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THE
SPORTS AND PASTIMES
PEOPLE OF ENGLAND;
INCU'DINC THE
RURAL AND DOMESTIC RECREATIONS,
MAY GAMES, MUMMERIES, SHOWS, PROCESSIONS,
PAGEANTS, AND POMPOUS SPECTACLES,
FROM THE /
EARLIEST PERIOD TO THE PRESENT TIME.
BY JOSEPH STRUTT.
ILLUSTRATED BV
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.
LONDON
PRINTED FOR WILLIAM REEVES.
BRIDGE-COURT, WESTMINSTER.
1830.
Wliitiiiir. Printer, Beaufort House, Strand.
ADVERTISEMENT
There are two previous editions of iVh-. Strutt's Sports and Pastimes of the People of England. The first appeared in 1801 ; the second, which was pub- lished in 1810, the year wherein the author died, was an incorrect reprint, without a single additional line. Both were in quarto, and as each of the plates, with few exceptions, contained several subjects referred to in different parts of the work, and as there were no paginal references on the plates, they were frequently embarrassing to the reader.
The present edition is of a more convenient size, and at one-sixth of the price of the former editions; and every engraving is on the page it illustrates.
To a volume abounding in historical and other in- teresting facts, an Index seemed indispensable ; and a very copious one is annexed. The Tivo former editions were without.
VI ADVERTlSEiMENT.
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 gemerally desirable and available, has been fully ac- complished.
W. Hone.
Newington Green, 1830.
THE ENGRAVINGS IN THIS WORK
AHE TAKEN FROM THE ,
FOLLOWING MANUSCRIPTS.
At Oxford, in the Bodleian Libkary, marked 2464. Bod. 264.
A Transcript of the legendary Life of Alexander the Great, in folio, superbly illuminated. At the end of the MS. we read as follows : — " Romans du boin Roi Alixandre — qui fu perescript le xviii jor de Decembre I'an M.CTC.xxxviii," The Romance of the good King Alexander, which was completely written the eighteenth day of December, in the year 1338. Then follows, in letters of gold '.-^" Che livre fu perfais de la enluminure au xviii jour d'Avril perJohan de Guse I'an de grace m.cccxliiii." The illumina- tions of this book were perfected the seventeenth day of April, by John de Guse, in the year of Grace 1344.
At Cambkidge, in the Library of Ben'et College.
A Transcript of Matthew Paris' History of England, said to have been written by his own hand. It contains several curious marginal delineations. Marked C.v. 16.
At Me British Museum, in McCottonian Library.
An Astronomical MS. written in the Saxon Character of the ninth century. Marked Tiberius B v.
A Psalter interlined with Saxon of the tenth century. Tiberius C. vi.
The Pentateuch in Saxon, •written in the eighth century. Claudius B. iv.
A Psalter written in the eighth century. Vespasianus A. i.
A Manuscript treating on several subjects of the thirteenth century. Domi- lianus A. ii.
A Treatise on the Game of Chess, of the thirteenth century. Cleopatra B. ix.
Aurelius Prudentius in Latin, with Saxon notes, written in the ninth cen- 'ury. Cleopatra C. viii.
In the Royal Library.
A Treatise upon Chess and Tables, of the thirteenth century. 13. A. xviii. A Missal most splendidly illuminated, and adorned with marginal deline- ations, written early in the fourteenth century. 2 B. vii.
▼ HI MSS. FROM WHICH THE ENGRAVINGS ARE TAKEN.
A Genealogy of the Kings of England to Hen. III. 14. B. v.
A Treatise on Knighthood of the fourteenth century. 20. B. xi.
Imaginacion deVray Noblesse. Dated li96. 19. C. viii.
A beautiful Transcript of the Scholastic Bible, superbly illuminated,
written in the fourteenth century. 15. D. iii.
The Romance of Lancelot of the Lake, written in the thirteenth century.
20. D. iv.
The History of Saint Graelj written in the thirteenth century. 1 4. E. iii.
In the Harleiax Library.
A Psalter written in the tenth century. No. 603.
An Abridgment of the Bible History, illustrated by many curious paintings, written at the commencement of the thirteenth century. No. 1527.
A beautiful Manuscript, containing various Songs, Poems, and Prose His- tories in French, superbly ilhiminated ; and seems to have been the book pre- sented by the Authoress, to Isabella of Bavaria, the Queen to Charles VI. of France. No. 4431.
A Book of Prayers of the fourteenth century. No. 6563.
In Sir Hans Sloane's Library. A Book of Surgery of the fourteenth century. No. 335.
Private Libraries.
A beautiful Book of Prayers, written in the fourteenth century, and richly illuminated; in the possession of Francis Douce, Esquire.
Another splendid Manuscript of Prayers of the fifteenth century, finely illuminated and adorned with marginal grotesc^ues, and other ornaments ; belonging to the same gentleman.
A Book of Prayers of the fourteenth century, formerly in the possession of John Ives, Esquire, late of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk.
The original Bronze Toy copied upon p. 1 45, is in the possession of Sir Frederick Eden, Baronet.
The ancient Cards copied upon p. 330 and p. 331, arc the property of Francis Douce, Esquire.
Some few Figures arc taken from printed Books, and regularly referred to in the marginal notes.
CONTENTS,
INTRODUCTION.
A GENERAL ARRANGEMENT OF TEfE POPULAR SPORTS, PASTIMES, AND MILITARY GAMES, TOGETHER WITH THE VARIOUS SPEC- TACLES OF MIRTH OR SPLENDOUR, EXHIBITED PUBLICLY OR PRIVATELY, FOR THE SAKE OF AMUSEMENT, AT DIFFERENT PERIODS, IN ENGLAND.
, I'AGE
I. Object of tlie Work, to describe the Pastimes and trace their Origin — II. The Romans ia Britain— 7III. The Saxons — IV. The Normans — V. Tour- naments and Justs — VI. Other Sports of the Nobility, and the Citizens and Yeomen — VII. Knightly Accomplishments — VIII. Esquireship — IX. Mili- tary 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 Cen- tury— XVII. Old Sports of the Citizens of London — XVIII. Modern Pas- times of the Londoners — XIX. Cotswold and Cornish Games — XX. Splen- dour of the ancient Kings and Nobility — XXI. Royal and noble Entertain- ments— XXII. Civic Shows — XXIII. Setting out of Pageants — XXIV. Processions of Queen Mary and King Philip of Spain in London — XXV. Chester Pageants — XXVI. Public Shows of the Si.xteenth Century — XXVII. Queen Elizabeth at Kenelworth Castle — XXVIII. Love of Public Sights illustrated from Sbakspeare — XXIX. Rope-dancing, tutored Animals, and Puppet-shows— XXX. Minstrelsy, Bell-ringing, &c. — XXXI. Baiting of Animals — XXXII. Pastimes formerly on Sundays— XXXIII. Royal Inter- ference with them — XXXIV. Zeal against Wakes and May-Games — XXXV. Dice and Cards — XXXVI. Regulation of Gaming for Money by Richard Coeur de Lion, &c. — XXXVII. 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 Thir- teenth Century.~-XLIV. The Author's Labours. — Character of the En- gravings xvii
a
CONTENTS.
BOOK I.
RURAL EXERCISES PRACTISED BY PERSONS OF RANK.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
I. Hunting more ancient than Hawking — II. State of Hunting among tLe Britons — III. Tlie Saxons expert in Hunting — IV. Tlie Danes also — V. The Saxons subsequently and the Normans — YI. 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 11.
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 — A'll. Its Decline — VIII. How it was performed — IX. Embel- lishments of the Hawk — X. Treatises concerning Hawking ;— Superstitions 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. Fowliug and Fishing ; — the Stalking Horse ; — Low- belling 2i
CHAPTER III.
I. Horse-racing known to the Saxons — II. Races in Smithfield, and why — III. Races, at what Seasons practised — IV. TLe Chester Races — V. Stamford Races — VI. Value of Running-horses — VII. Highly prized by the Poets, &c. — VIII. Horse-racing commended as n liberal Pastime — IX. Charles II. and other Monarchs encouragers of Horse-racing ; — Races on Coleshill- lieatb 40
CONTENTS. aa
BOOK II.
RURAL EXERCISES GENERALLY PRACTISED.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
L The English famous for their Skill ia Archery — II. The use of the Bow knowa to the Saxous and Danes — III. Form of the Saxon Bow, &c. — IV. Archery improved by the Normans — V. The Ladies fond of Archery — VI. Obser- Tatious relative to the Cross-Bow — VII. Its form and the Manner in which it •was used — VIII. Bows ordered to be kept — IX. The decay of Archery and why — X. Ordinances in its Favour ; — the Fraternity of St. George esta- blished— XI. The Price of Bows — XII. Equipments for Archery — XIII. Directions for its Practice — XIV. The Marks to shoot at — XV. The Length of the Bow and Arrows — XVI. Extraordinary Performances of the Archers — XVII. The modern Archers inferior to the ancient in long Shooting — XVIII. The Duke of Shoreditch, why so called ; — grand Procession of the Londoa ' Archers — XIX. Archery a royal Sport ;— a good Archer, why called Arthur — XX. Prizes giveu to the Archers , 48
CHAPTER IT.
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 — Vl. By the Londoners — VII. Casting of the Bm and Hammer — Vlll. 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. SHding— XVIII. Skating— XIX. Rowing— XX. Sailing 71
CHAPTER III.
I. Hand-ball an ancient Game — ^The Ball, where said to hav« been invented— .' II. Used by the Saxons — III. And by the Schoolboys of London — IV. Ball Play in France — V. Tennis Courts erected — VI. Tennis fashionable in Eng- land— VII. A famous Woman Player — VlII. Hand-ball played for Tansy Cakes— IX. Fives— X. Balloa-baU— XL Stool-ball— XII. Hurling— XIIL Foot-ball ;— Camp-ball— XIV. GofiF;— 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
XU CONTENTS.
BOOK III.
PASTIMES USUALLY EXERCISED IN TOWNS AND CITIES, OR PLACES ADJOINING TO THEM.
CHAPTER I.
PACE
I. Tournament a general Name for several Exercises — II. Tke Quintain an ancient Military Exercise — III. Various Kinds of the Quintain — IV. Derivation of tbe Term — V. The Water Quintain — VI. Running at the Quintain prac- tised by the Citizens of London ; and why — VII. Tlie Manner in which it was performed — VIII. Exhibited for the Pastime of Queen Elizabeth — IX. Tilting at a Water Butt — X. The Human Quintain — XI. Exercises pro- bably derived from it — XII. Running at the Ring — XIII. Difference between the Tournaments and the Justs — XIV. Origin of the Tournament — XV. The Troy Game ; — the Bohordicum or Cane Game — XVI. Derivation of Tour- nament ; — how the Exercise was performed — XVII. Lists and 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 Arras, &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. Mad« 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 Ill
CHAPTER II.
I. Ancient Plays — II. Miracle Plays, Dramas from Scripture, &cc. continued several Days — III. The Coventry Play — IV. Mysteries described— V. How enlivened — VI. INIoralities described — The Fool in Plays, whence derived — VII. Secular Plays — VIII. Interludes— IX. Chaucer's Definition of the Tragedies of his Time — X. Plays performed in Churches — XI. Cornish Mi- racle Plays — XII. Itinerant Players, their evil Characters — XIII. Court- piays — 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. Tbe modem Puppet-show Mao— XXIL Moving Pictures described 150
CONTENTS. Xiii
CHAPTER III.
PAGE
I. The British Bardfl—II. The Northern Scalds— III. The Anglo-Saxon Glee- men — 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 De- nominationsj 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. Min- strels 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. Re- markable Story from Froissart — VI. Tricks of the Jugglers ascribed to the Agency of the Devil ; but more reasonahly accounted for — VII. John Ry- kell, a celebrated Tregetour— VIII. Their various Performances — IX. Pri- vileges of the Joculators at Paris. — The King's Joculator an Officer of Rank — X. The great Disrepute of modern Jugglers j 197
CHAPTER V.
I. Dancing, Tumbling, and Balancing, part of the Joculator's Profession — II. Performed by Women — III. Dancing connected with Tumbling — IV. Anti- quity of Tumbling — much encouraged — V. Various Dances described — VI. The Gleemen's Dances — VII. Exemplification of Gleemen's Dances — VIII. The Sword Dance — IX. Rope Dancing and wonderful Performances on the Rope — X. Rope Dancing from the Battlements of St. Paul's — XI. Rope Dancing from St. Paul's Steeple — XII. Rope Dancing from All Saints' Church, Hertford — XIII. A Dutchman's Feats on St. Paul's Weathercock — Xiy. 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
XIV CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VI,
PAGE
I. Aaimals, bow tutored by tbe Jugglers — Tricks perfotmed by Bears — II. Tricks performed by Apes and Monkeys — III. By I lorses among the Syba- rites— IV. In the thirteenth Century — V. In Queen Anne's Reign — VI. Origin of the Exhibitions at Astley'e, the Circus, &:c. — VII. Dancing Dogs — VIII. The Hare beating a Tabor, and learned Pig — IX. A Dancing Cock — The Deserter Bird — X. Imitations of Animals — XI. Mummings and Masque- rades— XII. Mumming to Royal Personages — XIII. Partial Imitations of Animals — XIV. The Horse in the IMorris-dance — XV. Counterfeit Voices of Animals — XVI. Animals trained for Baiting — XVIL 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 — XXIT. Sword Play, ficc— XXIII. Public Sword Play— XXIV. Quarter StaflF— 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. Sup- posed Origin of Billiards— VI. Kayles— VII. Closh— VIII. Loggats— IX. Nine-pins — Skittles — X. Dutch-pins — XI. Four-comers — XII. Half-bowl — XIIL Nine-holes— XIV. John Bull— XV. Pitch and Hustle— XVI. BuU- 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-r XXIV. Rabbit-hunting 266
CONTENTS. XV
BOOK IV.
DOMESTIC AMUSEIMENTS OF VARIOUS KINDS ; AND PASTLAIES APPROPRIATED TO PARTICULAR SEASONS.
CHAPTER I.
PAFE
I. Secular INIusic fashionable — II. Ballad-singers encouraged by the Populace — III. Music Houses — IV. Oiigia of Vauxhall — V. Ranelagh — VI. Sadler's Wells— VII. Marybone Gardens — Operas — Oratorios — VIII. Bell-ringing IX. Its Antiquity — X. Hand-bells — XI. Burlesque JMusic — XII. Dancing — XIII. Its Antiquity, &c. — XIV. Shovel-board — XV. Anecdote of Prince Henry— XA^I. BUliards— XVII. INIississippi— 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 — HI. Ancient Dice-box ; — Anecdote relating to false Dice — IV. Chess ; — Its An- tiquity— V. The Morals of Chess — VI. Early Chess-play in France and England— \1I. The Chess-board— VIII. The Pieces, and their Form— IX. The various Games ef 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 SoUtary Game — XVI. Backgammon, anciently called Tables; — The different Manners of playing at Tables — XVII. Backgammon, its former and present Estimation — XVIII. Domino — XIX. Cards, when invented — XX. Card-playing much practised — XXI. Forbidden — XXII. Censured by Poets — XXIII. A Speci- men of ancient Cards — XXIV. Games formerly played with Cards — XXV. The Game of Goose — and of the Snake — XXVI. Cross and Pile 305
CHAPTER III.
I. The Lord of Misrule said to he 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 — A'l. A King'of Christmas at Norwich — VII. The King of the Bean — VIII. Whence originated — IX. The Festival of Fools — X. The Boy Bishop — XL 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— XA^III. Royal May-Game at Shooter's-hill
XVI CONTENTS.
PAOE
XIX. May Milk -Maids— X? 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 Di- versions and Abuses — XXXII. Bonfires — XXXIII. Illuminations — XXXIV. Fireworks — XXXV. London Fireworks — XXXVI. Fireworks on Tower- bill, at Public Gardens, and in Pageants ..,. 359
CHAPTER IV.
Popular manly Pastimes imitated by Children — II. Horses — III. Bacing 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, Sec. — IX. Sporting with Insects ; — Kites ; — Windmills — X. Bob-cheixy — XL 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 Churchyard ; — Penny-prick ; — Pick-point, ficc. ; — Mottoes, Similes, and Cross-purposes ; — The Parson baa lost Lis Cloak . . . • « 379
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. Objfr't 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 Nobihty, and the Citizens and Yeomen. — VII. Knightly AccompUshments. — VIII. Esquiresliip. — 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. — XI\". 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. Modem Pastimes of the Londoners. — XIX, Cotswold and Cornish Games. — XX. Splendour of the ancient Kings and No- bility.— XXI. Royal and noble Entertainments. — XXII. Civic Shows. — XXIII, Setting out of Pageants. — XXIV. Processions of Queen Mary and King Philip of Spain in London. — XXV. Chester Pageants. — XXVI. Public Shows of the Sixteenth Century. — XXVII. Queen Elizabeth at Kenelworth Castle. — XXVIII. Love of Public Sights illustrated from Shakspeare. — XXIX. Rope-dancing, tu- tored Animals, and Puppet-shows. — XXX. IMinstrelsy, Bell-ringing, &c. — XXXI. Baiting of Animals. — XXXII. Pastimes formerly on Sundays. — XXXIII. Koyal Interference with them. — XXXIV. Zeal against Wakes and May-Games. — XXXV. Dice and Cards. — XXXVI. Regulation of Gaming for Money by Richard Cocur de Lion, iv;c. — XXX VII. 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.
L— OBJECT OF THE WORK, TO DESCRIBE THE PASTIMES AND TRACE THEIR ORIGIN.
In order to form a just estimation of the character of any particular people, it is absolutely necessary to investigate the Sports and Pastimes most generally prevalent among them.
b
XVIU INTRODUCTION,
War, policy, and other contingent circumstances, may effectu- ally 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 foreian writers partially acquainted with them as a people, and totally ignorant of their domestic customs and amusements : the silence, there- fore, of the contemporary historians on these important subjects leaves us 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 intel- ligence, 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, how- ever, 1 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 fiuigue ; to M'hich they were probably inured by an early education, and constant pursuit of such amusements as best suited the profession of a soldier; including bunting, running-, leaping, swimming, and other exertions re- quiring strength and agility of body. Perhaps the skill which the natives of Devonshire and Cornwall retain to the present day, in hurling and wrestling, may properly be considered as a" vestige of British activity. After the Komans 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 Labits ; 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
IKTRODUCTION. 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 exer- cises. In an old Chronicle of Norway,* we find it recorded of Olaf Tryggeson, a king of that country, that he was stronger and more nimble than any man in his dominions. He could climb up the rock Smalserhorn, and fix his shield upon the top of it ; he could walk round the outside of a boat upon the oars, while the men' were 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 ex- celled all the men of his time in shooting'with the bow ; and he had no equal in swimming. In one achievement this monarch was outdone by the Anglo-Saxon jlisman, represented by the engraving No. 50,^ who adds an equal number of balls to those knives or daggers. The Norman minstrel Tallefer, before the commencement of the battle at Hastings, cast his lance into the air three times, and caught it by the head in such a surprising manner, that the English thought it was done] by the poAver of enchantment. Another northern hero, whose name was Kolson, boasts of nine accomplishments in which he was well skilled : " I know," says he, " how to play at chess ; I can engrave Runic letters ; I am expert at my book ; I know how to handle
* Pontoppidan's History of Norway, p. 248. ' On p. 173.
b2
XX INTRODUCTION.
the tools of the smith ; ' I can traverse^ the snow on skates of wood ; I excel in sliooting^ with the bow ; I use the oar with facility; I can sing- to the harp; and I compose verses."- The reader will, I doubt not, anticipate me in my observation, that the acquirements of Kolson indicate a much more liberal edu- cation 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 Avell assured that learning did not form any promi- nent 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.^
Indeed, it is not by any means surprising, under the Saxon government, Avhen the times were generally very toirbulent, 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 fiitigue, 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 M'hich 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, Mas 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
> The famous Dunstan was also an excellent blacksmith.
» Oliii, Worm. Lit. Hun. p. 129; Bartholin, p. 420. • Asser.inVit. iElfredi.
INTRODUCTION. XXI
propensity to gaming, and especially with the dice, which they derived from their ancestors ; for Tacitus^ assures us that the ancient Germans would not only hazard all their wealth, but even stake their liberty, upon the turn of the dice ; " and he 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 more- over, 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 iEtheric, having obtained admission to Canute about midnight upon some urgent business, found the king* engaged with his courtiers at play, some at dice, and some at chess.^ The clergy, however, w ere prohibited from playing at games of chance, by the ecclesiastical canons established in the reign of Edgar.^
IV.— THE NORMANS.
The popular sports and pastimes, prevalent at the close of the Saxon era, do not appear to have been subjected to any material change by the coming of the Normans : it is true, in- deed, that the elder William and his immediate successors re- stricted the privileges of the chase, and imposed great penalties on those who presumed to destroy the game in the royal forests, without a proper licence.'* By these restrictions the general practice of hunting Avas much confined, but by no means pro- hibited 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
' De Moribus Germ. * Hist. Ramsien. apud Gale, vol. i. aa. 85t
• A. D. 960, can. 64, Johnson's Canons,
* See p. 6 in .the body of tbe work.
XXU INTRODTICTIOir.
a martial conflict, in which tlic combatants engaged without any animosity, merely to exhibit their strength and dexterity; but, at the same time, engaged in great numbers to represent a battle. The just was when two knights, and no more, were opposed to each other at one time. These amusements, in the middle ages, which may properly enough be denominated the ages of chivalry, were in high repute among the nobility of Europe, and produced in reality much of the pomp and gal- lantry that we find recorded with poetical exaggeration in the legends of knight-errantry. I met with a passage in a satirical poem among the Harleian MSS. of the thirteenth century,* which strongly marks the prevalence of this taste in the times alluded to. It may be thus rendered in English :
If wealth, eir 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.'
VI.— OTHER SPORTS OF THE NOBILITY, AND THE CITIZENS AND
YEOMEN.
While the principles of chivalry 'continued in fashion, the education of a nobleman was confined to those principles, and every regulation necessary to produce an accomplished knight was put into practice. In order fully to investigate these par- ticulars, we may refer to the romances of the middle ages ; and, generally speaking, dependence may be placed upon their in- formation. The authors of these fictitious histories never looked beyond the customs of their own country ; and whenever the subject called for a representation of remote magnificence, they depicted such scenes of splendour as were familiar to them : hence it is, that Alexander the Great, in his legendary life, re» ceives the education of a Norman baron, and becomes expert in hawking, hunting, and other amusements coincident with the time in which the writer lived. Our early poets have fallen into the same kind of anachronism ; and Chaucer himself, in the Knight's Tale, speaking of the rich array and furniture of the palace of Theseus, forgets that he was a Grecian prince of great antiquity, and describes the large hall belonging to an
» No. 2253, fol. 108.
' la the original it is purry poume, that i«, rotten apple*
INTRODUCTION. XXlU
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 houndslying round aboutupon 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 liawkes sytten on percheu above, Ne what houndes lyggen ou tlie flour adoun.
The picture is perfect, when referred to his own time; but bears not the least analogy to Athenian grandeur. In the ro- mance called The Knioht 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,^ to playe with the sword and buckeler, to runne, to just,^ to playe with a poll-axe, and to wrestle ; and they began to bear barneys,' 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 beings armed with shields and 'pointless lances, resembling the Indus Trojoe, or Troy game, described by Virgil.* These amusements, according to Fitz Stephen, who lived in the reign of Henry 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
* The cross-bow.
* That is, to practise with lances, two persons running one agmst tlie Other*
* Armour. « See p, 126 of tliis work.
XXIV INTRODUCTION.
each other with poles, in imitation of lances, in a just; and frequently one or both M'ere 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 exer- cises preparatory against the time that war shall demand their presence." The like kind of pastimes, no doubt, were prac- tised by the young men in other parts of the kingdom.
VII.— KNIGHTLY ACCOMPLISHMENTS.
The mere management of arms, though essentially requisite, was not sufficient of itself to form an accomplished knight in the times of chiv^alry; it was necessary for him to be endowed with beauty, as Mell 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 Mhich 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 chivplry 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,' and ch.ase, and of all manner of vennains ; * 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 alljmanner of hunting thou bearest the prize ; and of all mea- sures of blowing thou art the beginner, and of all the termes
• Hunting.
' In the first chapter, p. 17, the reader will find the' animals to be hunted divided into three classes ; namely, beasts of venery, besists of chase, and raskala, or vermin. The horn was sounded in a difiTerent manner according to the class of the beasts pursued.
INTRODUCTION. XXV
of hunting- and hawking* thou art the beginner." ^ We are also informed, that sir Tristram had previously learned the language of France, knew all the principles of courtly behaviour, and was skilful in the various requisites of knighthood. Another ancient romance says of its hero, " He every day was provyd in dauncyng and in songs that the ladies coulde think were convenable for a nobleman to conne ;2 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,^ shotyng-, and castyng of the barre, ne found he his maister." "*
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,* Ipomydon, a king's son and heir, in the romance that bears his name, written probably at the commencement of the four- teenth century, is regularly taught the duties of an esquire, previous to his receiving the honours of knighthood ; and for this purpose his father committed him to the care of a " learned and courteous knight called Sir 'Tholomew." Our author speaks on this subject in the following manner:
'Tholomew a clerke be toke.
That taught the child uppon the hoke
Both to synge and to rede :
And after he taught hym other dede.
* Morte Arthur, tratislated from the French by sir Thomas Mallory, knight, and first printed by Caxton, A. D. 1481. " Tlie 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.
* To learn. ' Written also paume ; that is, hand-tennice.
* Romance of Three Kings' Sons and the King of Sicily, Harl. MS. 326. .• * Mem. Anc. Cheval. torn, i. p. 16.
XXVI INTRODUCTION.
Afterward, to serve in halle Both to grete and to smalle ; Before the kynge mete to kerve ; Hye and low fayre to serve. Both of Jiowndes 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.*
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 Home, another metrical romance,^ which seems to be rather more ancient than the former. Young Home is placed under the tuition of Athelbrus, the king's steward, who is commanded to teach him the mysteries of hawk« ing and hunting, to play upon the harp,
Ant toggen o' the harps 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 repeti- tion of the charge to instruct him in singing and music :
Tech him of harp and of song.
And the manner in which the king's carver performed the duties of his ofiice is well described in the poem denominated the Squyer of Lowe DegTee : ^
Tliere he araied him'in' scarlet red.
And set a chaplet upon his hedde j
A belte about his sydes two.
With brode barres to and fro ;
A home about his necke he caste ;
And forth he went at the laste.
To do his office in the halle
Among the lordes both greate and [small.
He toke a white j-eard in his hand ;
Before the kynge than gan he stande j
And sone he set hym on his knee.
And served the kynge ryght royally
With deynty meates that were dcre.—
« Harl. MS. 225«. » Ibid.
* Fiiated by Copelaad; black letter, without date; Garrick'a Collection, K.vol.iz*
INTRODUCTION. XXVU
•—And, when the squyer liad done so. He served them all * 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 display- ing their accomplishments to the greatest advantage. The ladies also were proud of seeing* their professed champions engaged in these arduous conflicts; and, perhaps, a glove or riband from the hand of a favourite female might have inspired the receiver with as zealous a wish for conquest, as the abstracted love of glory; though in general, 1 presume, both these ideas were united ; for a knight divested of gallantry would have been considered as a recreant, and unworthy of his profession.
X.— DECLINE OF MILITARY EXERCISES.
When the military enthusiasm which so strongly characterised the middle ages had subsided, and chivalry was on the decline, a prodigious change took place in the nurture and manners of the nobility. Violent exercises requiring the exertions of mus- cular strength grew out of fashion with persons of rank, and of course were consigned to the amusement of the vulgar ; and the education of the former became proportionably more soft
\ That ia, all of the lorda and other nohility who were seated ia the halU
XXVIU INTRODUCTION,
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 imiversally diffused, and to correct the bias of the com- mon mind ; for, the vulgar readily acquiesced with the relax- ation of meritorious exertions, and fell into the vices of the times, resorting to such games and recreations as promoted idleness and dissipation, by Avhich 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 exer- cised, and M'ith great brilliancy, so far as pomp and finery could contribute to make them attractive, till the end of the succeed- ing' century. These splendid pastimes were encouraged by the sanction of royalty, and this sanction was perfectly political ; on the one hand, it gratified the vanity of the nobility, and, on the other, it amused the populace, M'ho, being delighted with such shows of grandeur, were thereby diverted from re- flecting 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.— MIUTARY EXERCISES UNDER HENRY VIL
Henry VII. patronized the gentlemen and officers of his court in the practice of military exercises. The following ex- tract may serve as a specimen of the manner in which they were appointed to be performed : " Whereas it ever hath bene of old antiquitie used in this realme of most noble fame, for all lustye gentlemen to passe the delectable season of summer after divers
>
INTRODUCTION. XXilC
matiner 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 con- venient; 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 gra- cious licence, to furnish certain articles concerning the feates of amies 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 GrenAvich parke; whereupon shall hange, by a grene lace, a vergescu ^ 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,* after the manner following, that is to saie, from sixe of the clocke in the forenoone till sixe of the clocke in the afternoone durino- the time.— -Thirdly ; And the said twogentlemen, with their twoaiders, or one of them, shall be there redye at the said place, the daye and dayes before rehearsed, to deliver any of the gentlemen answeares of one caste with the speare bedded with the morne,-^ and seven strokes with the sword, point and edge rebated, without close, or griping one another with handes, uponpaineof 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 foync* to his match, upon pair.eof like punishment. — Fifthly; The challengers shall, bringe into the fielde, the said dales and tymes, all manner of
* For vierge escu, a vii-gin sLield, or a white shield, without any devices, such a« was borne by the tyros in chivah-y who had not performed any memorable action. ' A sword without edge or point, as it is explained in the following articles. ' That is, with heads without points, or blunted so tliat they could do no hurt. *^Foyne, or foin, signifies to push or thrust with the sword, iusteadof striking.
IXX INTRODUCTION.
weapons concerning the said feates, that is to saye, casting epeares hcdded with mornes, and bastard swords with the edge and point rebated ; and the answerers to have the first choise,"^
XIII.— MILITARY EXERCISES UNDER HENRY VIII.
Henry VIII. not only countenanced the practice of military pastimes by permitting them to be exercised without restraint, but also endeavoured to make them fashionable by his own ex- ample. Hall assures us, that, even after his accession to the throne, he continued daily to amuse himself in archery, casting of the bar, wrestling, or dancing-, and frequently in tilting, tournaying, fighting at the barriers with swords, and battle- axes, and such like martial recreations, in most of which there were few that could excel him. His leisure time he spent in playing at the recorders, flute, and virginals, in setting of songs, singing and making of ballads.^ He was also exceedingly fond of hunting, hawking^, and other sports of the field ; and indeed his example so far prevailed, that hunting, hawking, riding the grea't Lorse, charging dexterously with the lance at thetilt, leaping, and running, were necessary accomplishments for a man of fashion.* The pursuits and amusements of a nobleman are placed in a dif- ferent point of view by an author of the succeedingcentury ;'* who, describing the person and manners of Charles lord Mountjoy, regent of Ireland, in 1599, says, "He delighted in study, in gar- dens, in riding on a pad to take the aire, in playing at shovelboard, at cardes, and in reading of play-bookes for recreation, and especially in fishing and fish-ponds, seldome useing any other exercises, and useing these rightly as pastimes, only for a short and convenient time, and with great variety of change from one to the other." The game of shovelboard, though now considered as exceedingly vulgar, and practised by the lower classes of the people, was formerly in great repute among the nobility and centry ; and few of their mansions were without a shovelboard, which was a fashionable piece of furniture. The great hall was usually the place for its reception.
> Harl. MS. 69. ^ Hal), ia Lif^of Henry VIII.
' Arte of RLetorike by Tho. Wilson, fol. 67.
* Fynes Morysou'a Itinerary, published A. D. 1617.
