The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England
by Joseph Strutt · English · Gutenberg #48983 · 1,040,211 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England
Author: Joseph Strutt
Editor: William Hone
Release date: May 17, 2015 [eBook #48983]
Most recently updated: October 24, 2024
Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SPORTS AND PASTIMES OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND ***
THE
SPORTS AND PASTIMES
OF THE
PEOPLE OF ENGLAND:
INCLUDING THE
RURAL AND DOMESTIC RECREATIONS,
MAY GAMES, MUMMERIES, SHOWS, PROCESSIONS, PAGEANTS, & POMPOUS
SPECTACLES
FROM
THE EARLIEST PERIOD TO THE PRESENT TIME.
BY JOSEPH STRUTT.
ILLUSTRATED BY
One Hundred and Forty Engravings.
IN WHICH ARE REPRESENTED
MOST OF THE POPULAR DIVERSIONS;
SELECTED FROM ANCIENT PAINTINGS.
A NEW EDITION, WITH A COPIOUS INDEX,
BY WILLIAM HONE,
AUTHOR OF THE EVERY-DAY BOOK, TABLE BOOK, YEAR BOOK, ETC.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR THOMAS TEGG,
73, CHEAPSIDE.
1845.
J. Haddon, Printer, Castle Street, Finsbury.
ADVERTISEMENT.
THERE are two previous editions of Mr. STRUTT'S Sports and Pastimes
of the People of England. The first appeared in 1801; the second,
which was published in 1810, the year wherein the author died, was
an incorrect reprint, without a single additional line. Both were in
quarto, and as each of the plates, with few exceptions, contained
several subjects referred to in different parts of the work, and as
there were no paginal references on the plates, they were frequently
embarrassing to the reader.
The present edition is of a more convenient size, and at one-sixth of
the price of the former editions; and every engraving is on the page it
illustrates.
To a volume abounding in historical and other interesting facts, an
Index seemed indispensable; and a very copious one is annexed. The
_Two_ former editions were without.
If Mr. STRUTT had lived, I am persuaded he would have incorporated into
the body of the work some notes, which were needlessly placed on the
bottom margins. I have ventured to take them up into the pages; but
without any undue alteration of the author's language.
I hope, therefore, that my aim to render this edition generally
desirable and available, has been fully accomplished.
W. HONE.
_Newington Green_, 1830.
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION.
A GENERAL ARRANGEMENT OF THE POPULAR SPORTS, PASTIMES,
AND MILITARY GAMES, TOGETHER WITH THE VARIOUS SPECTACLES
OF MIRTH OR SPLENDOUR, EXHIBITED PUBLICLY OR
PRIVATELY, FOR THE SAKE OF AMUSEMENT, AT DIFFERENT
PERIOD, IN ENGLAND.
PAGE
I. Object of the Work, to describe the Pastimes and trace
their Origin--II. The Romans in Britain--III. The Saxons--IV.
The Normans--V. Tournaments and Justs--VI. Other Sports of
the Nobility, and the Citizens and Yeomen--VII. Knightly
Accomplishments--VIII. Esquireship--IX. Military Sports
patronized by the Ladies--X. Decline of such Exercises--XI.
and of Chivalry--XII. Military Exercises under Henry the
Seventh--XIII. and under Henry the Eighth--XIV. Princely
Exercises under James the First--XV. Revival of Learning--XVI.
Recreations of the Sixteenth Century--XVII. Old Sports of the
Citizens of London--XVIII. Modern Pastimes of the Londoners--XIX.
Cotswold and Cornish Games--XX. Splendour of the ancient Kings
and Nobility--XXI. Royal and noble Entertainments--XXII. Civic
Shows--XXIII. Setting out of Pageants--XXIV. Processions of
Queen Mary and King Philip of Spain in London--XXV. Chester
Pageants--XXVI. Public Shows of the Sixteenth Century--XXVII.
