Glig-gamena angel-deod. : Or, The sports and pastimes of the people of England; including the rural and domestic recreations, May-games, mummeries, pageants, processions, and pompous spectacles, from the earliest period to the present time: illustrated by engravings selected from ancient paintings; in which are represented most of the popular diversions

Front matter

ERE OE REECE REE KE i:

ei Ss

CAS ra eS

Introduction

A General Arrangement of the Popular Sports, Pastimes, and Military Games ; together with the various Spectacles of Mirth or Splendour, exhibited publicly or priwately, for the sake of Amusement, at different periods, in England.

I. Ly order to form a just estimation of the character of any particular people, it is absolutely necessary to investigate the sports and pastimes most generally prevalent among them. War, policy, and other contingent circumstances, may effectually place men, at different times, in different points of view; but, when we follow them into their retirements, where no disguise is necessary, we are most likely to see them in their true state, and may best judge of their natural dispositions. Unfortunately, all the information that remains respecting the ancient inhabitants of this Island is derived from foreign writers, partially acquainted with them as a people, and totally ignorant of their domestic customs and amusements: the silence, therefore, of the contemporary historians on these important subjects leaves us without the power of tracing them with the least degree of certainty; and, as it is my intention, in the following pages, to confine myself as much as possible to positive intelligence, I shall studiously endeavour to avoid all controversial and conjectural arguments. I mean also to treat upon such pastimes only as have been practised in this country: but, as many of them originated on the Continent, frequent digressions, by way of illusirations, must necessarily occur: these, however, I shall make it my business to render as concise as the nature of the subject will permit them to be. a i INTRODUCTION.

II. We learn, from the imperfect hints of ancient history, that, when the Romans first invaded Britain, her inhabitants were a bold, active, and warlike people, tenacious of their native liberty, and capable of bearing great fatigue ; to which they were probably inured by an early education, and constant pursuit of such amusements as best suited the profession of a soldier ; including hunting, running, leaping, swimming, and other exertions requiring strength and agility of body. Perhaps the skill which the natives of Devonshire and Cornwall retain to the present day in hurling and wrestling may properly be considered as a vestige of British activity. After the Romans had conquered Britain, they impressed such of the young men as were able to bear arms for foreign service, and enervated the spirit of the people by the importation of their own luxurious manners and habits; so that the latter part of the British history exhibits to our view a slothful and effeminate race of men, totally divested of that martial disposition, and love of freedom, which so strongly marked the character of their progenitors ; and their amiusements, no doubt, partook of the same weakness and puerility.

II. The arrival of the Saxons forms a new epoch in the annals of this country. These: military mercenaries came professedly to assist the Britons against their incessant tormentors the Picts and the Caledonians ; but no sooner had they established their footing in the land, than they invited more of their countrymen to. join them, and, turning their arms against their wretched employers, became their most dangerous and most inexorable enemies, and in process of time obtained full possession of the largest and best part of the Island ; whence arose a total change in the form of government, laws, manners, customs, and habits of the people.

The sportive exercises and pastimes practised by the Saxons appear to have been such as were common among the ancient Northern nations; and most of them consisted of robust exercises. In an old Chronicle of Norway,’ we find it recorded of Olaf 'Tryggeson, a king of that country, that he was stronger and more nimble than any man

* Pontoppidan’s History of Norway, p. 248.

INTRODUCTION. th in his dominions. He could climb up the rock Smalserhorn, and fix his shield upon the top of it; he could walk round the outside of a boat upon the oars, while the men were rowing; he could play with three darts, alternately throwing them in the air, and always kept two of them up, while he held the third in one of his hands;’ he was ambidexter, and could cast two darts at once; he excelled all the men of his time in shooting with the bow; and he had no equal in swimming. Another Northern bero, whose name was Kolson, boasts of nine ac- ‘complishments in which he was well skilled: ‘ I know, says he, * how to play at chess; I can engrave Runic letters; I am expert at my book; I know how to handle the tools of the smith;* I can traverse the snow on scates of wood; I excel in shooting with the bow; I use the oar with facility; I can sing to the harp; and I compose verses.’ * The Reader will, I doubt not, anticipate me in my observation, that the acquirements of Kolson indicate a much more liberal education than those of the Norwegian monarch: it must, however, be observed that Kolson lived in an age posterior to him; and also, that he made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land; which may probably account in great measure for his literary qualifications. Yet, we are well assured that learning did not form any prominent feature in the education of a young nobleman during the Saxon government: it is notorious, that Aélfred the Great was twelve years of age before he learned to read ; and that he owed his knowledge of letters to accident, rather than to the intention of his tutors.°