INTRODUCTION. 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 mon- arch's own hand, a set of rules for the nurture and conduct of an heir apparent to the throne, addressed to his eldest son Henry, prince of Wales. From the third book of this remark- able publication, entitled " ba2iaikon aqpon, or, a Kinge's Chistian Dutie towards God," I shall select such parts as re- spect the recreations said to be proper for the pursuit of a nobleman, without presuming to make any alteration in the 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 travel], which is very necessarie for a king. But from this court I de- barre all rough and violent exercises ; as the foote-ball, meeter for lameing-, than making able, the users thereof; as likewise such tumbling trickes as only serve for comoedians and balladines to win their bread with : but the exercises that I would have you to use, although but moderately, not making a craft of them, are, running, leaping, wrestling-, fencing, dancing-, and playing at the caitch, or teuuise, 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 becoraeth a prince best of any man to be a faire and good horseman ; use, therefore, to ride and danton great and cou- rageous horses ; — and especially use such games on horseback as may teach you to handle your armes thereon, such as the tilt, the ring, and low-riding- for handling of your sword.
" I cannot omit heere the hunting, namely, with running Loundes, 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' 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 bardie and skilfully ridden in all grounds, and is more uncertain and subject to mischances;
I Coursing, I presume, he means.
XXXIl INTRODUCTION,
and, which is worst of all, is there through an extreme stirrer up of the passions.
" As for sitting", or house pastimes — since they may at times supply the roome which, heing cmptie, avouU be patent to per- nicious 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 : ^ when it is foule and stormie wea- ther, 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 com- panie comedians or balladines."
XV.— REVIVAL OF LEARXIXG.
The discontinnationof bodily exercises afforded a proportion- able quantity of leisure time for the cultivation of the mind; so that the manners of mankind were softened by degrees, and learning, Avhich liad been so long neglected, became fashionable, and was esteemed an indispensable mark of a polite education. Yet some of the nobility maintained for a long time the old pre- judices in favour of the ancient mode of nurture, and preferred exercise of the body to mental endowments ; such was the opinion of a person of high rank, who said to Richard Pace, secretary to kino- Henry VIII., " It is enough for the sons of noblemen to wind their horn and carry their hawke fair, and leave studj and learning to the children of meaner people." 2 Many of the pastimes tliat 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 tlie notice of a gentleman. " Throwing the ham- mer and wrestling," says Peacham, in his Complete Gentleman,
' I here omit a long train of royal reasoning in confutation of the assertions of tie learned men Iiis majesty alludes to in tliid passage. - Biograpli. Brit. p. 1236.
INTRODUCTION. XXXUI
published in 1622, " I bold tbem exercises not so well beseem- ing nobility, but rather the soldiers in the camp and the prince's guard." On the contrary, sir William Forest, in his Poesye of Princelye Practice, a MS. in the Royal Library,^ written in the year 1548, laying dov-n 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 beslowe some diligence : Too ryde, runne, leape, or caste by violence Stone, barre, or plummett, or suche other tbinge. It not refusetbe 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 liurle and sling ; I nmne, I wrestle, I can well throwe the barre. No shepherd throwelh the axel tree so farre ; If I were mery, I could well leape and spring ; I were a man mete to serve a prince or king.
XVL— RECREATIONS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy, published in IQCO, 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 aAvay with their hawks." In another place he speaks thus: "Ringing, bowling', shooting, playing with keel-pins, tronks, coits, pitching of bars, hurling, wrest- ling*, leaping, running, fencing, mustering, swimming', playing with wasters, foils, foot-balls, balowns, running at the quintain, and the like, are common recreations of country folks ; riding
» No. 17, D. iii. C
XXXIV INTRODUCTION.
of great horses, running- at rings, tills and tournaments, horse- races, and M'ild-goose chases, whicli are disports of greater men, and good in themselves, tlfbugh 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 fre- quently use; dancers on ropes, jugglers, comedies, tragedies, artillery gardens, and cock-fighting." He then goes on: " Or- dinary recreations we have in winter, as cards, tables, dice, shovelboard, chess-play, the philosopher's game, small trunks, shuttlecock, billiards, music, masks, singing', dancing, ule- games, frolicks, jests, riddles, catches, cross purposes, questions and commands, merry tales of errant knights, queens, lovers, lords, ladies, giants, dwarfs, thieves, cheaters, witches, fairies, Sfoblins, and friars." To this catalogue he adds: " Dancing", singing, masking, mumming, and stage-plays, are reason- able recreations, if in season ; as are IMay-games, wakes, and Whitson-ales, if not at unseasonable hours, are justly pcr- mifted. Let them," that is, the common people, " freely feast, sing, dance, have puppet-plays, hobby-horses, tabers, crowds,' and bag-pipes:" let them " play at ball and barley-brakes;'* and afterwards, " Plays, masks, jesters, gladiators, tumblers, and jugglers, are to be linked 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 1C90, says, " AVhat is a gentle- man 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 coine 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."
* Crowd is an ancient name for the violia.
INTRODUCTION, 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 t^ they had also large portions of ground allotted to them in the vicinity of the city for the practice of such pastimes as were not prohibited by the government, and for those espe- cially that were best calculated to render them strong and healthy. We are told by Fitz Stephen, in the twelfth century, that on the holidays during the summer season, the young men of London exercised themselves in the fields with " leapino*, shooting with the bow, wrestling, casting the stone, playino* with the ball, and fighting with their shields." The last species of pastime, I believe, is the same that Stow, ift his Survey of London, calls "practising with their wasters and bucklers; '* which in his day was exercised by the apprentices before the doors of their masters. The city damsels had also their recre- ations on the celebration of these festivals, according- to the tes- timony of both the authors just mentioned. The first tells us that they played upon citherns,^ and danced to the music; and as this amusement probably did not take place before the close of the day, they were, it seems, occasionally permitted to con- tinue it by moonlight. ^V^e 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.
' See the first and second chapters in the body of the work.
' Ibe words of fitz Stephen are, " Puellarum cithara ducit choros, et pede libero pulsatur tellus, usque immiuente luna." The word cithara, Stow renders, but I think not justly, timbrels.
C 2
XXXVl INTRODUCTION.
XVIII.— MODERN PASTIMES OF THE LONDONERS.
A general view of the pastimes practised by tlie Londoners soon after the coninienceuient of the last century occurs in Strype's edition of Stow's Survey of London, published in 1720.* *' The modern sports of the citizens," says the editor, " l)esides drinking-, are cock-fighting", bowling upon g-reens, playing- at tables, or backgammon, cards, dice, and billiards; also musical entertainments, dancing, masks, balls, stagc-piays, and club- meethigs, in the evening- ; they sometimes ride out on horseback, and hunt with the lord-mayor's pack of dogs when the common hunt goes out. The lower classes divert themselves at football, ■wrestling", cudgels, ninepins, shovelboard, cricket, stowball, ringing- of bells, quoits, pitching- the bar, bull and bear baitings, throwing- at cocks," and, what is worstof all, lying at alehouses." To these are added, by an autl^or of later date, Maitland, in his History of London, published in 1739, " Sailing, rowing, swim- ming and fishing-, in the river Thames, horse and foot races, leaping-, archery, bowling in allies, and skittles, teimice, chess, and draughts; and in the winter seating, sliding, and shooting." Duck-liunting- 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.— COTS WOLD AND CORNISH GAMES.
Before I quit this division of my subject, I shall mention the annual celebration of games upon Cotswold Hills, in Glouces- tershire, to which prodigious multitudes constantly resorted. Robert Dover, an attorney, of Barton on the Heath, in the county of AVarwick, 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 ami activity ; many of the country fientlemen hiuited or coursed the hare ; and the women danced. A castle of boards was erected on this occasion, from which guns were frequently discharged. ** Captain Dover received
> Vol. i. p. 257.
INTRODUCTION. XXX7JI
permission from James I. to hold these sports ; and he appeared at their celebration in the very clothes whicli that monarch had formerly worn, but with much more dignity in his air and aspect." ^ I do not mean to say that the Cotswold games were invented, or even first established, by captain Dover ; on the contrary, they seem to be of much higher origin, and are evidently alluded to in the following lines by John Heywood the epigram- matist : 2
He fomcth like a bore, the beaste should secme bolde. For he is as fierce as a Ivon of Cotsolde.
Something of the same sort, I presume, was the Carjilval, kept every year, about the middle of July, upon Ilalgaver-moor, near Bodmin iu 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, Mritten in 1598, that they are "serious like the Ger- mans, lovers of sliow, liking to be followed wherever they go by whole troops of servants, who Avear their master's arms in silver."^ This was no new propensity : the English nobility at all times affected great parade, seldom appearing abroad with- out large trains of servitors and retainers ; and the lower classes of the people delighted in gaudy shows, pageants, and pro- cessions.
If we go back to the times of the Saxons, we shall find that, soon after their establishment in Britain, their monarchs assumed great state. Bede tells us that Edwin, king of Northumberland, lived in nmch splendour, never travelling without a numerous retinue ; and when he Avalked in the streets of his own capital, €ven in the times of peace, he had a standard borne before him. This standard was of the kind called by the Romans tufa,
' Athen. Oxon. ii. col. 812 ; and see Granger's Biograpliical Ilistoiy, vol. ii. p. 393. 8to.
* In his Proverbs, part i. chap. 11, ' Scuta ex argento facta.
XXXVlll INTRODUCTION.
and by tlie Englisli tuuf: it was made with feathers of various colours, in the form of a globe, and fastened upon a pole." ' 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 Mithout being* followed by a train of three thousand horsemen, well mounted and completely armed. These attendants, who were called house carles, formed a corps of body 'guards, or household troops, and were ap- pointed for the honour and safct}' of that prince's person.^ The examples of royalty Avere followed by the nobility and persons of opulence.
In the middle ag"es, the love of show was carried to an extra- vagant length ; and as a man of fashion was nothing- less than a man of letters, those studies that Mere best calculated to im- prove the mind Avere 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.* To these may be added whole companies of minstrels, mimics, jugglers, tumblers, rope-dancers, and players; and especially on days of public festivity, Avhen, 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, Avhere feasting-, drinking, music, dancing-, tumbling, singing, and buflbonery, were jumbled together, and mirth excited too often at the ex- pense of common decency.^ 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 entertain- ments, drawn, I doubt not, from reality, and perhaps Avithout
> Bede, Kccl. Hist. lib. ii. cap. 16. ^ Dr. Henry's Hist. vol. ii. lib. v. cap. 7.
' See the NortLumberlaiid laniily-Book. * JoLan. iSarisburiensis, lib. i. c. U. p. 31.
INTRODUCTION. XXXIX
any exaggeration. It may be thus expressed in modern lan- guage : Minstrels of every kind were stationed in the receptacles for the guests; among them were jesters, that related tales of mirth and of sorrow ; excellent players upon the harp, with others of inferior merit ' seated on various seats below them, 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, shavilms, flutes, horns,2 pipes of various kinds, and some of them made with green corn," such as are used by shepherds' boys ; there w ere also Dutch pipers to assist those who chose to dance either "love-dances, springs, or rayes,"^ or any other new-devised measures. Apart from these were stationed the trumpeters and players on the clarion ; and other seats were occupied by dif- ferent musicians playing variety of mirthful tunes. There were also present large companies of jugglers, magicians, and trege- tors, who exhibited surprising tricks by the assistance of natural magic.
Vast sums of money Avere expended in support of these ab- surd and childish spectacles, by which the estates of the nobility were consumed, and the public treasuries often exhausted. But we shall have occasion to speak more fully on this subject here- after.^
XXII.— CIVIC snows.
The pag'eantry 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
1 Smale harpers with ther glees.
3 Cornmuse and Shalmes — many a floyte and lytlyngehome.
3 Pypes made of grene corne are also mentioned in the Romance of tlie Rose.
* These are the author's own words.
* In the chapters on Minstrels, Jugglers, ice. pp. 170, 197. The plays and pageants exhibited at court are described in the chapter treating on Theatrical Amusementi, p. 150.
Xl INTRODUCTION.
different artificers were kept, at the city's expense, to furnish the machinery for the pageants, and to decorate them. Stow tells lis tliat, 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 M ant of elegance and propriety, so glaringly evident in these temporary exhibitions, Mas 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 f 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 re- quired, where nymphs, fawns, satyrs, gods, goddesses, angels, and devils, appeared in company with giants, savages, dragons, saints, knights, buffoons, and dwarfs, surrounded by minstrels and choristers; the heathen mythology, the legends of chivalry, and Christian divinity, were ridiculously jumbled together, without meaning; and the exhibition usually concluded with dull pedantic harangues, exceedingly tedious, and replete with the grossest adulation. The giants especially were favourite performers in the pageants ; they also figured away with great applause in the pages of romance; and, together >vith dragons and necromancers, >vere created by the authors for the sole purpose of displaying the prowess of their heroes, whose busi- ness 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;' but the pageants and orations have been long discontimied, and the show itself is so much contracted, that it is in reality altogether unworthy of such an appellation.
' [Befoie 1801.]
INTRODUCTION. xU
XXIII.— SETTING OUT OF PAGEANTS.
In an old play, the Historie of Promos and Cassandra, part the second, by George "Whetstone, printed in 1578,' a carpenter, and otliers, 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 n)ay be so instauled as best to please the eye." The " Worthies '' are thus named in an heraldical MS. in the Harleian Library z^ "Duke Jossua; Hector of Troy; kyng" David; emperour Alexander; Judas Machabyes ; emperour Julyus Caesar; kyng Arthur; emperour Charlemagne ; and syr Guy of Warwycke; " but the place of the latter was fre- quently, and I believe originally, supplied by Godefroy, earl of Bologne: it appears, however, that any of them might be changed at pleasure: Henry VIII. was made a " Worthy" to please his daughter Mary, as we shall find a little farther ou. In another part of the same play the carpenter is commanded to " errect a stage, that the wayghtes ^ in sight may stand ; '* one of the city gates was to be occupied by the fowre Virtues, together with " a consort of mvisic ; " and one of the pageants is thus w himsically described :
They have Hercules of monsters conquering ;
Huge great giants, in a forrest, fighting
\Vith lions, bears, wolves, apes, foxes, and grayes,
Baiards and brockes
• ■ Oh, these be wondrous frayes !
The stage direction then requires the entry of " Two men ap- parelled lyke greene men at the mayor's feast, with clubbs of fyreworks ; " whose oflice, 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 1 die; and have three pageants carried before me, besides a ship and an unicorn." The following passage occurs in Sclden's Table Talk, under the article Judge, " We see the pageants in Cheapside, the lions
' Garrick's Collection of Old Plays, H. vol. iii. « No. 2220, fol. T. • Or waitB, the baad of city minstrels.
Xlii INTRODUCTION,
and the elephants ; but we do not see tlie men that carry them : we see the judges look big like lions; but we do not see Avho moves them."
XXIV.— PROCESSIONS OF QUEEN TMARY AND KING PHILIP OF SPAIN IN LONDON.
In the foreg-oing 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, ail in greene, with a trumpet in his hand ; and when the trum- petter who stood secretlie within the pageant, did sound his trumpet, the angell did put his trumpet to his mouth, as though it had been the same that had sounded." A similar deception, but on a more extensive scale, was practised at the gate of Kenelworth Castle for the reception of queen Elizabeth.' Holinshed, speaking of the spectacles exhibited at London, when Philip king of Spain, ^A ith 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 Taine great spectacle, with two images representing two giants, the one named Corinens, and the other Gog-magog, holding betweene them ccrteine Latin verses, which, for the vaine osten- tation of flatteryc, I overpasse." - He then adds : " From the
1 See further on, p. xlvi.
' These passages do not prove that the historian was disgusted witli the pageantry, ahstractedly considered, but rather with the occasion of its exhibition ; for, lie speaks of ;^the same kind of spectacles, with commendation, both anterior and sub- sequent to the present show, whicli do not appear to hare had the least claiia for superiority in point of reason or consistency.
