No. 1527







[691] Odyssey, lib. iv. lin. 18. The original word is κυβις ητηρε, saltatores qui se in
capita dejiciunt.







[692] "De queux le roi rya grantement." Roll of Expenses in the reign of king
Edward II. in the possession of Thomas Astle, esq.







[693] From a MS. in the Remembrancer's Office, an. 13 Hen. VIII.







[694] Eccles. Mem. vol. iii. p. 312, cap. 39.







[695] Laneham's Letter, in Mr. Nichols's Progresses of Queen Elizabeth, pp. 15, 17.







[696] No. 115, dated Jan. 3, 1709.







[697] Domitian, A. 2.







[698] No. 335.







[699] No. 264.







[700] On p. 173.







[701] Cleopatra, C. viii.







[702] On p. 176.







[703] No. 2, B. viii.







[704] Tacit. de Morib. Germ. cap. 24.







[705] The reader may find a more particular account of the various motions and figures
formed by the dancers, from Olaüs Magnus, in Mr. Brand's notes upon the 14th
chapter of Bourne's Vulgar Antiquities, p. 175.







[706] Cleopatra. C. viii.







[707] See p. 166.







[708] No 5931.







[709] [Before 1800.]







[710] I have followed the old English translation by lord Berners. The French is
"maistre engigneur," which may be rendered "master juggler." Vol. iv. chap. 38,
fol. 47.







[711] Burning or lighted candles, in the French chierges ardans.







[712] Singing.







[713] Essais sur Paris, vol. ii. p. 42.







[714] It should be St. Gregory's church, which stood on the south side of St. Paul's
nearly opposite to the Dean's Gateway.







[715] Archæologia, vol. vii.







[716] Holinshed, Chron. vol. iii. p. 1121.







[717] [Before 1800.]







[718] Mr. John Carrington, of Bacon's, in the parish of Bramfield, near Hertford.







[719] Holinshed, Chron. vol iii. p. 1091.







[720] Granger, Biog. Hist. vol. iv. p. 349.







[721] Granger, vol. iv. pp. 352, 353.







[722] [In 1801.]







[723] Orbis Sensualium Pictus, A. D. 1658.







[724] 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.







[725] An account of this festival may be found in the account of Christmas Games,
book iv. chap. iii. sect. 9.







[726] No. 964.







[727] [In the drawing the musicians face the dancers: they are placed below them in
the above engraving to suit the present page.]







[728] [Mr. Douce is of opinion, that the dance set forth above by Mr. Strutt, from the
Bodleian MS., did not form a part of the festival of fools.]







[729] History of Music, vol. iv. p. 388.







[730] Archæologia, vol. i. p. 15. See also the Witch of Edmonton, a tragi-comedy by
William Rowley, printed in 1658.







[731] See Johnson's Dictionary, word Morris-dance.







[732] Garrick's Collection of Old Plays, 1 vol. 18mo.







[733] See p. 176.







[734] [Reckoning from 1801.]







[735] [In 1801.]







[736] Harl. Lib. 5931.







[737] Vol. i. No. 42.







[738] 14, B. v







[739] On p. 176.







[740] On p. 214.







[741] Rot. Comput. temp. Edw. II. penès T. Astle, esq.







[742] [Before 1801.]







[743] 14. E. iii.







[744] Retrospection of Eighteen Hundred Years, vol. ii. p. 224.







[745] [In 1801.]







[746] In a volume of Miscellaneous Papers, Bibl. Harl. 5931.







[747] In the original French it is said,






"———et timberesses,


Qui moult savoient bien juer,


Qui ne finoient de ruer


Le timbre en haut, si recueilloient


Sus un doi conques enfailloient."











[748] No. 264.





[749] No. 102, July 8, 1713.





[750] Biog. Hist. vol. iv. See also Philos. Trans. No. 242, for July, 1698.





[751] Miscell. Collect. Harl. Lib. No. 5931.





[752] Biog. Hist. vol. iv. p. 350.