Indeed, it is not by any means surprising, under the Saxon govern-

> This monarch was outdone by the Anglo.Saxon gligman, represented on the xviiith plate; who adds an equal number of balls to those knives or daggers. The Norman minstrel Tallefer, before the commencement of the battle at Hastings, cast his lance into the air three times, and caught it by the head in such a surprising manner, that the English thought it was done by the power of enchantment. °

‘© The famous Dunstan was also an excellent blacksmith:

4 Oladi, Worm. Lit. Run. p. 129; Bartholin. p. 420.

© He saw by chance a book adorned with paintings in the hands of his mother, that attracted his notice; and he expressed his desire to have it. She promised to comply with his request, on condition that he learned to read it; which it seems he did: and this trifling incident laid the groundwork of his future scholarship. Asser, in Vit. Adlfredi.

Iv INTRODUCTION..

ment, when the times were generally very turbulent, and’ the existence: of peace exceedingly precarious, and when the personal exertions. of the opulent were so often necessary for the preservation of their lives and property, that such exercises as inured the body to fatigue, and biased the mind to military pursuits,, should have constituted the chief part of a young nobleman’s education :. accordingly, we find that hunting, hawking, leaping, running, wrestling, casting of darts, and other pastimes which necessarily required great exertions of bodily strength, were taught them in their adolescence. ‘These amusements engrossed the whole of their attention, every one striving to excel his fellow; for, hardiness, strength, and valour, out-balanced, in the public estimation, the accomplishments of the mind; and therefore literature, which flourishes best in tranquillity and retirement, was considered as a pursuit unworthy the notice of a soldier, and only requisite in the gloomy recesses of the cloister.

Among the vices of the Anglo-Saxons may be reckoned their propensity to gaming, and especially with the dice; which they derived from their ancestors; for, Tacitus. assures us that the ancient Germans would not only hazard all their wealth, but even stake their liberty, upon the turn of the dice; * and he who loses,’ says the author, ‘ submils to servitude, though younger and stronger than his antagonist, and patiently permits himself to be bound, and sold in the market ; and this madness they dignify by the name of honour.” Chess was. also a favourite game with the Saxons; and likewise backgammon, said to have been invented about the tenth century. It appears moreover, that a large portion of the night was appropriated to the pursuit of these sedentary amusements. In the reign of Cnut the Dane, this: practice was sanctioned by the example of royalty, and followed by the nobility:* the clergy, however, were prohibited from. playing at games of Chance, by the ecclesiastical canons established in the reign of /Edgar."

f Tacitus de Moribus Germ, & Bishop A&theric, having obtained admission to Cnut about midnight upon some urgent business, found the king engaged with his courtiers at play, some at dice, and some at chess, apud Gale, vol, I. an. 85.

Hist. Ramsien.

h A, D, 960, can. 64, Sohnson’s Canons.

INTRODUCTION. v

IV. The popular sports and pastimes, prevalent at the close of the Saxon era, do not appear to have been subjected to any material change by the advent of the Normans: it is true, indeed, that the elder William and his immediate successors restricted the privileges of the chase, and imposed great penalties on those who presumed to destroy the game in the royal forests, without a proper licence.’ By these restrictions the general practice of hunting was much confined, but by no means prohibited in certain districts, and especially to persons of opulence who possessed extensive territories of their own.