INTRODUCTION. 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,^ having in one hand a sword, and in the other hand a booke, whereupon was written Verbuni Dei.^ He was also delivering, as it were, the same booke to his sonne king Edward VI. who was painted in a corner by him." This device, it seems, gave great offence ; and the painter, at the queen's command, was summoned before the bishop of Win- chester, then lord chancellor, where he met with a very severe reprimand, and was ordered to erase the inscription ; to Avhich he readily assented, and was glad to have escaped at so easy a rate from the peril that threatened him ; but in his hurry to remove the ofi'ensive words, he rubbed out " the whole booko, and part of the hand that heldjt."^
The Nine Worthies appear to have been favourite characters, and were often exhibited in the pageants; those mentioned in the preceding passage Avere probably nothing more than images of wood or pasteboard. These august personages were not, however, always degraded in this manner, but, on the con- trary, they were frequently personified by human beings un- couthly habited, and sometimes mounted on horseback. They also occasionally harang'ued the spectators as they passed in the procession.
XXV.— CHESTER PAGEANTS.
_ The same species of shows, but probably not upon so extensive a scale, were exhibited in other cities and large towns throughout the kingdom. I have now before me an ordinance for the mayor, aldermen, and common councilmen of the city of Chester, to provide yearly for the setting of the watch, on the eve of the festival of Saint John the Baptist, a pageant, which is expressly said to be " according to ancient custome," consisting of four giants, one unicorn, one dromedary, one luce,"* one camel, one ass, one dragon, six hobby-horses, and sixteen naked boys. This ordinance among the Harleian MSS.^ is dated 1564. In another MS. in the same library, it is said, "i^. D. 1599, Henry Hardware, esq. the mayor, was a godly and zealous man ; " he
* Armour.
* " The Word of God ; " meaning the Bible published in English by Lis auihoritj, ■which was prohibited in the sanguinary reign of his fanatic daughter.
* Holinshed, vol. iii. pp. 1091, 1120, &c.
* Called below a flower-de-luce, aa animal I am not ia the least acquainted with.
* No. 1968.
xliv INTRODUCTION,
caused " the gyaiintes in the niidsonier show to be broken," and not to goe; the devil in his featliers," alluding- perhaps to some fantastic representation not mentioned in the former or- flinance, "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 (he year 1601, John Katclyffe, beer-brewer, being mayor, " sett out the giaunts and midsommer show, as of oulde it was wont to be kept."' In tlie 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 IGGl ; 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 t9 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, >vilh 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 per- sonages were the representatives of females. There were "also tinsillc, tinfoil, gold and silver leaf, and colours of difl'erent kinds, with glue and paste in abundance." Respecting the last article, a vety ridiculous entry occurs in the bill of charges, it runs thus : " For arsnick to put info the paste to save the giants from being eaten by the rats, one shilling and fuurpence." But to go on with the estimati. " For the new making the city mount, called the muior's mount, .is auntiently it was, and for hircing of bays for the same, and a man to carry it, three
•^ Wuxl. MS. 212.).
INTRODCCTlOIf. xl?
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 can-y it, four pounds." The ship and new dressing- it, is charged at five shillings; it Mas 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 mer- chant's mount," is an entry of twenty pence paid to a joyner for cutting the pasteboard into several images. " For making anew the elephant and castell, and a Cupid," with his bow and arrows, " suitable to it," the castle was covered >vith tin- foil, and the Cupid with skins, so as to appear to be naked, *' and also for two men to carry them, one pound sixteen shil- lings and eight-pence. For making anew the four beastes called the unicorne, the antelop, the flower-de-luce, and the camell, one pound sixteen shillings and fourpence apiece, and for eight men to carry them, sixteen shillings. For four hobby- horses, six shillings and eight-pence apiece; and for four boys to carry them, four shillings. For hance-staves, garlands, and balls, for the attendants upon the mayor and sheritfs, 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, Avith a pipe and tabret, t»\ enty shillings."
The sports exhibited on occasions of solemnity did not termi- nate with the pageants and processions : the evening' was generally concluded M'ith festivity and diversions of various kinds to please the populace. These amusements are well de- scribed in a few lines by an early dramatic poet, whose name is not known ; his performance is entitled A pleasant and stately Morall of the Three Lordesof London, black letter, no date: ^ .
• Let notliing that's magnifical,
Or that may tend to London's graceful state, Be unperformed, as showes and solemne feasts, "Watches in armour, triumpbes, cresset lights, Bonefires, belles, and peales of ordinaunce And pleasure. See that plaies be published, Mai-games and maskes, with niirthe and minstrelsie, Pageants and school-feastes, beares and puppet-plaies.
' Garrick's Collection of Old Plavs.
Xlvi INTRODUCTION.
The " cresset light" was a large lanthorn placed upon a long pole, and carried upon men's shoulders. There is extant a copy of a letter from Henry VII. to the mayor and aldermen of Lon- don, commanding them to make bonfires, and to show other marks of rejoicing in the city, when the contract was ratified for the marriage of his daughter Mary with the prince of Castile.'
XXVI.— PUBLIC SHOWS IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. These motley displays of pomp and absurdity, proper only for the amusement of children, or to excite the admiration of the populace, were, however, highly relished by the nobility, and repeatedly exhibited by them, on extraordinary occasions. One would think, indeed, that the repetitions would have been intolerable ; on the contrary, for want of more rational enter- tainments, they maintained for ages their popularity, and do not appear to have lost the smallest portion of their attraction by the frequency of representation. Shows of this kind were never more fiishionable 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 VHI.- His daughter Elizabeth ap- pears to have been equally pleased with this species of pageantry; and therefore it was constantly provided for her amusement, by the nobility whom she visited from time to time, in her pro- gresses or excursions to various parts of the kingdom.' I shall simply give the outlines of a succession of entertainments con- trived to divert her when she visited the earl of Leicester at Kencl worth castle, and this shall serve as a specimen for the rest.
XXVII.— QUEEN ELIZABETH AT KENELWORTH.
Her majesty came thither on Saturday the ninth of July, 1575; ^ she was met near the castle by a fictitious Sibyl, who promised peace and prosperity to the country during her reign. Over the first gate of the castle there stood six gigantic figures with trumpets, real trumpeters being stationed behind them,
• Cotton MS. Titus, B. i.
* See the account of tlie court ludi iu the chapter on Theatrical Exhibitions.
• The reader may find accounts of most of these excursions in a work entitled Tlio Profjresses of Queen EUzabeth, in two volumes 4to. published by Mr. Nichols.
* This account is chiefly taken from a small pamphlet called Princely Pleasures at Kenelworth Castle. Progresses, vol. i.
INTRODUCTION. xlvil
who sounded as the queen approached. This pageant was childish enough, but not more so than the reason for its being placed there. " By this dumb show," says my author, " it was meant that in the daies of king Arthur, men were of that stature; so that the castle of Kenelworth should seem still to be kept by king Arthur's heirs and their servants." Laneham says these figures were eight feet high. Upon her majesty entering the gateway, the porter, in the character of Hercules,' made an oration, and presented to her the keys. Being come into the base court, a lady " came all over the pool, being so conveyed, that it seemed she had gone upon the water ; she was attended by two water nymphs, and calling* herself the Lady of the Lake, she addressed her majesty with a speech prepared for the purpose." The queen then proceeded to the inner court, and passed the bridge, which was railled on both sides, and the tops of the posts were adorned with "sundry presents and gifts," as of wine, corn, fruits, fishes, fowls, instruments of music, and weapons of war. Laneham calls the adorned posts " well-proportioned pillars turned : " he tells us there were fourteen of them, seven on each side of the bridge ; on the first pair were birds of various kinds alive in cages, said to be the presents of the god Silvanus ; on the next pair >vere different sorts of fruits in silver bowls, the' gift of the goddess Pomona; on the third pair v.ere different kinds of grain in silver boM Is, the gift of Ceres ; on the fourth, in silvered pots, were red and white wine with clusters of grapes in a silver bowl, the gift of Bacchus; on the fifth were fishes of various kinds in trays, the donation of Neptune; on the sixth were weapons of war, the gift of Mars; and on the seventh, various musical instruments, the presents of Apollo. The meaning of these emblematical decorations was explained in a Latin speech delivered by the author of it. Then an excellent band of music began to play as her majesty entered the inner court, where she alighted from her horse, and went up stairs to the apartments prepared for her.
On Sunday evening she was entertained with a grand display of fireworks, as well in the air as upon the water.
On Monday, after a great hunting', she was met on her re- turn by Gascoigne the poet, so disguised as to represent a savage man, -nho 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.
Xlviii INTRODUCTION.
On Wednesday was another grand hunting-. On Thursday she was amused with a grand bear-beating, to which were added tumbling" and fire-Morks. 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 aftected to prefer, the exercises of the chace and other recreations pursued by men, rather than those usually ap- propriated to her sex.
On Friday, the weather being unfavourable, there were no open shows.
On Saturday there was dancing within the castle, and a country brideale, Avith running at the quintain in the castle yard, and a pantomimical show called " the Old Coventry Play of Hock Thursday," performed by persons M'ho came from Coventry for that purpose. In the evening a regular play was acted, succeeded by a banquet and a masque. On the Sunda}^ 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 m Inch appeared a ])erson in the character of Arion, riding upon a dolphin twenty-four feet in length; and he sung an admirable song, accompanied with music performed by six musicians concealed in the belly of the fish. Her majesty, it appears, was much pleased with this exhibition. The per- son who entertained her mojesty in the character of Arion is said to have been Harry Goldingham, of whom the following- anecdote is related : " There w as 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 luipleasant when he came to perform his part, he tears off his disguise, and swears that ho was none of Arion, not he, but even honest Harry Goldingham; which blunt discoveric pleased the queen better than if it had gone thorough in the right way. Yet he could order his voice to an instrument exceedingly Avell."' This story has been ap- plied to the performance above njentioned, but 1 trust nu'stakenly ; it certainly must have happened on some other occasion, for such a circumstance m ould not have escaped the observation of the facetious Laneham ; besides it appears in this instance that
' Harl. MS. 6395, entitled Merry Passages and Jests, art 221.
INTRODUCTION. 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 de- parted from Kenelworth, Various other pastimes were prepared upon this occasion; but, for want of time and opportunity, they could not be performed.
XXVIII.— LOVE OF PUBLIC SIGHTS ILLUSTRATED 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 lyhig upon the stage, and being imcertain 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." ' 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 per- form such feats as appear to be entirely contrary to their nature; as, men and monkeys dancing upon ropes, or walking upon ■ wires ; dogs dancing minuets, pigs arranging letters so as to form words at their master's command ; hares beating drums, or birds firing oflT cannons. These exhibitions, for all of them
* Tempest, act ii, scene iv. d
1 INTRODUCTION.
have in reality been brought to public viewj are ridiculedjby the Spectator, in a paper dated the 3d of April, 1711. The author pretends that he received the following- letter from a show-man who resided near Charing-Cross :
" Honoured Sir, — Having heard that this nation is a great encourager of ingenuity, I have brought with me a rope-dancer that Avas caught m 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.' He gives great satisfaction to the quality; and if they will make a subscription for him, I will send for a brother of his out of Holland, that is a very good tumbler; and also for another of the same family whom I design for my merry-andrew, as being an excellent mimic, and the greatest droll in the country where he now is. I hope to have this en- tertainment 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, >vho exhibited his wooden heroes under the little piazza in Covent-garden, and the managers of the Italian opera ; which is mentioned in a pre- ceding paper - 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
* Tliere actually was such a monkey exlubited at that time uear Charing- Cross, tut 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,
< Spectator, vol. i. No. 14.
INTRODUCTION, ll
at the Haymaiket 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,^ we may find a catalogue of the most popular spectacles ex- hibited in London at the commencement of the last century. Our author has introduced a projector, 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 Alex- ander opens with his consulting the Oracle at Delphos ; in which the Dumb Conjurer, M'ho has been visited by so many persons of quality of late years, is to be introduced as telling his for- tune ; at the same time Clench of Barnet - is represented in another corner of the temple, as ringing the bells of Delphos for joy of his arrival. The Tent of Darius is to be peopled by the ingenious Mrs. Salmon, where Alexander is to fall in love with a piece of waxwork that represents the beautiful Statira, When Alexander comes to that country in which, Quintus Curtius tells us, the dogs Avere so exceedingly fierce, that they would not loose their hold, though they were cut to pieces limb by limb, and that they would hang- upon their prey by their teeth when they had nothing but a mouth left, there is to be a scene of Hockley in the Hole, in which are to be represented all the diversions of that place, the Bull-Baiting only excepted, which cannot possibly be exhibited in the theatre by reason of the lowness of the roof. The several Woods in Asia, which Alexander must be supposed to pass through, will give the audience a sight of Monkies dancing- upon ropes, with many other pleasantries of that ludicrous species. At the same time,
' Spectator, vol. i. Ko. 31, dated Thursday, April 5, 1711.
^ A man famous at that time for imitating a variety of musical instruments witliliis voice, and, among otliers, the bella. See Lis bill of performance, at p. 255.
d2
lii INTRODUCTION.
if there cliance to be any strange animals in town, whether birds or beasts, they may be either let loose among the woods, or driven across tlie stage by some of the country people of Asia. In the last Great Battle, Pinkethman is to personate king Porus upon an Elephant, and is to be encountered by Powel, repre- senting Alexander the Great upon a Dromedary, which, never- theless, he is desired to call by the name of Bucephalus. On the close of this great Decisive Battle, when the two Kings are thoroughly reconciled, to show the mutual friendship and good correspondence that reigns between them, they both of them go together to a puppet-show, in which the ingenious Mr. Powel junior may have an opportunity of displaying his whole art of machinery for the diversion of the two monarchs." It is further added, that, " after the reconciliation of these two kings, they might invite one another to dinner, and either of them en- tertain his guest with the German artist, Mr. Pinkethman's Heathen |^Gods, or any of the like Diversions which shall then chance to be in vogue."
The projector acknowledged the thought was not originally his own, but that he had taken the hint from " several Per- formances he had seen upon our stage; in one of which there was a Raree Show, in another a Ladder-Dance, and in others a posture or a moving picture, with many curiosities of the like nature." *
XXX.— MINSTRELSY, BELL-RINGING, &c.
Tlie people of this country in all ages delighted in secular music, songs, and theatrical performances;- which is abundantly evident from the great rewards they gave to the bards, the scalds, the gleemen, and the minstrels, who were successively the favourites of the opulent, and the idols of the vulgar. The continual encouragement given to these professors of music, poetry, and pantomime, in process of time swelled their num- bers beyond all reasonable proportion, inflamed their pride, in- creased their avarice, and corrupted their manners ; so that at
* All these pastimes the reader will find particularised, under their proper beads, in the body of the work.
• "To pass over griefe," says an author'of oar own,"" the Italians sleepe, the English go to playes, the Spaniards lament, and the Irish howl," 6iC. Eyaes Mo- ryson's Itinerary, in 1617, part iii. book i. cap. 3. ^
INTRODUCTION. liil
lengtli 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 af- fluence to poverty, and wandered about the country in a con- temptible condition, dependent upon the casual rewards they might occasionally pick up at church-ales, wakes, and fairs.^
Hentzner, who wrote at the conclusion of the sixteenth cen- tury, says, " the English excel in 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 heads to get up into some belfry and ring the bells for hours together for the sake of exercise." - Polydore Vergil mentions another re- markable 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 cus- tomary with other nations ; ^ and with respect to the Christmas prince, or lord of the misrule, he was, as the same author in- forms us, a personage almost peculiar to this country.'*
XXXI.— BAITING OF ANIMALS.
It were well if these singularities were the only vulnerable parts of the national character of our ancestors ; but it must be confessed that there are other pastimes which equally at- tracted their attention, and manifested a great degree of barba- rism, which will admit of no just defence. Sir Richard Steele, reprobating the inhumanity of throwing- at cocks, makes these pertinent observations : " Some French writers have represented this diversion of the common people much to our disadvantage, and imputed it to a natural fierceness and cruelty of temper, as they do some other entertainments peculiar to our nation ; I mean those elegant diversions of bull-baiting, and prize-fighting, with the like ingenious recreations of the bear-garden. I wish
' The reader will find this subject particularly treated on, in the chapter that relates to minstrels and music, in the body of the work.
* Hentzner's Itinerary, published by lord Orford, at Strawberry-hill, pp. 88, 89.
* Hist. Angl. lib, xjii. * De Kerum Invent, lib, v. cap. 2.
liv INTRODUCTION,
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." ^
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 edu- cation, being brought by degrees, no doubt, to sacrifice their feelings to the prevalcncy of a vicious and^vulgar fashion, which even the saaction 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, Avas the after part of the Sabbath-day. The same portion of time also was allotted for the performance of plays, called, in the writings of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, " vaine playes and interludes ; "- to which are added, " dice and card-playing, dancing, and other idle pastimes." Stephen Gosson, a very zealous, if not a very correct writer, declaiming vehemently against plays and players, says of the latter, " because they are permitted to play every Sunday, they make four or five Sundayes at leaste every weeke."-* Nor is he less severe upon those who frequented such amusements : " To celebrate the Sabbath," says he, " they go to the theatres, and there keepe a general market of bawdrie ; by which means," as he afterwards expresses him- self, " they make the theatre a place of assignation, and meet for worse purposes than merely seeing the play." ^ A contem- porary writer, endeavouring to prove the impropriety of an established form of prayer lor the church service, among other
» Tatler, No. 134, dated Thursday, Feb.'l6, 1709.
' See a paniplilet written by John Northbrooke, published in the reign of queen Elizabeth, without date.
' School of Abuse, published l.)79.
♦ Gosson, I hope, was acquainted with the vulgar part of the audience only, or, yiMch is more probable, spoke from report, and that exaggerated.
INTRODUCTION. W
aro-uments, uses the following: "He," meaning the minister, " 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."* To ■what has been said, 1 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, tlie 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, whea their dinner once is done, and that they well liave fed. To play they go ; to casting of the stone, to runne, or shoote ; To tosse the hght 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 ahroad to roame. But, for to passe their time at cardes, or tables, still at home.»
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 Avriters is too frequently permitted to run at random, without the least restraint from reason and mo- deration, and, what is still worse, without that strict adherence
* Admonition to Parliament, by Tho. Cartwright, published A.D. 1572. 2 Still, for stay. The Pope's Kingdom, book iv. translated from the Latin of TllO. If eogeorgus, by Barnabe Googe, and dedicated to queen Elizabeth, A. D. 1570.
Iri INTRODUCTION.
<o the truth which the seriousness of the subject necessarily re- quired. It must be granted, however, that the continued re- monstrances from the grave and religious parts of tlie community were not without effect. In'the twenty-second year of the reiga of Elizabeth, the magistrates of the city of London obtained from the queen an edict, " that all heathenish playes and inter- ludes should be banished upon Sabbath days ; "' but this re- striction, I apprehend, was confined to the jurisdiction of the lord mayor ; for, it is certain that such amusements were pub- licly exhibited in other districts, and especially at the Paris Garden in Southwark, a place where these sort of sports were ■usually exhibited ; and where three years aftcrw aids 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 m hich accident many of the spectators were killed, and more, hurt." ^ This lamentable misfortune was considered as a judgment from God, and occasioned a general prohibition of all public pastimes on the Sabbath-day. The wise successor of Elizabeth, on the other hand, thought that the restrictions on the public sports 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 exer- cises on Sundayes and other holy dayes, after the afternoone sermon or service : It is our will, that after the end of divine service, our good people be not disturbed, letted, or discouraged, from any lawful recreation, such as dauncing-, either for men or women ; archery for men, leaping, vaulting, or any other such harmless recreation ; nor for having of JMay-games, Whit- son-alcs, and morris-daunces, and the setting up of JMny-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
• JoLn Field, in bis Declaration of God's Judgment at Paris Garden, published A. D. 1303, fol. 9. » i'ield, ut supra. See also D. Beard's Theatre of God's Judgments.
INTRODUCTION. Jvil
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 ; ' wherein the author, who was a high church-man, endeavours to fine away the ob- jections of its opponents. In one part ^ he says, " those recre- ations are the meetest to be used, which give the best refreshment to the bodie, and leave the least impression in the minde. In this respect, shooting, leaping, pitching the barre, stool-ball, and th'i like, are rather to be chosen than diceincr or cardino-.'* 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:
Tlieir feastes, and all their liolydayes tbey keep throughout the yeare.
Are full of vile idolatry, and heathen like appeare.
I shew not here their dauuces yet with filthy gestures mad,
IsTor other wanton sports that on the liolydayes are had.
In some place solemne sights and showes, and pageants faire are play'd
With sundry sorts of maskers brave, in straunge attire arrai'd.^
XXXIV.— ZEAL AGAINST WAKES AND MAY- GAMES.
But nothing seems to have excited their indignation more than the church-ales, wakes, and May-games. An author I have be- fore me inveighs greatly against the erecting and decorating of the ^lay-poles ; ^ among others, he uses the following- argu- ments : " Most of these May-poles are stollen ; yet they give out that the poles are given to them ; when, upon thorow exa- mination, 'twill be found that most of them are stollen. There were two May-poles set up in my parish ; the one was stollen, and the other was given by a profest papist. That which was
* Entitled A Treatise concerning the Sabbath, published A. D. 1636. ' Page 25. ^ xhe Pope's Kingdom, from Neogeorgus by Googe.
* Thomas Hall, B. D. Pastor of King's Norton, in his pamphlet entitled Funebria Florje J or, the Downfall of May-Games ; published 1660.
Iviu INTRODUCTION.
stollen was said to be given ; when it was prored to their faces that it was stollen ; and they made to acknowledg-e their offence : this pole was rated at five shillings. If all the poles, one with another, were so rated which were stollen this May, what a con- siderable summ it would amount to!" So much for his rea- I soning. He then attempts to be witty ; and arraigns the goddess Flora at the bar: "Flora, hold up thy hand; thou art here indited by the name of Flora, of the city of Rome, in the county of Babylon, for that thou, contrary to the peace of our sovereign lord, his crown and dignity, hast brought in a pack of prac- tical fanaticks; viz. ignorants, atheists, papists, drunkards, swearers, swash -bucklers, maid-marrions, morrice- dancers, maskers, mummers. May-pole stealers, health-drinkers, game- sters, lewd men, light women, contemners of magistrates, &ۥ fronters of ministers, rebellious to masters, disobedient to parents, mispenders of time, and abusers of the creature, &c." This silly invective is concluded with a poem as dull and insipid as the prose ; in which the 3Iay-pole is supposed to be addressing itself to one who is passing by it. The last lines run thus :
Now, traveller, leam'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 kniq;ht debausht, nor gentleman That follows drabs, or cup or cann. That will give thee a friendly look If thou a IMay-poIe 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 strength- ening, by their example, the general depravation of manners and decay of religion; how far the charge was just, I cannot take upon me to answer. It is obvious enough that ignorant persons will not be induced to prize those qualifications very highly, which they who have the reputation of wisdom and learning neglect to appreciate as they ought to do, \
INTRODUCTlOir. lix
XXXV.— DICE AND CARDS.
The Saxons and the Danes, as we have observed already,^ were much addicted to g-aming-; and the same destructive propensity was equally prevalent among the Normans. The evil conse- quences arising from the indulgence of this pernicious pleasure have in all ages called loudly for reprehension, and demanded at last the more powerful^ interference of the legislature. The vice of gambling, however, is by no means peculiar to the people of this country: its influence is universally difl^used among mankind; and in most nations the same strong measures that have been adopted here are found to be absolutely neces- sary to prevent its extension beyond the limits of subordination. Dice, and those games of chance dependent upon them, have been most generally decried; and cards, in latter times, are added to them as proper companions. Cards, when compared with dice, are indeed of modern invention, and originally, I doubt not, ^were productive only of innocent amusement ; they were, however, soon converted into instruments of gambling equally dangerous as the dice themselves, and more enticino* from the variety of changements they admit of, and the pleasing mixture of chance with skill, which often gives the tyro an advantage over the more experienced player; that is, supposing* fair play on both sides ; but woeful experience has convinced many that this is not always the case.
XXXVI.— REGULATION OF GAMES FOR MONEY, BY RICHARD CCEUR DE LION, &c.
Towards the close of the twelfth century, we meet with a very curious edict relative to gaming, and which shows how ge- nerally it even prevailed among- the lower classes of the people at that period. This edict was established for the regulation of the Christian army under the command of Richard I. of England, and Philip of France, during the crusade in 1190: It prohibits any person in the army beneath the degree of a
[ See p. XX.
Ix INTRODUCTION.
knight from playinj^ 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 Mhole day and night, under the penalty of one hundred shillings, to be paid to the archbishops in the army ; the two monarchs had the privilege of playing for what they pleased ; but their at- tendants were restricted to the sum of twenty shillings ; and, if they exceeded, they were to be M'hipped naked through the array for three days J
XXXVIL— STATUTES AGAINST DICE. CARDS, BALL-PLAY, &c.
The decrees established by the council held at Worcester, in the twenty-fourth year of Henry III. prohibited the clergy from playing at dice, or at chess : ^ but neither the one nor the other of these games are mentioned in the succeeding penal statutes, before the tw^elfth year of Richard II., when diceing is particularised, and expressly forbidden ; though perhaps they were both of them included under the general title of games of chance, and dishonest games, mentioned in the pro- clamation of Edward III. which, with other pastimes therein specified, were generally practised to the great detriment of military exercises, and of archery in particular.
In the eleventh year of Henry VII. cards are first mentioned among the games prohibited by the law;^ and at that time they seem to have been very gencrall}' used ; for, the edict expressly forbids the practice of cavd-playing to apprentices, excepting" the duration of the Christmas holidays, and then only in their
' Benedict. Abbas, Vit. Ric. I. edit, a Tleame, torn. ii. p. 610.
' The words in the origiDal, as quoted by Du Gauge, are these : " Nee ludant aJ aleas vel taxillos, ncc sustineaut ludos fieri de rege et regina," &cc. The game of liing 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 tliat 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 Ileywood, the great epigrammatist," according to Camden, " used to say he did not love to play at kinge and queene, bat at Chrisimasse, 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. 578. 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,
' An. U Hen. Vil. cap. 2.
INTRODUCTION, Ixi
masters' houses.* We learn from Stow, that these holidays ex- tended " from All-Hallows evening- to the day after Candlemps- day, when," says the historian, " there was, among other sports, playing at cards for counters, nailes, and points in every house, more for pastime than for gain." ^ The recreations prohibited hy proclamation in the reign of Edward III., exclusive of the games of chance, are thus specified ; throwing- of stones,' wood, or iron; playing at hand-ball, foot-ball, club-ball, and cambucam, which I take to have been a species of goff, and probably received its name from the crooked bat with which it was played. These games, as before observed, were not for- bidden from any particular evil tendency in themselves, but be- cause they engrossed too much of the leisure and attention of the populace, and diverted their minds from the pursuits of a more martial nature. I should not forget to add, that " bull- baitins: and cock-fightin"- " are included with " other dishonest games as trivial and useless." In '* the reign of Edward IV. we find coits, closh or claish, kayles or nine-pins, half-bowl, hand- in and hand-out, with quick-borde, classed among the luilawful amusements ;'^ 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 back-gammon, were included.^
In the preamble to the Parliamentary Statutes as early as the sixth year of Edward III., there is a clause prohibiting of boys or others from playing at barres, or snatch-hood," or any other improper games, in the king's palace at Westminster during the sitting of the parliament ; neither might they, by striking, or otherwise, prevent any one from passing- peaceably about his business.
* No householder might permit the games prohibited by the statute to be practised ia their houses, excepting on the holidays, as l)efore specified, under the penalty of six shillings and eight-pence for every oft'ence,
* Survey of London, p. 79.
3 Pilam manualem, pedinam, et bacculoream, et ad camhucam, &c.
* Rot.Claus. 39 Ed. III. m. 23.
* The magistrates are commanded to seize upon the said tables, dice, cards, boules, closhes, tennice-halls, &c. and to burn them.
6 An. 17 Ed w. II. cap. 3.
' Nul enfaunt ne autres jeur a barres, ne a autres jues nlent convenehles come a oustre chaperon des geniz, ne a mettre en eux, &.-c. Rot. Pari. an. 6 Edw. III. Harl. MS. 7058.
Ixii INTRODUCTION,
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, in- adequate to the suppression of gaming for a long continuance ; and, when one pastime was prohibited, another was presently invented to supply its place. I remember, about twenty years back,^ the magistrates caused all the skittle-frames in or about the city of London to be taken up, and prohibited the playing at dutch-pins, nine-pins, or in long bowling- allies, when in many places the game of nine-holes m as 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 Avere 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-houscs, for which reason their play is sel- dom productive of much benefit, but more frequently becomes the prelude to drunkenness and debauchery. This evil has
> [Before 1801.]
INTRODUCTION. Ixiu
been increasing for a long- series of years ; and Lonest Stow laments the retrencliments 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 over-pass it; for, by the means of closeing in of common grounds, our archers, for want of room to shoot abroad, creep into bowling-alleys and ordinarie diceing- houses neer home, where they have room enough to hazard their money at unlawful games." ^ He also tells us, that " North- umberland house, in the parish of St. Katherine Coleman, belonging to Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, in the thirty-third year of Henry the Sixth ; but of late, being de- serted by that noble family, the gardens were converted into bowling-alleys, and the other parts of the estate into diceing bouses. But bowling-alleys and houses for the exercise of diceing and other mil awful 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." ^ And here we may add the following remark from an author some- what more ancient than Stow : ^ " 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, oui courage to cowardice, our running to royot, our bowes into bowls, and our darts into dishes."
XL.— MODERN GAMBLING.
The evils complained of by these writers were then in their infancy ; they have in the present day attained to a gigantic
' Survey of London, p. 85.
° It was after^-ards converted into small cottages, wliicli were let, at large rents, to strangers and others. Ibid. p. 158.
I Stephea Gosson, in The School of Abuse, 1579.
Ixiv INTRODUCTION,
stature ; and we may add to them E. O. tables, as also other tables for g^ambliiig" distinguished by the appellation of Rouge €t 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 recre- ations of the former times. Even horse-racing, which anciently was considered as a liberal sport, and proper for the amusement of a gentleman, has been of late years degraded into a dangerous species of gambling, by no means the less deserving of censure, because it is fashionable and countenanced by persons of the 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 :
Ilalking, bunting, and'swift Lorse running Are cbangit all in wrangus, wynning ; There is no play but cartes and dyce, &c.'
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 Avith the nature of their recreations, there is no reason to suppose that they were unbecoming in themselves, or indulged beyond the bounds of reason or decorum. I have already, on a former occasion, particularly noticed the skilful- ness of the Saxon and Norman ladies in handling the needle, embroidering, and working in tapestry ; and that their j)erforni- anccs were not only held in very high estimation at home, but were equally prized upon the continent, where none were pro- duced that could be placed in competition with thera.-
' TLat is, cards and dice ; an old anonymous poem " of Covetice," cited by Warton, History of Poetry, vol. ii. p. 316.
' in the Planners and Customs of the English ; the Chronicle of England ; and taore particularlyi in the View of the Dresses of the English ; voL i. p. 73, vol. ii. p. 140, &c.
INTRODUCTION. Ixv
XLII.— DANCING AND CHESS PLAY.
Dancing" was certainly an ancient and favourite pastime with the women of this country: the maidens even in a state of ser- vitude claimed, as it were by established privilege, the license to indulge themselves in this exercise on holidays and public festivals; when it was usually performed in the presence of their masters and mistresses.'
In the middle ages, dice, chess, and afterwards tables, and cards, with other sedentary games of chance and skill, were reckoned among the female amusements; and the ladies also frequently joined with tlie men in such pastimes, as we find it expressly declared in the metrical romance of Ipomydon. The passage alluded to runs thus :
When tliey bad dyned, as I you saye, Lordes and ladyes yede to to playe ; Some to tables, and some to chesse. With other gamys more or lesse. *
In another poem, by Gower,^ a lover asks his misttess, 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 An'agon, first wife ot Henry VIII., says, that when she was young.
With stoole and with needyl she was not to seeke, * And otlier practiseings for ladyes meete ;
To pastyme at tables, tick tacke or gleeke, Cardis and dyce — Slc*
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, outworks, spin- ning', bone-lace making, with other pretty devices to adorn
' See p. XXXV. s Harl. MS. 2252. ' Confessio Amantis.
* Warton'a Histoiy of English Poetry, vol. iii. p. 311.
e
Ixvi INTRODUCTION.
houses, cushions, carpets, stool-seats," &c.' Not but some of these masculine females have occasionally made their appear- ance: and at the conmiencement of the last century, it should seem tjiat they were more commonly seen than in Burton's time, which gave occasion for the following satirical paper in one of the Spectators,- written by Addison: "I have," says he, "very frequently the opportunity of seeing a rural Andromache, who came up to town last winter, and is one of the greatest fox- hunters in the country ; she talks of hounds and horses, and makes nothing of leaping over a six-bar gate. If a man tells her a waggish story, she gives him a push with her hand in jest, and calls him an impudent dog ; and, if her servant neg- lects his business, threatens to kick him out of the house. I have heard her in her wrath call a substantial tradesman a lousie cur; and I remember one day when she could not think of the name of a person, she described him, in a large company of men and ladies, by the fellow with the broad shoulders."
XLIV.— THE AUTHOR'S LABOURS— CHARACTER OF THE ENGRAVINGS.
Having laid before my readers a general view of the sports and pastimes of our ancestors, I shall proceed to arrange them under their proper heads, and allot to each of them a separate elucidation. 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 recol- lected, that in a variety of instances, I have been constrained to proceed without any guide, and explore, as it were, the recesses of a trackless wilderness. I must also entreat the reader to ex- cuse the frequent quotations which he will meet with, which in general I have given verbatim ; and this 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 in- vention, neither do they contain a single figure that has not its proper authority. Most of the originals are exceedingly ancient,
' Tart ii. sect. 2. cap. 4. » No. 57, A. D. 1711.
INTRODUCTION. Ixvii
and all the copies are faithfully made without the least unneces- sary deviation. As specimens of the art of design they have nothing to recommend them to the modern eye, but as portrai- tures of the manners and usages of our ancestors, in times remote, they are exceedingly valuable, because they not only elucidate many obsolete customs, but lead to the explanation of several obscurities in the history of former ages.
January, 1801.
SPORTS AND PASTIMES
OF THE
PEOPLE OF ENGLAND.
BOOK L
RURAL EXERCISES PRACTISED BY PERSONS OF RANK.
CHAPTER L
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. Hunt- ing 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 con- sidered.— XIV. Names of Beasts to be hunted, — XV. Wolves not all destroyed in Edgar's Time. — XVI. Dogs for Hunting. — XVII. Various Methods of Hunting. — XVIII. Terms used in Hunting ; — Times when to hunt.
I.— HUNTING MORE ANCIENT THAN HAWKING.
We have several English treatises upon the subject of Hunting, but none of them very ancient ; the earliest I have met w^ith is a MS. in the Cotton Library at the British Museum,' written at the commencement of the fourteenth century. These compo- sitions bear great resemblance to each other, and consist of general rules for the pursuit of game ; together with the names and nature of the animals proper for hunting, and such other
1 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.]
B
2 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK I.
matters as were necessary to be known by sportsmen. Hawking most commonly fonns 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 m ith hunting, which naturally, in my opinion, claims the priority of place.
11.— HUNTING AMONO THE BRtTONS.
Dio Nicaeus, an ancient author, speaking of the inhabitants of the northern parts of this island^ tells us, they were a fierce and barbarous people, who tilled no ground, but lived upon the depredations they committed in the southern districts, or upon the food they procured by hunting.' Strabo also says, that the dogs bred in Britain Avere 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.' The information derived from the above-cited authors, does not amount to a proof that the practice of hunting was familiar with the Britons col- lectively ; yet it certainly affords much fair argument in the support of such an opinion ; for it is hardly reasonable to sup- pose that the pursuit of game should have been confined to the uncultivated northern freebooters, and totally neglected by the more civilised inhabitants of the southern parts of the island. We are well assured that venison constituted a great portion of their food,' and as they had in their possession such dogs as were naturally prone to the chase, there can be little doubt that they would exercise them for the purpose of procuring their favourite diet; besides, they kept large herds of cattle, and flocks of sheep, both of which required protection from the wolves, and other ferocious animals, that infested the woods and coverts, and must frequently have rendered hunting an act of absolute necessity.
If it be granted that the Britons, generally speaking, Avere expert in hunting, it is still luicertain what animals were ob- noxious to the chase ; we know however, at least, that the hare was not anciently included ; for Cfesar tells us, " the Britons did not eat the flesh of hares, notwithstanding the island abounded
' Dio Nicieus ex Xiphllin. • Lib. iv, » CffisarBel.Gnl. lib. vi.
CHAP. I. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 3
with them." And this abstinence, he adds, arose from a prin- ciple of religion ; ' which principle, no doubt, prevented them from being worried to death : a cruelty reserved for more en- lightened ages.
We do not find, that, during the establishment of the Romans in Britain, there Avere 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 Avere the first possessors. Wild beasts, birds, and fishes, became the property of those who first could take them. It is most probable that the Britons were left at liberty to exercise their ancient pri- vileges ; for, had any severity been exerted to prevent the de- struction of game, such laws would hardly have been passed over without the slightest notice being taken of them by the ancient historians.
III.— HUNTING AMONG THE SAXONS.
The Germans, and other northern nations, were much more strongly attached to the sports of the field than the Romans, and accordingly they restricted the natural rights which the people claimed of hunting. The ancient privileges were gradu- ally withdrawn from them, and appropriated by the chiefs and leaders to themselves; at last they became the sole prerogative of the crown, and were thence extended to the various ranks and dignities of the state at the royal pleasure.
As early as the ninth century, and probably long before that period, hunting constituted an essential part of the education 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." » It is certain that, whenever a temporary peace gave leisure for relaxation, hunting was one of the most favourite pastimes fol- lowed by the nobility and persons of opulence at that period. It is no wonder, therefore, that dogs proper for the sport should be held in tlie highest estimation. When Athelstan, the grand- son of Alfred, had obtained a signal victory at Brunanburgh over Constantino 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
» Caesar Bel. Gal. lib. vi, a Asser. in Vit. ^Elfredi.
B2
4 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK I.
hunting- of wild beasts." ' His successor, Edg-ar, remitted the pecuniary payment on condition of receiving annually the skins of three hundred wolves.- We do not find, indeed, that the hawks and the hounds were included in this new stipulation ; but it does not seem reasonable that Edgar, who, like his pre- decessor, was extremely fond of the sports of the ficltl, 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, how ever, 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 maybe 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 duringthe short restoration of the Saxon monarchy, the sports of the field still maintained their gTOund. 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 Avith liis voice." ' He was equally pleased with hawking, and every day, after divine service, he spent his time in one or other of these favourite pastimes.* Harold, who succeeded him, Mas so fond of his hawk and his hounds, that he rarely travelled without them. He is so represented upon the famous tapestry of liayeux, •with his hounds by his side and a liaAvk upon his hand, m hen brought before William duke of Normandy.^ Travelling thus accompanied, was not a singular trait in the character of a noble- man at this period.
» Will. Malmsbur)'. Hist. Reg. Anglorum, lib. ii. cap. 6.
* Ibid. cap. 8. ' Ibid, ut sup. caj). 13. * Ibid.
* MoQtfiiucoa Monarch, Fran, and Ducaiel's Anglo- Nor man Antiquities.
CHAP. I.
OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND.
5'^
1. Swine Hcntino — IX. Centubt.
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.'
2. Spearino a Boar — XIV. Century.
Tlie 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.
S. The Unearthing of a Fox.
The preceding engraving is from a manuscript in the Royal Library,* written about the same time as the latter.
» Tiberius, B. v.
» No. 2, B. vii.
6 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK I,
VI.— HUNTING AMONG THE NORMANS OPPRESSIVELY EXERCISED.
Durino- the tyrannical oovernment of William the Norman, and his two sons m ho succeeded him, the restrictions concerning- the killing- of game were by no means meliorated. The privi- leges of liunting in the royal forests were confined to the king and his favourites; and, to render these receptacles for the beasts of the chase more capacious, or to make new ones, whole villages were depopulated, and places of divine worship over- thrown ; not the least regard being paid to the miseries of the suffering inhabitants, or the cause of religion. These despotic proceedings Avere not confined to royalty, as may be proved from good authority. I need not mention the New Forest, in Hamp- shire, made by the elder William, or the park at Woodstock in Oxfordshire, seven miles in circumference, and walled round ■with stone by Henry his son.' This park, Stowe tells us, was the first made in England. The royal example was first followed by Henry earl of Warwick, who made a park at AV'cdgenoke, near Warwick, to preserve his deer and other animals for hunt- ing; 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 laAvs Avas somcAvhat 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 Avorldly felicity to spend the Avhole of their time in these diversions; accordingly they prepare for them with more solicitude, expense, and parade, than they do for Avar; and pursue the Avild beasts with greater fury than they do the enemies of their country. By constantly following this Avay 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, Avith their harmless herds and flocks, are driven from their Avell cultivated fields, their meadoAvs, and their pastures, that Avild beasts may range in them Avithout interruption." He adds, addressing him- self to his unfortunate countrymen, " If one of these great and merciless hunters shall pass by your habitation, bring forth hastily all the refreshment you have in your house, or that you can readily buy, or bonow from your ueighboui-s ; that you may
» Will. Malmsbury, lib. iv.
CHAP. I. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 7
not be involved in ruin, or even accused of treason."^ If this picture of Norman tyranny be correct, it exhibits a 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 sports of the field ; and his partiality for fine horses, hounds, and hawks, is evident, from his frequently receiving such animals, by way of payment, instead of money, for the renewal of grants, fines, and forfeitures, belonoing- to the crown.-
In the reign of Edward I. this favourite amusement was re- duced to a perfect science, and regular rules established for its practice ; these rules were afterwards extended by the master of the game belonging to king* Henry IV. and drawn up for the use of his son, Henry prince of Wales. Both these tracts are preserved, and Me 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 Avith France, and resident iu that country, he had with him in his array sixty couple of stag- hounds, and as many hare hounds,'' and every day he amused himself with huntino- or hawkina*.
It also appears that many of tlie 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, M'ho was himself a witness to the fact, that Gaston earl of Foix, a foreign nobleman contemporary with king Edward, kept up- wards of six hundred dogs in his castle for the purpose of hunting. He had four greyhounds called by the romantic names of Tristram, Hector, Brute, and Roland.*
James I. preferred the amusement of hunting to hawking or shooting. It is said of this monarch that he divided his time betwixt his standish, his bottle, and his hunting ; the last had his fair weather, the two former his dull and cloudy.* One
' Johan. Sarisburiensis de Xugis Curlalium, lib. i. cap. 4.
* Blount's Ancient Tenures, p. 135.
^ " Fort cliiens et cbiens de levries," Froissart. Chron. vol. i. cap. 210.
* Froissart, vol. iv. * Wellwood's Memoirs, p. 35.
5> SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK I.
time when he was on a hunting party near Bury St. Edmunds, lie saw an opulent townsman, Avho 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 1 1 know not what kind of lamb he is, but I am sure he has got a fleece upon his back." ' Thus it seems that even the puns of royalty are worthy of record.
It would be an endless, as well as a needless task, to quote all the passages that occur in the poetical and prose writings of the last three centuries, to prove that this favourite pastime had lost nothing of its relish in the modern times ; on the contrary it seems to have been more generally practised. Sir Thomas More, who wrote in the reign of Henry VIII., describing the state of manhood, makes a young gallant to say,
JMan-hod I am, therefore I me delyght
To hunt and Lawke, to nourishe up and fede
The greyhounde to the course, the hawke to th' flight.
And to bestryde a good and lusty stede.*
These pursuits are said by latter writers to have been destruc- tive to the fortunes of many inconsiderate young iieirs, who, desirous of emulating the state of their superiors, have kept their horses, hounds, and hawks, and flourished away for a short time, in a style that their income was inadequate to sup- port. Others again, not having it in their power to proceed so far, contented themselves more prudently with joining the parties that were hunting, and partook with them the pleasure of fol- lowing the game.
VIII.— LAWS RELATING TO HUNTING.
Laws for punishing such as hunted, or destroyed the game, in the royal forests, and other precincts belonging to the crown, were, as we have just hinted above, established Mith unprece- dented severity by Canute the Dane, when he ascended the throne of England. By these edicts the great thanes, bishops, and abbots, were permitted to hunt in the king's chases: but all luiqualified persons were subjected to very heavy fines, not only
' MS. anonymous, entitled " JNIerry Passages and leasts." Harl. 6395. ' Sir Thomas More's Poems. See also Y\'arton's History of English Poetry, 4to. Tol. iii. p. 101.
CHAP. I. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 9
for hunting', but even for disturbing of the game. If a gentle- man, or an inferior tliane, killed a stag in the king's forests, he was degraded from his rank; if a ceorl, or husbandman, committed the same offence, he was reduced to slavery ; and if a slave killed one, he suffered death. Magistrates were ap- pointed, in every county, or shire, to put these laws in execution, and imder them were appointed inferior officers or gamekeepers, whose province it was to apprehend the offenders.' By another law enacted by the same monarch, every proprietor of land had the privilege to himt game within his omu fields and woods; but might not pursue them into the royal forests.^ This prince also prohibited the exercise of hunting, or hawking, upon the sab- bath day.^
The severity of the game laws was rather increased, than abated, under the governance of the four first Norman monarchs. Henry II. is said to have relaxed their efficacy ; rather, I pre- sume, by not commanding them to be enforced with rigour, than by causing them to be abrogated ; for they seem to have virtually existed in the reign of king John ; and occasioned the clause in the Forest Charter, insisting that no man should forfeit his life, or his limbs, for killing the king's deer; — but, if he was taken in the fact of stealing venison belonging to the king, he should be subjected to a heavy fine ; and, in default of payment, be imprisoned for one year and one day ; and after the expiration of that time, find surety for his good behaviour, or be banished the land. * This charter was afterwards confirmed by his son Henry III. and the succeeding monarchs.
IX.— HUNTING BY THE CLERGY.
Another clause in the same charter grants to an archbishop, bishop, earl, or baron, Avhen 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 Mere commanded to cause a horn to be sounded,^ that it might not appear as if they had intended to steal the game.
It is evident that this privilege was afterwards construed into a permission for the personages named therein to hunt in the
' Constitut. Cnut. Reg. de Forest, apud Spelm. Gloss, et Wilkins, Leg. Sax. p. 146.
2 Leges Cnuti, apud Lambard, cap. 77. * Ibid. cap. 15.
* Carta de Toresta, cap. il.^ s Faciat cornare, ibid. cap. 17.
10 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK I.
royal chases ; but the words of the charter are not to that amount, and ought, says Spehnan, to be taken literally as they stand in the translation : they could not however, at any rate, adds he, mean, " that the ecclesiastics are to hunt the deer them- selves, for they suppose them to be no hunters, as the earls and barons might be; and therefore it is not said, that he m ho claims the venison shall blow the horn, but only that he shall cause it to be sounded." '
The propensity of the clergy to follow the secular pastimes, and especially those of hunting and hawking, is frequently reprobated by the poets and moralists of the former times. Chaucer, in his Canterbury Tales, makes the monk much better skilled in riding and hunting, than in divinity. The same poet, afterwards, in the Ploughman's Tale, takes occasion to accuse the monks of pride, because they rode on coursers like knights, having their hawks and hounds with them. In the same tale he severely reproaches the priests for their dissolute manners, saying, that many of them thought more upon hunting with their dogs, and blowing the horn, thair of the service they owed to God.*
The prevalence of these excesses occasioned the restric- tions, contained in an edict established in the thirteenth year of Richard II. Avhicli prohibits any priest, or other clerk, not pos- sessed of a benefice to the yearly amount of ten pounds, from keeping a greyhound, or any other dog for the purpose of hunt- ino-; neither might they use ferrits, hayes, nets, hare-pipes, cords, or other engines to take or destroy the deer, hares, or rabbits, under the penalty of one year's imprisonment.^ The di«rnified clergy were not aftected by this statute, but retained their ancient privileges, which appear to have been very extensive. By the game laws of Canute the Dane they were permitted to hunt in the forests belonging to the crown ; and these prerogatives were not abrogated by the Normans. Henry II., displeased at the power and ambition of the ecclesiastics, endeavoured to render these grants of none effect; not by publicly annulling- them, but by putting in force the canon law, which strictly for- bade the clergy to spend their time in hunting and hawki.ig : and for this purpose, having* obtained permission from Hugo
• » Spelman'3 Answer to the Apology for Archbishop Abbot.
' a Canterbury Tales by Chaucer. Numerous quotations might be made from Other writers in aoJition to those above ; but they are Buflicient for jny purpose. » Stat. IJ lUch, II.
CHAP. I. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 11
Pertroleonis, the Pojse's legate, he caused a law to be made, authorising- him to convene the offenders before the secular judges, and there to punish them.' The establishment of this edict was probably more to show his power, than really to re- strain them from hunting-.
X.— HUNTING AND HAWKING IN THE MIDDLE AGES BY BISHOPS, &c.
The bishops and abbots of the middle ages hunted with great state, having a large train of retainers and servants ; and some of them are recorded for their skill in this fashionable pursuit. Walter bishop of Rochester, who lived in the thirteenth century, was an excellent hunter, and so fond of the sport, that at the age of fourscore he made hunting his sole employment, to the total neglect of the duties of his office.- In the succeeding cen- tury an abbot of Leicester surpassed all the sportsmen of the time in the art of hare hunting ; ' and even when these dignitaries were travelling from place to place, upon affairs of business, they usually had both hounds and hawks in their train. Fitz- stephen assures us, that Thomas a Becket, being sent as ambas- sador from Henry 11. to the court of France, assumed the state of a secular potentate ; and took with him dogs and hawks of various sorts, such as were used by kings and princes/
The clergy of rank, at all times, had the privilege of hunting in their own parks and inclosures ; and therefore, that they might not be prevented from following this favourite pastime, they took care to have such receptacles for game belonging to their prio- ries. At the time of the Reformation, the see of Norv/ich, only, was in the possession of no less than thirteen parks, well stocked with deer and other animals for the chase.'^ At the end of a book of Homilies in MS., in the Cotton Library ,'' written about the reign of Henry VI., is a poem containing instructions to priests in general, and requiring them, among other things, not to en- gage in " hawkynge, huntynge, and dawnsynge."
XI.— HUNTING AND HAWKING BY LADIES.
The ladies often accompanied the gentlemen in hunting par- ties ; upon these occasions it w as usual to draw the game into a
' An. 21 Hen. II. A. D. 1157. See Spelman's Answer to the Apology for Arch^ bishop Abbot.
* P. Blenseus. epist. Jvl. p. 81, 3 Knyghton, apud decern script, p. 263,
* Stephanid. vit."S. Thorn. 6 Vide Spelman ut supra.
* Claudius, A. 2.
12 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK I.
small compass ])y means of inclosures, and temporary stands >vere 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 thejieroines of ro- mance are said to be fond of the sports of the field. In an old poem entitled the " Squyer of lowe degre," ' the king of Hun- gary promises his daughter that in the morning she shall go M'ith him on a hunting party, arrayed most gorgeously and ridhig in a chariot covered with red velvet, drawn by
Jennettes of Spayne that ben so wliite. 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 'Ihall be set at such a trjst, That hert and hynde shall come to your fyst.
♦
He then coimuends 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 leae of herhounds with her to strake.
The harehound, or greyhound, was considered as a very valu- able present in former times,' and especially among the ladies, with whom it appears to have been a peculiar favourite ; and therefore in another metrical romance, probably more ancient than the former, called "Sir Eglamore,"^ a princess tells the knight, that if he m as inclined to hunt, she m ould, as an espe- cial mark of her favour, give him an excellent greyhound, so swift that no deer could escape from his pursuit —
' Garrick's Collection of Old Plays, K. vol. ix.
2 Tlie followins; extracts prove king John to have been exceedingly partial to this kind of dogs. Rot. Pip. iv. Reg. Johan. A. D. I'.'O.J. Rog. constab. Cestri.T debet I) marcas et X palfridos et X laissas Leporariorum, fiic. that is, iive hundred marks, ten liorses, and ten leashes of greyliounds. — An. xi. Johan. I'JIU. J^og. de Mallvell redd. comp. de 1 palfrido velociter currente et ii laissiiis Leporariorum, one swift running horse, and six greyhounds.
3 Garritk's Collec. K. vol. x.
CHAP. I.
OP THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND.
13
Syr yf you be on huntynge founde, I shall you gyve a good greyhounde
That is dunne as a doo : For as I am trewe gentylwoman, There was never deer that he at ran,
That myght yscape him fro.
It is evident, however, that the ladies had hunting parties by themselves.
■1. 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
14 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK I.
means singular, is taken from a manuscript in the Royal Library, written and illuminated early in the fourteenth century.' We may also observe, that, upon these occasions, the female Nim- rods dispensed with the method of riding best suited to the mo- desty of the sex, and sat astride on the saddle like the men ; but this indecorous custom, I trust, was never general, nor of lono- continuance, even with the heroines whoM'ere most deliohted Avith these masculine exercises. An author of the seventeenth century speaks of another fashion, adopted by the fair hunt- iesses of the town of Bury in Suftblk. " The Bury ladies," says he, " that used hawking and hunting', were once in a great vaine of wearing" breeches," Avhich it seems gave rise to many severe and ludicrous sarcasms. The only argument in favour of this habit, was decency in case of an accident. But it was ob- served that such accidents ought to be prevented, in a manner more consistent with the delicacy of the sex, that is, by refraining* from those dangerous recreations.*
Queen Elizabeth vias extremely fond of the chase, and the nobility who entertained her in her different progresses, made laro'e hunting parties, which she usually joined when the weather was favourable. She very frequently indulged herself in fol- lowing of the hounds. " Her majesty," says a courtier, writing to Sir Robert Sidney, " is Avell and excellently disposed to huntino-, for every second day she is on horseback and continues the sport long."^ At this time her majesty had just entered the seventy-seventh year of her age, and she was then at her palace at Oatlands. Often, Avhen 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 lauud or
lawn."^
The hunting dresses, as they appeared at the commencement of the fifteenth century, are given from a manuscript of that time, in the Ilarlcian Collection.*
' 2. B. vii. [la the original drawing, and on IMr. Strutt's plate, tlie figures pur- ?uin"-aiid pursued are in a line together: but for the purpose of including all the fii;iires within the preceding page, the lady on horseback is placed above, instead of behind the female archer.]
\ - :\IS. llarl. 6:>9.'). JNlerrv Passages and Jeasts, art. 345. ' 3 ilowland Whyte to Sir Robert Sidney, dated September 12, A.D. 1600. * ^ichols's Progresses, toI. ii. - ^ No. 4431.
CHAP, I.
OP THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND.
15
5. Hunting Chesses. — XV. Century.
XII.
-PRIVILEGES OF TPIE CITIZENS OF LONDON TO HUNT AND HAWK.
The citizens of Londoh 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 Chiitre, in Mid- dlesex, and Surry." ' 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 Mid- dlesex, Hertfordshire, all Chilton, and in Kent to the waters of Grey ,2 which differs somewhat from the statement in the charter. These exercises M^ere not much followed by the citizens of Lon- don at the close of the sixteenth century, not for want of taste
* Maitland's Hist. London, book i, chap. 6.
* Stephanides Descript. London.
16 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK I.
for the aniusciuent, says Stow, but for leisure to pursue it.' Strype, however, so late as the reign of Georg^el., reckons among the modern amusements of the Londoners, " Riding- on horseback and hunting- m ith 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 " Loudon Customs," published in D'Urfey's Col- lection,^ 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 maa with 's spurs ia'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, lie 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 ser- vices. 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, m hen he succeeded to the throne.'
Others obtained grants of land, on condition of their paying an annual tribute in horses, hawks, and hounds. And here I cannot help noticing- a curious tenure, by which Bertram de Criol held the manor of Setene, or Seaton, in Kent, from Ed- ward L ; he Avas to provide a man, called " veltarius," or hunts- man,^ to lead three greyhounds when the king went into Gascony, so long as a pair of shoes, valued at fourpence, should last him.s
* Stow's Survey of London, vol. i. p. 157.
» " Pills to Purge Melancholy," 1719, vol. iv. p. 42. 3 Blount's Ancient Tenures.
* Or " vautrarius," which Blount derives from the French vaultre, a mongrel hound, and supposes the name to signify an inferior huntsman ; and this'opinion I have adopted.
* 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. Blouut ut supra.
CHAP, I. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 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 ori- ginally written in French, by William Twici, or Twety, grand huntsman to king- Edward II.' 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,* and to have composed this treatise upon " the crafte of huntynge." The other, as before observed, was written by the master of the game to Henry IV. for the use of prince Henry his son, and is little more than an enlargement of the former tract.^ The Book of St. Albans, so called because it was printed there, contains the first treatise upon the subject of hunting that ever appeared from the press. It is however evidently compiled from the two tracts above mentioned, notwithstanding the legendary authority of Sir Tristram, quoted in the beginning. The Book of St. Albans is said to have been Avritten by Juliana Barnes, or Berners, the sister of lord Berners, and prioress of the nunnery of Sope- well, about the year 1481, and was printed soon afterwards. This book contains two other tracts, the one on hawking-, and the other on heraldry. It has been reprinted several times, and under different titles, with some additions and amendments, but the general information is the same,
XIV.— NAMES OF BEASTS OF SPORT.
Twici introduces the subject with a kind of poetical prologue, in which he gives us the names of the animals to be pursued ; and these are divided into three classes.
The first class contains four, which, we are informed, may be properly called beasts for hunting ; namely, the hare, the hart, the wolf, and the wild boar.^
The second class contains the names of the beasts of the chase,
' Entitled " Art de Venerie le quel Maistre Guillame Twici venour le Roj' dangle- terre fist en son temps per aprandre Autres ; or the Art of Hunting, which Mr. Wm. Twici, huntsman to the king of England, made for the instructiou of others." See Warton's Hist. Eng. Poetry, vol. ii. p. 221.
^ Cotton MS. Vespasian, B, xii.
3 MS. Harl. This book is entitled " The Maister of the Game."
* The Book of St. Albans, I fancy, by mistake, places the wild roe for the wild boar.
18 SPORTS ANI» PASTIMES BOOK 1«
and they are five; that is to say, the buck, the doe, the fox, the martin, and the roe.'
In the third class we find three, that are said to afford " greate dysporte" in the pursuit, and tliey are denominated, the grey or badg"er, the wild-cat and the otter.
Most of the books upon hunting- agree in the number and names of the first class ; but respecting the second and third they are not so clear. The beasts of the chase in some are more multi- farious, and divided into two classes: the first called beasts of sweet flight, are the buck, the doe, the bear, the rein deer, the elk, and the spytard, which, as the author himself informs us, is a hart one hundred years old. Tn the second class, are placed the fulimart, the fitchat, or fitch, the cat, the grey, the fox, the wesel, the martin, the squirrel, the white rat, the otter, the stoat, and the pole-cat ; and these are said to be beasts of stink- ing" flight.
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 M'olf, because he "svill readily recollect the story so commonly told of their destruction during the reign of Edgar. It is generally admitted that Edgar gave up the fine of gold and silver imposed by his uncle Athelstan, upon Constan- tine the king of Wales, and claimed in its stead the annual pro- duction of three hundred wolves' skins ; because, say the his- torians, the extensive woodlands and coverts, abounding at that time in Britain, 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
' • The Book of St. Albans adds, that all other kinds of beasts suhject to hunting are to be called " Raskall," derived, I suppose, from the Saxon word pafcal, which signifiei a lean beast, or one of no worth.
' The word in the original MS. is written fate and fuite, which I conceive to be French, and then the interpretation I hare given of flight will be proper. The meaning is, that the latter leave a scent behind them when they are chased.
CHAP. I. OP THE PEOPLE OP ENGLAND. 10
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 nlterius posse invenire pro- Jessus ; it Mas said that he could not find anymore;"' that is, in Wales, for it can hardly be supposed that he was permitted to hunt them out of his own dominions.
As respects the existence of evolves in England afterMards, and till a much later period ; it appears, that in the tenth yeai' 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."* Also in the forty-third year of Edward III. Thomas Engaine held lands in Pitchley, in the county of Northampton, by ser- vice of finding at his om n cost certain dogs for the destruction of wolves, foxes, &c. in the counties of Northampton, Rutland, Oxford, Essex, and Buckingham.^ As late as the eleventh year of Henry VI. Sir Robert Plumpton held one bovate of land, in the county of Nottingham, called Wolf hunt land, by service of winding a horn, and chasing or frighting the wolves in the forest of Shirewood.*
XVI.— DOGS OF THE CHASE.
In the manuscripts before mentioned we find the 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 ; alauntcs, 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 service- able to the fowlers, who take those birds with nets." There must, I presume, have ■ been a vast number of other kinds of dogs known in England at this period ; these, however, are all that the early writers, upon the subject of hunting, have thought
» Hist. Reg. Angl. lib. ii. cap. 8. * Testa Nevelli.
» Memb. 13. * Ibid. See more in Blount's Ancient Tenures.
C2
20 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK I.
proper to enumerate. In the sixteenth century the list is en- larged ; besides those already named, we find bastards and mon- grels, lemors, kenets, terrours, butcher's hounds, dunghill dog's, trindel-tail'd dogs, " pryckereard " curs, and ladies small pup- pies.'
There formerly existed a very cruel la>v, which siil)jecte«l 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 claAv cut from their feet, unless they Merc redeemed by a fine ; this law probably originated with the Nor- mans, and certainly was in force in the reign of Henry I.a
XVII.— DIFFEREMT RIODES 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 iuMoods and thickets; and sometimes in parks, chases, and forests, where the o-ame Avas usually enclosed Avith a hayc or fence-work of netting-, supported by posts driven into the ground for that pur- pose. The manner of hunting at large needs no description ; but, as the method of killing- game within the enclosures is now totally laid aside, it may not be amiss to give the reader some idea how it Avas 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; 3 the substance of which is as follows.
When the king should think proper to hunt the hart in the parks or forests, either with boAvs or greyhounds, the master of the game, and the park-keeper, or the forester, being made acquainted Avith his pleasure, Avas to see that every thing be provided ne- cessary for the purpose. It Avas the duty of the sherift' of the county, wherein the hunting was to be performed, to furnish fit stabling for the king's horses, and carts to take aAvay the dead game. The hunters and oflfiicers under the forester, Avitli tlieir assistants, were commanded to erect a sufficient number of tempo- rary buildings* for the reception of the royal family and their train ;
> " Booke of bauking and hunting," without date, reprinted with the title of * A Jewell for Gentrie." Lond. 1614.
9 See Blount's Antient Tenures, art. Sutton, &c. ' Page 17, sec. xiii.
« They are called " trists" or " trestes" in the MS. and might possibly be temporary stages.
CHAP. I. OP THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 21
ami, if I understand ray author clearly, ttiese buildings were di- rected to be covered with green boughs,' to answer the double purpose of shading the company and the hounds from the heat of tlie sun, and to protect them from any inconveniency in case of foul weather. Early in the morning, upon the day appointed for the sport, the master of the game, with the officers deputed by him, was to see that the greyhounds were properly placed, and the person nominated to blow the horn, whose office was to watch what kind of game was turned out, and, by the manner of winding his horn, signify the same to the company, that they might be prepared for its reception upon its quitting the cover. Proper persons were then to be appointed, at different parts of the enclosure, to keep the populace at due distance. The yeo- men of the king's bo>v, and the grooms of his tutored grey- hounds,^ had in charge to secure the king's standing, and pre- vent any noise being made to disturb the game before the arrival of his majesty. When the royal family and the nobility were conducted to the places appointed for their reception, the master of the game, or his lieutenant, sounded three long mootes, or blasts with the horn, for the uncoupling of the hart hounds. The game was then driven from the cover, and turned by the huntsmen and the hounds so as to pass by the stands belonging to the king and queen, and such of the nobility as were per- mitted to have a share in the pastime ; who might either shoot at them 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 pre- parations were made upon like occasions for the sport of the great barons and dignified clergy. Their tenants sometimes held lands of them by the service of finding men to enclose the grounds, and drive the deer to the stands whenever it pleased their lords to hunt them.^
' The passage runs thus in the MS." " the fewlrerers ought to make fayre logges of grene boughes at their trestes," &c. ? Chastised greyhoundes, MS. 3 See Blount's Ancient Tenures.
22 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK I.
IXVni.— HUNTING Tf:RMS— SF.ASONS TOR HUNTING.
There was a peculiar kind of language invented by the sports- men of the middle ages, which it was necessary for every lover of the chase to bo acquainted with.
When beasts ^vent 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 dry ft 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 mar- tins ; a fesynes of ferrets ; a huske or a down of hares ; a nest of rabbits; a clowder of cats, and a kendel of young cats; a shrewdness of apes; and a labour of moles.
And also, of animals when they retired to rest; a hart was said to be harbored, a buck lodged, a roebuck bedded, a hare formed, a rabbit set, &c.
Two greyhounds were called a brace, three a leash, but two spaniels or harriers were called a couple. We have also a mute of hounds for a number, a kenel of raches, a litter of whelps, ■ and a cowardice of curs.
It is well worthy notice, that this sort of phraseology was not confined to birds and beasts, and otlier parts of the brute cre- ation, but it was extended to the various ranks and professions of men, as the specimen, which I cannot help adding, will suf- ficiently demonstrate; the application of some of them, will, I trust, be thought apt enough : —
A state of princes ; a skulk of friars ; a skulk of thieves ; an observance of hermits; a lying of pardoners; a subtiltie of Ser- jeants; an untruth of sompners ; a multiplying of husbands; an incredibility of cuckolds ; a safeguard of porters ; a stalk of fo- resters; a blast of hunters; a draught of butlers; a temperance of cooks; a melody of harpers; a poverty of pi})ers; a drunkenship of coblers; a disguishig 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
CHAP. I. OP THE PEOPLE OP ENGLAND. 23
applied to inanimate things, as a caste of bread, a cluster of grapes, a cluster of nuts, Sec.
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 ; ' 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.
> See the Encyclopedia BritaDnica, art. Hunting.
24 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK I.
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 HI. partial to Hawking ; — Sir Thomas Jermin. — VI. Ladies fond of Hawking. — VII. Its De- cline.— VIII. How it was performed. — IX. Embellisbmeuts 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 liawks, for the purpose of catching other^ birds, is very frequently called fal- conry or fauconry ; and the person who had the care of the hawks is denominated the falconer, but never I believe the hawker. The sport is generally placed at the head of those amusements that can only be practised in the country, and pro- bably it obtained this precedency from its being a pastime so generally followed by the nobility, not in this country only, but also upon the continent. Persons of high rank rarely appeared without their dogs and their hawks ; the latter they carried with them when they journeyed from one country to another,' and sometimes even M'hen they went to battle, and would not part with them to procure their own liberty when taken prisoners. Sometimes they formed part of the train of an ecclesiastic." These birds were considered as ensigns of nobility : and no action could be reckoned more dishonourable to a man of rank than to give up his hawk.^ The ancient English illuminators have uniformly distinguished the portrait of king Stephen by giving him a Iiawk upon his hand, to signify, I presume, by that symbol, that he was nobly, though not royally born.^
Sebastian Brant, a native of Germany, the author of a work entitled Stultifera Navis, the Ship of Fools, published towards
' See p. 4. Bcc. v. ' See p. 11. sec. x.
^ Memoirs des Inscrip. torn. ix. p. 542.
* See the Regal and Ecclesiastical Aatiquities of England.
CHAP. n. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 25
the conclusion of the fifteenth century, accuses his countrymen of bringing their hawks and hounds into the churches, and in- terrupting" the divine service ; which indecency he severely re- probates, and with the greatest justice. The passage is thus translated by Alexander Barclay : '
Into tlie church then comes anotlier sotte, Withouteu 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 Joth a gander. In comes another, his houndes at his tayle. With Ijnes and leases, and other like haggage ; 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 pei-iod than the middle of the fourtli 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.^ 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.^ An English writer, upon what authority^ I know not, says, that hawking was first invented and practised by Frederic Barbarossa, when he besieged Rome.^ It appears, however, to be very certain that this amusement was discovered abroad, where it became fashionable, some time before it was known in this country : the period of its introduction cannot be clearly deter- mined; but, about the middle of the eighth century, Winifred, or Boniface, archbishop of Mons, who was himself a native o* England, presented to Ethelbert, king of Kent, one hawk and two falcons ; and a king of the Mercians requested the same Winifred to send to him two falcons that had been trained to kill cranes.^ In the succeeding century, the sport was very highly esteemed by the Anglo-Saxon nobility; and the training and flying of hawks became one of the essentials in the education of
> And printed by PynsoQ A. D. 1508. * Lib. t. cap. 8.
" Pliny Nat. Hist. lib. x. cap. 8. * Peacham's Complete Gentleman, p, 183.
* Epist. Winifred. See Warton's Hist. Eng. Poet. vol. ii. p. 221.
26 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK I.
a yoiiiig" man'of rank. Alfred the great is commended for bis early proficiency in this, as well as in other fashionable amuse- ments ; ' he is even said to have written a treatise upon the sub- ject of hawking, but there is no such work at present in exist- ence, that can with any degree of certainty be attributed to him. The pastime of hawking must, no doubt, at this period, have been very generally followed, to call for the prohibition inserted in a charter granted to the Abbey of Abington, by Kenulph, king of the Mercians ; which restrains all persons from carrying of hawks, and thereby trespassing upon the lands belonging to the monks who resided therein.^ This amusement continued to be a fashionable one to the end of the Saxon jera. Byrhtric, a Saxon nobleman, who died towards the end of the tenth cen- tury, among other valuable articles, left by will, to earl iElfric, two hawks, and all his heabop hunbap, Avhich Lambarde renders hedge-hounds; spaniels, I suppose, for the purpose of flushing the game.' We have already seen that Edward the confessor Mas 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.*
III.— ROMANTIC STORY RELATIVE TO HAWKING. '
The monkish writers, after the conquest, not readily account- ing for the first coming of the Danes, or for the cruelties that they committed in this country, have assigned several causes; and, among others, the following story is related, which, if it might be depended upon, would prove that the pastime of hawk- ing was practised by the nobility of Denmark at a very early period ; such a supposition has at least probability on its side, even if it should not be thought to derive much strength from the authority of this narrative.
A Danish chieftain, of high rank, some say of royal blood, named Lothbroc, amusing himself with his hawk near sea, upon the western coasts of Denmark, the bird, in ])ursuit of her game, fell into the water; Lothbroc, anxious for her safety, got into a little boat that was near at hand, and rowed from the shore to take her up, but before he could return to the land, a sudden storm arose, and he was driven out to sea. After suffering
' See p. J. sec. iii.
' This charier was granted A, ]). 821. Dugdale's Monasticon, vol. i. p. 100. » See the whole of the curious will in Lambarde's Perambulation of Kent, p. 540. * See p. 4. see. t.
I
CHAP. II. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 27
great hardship, durhig 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 Edmmid, king of the East Angles; when that monarch Avas made acquainted with the occasion of his coming, he received him very favourably, and soon became particularly attached to him, on account of his great skill in the training and flying of hawks. The partiality which Edmund manifested for this un- fortunate stranger, excited the jealousy of Beoric, the king's falconer, who took an opportunity of murdering the Dane, whilst he was exercising of his birds in the midst of a wood, and secreted the body : which was soon afterwards discovered by the vigilance of a favourite spaniel. Beoric was apprehended, and, it seems, convicted of the murder; for he was condemned to be put into an open boat (some say the very boat in which the Danish chieftain came to England) without oars, mast, or rudder, and in that condition abandoned to the mercy of the ocean. 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 endeavoiu'ed to save the life of the Danish nobleman. Incited by this abominable falsehood to revenge the murder of their father, by force of arms, they invaded the kingdom of the East Angles, pillaged the country, and having taken the king prisoner, caused him to be tied to a stake, and shot to death with arrows.
This narration bears upon the face of it the genuine marks of a legendary tale. Lidgate, a monk of Saint Edmund's Bury, has given it a place, with the addition of several miraculous cir- cumstances, in his poetical life of king- Edmund, who was the tutelar saint of the abbey to which he belonged.' On the other
* Lidgate presented this poem to king Henry VI. when that monarch held his court at Bury. The prcBentation MS. is yet extant in the Harleian Library, No. 2278.
28 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK I.
liand, every one Avho is acquainted with the history of the"" An- glo Saxons must know, that the Danish pirates had infested the coasts of Eno-Iand, and committed many dreadful depredations, long- before the time assigned for the above event ; and the suc- cess of the first parties encouraged others to make the like at- tempts.
IV.— GRAND FALCONER OF FRANCE. •-
Hawking' is often mentioned, says a modern author, iu the capitularies of the eighth and ninth centuries. The grand fau- connier of France was an officer of great eminence ; his annual salary was four thousand florins; he was attended by fifty gentlemen, and fifty assistant falconers ; he was allowed to keep three hundred hawks, he licensed every vender of lia^ks iu France, and received a tax upon every bird sold in that king- dom, and even within the verge of the court ; and the king never rode out upon any occasion of consequence without this officer attending- upon him.'
In Doomsday-book, a hawk's airy ' is returned among the most valuable articles of property; which proves the high estimation these birds Avere held in at the commencement of the Norman government ; and probably some establishment, like that above mentioned, was made for the royal falconer in England.
v.— FONDNESS OF EDWARD III. &c. FOR HAWKING. Edward III., according- to Froissart, had with him in his army when he invaded France, thirty falconers on horseback, who had charge of his hawks ; ^ and every day he either hunted, or went to the river ^ for the purpose of hawking, as his fancy inclined him. From the frequent mention that is made of IiaM king 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,' 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-
' Warton's Hist, of English Poetry, vol. ii. p. 221. ' Aira Accipitris.
^ Trente fauconniers uciievaJ, chargez d'oiseaux. Froissart's Chron. vol. i. cap. 210. * Ou eu riviere. Ibid. ' Tous jours ea riviere. Ibid. cap. 140.
I
CHAP. II.
OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND.
29
tutored birds ; ' so also Chaucer, in the rhime of sir Thopas, says that he could hunt the wikl deer,
And ryde on haukyiige by the ryver, With grey gos liawke in hande.'^
An anonymous writer, of the seventeentli century, records the following- anecdote: "Sir Thomas Jennin, going out with his servants, and brooke hawkes one evening, at Bury,^ they were no sooner abroad, but fowle were found, and he called out to one of his falconers. Off with your jerkin : the fellow being into the wind ^ did not heare him; at which he stormed, and still cried out. Off with your jerkin, you knave, off with your jerkin : now it fell out that there was, at that instant, a plaine townsman of Bury, in a freeze jerkin, stood betwixt him and his falconer, who seeing sir Thomas in such a rage, and thinking he had spoken to him, unbuttoned himself amaine, threw off his jerkin, and besought hisMorshippe not to be offended, for he would off with his doublet too, to give him content." 5
6. Saxon Haavking — IX. Century.
This engraving represents a Saxon nobleman and his falconer, >vith their hawks, upon the bank of a river, waiting* for the rising of the game. The delineation is from a Saxon manuscript written at the close of the ninth century, or at the commence- ment of the tenth ; in the Cotton Library." Another drawing upon the same subject, with a little variation, occurs in a Saxon manuscript, somewhat more modern.^ The two following en- gravings are from dra^vings in a manuscript written early in the fourteenth century, preserved in the Royal Library .^ We see a party of both sexes hawking by the water side ; the fal-
' Garrick's Collect, of old Plays, K. vol. x ' Canterbury Tales.
' Bury St. Edmund's, in Suffolk.
* That is, to the windward ; I use the author's own words.
* MS. Harl. 6395. Merry Passages and Jeasts, art. 223. ^ Tiberius, C. vi. ' Julius, A. vi. 8 Marked 2 B. vii.
30
SPORTS AND PASTIMES
BOOK I.
coner is frightening" the fowls to make them rise, and the hawk is in the act of seizing upon one of them.*
Ladii s Hawking — XIV. Century. ,.
» [The fowls before tlie falconer in tlie original drawing are placed] below in the present engraving, to accommodate it to the page.]
CHAP. II. OF THE PEOPLE OP ENOIAKO. 31
VI.— FONDNESS OY LADIES AND THE CLERGY FOR HAWKING.
We may also here notice, that the ladies not only accompanied the g-entlemen in pursuit of this diversion, but often practised it by themselves ; and, if we may believe a conteniporary writer,' in the thirteenth century, they even excelled the men in know- ledge and exercise of the art of falconry, -which reason, he very ungallantly produces, in proof that the pastime was frivolous and efl'eminate. Hawking Avas 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, tliey Mere 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 gene- rally proficients in hunting also,-
VII.— DECLINE OF HAWKING.
The practice of hawking declined, from the moment the mus- ket was brought to perfection, which pointing out a method more ready and more certain of procuring game, and, at the same time, affording an equal degree of air and exercise, the immense expense of training, and maintaining of hawks became altogether unnecessary ; it was therefore no wonder that the assistance of the gun superseded that of the bird ; or that the art of hawking, when rendered useless, should be laid aside. Its fall was very rapid. Hentzner, Avho wrote his Itinerary A, J). 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 Mere written. At the commencement of the seventeenth cen- tury, it seems to have been in the zenith of its glory. At the close of the same century, the sport M^as 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
> Joban. Sarisburiensis, lib. i, cap. 4. ^ See p. 4. sec. t.
32 SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOK I.
ImM k on foot, it was usual for the sportsman to have a stout pole with liiin, to assist him in leapino- over little rivulets and ditches, which might otherwise prevent him in his progress ; and this MC learn from an historical fact related by Hall ; m ho informs us, that Henry VHI. pursuing- his hawk on foot, at Hitchen in Hertfordshire, attempted, with the assistance of his pole, to jump over a ditch that was half full of muddy water, the pole broke, and the king fell with his head into the mud, where he would have been stifled had not a footman, named John Moo«Iy, Avho was near at hand, and seeing the accident, leaped into the ditch, and released his majesty from his perilous situation; " ajid so," says the honest historian, " God of hys goodnesse preserved him."
IX.— CAPARISON OF A HAWK.
When the hawk was not flying at her game, she was usually hood-winked, with a cap or hood provided for that purpose, and fitted to her head ; and this hood Mas 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 Mere loosely MOund round the little finger. It appears that sometimes the jesses were of silk. Lastly, their legs Mere adorned M'ith 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 bcM its was added the creance, or long thread, by M'hich the bird in tutoring, M'as draMU back, after she Iiad 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, Mhen she fluttered her Mings 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 Meight, sonorous, shrill, and musi- cal ; not both of one sound, but the one a semitone below the
' • Hall ia the life of Henry VIII. sub an. rvi.
CHAP. II. OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 33
other ; ' 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 ; M'herein one of the characters, speaking of a hawk flying-, says
Her bels, Sir Francis, Lad 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.*
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 kiii^ Henry VIII. such articles fre- quently occur; at Hampton Court, in the jewel house, were seven hawkes' gloves embroidered.^
X.— EARLY TREATISES ON HAWKING— SUPERSTITIOUS CURE OF HAWKS.
We have a poetical frag aent, Avritten in old Norman French, as early as the thirteenth century, containing some general obser- vations respecting the management of hawks, which the author informs us he found in a book made for, or by, the good king Edward.* Wanley, in his catalogue of the Harleian manuscripts, suspects there is some mistake in the name; and that this frag- ment is really part of a treatise upon hawking, which he tells us was written by king Alfred ; but I rather think the author is
• These observations are taken from " The Boke of Saint Albans ; " a subsequent edition says, " at least a note under."
- " A Woman killed with Kindness," third edition, 1617. Garrick's Coll. E. vol. iv. 3 MS. Harl. 1419.
* " Ke en escrit trove, si cum jo lis, el livere al bon Rei Edward." MS. Harl. 978.
D
tfi SPORTS AND PASTIMES BOOR T.
correct in this particular; for another manuscript » in English, and about a century more