[753] Vol. viii. No. 572; see also vol. vi. No. 444.





[754] See p. 135.





[755] Or mastiff dog.





[756] On p. 176.





[757] On p. 214.





[758] No. 264.





[759] No. 6563.





[760] Essais Hist. sur Paris, vol. ii. p. 178.





[761] No. 264.





[762] From a Miscellaneous Collection of Papers, Harl. Lib. 5931.





[763] Granger, Biog. Hist. vol. iv. p. 353.





[764] Ainsworth's Latin Dictionary, word Sybaris.





[765] Mem sur Anc. Cheval. tom. i. p. 247.





[766] No. 2, B. vii.





[767] No. 264.





[768] Menestrier, Trait. de Tournois, p. 218.





[769] [In 1800.]





[770] No. 5938.





[771] [A.D. 1800.]





[772] [1800.]





[773] His meaning, I suppose, is that the performance of this dog was not to be
equalled.





[774] No. 6563.





[775] In Cockspur-street, opposite the Haymarket.





[776] [Before 1800.]





[777] Du Cange, Gloss. in vocibus Cervula et Kalendæ.





[778] See also Bourne's Vulgar Errors, edited by Brand, p. 175.





[779] Chap. ii. sect. xiii. p. 159.





[780] History of English Poetry, vol. i. p. 237.





[781] Mem. Anc. Cheval. tom. ii. p. 68.





[782] See a description of two of them, p. 161.





[783] Translated by Alexander Barclay, and printed by Pynson in 1508.





[784] Stow's Survey, fol. 680.





[785] Northbrooke's Treatise, p. 105.





[786] Chap. xvi.





[787] Chron. tom. i. iv. chap. 157, lord Berners' translation.





[788] See Nichols's Progresses, vol. i.





[789] No. 26.





[790] Page 223.





[791] The author, whose name does not appear, declares himself to have been witness
to the facts he records. MS. Harl. 6391.





[792] Miscell. Collect. Harl. Lib. No. 115.





[793] Vol. viii. No. 570.





[794] See p. 249.





[795] Literally, nightingale.





[796] [Before 1800.]





[797] Description of London. See also Stow's Survey, p. 78.





[798] On p. 243.





[799] Survey of London, ubi supra.





[800] Lambarde's Perambulation of Kent, published A.D. 1570, p. 248.





[801] Survey of London, ubi supra. See also the Introduction
to this work.





[802] Erasmi Adagia, p. 361.





[803] Life of Sir Thomas Pope, sect. iii. p. 85.





[804] Nichols's Progresses, vol. i. p. 40.





[805] Chronicle of Eng. vol. iii. fol. 1552.





[806] Nichols's Progresses, vol. ii. p. 228.





[807] Itinerary, printed in Latin, A. D. 1598. See lord Orford's translation, Strawberry
Hill, p. 42.





[808] Nichols's Progresses, vol. i. fol. 249.





[809] In a Miscellaneous Collection of Bills and Title-pages, Harl. Lib. No. 15.





[810] No. 14, E. iii.





[811] See p. 215.





[812] No. 20, D. vi.





[813] Johan. Sarisburiensis de Nugis Curialium, lib. i. cap. viii. p. 34.





[814] Worthies of England, A. D. 1662.





[815] Maitland's History of London, book i. chap. xi.





[816] Survey of London, chap. ii.





[817] I apprehend he means the quarter-staff.





[818] Dated 1344. No. 264.





[819] Vol. vi. No. 436.





[820] No. 449.





[821] In a Miscellaneous Collection of Title-pages, Bills, &c. in the Harleian Library,
marked 115.





[822] Dictionary, word Quarter-staff.





[823] Nov. 15, 1625.





[824] Fuller's Worthies in Somersetshire.





[825] Vol. iv. chap. 23, fol. 24, lord Berners' translation.





[826] No. 20, E. iv.





[827] Page 41.





[828] No. 1026.





[829] Encyclopædia Britannica, in voce.





[830] Stow's Survey, p. 496.





[831] Ibid. pp. 85, 158.





[832] "Country Contentments," published in 1615.





[833] No. 2, B. vii.





[834] An. 17 Edw. IV. cap. 3; again 18 and 20 Hen. VIII. &c.; in both which acts this
game is prohibited.





[835] Garrick's Collection, vol. i. 18.





[836] An. 17 Edw. IV. cap. 8; the prohibition extends also to closh and kayles.





[837] Dictionary, word kayle.





[838] See p. 243.





[839] One of the city laws however 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. 666.





[840] Probably the first Randal Holmes, a native of that city. MS. Harl. 2125.





[841] First published A.D. 1646. This transcript is from the edit. of 1717, cap. x.
pp. 76, 77.





[842] This passage he has Latinized in these words: "Senatores majorum gentium et
matronæ de eodem gradu."





[843] See p. 191.





[844] Histriones—habebunt unum Taurum de Priore de Tutebury, Inspex. temp.
Hen. VI. Dugdale's Monast. vol. ii. p. 355.





[845] Dr. Plott.—In his natural history of this county the reader will find a full account
of the services, &c. performed by the minstrels upon this day, pp. 437, 438, 439.





[846] A title conferred upon the chief minstrel. See p. 191.





[847] "Jeu de Taureau."





[848] Whence he derives this sport; to which however it bears but little analogy. See
Mr. Pegge's dissertation upon bull-baiting. Archæologia, vol. ii.





[849] Collect. of Old Ballads, pub. London, 1723.





[850] Philos. Transact. vol. xix. p. 591.





[851] For a full explanation of the manner of cock-fighting among the ancient Greeks
and Romans, see a memoir upon that subject by the late Rev. Mr. Pegge, Archæologia,
vol. iii. p. 132.





[852] Description of London; temp. Hen. II.





[853] Survey of London, p. 76.





[854] Bourne's Antiq. Vulgares by Brand, p. 233.





[855] Stow's Survey of London, p. 496.





[856] Mons. de la Boderie's Letters, vol. i. p. 56.





[857] MS. Harl. 6395, written in the reign of James I., and bearing this title: "Merry
Passages and Jeasts."





[858] Rev. Mr. Pegge, in his memoir on cock-fighting, Archæol. vol. iii. p. 132.





[859] Anatomy of Melancholy, published A. D. 1660.





[860] Canterbury Tales.





[861] Published at London, 1750.





[862] Hall, in the life of that monarch.





[863] A. D. 1604, in the second year of the reign of James I. Treatise on College
and Schools in and about London, printed 1615.





[864] Some time ago the spinnet was a favourite instrument among the ladies; afterwards
the guitar; and now the harpsichord, or forte-piano.





[865] See p. 186.





[866] At Braintree fair in Essex. Hist. Eng. Poet. vol. iii. p. 292. This was a century
and a half back, when twenty shillings 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.





[867] Edward Ward, author of the London Spy, part xi. p. 255.





[868] The barbers formerly were often musicians, and usually kept a lute, a viol, or
some other musical instrument, in their shops, to amuse their customers while waiting;
at present, the newspaper is substituted for the instrument of music.





[869] Vol. i. p. 12.





[870] Hist. Music, vol. v. p. 352.





[871] Vol. v. No. 383.





[872] Or entertainment of music in the open air.





[873] Hist. of Music, vol. v. pp. 352, 353.





[874] It is said to be written by T. G. doctor in physic, and was published A. D. 1684.







[875] A. D. 1683.





[876] Hawkins, ut supra.





[877] [About 1770.]





[878] See the Introduction.





[879] Hawkins's Hist. of Music, vol. iv. p. 211.





[880] A city of Campania—about the year 400.





[881] Hist. Abat. Croyland. Ingulphus died 1109.





[882] See Chauncy's Hist. of Hertfordshire, p. 383.





[883] [In 1800.]





[884] No. 20. B. xi.





[885] Vol. v. No. 570.





[886] Ibid.





[887] Garrick's Col. old plays, G. vol. ii.





[888] Book iii. chap. v. p. 207.





[889] See the Introduction.





[890] Caligula, A 2. fol. 53.





[891] Polite, courteous.





[892] Rym. Fœd. tom. vii. p. 160. col. 2.





[893] Hist. Music, vol. iii. p. 383.





[894] Hist. Angl.





[895] Itinerary.





[896] Garrick's Col. I, vol. iii.





[897] That is, learning they esteem not.





[898] First printed by Pynson, A. D. 1508.





[899] Stow died A. D. 1605, aged 80. Survey of London, by Strype, vol. i. p. 251.





[900] A Woman Killed with Kindness. Trag. by Thomas Heywood, 3d edit. A. D.
1617, Garrick's Collect. E. vol. iv.





[901] See the Introduction.





[902] No. 264.





[903] House of Fame, book iii.





[904] See note 1, above.





[905] Vol. i. No. 76.





[906] See the Introduction.





[907] MS. Harl. 6391.





[908] See p. 270, and the representation of the ground billiards by the engraving No. 93.





[909] By stat. 30 Geo. II.





[910] The first occurs in Chaucer; the second in the vocabulary called Orbis Sensualium
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.





[911] Vol. viii. No. 496; and again No. 492 in the same volume.





[912] Eustatius ad Iliad. G.





[913] Harl. MS. 6391.





[914] Palamed. de Alea. lib. i. cap. 18.





[915] Isidorus Originum, lib. xviii. cap. 60.





[916] Lib. i.





[917] See the Introduction.





[918] De Nug. Curialium, lib. i. cap. 5.





[919] Orderic. Vital, p. 550.





[920] Orbis Sensualium Pictus, translated by Hoole, p. 658.





[921] In Latin, Pyrgus, Turricula, et Frittillus.





[922] "Nec ludant ad aleas vel taxillos." Decret. Concil. Vigorn. A. D. 1240, directed
to the clergy.





[923] No. 6395, Art. 69.





[924] "As false as dicers' oaths," is a proverbial expression, and used by Shakspeare
in Hamlet, act iii. scene 4.





[925] An. 5 Ed. VI. A. D. 1551, Holinshed, vol. iii. p. 1062.





[926] Palamed. de Aleatoribus, cap. 18.





[927] 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.





[928] Ency. Brit. word Chess.





[929] No. 1275.





[930] Dream of Love.





[931] Encyclop. Françoise, in voce Echecs.





[932] See the Introduction.





[933] See Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy.





[934] Collect. vol. i. p. 264.





[935] Ibid.





[936] Ency. Brit. word Chess.





[937] No. 4431.





[938] In Chaucer's Dream this piece is called fers and feers.





[939] 13 A. xviii.





[940] And revived by Claud. Bruxer and others, A. D. 1514. Burton's Descrip. of
Leicestershire, under Loughborough, p. 182.





[941] No. 451.





[942] [The white pieces above, No. 104, should be to the left, and be opposed by the
blacks, 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 round
whites would be opposite to the round blacks.]





[943] 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. Stephanus,
A. D. 1514.





[944] Part ii. sect. 2. mem. 4.





[945] Du Cange, Gloss. in voce Tabula.





[946] See the Introduction.





[947] No. 1527.





[948] No. 13, A. xviii.





[949] The whole passage runs thus: "Donne a Jacqemin Gringonneur, peintre, pour
trois jeux de cartes, à or et à diverse couleurs de plusieurs devises, pour porter vers
le dit Seigneur Roy pour son abatement, cinquante-six sol Parisis." St. Foix, Essais
sur Paris, tom. i. p. 341.





[950] Chronic. de Petit Jean de Saintre, cap. 15.





[951] Bullet, p. 18. See also Mr. Gough on Card-playing, Archæologia, vol. viii. p.
152 et seq.