Queen Elizabeth at Kenelworth Castle--XXVIII. Love of Public
Sights illustrated from Shakspeare--XXIX. Rope-dancing, tutored
Animals, and Puppet-shows--XXX. Minstrelsy, Bell-ringing,
&c.--XXXI. Baiting of Animals--XXXII. Pastimes formerly on
Sundays--XXXIII. Royal Interference with them--XXXIV. Zeal
against Wakes and May-Games--XXXV. Dice and Cards--XXXVI.
Regulation of Gaming for Money by Richard Cœur de Lion,
&c.--XXXVII. Statutes against Cards, Ball-play, &c.--XXXVIII.
Prohibitions of Skittle play--XXXIX. Archery succeeded
by Bowling--XL. Modern Gambling--XLI. Ladies' Pastimes,
Needle-work--XLII. Dancing and Chess-play--XLIII. Ladies'
Recreations in the Thirteenth Century.--XLIV. The Author's
Labours.--Character of the Engravings. xv
BOOK I.
RURAL EXERCISES PRACTISED BY PERSONS OF RANK.
CHAPTER I.
I. Hunting more ancient than Hawking--II. State of Hunting among
the Britons--III. The Saxons expert in Hunting--IV. The Danes
also--V. The Saxons subsequently and the Normans--VI. Their
tyrannical Proceedings--VII. Hunting and Hawking after the
Conquest--VIII. Laws relating to Hunting--IX. Hunting and Hawking
followed by the Clergy--X. The manner in which the dignified
Clergy in the Middle Ages pursued these Pastimes--XI. The English
Ladies fond of these Sports--XII. Privileges of the Citizens
of London to hunt;--private Privileges for Hunting--XIII. Two
Treatises on Hunting considered--XIV. Names of Beasts to be
hunted--XV. Wolves not all destroyed in Edgar's Time--XVI. Dogs
for Hunting--XVII. Various Methods of Hunting--XVIII. Terms used
in Hunting;--Times when to hunt 1
CHAPTER II.
I. Hawking practised by the Nobility--II. Its Origin not
well known;--a favourite Amusement with the Saxons--III.
Romantic Story relative to Hawking--IV. Grand Falconer of
France, his State and Privileges--V. Edward III. partial to
Hawking;--Sir Thomas Jermin--VI. Ladies fond of Hawking--VII. Its
Decline--VIII. How it was performed--IX. Embellishments of the
Hawk--X. Treatises concerning Hawking;--Superstitious Cure of
Hawks--XI. Laws respecting Hawks--XII. Their great Value--XIII.
The different Species of Hawks, and their Appropriation--XIV.
Terms used in Hawking--XV. Fowling and Fishing;--the Stalking
Horse;--Lowbelling 24
CHAPTER III.
I. Horse-racing known to the Saxons--II. Races in Smithfield,
and why--III. Races, at what Seasons practised--IV. The Chester
Races--V. Stamford Races--VI. Value of Running-horses--VII.
Highly prized by the Poets, &c.--VIII. Horse-racing commended as
a liberal Pastime--IX. Charles II. and other Monarchs encouragers
of Horse-racing;--Races on Coleshill-heath 40
BOOK II.
RURAL EXERCISES GENERALLY PRACTISED.
CHAPTER I.
I. The English famous for their Skill in Archery--II. The use of
the Bow known to the Saxons and Danes--III. Form of the Saxon
Bow, &c.--IV. Archery improved by the Normans--V. The Ladies fond
of Archery--VI. Observations relative to the Cross-Bow--VII. Its
Form and the Manner in which it was used--VIII. Bows ordered
to be kept--IX. The decay of Archery and why--X. Ordinances in
its Favour;--the Fraternity of St. George established--XI. The
Price of Bows--XII. Equipments for Archery--XIII. Directions
for its Practice--XIV. The Marks to shoot at--XV. The Length
of the Bow and Arrows--XVI. Extraordinary Performances of the
Archers--XVII. The modern Archers inferior to the ancient in long
Shooting--XVIII. The Duke of Shoreditch, why so called;--grand
Procession of the London Archers--XIX. Archery a royal Sport;--a
good Archer, why called Arthur--XX. Prizes given to the Archers 48
CHAPTER II.
I. