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

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The national passion for secular music admitted of little or no abatement by the disgrace and dispersion of the minstrels. Professional musicians, both vocal and instrumental, were afterwards retained at the court, and also in the mansions of the nobility. In the sixteenth century, a knowledge of music was considered as a genteel accomplishment for persons of high rank. Henry VIII. not only sang well, but played upon several sorts of instruments; he also wrote songs, and composed the tunes [862] for them; and his example was followed by several of the nobility, his favourites. An author, who lived in the reign of James I. says, "We have here," that is, in London, "the best musicians in the kingdom, and equal to any in Europe for their skill, either in composing and setting of tunes, or singing, and playing upon any kind of instruments. The musicians have obtained of our sovereign lord the king, his letters patent to become a society and corporation." [863] To which we may add, that the metropolis never abounded more, if so much as at present, with excellent musicians, not such only as make a profession of music, but with others who pursue it merely for their amusement; nor must we omit the fair sex; with them the study of music is exceedingly fashionable; and indeed there are few young ladies of family who are not in some degree made acquainted with its rudiments. [864]

II.—PUBLIC BALLAD-SINGERS.

The minstrel being deprived of all his honours, and having lost the protection of the opulent, dwindled into a mere singer of ballads, which sometimes he composed himself, and usually accompanied his voice with the notes of a violin. The subjects of these songs were chiefly taken from popular stories, calculated to attract the notice of the vulgar, and among them the musical poets figured away at wakes, fairs, and church-ales. [865] Warton speaks of two celebrated trebles; the one called Outroaringe Dick; and the other Wat Wimbas, who occasionally made twenty shillings a day by ballad-singing; [866] which is a strong proof that these itinerants were highly esteemed by the common people.

III.—MUSIC HOUSES.

Towards the close of the seventeenth century, the professed musicians assembled at certain houses in the metropolis, called music houses, where they performed concerts, consisting of vocal and instrumental music, for the entertainment of the public; at the same period there were music booths at Smithfield during the continuance of Bartholomew fair. An author of the time, [867] however, speaks very contemptibly of these music meetings, professing that he "had rather have heard an old barber [868] ring Whittington's bells upon a cittern than all the music the houses afforded." There were also music-clubs, or private meetings for the practice of music, which were exceedingly fashionable with people of opulence. Hence, in The Citizen turned Gentleman, a comedy by Edw. Ravenscroft, published in 1675, the citizen is told that, in order to appear like a person of consequence, it was necessary for him "to have a music club once a week at his house." The music houses first mentioned were sometimes supported by subscription; and from them originated three places of public entertainment well known in the present day; namely, Vauxhall, Ranelagh, and Sadler's Wells.

IV.—ORIGIN OF VAUXHALL.

Spring Gardens, now better known by the name of Vauxhall Gardens, is mentioned in the Antiquities of Surrey, by Aubrey, who informs us, that sir Samuel Moreland "built a fine room at Vauxhall, (in 1667,) the inside all of looking-glass, and fountains very pleasant to behold; which," adds he, "is much visited by strangers. It stands in the middle of the garden, covered with Cornish slate, on the point whereof he placed a punchanello, very well carved, which held a dial; but the winds have demolished it." [869] "The house," says a more modern author, sir John Hawkins, [870] "seems to have been rebuilt since the time that sir Samuel Moreland dwelt in it; and, there being a large garden belonging to it, planted with a great number of stately trees, and laid out in shady walks, it obtained the name of Spring Gardens; and, the house being converted into a tavern, or place of entertainment, it was frequented by the votaries of pleasure." This account is perfectly consonant with the following passage in a paper of the Spectator, [871] dated May 20, 1712: "We now arrived at Spring Gardens, which is exquisitely pleasant at this time of the year. When I considered the fragrancy of the walks and bowers, with the choirs of birds that sung upon the trees, and the loose tribe of people that walked underneath their shades, I could not but look upon the place as a kind of Mahometan paradise." In 1730 the house and gardens came into the hands of a gentleman whose name was Jonathan Tyers, who opened it with an advertisement of a "ridotto al fresco;" [872] a term which the people of this country had till then been strangers to. These entertainments were several times repeated in the course of the summer, and numbers resorted to partake of them; which encouraged the proprietor to make his garden a place of musical entertainment for every evening during the summer season: to this end he was at great expense in decorating the gardens with paintings; he engaged an excellent band of musicians, and issued silver tickets for admission at a guinea each; and receiving great encouragement, he set up an organ in the orchestra; and in a conspicuous part of the gardens erected a fine statue of Handel, the work of Roubiliac, a very famous statuary, to whom we owe several of the best monuments in Westminster Abbey.

V.—RANELAGH.

The success of this undertaking was an encouragement to another of a similar kind. A number of persons purchased the house and gardens of the late earl of Ranelagh; they erected a spacious building of timber, of a circular form, and within it an organ, and an orchestra capable of holding a numerous band of performers. The entertainment of the auditors during the performance is, either walking round the room, or refreshing themselves with tea and coffee in the recesses thereof, which are conveniently adapted for that purpose. Sir John Hawkins [873] says, "The performance here, as at Vauxhall, is instrumental, intermixed with songs and ballad airs, calculated rather to please the vulgar than gratify those of a better taste."

VI.—SADLER'S WELLS.

We meet with what is said to be "a true account of Sadler's Well," in a pamphlet published by a physician at the close of the seventeenth century. [874] "The water," says he, "of this well, before the Reformation, was very much famed for several extraordinary cures performed thereby, and was thereupon accounted sacred, and called Holy-well. The priests belonging to the priory of Clerkenwell using to attend there, made the people believe that the virtues of the water proceeded from the efficacy of their prayers; but at the Reformation the well was stopped, upon the supposition that the frequenting of it was altogether superstitious; and so by degrees it grew out of remembrance, and was wholly lost until then found out; when a gentleman named Sadler, who had lately built a new music-house there, and being surveyor of the highways, had employed men to dig gravel in his garden, in the midst whereof they found it stopped up and covered with an arch of stone." [875] After the decease of Sadler, one Francis Forcer, a musician and composer of songs, became occupier of the well and music-room; he was succeeded by his son, who first exhibited there the diversion of rope-dancing and tumbling, [876] which were then performed abroad in the garden. There is now a small theatre appropriated to this purpose, furnished with a stage, scenes, and other decorations proper for the representation of dramatic pieces and pantomimes. The diversions of this place are of various kinds, and form upon the whole a succession of performances very similar to those displayed in former ages by the gleemen, the minstrels, and the jugglers.

VII.—MARY-BONE GARDENS—ORATORIOS.

To the three preceding places of public entertainment, we may add a fourth, not now indeed in existence, but which about thirty years back [877] was held in some degree of estimation, and much frequented; I mean Marybone Gardens; where, in addition to the music and singing, there were burlettas and fireworks exhibited. The site of these gardens is now covered with buildings. There were also other places of smaller note where singing and music were introduced, but none of them of any long continuance; for being much frequented by idle and dissolute persons, they were put down by the magistrates.

The success of these musical assemblies, I presume, first suggested the idea of introducing operas upon the stage, which were contrived at once to please the eye and delight the ear; and this double gratification, generally speaking, was procured at the expense of reason and propriety. Hence, also, we may trace the establishment of oratorios in England. I need not say that this noble species of dramatic music was brought to great perfection by Handel: the oratorios produced by him display in a wonderful manner his powers as a composer of music; and they continue to be received with that enthusiasm of applause which they most justly deserve. Under this title, oratorios, are included several of his serenatas, as Acis and Galatea, Alexander's Feast, &c.; but generally speaking, the subjects of the oratorios are taken from the Scriptures, and therefore they are permitted to be performed on the Wednesdays and Fridays in Lent when plays are prohibited.

VIII.—BELL-RINGING.

It has been remarked by foreigners that the English are particularly fond of bell-ringing; [878] and indeed most of our churches have a ring of bells in the steeple, partly appropriated to that purpose. These bells are rung upon most occasions of joy and festivity, and sometimes at funerals, when they are muffled, and especially at the funerals of ringers, with a piece of woollen cloth bound about the clapper, and the sounds then emitted by them are exceedingly unmelodious, and well fitted to inspire the mind with melancholy. Ringing of rounds; that is, sounding every bell in succession, from the least to the greatest, and repeating the operation, produces no variety; on the contrary, the reiteration of the same cadences in a short time becomes tiresome: for which reason the ringing of changes has been introduced, wherein the succession of the bells is shifted continually, and by this means a varied combination of different sounds, exceedingly pleasant to the ear, is readily produced. This improvement in the art of ringing is thought to be peculiar to the people of this country. [879] Ringing the bells backwards is sometimes mentioned, and probably consisted in beginning with the largest bell and ending with the least; it appears to have been practised by the ringers as a mark of contempt or disgust.

IX.—ANTIQUITY OF BELL-RINGING.

When bell-ringing first arose in England cannot readily be ascertained. It is said that bells were invented by Paulinas, bishop of Nola, [880] at the commencement of the fifth century. In 680, according to Venerable Bede, they were used in Brittany, and thence perhaps brought into this country. Ingulphus speaks of them as well known in his time, and tells us, "that Turketullus, the first abbot of Croyland, gave six bells to that monastery; that is to say, two great ones, which he named Bartholomew and Betteline; two of a middling size, called Turketulum and Beterine; and two small ones, denominated Pega and Bega; he also caused the greatest bell to be made, called Gudhlac, which was tuned to the other bells, and produced an admirable harmony not to be equalled in England." [881] Turketullus died in 875.

According to the ritual of the Romish church, the bells were not only blessed and exorcised, but baptized as those above mentioned, and anointed with holy oil. [882] After these ceremonies had passed it was believed that the evil spirits lurking in the air might be driven away by their sound. The general use of bells is expressed in the two following Latin lines:

That is, to praise the true God—to call the people—to congregate the clergy—to bemoan the dead—to drive away pestilential disorders—to enliven the festivals.

I know not how far the pastime of bell-ringing attracted the notice of the opulent in former times; at present it is confined to the lower classes of the people, who are paid by the parish for ringing upon certain holidays. At weddings, as well as upon other festive occurrences, they usually ring the bells in expectance of a pecuniary reward.

X.—HAND-BELLS.

These, which probably first appeared in the religious processions, were afterwards used by the secular musicians, and practised for the sake of pastime. The joculator dancing before the fictitious goat, depicted by the engraving No. 85, has two large hand-bells, and nearly of a size; but in general, they are regularly diminished, from the largest to the least; and ten or twelve of them, rung in rounds or changes by a company of ringers, sometimes one to each bell, but more usually every ringer has two. I have seen a man in London, who I believe is now living, [883] ring twelve bells at one time; two of them were placed upon his head, he held two in each hand, one was affixed to each of his knees, and two upon each foot; all of which he managed with great adroitness, and performed a vast variety of tunes.

The small bells were not always held in the hand; they were sometimes suspended upon a stand, and struck with hammers, by which means one person could more readily play upon them. An example of this kind, taken from a manuscript in the Royal Library, [884] is given below.

The figure in the original is designed as a representation of king David, and affixed to one of his psalms.

XI.—BURLESQUE MUSIC.

The minstrels and joculators seem to have had the knack of converting every kind of amusement into a vehicle for merriment, and among others, that of music has not escaped them. Here we see one of these drolls holding a pair of bellows by way of a fiddle, and using the tongs as a substitute for the bow.

This, and such like vagaries, were frequently practised in the succeeding times; and they are neatly ridiculed in one of the papers belonging to the Spectator, [885] where the author mentions "a tavern keeper who amused his company with whistling of different tunes, which he performed by applying the edge of a case knife to his lips. Upon laying down the knife he took up a pair of clean tobacco pipes, and after having slid the small ends of them over a table in a most melodious trill, he fetched a tune out of them, whistling to them at the same time in concert. In short the tobacco pipes became musical pipes in the hands of our virtuoso, who," says the writer, "confessed ingenuously that he broke such quantities of pipes that he almost broke himself, before he brought this piece of music to any tolerable perfection." [886] This man also "played upon the frying-pan and gridiron, and declared he had layed down the tongs and key because it was unfashionable." I have heard an accompaniment to the violin exceedingly well performed with a rolling-pin and a salt-box, by a celebrated publican named Price, who kept the Green Man, formerly well known by the appellation of the Farthing Pye House, at the top of Portland Row, St. Mary-le-bone. I have also seen a fellow who used to frequent most of the public houses in and about the town, blow up his cheeks with his breath, and beat a tune upon them with his fists, which feat he seemed to perform with great facility. The butchers have a sort of rough music, made with marrow-bones and cleavers, which they usually bring forward at weddings; and in the Knave in Grain, a play first acted in 1640, [887] ringing of basons is mentioned. This music, or something like it, I believe, is represented by the engraving No. 57.

XII.—DANCING.

To what has been said upon this subject in a former chapter, [888] I shall here add a few words more, and consider it as performed for amusement only. In the middle ages dancing was reckoned among the genteel accomplishments necessary to be acquired by both sexes; and in the romances of those times, the character of a hero was incomplete unless he danced excellently. [889] The knights and the ladies are often represented dancing together, which in the MS. poem of Launfal, in the Cotton Collection, [890] is called playing:

The poet then tells us, they continued their amusement great part of a summer's day, that is, from the conclusion of dinner to the approach of night.

Dancing was constantly put in practice among the nobility upon days of festivity, and was countenanced by the example of the court. After the coronation dinner of Richard II., the remainder of the day was spent in the manner described by the foregoing poem; for the king, the prelates, the nobles, the knights, and the rest of the company, danced in Westminster Hall to the music of the minstrels. [892] Sir John Hawkins mentions a dance called pavon, from pavo, a peacock, which might have been proper upon such an occasion. "It is," says he, "a grave and majestic dance; the method of dancing it anciently was by gentlemen dressed with caps and swords, by those of the long robe in their gowns, by the peers in their mantles, and by the ladies in gowns with long trains, the motion whereof in dancing resembled that of a peacock." [893] Several of our monarchs are praised for their skill in dancing, and none of them more than Henry VIII., who was peculiarly partial to this fashionable exercise. In his time, and in the reign of his daughter Elizabeth, the English, generally speaking, are said to have been good dancers; and this commendation is not denied to them even by foreign writers. Polydore Virgil praises the English for their skill in dancing, [894] and Hentzner says, "the English excell in danceing." [895]

XIII.—ANTIQUITY, &c. OF DANCING.

The example of the nobility was followed by the middling classes of the community; they again were imitated by their inferiors, who spent much of their leisure time in dancing, and especially upon holidays; which is noticed and condemned with great severity by the moral and religious writers, as we may find by turning to the Introduction. Dancing is there called a heathenish practice, and said to have been productive of filthy gestures, for which reason it is ranked with other wanton sports unfit to be exhibited. An old drama without date, but probably written early in the reign of Elizabeth, entitled A new Interlude and a Mery, of the Nature of the four Elements, [896] accuses the people at large, with "loving pryncypally disportes, as daunsynge, syngynge, toys, tryfuls, laughynge, and gestynge; for," adds the author, "connynge they set not by." [897] But Sebastian Brant, in his Ship of Fooles, is much more severe upon this subject. I shall give the passage as it is paraphrased by Barclay: [898]

He derives the origin of dancing from the Jews, when they worshipped the golden calf:

The damsels of London, as far back as the twelfth century, spent the evenings on holidays in dancing before their masters' doors. Stow laments the abolition of this "open pastime," which he remembered to have seen practised in his youth, [899] and considered it not only as innocent in itself, but also as a preventive to worse deeds "within doors," which he feared would follow the suppression. The country lasses perform this exercise upon the greens, where it is said they dance all their rustic measures, rounds, and jiggs. [900] We read also of dancing the Raye, [901] or Reye, as it is written by Chaucer, and which appears to have been a rustic dance, and probably the same as that now called the Hay, where they lay hold of hands, and dance round in a ring. A dance of this kind occurs several times in the Bodleian MS., [902] dated A. D. 1344, whence many of the engravings which elucidate this work are taken. Chaucer speaks also of love-dances, and springs, as well known in his time; [903] but none of them are described. Of late years dancing is generally thought to be an essential part of a young female's education, and is commonly taught her at the boarding-school; and perhaps, when used with moderation, may not be improper. But some of the dances that the girls are permitted to perform are justly to be censured; among these may be ranked one called Hunt the Squirrel, in which, while the woman flies the man pursues her, but as soon as she turns, he runs away, and she is obliged to follow; and the Kissing-dance, the same, I suppose, as the Cushion-dance mentioned by Heywood at the commencement of the seventeenth century: [904] both of them are discommended in a paper of the Spectator. [905]

XIV.—SHOVEL-BOARD.

Among the domestic pastimes, playing at shovelboard claims a principal place. In former times the residences of the nobility, or the mansions of the opulent, were not thought to be complete without a shovelboard table; and this fashionable piece of furniture was usually stationed in the great hall. [906] The tables for this diversion were sometimes very expensive, owing to the great pains and labour bestowed upon their construction. "It is remarkable," says Dr. Plott, in his History of Staffordshire, "that in the hall at Chartley the shuffle-board table, though ten yards one foot and an inch long, is made up of about two hundred and sixty pieces, which are generally about eighteen inches long, some few only excepted, that are scarce a foot, which, being laid on longer boards for support underneath, are so accurately joined and glewed together, that no shuffle-board whatever is freer from rubbs or casting.—There is a joynt also in the shuffle-board at Madeley Manor exquisitely well done."

The length of these tables, if they be perfectly smooth and level, adds to their value in proportion to its increase; but they rarely exceed three feet or three feet and a half in width. At one end of the shovelboard there is a line drawn across parallel with the edge, and about three or four inches from it; at four feet distance from this line another is made, over which it is necessary for the weight to pass when it is thrown by the player, otherwise the go is not reckoned. The players stand at the end of the table, opposite to the two marks above mentioned, each of them having four flat weights of metal, which they shove from them one at a time alternately: and the judgment of the play is, to give sufficient impetus to the weight to carry it beyond the mark nearest to the edge of the board, which requires great nicety, for if it be too strongly impelled, so as to fall from the table, and there is nothing to prevent it, into a trough placed underneath for its reception, the throw is not counted; if it hangs over the edge, without falling, three are reckoned towards the player's game; if it lie between the line and the edge without hanging over, it tells for two; if on the line, and not up to it, but over the first line, it counts for one. The game, when two play, is generally eleven; but the number is extended when four or more are jointly concerned. I have seen a shovelboard-table at a low public-house in Benjamin-street, near Clerkenwell-green, which is about three feet in breadth and thirty-nine feet two inches in length, and said to be the longest at this time in London.

XV.—ANECDOTE OF PRINCE HENRY.

There certainly is not sufficient variety in this pastime to render it very attractive, but in point of exercise it is not inferior to any of the domestic amusements; for which reason it was practised by the nobility in former ages, when the weather would not admit of employment abroad. Prince Henry, the eldest son of James I., occasionally exercised himself in this manner, as the following anecdote may prove: it is recorded by one of his attendants, who declares that he was present at the time, and that he has not attributed to him a single sentence not uttered by him in this or any other of the anecdotes related by him; [907] and therefore I will give it in the author's own words:—"Once when the prince was playing at shoffleboard, and in his play changed sundry pieces, his tutor, being desirous that even in trifles he should not be new-fangled, said to him, that he did ill to change so oft; and therewith took a piece in his hand, and saying that he would play well enough therewith without changing, threw the piece on the board; yet not so well but the prince, smileing thereat, said, Well throwne, Sir. Whereupon Master Newton telling him, that he would not strive with a prince at shoffleboard, he answered, You gownsmen should be best at such exercises, being not meete for those that are more stirring. Yes, quoth Master Newton, I am meete for whipping of boyes. And hereupon the prince answered, You need not vaunt of that which a ploughman or cartdriver can doe better than you. Yet I can doe more, said Master Newton, for I can governe foolish children. The prince respecting him, even in jesting, came from the further end of the table, and smiling, said, while he passed by him, Hee had neede be a wise man himselfe that could doe that."

XVI.—BILLIARDS.

This pastime, which in the present day has superseded the game of shovelboard, and is certainly a more elegant species of amusement, admits of more variety, and requires at least an equal degree of skill in the execution. The modern manner of playing at billiards, and the rules by which the pastime is regulated, are so generally known, that no enlargement upon the subject is necessary. The invention of this diversion is attributed to the French, and probably with justice; but at the same time I cannot help thinking it originated from an ancient game played with small bowls upon the ground; or indeed that it was, when first instituted, the same game transferred from the ground to the table. [908] At the commencement of the last century, the billiard-table was square, having only three pockets for the balls to run in, situated on one of the sides; that is, at each corner one, and the third between them. About the middle of the table was placed a small arch of iron, and in a right line, at a little distance from it, an upright cone called the king. A representation of the billiard-table, according to this description, may be found in the frontispiece to a little duodecimo treatise called The School of Recreation, published in 1710. At certain periods of the game it was necessary for the balls to be driven through the one and round the other, without beating either of them down; and their fall might easily be effected because they were not fastened to the table; this is called the French game; and much resembled the Italian method of playing, known in England by the name of Trucks, which also had its king at one end of the table. Billiards are first mentioned as an unlawful game towards the close of the last reign, when billiard-tables were forbidden to be kept in public-houses, under the penalty of ten pounds for every offence. [909]

XVII.—MISSISSIPI.

This is played upon a table made in the form of a parallelogram. It much resembles a modern billiard-table, excepting that, instead of pockets, it has a recess at one end, into which the balls may fall; and this recess is faced with a thin board equal in height to the ledge that surrounds the table; and in it are fifteen perforations, or small arches, every one of them surmounted by a number from one to fifteen inclusive, the highest being placed in the middle, and the others intermixed on either side. The players have four or six balls at pleasure. These balls, which are usually made of ivory, and distinguished from each other by their colour, some being red and some white, they cast alternately, one at a time, against the sides of the table, whence acquiring an angular direction, and rolling to the arches, they strike against the intervening parts, or pass by them. In the first instance the cast is of no use; in the second the value of the numbers affixed to the arches through which they run is placed to the score of the player; and he who first attains one hundred and twenty wins the game. This pastime is included in the statute above mentioned relating to billiards, and the same penalty is imposed upon the publican who keeps a table in his house for the purpose of playing.

XVIII—THE ROCKS OF SCILLY.

This diversion requires a table oblong in its form, and curved at the top, which is more elevated than the bottom. There is a hollow trunk affixed to one side, which runs nearly the whole length of the table, and is open at both ends. The balls are put in singly at the bottom, and driven through it by the means of a round batoon of wood. When a ball quits the trunk it is impelled by its own gravity towards the lower part of the table, where there are arches similar to those upon the mississipi-table, and numbered in like manner; but it is frequently interrupted in its descent by wires inserted at different distances upon the table, which alter its direction, and often throw it entirely out of the proper track. The game is reckoned in the same manner as at mississipi, and the cast is void if the ball does not enter any of the holes.

XIX.—SHOVE-GROAT, &c.

Shove-groat, named also Slyp-groat, and Slide-thrift, are sports occasionally mentioned by the writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and probably were analogous to the modern pastime called Justice Jervis, or Jarvis, which is confined to common pot-houses, and only practised by such as frequent the tap-rooms. It requires a parallelogram to be made with chalk, or by lines cut upon the middle of a table, about twelve or fourteen inches in breadth, and three or four feet in length: which is divided, latitudinally, into nine equal partitions, in every one of which is placed a figure, in regular succession from one to nine. Each of the players provides himself with a smooth halfpenny, which he places upon the edge of the table, and striking it with the palm of his hand, drives it towards the marks; and according to the value of the figure affixed to the partition wherein the halfpenny rests, his game is reckoned; which generally is stated at thirty-one, and must be made precisely: if it be exceeded, the player goes again for nine, which must also be brought exactly, or the turn is forfeited; and if the halfpenny rests upon any of the marks that separate the partitions, or overpasses the external boundaries, the go is void. It is also to be observed, that the players toss up to determine who shall go first, which is certainly a great advantage. Some add a tenth partition, with the number ten, to the marks above mentioned; and then they play with four halfpence, which are considered as equivalent to so many cards at cribbage; and the game is counted, in like manner, by fifteens, sequences, pairs, and pairials, according to the numbers appertaining to the partitions occupied by the halfpence.

XX.—SWINGING.

This is a childish sport, in which the performer is seated upon the middle of a long rope, fastened at both ends, a little distance from each other, and the higher above his head the better. The rope we call the Swing, but formerly it was known by the name of Meritot, or Merry-trotter. [910] This simple pastime was not confined to the children, at least in the last century, but practised by grown persons of both sexes, and especially by the rustics. Hence Gay:

It was also adopted at the watering-places by people of fashion, and the innovation is justly ridiculed in the Spectator. [911]

Of late years a machine has been introduced to answer the purpose of the swing. It consists of an axletree, with four or six double arms inserted into it, like the spokes of a large water-wheel; every pair of arms is connected at the extremities by a round rod of iron, of considerable thickness, and upon it a box is suspended, resembling the body of a post-chaise, which turns about and passes readily between the two spokes, in such a manner as to continue upright whatever may be the position of its supporters. These carriages usually contain two or three persons each, and being filled with passengers, if I may be allowed the term, the machine is put into action, when they are successively elevated and depressed by the rotatory motion. This ridiculous method of riding was in vogue for the space of two summers, and was exhibited at several places in the neighbourhood of London; and the places where the machines were erected frequented by persons of both sexes, and by some whose situation in life, one might have thought, would have prevented their appearance in such a mixed, and generally speaking, vulgar company; but the charms of novelty may be pleaded in excuse for many inadvertencies.

The Grecian boys had a game called in Greek ????st??da, [912] which I have seen played by the youth of our own country; it was performed by the means of a rope passed through a hole made in a beam, and either end held by a boy, who pulls the rope, in his turn, with all his strength; and by this means both of them are alternately elevated from the ground.

XXI.—TITTER-TOTTER.

To the foregoing we may add another pastime well known with us by the younger part of the community, and called Titter-totter. It consists in simply laying one piece of timber across another, so as to be equipoised; and either end being occupied by a boy or a girl, they raise or depress themselves in turn. This sport was sometimes played by the rustic lads and lasses, as we find from Gay:

XXII.—SHUTTLE-COCK.

This a boyish sport of long standing. It is represented by the following engraving from a drawing on a MS. in the possession of Francis Douce, esq.

It appears to have been a fashionable pastime among grown persons in the reign of James I. In the Two Maids of Moreclacke, a comedy printed in 1609, it is said, "To play at shuttle-cock methinkes is the game now." And among the anecdotes related of prince Henry, son to James 1., is the following: "His highness playing at shittle-cocke, with one farr taller than himself, and hittyng him by chance with the shittle-cocke upon the forehead, 'This is,' quoth he, 'the encounter of David with Goliath.'" [913]

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This chapter is appropriated to sedentary games, and in treating upon most of them I am under the necessity of confining myself to very narrow limits. To attempt a minute investigation of their properties, to explain the different manners in which they have been played, or to produce all the regulations by which they have been governed, is absolutely incompatible with my present design. Instead, therefore, of following the various writers upon these subjects, whose opinions are rarely in unison, through the multiplicity of their arguments, I shall content myself by selecting such of them as appear to be most cogent, and be exceedingly brief in my own observations.

II.—DICE PLAY—ITS PREVALENCY AND BAD EFFECTS.

There is not, I believe, any species of amusement more ancient than dice-playing; none has been more universally prevalent, and, generally speaking, none is more pernicious in its consequences. It is the earliest, or at least one of the most early pastimes in use among the Grecians. Dice are said to have been invented, together with chess, by Palamedes, the son of Nauplius, king of Euboea. [914] Others, agreeing to the time of the invention of dice, attribute it to a Greek soldier named Alea, and therefore say that the game was so denominated. [915] But Herodotus [916] attributes both dice and chess to the Lydians, a people of Asia; in which part of the world, it is most probable, they originated at some very remote but uncertain period. We have already seen that the ancient Germans, even in their state of barbarism, indulged the propensity for gambling with the dice to a degree of madness, not only staking all they were worth, but even their liberty, upon the chance of a throw, and submitted to slavery if fortune declared against them. [917] The Saxons, the Danes, and the Normans their descendants, were all of them greatly addicted to the same infatuating pastime. One would not, at first sight, imagine that the dice could afford any great variety of amusement, especially if they be abstractedly considered; and yet John of Salisbury, in the twelfth century, speaks of ten different games of dice then in use; but as he has only given us the names, their properties cannot be investigated. He calls it, [918] "The damnable art of dice-playing." Another author, contemporary with him, says, "The clergymen and bishops are fond of dice-playing." [919]

III.—ANCIENT DICE-BOX—ANECDOTE RELATING TO FALSE DICE.

The common method of throwing the dice is with a hollow cylinder of wood, called the dice-box, into which they are put, and thence, being first shaken together, thrown out upon the table; but in one of the prints which occur in the Vocabulary of Commenius, [920] we meet with a contrivance for playing with the dice that does not require them to be numbered upon their faces. This curious machine [921] is copied below.

The dice are thrown into the receptacle at the top, whence they fall upon the circular part of the table below, which is divided into six compartments, numbered as the dice usually are; and according to the value of the figures affixed to the compartments into which they fall the throw is estimated. Perhaps the inner part of the circle, with the apparatus above it, was so constructed as to move round with great rapidity when the dice were put into the tunnel. It would then be analogous to the E O tables of the present day, wherein a ball is used, and the game is determined by the letters E or O being marked upon the compartment into which it falls. The E O tables may have derived their origin from the above contrivance.

Dice-playing has been reprobated by the grave and judicious authors of this country for many centuries back; the legislature set its face against it at a very early period; [922] and in the succeeding statutes promulgated for the suppression of unlawful games, it is constantly particularised and strictly prohibited.

Supposing the play to be fair on either side, the chances upon the dice are equal to both parties; and the professed gamblers being well aware of this, will not trust to the determination of fortune, but have recourse to many nefarious arts to circumvent the unwary; hence we hear of loaded dice, and dice of the high cut. The former are dice made heavier on one side than the other by the insertion of a small portion of lead; and the latter may be known by the following anecdote in an anonymous MS. written about the reign of James I., and preserved in the Harleian Collection. [923] "Sir William Herbert, playing at dice with another gentleman, there rose some questions about a cast. Sir William's antagonist declared it was a four and a five; he as positively insisted that it was a five and six; the other then swore, with a bitter imprecation, [924] that it was as he had said: Sir William then replied, 'Thou art a perjured knave; for give me a sixpence, and if there be a four upon the dice, I will return you a thousand pounds;' at which the other was presently abashed, for indeed the dice were false, and of a high cut, without a four." The dice are usually made of bone or ivory, but sometimes of silver, and probably of other metals. The wife of the unfortunate Arden of Feversham, sent to Mosbie, her paramour, a pair of silver dice, in order to reconcile a disagreement that had subsisted between them, and occasioned his abstaining from her company. [925]

IV.—CHESS—ITS ANTIQUITY.

This noble, or, as it is frequently called, royal pastime, is said, by some authors, to have originated, together with dice-playing, at the siege of Troy; and the invention of both is attributed to Palamedes, the son of Nauplius, king of Euboea; [926] others make Diomedes, and others again, Ulysses, the inventor of chess. [927] The honour has also been attributed to Ledo and Tyrrheno, two Grecians, and brothers, who being much pressed by hunger, sought to alleviate their bodily sufferings by diverting the mind. [928] None of these stories have any solid foundation for their support; and I am inclined to follow the opinion of Dr. Hyde and other learned authors, who readily agree that the pastime is of very remote antiquity, but think it first made its appearance in Asia.

V.—THE MORALS OF CHESS.

John de Vigney wrote a book which he called The Moralization of Chess, wherein he assures us that this game was invented by a philosopher named Xerxes in the reign of Evil Merodach, king of Babylon, and was made known to that monarch in order to engage his attention and correct his manners. "There are three reasons," says de Vigney, "which induced the philosopher to institute this new pastime: the first, to reclaim a wicked king; the second, to prevent idleness; and the third, practically to demonstrate the nature and necessity of nobleness." He then adds, "The game of chess passed from Chaldea into Greece, and thence diffused itself all over Europe." I have followed a MS. copy at the Museum in the Harleian Library. [929] Our countryman Chaucer, on what authority I know not, says it was

The Arabians and the Saracens, who are said to be admirable players at chess, have new-modelled the story of de Vigney and adapted it to their own country, changing the name of the philosopher from Xerxes to Sisa. [931]

VI.—EARLY CHESS-PLAY IN FRANCE AND ENGLAND.

It is impossible to say when the game of chess was first brought into this kingdom; but we have good reason to suppose it to have been well known here at least a century anterior to the Conquest, and it was then a favourite pastime with persons of the highest rank. Canute the Dane, who ascended the throne of England A. D. 1017, was partial to this pastime. [932] The following story is told of William, duke of Normandy, afterwards king of England. When a young man, he was invited to the court of the French king, and during his residence there, being one day engaged at chess with the king's eldest son, a dispute arose concerning the play; and William, exasperated at somewhat his antagonist had said, struck him with the chess-board; which obliged him to make a precipitate retreat from France, in order to avoid the consequences of so rash an action. [933] A similar circumstance is said by Leland to have happened in England. [934] John, the youngest son of Henry II., playing at chess one day with Fulco Guarine, a nobleman of Shropshire, a quarrel ensued, and John broke the head of Guarine with the chess-board, who in return struck the prince such a blow that he almost killed him. It seems, however, that Fulco found means of making his peace with king Henry, by whom he was knighted, with three of his brethren, a short time afterwards. John did not so easily forgive the affront; but, on the contrary, showed his resentment long after his accession to the English throne, by keeping him from the possession of Whittington Castle, to which he was the rightful heir. [935] It is also said of this monarch, that he was engaged at chess when the deputies from Rouen came to acquaint him that the city was besieged by Philip king of France, but he would not hear them out till he had finished the game. In like manner Charles I. was playing at chess when he was told that the final resolution of the Scots was to sell him to the parliament; and he was so little discomposed by the alarming intelligence, that he continued the game with great composure. [936] Several other instances to the same purpose might be produced, but these may suffice; and in truth, I know not what interpretation to put upon such extraordinary conduct; it proves at least that the fascinating powers of this fashionable diversion are very extensive upon the minds of those who pursue it earnestly.

VII.—THE CHESS-BOARD.

The number of the pieces and the manner in which they are placed do not appear to have undergone much, if any, variation for several centuries. The following is the most ancient representation of the pastime that I have met with.

This engraving· is from a drawing in a beautifully illuminated MS. preserved in the British Museum among the Harleian Collection. [937] This MS. was written at the close of the fourteenth century, and bears every mark of being the very copy presented to Isabel of Bavaria, the queen of Charles VI. of France. Her portrait, very neatly finished, occurs twice, and that of the king her husband once. The author of this MS. makes Ulysses to be the inventor of chess; and the painting is intended to represent that chieftain engaged with some other Grecian hero who is come to visit and play the game with him, the two bystanders, I presume, are the umpires to decide the matter in case of any dispute.

The Cotton Library contains a MS. of the thirteenth century with the following:

In this representation is exhibited the manner of placing the pieces, which are thus called in Latin verse:

The same MS. supplies a perfect singularity:

It will be observed that the pieces are also placed on the above board.

VIII.—CHESS-PIECES, AND THEIR FORM.

The names of the chess pieces, as they are given in the foregoing manuscript, are these: Rey—Reyne, or Ferce—Roc—Alfin—Chivaler— Poun:—that is, 1. The King—2. The Queen, or Ferce [938]—3. The Rock—4. The Alfin—5. The Knight—6. The Pawn. Their forms are annexed.

In modern times the roc is corruptedly called a rook, but formerly it signified a rock or fortress, or rather, perhaps, the keeper of the fortress; the alfin was also denominated by the French fol, and with us an archer, and at last a bishop.

IX.—THE VARIOUS GAMES OF CHESS.

In a manuscript in the Royal Library, [939] written about the same time as that last mentioned, we find no less than forty-four different names given to so many games of chess, and some of them are played more ways than one, so that in the whole they may be said to amount to fifty-five; and under every title there are directions for playing the game, but I apprehend they would be of little use to a modern player. I shall, however, give the several denominations as they occur, with an attempt at a translation. If the learned reader should find that I have mistaken the meaning of any of these titles, which is very likely to be the case, he will consider the difficulty I had to encounter, and remember I give the translation with diffidence.

1. Guy de chivaler, played three ways—2. De dames—3. De damoyseles—4. De alfins, two ways—5. De anel—6. De covenant—7. De propre confusion—8. Mal assis—9. Cotidian, two ways—10. Poynt estraunge, two ways—11. Ky perde sey sauve—12. Ky ne doune ces ke il eyme, ne prendrant ke disire—13. Bien trove—14. Beal petit—15. Mieut vaut engyn ke force—16. Ky est larges est sages—17. Ky doune ganye—18. Ly enginous e ly coveytous—19. Covenaunt fet ley—20. Ve pres sen joyst ke loyns veyt—21. Meschief fet hom penser—22. La chace de chivaler—23. La chace de ferce et de chivaler—24. Bien fort—25. Fol si prent—26. Ly envoyons—27. Le seon sey envoye—28. Le veyl conu—29. Le haut enprise—30. De cundut—31. Ky put se prenge—32. La batalie sans array—33. Le tret emble, two ways—34. Ly desperes—35. Ly marvelious, two ways—36. Ne poun ferce home fet—37. Muse vyleyn—38. De dames et de damoyceles—39. Fol si sey fie, two ways—40. Mal veysyn, two ways—41. Je mat de ferces—42. Flour de guys—43. La batalie de rokes—44. Double eschec.

1. The knights' game—2. The ladies' game—3. The damsels' game—4. The game of the alfins—5. The ring—6. The agreement—7. Self-confounded—8. Ill placed or bad enough—9. Day by day—10. The foreign point—11. The loser wins—12. He that gives not what he esteems, shall not take that he desires—13. Well found—14. Fair and small—15. Craft surpasses strength—16. He that is bountiful is wise—17. Who gives gains—18. Subtilty and covetousness—19. Agreement makes law—20. He sees his play at hand who sees it at a distance—21. Misfortunes make a man think—22. The chace of the knight—23. The chace of the queen and the knight—24. Very strong—25. He is a fool if he takes—26. The messengers—27. Sent by his own party—28. The old one known—29. The high place taken—30. Perhaps for conduit, managed or conducted—31. Take if you can—32. The battle without arrangement—33. The stolen blow—34. The desperates—35. The wonder—36. A pawn cannot make a queen—37. The clown's lurking place—38. The ladies and the damsels—39. A fool if he trusts—40. Bad neighbour—41. I mate the queen—42. The flower or beauty of the games—43. The battle of the rooks—44. Double chess.

X.—ANCIENT GAMES SIMILAR TO CHESS.

The ancient pastimes, if more than one be meant, which bear the names of ludus latrunculorum, ludus calculorum, et ludus scrupulorum, have been generally considered as similar to chess, if not precisely the same; but the authors of the EncyclopÉdie FranÇoise, assure us they did not bear any resemblance to it, at least in those essential parts of the game which distinguish it from all others; but were played with stones, shells, or counters. The ancients, we are told, used little stones, shells, and nuts, in making their calculations without the assistance of writing. These little stones were called by the Greeks ??f??, and calculi or scrupuli by the Romans; and such articles, it is supposed, were employed by them in playing the games above mentioned. This method of reckoning passed from the Greeks to the Romans, but when luxury introduced itself at Rome, the stones and shells were laid aside, and counters made with ivory became their substitutes. If the foregoing observations be well founded, we may justly conclude that the ludus calculorum which Homer mentions as a pastime practised by his heroes, called in Greek pet?? or pess??, consisted in a certain arrangement and combination of numbers, every piece employed in the game being marked with an appropriate number, and probably might resemble a more modern pastime, which still retains the Greek name of Rithmomachia, from a?????, numerus, et a??, pugna, expressive of a battle with numbers, said by some to have been invented by Pythagoras, [940] and by others to be more ancient: with us it is called the Philosopher's Game, and seems indeed to have been well calculated for the diversion of soldiers, because it consists, not only in a contention for superiority by the skilful adjustment of the numbers, but in addition, allows the conqueror to triumph and erect his trophy in token of the victory; this part of the game, we are told, requires much judgment to perform with propriety, and if the player fails, his glories are but half achieved.

XI.—THE PHILOSOPHER'S GAME.

We have some account of the philosopher's game, but very loosely drawn up, in a manuscript in the Sloanian Library [941] at the British Museum. It is called, says the author, "a number fight," because in it men fight and strive together by the art of counting or numbering how one may take his adversary's king and erect a triumph upon the deficiency of his calculations. It is then said, "you may make your triumph as well with your enemy's men taken, as with your own not taken."

The board or table for playing this game is made in the form of a parallelogram just as long again as it is broad; it is divided into eight squares the narrow way, and extended to sixteen the other, and bears the resemblance of two chess-boards fastened together: the chequers in like manner being alternately black and white, and two persons only at one time can properly play the game; to either party is assigned twenty-four soldiers, which constitute his army, (hoste, in the original,) and one of them is called the Pyramis or king: one third of these pieces are circular, which form two rows in the front of the army; one third are triangular, which are placed in the middle; and one third are square, which bring up the rear, and one of these situated in the fifth row is the Pyramis. The men belonging to the two parties are distinguished by being black and white, and every one of them is marked with an appropriate number. There were sometimes added to these numbers certain signs or algebraic figures, called cossical signings, which increased the intricacy of the game. The army that presents a front of even numbers is called the even hoste, and the other the odd hoste. The two armies at the commencement of the play are drawn up in the order represented below. [942]

It was my wish to have subjoined a general outline of the method of playing the game, but the author is so exceedingly obscure in his phraseology, and negligent in his explanations, that I found it impossible to follow him with the least degree of satisfaction. [943] It is, however, certain, that the great object of each player is to take the king from his opponent, because he who succeeds may make his triumph and erect his trophy.

Burton, speaking of this pastime, in his Anatomy of Melancholy, [944] calls it the Philosophy Game, and thinks it "not convenient for students;" to which he adds, "the like I say of Dr. Fulke's Metromachia, and his Ouronomachia, with the rest of those intricate, astrological, and geometrical fictions, for such as are mathematically given, and other curious games." Dr. Fulke was a Cambridge man, and his book was printed at London 1566.

XII.—DRAUGHTS—FRENCH AND POLISH.

This pastime is well known in the present day; and I believe there are now in London as excellent draught-players as ever existed. Draughts, no doubt, is a modern invention, and easier to be learnt than chess, because it is not so intricate; for the pieces are of equal value till they become kings, and can only move one way, that is, diagonally; but, like chess, it depends entirely upon skill, and one false move frequently occasions the loss of the game. There are two methods of playing at draughts, the one commonly used in England, denominated the French Game, which is played upon a chess-board, and the other called the Polish Game, because, I presume, the first was invented in France and the latter in Poland. This requires a board with ten squares or chequers in each row, and twenty men, for so the pieces are usually named. The draught-man is called in French dame. The men in the Polish game can only move forwards as they do in the French game, but they have the privilege of taking backwards as well as forwards; and the king, if not opposed by two men close together, can move from one corner of the board to the other. The Polish game admits of most variety, and is, in my opinion, infinitely the best; but it is little known in this country, and rarely played, except by foreigners. We have a recent publication upon the French game of draughts, which fully explains the nature of the pastime, and points out most of the important moves, published by Sturges, who, I am told, is an excellent player.

XIII.—MERELLES—NINE MENS' MORRIS.

Merelles, or, as it was formerly called in England, nine mens' morris, and also five-penny morris, is a game of some antiquity. Cotgrave describes it as a boyish game, and says it was played here commonly with stones, but in France with pawns, or men, made on purpose, and they were termed merelles; hence the pastime itself received that denomination. It was certainly much used by the shepherds formerly, and continues to be used by them, and other rustics, to the present hour. But it is very far from being confined to the practice of boys and girls. The form of the merelle-table, and the lines upon it, as it appeared in the fourteenth century, is here represented.

These lines have not been varied. The black spots at every angle and intersection of the lines are the places for the men to be laid upon. The men are different in form or colour for distinction sake; and from the moving these men backwards or forwards, as though they were dancing a morris, I suppose the pastime received the appellation of nine mens' morris; but why it should have been called five-penny morris, I do not know. The manner of playing is briefly this: two persons, having each of them nine pieces, or men, lay them down alternately, one by one, upon the spots; and the business of either party is to prevent his antagonist from placing three of his pieces so as to form a row of three, without the intervention of an opponent piece. If a row be formed, he that made it is at liberty to take up one of his competitor's pieces from any part he thinks most to his own advantage; excepting he has made a row, which must not be touched if he have another piece upon the board that is not a component part of that row. When all the pieces are laid down, they are played backwards and forwards, in any direction that the lines run, but only can move from one spot to another at one time: he that takes off all his antagonist's pieces is the conqueror. The rustics, when they have not materials at hand to make a table, cut the lines in the same form upon the ground, and make a small hole for every dot. They then collect, as above mentioned, stones of different forms or colours for the pieces, and play the game by depositing them in the holes in the same manner that they are set over the dots upon the table. Hence Shakspeare, describing the effects of a wet and stormy season, says,

XIV.—FOX AND GEESE.

This is a game somewhat resembling that of merelles in the manner the pieces are moved, but in other respects, as well as in the form of the table, it differs materially; the intersection and angles are more numerous, and the dots of course increased, which adds to the number of the moves.

To play this game there are seventeen pieces, called geese, which are placed as we see them upon the engraving, and the fox in the middle, distinguished either by his size or difference of colour, as here, for instance, he is black. The business of the game is to shut the fox up, so that he cannot move. All the pieces have the power to move from one spot to another, in the direction of the right lines, but cannot pass over two spots at one time. It is to be observed, that this board is sometimes made with holes bored through it, where the dots are made, and pegs equal to the number of geese put into them, and the fox is distinguished by being larger and taller than the rest. The geese are not permitted to take the fox if he stands close to them, but the fox may take a goose, in like case, if the spot behind it be unoccupied, or not guarded by another goose; and if all be taken, or the number so reduced that the fox cannot be blocked, the game is won. The great deficiency of this game is, that the fox must inevitably be blocked if the geese are played by a skilful hand; for which reason, I am told, of late some players have added another fox; but this I have not seen.

XV.—THE SOLITARY GAME.

This is so denominated because it is played by one person only. It is said to have been invented by an unfortunate man who was several years kept in solitary confinement at the Bastile in Paris. The board for this pastime is of a circular form, and perforated with holes at half an inch distance from each other, to the amount of fifty or sixty. A certain number of pegs are then fitted to these holes, but not enough to fill them all; and the manner of playing the game is, to pass one of the pegs over another into a hole that is unoccupied, taking the peg so passed from the board, and to continue doing so till all the pegs but one are taken away; which is an operation much more difficult to perform than any one could readily imagine who had not made the attempt. It must be remembered that only one peg can be passed over at a time, and that no peg can be put over another, unless it stands close to it without an intervening hole.

XVI.—BACKGAMMON, OR TABLES.

The game of chess, and most of the pastimes derived from it, depend entirely upon the skill of the players, and afford no chance of success to an indifferent one if his antagonist be possessed of more knowledge in moving the pieces than himself. Therefore, in order to bring two players of unequal talents nearer to a level, other diversions were invented, in which both chance and skill were united, as we see they are in the game at tables, which in Latin is called tabularum ludus, and in French tables. Hence the following line in the romance of Parise la Duchesse:

Then he learned to play at tables and at chess. [945] The game of tables is better known at present by the name of Backgammon. This pastime is said to have been discovered about the tenth century, [946] and the name derived from two Welsh words signifying "little battle." But I trust, as before observed, that the derivation may be found nearer home. The words are perfectly Saxon, as Bac, or BÆc, and gamen, that is, Back Game; so denominated because the performance consists in the players bringing their men back from their antagonists' tables into their own; or because the pieces are sometimes taken up and obliged to go back, that is, re-enter at the table they came from. The ancient form of the backgammon-table is represented by the annexed engraving:

The original of the engraving occurs in a beautifully illuminated manuscript in the Harleian Collection. [947] The table, as here delineated, is not divided in the middle, but the points, on either side, are contained in a single compartment. Annexed is the representation of a backgammon-table at least a century more modern.

In this the division is fairly made, but the points are not distinguished by different colours, according to the present, and indeed more ancient usage. The writer of the latter manuscript, which is in the King's Library, [948] says, "There are many methods of playing at the tables with the dice. The first of these, and the longest, is called the English game, Ludus Anglicorum, which is thus performed: he who sits on the side of the board marked 1-12 has fifteen men (homines) in the part marked 24, and he who sits on the side marked 13-24 has a like number of men in the part 1. They play with three dice, or else with two, allowing always (semper, that is, at every throw) six for a third die. Then he who is seated at 1-12 must bring all his men placed at 24 through the partitions (paginas), from 24 to 19, from 18 to 13, and from 12 to 7, into the division 6-1, and then bear them off; his opponent must do the same from 1 to 7, thence to 12, thence to 18, into the compartment 19-24; and he who first bears off all his men is conqueror." Here we may observe, that the most material circumstances in which the game differed, at this remote period, from the present method of playing it, are, first, in having three dice instead of two, or reckoning a certain number for the third; and secondly, in placing all the men within the antagonist's table, which, if I do not mistake the author, must be put upon his ace point. But to go on: "There is," says he, "another game upon the tables called Paume Carie, which is played with two dice, and requires four players, that is, two on either side; or six, and then three are opposed to three." He then speaks of a third game, called "Ludus Lumbardorum, the Game of Lombardy, and thus played: he who sits on the side marked 13-24 has his men at 6, and his antagonist has his men at 19;" which is changing the ace point in the English game for the size point: and this alteration probably shortened the game. He then mentions the five following variations by name only; the Imperial game, the Provincial game, the games called Baralie, Mylys, and Faylis.

XVII.—BACKGAMMON—ITS FORMER AND PRESENT ESTIMATION.

At the commencement of the last century backgammon was a very favourite amusement, and pursued at leisure times by most persons of opulence, and especially by the clergy, which occasioned dean Swift, when writing to a friend of his in the country, sarcastically to ask the following question: "In what esteem are you with the vicar of the parish; can you play with him at backgammon?" But of late years this pastime is become unfashionable, and of course it is not often practised. The tables, indeed, are frequently enough to be met with in the country mansions; but upon examination you will generally find the men deficient, the dice lost, or some other cause to render them useless. Backgammon is certainly a diversion by no means fitted for company, which cards are made to accommodate in a more extensive manner; and therefore it is no wonder they have gained the ascendancy.

XVIII.—DOMINO.

This is a very childish sport, imported from France a few years back, and could have nothing but the novelty to recommend it to the notice of grown persons in this country. It consists of twenty-eight small oblong and flat pieces of ivory or bone, and all of the same size and shape. The back of every piece is plain, and sometimes black; the face is white, divided into two parts by a line in the middle, and marked with a double number, or with two different numbers, or with a number and a blank, and one of them is a double blank. The numbers are the same as those upon the dice, from one to six inclusive. When two play, the whole of the pieces, which are ridiculously enough called cards, are hustled about the table with their faces downwards, and each of them draw seven or nine, according to agreement, and the remaining pieces are undiscovered until the hand is played, which is thus performed: the right of first playing being cut for, he who obtains it lays down one of his pieces, and the other is to match one of the numbers marked upon it with a similar number marked upon a piece of his own, which he lays close to it; the other then matches one of the open numbers in like manner; and thus they continue alternately to lay down their pieces as long as they can be matched; and he who first gets rid of all his pieces wins the game: but if it so happen, as it often does, that neither of them have exhausted their pieces, nor can match the open numbers on the table, they then discover what remains on both sides, and he whose pieces contain the fewest spots obtains the victory. Sometimes four play, in which case they deal out six cards to each, leaving only four upon the table, and then play on in rotation.

XIX.—CARDS—WHEN INVENTED.

The general opinion respecting the origin of playing-cards is, that they were first made for the amusement of Charles VI. of France, at the time he was afflicted with a mental derangement, which commenced in 1392, and continued for several years. The proof of this supposition depends upon an article in the treasury registers belonging to that monarch, which states that a payment of fifty-six sols was made to Jacquemin Gringonneur, painter, for three packs of cards gilded and painted with divers colours and different devices, to be carried to the king for his diversion. [949] If it be granted, and I see no reason why it should not, that this entry alludes to playing-cards, the consequences that have been deduced from it, do not necessarily follow; I mean, that these cards were the first that were made, or that Gringonneur was the inventor of them; it by no means precludes the probability of cards having been previously used in France, but simply states that those made by him were gilt and diversified with devices in variegated colours, the better to amuse the unfortunate monarch.

Some, allowing that Gringonneur was the first maker of playing-cards, place the invention in the reign of Charles V., upon the authority of Jean de Saintre, who was page to that monarch; he mentions card-playing in his chronicle; for he was an author. The words he uses are these: "Et vous qui etes noyseux joueux de cartes et de des.—And you who are contentious play at cards and at dice." [950] This would be sufficient evidence for the existence of cards before the ascension of Charles VI. to the throne of France, if it could be proved that the page did not survive his master; but, on the other hand, if he did, they may equally be applied to the amusements of the succeeding reign.

XX.—CARD-PLAYING MUCH PRACTISED.

A prohibitory edict against the usage of cards was made in Spain considerably anterior to any that have been produced in France. In Spain, as early as A. D. 1387, John I., king of Castile, in an edict, forbade playing of cards and dice in his dominions. The provost of Paris, January 22, A. D. 1397, published an ordinance, prohibiting the manufacturing part of the people from playing at tennice, dice, cards, &c. [951] which has inclined several modern writers upon this subject to refer the invention of cards from France to Spain; and the names of some of the cards, as well as of many of the most ancient games, being evidently derived from the Spanish language, are justly considered as strong corroborating arguments in favour of such an opinion. Such, for instance, as primero and the principal card in the game quinola; ombre and the cards spadill, manill, basto, punto, matador, quadrille, a species of ombre, &c. The suit of clubs upon the Spanish cards is not the trefoils as with us, but positively clubs, or cudgels, of which we retain the name, though we have lost the figures; the original name is bastos. The spades are swords, called in Spain espadas; in this instance we retain the name and some faint resemblance of the figure. [952] A very intelligent writer upon the origin of engraving, baron Heineken, asserts that playing-cards were invented in Germany, where they were used towards the latter end of the fourteenth century; but his reasons are by no means conclusive. He says they were known there as early as the year 1376. [953]

An author of our own country produces a passage cited from a wardrobe computus made in 1377, the sixth year of Edward I., which mentions a game entitled, "the four kings;" [954] and hence with some degree of probability he conjectures that the use of playing-cards was then known in England, which is a much earlier period than any that has been assigned by the foreign authors. It is the opinion of several learned writers well acquainted with Asiatic history, that cards were used in the eastern parts of the world long before they found their way into Europe. [955] If this position be granted, when we recollect that Edward I. before his accession to the throne resided nearly five years in Syria, it will be natural enough to suppose that he might have learned the game of "the four kings" in that country, and introduced it at court upon his return to England. An objection, which indeed at first sight seems to be a very powerful one, has been raised in opposition to this conjecture: it is founded upon the total silence of every kind of authority respecting the subject of card-playing from the time that the above-mentioned entry was made to 1464, an early period in the reign of Edward IV., including an interval of one hundred and eighty-six years. An omission so general, it is thought, would not have taken place, if the words contained in that record alluded to the usage of playing-cards. A game introduced by a monarch could not fail of becoming fashionable; and if it continued to be practised in after times, must in all probability have been mentioned occasionally in conjunction with other pastimes then prevalent. But this silence is by no means a proof that the game of "the four kings" was not played with cards, nor that cards did not continue to be used during the whole of the above-mentioned interval in the higher circles, though not perhaps with such abuses as were afterwards practised, and which excited the reprehension of the moral and religious writers. Besides, at the time that cards were first introduced, they were drawn and painted by the hand without the assistance of a stamp or plate; it follows of course that much time was required to complete a set or pack of cards; and the price they bore no doubt was adequate to the labour bestowed upon them, which necessarily must have enhanced their value beyond the purchase of the under classes of the people. For this reason it is, I presume, that card-playing, though it might have been known in England, was not much practised until such time as inferior sets of cards, proportionably cheap, were produced for the use of the commonalty, which seems to have been the case when Edward IV. ascended the throne, for in 1463, early in his reign, an act was established on a petition from the card-makers of the city of London, prohibiting the importation of playing-cards; [956] and soon after that period card-playing became a very general pastime.

The increasing demand for these objects of amusement, it is said, suggested the idea of cutting the outlines appropriated to the different suits upon separate blocks of wood and stamping them upon the cards; [957] the intermediate spaces between the outlines were filled up with various colours laid on by the hand. This expeditious method of producing cards reduced the price of them, so that they might readily be purchased by almost every class of persons: the common usage of cards was soon productive of serious evils, which all the exertions of the legislative power have not been able to eradicate. [958]

Another argument against the great antiquity of playing-cards is drawn from the want of paper proper for their fabrication. We certainly have no reason to believe that paper made with linen rags was produced in Europe before the middle of the fourteenth century, and even then the art of paper-making does not appear to have been carried to any great perfection. It is also granted that paper is the most proper material we know of for the manufacturing of cards; but it will not therefore follow that they could not possibly be made with any other; and if we admit of any other, the objection will fall to the ground.

XXI.—CARD-PLAYING FORBIDDEN.

Card-playing appears to have been a very fashionable court amusement in the reign of Henry VII. In an account of money disbursed for the use of that monarch, an entry is made of one hundred shillings paid at one time to him for the purpose of playing at cards. [959] The princess Margaret, his daughter, previous to her marriage with James IV., king of Scotland, understood the use of cards. She played with her intended husband at Harbottle Castle; the celebration of their nuptials took place A. D. 1503, she being then only fourteen years of age. [960] Catherine of Spain, the consort of prince Arthur, afterwards married to Henry VIII. his brother, is said in her youth to have been well acquainted with the art of embroidery and other works of the needle proper for ladies to know, and expert in various courtly pastimes; and she could play at "tables, tick-tacke or gleeke, with cardis and dyce." [961]

The universality of card-playing in the reign of this monarch is evident from a prohibitory statute being necessary to prevent apprentices from using cards except in the Christmas holidays, and then only in their masters' houses. [962] Agreeable to this privilege, Stow, speaking of the customs at London, says, "from All-Hallows eve to the day following Candlemas-day, there was, among other sports, playing at cards for counters, nails, and points, in every house, more for pastime than for gain." [963] But this moderation, I apprehend, was by no means general, for several contemporary writers are exceedingly severe in their reflections upon the usage of cards, which they rank with dice, and consider both as destructive to morality and good order. [964]

XXII.—CARD-PLAYING CENSURED BY POETS.

Henry VIII. preferred the sports of the field, and such pastimes as promoted exercise, to sedentary amusements; his attachment to dice he gave up at an early part of his life; and I do not recollect that Hall the historian, who is so minute in describing the various sources of entertainment pursued by this athletic monarch, ever mentions cards as one of them: I am, indeed, well aware that Shakspeare speaks of his "playing at primero with the duke of Suffolk;" and it is very possible, that the poet might have had some authority for so doing. Sir William Forrest, who wrote at the close of his reign, and presented a poetical treatise entitled The Poesye of Princylye Practice, to his son Edward VI., speaks therein of the pastimes proper for the amusement of a monarch, and says, he may after dinner indulge himself with music, or otherwise

but adds, that "syttynge pastymes are seldom found good, especially in the day-time;" he therefore advises the pursuit of those that afforded both air and exercise. [965] In another part of his poem he speaks in strong terms against the practice of card-playing, as productive of idleness, especially when it is followed by the labouring people, in places of common resort:

Forrest's manuscript is in the Royal Library, [967] and at the commencement of the poem he is represented presenting it to king Edward VI. The author of an old morality, entitled Hycke Scorner, [968] written probably some time before this poem by Forrest, has placed the card-players with such company as evinces he had not a good opinion of their morals:

And also in Barclay's translation of the Ship of Fooles, by Sebastian Brant, printed by Pynson in 1508, are these lines:

It is not, however, necessary to produce any further evidence from the writers of the former times to prove the evil tendency of card-playing, when it is indulged beyond the limits of discretion. Too many instances of ruin and destruction may be brought forward in the present day to convince us of the justness of their censures.

XXIII.—ANCIENT CARDS.

The early specimens of playing-cards that have been produced, differ very little in their form from those now used. This form is certainly the most convenient for the purposes assigned to them, and has been most generally adopted. We shall, however, prove, that it was subject to variation. The figures and devices that constitute the different suits of the cards seem anciently to have depended upon the taste and invention of the card-makers; and they did not bear the least resemblance to those in present use.

It has been observed, that outlines made upon blocks of wood were stamped upon the cards, and afterwards filled up by the hand; but, soon after the invention of engraving upon copper, the devices were produced by the graver, and sufficiently finished, so that the impressions did not require any assistance from the pencil. It appears also, that the best artists of the time were employed for this purpose. I am exceedingly happy to have it in my power to lay before my readers a curious specimen of ancient engraved cards, in the possession of Francis Douce, esq., with whose permission they are added to this work. I have chosen one from each of the different suits, namely, the King of Columbines, the Queen of Rabbits, the Knave of Pinks, and the Ace of Roses; which answered to the spades, the clubs, the diamonds, and the hearts, of the moderns. The annexed engravings are of the same size as the originals. They are nearly square, and, originally, I have no doubt but they were perfectly so.

Upon the other cards belonging to the pack the number of the flowers or animals answered to the pips at present, with the addition of numeral figures corresponding with the devices, that they might be readily distinguished without the trouble of counting them. The originals of these cards, I make no doubt, are the work of Martin Schoen, a well-known and justly celebrated German artist; and Mr. Douce is in possession of part of another set, which evidently appear to be the production of Israel Van Mecheln, who was contemporary with Schoen. Mecheln outlived Martin Schoen a considerable time; the latter died in 1486, and the former in 1523. The earliest print that I have seen by Mecheln with a date is 1480; but he practised the art of engraving some time prior to that period.

A set or pack of cards, but not equally ancient with those above mentioned, were in the possession of Dr. Stukeley: the four suits upon them consisted of bells, of hearts, of leaves, and of acorns; by which, the doctor imagined, were represented the four orders of men among us: the bells are such as are usually tied to the legs of the hawks, and denoted the nobility; the hearts were intended for the ecclesiastics; the leaves alluded to the gentry, who possess lands, woods, manors, and parks; the acorns signified the farmers, peasants, woodmen, park-keepers, and hunters. But this definition will, I trust, be generally considered as a mere effusion of fancy. It is remarkable that in these cards there are neither queens nor aces; but the former are supplied by knights, the latter have no substitute. Dr. Stukeley's cards were purchased at his sale by Mr. Tuttet, and again at his sale by Mr. Gough, in whose possession they now remain. [969] The last gentleman has given a full description of them in a paper upon the subject of card-playing, in the ArchÆologia. [970] The figured cards, by us denominated court cards, were formerly called coat cards; and originally, I conceive, the name implied coated figures, that is, men and women who wore coats, in contradistinction to the other devices of flowers and animals not of the human species. The pack or set of cards, in the old plays, is continually called a pair of cards; which has suggested the idea that anciently two packs of cards were used, a custom common enough at present in playing at quadrille; one pack being laid by the side of the player who is to deal the next time. But this supposition rests entirely upon the application of the term itself, without any other kind of proof whatever: and seems, indeed, to be entirely overturned by a passage in a very old play entitled The longer thou livest the more Foole thou art; in which Idleness desires Moros the clown to look at "his booke," and shows him "a paire of cardes." [971] In a comedy called A Woman killed with Kindness, a pair of cards and counters to play with are mentioned.

XXIV.—GAMES FORMERLY PLAYED WITH CARDS.

Primero is reckoned among the most ancient games of cards known to have been played in England; each player, we are told, had four cards dealt to him one by one; the seven was the highest card in point of number that he could avail himself of, which counted for twenty-one; the six counted for sixteen, the five for fifteen, and the ace for the same; but the two, the three, and the four, for their respective points only. The knave of hearts was commonly fixed upon for the quinola, which the player might make what card or suit he thought proper; if the cards were of different suits the highest number won the primero, if they were all of one colour he that held them won the flush. [972]

Prime, mentioned by Sir John Harrington in his satirical description of the fashionable court games, published in 1615, the hon. Daines Barrington thinks was not the same as primero; he has not, however, specified the difference between them. The poet says,

Trump. A game thus denominated in the old plays is perhaps of equal antiquity with primero, and at the latter end of the sixteenth century was very common among the lower classes of people. Dame Chat, in Gammer Gurton's Needle, says to Dicon, "we be set at trump, man, hard by the fire, thou shalt set upon the king;" and afterwards to her maid,

Trump is thought to have borne some resemblance to the modern game of whist.

Gresco is mentioned in conjunction with primero in the comedy of Eastward Hoe; [974] "he would play his hundred pounds at gresco and primero as familiarly as any bright piece of crimson of them all."

Sir John Harrington, after having mentioned prime, proceeds to enumerate the games that succeeded in the following manner:

Gleek is mentioned with primero in Green's Tu quoque, where one of the characters proposes to play at twelve-penny gleek, but the other insists upon making it for a crown at least.

Coeval with gleek we find Mount Saint, or more properly Cent, in Spanish Cientos, or hundred, the number of points that win the game. Thus in a play by Lewis Machin, called the Dumb Knight, the third edition printed in 1608, the queen says of this game, "the name is taken from hundreds;" and afterwards to Philocles, "you are a double game, and I am no less; there is an hundred, and all cards made but one knave." [978] Mount Saint was played by counting, and probably did not differ much from Picquet, or picket, as it was formerly written, which is said to have been played with counters, and to have been introduced in France about the middle of the seventeenth century. Picket is mentioned in Flora's Vagaries, printed in 1670.

New Cut is mentioned in A Woman killed with Kindness, a play written by Thomas Heywood, third edition, 1617, where one of the characters says, "if you will play at new cut, I am soonest hitter of any one heere for a wager." Knave out of Doors occurs also in the same play, together with Ruff, which is proposed to be played with honours; double ruff, and English ruff, with honours, are mentioned in the Complete Gamester, published in 1674, and is distinguished from French ruff.

Lansquenet is a French game, and took its name from the Lansquenets, or light German troops, employed by the kings of France in the fifteenth century. [979]

Basset, said by Dr. Johnson to have been invented at Venice, was a very fashionable game towards the close of the seventeenth century.

Ombre was brought into England by Catherine of Portugal, queen to Charles II.

Quadrille, a modern game, bears great analogy to ombre, with the addition of a fourth player, which is certainly a great improvement.

Whist, or as it was formerly written, whisk, is a game now held in high estimation. At the commencement of last century, according to Swift, it was a favourite pastime with clergymen, who played the game with swabbers; these were certain cards by which the holder was entitled to part of the stake, in the same manner that the claim is made for the aces at quadrille. Whist, in its present state of improvement, may properly be considered as a modern game, and was not, says the hon. Daines Barrington, played upon principles till about fifty years ago, when it was much studied by a set of gentlemen who frequented the Crown coffee-house in Bedford-row. Mr. Barrington's paper on card-playing in the ArchÆologia, was published in 1787, and the author says that the first mention he finds of the game of whist is in the Beaux Stratagem, a comedy by Geo. Farquhar, pub. A. D. 1707. He also thinks that whist might have originated from the old game of trump. Cotgrave explains the French word triomphe in this manner; the game called ruff, or trump; also the ruff, or trump in it.

To the games already mentioned we may add the following: Put, and the High Game; Plain Dealing, Wit and Reason, Costly Colours, Five Cards, Bone Ace, [980] Queen Nazareen, Lanterloo, Penneech, Art of Memory, Beast, Cribbage, and All Fours. Nearly all these games may be found in a small book entitled the Complete Gamester, with the directions how to play them. Crimp, mentioned in the Spectator, [981] I take to be a game played with the cards, and one might be led to think the same of Roulet by the wording of the act 18 Geo. II. by which it is prohibited. The words are, "And whereas a certain pernicious game, called Roulet, or Roly-poly, is daily practised," the act then directs "that no place shall be kept for playing at the said game of roulet, or roly-poly, or any other game with cards or dice," &c.

XXV.—THE GAME OF GOOSE—AND OF THE SNAKE.

In addition to the pastimes mentioned in the preceding pages, I shall produce two or three more; and they are such as require no skill in the performance, but depend entirely upon chance for the determination of the contest.

We have a childish diversion usually introduced at Christmas time, called the Game of Goose. This game may be played by two persons; but it will readily admit of many more; it originated, I believe, in Germany, and is well calculated to make children ready at reckoning the produce of two given numbers. The table for playing at goose is usually an impression from a copper-plate pasted upon a cartoon about the size of a sheet almanack, and divided into sixty-two small compartments arranged in a spiral form, with a large open space in the midst marked with the number sixty-three; the lesser compartments have singly an appropriate number from one to sixty-two inclusive, beginning at the outmost extremity of the spiral lines. At the commencement of the play, every one of the competitors puts a stake into the space at No. 63. There are also different forfeitures in the course of the game that are added, and the whole belongs to the winner. At No. 5 is a bridge which claims a forfeit at passing; at 19, an alehouse where a forfeit is exacted and to stop two throws; at 30, a fountain where you pay for washing; at 42, a labyrinth which carries you back to 23; at 52, the prison where you must rest until relieved by another casting the same throw; at 58, the grave whence you begin the game again; and at 61, the goblet where you pay for tasting. [982] The game is played with two dice, and every player throws in his turn as he sits at the table: he must have a counter or some other small mark which he can distinguish from the marks of his antagonists, and according to the amount of the two numbers thrown upon the dice he places his mark; that is to say, if he throws a four and a five, which amount to nine, he places his mark at nine upon the table, moving it the next throw as many numbers forward as the dice permit him, and so on until the game be completed, namely, when the number sixty-three is made exactly; all above it the player reckons back, and then throws again in his turn. If the second thrower at the beginning of the game casts the same number as the first, he takes up his piece, and the first player is obliged to begin the game again. If the same thing happens in the middle of the game, the first player goes back to the place the last came from. It is called the game of the goose, because at every fourth and fifth compartment in succession a goose is depicted, and if the cast thrown by the player falls upon a goose, he moves forward double the number of his throw.

We have also the Game of Snake, and the more modern Game of Matrimony, with others of the like kind; formed upon the same plan as that of the goose, but none of them, according to my opinion, are in the least improved by the variations.

XXVI.—CROSS AND PILE.

Cross and pile, or with us head or tail, is a silly pastime well enough known among the lowest and most vulgar classes of the community, and to whom it is at present very properly confined; formerly, however, it held a higher rank, and was introduced at the court. Edward II. was partial to this and such like frivolous diversions, and spent much of his time in the pursuit of them. In one of his wardrobe rolls we meet with the following entries: "Item, paid to Henry, the king's barber, for money which he lent to the king to play at cross and pile, five shillings. Item, paid to Pires Barnard, usher of the king's chamber, money which he lent the king, and which he lost at cross and pile; to Monsieur Robert Wattewille eightpence." [983]

A halfpenny is generally now used in playing this game; but any other coin with a head impressed on one side will answer the purpose: the reverse of the head being called the tail without respect to the figure upon it, and the same if it was blank. Anciently the English coins were stamped on one side with a cross. One person tosses the halfpenny up and the other calls at pleasure head or tail; if his call lies uppermost when the halfpenny descends and rests upon the ground, he wins; and if on the contrary, of course he loses. Cross and pile is evidently derived from a pastime called Ostrachinda, ?st?a???da, known in ancient times to the Grecian boys, and practised by them upon various occasions; having procured a shell, it was seared over with pitch on one side for distinction sake, and the other side was left white; a boy tossed up this shell and his antagonist called white or black, ??? et ?e?a, (literally night and day), as he thought proper, and his success was determined by the white or black part of the shell being uppermost.

---

It is said of the English, that formerly they were remarkable for the manner in which they celebrated the festival of Christmas; at which season they admitted variety of sports and pastimes not known, or little practised in other countries. [984] The mock prince, or lord of misrule, whose reign extended through the greater part of the holidays, is particularly remarked by foreign writers, who consider him as a personage rarely to be met with out of England; [985] and, two or three centuries back, perhaps this observation might be consistent with the truth; but I trust we shall upon due examination be ready to conclude, that anciently this frolicksome monarch was well known upon the continent, where he probably received his first honours. In this kingdom his power and his dignities suffered no diminution, but on the contrary were established by royal authority, and continued after they had ceased to exist elsewhere. But even with us his government has been extinct for many years, and his name and his offices are nearly forgotten. In some great families, and also sometimes at court, this officer was called the Abbot of Misrule. Leland says, "This Christmas [986] I saw no disguiseings at court, and right few playes; but there was an abbot of misrule that made much sport, and did right well his office." [987] In Scotland he was called the Abbot of Unreason, and prohibited there in 1555 by the parliament. [988] No doubt in many instances the privileges allowed to this merry despot were abused, and not unfrequently productive of immorality; the institution itself, even if we view it in its most favourable light, is puerile and ridiculous, adapted to the ages of ignorance, when more rational amusements were not known, or at least not fashionable.

II.—THE LORD OF MISRULE A COURT OFFICER.

Holingshed, speaking of Christmas, calls it, "What time there is alwayes one appointed to make sporte at courte called commonly lorde of misrule, whose office is not unknowne to such as have bene brought up in noblemens' houses and among great housekeepers, which use liberal feasting in the season." [989] Again: "At the feast of Christmas," says Stow, "in the king's court wherever he chanced to reside, there was appointed a lord of misrule, or master of merry disports; the same merry fellow made his appearance at the house of every nobleman and person of distinction, and among the rest the lord mayor of London and the sheriffs had severally of them their lord of misrule, ever contending, without quarrel or offence, who should make the rarest pastimes to delight the beholders; this pageant potentate began his rule at All-hallow eve, and continued the same till the morrow after the Feast of the Purification; in which space there were fine and subtle disguisings, masks, and mummeries." [990]

III.—THE MASTER OF THE KING'S REVELS.

In the fifth year of Edward VI., at Christmas time, a gentleman named George Ferrers, who was a lawyer, a poet, and an historian, was appointed by the council to bear this office; "and he," says Holingshed, "being of better calling than commonly his predecessors had been before, received all his commissions and warrauntes by the name of master of the kinge's pastimes; which gentleman so well supplied his office, both of shew of sundry sights, and devises of rare invention, and in act of divers interludes, and matters of pastime, played by persons, as not only satisfied the common sorte, but also were verie well liked and allowed by the council, and others of skill in lyke pastimes; but best by the young king himselfe, as appeared by his princely liberalitie in rewarding that service." It was certainly an act of much policy in the council to appoint so judicious and respectable an officer for the department at this time, and was done in order to counteract by shows and pastimes the discontent that prevailed, and divert the mind of the king from reflecting too deeply upon the condemnation of his uncle the duke of Somerset.

IV.—THE LORD OF MISRULE—AND HIS CONDUCT REPROBATED.

This master of merry disports was not confined to the court, nor to the houses of the opulent, he was also elected in various parishes, where, indeed, his reign seems to have been of shorter date. Philip Stubbs, who lived at the close of the sixteenth century, places this whimsical personage, with his followers, in a very degrading point of view. [991] I shall give the passage in the author's own words, and leave the reader to comment upon them. "First of all, the wilde heades of the parish flocking togither, chuse them a graund captaine of mischiefe, whom they innoble with the title of Lord of Misrule; and him they crowne with great solemnity, and adopt for their king. This king annoynted chooseth forth twentie, fourty, threescore, or an hundred lustie guttes, like to himself, to waite upon his lordly majesty, and to guarde his noble person. Then every one of these men he investeth with his liveries of greene, yellow, or some other light wanton colour, and as though they were not gawdy ynough, they bedecke themselves with scarffes, ribbons, and laces, hanged all over with gold ringes, pretious stones, and other jewels. This done, they tie aboute either legge twentie or fourtie belles, with riche handkerchiefes in their handes, and sometimes laide acrosse over their shoulders and neckes, borrowed, for the most part, of their pretie mopsies and loving Bessies. Thus all thinges set in order, then have they their hobby horses, their dragons, and other antiques, together with their baudie pipers, and thundring drummers, to strike up the devil's daunce with all. Then march this heathen company towards the church, their pypers pyping, their drummers thundring, their stumpes dauncing, their belles jyngling, their handkerchiefes fluttering aboute their heades like madde men, their hobbie horses and other monsters skirmishing amongst the throng: and in this sorte they go to the church, though the minister be at prayer or preaching, dauncing and singing like devils incarnate, with such a confused noise that no man can heare his owne voyce. Then the foolish people they looke, they stare, they laugh, they fleere, and mount upon the formes and pewes to see these goodly pageants solemnized. Then after this, aboute the church they go againe and againe, and so fourthe into the churche yard, where they have commonly their sommer-halls, their bowers, arbours, and banquetting-houses set up, wherein they feast, banquet, and daunce all that day, and paradventure all that night too; and thus these terrestrial furies spend the sabbath day. Then, for the further innobling of this honourable lardane, lord I should say, they have certaine papers wherein is painted some babelerie [992] or other of imagerie worke, and these they call my Lord of Misrule's badges or cognizances. These they give to every one that will give them money to maintain them in this their heathenish devilrie; and who will not show himself buxome to them and give them money, they shall be mocked and flouted shamefully; yea, and many times carried upon a cowlstaffe, and dived over heade and eares in water, or otherwise most horribly abused. And so besotted are some, that they not only give them money, but weare their badges or cognizances in their hates or cappes openly. Another sorte of fantasticall fooles bring to these helhounds, the Lord of Misrule and his complices, some bread, some good ale, some new cheese, some old cheese, some custardes, some cracknels, some cakes, some flauns, some tartes, some creame, some meat, some one thing, and some another." Hence it should seem the Lord of Misrule was sometimes president over the summer sports. The author has distinguished this pageantry from the May-games, the wakes, and the church-ales, of which, I should otherwise have thought, it might have been a component part.

V.—THE KING OF CHRISTMAS.

The society belonging to Lincoln's-inn had anciently an officer chosen at this season, who was honoured with the title of king of Christmas-day, because he presided in the hall upon that day. This temporary potentate had a marshal and a steward to attend upon him. The marshal, in the absence of the monarch, was permitted to assume his state, and upon New-Year's-day he sat as king in the hall when the master of the revels, during the time of dining, supplied the marshal's place. Upon Childermas-day they had another officer, denominated the King of the Cockneys, who also presided on the day of his appointment, and had his inferior officers to wait upon him. [993]

VI.—A KING OF CHRISTMAS AT NORWICH.

In the history of Norfolk [994] mention is made of a pageant exhibited at Norwich upon a Shrove Tuesday, which happened in the month of March, "when one rode through the street, having his horse trapped with tyn foyle and other nyse disgysynges, crowned as Kyng of Christmas, in token that the season should end with the twelve moneths of the year; and afore [995] hym went yche [996] moneth dysgysyd as the season requiryd."

VII.—THE KING OF THE BEAN.

The dignified persons above mentioned were, I presume, upon an equal footing with the King of the Bean, whose reign commenced upon the vigil of the Epiphany, or upon the day itself. We read that, some time back, "it was a common Christmas gambol in both our universities, and continued," at the commencement of the last century, "to be usual in other places, to give the name of king or queen to that person whose extraordinary good luck it was to hit upon that part of a divided cake which was honoured above the others by having a bean in it." [997] The reader will readily trace the vestige of this custom, though somewhat differently managed, and without the bean, in the present method of drawing, as it is called, for king and queen upon Twelfth-day. I will not pretend to say in ancient times, for the title is by no means of recent date, that the election of this monarch, the King of the Bean, depended entirely upon the decision of fortune: the words of an old kalendar belonging to the Romish church [998] seem to favour a contrary opinion; they are to this effect: On the fifth of January, the vigil of the Epiphany, the Kings of the Bean are created; [999] and on the sixth the feast of the kings shall be held, and also of the queen; and let the banqueting be continued for many days. At court, in the eighth year of Edward III., this majestic title was conferred upon one of the king's minstrels, as we find by an entry in a computus so dated, which states that sixty shillings were given by the king, upon the day of the Epiphany, to Regan the trumpeter and his associates, the court minstrels, in the name of King of the Bean. [1000]

VIII.—WHENCE THESE MOCK DIGNITIES WERE DERIVED.

Selden asserts, [1001] and in my opinion with great justice, that all these whimsical transpositions of dignity are derived from the ancient Saturnalia, or Feasts of Saturn, when the masters waited upon their servants, who were honoured with mock titles, and permitted to assume the state and deportment of their lords. These fooleries were exceedingly popular, and continued to be practised long after the establishment of Christianity, in defiance of the threatenings and the remonstrances of the clergy, who, finding it impossible to divert the stream of vulgar prejudice permitted them to be exercised, but changed the primitive object of devotion; so that the same unhallowed orgies, which had disgraced the worship of a heathen deity, were dedicated, as it was called, to the service of the true God, and sanctioned by the appellation of a Christian institution. From this polluted stock branched out variety of unseemly and immoral sports; but none of them more daringly impious and outrageous to common sense, than the Festival of Fools, in which the most sacred rites and ceremonies of the church were turned into ridicule, and the ecclesiastics themselves participated in the abominable profanations. The following outlines of this absurd diversion will no doubt be thought sufficient.

IX.—THE FESTIVAL OF FOOLS.

In each of the cathedral churches there was a bishop, or an archbishop of fools, elected; and in the churches immediately dependent upon the papal see a pope of fools. These mock pontiffs had usually a proper suit of ecclesiastics who attended upon them, and assisted at the divine service, most of them attired in ridiculous dresses resembling pantomimical players and buffoons; they were accompanied by large crowds of the laity, some being disguised with masks of a monstrous fashion, and others having their faces smutted; in one instance to frighten the beholders, and in the other to excite their laughter: and some, again, assuming the habits of females, practised all the wanton airs of the loosest and most abandoned of the sex. During the divine service this motley crowd were not contented with singing of indecent songs in the choir, but some of them ate, and drank, and played at dice upon the altar, by the side of the priest who celebrated the mass. After the service they put filth into the censers, and ran about the church, leaping, dancing, laughing, singing, breaking obscene jests, and exposing themselves in the most unseemly attitudes with shameless impudence. [1002] Another part of these ridiculous ceremonies was, to shave the precentor of fools upon a stage erected before the church, in the presence of the populace; and during the operation, he amused them with lewd and vulgar discourses, [1003] accompanied by actions equally reprehensible. The bishop, or the pope of fools, performed the divine service habited in the pontifical garments, and gave his benediction to the people before they quitted the church. He was afterwards seated in an open carriage, and drawn about to the different parts of the town, attended by a large train of ecclesiastics and laymen promiscuously mingled together; and many of the most profligate of the latter assumed clerical habits in order to give their impious fooleries the greater effect; they had also with them carts filled with ordure, which they threw occasionally upon the populace assembled to see the procession. [1004] These spectacles were always exhibited at Christmas-time, or near to it, but not confined to one particular day. It was sometimes on Christmas-day, and on the feasts of St. Stephen, St. John, the Innocents, the Circumcision, the Epiphany, &c. [1005] When the ceremony took place upon St. Stephen's-day, they sang, as part of the mass, a burlesque composition called the Prose of the Ass, or the Fool's Prose. It was performed by a double choir, and at intervals, in place of a burden, they imitated the braying of an ass. Upon the festival of St. John the Evangelist they had another arrangement of ludicrous sentences, denominated the Prose of the Ox, equally reprehensible. [1006] These exhibitions were highly relished by the populace at large, and crept into the monasteries and nunneries, where they were practised by the female votaries of religion.

X.—THE BOY-BISHOP

Grotesque ceremonies, something similar to those above mentioned, certainly took place in England; but probably they were not carried to that extent of impiety, nor so grossly offensive to decency. We had a king of the fools, but his office was suppressed at an early period, and not, that I remember, revived in the succeeding times. A Rex Stultorum, in Beverley church, was prohibited in 1391. [1007] The election and the investment of the boy-bishop was certainly derived from the festival of fools. It does not appear at what period this idle ceremony was first established, but probably it was ancient, at least we can trace it back to the fourteenth century. In all the collegiate churches, at the feast of St. Nicholas, or of the Holy Innocents, and frequently at both, it was customary for one of the children of the choir, completely apparelled in the episcopal vestments, with a mitre and crosier, to bear the title and state of a bishop. He exacted a ceremonial obedience from his fellows, who being dressed like priests, took possession of the church, and performed all the ceremonies and offices which might have been celebrated by a bishop and his prebendaries: Warton, and the author of the manuscript he has followed, add, "the mass excepted;" but the proclamation of Henry VIII. for the abolition of this custom, proves they did "singe masse." Colet, dean of St. Paul's, though he was "a wise and good man," countenanced this idle farce; and in the statutes for his school [1008] at St. Paul's, expressly orders that the scholars "shall, every Childermas, that is, Innocents-day, come to Paule's churche, and hear the Childe Byshop's [1009] sermon, and after be at hygh masse, and each of them offer a penny to the childe byshop; and with them the maisters and surveyors of the schole." [1010] To this Warton adds, "I take this opportunity of intimating that the custom at Eton of going ad montem, originated from the ancient and popular practice of these theatrical processions in collegiate bodies." [1011] After having performed the divine service, the boy-bishop and his associates went about to different parts of the town, and visited the religious houses, collecting money. These ceremonies and processions were formally abrogated by proclamation from the king and council, in 1542, the thirty-third year of Henry VIII.; the concluding clause of the ordinance runs thus: "Whereas heretofore dyvers and many superstitious and chyldysh observances have been used, and yet to this day are observed and kept in many and sundry places of this realm upon St. Nicholas, St. Catherines, St. Clements, and Holy Innocents, and such like holydaies; children [1012] be strangelie decked and apparayled to counterfeit priests, bishops, and women, and so ledde with songs and dances from house to house, blessing the people, and gathering of money; and boyes do singe masse, and preache in the pulpits, with such other unfittinge and inconvenient usages, which tend rather to derysyon than enie true glorie to God, or honor of his sayntes." [1013] This idle pageantry was revived by his daughter Mary; and in the second year of her reign an edict, dated November 13, 1554, was issued from the bishop of London to all the clergy of his diocese, to have a boy-bishop in procession. [1014] The year following, "the child bishop, of Paules church, with his company," were admitted into the queen's privy chamber, where he sang before her on Saint Nicholas-day and upon Holy Innocents-day. [1015] Again the next year, says Strype, "on Saint Nicholas-even, Saint Nicholas, that is, a boy habited like a bishop in pontificalibus, [1016] went abroad in most parts of London, singing after the old fashion; and was received with many ignorant but well-disposed people into their houses, and had as much good cheer as ever was wont to be had before." After the death of Mary this silly mummery was totally discontinued. We may observe, that most of the churches in which these mock ceremonies were performed, had dresses and ornaments proper for the occasion, and suited to the size of the wearers, but in every other respect resembling those appropriated to the real dignitaries of the church; hence it is we frequently meet with entries of diminutive habits and ornaments in the church inventories, as una mitra parva cum petris pro episcopo puerorum, that is, a small mitre with jewels for the bishop of the boys. [1017]

XI.—THE FOOL-PLOUGH.

Cards, dice, tables, and most other games prohibited by the public statutes at other seasons of the year, were tolerated during the Christmas holidays, as well as disguisements and mummings; and in some parts of the kingdom vestiges of these customs are to be found to the present day. "In the north," says Mr. Brand, [1018] at Christmas time "fool-plough goes about; a pageant that consists of a number of sword-dancers dragging a plough about with music, and one, or sometimes two of them attired in a very antic dress; as the Bessy in the grotesque habit of an old woman, and the Fool almost covered with skins, a hairy cap on his head, and the tail of some animal hanging down his back: the office of one of these characters is to go about rattling a box among the spectators of the dance to collect their little donations; and it is remarkable that in some places where this pageant is retained, they plough up the soil before any house where they receive no reward." The pageant and the dance seem to be a composition of gleanings of several obsolete customs followed anciently. The Fool and the Bessy are plainly fragments of the festival of fools. [1019]

The fool-plough was, perhaps, the yule-plough; it is also called the white-plough, because the gallant young men that compose the pageant appear to be dressed in their shirts without coats or waistcoats; upon which great numbers of ribbands folded into roses are loosely stitched. Mr. Brand adds, "it appears to be a very airy habit for this cold season, but they have warm waistcoats under it." In general Plough-Monday, or the first Monday after Twelfth-day, is the Ploughmen's Holiday, when they beg for the plough-money to drink. In Essex and Suffolk, at Shrove-tide or upon Shrove-Tuesday, after the confession, it was usual for the farmer to permit his ploughman to go to the barn blindfolded, and "thresh the fat hen," saying, "if you can kill her then give it thy men; and go you and dine on fritters and pancakes." [1020]

XII.—EASTER GAMES.

In the islands of Scilly it was customary of late years at this season for "the young people to exercise a sort of gallantry called goose dancing, when the maidens are dressed up for young men, and the young men for maidens; thus disguised they visit their neighbours in companies, where they dance, and make jokes upon what has happened in the island; when every one is humorously told their own without offence being taken; by this sort of sport, according to yearly custom and toleration, there is a spirit of wit and drollery kept up among the people. When the music and dancing is done, they are treated with liquor, and then they go to the next house of entertainment." [1021]

XIII.—SHROVE-TUESDAY, &c.

Cock-fighting, and throwing at cocks on Shrove-Tuesday, and playing at hand-ball for tansy-cakes at Easter-tide, have been already mentioned, with other trifling sports which are comprised under their appropriate heads, and need not to be repeated; but, according to Stow, the week before Easter, "great shows were made by bringing a twisted tree, or with, as they termed it, into the king's palace, and into the houses of the nobility and gentry." I am not certain whether the author means that this custom was confined to the city of London, or whether it extended to other parts of England. [1022] It is now obsolete.

XIV.—HOKE-DAY, OR HOCK-DAY.

This popular holiday, Quindena PaschÆ, mentioned by Matthew Paris and other ancient writers, was usually kept on the Tuesday [1023] following the second Sunday after Easter-day; and distinguished, according to John Rouse, [1024] by various sportive pastimes, in which the towns-people, divided into parties, were accustomed to draw each other with ropes. Spelman is more definite, and tells us, "they consisted in the men and women binding each other, and especially the women the men," and hence it was called Binding-Tuesday. [1025] Cowel informs us that it was customary in several manors in Hampshire for "the men to hock the women on the Monday, and the women the men upon the Tuesday; that is, on that day the women in merriment stop the ways with ropes and pull the passengers to them, desiring something to be laid out in pious uses in order to obtain their freedom." [1026] Such are the general outlines of this singular institution, and the pens of several able writers have been employed in attempting to investigate its origin. [1027] Some think it was held in commemoration of the massacre of the Danes, in the reign of Ethelred the Unready, on Saint Brice's-day; [1028] others, that it was in remembrance of the death of Hardicanute, which happened on Tuesday the 8th of June, 1041, by which event the English were delivered from the intolerant government of the Danes: and this opinion appears to be most probable. The binding part of the ceremony might naturally refer to the abject state of slavery in which the wretched Saxons were held by their imperious lords; and the donations for "pious uses," may be considered as tacit acknowledgments of gratitude to heaven for freeing the nation from its bondage. In the churchwarden's accounts for the parish of Lambeth for the years 1515 and 1516, are several entries of hock monies received from the men and the women for the church service. And here we may observe, that the contributions collected by the fair sex exceeded those made by the men. [1029]

Hock-day was generally observed as lately as the sixteenth century. We learn from Spelman that it was not totally discontinued in his time. Dr. Plott, who makes Monday the principal day, has noticed some vestiges of it at the distance of fifty years, but now it is totally abolished.

XV.—MAY-GAMES.

The celebration of the May-games, at which we have only glanced in a former part of the work, [1030] will require some enlargement in this chapter. "On the calends or first of May," says Bourne, [1031] "commonly called May-day, the juvenile part of both sexes were wont to rise a little after midnight and walk to some neighbouring wood, accompanied with music and blowing of horns, where they break down branches from the trees, and adorn them with nosegays and crowns of flowers; when this is done, they return with their booty homewards about the rising of the sun, and make their doors and windows to triumph with their flowery spoils; and the after part of the day is chiefly spent in dancing round a tall poll, which is called a May-poll; and being placed in a convenient part of the village, stands there, as it were, consecrated to the Goddess of Flowers, without the least violation being offered to it in the whole circle of the year."

This custom, no doubt, is a relic of one more ancient, practised by the Heathens, who observed the last four days in April, and the first of May, in honour of the goddess Flora. An old Romish calendar, cited by Mr. Brand, says, on the 30th of April, the boys go out to seek May-trees, "Maii arbores a pueris exquirunter." Some consider the May-pole as a relic of Druidism; but I cannot find any solid foundation for such an opinion.

It should be observed, that the May-games were not always celebrated upon the first day of the month; and to this we may add the following extract from Stow: "In the month of May the citizens of London of all estates, generally in every parish, and in some instances two or three parishes joining together, had their several mayings, and did fetch their may-poles with divers warlike shows; with good archers, morrice-dancers, and other devices for pastime, all day long; and towards evening they had stage-plays and bonfires in the streets. These great mayings and may-games were made by the governors and masters of the city, together with the triumphant setting up of the great shaft or principal may-pole in Cornhill before the parish church of Saint Andrew," [1032] which was thence called Saint Andrew Undershaft.

No doubt the May-games are of long standing, though the time of their institution cannot be traced. Mention is made of the May-pole at Cornhill, in a poem called the "Chaunce of the Dice," attributed to Chaucer. In the time of Stow, who died in 1605, they were not conducted with so great splendour as they had been formerly, owing to a dangerous riot which took place upon May-day, 1517, in the ninth year of Henry VIII. on which occasion several foreigners were slain, and two of the ringleaders of the disturbance were hanged.

Stow has passed unnoticed the manner in which the May-poles were usually decorated; this deficiency I shall supply from Philip Stubs, a contemporary writer, one who saw these pastimes in a very different point of view, and some may think his invectives are more severe than just; however, I am afraid the conclusion of them, though perhaps much exaggerated, is not altogether without foundation. He writes thus: [1033] "Against Maie-day, Whitsunday, or some other time of the year, every parish, towne, or village, assemble themselves, both men, women, and children; and either all together, or dividing themselves into companies, they goe some to the woods and groves, some to the hills and mountaines, some to one place, some to another, where they spend all the night in pleasant pastimes, and in the morning they return, bringing with them birche boughes and branches of trees to deck their assemblies withal. But their chiefest jewel they bring from thence is the Maie-pole, which they bring home with great veneration, as thus—they have twentie or fourtie yoake of oxen, every oxe having a sweete nosegaie of flowers tied to the tip of his hornes, and these oxen drawe home the May-poale, their stinking idol [1034] rather, which they covered all over with flowers and hearbes, bound round with strings from the top to the bottome, and sometimes it was painted with variable colours, having two or three hundred men, women, and children following it with great devotion. And thus equipped it was reared with handkerchiefes and flagges streaming on the top, they strawe the ground round about it, they bind green boughs about it, they set up summer halles, bowers, and arbours hard by it, and then fall they to banquetting and feasting, to leaping and dauncing about it, as the heathen people did at the dedication of their idolls. I have heard it crediblie reported, by men of great gravity, credite, and reputation, that of fourtie, threescore, or an hundred maides going to the wood, there have scarcely the third part of them returned home againe as they went."

In the churchwarden's account for the parish of St. Helen's in Abingdon, Berks, dated 1566, the ninth of Elizabeth, is the following article: "Payde for setting up Robin Hoode's bower, eighteenpence;" that is, a bower for the reception of the fictitious Robin Hood and his company, belonging to the May-day pageant. [1035]

XVI.—THE LORD AND LADY OF THE MAY.

It seems to have been the constant custom, at the celebration of the May-games, to elect a Lord and Lady of the May, who probably presided over the sports. On the thirtieth of May, 1557, in the fourth year of queen Mary, "was a goodly May-game in Fenchurch-street, with drums, and guns, and pikes; and with the nine worthies who rode, and each of them made his speech, there was also a morrice dance, and an elephant and castle, and the Lord and Lady of the May appearing to make up the show." [1036] We also read that the Lord of the May, and no doubt his Lady also, was decorated with scarfs, ribbands, and other fineries. Hence, in the comedy called The Knight of the Burning Pestle, written by Beaumont and Fletcher in 1611, a citizen, addressing himself to the other actors, says, "Let Ralph come out on May-day in the morning, and speak upon a conduit, with all his scarfs about him, and his feathers, and his rings, and his knacks, as Lord of the May." His request is complied with, and Ralph appears upon the stage in the assumed character, where he makes his speech, beginning in this manner:

The citizen is supposed to be a spectator, and Ralph is his apprentice, but permitted by him to play in the piece.

At the commencement of the sixteenth century, or perhaps still earlier, the ancient stories of Robin Hood and his frolicsome companions seem to have been new-modelled, and divided into separate ballads, which much increased their popularity; for this reason it was customary to personify this famous outlaw, with several of his most noted associates, and add them to the pageantry of the May-games. He presided as Lord of the May; and a female, or rather, perhaps, a man habited like a female, called the Maid Marian, his faithful mistress, was the Lady of the May. His companions were distinguished by the title of "Robin Hood's Men," and were also equipped in appropriate dresses; their coats, hoods, and hose were generally green. Henry VIII., in the first year of his reign, one morning, by way of pastime, came suddenly into the chamber where the queen and her ladies were sitting. He was attended by twelve noblemen, all apparelled in short coats of Kentish kendal, with hoods and hosen of the same; each of them had his bow, with arrows, and a sword, and a buckler, "like outlawes, or Robyn Hode's men. The queen, it seems, at first was somewhat affrighted by their appearance, of which she was not the least apprised. This gay troop performed several dances, and then departed." [1037]

Bishop Latimer, in a sermon which he preached before king Edward VI., relates the following anecdote, which proves the great popularity of the May pageants. "Coming," says he, "to a certain town on a holiday to preach, I found the church door fast locked. I taryed there half an houre and more, and at last the key was found, and one of the parish comes to me and sayes, Syr, this is a busy day with us, we cannot hear you; it is Robin Hoode's day; the parish are gone abroad to gather for Robin Hood; I pray you let [1038] them not. I was fayne, therefore, to give place to Robin Hood. I thought my rochet would have been regarded; but it would not serve, it was faine to give place to Robin Hoode's men." [1039] In Garrick's Collection of Old Plays [1040] is one entitled "A new Playe of Robyn Hoode, for to be played in the May-games, very pleasaunte and full of Pastyme," printed at London by William Copland, black letter, without date. This playe consists of short dialogues between Robyn Hode, Lytell John, Fryer Tucke, a potter's boy, and the potter. Robyn fights with the friar, who afterwards becomes his chaplain; he also breaks the boy's pots, and commits several other absurdities. The language of the piece is extremely low, and full of ribaldry.

XVII.—GRAND MAY-GAME AT GREENWICH.

It has been observed that the May-games were not confined to the first day of the month, neither were they always concluded in one day; on the contrary, I have now before me a manuscript, [1041] written apparently in the reign of Henry VII., wherein a number of gentlemen, professing themselves to be the servants of the Lady May, promise to be in the royal park at Greenwich, day after day, from two o'clock in the afternoon till five, in order to perform the various sports and exercises specified in the agreement; that is to say,

On the 14th day of May they engage to meet at a place appointed by the king, armed with the "harneis [1042] thereunto accustomed, to kepe the fielde, and to run with every commer eight courses." Four additional courses were to be granted to any one who desired it, if the time would permit, or the queen was pleased to give them leave; agreeable to the ancient custom by which the ladies presided as arbitrators at the justs. [1043]

On the 15th the archers took the field to shoot at "the standard with flight arrows."

On the 16th they held a tournament with "swords rebated to strike with every commer eight strokes," according to the accustomed usage.

On the 18th, for I suppose Sunday intervened, they were to be ready to "wrestle with all commers all manner of ways," according to their pleasure.

On the 19th they were to enter the field, to fight on foot at the barriers, with spears in their hands and swords rebated by their sides, and with spear and sword to defend their barriers: there were to be eight strokes with the spear, two of them "with the foyne," or short thrust, and eight strokes with the sword; "every man to take his best advantage with gript or otherwise."

On the 20th they were to give additional proof of their strength by casting "the barre on foote, and with the arme, bothe heavit and hight." I do not clearly understand this passage, but suppose it means by lifting and casting aloft.

On the 21st they recommenced the exercises, which were to be continued daily, Sundays excepted, through the remaining part of May, and a fortnight in the month of June.

XVIII.—ROYAL MAY-GAME AT SHOOTER'S HILL.

Henry VIII., when young, delighted much in pageantry, and the early part of his reign abounded with gaudy shows; most of them were his own devising, and others contrived for his amusement. Among the latter we may reckon a May-game at Shooter's hill, which was exhibited by the officers of his guards; they in a body, amounting to two hundred, all of them clothed in green, and headed by their captain, who personated Robin Hood, met the king one morning as he was riding to take the air, accompanied by the queen and a large suite of the nobility of both sexes. The fictitious foresters first amused them with a double discharge of their arrows; and then, their chief approaching the king, invited him to see the manner in which he and his companions lived. The king complied with the request, and the archers, blowing their horns, conducted him and his train into the wood under the hill, where an arbour was made with green boughs, having a hall, a great chamber, and an inner chamber, and the whole was covered with flowers and sweet herbs. When the company had entered the arbour, Robin Hood excused the want of more abundant refreshment, saying to the king, "Sir, we outlaws usually breakfast upon venison, and have no other food to offer you." The king and queen then sat down, and were served with venison and wine; and after the entertainment, with which it seems they were well pleased, they departed, and on their return were met by two ladies riding in a rich open chariot, drawn by five horses. Every horse, according to Holingshed, had his name upon his head, and upon every horse sat a lady, with her name written. On the first horse, called Lawde, sat Humidity; on the second, named Memeon, sat lady Vert, or green; on the third, called Pheton, sat lady Vegitive; on the fourth, called Rimphon, sat lady Pleasaunce; on the fifth, called Lampace, sat Sweet Odour. [1044] Both of the ladies in the chariot were splendidly apparelled; one of them personified the Lady May, and the other Lady Flora, "who," we are told, "saluted the king with divers goodly songs, and so brought him to Greenwich."

We may here just observe that the May-games had attracted the notice of the nobility long before the time of Henry; and agreeable to the custom of the times, no doubt, was the following curious passage in the old romance called The Death of Arthur: "Now it befell in the moneth of lusty May, that queene Guenever called unto her the knyghtes of the round table, and gave them warning that, early in the morning, she should ride on maying into the woods and fields beside Westminster." The knights were all of them to be clothed in green, to be well horsed, and every one of them to have a lady behind him, followed by an esquire and two yeomen, &c. [1045]

XIX.—MAY MILK-MAIDS.

"It is at this time," that is, in May, says the author of one of the papers in the Spectator, [1046] "we see the brisk young wenches, in the country parishes, dancing round the May-pole. It is likewise on the first day of this month that we see the ruddy milk-maid exerting herself in a most sprightly manner under a pyramid of silver tankards, and like the virgin Tarpeia, oppressed by the costly ornaments which her benefactors lay upon her. These decorations of silver cups, tankards, and salvers, were borrowed for the purpose, and hung round the milk-pails, with the addition of flowers and ribbands, which the maidens carried upon their heads when they went to the houses of their customers, and danced in order to obtain a small gratuity from each of them. In a set of prints called Tempest's Cryes of London, there is one called the merry milk-maid's, whose proper name was Kate Smith. She is dancing with the milk-pail decorated as above mentioned, upon her head. [1047] Of late years the plate, with the other decorations, were placed in a pyramidical form, and carried by two chairmen upon a wooden horse. The maidens walked before it, and performed the dance without any incumbrance. I really cannot discover what analogy the silver tankards and salvers can have to the business of the milk-maids. I have seen them act with much more propriety upon this occasion, when in place of these superfluous ornaments they substituted a cow. The animal had her horns gilt, and was nearly covered with ribbands of various colours, formed into bows and roses, and interspersed with green oaken leaves and bunches of flowers."

XX.—MAY FESTIVAL OF THE CHIMNEY-SWEEPERS.

The chimney-sweepers of London have also singled out the first of May for their festival; at which time they parade the streets in companies, disguised in various manners. Their dresses are usually decorated with gilt paper, and other mock fineries; they have their shovels and brushes in their hands, which they rattle one upon the other; and to this rough music they jump about in imitation of dancing. Some of the larger companies have a fiddler with them, and a Jack in the Green, as well as a Lord and Lady of the May, who follow the minstrel with great stateliness, and dance as occasion requires. The Jack in the Green is a piece of pageantry consisting of a hollow frame of wood or wicker-work, made in the form of a sugar-loaf, but open at the bottom, and sufficiently large and high to receive a man. The frame is covered with green leaves and bunches of flowers interwoven with each other, so that the man within may be completely concealed, who dances with his companions, and the populace are mightily pleased with the oddity of the moving pyramid.

XXI.—WHITSUN GAMES.

The Whitsuntide holidays were celebrated by various pastimes commonly practised upon other festivals; but the Monday after the Whitsun week, at Kidlington in Oxfordshire, a fat lamb was provided, and the maidens of the town, having their thumbs tied behind them, were permitted to run after it, and she who with her mouth took hold of the lamb was declared the Lady of the Lamb, which, being killed and cleaned, but with the skin hanging upon it, was carried on a long pole before the lady and her companions to the green, attended with music, and a morisco dance of men, and another of women. The rest of the day was spent in mirth and merry glee. Next day the lamb, partly baked, partly boiled, and partly roasted, was served up for the lady's feast, where she sat, "majestically at the upper end of the table, and her companions with her," the music playing during the repast, which, being finished, the solemnity ended. [1048]

XXII.—MIDSUMMER EVE FESTIVAL.

On the Vigil of Saint John the Baptist, commonly called Midsummer Eve, it was usual in most country places, and also in towns and cities, for the inhabitants, both old and young, and of both sexes, to meet together, and make merry by the side of a large fire made in the middle of the street, or in some open and convenient place, over which the young men frequently leaped by way of frolic, and also exercised themselves with various sports and pastimes, more especially with running wrestling, and dancing. These diversions they continued till midnight, and sometimes till cock-crowing; [1049] several of the superstitious ceremonies practised upon this occasion are contained in the following verses, as they are translated by Barnabe Googe, from the fourth book of The Popish Kingdome, written in Latin by Tho. Neogeorgus: the translation was dedicated to queen Elizabeth, and appeared in 1570.

At London, in addition to the bonfires, "on the eve of this saint, as well as upon that of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, every man's door was shaded with green birch, long fennel, Saint John's wort, orpin, white lilies, and the like, ornamented with garlands of beautiful flowers. They, the citizens, had also lamps of glass with oil burning in them all night; and some of them hung out branches of iron, curiously wrought, containing hundreds of lamps lighted at once, which made a very splendid appearance." This information we receive from Stow, who tells us that, in his time, New Fish-street and Thames-street were peculiarly brilliant upon these occasions.

XXIII.—SUPPOSED ORIGIN OF THE MIDSUMMER VIGIL.

The reasons assigned for making bonfires upon the vigil of Saint John in particular are various, for many writers have attempted the investigation of their origin; but unfortunately all their arguments, owing to the want of proper information, are merely hypothetical, and of course cannot be much depended upon. Those who suppose these fires to be a relic of some ancient heathenish superstition engrafted upon the variegated stock of ceremonies belonging to the Romish church, are not, in my opinion, far distant from the truth. The looking through the flowers at the fire, the casting of them finally into it, and the invocation to the Deity, with the effects supposed to be produced by those ceremonies, as mentioned in the preceding poem, are circumstances that seem to strengthen such a conclusion.

According to some of the pious writers of antiquity, they made large fires, which might be seen at a great distance, upon the vigil of this saint, in token that he was said in holy writ to be "a shining light." Others, agreeing with this, add also, these fires were made to drive away the dragons and evil spirits hovering in the air; and one of them gravely says, in some countries they burned bones, which was called a bone-fire; for "the dragons hattyd nothyng mor than the styncke of bernyng bonys." This, says another, habent ex gentilibus, they have from the heathens. The author last cited laments the abuses committed upon these occasions. "This vigil," says he, "ought to be held with cheerfulness and piety, but not with such merriment as is shewn by the profane lovers of this world, who make great fires in the streets, and indulge themselves with filthy and unlawful games, to which they add glotony and drunkenness, and the commission of many other shameful indecencies." [1050]

XXIV.—SETTING OF THE MIDSUMMER WATCH.

In former times it was customary in London, and in other great cities, to set the Midsummer watch upon the eve of Saint John the Baptist; and this was usually performed with great pomp and pageantry. [1051] The following short extract from the faithful historian, John Stow, will be sufficient to show the childishness as well as the expensiveness of this idle spectacle. The institution, he assures us, had been appointed, "time out of mind;" and upon this occasion the standing watches "in bright harness." There was also a marching watch, that passed through all the principal streets. In order to furnish this watch with lights, there were appointed seven hundred cressets; the charge for every cresset was two shillings and fourpence; every cresset required two men, the one to bear it, and the other to carry a bag with light to serve it. The cresset was a large lanthorn fixed at the end of a long pole, and carried upon a man's shoulder. The cressets were found partly by the different companies, and partly by the city chamber. Every one of the cresset-bearers was paid for his trouble; he had also given to him, that evening, a strawen hat and a painted badge, besides the donation of his breakfast next morning. The marching watch consisted of two thousand men, most of them being old soldiers of every denomination. They appeared in appropriate habits, with their arms in their hands, and many of them, especially the musicians and the standard bearers, rode upon great horses. There were also divers pageants and morris-dancers with the constables, one half of which, to the amount of one hundred and twenty, went out on the eve of Saint John, and the other half on the eve of Saint Peter. The constables were dressed in "bright harnesse, some over gilt, and every one had a joinet of scarlet thereupon, and a chain of gold; his henchman following him, and his minstrels before him, and his cresset-light at his side. The mayor himself came after him, well mounted, with his sword-bearer before him, in fair armour on horseback, preceded by the waits, or city minstrels, and the mayor's officers in liveries of worsted, or say jackets party coloured. The mayor was surrounded by his footmen and torch-bearers, and followed by two henchmen on large horses. The sheriffs' watches came one after the other in like order, but not so numerous; for the mayor had, besides his giant, three pageants; whereas the sheriffs had only two besides their giants, each with their morris-dance and one henchman: their officers were clothed in jackets of worsted, or say party-coloured, but differing from those belonging to the mayor, and from each other: they had also a great number of harnessed men." [1052] This old custom of setting the watch in London was maintained until the year 1539, in the 31st year of Henry VIII. when it was discontinued on account of the expense, and revived in the year 1548, the 2d of Edward VI. and soon after that time it was totally abolished.

On Midsummer eve it was customary annually at Burford, in Oxfordshire, to carry a dragon up and down the town, with mirth and rejoicing; to which they also added the picture [1053] of a giant. Dr. Plott tells us, this pageantry was continued in his memory, and says it was established, at least the dragon part of the show, in memory of a famous victory obtained near that place, about 750, by Cuthred, king of the west Saxons, over Ethebald, king of Mercia, who lost his standard, surmounted by a golden dragon, [1054] in the action.

XXV.—PROCESSIONS ON ST. CLEMENT'S AND ST. CATHERINE'S DAYS.

The Anniversary of Saint Clement, and that of Saint Catherine, the first upon the 23d, and the second upon the 25th, of November, were formerly particularized by religious processions which had been disused after the Reformation, but again established by queen Mary. In the year she ascended the throne, according to Strype, on the evening of Saint Catherine's day, her procession was celebrated at London with five hundred great lights, which were carried round Saint Paul's steeple; [1055] and again three years afterwards, her image, if I clearly understand my author, was taken about the battlements of the same church with fine singing and many great lights. [1056] But the most splendid show of this kind that took place in Mary's time was the procession on Saint Clement's day, exhibited in the streets of London: it consisted of sixty priests and clerks in their copes, attended by divers of the inns of court, who went next the priests, preceded by eighty banners and streamers, with the waits or minstrels of the city playing upon different instruments. [1057]

XXVI.—WASSAILS.

Wassail, or rather the wassail bowl, which was a bowl of spiced ale, formerly carried about by young women on New-year's eve, who went from door to door in their several parishes singing a few couplets of homely verses composed for the purpose, and presented the liquor to the inhabitants of the house where they called, expecting a small gratuity in return, Selden alludes to this custom in the following comparison: "The Pope, in sending reliques to princes, does as wenches do by their wassails at New-year's tide, they present you with a cup, and you must drink of a slabby stuff; but the meaning is, you must give them monies ten times more than it is worth." [1058] The wassail is said to have originated from the words of Rowena, the daughter of Hengist; who, presenting a bowl of wine to Vortigern, the king of the Britons, said, WÆs hÆel, or, Health to you, my lord the king; (?Æ? hÆl la?o?? c?nnin?). If this derivation of the custom should be thought doubtful, I can only say that it has the authority at least of antiquity on its side. The wassails are now quite obsolete; but it seems that fifty years back, some vestiges of them were remaining in Cornwall; but the time of their performance was changed to twelfth-day. [1059]

XXVII.—SHEEP-SHEARING AND HARVEST-HOME.

There are two feasts annually held among the farmers of this country, which are regularly made in the spring, and at the end of the summer, or the beginning of autumn, but not confined to any particular day. The first is the sheep-shearing, and the second the harvest-home; both of them were celebrated in ancient times with feasting and variety of rustic pastimes: at present, excepting a dinner, or more frequently a supper, at the conclusion of the sheep-shearing and the harvest, we have little remains of the former customs. The particular manner in which the sheep-shearing was celebrated in old time is not recorded; but respecting the harvest-home we meet with several curious observations. Hentzner, a foreign gentleman, who was in England at the close of the sixteenth century, and wrote an account of what he saw here, says, "as we were returning to our inn, (in or near Windsor) we happened to meet some country people celebrating their harvest-home: their last load of corn they crown with flowers, having besides, an image richly dressed, by which perhaps they signify Ceres; this they keep moving about, while the men and women, and men and maid-servants, riding through the streets in the cart, shout as loud as they can till they arrive at the barn." Moresin, another foreign writer, also tells us that he saw "in England, the country people bring home," from the harvest field, I presume he means, "a figure made with corn, round which the men and the women were promiscuously singing, and preceded by a piper or a drum." [1060] "In the north," says Mr. Brand, "not half a century ago, they used every where to dress up a figure something similar to that just described, at the end of harvest, which they called a kern-baby, plainly a corruption of corn-baby, as the kern, or churn supper, is of corn-supper." [1061]

The harvest-supper in some places is called a mell-supper, and a churn-supper. Mell is plainly derived from the French word mesler, to mingle together, the master and servant promiscuously at the same table. [1062] At the mell-supper, Bourne [1063] tells us, "the servant and his master are alike, and every thing is done with equal freedom; they sit at the same table, converse freely together, and spend the remaining part of the night in dancing and singing, without any difference or distinction. There was," continues my author, "a custom among the heathens much like this at the gathering of their harvest, when the servants were indulged with their liberty, and put upon an equality with their masters for a certain time. Probably both of them originated from the Jewish feast of tabernacles." [1064]

XXVIII.—WAKES.

The wakes when first instituted in this country were established upon religious principles, and greatly resembled the agapÆ, ??apa?, or love feasts of the early Christians. It seems, however, clear, that they derived their origin from some more ancient rites practised in the times of paganism. Hence Pope Gregory, in his letter to Melitus, a British abbot, says, "whereas the people were accustomed to sacrifice many oxen in honour of dÆmons, let them celebrate a religious and solemn festival, and not slay the animals, diabolo, to the devil, but to be eaten by themselves, ad laudem Dei, to the praise of God." [1065] These festivals were primitively held upon the day of the dedication of the church in each district, or the birth-day of the saint whose relics were therein deposited, or to whose honour it was consecrated; for which purpose the people were directed to make booths and tents with the boughs of trees adjoining to the churches, circa easdem ecclesias, [1066] and in them to celebrate the feast with thanksgiving and prayer. In process of time the people assembled on the vigil, or evening preceding the saint's-day, and came, says an old author, "to churche with candellys burnyng, and would wake, and come toward night to the church in their devocion," [1067] agreeable to the requisition contained in one of the canons established by king Edgar, whereby those who came to the wake were ordered to pray devoutly, and not to betake themselves to drunkenness and debauchery. The necessity for this restriction plainly indicates that abuses of this religious institution began to make their appearance as early as the tenth century. The author above cited goes on, "and afterwards the pepul fell to letcherie, and songs, and daunses, with harping and piping, and also to glotony and sinne; and so tourned the holyness to cursydness; wherefore holy faders ordeyned the pepull to leve that waking and to fast the evyn, but it is called vigilia, that is waking, in English, and eveyn, for of eveyn they were wont to come to churche." In proportion as these festivals deviated from the original design of their institution, they became more popular, the conviviality was extended, and not only the inhabitants of the parish to which the church belonged were present at them, but they were joined by others from the neighbouring towns and parishes, who flocked together upon these occasions, and the greater the reputation of the tutelar saint, the greater generally was the promiscuous assembly. The pedlars and hawkers attended to sell their wares, and so by degrees the religious wake was converted into a secular fair. The riot and debaucheries which eventually took place at these nocturnal meetings, became so offensive to religious persons that they were suppressed, and regular fairs established, to be held on the saint's-day, or upon some other day near to it as might be most convenient; and if the place did not admit of any traffic of consequence, the time was spent in festive mirth and vulgar amusements. These fairs still retain the ancient name of wakes in many parts of the kingdom.

XXIX.—SUNDAY FESTIVALS.

"In the northern parts of this nation," says Bourne, "the inhabitants of most country villages are wont to observe some Sunday in a more particular manner than the other common Sundays of the year, namely, the Sunday after the day of dedication of their church," that is, the Sunday after the saint's day to whom the church was dedicated. "Then the people deck themselves in their gaudiest clothes, and have open doors and splendid entertainments for the reception and treating of their relations and friends, who visit them on that occasion from each neighbouring town. The morning is spent for the most part at church, though not as that morning was wont to be spent, with the commemoration of the saint or martyr; nor the grateful remembrance of the builder and endower." Being come from church, the remaining part of the day is spent in eating and drinking, and so is a day or two afterwards, together with all sorts of rural pastimes and exercises, such as dancing on the green, wrestling, cudgelling, and the like. "In the northern parts, the Sunday's feasting is almost lost, and they observe only one day for the whole, which among them is called hopping, I suppose from the dancing and other exercises then practised. Here they used to end many quarrels between neighbour and neighbour, and hither came the wives in comely manner, and they which were of the better sort had their mantles carried with them, as well for show as to keep them from the cold at the table. These mantles also many did use at the churches, at the morrow masses, and at other times." [1068]

XXX.—CHURCH-ALES.

The Church-ales, called also Easter-ales, and Whitsun-ales from their being sometimes held on Easter-Sunday, and on Whit-Sunday, or on some of the holidays that follow them, certainly originated from the wakes. The churchwardens and other chief parish officers observing the wakes to be more popular than any other holidays, rightly conceived, that by establishing other institutions somewhat similar to them, they might draw together a large company of people, and annually collect from them, gratuitously as it were, such sums of money for the support and repairs of the church, as would be a great easement to the parish rates. By way of enticement to the populace they brewed a certain portion of strong ale, to be ready on the day appointed for the festival, which they sold to them; and most of the better sort, in addition to what they paid for their drink, contributed something towards the collection; but in some instances the inhabitants of one or more parishes were mulcted in a certain sum according to mutual agreement, as we find by an ancient stipulation, [1069] couched in the following terms: "The parishioners of Elverton and those of Okebrook in Derbyshire agree jointly to brew four ales, and every ale of one quarter of malt between this, [1070] and the feast of Saint John the Baptist next comming, and every inhabitant of the said town of Okebrook shall be at the several ales; and every husband and his wife shall pay two pence, and every cottager one penny. And the inhabitants of Elverton shall have and receive all the profits comming of the said ales, to the use and behoof of the church of Elverton; and the inhabitants of Elverton shall brew eight ales betwixt this and the feast of Saint John, at which ales the inhabitants of Okebrook shall come and pay as before rehearsed; and if any be away one ale, he is to pay at t'oder ale for both." In Cornwall the church-ales were ordered in a different manner; for there two young men of a parish were annually chosen by their foregoers to be wardens, "who, dividing the task, made collections among the parishioners of whatever provision it pleased them to bestow; this they employed in brewing, baking, and other acates, against Whitson-tide, upon which holidaies the neighbours meet at the church-house, and there merely feed on their own victuals, contributing some petty portion to the stock. When the feast is ended, the wardens yield in their accounts to the parishioners; and such money as exceedeth the disbursements, is layed up in store to defray any extraordinary charges arising in the parish." [1071]

To what has been said upon this subject, I shall only add the following extract from Philip Stubs, an author before quoted, who lived in the reign of queen Elizabeth, whose writings [1072] are pointed against the popular vices and immoralities of his time. "In certaine townes," says he, "where drunken Bacchus bears swaie against Christmass and Easter, Whitsunday, or some other time, the churchwardens, for so they call them, of every parish, with the consent of the whole parish, provide half a score or twentie quarters of mault, whereof some they buy of the church stocke, and some is given to them of the parishioners themselves, every one conferring somewhat, according to his ability; which mault being made into very strong ale, or beer, is set to sale, either in the church [1073] or in some other place assigned to that purpose. Then, when this nippitatum, this huffe-cappe, as they call it, this nectar of life, is set abroach, well is he that can get the soonest to it, and spends the most at it, for he is counted the godliest man of all the rest, and most in God's favour, because it is spent upon his church forsooth. If all be true which they say, they bestow that money which is got thereby for the repaire of their churches and chappels; they buy bookes for the service, cupps for the celebration of the sacrament, surplesses for Sir John, and such other necessaries," &c. He then proceeds to speak upon "the manner of keeping wakesses (wakes) in England," in a style similar to that above cited, and says they were "the sources of gluttonie and drunkenness;" and adds, "many spend more at one of these wakesses than in all the whole year besides." It has before been observed that this author is very severe upon most of the popular sports; but in justice to him I may add, that similar complaints have been exhibited against the church-ales and wakes in times greatly anterior to his existence. And, indeed, if we look at the wakes and fairs as they are conducted in the present day, I trust we shall not hesitate to own that they are by no means proper schools for the improvement of the public morals.

The ingenious researcher into the causes of melancholy thinks that these kinds of amusement ought not to be denied to the commonalty. [1074] Chaucer, in the Ploughman's Tale, reproves the priests because they were more attentive to the practice of secular pastimes than to the administration of their holy functions, saying they were expert

XXXI.—FAIRS.

The church-ales have long been discontinued; the wakes are still kept up in the northern parts of the kingdom; but neither they nor the fairs maintain their former importance; many of both, and most of the latter, have dwindled into mere markets for petty traffic, or else they are confined to the purposes of drinking, or the displayment of vulgar pastimes. These pastimes, or at least such of them as occur to my memory, I shall mention here in a cursory manner, and pass on to the remaining part of this chapter. In a paper belonging to the Spectator [1075] there is a short description of a country wake. "I found," says the author, "a ring of cudgel-players, who were breaking one another's heads in order to make some impression on their mistresses' hearts." He then came to "a foot-ball match," and afterwards to "a ring of wrestlers." Here he observes, "the squire of the parish always treats the company every year with a hogshead of ale, and proposes a beaver hat as a recompence to him who gives the most falls." The last sport he mentions is pitching the bar. But he might, and with great propriety, have added most of the games in practice among the lower classes of the people that have been specified in the foregoing pages, and perhaps the whistling match recorded in another paper. [1076] "The prize," we are told, "was one guinea, to be conferred upon the ablest whistler; that is, he that could whistle clearest, and go through his tune without laughing, to which at the same time he was provoked by the antic postures of a merry-andrew, who was to stand upon the stage, and play his tricks in the eye of the performer. There were three competitors; the two first failed, but the third, in defiance of the zany and all his arts, whistled through two tunes with so settled a countenance that he bore away the prize, to the great admiration of the spectators." This paper was written by Addison, who assures us he was present at the performance, which took place at Bath about the year 1708. To this he adds another curious pastime, as a kind of Christmas gambol, which he had seen also; that is, a yawning match for a Cheshire cheese; the sport began about midnight, when the whole company were disposed to be drowsy; and he that yawned the widest, and at the same time most naturally, so as to produce the greatest number of yawns from the spectators, obtained the cheese.

The barbarous and wicked diversion of throwing at cocks usually took place at all the wakes and fairs that were held about Shrove-tide, and especially at such of them as were kept on Shrove-Tuesday. Upon the abolition of this inhuman custom, the place of the living birds was supplied by toys made in the shape of cocks, with large and heavy stands of lead, at which the boys, on paying some very trifling sum, were permitted to throw as heretofore; and he who could overturn the toy claimed it as a reward for his adroitness. This innocent pastime never became popular, for the sport derived from the torment of a living creature existed no longer, and its want was not to be compensated by the overthrowing or breaking a motionless representative; therefore the diversion was very soon discontinued.

At present, snuff-boxes, tobacco-boxes, and other trinkets of small value, or else halfpence or gingerbread, placed upon low stands, are thrown at, and sometimes apples and oranges, set up in small heaps; and children are usually enticed to lay out their money for permission to throw at them by the owners, who keep continually bawling, "Knock down one you have them all." A halfpenny is the common price for one throw, and the distance about ten or twelve yards.

The Jingling Match is a diversion common enough at country wakes and fairs. The performance requires a large circle, enclosed with ropes, which is occupied by as many persons as are permitted to play. They rarely exceed nine or ten. All of these, except one of the most active, who is the jingler, have their eyes blinded with handkerchiefs or napkins. The eyes of the jingler are not covered, but he holds a small bell in each hand, which he is obliged to keep ringing incessantly so long as the play continues, which is commonly about twenty minutes, but sometimes it is extended to half an hour. In some places the jingler has also small bells affixed to his knees and elbows. His business is to elude the pursuit of his blinded companions, who follow him, by the sound of the bells, in all directions, and sometimes oblige him to exert his utmost abilities to effect his escape, which must be done within the boundaries of the rope, for the laws of the sport forbid him to pass beyond it. If he be caught in the time allotted for the continuance of the game, the person who caught him claims the prize: if, on the contrary, they are not able to take him, the prize becomes his due.

Hunting the Pig is another favourite rustic pastime. The tail of the animal is previously cut short, and well soaped, and in this condition he is turned out for the populace to run after him; and he who can catch him with one hand, and hold him by the stump of the tail without touching any other part, obtains him for his pains.

Sack Running, that is, men tied up in sacks, every part of them being enclosed except their heads, who are in this manner to make the best of their way to some given distance, where he who first arrives obtains the prize.

Smock Races are commonly performed by the young country wenches, and so called because the prize is a holland smock, or shift, usually decorated with ribbands.

The Wheelbarrow Race requires room, and is performed upon some open green, or in a field free from incumbrances. The candidates are all of them blindfolded, and every one has his wheelbarrow, which he is to drive from the starting-place to a mark set up for that purpose, at some considerable distance. He who first reaches the mark of course is the conqueror. But this task is seldom very readily accomplished; on the contrary, the windings and wanderings of these droll knights-errant, in most cases, produce much merriment.

The Grinning Match is performed by two or more persons endeavouring to exceed each other in the distortion of their features, every one of them having his head thrust through a horse's collar.

Smoking Matches are usually made for tobacco-boxes, or some other trifling prizes, and may be performed two ways: the first is a trial among the candidates who shall smoke a pipe full of tobacco in the shortest time: the second is precisely the reverse; for he of them who can keep the tobacco alight within his pipe, and retain it there the longest, receives the reward.

To these we may add the Hot Hasty-pudding Eaters, who contend for superiority by swallowing the greatest quantity of hot hasty-pudding in the shortest time; so that he whose throat is widest and most callous is sure to be the conqueror.

The evening is commonly concluded with singing for laces and ribbands, which divertisement indiscriminately admits of the exertions of both sexes.

XXXII.—BONFIRES.

It has been customary in this country, from time immemorial, for the people, upon occasions of rejoicing, or by way of expressing their approbation of any public occurrence, to make large bonfires upon the close of the day, to parade the street with great lights, and to illuminate their houses. These spectacles may be considered as merely appendages to the pageants and pompous shows that usually preceded them; and they seem to have been instituted principally for the diversion of the populace. In the reign of Henry VII. a letter was sent from the king to the lord-mayor and aldermen of London, commanding them to cause bonfires to be made, and to manifest other signs of rejoicing, on account of the espousals of his daughter Mary. [1077] And within these forty years [1078] bonfires continued to be made in London at the city expense, and in certain places at Westminster by order from the court, upon most of the public days of rejoicing; but of late they have been prohibited, and very justly, on account of the mischief occasioned by the squibs and crackers thrown about by the mob who assembled upon these occasions.

In London, and probably in other large cities, bonfires were frequently made in the summer season, not only for rejoicing sake, but to cleanse the air. Hence Stow, writing upon this subject, says, "In the months of June and July, on the vigils of festival days, and on the evenings also of those days after sunset, bonfires were made in the streets. The wealthy citizens placed bread and good drink upon the tables before their doors upon the vigil of the festival; but on the festival evening the same tables were more plentifully furnished with meat and drink, to which not only the neighbours but passengers were also invited to sit and partake, with great hospitality. These were called bonfires, as well of amity among neighbours that, being before at controversie, were, at these times, by the labour of others, reconciled, and made of bitter enemies loving friends; and also for the virtue that a great fire hath to purge the infection of the air." [1079] There are many fanciful derivations of the compound word bonfire; but I perfectly agree with Dr. Johnson, who thinks the first syllable originated from the French word bon, good; because these fires were usually made upon the receipt of some good news, or upon occasions of public rejoicing.

XXXIII.—ILLUMINATIONS.

I do not know at what period illuminations were first used as marks of rejoicing. They are mentioned by Stow, in his Survey of London, who tells us that lamps of glass, to the amount of several hundreds, were hung upon branches of iron curiously wrought, and placed at the doors of the opulent citizens upon the vigils of Saint John the Baptist, and of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. [1080] The historian does not speak of these lights as any novelty, neither is there any reason to conclude that similar illuminations were not made in other great towns and cities as well as in London; so that the custom might have been of long standing, and probably originated from some religious institution. But the lights, for I can hardly call them illuminations, most generally used at this period, were the cressets, or large lanthorns, which were carried in procession about the street. When they were laid aside, the windows of the houses were decorated with lighted candles, or the outsides ornamented with lamps of various colours, and placed in variety of forms; to which may be added, transparent paintings, inscriptions, and variety of other curious and expensive devices, that seem to be almost peculiar to the present age; and certainly the grand illuminations exhibited on the 23d of April, 1789, upon the happy occasion of his Majesty's recovery, far surpassed, not only in the number and brilliancy of the lights, but also in the splendour and beauty of the transparencies, every other spectacle of the like kind that has been made in this country, or perhaps in any other.

XXXIV.—FIREWORKS.

Fireworks, for pastime, are little spoken of previous to the reign of Elizabeth, and seem to have been of a very trifling nature. We are told, when Ann Bullen was conveyed upon the water from Greenwich to London, previous to her coronation, in 1533, "there went before the lord-mayor's barge, a foyste [1081] for a wafter full of ordinance; in which foyste was a great red dragon, continually moving and casting forth wildfire; and round about the said foyste stood terrible, monstrous, and wilde men, casting of fire, and making a hideous noise." This vessel with the fireworks, I apprehend, was usually exhibited when the lord mayor went upon the water, and especially when he went to Westminster on the lord mayor's day. Hence Morose, in Jonson's comedy of the Silent Woman, says to his visitors, who come with drums and trumpets, "Out of my dores, you sonnes of noise and tumult, begot on an ill May-day, or when the gally-foist is afloate to Westminster; a trumpetter could not be conceived till then." [1082]

Among the spectacles prepared for the diversion of queen Elizabeth at Kenelworth Castle in 1575, there were displays of fireworks, which are thus described by Laneham, who was present. [1083] "On the Sunday night," says he, "after a warning piece or two, [1084] was a blaze of burning darts flying to and fro, beams of stars coruscant, streams and hail of fire sparks, lightnings of wildfire on the water; and on the land, flight and shot of thunderbolts, all with such continuance, terror, and vehemence, the heavens thundered, the waters surged, and the earth shook." Another author, Gascoyne, speaks thus: "On the Sunday were fireworks showed upon the water, passing under the water a long space; and when all men thought they had been quenched, they would rise and mount out of the water again and burne furiously until they were utterlie consumed." [1085] On the Thursday following, according to Laneham, "there was at night a shew of very strange and sundry kinds of fireworks compelled by cunning to fly to and fro, and to mount very high into the air upward, and also to burn unquenchable in the water beneath." And again, sixteen years afterwards, the same queen was entertained by the earl of Hertford at Elvetham in Hampshire, and after supper there was a grand display of fireworks, preceded by "a peale of one hundred chambers, [1086] discharged from the Snail Mount;" with "a like peale discharged from the ship Isle, and some great ordinance withal. Then was there a castle of fireworkes of all sorts, which played in the fort; answerable to that there was, at the Snail Mount, a globe of all manner of fireworkes, as big as a barrel. When these were spent there were many running rockets upon lines, which passed between the Snail Mount and the castle in the fort. On either side were many fire-wheeles, pikes of pleasure, and balles of wildfire, which burned in the water." [1087]

XXXV.—LONDON FIREWORKS.

A writer, who lived in the reign of James I., assures us there were then "abiding in the city of London men very skilful in the art of pyrotechnie, or of fireworkes." [1088] But, so far as one can judge from the machinery delineated in the books formerly written upon the subject of firework making, these exhibitions were very clumsily contrived, consisting chiefly in wheels, fire-trees, jerbs, and rockets, to which were added, men fantastically habited, who flourished away with poles or clubs charged with squibs and crackers, and fought with each other, or jointly attacked a wooden castle replete with the same materials, or combated with pasteboard dragons running upon lines and "vomitting of fire like verie furies." These men fantastically habited were called green men. Thus, in The Seven Champions of Christendom, a play written by John Kirke, and printed 1638, it is said, "Have you any squibs, any green men, in your shows, and whizzes on lines, Jack-pudding upon the rope, or resin fireworks?"

I am decidedly of opinion that the fireworks displayed within these last fifty years [1089] have been more excellent in their construction, more neatly executed, and more variable and pleasing in their effects, than those produced at any former period. It is certain that the early firework makers were totally unacquainted with the nature and properties of the quick-match, which is made with spun cotton, soaked in a strong solution of saltpetre, and rolled, while wet, in pounded gunpowder, and which, being enclosed in small tubes of paper, communicates the fire from one part of the apparatus to another with astonishing celerity. The old firework makers were obliged to have recourse to trains of corned gunpowder, conveyed by grooves made in the wood-work of the machinery, when they were desirous of communicating the fire to a number of cases at once, and especially if they were at a distance from each other, which was not only a very circuitous process, but liable to a variety of unpleasant accidents; and to this cause is attributed the failure of the tremendous firework exhibited in the Green Park in the reign of George II., when the performance was interrupted, and the grandeur of the general effect totally destroyed, by the timbers belonging to one of the wings taking fire through the explosion of the gunpowder trains communicated by the wooden channels. This unfortunate accident, in all probability, would not have happened had the communications from one part of the machinery to the other been made with quick-match. I received the above information from a very skilful firework maker belonging to the train of artillery, who had an opportunity of seeing the manner in which the trains were laid, and was present at the exhibition.

XXXIV.—FIREWORKS ON TOWER-HILL, AT PUBLIC GARDENS, AND IN PAGEANTS.

It was customary, in my memory, for the train of artillery annually to display a grand firework upon Tower-hill on the evening of his Majesty's birth-day. This spectacle has been discontinued for several years in compliance with a petition for that purpose made by the inhabitants on account of the inconveniences they sustained thereby.

Fireworks were exhibited at Marybone Gardens while they were kept open for public entertainment; and about five-and-twenty years ago, [1090] Torre, a celebrated French artist, was employed there, who, in addition to the usual displayment of fire-wheels, fixed stars, figure pieces, and other curious devices, introduced pantomimical spectacles, which afforded him an opportunity of bringing forward much splendid machinery, with appropriate scenery and stage decoration, whereby he gave an astonishing effect to his performances, and excited the admiration and applause of the spectators. I particularly remember two, the Forge of Vulcan, and the Descent of Orpheus to Hell in search of his wife Eurydice. The last was particularly splendid: there were several scenes, and one of them supposed to be the Elysian fields, where the flitting backwards and forwards of the spirits was admirably represented by means of a transparent gauze artfully interposed between the actors and the spectators.

Fireworks have for many years been exhibited at Ranelagh Gardens; they are now [1091] displayed occasionally at Vauxhall; and, in an inferior style, at Bermondsey Spa.

In speaking upon this subject I have mentioned some of the actors formerly concerned in the pyrotechnical shows. Those said above to have been on board the city foyst, or galley, are called monstrous wilde men; [1092] others are frequently distinguished by the appellation of green men; [1093] and both of them were men whimsically attired and disguised with droll masks, having large staves or clubs, headed with cases of crackers. Annexed is

This engraving, representing the character equipped in his proper habit, and flourishing his firework, is from a book of fireworks written by John Bate, and published in 1635. Below is

This character, which is that of a wild or savage man, was very common in the pageants of former times, and seems to have been very popular. It was in a dress like this, I suppose, that Gascoyne appeared before queen Elizabeth; see p. 253. The figure itself is taken from a ballad, in black letter, entitled "The mad, merry Pranks of Robin Good Fellow." Bishop Percy, probably with great justice, supposes it to have been one of the stage-disguisements for the representation of this facetious spirit.

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Most of the popular pastimes mentioned in the preceding pages were imitated by the younger part of the community, and in some degree, at least, became the sports of children. Archery, and the use of missive weapons of all kinds, were formerly considered as an essential part of a young man's education; for which reason the bow, the sling, the spear, and other military instruments, were put into his hands at a very early period of his life; he was also encouraged in the pursuit of such sports as promoted muscular strength, or tended to make him acquainted with the duties of a soldier. When the bow and the sling were laid aside in favour of the gun, prudence naturally forbad the putting an instrument of so dangerous a nature into the hands of children; they however provided themselves a substitute for the gun, and used a long hollow tube called a trunk, in which they thrust a small pointed arrow, contrived to fit the cavity with great exactness, and then blowing into the trunk with all their might, the arrow was driven through it and discharged at the other end by the expansion of the compressed air. Sometimes pellets of clay were used instead of the arrows. Dr. Johnson in his Dictionary, under the article trunk, has this quotation from Ray: "In a shooting trunk, the longer it is to a certain limit, the swifter and more forcibly the air drives the pellet." The trunks were succeeded by pot-guns made with hollow pieces of elder, or of quills, the pellets being thrust into them by the means of a ramrod. These were also called pop-guns; and perhaps more properly, from the popping noise they make in discharging the pellets. Big bouncing words are compared to pot-gun reports in a comedy called The Knave in Graine, printed in 1640. [1094]

II.—HORSES.

Most boys are exceedingly delighted with riding, either on horses or in carriages, and also upon men's shoulders, which we find to be a very ancient sport; [1095] and I trust there are but few of my readers who have not seen them with a bough or a wand substituted for a horse, and highly pleased in imitating the gallopping and prancing of that noble animal. [1096] This is an amusement of great antiquity, well known in Greece; and if report speaks truth, some of the greatest men have joined in it, either to relax the vigour of their own minds for a time, or to delight their children. The Persian ambassadors found Agesilaus, the Lacedemonian monarch, employed in this manner. [1097] Socrates also did the same, for which it seems his pupil Alcibiades used to laugh at him. [1098] If we turn to the engraving No. 45, [1099] we shall see two boys, each of them having two wands, the one serves for a horse, and the other for a spear, and thus equipped they are justing together. The engraving No. 30, [1100] represents a boy mounted upon a wooden horse, drawn by two of his companions, and tilting at the quintain; and here we may remark that the bohourts, the tournaments, and most of the other superior pastimes have been subjected to youthful imitation; and that toys were made on purpose to train up the young nobility in the knowledge and pursuit of military pastimes, as may be seen by the engravings Nos. 43 and 44. [1101] Nay, some writers, and not without the support of ancient documents, derive the origin of all these splendid spectacles from the sportive exercises of the Trojan boys. [1102]

III.—RACING AND CHACING.

Contending with each other for superiority in racing on foot is natural to children; [1103] and this emulation has been productive of many different amusements, among which the following seem to be the most prominent.

Base, or Prisoners' Bars, is described in a preceding part of this work. [1104]

Hunt the Fox.—In this game one of the boys is permitted to run out, and having law given to him, that is, being permitted to go to a certain distance from his comrades before they pursue him, their object is to take him if possible before he can return home. We have the following speech from an idle boy in The longer thou livest the more Fool thou art, an old comedy, written towards the close of the sixteenth century: [1105]

Hunt the Hare is the same pastime under a different denomination.

Harry-racket, or Hide and Seek, called also Hoop and Hide; where one party of the boys remain at a station called their home, while the others go out and hide themselves; when they are hid one of them cries hoop, as a signal for those at home to seek after them. If they who are hidden can escape the vigilance of the seekers and get home uncaught, they go out to hide again; but so many of them as are caught, on the contrary, become seekers, and those who caught them have the privilege of hiding themselves.

Thread the Taylor's Needle.—In this sport the youth of both sexes frequently join. As many as choose to play lay hold of hands, and the last in the row runs to the top, where passing under the arms of the two first, the rest follow: the first then becoming the last, repeats the operation, and so on alternately as long as the game continues.

Cat after Mouse; performed indiscriminately by the boys and the girls. All the players but one holding each other's hands form a large circle; he that is exempted passes round, and striking one of them, immediately runs under the arms of the rest; the person so struck is obliged to pursue him until he be caught, but at the same time he must be careful to pass under the arms of the same players as he did who touched him, or he forfeits his chance and stands out, while he that was pursued claims a place in the circle. When this game is played by an equal number of boys and girls, a boy must touch a girl, and a girl a boy, and when either of them be caught they go into the middle of the ring and salute each other; hence is derived the name of kiss in the ring.

Barley-brake.—The excellency of this sport seems to have consisted in running well; but I know not its properties. Johnson quotes these lines from Sidney:

Puss in the Corner.—A certain number of boys or girls stand singly at different distances; suppose we say for instance one at each of the four corners of a room, a fifth is then placed in the middle; the business of those who occupy the corners is to keep changing their positions in a regular succession, and of the out-player, to gain one of the corners vacated by the change before the successor can reach it: if done he retains it, and the loser takes his place in the middle.

Leap Frog.—One boy stoops down with his hands upon his knees and others leap over him, every one of them running forward and stooping in his turn. The game consists in a continued succession of stooping and leaping. It is mentioned by Shakspeare in King Henry the Fifth; "If I could win a lady at leap-frog, I should quickly leap into a wife:" by Jonson in the comedy of Bartholomew Fair, "A leap-frogge chance now;" and by several other more modern writers.

IV.—WRESTLING AND OTHER GYMNASTIC SPORTS.

To the foregoing pastimes we may add Wrestling, which was particularly practised by the boys in the counties of Cornwall and Devon. [1107] In the engraving No. 18, we find two lads contending for mastery at this diversion.

Hopping and Sliding upon one Leg are both of them childish sports, but at the same time very ancient, for they were practised by the Grecian youth; one they called akinetinda, ?????t??da, [1108] which was a struggle between the competitors who should stand motionless the longest upon the sole of his foot; the other denominated ascoliasmos, ?s????as??, [1109] was dancing or hopping upon one foot, [1110] the conqueror being he who could hop the most frequently, and continue the performance longer than any of his comrades; and this pastime is alluded to by the author of the old comedy, The longer thou livest the more Fool thou art, wherein a boy boasting of his proficiency in various school games, adds,

Among the school-boys in my memory there was a pastime called Hop-Scotch, which was played in this manner: a parallelogram about four or five feet wide, and ten or twelve feet in length, was made upon the ground and divided laterally into eighteen or twenty different compartments, which were called beds; some of them being larger than others. The players were each of them provided with a piece of a tile, or any other flat material of the like kind, which they cast by the hand into the different beds in a regular succession, and every time the tile was cast, the player's business was to hop upon one leg after it, and drive it out of the boundaries at the end where he stood to throw it; for, if it passed out at the sides, or rested upon any one of the marks, it was necessary for the cast to be repeated. The boy who performed the whole of this operation by the fewest casts of the tile was the conqueror.

Skipping.—This amusement is probably very ancient. It is performed by a rope held by both ends, that is, one end in each hand, and thrown forwards or backwards over the head and under the feet alternately. Boys often contend for superiority of skill in this game, and he who passes the rope about most times without interruption is the conqueror. In the hop season, a hop-stem stripped of its leaves is used instead of a rope, and in my opinion it is preferable.

Trundling the hoop is a pastime of uncertain origin, but much in practice at present, and especially in London, where the boys appear with their hoops in the public streets, and are sometimes very troublesome to those who are passing through them. Swimming, sliding, [1111] and of late years skating, may be reckoned among the boys' amusements; also walking upon stilts, [1112] swinging, and the pastime of the meritot and see-saw, or tetter-totter, which have been mentioned already, [1113] together with most of the games played with the ball, [1114] as well as nine-pins and skittles. [1115]

V.—MARBLES AND SPAN-COUNTER.

Marbles seem to have been used by the boys as substitutes for bowls, and with them they amuse themselves in many different manners. I believe originally nuts, round stones, or any other small things that could be easily bowled along, were used as marbles. Those now played with seem to be of more modern invention. It is said of Augustus when young, that by way of amusement he spent many hours in playing with little Moorish boys cum nucibus, with nuts. [1116] The author of one of the Tatlers calls it "a game of marbles not unlike our common taw." [1117]

Taw, wherein a number of boys put each of them one or two marbles in a ring and shoot at them alternately with other marbles, and he who obtains the most of them by beating them out of the ring is the conqueror.

Nine holes; which consists in bowling of marbles at a wooden bridge with nine arches. There is also another game of marbles where four, five, or six holes, and sometimes more, are made in the ground at a distance from each other; and the business of every one of the players is to bowl a marble by a regular succession into all the holes, which he who completes in the fewest bowls obtains the victory.

Boss out, or boss and span, also called hit or span, wherein one bowls a marble to any distance that he pleases, which serves as a mark for his antagonist to bowl at, whose business it is to hit the marble first bowled, or lay his own near enough to it for him to span the space between them and touch both the marbles; in either case he wins, if not, his marble remains where it lay and becomes a mark for the first player, and so alternately until the game be won.

Span-counter is a pastime similar to the former, but played with counters instead of marbles. I have frequently seen the boys for want of both perform it with stones. This sport is called in French tapper, a word signifying to strike or hit, because if one counter is struck by the other, the game is won.

VI.—TOPS, &c.—THE DEVIL AMONG THE TAILORS.

The top was used in remote times by the Grecian boys. It is mentioned by Suidas, and called in Greek t?????, and in Latin turbo. It was well known at Rome in the days of Virgil, [1118] and with us as early at least as the fourteenth century, when its form was the same as it is now, and the manner of using it can admit of but little if any difference. Boys whipping of tops occur in the marginal paintings of the MSS. written at this period. It was probably in use long before.

In a manuscript at the Museum I met with the following anecdote of prince Henry, the eldest son of James I., and the author assures us it is perfectly genuine; [1119] his words are these: "The first tyme that he the prince went to the towne of Sterling to meete the king, seeing a little without the gate of the towne a stack of corne in proportion not unlike to a topp wherewith he used to play; he said to some that were with him, 'loe there is a goodly topp;' whereupon one of them saying, 'why doe you not play with it then?' he answered, 'set you it up for me and I will play with it.'"

We have hitherto been speaking of the whip-top; for the peg-top, I believe, must be ranked among the modern inventions, and probably originated from the te-totums and whirligigs, which seem all of them to have some reference to the tops, saving only that the usage of the te-totum may be considered as a kind of petty gambling, it being marked with a certain number of letters: and part of the stake is taken up, or an additional part put down, according as those letters lie uppermost. The author of Martin. Scriblerus mentions this toy in a whimsical manner: "He found that marbles taught him percussion, and whirligigs the axis in peretrochio." When I was a boy the te-totum had only four sides, each of them marked with a letter; a T for take all; an H for half, that is of the stake; an N for nothing; and a P for put down, that is, a stake equal to that you put down at first. Toys of this kind are now made with many sides and letters.

There is a childish pastime which may well be inserted here, generally known by the ridiculous appellation of the Devil among the Tailors; it consists of nine small pins placed like skittles in the midst of a circular board, surrounded by a ledge with a small recess on one side, in which a peg-top is set up by means of a string drawn through a crevice in the recess; the top when loosed spins about among the pins and beats some, or all of them, down before its motion ceases; the players at this game spin the top alternately, and he who first beats down the pins to the number of one-and-thirty is the conqueror. This silly game, I am told, is frequently to be seen at low public houses, where many idle people resort and play at it for beer and trifling stakes of money.

VII.—EVEN OR ODD—CHUCK-HALFPENNY—DUCK AND DRAKE.

Even or Odd is another childish game of chance well known to the ancients, and called in Greek artiazein, ??t?a?e??, and in Latin par vel impar. Hence the following line in Horace:

Ludere par, impar; equitare in arundine longÂ.

To play at even or odd—to ride upon a long reed or cane. [1120]

The play consists in one person concealing in his hand a number of any small pieces, and another calling even or odd at his pleasure; the pieces are then exposed, and the victory is decided by counting them; if they correspond with the call, the hider loses; if the contrary, of course he wins. The Grecian boys used beans, nuts, almonds, and money; in fact any thing that can be easily concealed in the hand will answer the purpose.

Cross and Pile is mentioned some pages back. [1121] Here we may add Chuck-farthing, played by the boys at the commencement of the last century; it probably bore some analogy to pitch and hustle. [1122] There is a letter in the Spectator supposed to be from the father of a romp, who, among other complaints of her conduct, says, "I catched her once at eleven years old at chuck-farthing among the boys." [1123] I have seen a game thus denominated played with halfpence, every one of the competitors having a like number, either two or four, and a hole being made in the ground with a mark at a given distance for the players to stand, they pitch their halfpence singly in succession towards the hole, and he whose halfpenny lies the nearest to it has the privilege of coming first to a second mark much nearer than the former, and all the halfpence are given to him; these he pitches in a mass towards the hole, and as many of them as remain therein are his due; if any fall short or jump out of it, the second player, that is, he whose halfpenny in pitching lay nearest to the first goer's, takes them and performs in like manner; he is followed by the others so long as any of the halfpence remain.

Duck and Drake, is a very silly pastime, though inferior to few in point of antiquity. It is called in Greek epostrakismos, ?p?st?a??s??, [1124] and was anciently played with flat shells, testulam marinam, which the boys threw into the water, and he whose shell rebounded most frequently from the surface before it finally sunk, was the conqueror. With us a part of a tile, a potsherd, or a flat stone, are often substituted for the shells.

To play at ducks and drakes is a proverbial expression for spending one's substance extravagantly. In the comedy called Green's Tu Quoque, one of the characters, speaking of a spendthrift, says, "he has thrown away as much in ducks and drakes as would have bought some five thousand capons."

VIII.—BASTE THE BEAR—HUNT THE SLIPPER, &c.

Baste, or buffet the bear with hammer and block, are rather appendages to other games than games by themselves, being punishments for failures, that ought to have been avoided; the first is nothing more than a boy couching down, who is laden with the clothes of his comrades and then buffeted by them; the latter takes place when two boys have offended, one of which kneeling down bends his body towards the ground, and he is called the block; the other is named the hammer, and taken up by four of his comrades, one at each arm and one at each leg, and struck against the block as many times as the play requires.

Hunt the Slipper.—In this pastime a number of boys and girls indiscriminately sit down upon the ground in a ring, with one of their companions standing on the outside; a slipper is then produced by those seated in the ring, and passed about from one to the other underneath their clothes as briskly as possible, so as to prevent the player without from knowing where it is; when he can find it, and detain it, the person in whose possession it was, at that time, must change place with him, and the play recommences.

Shuttle-cock has been spoken of in a former chapter, the engraving, No. 98, [1125] affords an ancient representation of the game.

IX.—SPORTING WITH INSECTS—KITES—WINDMILLS.

Spinning of chafers and of butterflies.—I do not know a greater fault in the nurture of children than the conniving at the wanton acts of barbarity which they practise at an early age upon innocent insects; the judgment of that parent must be exceedingly defective, or strangely perverted, who can proportion the degree of cruelty to the smallness of the creature that unfortunately becomes the sufferer. It is but a fly, perhaps he may say, when he sees his child pluck off its wings or its legs by way of amusement; it is but a fly, and cannot feel much pain; besides the infant would cry if I was to take it from him, and that might endanger his health, which surely is of more consequence than many flies: but I fear worse consequences are to be dreaded by permitting it to indulge so vicious an inclination, for as it grows up, the same cruelty will in all likelihood be extended to larger animals, and its heart by degrees made callous to every claim of tenderness and humanity.

I have seen school-boys shooting of flies with a headless pin impelled through part of a tobacco-pipe, by the means of a bent cane, and this instrument is commonly called a fly-gun; from this they have proceeded to the truncating of frogs, and afterwards to tormenting of cats, with every other kind of animal they dare to attack; but I have neither time to recollect, nor inclination to relate, the various wanton acts of barbarism that have been practised, arising from the want of checking this pernicious inclination as soon as it begins to manifest in the minds of children.

The chafers, or May-flies, a kind of beetles found upon the bloom of hemlock in the months of May and June, are generally made the victims of youthful cruelty. These inoffensive insects are frequently caught in great quantities, crammed into small boxes without food, and carried in the pockets of school-boys to be taken out and tormented at their leisure, which is done in this manner; a crooked pin having two or three yards of thread attached to it, is thrust through the tail of the chafer, and on its being thrown into the air it naturally endeavours to fly away, but is readily drawn back by the boy, which occasions it to redouble its efforts to escape; these struggles are called spinning, and the more it makes of them, and the quicker the vibrations are, the more its young tormentor is delighted with his prize.

I am convinced that this cruelty, as well as many others above mentioned, arise from the perpetrators not being well aware of the consequences, nor conscious that the practice of them is exceedingly wicked. I hope the reader will excuse my introducing a story relating to myself; but as it may serve to elucidate the argument, I shall venture to give it. When a child, I was caught by my mother, who greatly abhorred every species of cruelty, in the act of spinning a chafer; I was so much delighted with the performance that I did not observe her coming into the room, but when she saw what I was about, without saying any thing previously to me, she caught me by the ear and pinched it so severely that I cried for mercy; to the punishment she added this just reproof: "That insect has its feelings as you have! do you not see that the swift vibrations of its wings are occasioned by the torment it sustains? you have pierced its body without remorse, I have only pinched your ear, and yet you have cried out as if I had killed you." I felt the admonition in its full effect, liberated the poor May-fly, and never impaled another afterwards.

The preceding representation is from a drawing on a manuscript in the Royal Library. [1126]

This barbarous sport is exceedingly ancient. We find it mentioned by Aristophanes in his comedy of The Clouds. [1127] It is called in the Greek melolonthe, ?????????, rendered in the Latin scarabÆus, which seems to have been the name of the insect. But the Grecian boys were less cruel in the operation than those of modern times, for they bound the thread about the legs of the beetle, instead of thrusting a pin through its tail. We are also told that the former frequently amused themselves in the same manner with little birds, substituted for the beetles. [1128]

The Kite is a paper machine well known in the present day, which the boys fly into the air and retain by means of a long string. It probably received its denomination from having originally been made in the shape of the bird called a kite; in a short French and English Dictionary published by Miege, A.D. 1690, the words cerf volant, are said among other significations to denote a paper kite, and this is the first time I have found it mentioned. Now, the paper kites are not restricted to any particular form; they appear in a great diversity of figures, and not unfrequently in the similitude of men and boys. I have been told, that in China the flying of paper kites is a very ancient pastime, and practised much more generally by the children there than it is in England. From that country perhaps it was brought to us, but the time of its introduction is unknown to me; however, I do not find any reason to conclude that it existed here much more than a century, back.

This is from a painting nearly five hundred years old; though differs very little in its form from those used by the children at present.

X.—BOB-CHERRY.

This is "a play among children," says Johnson, "in which the cherry is hung so as to bob against the mouth," or rather so high as to oblige them to jump in order to catch it in their mouth, for which reason the candidate is often unsuccessful. Hence the point in the passage which Johnson quotes from Arbuthnot. "Bob-cherry teaches at once two noble virtues, patience and constancy; the first in adhering to the pursuit of one end, the latter in bearing a disappointment."

In this engraving, taken from a MS. of the fourteenth century, in the Royal Library, [1129] we see a sport of this kind where four persons are playing, but the object they are aiming at is much larger than a cherry, and was probably intended to represent an apple or an orange. "It was customary," we are told by Mr. Brand, "on the eve of All-Hallows, for the young people in the north to dive for apples, or catch at them when stuck at one end of a kind of hanging beam, at the other extremity of which is fixed a lighted candle, and that with their mouths, only having their hands tied behind their back." [1130]

A pastime something resembling that of diving for the apples, I take it, is represented by the foregoing engraving from a MS. in the Bodleian Library, [1131] and the business of the boy upon the form, with his head over the vessel of water, is to catch some object contained therein, or to avoid being ducked when the other end of the form is elevated by his companion.

XI.—HOODMAN BLIND—HOT COCKLES.

Hoodman Blind, more commonly called Blind Man's Buff, is where a player is blinded and buffeted by his comrades until he can catch one of them, which done, the person caught is blinded in his stead. This pastime was known to the Grecian youth, and called by them myia chalki, ???a ?a???. [1132] It is called Hoodman's Blind because the players formerly were blinded with their hoods. In the Two angry Women of Abington, a comedy, this pastime is called the Christmas-sport of Hobman-Blind.

The manner in which Hoodman Blind was anciently performed with us appears from these three different representations, all of them from the Bodleian MS. before mentioned.

The players who are blinded have their hoods reversed upon their heads for that purpose, and the hoods of their companions are separately bound in a knot to buffet them.

Hot Cockles, from the French hautes-coquilles, is a play in which one kneels, and covering his eyes lays his head in another's lap and guesses who struck him. Gay describes this pastime in the following lines:

"The Chytrinda, ??t???da, of the Grecians," says Arbuthnot, "is certainly not our hot cockles, for that was by pinching, not by striking;" but the description of the chytrinda, as it is given by an ancient writer, bears little or no resemblance to the game of hot cockles, but is similar to another equally well known with us, and called frog in the middle. The chytrinda took place in this manner:—A single player, called ??t?a, kotra, and with us the frog, being seated upon the ground, was surrounded by his comrades who pulled or buffeted him until he could catch one of them; which done, the person caught took his place, and was buffeted in like manner. [1133] I scarcely need to add, that the frog in the middle, as it is played in the present day, does not admit of any material variation. There was another method of playing this game, according to the same author; but it bears no reference to either of those above described. The following engravings represent both the pastimes above mentioned, taken from the Bodleian manuscript of 1344 last referred to.

XII.—COCK-FIGHTING.

I have already spoken at large upon cock-fighting, and throwing at cocks. I shall only observe that the latter, especially, was a very common pastime among the boys of this country till within these few years; and in the following engraving we have the copy of a curious delineation, which I take to represent a boyish triumph.

The hero supposed to have won the cock, or whose cock escaped unhurt from the danger to which he had been exposed, is carried upon a long pole by two of his companions; he holds the bird in his hands, and is followed by a third comrade, who bears a flag emblazoned with a cudgel, the dreadful instrument used upon these occasions. The original painting occurs in the manuscript mentioned in the preceding article.

XIII.—ANONYMOUS PASTIMES—MOCK HONOURS AT BOARDING SCHOOLS.

The two next engravings are representations of a pastime, the name of which is unknown to me; but the purpose of it is readily discovered.

In this, which is from the just cited Bodleian MS., we see a young man seated upon a round pole which may readily turn either way, and immediately beneath him is a vessel nearly filled with water; he holds a taper in each hand, and one of them is lighted, and his business, I presume, is to bring them both together and light the other, being careful at the same time not to lose his balance, for that done, he must inevitably fall into the water.

In the following, from a beautiful book of prayers in the possession of Francis Douce, esq., the task assigned to the youth is still more difficult, as well from the manner in which he is seated, as from the nature of the performance, which here he has completed: that is, to reach forward and light the taper held in his hands from that which is affixed to the end of the pole, and at a distance from him.

The originals of both these engravings were made in the fourteenth century.

The subjoined engraving, also from a drawing in Mr. Douce's book of prayers, represents two boys seated upon a form by the side of a water-tub; both of them with their hands fixed below their knees, and one bending backwards in the same position, intending, I presume, to touch the water without immerging his head, or falling into it, and afterwards to recover his position.

This trick being done by the one was probably imitated by the other; I speak however from conjecture only. If it be necessary for him who stoops to take any thing out of the water, the pastime will bear some analogy to the diving for apples represented by the engraving No. 119, on a preceding page. [1134]

In some great Boarding Schools for the fair sex, it is customary, upon the introduction of a novice, for the scholars to receive her with much pretended solemnity, and decorate a throne in which she is to be installed, in order to hear a set speech, addressed to her by one of the young ladies in the name of the rest. The throne is wide enough for three persons to sit conveniently, and is made with two stools, having a tub nearly filled with water between them, and the whole is covered by a counterpane or blanket, ornamented with ribands and other trifling fineries, and drawn very tightly over the two stools, upon each of which a lady is seated to keep the blanket from giving way when the new scholar takes her place; and these are called her maids of honour. The speech consists of high-flown compliments calculated to flatter the vanity of the stranger; and as soon as it is concluded, the maids of honour rising suddenly together, the counterpane of course gives way, and poor miss is unexpectedly immerged in the water.

XIV.—HOUSES OF CARDS—QUESTIONS AND COMMANDS—HANDY-DANDY—SNAP-DRAGON—PUSH-PIN—CRAMBO—LOTTERIES.

Building of houses with cards, and such like materials, is a very common amusement with children, as well as drawing little waggons, carts, and coaches; and sometimes boys will harness dogs and other animals, and put them to their waggons in imitation of horses. Something of this kind is alluded to by Horace, who writes thus in one of his satires: [1135]

Ædificare cassus, plostello adjungere mures.

To build little houses, and join mice to the diminutive waggons.

Questions and Commands, a childish pastime, which though somewhat different in the modern modification, most probably derived its origin from the basilinda, ?as????da, [1136] of the Greeks, in which we are told a king, elected by lot, commanded his comrades what they should perform.

Handy-dandy, "a play," says Johnson, "in which children change hands and places;" this seems clear enough according to the following quotation from Shakspeare: "See how yond justice rails upon yond simple thief! hark in thine ear; change places; and handy-dandy which is the justice and which is the thief;" to which is added another from Arbuthnot, "neither cross and pile, nor ducks and drakes, are quite so ancient as handy-dandy."

Snap-dragon. This sport is seldom exhibited but in winter, and chiefly at Christmas-time; it is simply heating of brandy or some other ardent spirit in a dish with raisins; when the brandy being set on fire, the young folks of both sexes standing round it pluck out the raisins, and eat them as hastily as they can, but rarely without burning their hands, or scalding their mouths.

Push-pin is a very silly sport, being nothing more than simply pushing one pin across another.

Crambo is a diversion wherein one gives a word, to which another finds a rhyme; this, with other trifling amusements, is mentioned in a paper belonging to the Spectator. [1137] "A little superior to these," that is, to persons engaged in cross-purposes, questions, and commands, "are those who can play at crambo, or cap-verses." In this we trace some vestige of a more ancient pastime, much in vogue in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, called the A B C of Aristotle; which is strongly recommended by the author, one "Mayster Bennet," not only to children, but also to persons of man's estate, if ignorant of letters. The proem to this curious alliterative alphabet is to the following effect:

"Whoever will be wise and command respect let him learn his letters, and look upon the A B C of Aristotle, against which no argument will hold good: It is proper to be known by clerks and knights, and may serve to amend a mean man, for often the learning of letters may save his life. No good man will take offence at the amendment of evil, therefore let every one read this arrangement and govern himself thereby.

Hearkyn and heare every man and child how that I begynne.

There are two copies of this alphabet among the Harleian manuscripts, one marked 1706, written in the fourteenth century, and another marked 541; whence the above is chiefly taken. At the end of the former we read "XY wyth ESED AND per se—Amen."

Lotteries, in which toys and other trifling prizes were included to be drawn for by children, were in fashion formerly, but by degrees, and especially since the establishment of the State Lottery, they have been magnified into a dangerous species of gambling, and are very properly suppressed by the legislature. They were in imitation of the State Lotteries, with prizes of money proportionable to the value of the tickets, and drawn in like manner. These lotteries are called little goes.

XV.—OBSOLETE PASTIMES.

I have here attempted to give some account of the principal sports practised by the children of this country. I am fully sensible that the list will admit of very many additions, and also that the pastimes which are included in it have been subject to numberless variations. I have, however, set down all that I can recollect, and described them according to the manner in which I have seen the larger part of them performed. It only remains for me to enumerate a few more, which indeed are not well known to me, but may be elucidated hereafter by some more able writer.

This engraving represents a kind of a mock procession, where one of the company, equipped in a royal habit with a crown upon his head, is walking with his mantle displayed by two attendants, and preceded by a zany beating a tambourin with knotted thong. I presume it to be the installation of the King of the Bean, who has already been introduced to the reader.

Below it are two figures, one of them blinded with his hood, having a club upon his shoulder, and approaching towards an iron cauldron, in order no doubt to strike it with his club.

This may probably refer to the amusement at wakes and fairs, where various tasks for pastime sake are frequently assigned to blindfolded persons, as the Wheelbarrow Race, described on a preceding page. [1138] The drawings from whence the two last engravings are derived, are in the Bodleian MS. of 1344 already mentioned.

The sport in the next representation is quite unknown to me, unless it may be thought to bear some resemblance to the Greek game called apodidraskinda, ?p?d?d?as???da, [1139] where one being seated in the midst of his comrades, closed his eyes, or was blinded by the hand of another, while the rest concealed themselves, and he who was found by him after he was permitted to rise, took his place; this was evidently a species of the pastime called hide and seek. The original of this engraving is in a MS. of the thirteenth century, in the Royal Library. [1140]

I am equally at a loss respecting the two next representations.

Those that are standing, and those that are seated below them, are evidently engaged in a similar kind of pastime. The only game within the compass of my knowledge that bears any resemblance to it, I have seen played by two persons one of them alternately holds up the fingers of his right hand, varying the number at his pleasure, and the other is obliged to answer promptly by exposing a like number of his fingers, which is called by both, and the least variation on either side loses. In these delineations there are three players, and he in the middle seems to be alternately answering to the other two. They are in the Bodleian MS. of 1344.

Mr. Douce's Book of Prayers of the fourteenth century contains the following representation.

Here we see a rope apparently made fast at both ends, and a man laying hold of it with his teeth, by which he seems to support himself. If this be the meaning of the delineator, the trick may properly be classed with those that were exhibited by the minstrels and the joculators.

With respect to the two preceding drawings from the frequently mentioned MS. of 1344, in the Bodleian Library, I can hardly venture a conjecture; unless we may suppose them to represent two of the ridiculous ceremonies belonging to the Festival of Fools. I suspect the monks with the nuns in No. 135, are lay people who have assumed the religious habits, for the former have not the tonsure, but their hair is powdered with blue.

XVI.—CREAG—QUEKE-BOARD—HAND IN AND HAND OUT—WHITE AND BLACK, AND MAKING AND MARRING—FIGGUM—MOSEL THE PEG—HOLE ABOUT THE CHURCHYARD—PENNY-PRICK, PICK-POINT, &c.—MOTTOES, SIMILES, AND CROSS-PURPOSES—THE PARSON HAS LOST HIS CLOAK.

Creag is a game mentioned in a computus dated the twenty-eighth of Edward I., A. D. 1300, and said to have been played by his son prince Edward.

Queke Borde, with Hand yn and Hand oute, are spoken of as new games, and forbidden by a statute made in the seventeenth year of Edward IV.

White and Black, and also Making and Marring are prohibited by a public act established in the second and third years of Philip and Mary.

Figgum is said to be a juggler's game in the comedy of Bartholomew Fayre by Ben Jonson, acted in 1614; to which is added, "the devil is the author of wicked Figgum." In the same play mention is made of crambe (probably crambo), said to be "another of the devil's games."

Mosel the Pegge, and playing for the hole about the church yard, are spoken of as boys' games, in a comedy called The longer thou livest the more Fool thou art, written in the reign of queen Elizabeth.

Penny-pricke appears to have been a common game in the fifteenth century, and is reproved by a religious writer of that period. [1141]

Pick-point, Venter-point, Blow-point, [1142] and Gregory, occur in a description of the children's games in the sixteenth century. Blow-point was probably blowing an arrow through a trunk at certain numbers by way of lottery. To these may be added another pastime, called Drawing Dun out of the Mire. Chaucer probably alludes to this pastime in the Manciple's Prologue, where the host seeing the cook asleep, exclaims, "Syr, what dunne is in the mire."

Mottoes, Similes, and Cross Purposes, are placed among the childrens' games in a paper belonging to the Spectator. [1143] And the Parson has lost his cloak, in another, where a supposed correspondent writes thus: "I desire to know if the merry game of the parson has lost his cloak is not much in vogue amongst the ladies this Christmas, because I see they wear hoods of all colours, which I suppose is for that purpose." [1144]

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