V. Among the pastimes introduced by the Norman nobility, none engaged the general attention more than the tournaments* and the justs. ‘These amusements, in the middle ages, which may properly enough be denominated the ages of chivalry, were in high repute among the nobility of Europe, and produced in reality much of the pomp and gallantry that we find recorded with poetical exaggeration in the legends of knight-errantry. I met with a passage in a very ancient satirical poem, which strongly marks the prevalence of this taste in the times alluded to. It may be thus rendered in English:

If wealth, Sir Knight, perchance be thine, In tournaments you’re bound to shine; Refuse—and all the world will swear

You are not worth a rotten pear.™

VI. While the principles of chivalry continued in fashion, the education of a nobleman was confined to those principles, and every regulation necessary to produce an accomplished knight was put into practice. In order fully to investigate these particulars, we may refer to the romances of the middle ages; and, generally speaking,. dependance may be placed upon their information. ‘The authors of these i See the first chapter in the body of the work.

x The tournament,. in its original institution, was a martial conflict, in which the combatants engaged without any animosity, merely to exhibit their strength and dexterity; but, at the same time, engaged in. great numbers to represent a battle. The just was when two knights, and no more, ‘were opposed to each other at one time.

! MS. Harl. marked 2253, and written in the thirteenth century, fol. 108.

™ Tn the original it is purry poume, that is, rotten apple.

Vil INTRODUCTION.

fictitious histories never looked beyond the customs of their own country; and whenever the subject called for a representation of remote magnificence, they depicted such scenes of splendour as were familiar to them; hence it is, that Alexander the Great, in his legendary life, receives the education of a Norman baron, and becomes expert in hawking, hunting, and other amusements coincident with the time in which the writer lived: our early poets have fallen into the same kind of anachronism; and Chaucer himself, speaking of the rich array and furniture of the palace of Theseus, forgets that he was a Grecian prince of great antiquity; and describes the large hall belonging to an English nobleman, with the guests seated at table, probably as he had frequently seen them, entertained with singing, dancing, and other acts of minstrelsy, their hawks being placed upon perches over their heads, and their hounds lying round about upon the pavement below." The picture is perfect, when referred to his own time; but bears not the least analogy to Athenian grandeur. Jn the romance called ‘ The Knight of the Swan,’ it is said ef Ydain duchess of Roulyon, that she caused her three sons to be brought up in ‘ all maner of good operacyons, vertues, and maners; and when in their adolescence they were somwhat comen to the age of strengthe, they,’ their tutors, ‘ began te practyse them in shootinge with their bow and arbelstre,° to playe with the sworde and buckeler, to runne, to just,’ to playe with a poll-axe, and to wrestle; and they began to bear harneys,' to runne horses, and to approve them, as desyringe to be good and faythful knightes to susteyne the faith of God.’ We are not, however, to conceive, that martial exercises in general were confined to the education of young noblemen: ‘the sons of citizens and yeomen had also their sports resembling

™ The Knight’s Tale. The two last lines especially are peculiarly applicable to the manners of the time in which the poet lived, when no man of consequence travelled abroad without his hawk and his hounds. In the early delineations, the nobility are frequently represented seated at table, with their hawks upon their heads. Chaucer says,

Ne what hawkes sytten on perchen above, Ne what houndes lyggen on the flour adoun,

° The cross-bow, P That is, to practise with lances, two persons running one against the other. 4 Armour,

INTRODUCTION. Vil military combats. Those practised at an early period by the young Londoners seem to have been derived from the Romans: they consisted of various attacks and evolutions performed on horseback, the youth being armed with shields and pointless lances.’ These amusements, according to Fitz Stephen, were appropriated to the season of Lent; but at other times they exercised themselves with archery, fighting with clubs and bucklers, and running at the quintain; and in the winter, when the frost set in, they would go upon the ice, and run against each other with poles, in imitation of lances, in a just; and frequently one or both were beaten down, ‘ not always without hurt; for, some break their arms, and some their legs; but youth,’ says my author, *‘ emulous of glory, seeks these exercises preparatory against the time that war shall demand their presence.* The like kind of pastimes, no doubt, were practised by the young men in other parts of the kingdom.

VII. The mere management of arms, though essentially requisite, was not sufficient of itself, to form an accomplished knight in the times of chivalry: it was necessary for him to be endowed with beauty, as well as with strength and agility of body; he ought to be skilled in music, to dance gracefully, to run with swiftness, to excel in wrestling, to ride well, and to perform every other exercise befitting his situation. To these were to be added urbanity of manners, strict adherence to the truth, and invincible courage. Hunting and hawking skilfully were also acquirements that he was obliged to possess, and which were usually taught him as soon as he was able to endure the fatigue that they required. Hence it is said of sir ‘Tristram, a fictitious character held forth as the mirror of chivalry in the romance intituled ‘'The Death of Arthur,’ that ‘ he learned to be an harper, passing all other, that there was none such called in any countrey: and so in harping and on instruments of musike he applied himself in his youth for to Jearne, and after as he growed in might and strength he laboured ever in hunting and hawking, so that we read of no gentlemen.who more, or so, used

* Resembling the ludus Trojz, or Troy game, described by Virgil, Ain. v. See page 115 of this

Work. * William Fitz Stephen, in his Description of London published by Sparkes. This author lived in the reign of Henry the Second,

Vill INTRODUCTION.

himself therein ; and he began good measures of blowing blasts of venery, and chase, and of all manner of vermains ;" and all these terms have we yet of hunting and hawking; and therefore the book of venery, and of hawking and hunting, is called the Boke of Sir Tristram,’ In a succeeding part of the same romance, king Arthur thus addresses the Knight: ‘ For all manner of hunting thou bearest the prize; and of all measures of blowing thou art the beginner, and of all the termes of hunting and hawking thou art the beginner.’” We are also informed, that sir Tristram had previously learned the language of France, knew all the principles of courtly behaviour, and was skilful in the various requisites of knighthood. Another ancient romance says of its hero, * He every day was provyd in dauncyng and in songs that the ladies coulde think were convenable for a nobleman to conne ;* but in every thinge he passed all them that were there. ‘The king, for to assaie him, made justes and turnies; and no man did so well as he, in runnyng, playing at the pame,’ shotyng, and castyng of the barre, ne found he his maister.’*

VIII. The laws of chivalry required that every knight should pass through two offices; the first was a page; and, at the age of fourteen, he was admitted an esquire. The office of the esquire consisted of several departments ; the esquire for the body, the esquire of the chamber, the esquire of the stable, and the carving esquire; the latter stood in the hall at dinner, carved the different dishes, and distributed them to the guests. Several of the inferior officers had also their respective

_ ' Hunting.

u Jn the first chapter, p. 15, the Reader will find the animals to be hunted divided into three classes : namely, beasts of venery, beasts of chase, and raskals, or vermin. The horn was sounded in a different manner according to the class of the beasts pursued.

w ‘Morte Arthur,’ translated from the French by sir Thomas Maleory, knight, and first printed by Caxton, A.D. 1481. <The Engtish,’ says a writer of our own country, ‘are so naturally inclined to pleasure, that there is no countrie wherein gentlemen and lords have have so many and so large parkes, only reserved for the purpose of hunting.’ And again, ‘ Our progenitors were so delighted with hunting, that the parkes are nowe growne infinite in number, and are thought to containe more fallow deere than all the Christian world besides.’ Itinerary of Fynes Moryson, published in 1617, part III. book iii. cap. 3.

x To learn. y Written also paume; that is, hand-tennice, Romance of Three Kings’ Sons and the King of Sicily, MS. Harl. 326.

INTRODUCTION. 1x esquires.’ Ipomydon, a king’s son and heir, in the romance that bears his name, is regularly taught the duties of an esquire, previous to his receiving the honours of knighthood ; and for this purpose his father committed him to the care of a ‘learned and courteous knight called Sir ’Tholomew.’ Our author speaks on this subject in the following manner :

That taught the child uppon the boke Bothe to synge and to rede;

And after he taught hym other dede.

Afterward, to serve in halle

Both to grete and to smalle;

Before the kynge mete to kerve; Hye and low fayre to serve.

Both of howndes and hawkis game, After, he taught hym all; and same, In sea, in feld, and eke in ryvere ; In woode to chase the wild dere, And in feld to ryde a stede;

That all men had joy of hys dede.®

Here we find reading mentioned ; which, however, does not appear to have been of any great importance in the middle ages, and is left out _ in the Geste of King Horne, another ancient metrical romance.* Young Horn is placed under the tuition of Athelbrus, the king’s steward; who is commanded to learn him the mysteries of hawking and hunting, to play upon the harp,’ to carve at the royal table, and to present the cup to the king when he sat at meat, with every other service fitting for him to know. The monarch concludes his injunctions with a repetition of the charge to learn him singing and music : Tech him of harp and of song.

* Mem. Anc, Cheval. tom. i. p. 16. b MS. Harl. 2252, written probably at the commencement of the fourteenth century. © MS. Harl. 2252. This poem seems to be rather more ancient than the former, 4 Ant toggen o’ the harpe With his nayles sharpe.’

b x INTRODUCTION.

And the manner in which the king’s carver performed the duties of his office is well described in the poem denominated the Squyer of Lowe Degree : §

‘Fhere he araied him in scarlet red,.

And set a chaplet upon his hedde;.

A belte about his sydes two,.

With brode barres to and fro;

A horne about his necke he caste ; And forth he went at the laste,

To do his office in the halle

Among the lerdes both greate and small.

He toke a white yeard in his hand; Before the kynge than gan he stande; And sone he set hym on his knee,,.

And served the kynge ryght royally With deynty meates that were dere.— —And, when the Squyer had done so, He served them all‘ to and fro.

Eche man hym loved in. honeste,.

Hye and lowe in their degre ;,

So dyd the kyng—&c.

IX. Tournaments and justs were usually exhibited at coronations, royal marriages, and other occasions of solemnity where pomp and pageantry. were thought to be requisite. One great reason, and perhaps the most cogent of any, why the nobility of the middle ages, nay and even. princes and kings, delighted so much. in the practice of tilting with each other, is, that on such occasions they made their appearance with prodigious splendour, and had the opportunity of displaying their accomplishments to the greatest advantage. ‘The ladies also were proud of seeing their professed champions engaged in these arduous conflicts; and, perhaps, a glove or ribband from the hand of a favoue Printed by Copeland; black letter, without date; Garrick’s Collection, K. vol. ix, f That is, all of the lords and other nobility who were seated in the hall. ® Our historians abound with details of these celebrated pastimes. The reader is referred to Froissart, Hall, Holinshed, Stow, Grafton, &c, who are all of them very diffuse upon this subject; and in the second volume of the Manners. and Customs of the English are several curious representations of: these military combats both on horseback and on foot.

INTRODUCTION. =F rite female might have inspired the receiver with as zealous a wish for conquest, as the abstracted love of glory; though in general, I presume, both these ideas were united ; for, a knight divested of gallantry would have been considered as a recreant, and unworthy of his profession. |

X. When the military enthusiasm which so strongly characterised the middle ages had subsided, and chivalry was on the decline, a prodigious change took place in the nurture.and manners of the nobility. Violent exercises requiring the exertions of muscular strength grew out of fashion with persons of rank, and of course were consigned to the - amusement of the vulgar, and the education of the former ‘became proportionably more soft and delicate. This example of the nobility was soon followed by persons of less consequence ; and the neglect of military exercises prevailed so generally, that the interference of the legislature was thought necessary, to prevent its influence from being universally diffused, and to correct the bias of the common mind ; for, the vulgar readily acquiesced with the relaxation of meritorious exertions, and fell into the vices of the times, resorting to such games and recreations ‘as promoted idleness and dissipation, by which they lost their money, and, what is worse, their reputation, entailing poverty and distress on themselves and their families.

XI. The romantic notions of chivalry appear to have Jost their vigour towards the conclusion of the fifteenth century, especially in this country, where a continued series of intestine commotions employed the exertions of every man of property, and real battles afforded but little leisure to exercise the mockery of war. It is true, indeed, that tilts and tournaments, with other splendid exhibitions of military skill, were occasionally exercised, and with great brilliancy, so far as pomp and finery could contribute to make them attractive, till the end of the succeeding century. ‘These splendid pastimes were encouraged by the sanction of royalty, and this sanction was perfectly political; on the one hand, it gratified the vanity of the nobility; and, on the other, it amused the populace, who, being delighted with such shows ef grandeur, were thereby diverted from reflecting too deeply upon the grievances they sustained. It is, however, certain that the justs and tour-

Xik INTRODUCTION.

naments of the latter ages, with all their pomp, possessed but little of the primitive spirit of chivalry.

XII. Henry the Seventh patronized the gentlemen and officers of his court in the practice of military exercises. The following extract may serve as a specimen of the manner in which they were appointed to be performed: ‘ Whereas it ever hath bene of old antiquitie used in this realme of most noble fame, for all lustye gentlemen to passe the delectable season of summer after divers manner and sondry fashions of disports, as in hunting the red and fallowe deer with houndes, greyhoundes, and with the bowe; also in hawking with hawkes of the tower; and other pastimes of the field. And bycause it is well knowen, that, in the months of Maie and June, all such disports be not convenient: wherefore, in eschewing of idleness, the ground of all vice,’ and to promote such exercises as ‘ shall be honourable, and also healthfull and profitable to the body,’ we ‘ beseech your most noble highness to permit two gentlemen, assosyatying to them two other gentlemen to be their aides,’ by ‘ your gracious licence, to furnish certain articles concerning the feates of armes hereafter ensuinge :’— ‘ In the first place; On the twenty-second daye of Maie, there shall be a grene tree sett up in the lawnde of Grenwich parke; whereupon shall hange, by a grene lace, a vergescu” blanke; upon which white shield it shal be lawful for any gentleman that will answer the following chalenge to subscribe his name.—Secondly; 'The said two gentlemen, with their two aides, shal be redye on the twenty-thirde daie of Maie, being 'Thursdaye, and on Mondaye thence next ensewinge, and so everye Thursday and Monday untill the twentieth daye of June, armed for the foote, to answear all gentlemen commers, at the feate called the Barriers, with the casting-speare, and the targett, and with the bastard-sword,' after the manner following, that is to saie, from sixe of the clocke in the forenoone till sixe of the clocke in the afternoone during the time.—Thirdly; And the said two gentlemen, with their two aiders, or one of them, shall be there redye at the said place,

» For vierge escu, a virgin shield, or a white shield, without any devices, such as was borne by the tyros in chivalry who had not performed any memorable action. i A sword without edge or point, ‘as it is explained in the following article.

INTRODUCTION. Xlil the daye and dayes before rehearsed, to deliver any of the gentlemen answeares of one caste with the speare hedded with the morne,” and seven strokes with the sword, point and edge rebated, without close, or griping one another with handes, upon paine of punishment as the judges for the time being shall thinke requisite.—Fourthly; And it shall not be lawfull to the challengers, nor to the answearers, with the — bastard sword to give or offer any foyne’ to his match, upon paine of like punishment.—Fifthly ; The challengers shall bringe into the fielde, the said daies and tymes, all manner of weapons concerning the said feates, that is to saye, casting speares hédded with mornes, and _ bastard swords with the edge and point rebated; and the answerers to have the first choise.’ ™

XIII. Henry the Eighth not only countenanced the practice of military pastimes by permitting them to be exercised without restraint, but also endeavoured to make them fashionable by his own example. Hall assures us, that, even after his accession to the throne, he continued daily to amuse himself in archery, casting of the bar, wrestling, or dancing, and frequently in tilting, tournaying, fighting at the barriers with swords and battle-axes, and such like martial recreations, in most of which there were few that could excel him." He was also exceedingly fond of hunting, hawking, and other sports of the field; and indeed his example so far prevailed, that hunting, hawking, riding the great horse, charging dexterously with the lance at the tilt, leaping, and running, were necessary accomplishments for a man of fashion.? The pursuits and amusements of a nobleman are placed in a different point of view by an author of the succeeding century;’ who, describing the person and manners of Charles lord Mountjoy, regent of Ireland, says, ‘ Hé delighted in study, in gardens, in riding on a pad to.

k That is, with heads without points, or blunted so that they could dono hurt. 1 Foyne, or foin, signifies to push or thrust with the sword, instead of striking. m MS. Harl. marked 69. a His leisure time he spent in playing at the recorders, flute, and virginals, in setting of songs, singing and making of ballads. Hall, in the Life of Henry the Eighth. ° Arte of Rhetorike by Tho. Wilson, fol. 67. p Fynes Moryson, in his Itinerary, published A.D. 1617. Lord Mountjoy was regent of Ireland xiv INTRODUCTION.