[952] See the hon. Daines Barrington on Card-playing, Archæologia, vol. viii. p. 135
et seq.





[953] Heineken, Idée générale d'une Collection des Estampes, pp. 237, 249.





[954] "Waltero Sturton, ad opus Regis, ad ludendum ad quatuor reges," viii s. v d
Anstis, History of the Garter.





[955] Warton says it seems probable that the Arabians were the inventors of cards, which
they communicated to the Constantinopolitan Greeks. Hist. Eng. Poetry, vol. ii. p.
316. Indeed it is very likely they were brought into the western parts of Europe
during the crusades.





[956] Henry's Hist. Brit. vol. v. book v. cap. vii.





[957] 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. Idée générale d'une Collect. des Estampes, ut sup.





[958] 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.





[959] Extract from a MS. in the Remembrancer's Office, dated December 26, an. 9
Hen. VII.





[960] Addit. to Leland's Collect. vol. iii. p. 285.





[961] Sir Will. Forrest. See Warton's Hist. Poet. vol. iii. sect. 36, p. 311.





[962] The same statute forbade any householder to permit card-playing in his house
under the penalty of six shillings and eight pence for every offence. Stat. an. 11
Hen. VII. cap. 2.





[963] Stow's Survey. By points he means narrow ribbons with which one part of the
dress was attached to the other.





[964] Especially Stephen Gosson, in his School of Abuse, printed A. D 1579; and
John Northbrooke, in a Treatise against Diceing, Card-playing, Dancing, &c. without
date, but apparently published soon after the former.





[965] Cap. ix.





[966] Cap. xix.





[967] No. 17, D. iij.





[968] Black letter, without date, printed by Wynkyn de Worde. Garrick's Collection
of Old Plays.





[969] [In 1800.]





[970] Vol. vii. p. 152 et seq.





[971] Garrick's Collect. vol. i. 18.





[972] Hon. Daines Barrington on Card-playing, Archæologia, vol. viii.





[973] This play is said to have been first acted A. D. 1561; the edition I quote from
is dated 1575.





[974] Written by Jonson, Chapman, and Marlow, and printed A. D. 1605.





[975] Called also post and pair.





[976] Called Saint Lodam by Mr. Barrington, I know not upon what authority, Archæologia,
ut supra.





[977] Perhaps the same with bankafalet mentioned in the Complete Gamester.





[978] See also Mr. Barrington, ut supra.





[979] Bullet, Recherches Hist. sur Cartes à jouer, p. 152.





[980] Perhaps this may be the same as the game called Ace of Hearts, prohibited with
all lotteries by cards and dice, an. 12 Geo. II. cap. 38, sect. 2.





[981] Vol. v. No. 323.





[982] See Des Lust und Spiel Hauses, published at Bude 1680.





[983] Antiq. Repert. vol. ii. p. 58.





[984] See Introduction.





[985] Polydore Vergil de Rerum Invent. lib. v. cap. 2.





[986] An. 4 Hen. VII. A. D. 1489.





[987] Collect. vol. iii. Append. p. 256.





[988] See Warton's Hist. Eng. Poetry, vol. i. p. 381.





[989] Chron. of Brit. vol. iii. fol 1317.





[990] Survey of London, p. 79.





[991] Anatomie of Abuses, printed A. D. 1595.





[992] Childish, trifling.





[993] Dugdale's Origines Juridiciales, fol. 247.





[994] By Blomfield, vol. ii. p. 3.





[995] Before.





[996] Each.





[997] Bourne's Antiq. Vulg. chap. xvii.





[998] Cited by Mr. Brand, notes to Bourne, p. 205.





[999] Reges Fabis creantur.






[1000] In nomine Regis de Fabâ. MS. Cott. Nero, C. viii.






[1001] Table Talk, London, 1689, title Christmas.






[1002] Circular Letter addressed to the Clergy of France, by P. de Blois, published in
1444.






[1003] Register de Eglise de S. Stephen de Dijon, 1494.






[1004] P. de Blois, ut supra.






[1005] Encyclopédie Françoise, article Fête des Fous.






[1006] Theoph. Raynaud.






[1007] Dugdale's Monast. vol. iii. Appendix vii.






[1008] A. D. 1512. Warton, Hist. Eng. Poetry, vol. i. p. 248; and vol. iii. p. 390.






[1009] Of St. Paul's cathedral.






[1010] Knight's Life of Colet, p. 362.






[1011] Hist. Poet. ut supra.






[1012] Boys.






[1013] MS. Cott. Tiberius B. i.






[1014] Strype's Eccl. Mem. vol. iii. chap. 39. p. 310.






[1015] Ibid. chap. 35. p. 202.






[1016] Ibid. chap. 39. p. 310.






[1017] Invent. York Cathedral. See also Dugdale's Hist of St. Paul's, p. 205.






[1018] Additions to Bourne's Antiq. Vulg. chap. 14. p. 175.






[1019] Ibid.






[1020] See Warton's Hist. Eng. Poet. vol. iii. p. 307.






[1021] Heath's Islands of Scilly, 1750, p. 125.






[1022] Survey of Lond. p. 79.






[1023] M. Paris Hist. Aug. sub anno 1152.






[1024] Or Ross, the Warwickshire historian. Edita Hearne, p. 105.






[1025] Gloss, under the title Hock-day.






[1026] Hist. Hampshire.






[1027] See a Memoir by the Rev. Mr. Jenne, Archæologia, vol. vii. p. 224






[1028] A. D. 1002. But the time of the year does not agree. St. Brice's-day is the
13th of November.






[1029] Memoir, ut supra.






[1030] Page 223, and Introduction.






[1031] Antiq. Vulgares, chap. 25.






[1032] Survey of London, p. 80.






[1033] In his Anatomie of Abuses, printed in 1595.






[1034] The May-pole is treated with little less ceremony by the Rev. Thomas Hall, another
Reformist, cited in the Introduction.






[1035] Archæologia, vol. i. cap. 4, p. 11.






[1036] Strype's Eccles. Mem. vol. iii. cap. 49, p. 377.






[1037] Hall, in Vit. Hen. VIII. fol. vi






[1038] Hinder or prevent






[1039] Latimer's Sermons, printed 1589






[1040] K. vol. x.






[1041] Harl. Lib. 69.






[1042] I suppose the author means tilting armour, for the purpose of justing, here
called running of courses.






[1043] See p. 143.






[1044] Hall, in Vit. Hen. VIII. an. 2, p. vi.






[1045] See an account of this book in the Introduction.






[1046] Vol. v. No. 365, first published A. D. 1712.






[1047] See Granger's Biog. Hist. vol. iv. p. 354.






[1048] Blount's Ancient Tenures, p. 49.






[1049] Bourne's Antiq. vol. ix. chap. 27






[1050] MSS. Harl. 2354 and 2391.






[1051] The midsummer pageants at Chester are fully described in the
Introduction.






[1052] Survey of London, pp. 84, 85.






[1053] Perhaps it should be image, and resembled those commonly used in other pageants.






[1054] Nat. Hist Oxford, p.343, and Blount's Ancient Tenures, p. 154.






[1055] Eccl. Memoirs, vol. iii. chap. 39, p. 51.






[1056] Ibid. p. 309.






[1057] Eccl. Memoirs, vol. iii. chap. 49, p. 377






[1058] Table Talk, 1689, article Pope.






[1059] Heath's Description of Cornwall, p. 445






[1060] Præcedente tibicine aut tympano. Moresin. Deprav. Reliq. Orig. in verbo vacina.






[1061] Brand's Observations on Bourne's Vulg. Antiq. chap. xxxi. p. 303.






[1062] Ibid.






[1063] Vulg. Antiq. ut supra.






[1064] Ibid.






[1065] Bede, Eccl. Hist. lib. i. cap. 30.






[1066] Ibid.






[1067] Homily for the Vigil of St. John Baptist. MS. Harl.






[1068]  Antiq. Vulg. chap. 30.






[1069] Dodsworth's MSS. Bid. Bob. vol. 148. fol. 97.






[1070] That is, the time the contract was made.






[1071] Carew's Survey of Cornwall, 1602, book i. p. 68.






[1072] The Anatomie of Abuses, 1595.






[1073] I rather think it should be church-yard.






[1074] Burton, Anat. Melancholy, part ii. sect. 2. cap. 4.






[1075] Vol. ii. No. 161, first printed 1711.






[1076] Vol. iii. No.






[1077] See the Introduction.






[1078] Reckoning from 1800.






[1079] Survey of London.






[1080] See p. 373. It does not appear that these lamps
were made with glass of various
colours, according to the present fashion. I rather think this improvement is perfectly
modern.






[1081] A galley, or small vessel.






[1082] Act iv. scene 2.






[1083] Nichols's Progresses of Elizabeth, vol. i.






[1084] I suppose he means the discharge of a cannon or two.






[1085] Princely Pleasures at Kenelworth Castle, p. 62.






[1086] Small kind of cannons.






[1087] Nichols's Progresses of Elizabeth, vol. ii. p. 19.






[1088] History of all the Colleges in and about London, printed A. D. 1615.






[1089] [Before 1800.]






[1090] [Reckoning from 1800.]






[1091] [In 1800.]






[1092] See p. 375.






[1093] See p. 375; and the Introduction;
whence it appears these green men attended
the pageants, and preceded the principal persons in the procession to clear the way.






[1094] Garrick's Collection, G. vol. ii.






[1095] See p. 84.






[1096] See p. 254.






[1097] Plut. in Apophthegm. Laced. et Ælian. Var. Hist. lib. xii. cap. 15.






[1098] Val. Max. lib. viii. cap. 8.






[1099] See p. 147.






[1100] See p. 118.






[1101] See pp. 144-146.






[1102] See p. 125.






[1103] See p. 77.






[1104] See p. 78.






[1105] Garrick's Collect. I. vol. xviii.






[1106] Dictionary, word barley-brake.






[1107] See p. 80.






[1108] Joan. Meursi, de Lud. Græc.






[1109] Pollux, lib. ix. cap. 7






[1110] See p. 225.






[1111] See pp. 85, 86.






[1112] Taken from tricks of the jugglers. See p. 226.






[1113] See pp. 302, 303.






[1114] See chap. iii. p. 91, et infra.






[1115] See p. 270.






[1116] Sueton, in Vita Aug. cap. 83.






[1117] No. 112.






[1118] The poet has drawn a simile from this pastime. Æneidos, lib. vii. lin. 378, et
infra.






[1119] Harl. Lib. No. 6391.






[1120] Lib. ii. sat. 3. line 48.






[1121] See p. 337.






[1122] See p. 276.






[1123] Vol. vi. No. 466.






[1124] Pollux, lib. ix. cap. 7.






[1125] See p. 303.






[1126] No. 2. b. vii.






[1127] Act ii. scene the last.






[1128] Pollux, lib. ix. cap. 7.






[1129] No. 2, B. vii.






[1130] Addition to Bourne's Vulg. Antiq.






[1131] No. 264.






[1132] Pollux, lib. ix. cap. 7.






[1133] Pollux, lib. ix. cap. 7.






[1134] Page 391.






[1135] Lib. ii. sat. 3. line 47.






[1136] Pollux, lib. ix. cap. 7.






[1137] Vol. vii. No. 504.






[1138] Page 571.






[1139] Pollux. lib. ix. cap. 7.






[1140] No. 20. D. iv.






[1141] Harl. MS. 2391.






[1142] Harl. MS. 2125.






[1143] Vol. iii. No. 246.






[1144] Vol. iv. No. 278.








INDEX.



THE END.




J. Haddon, Printer, Castle Street, Finsbury, London.








Transcriber's Note: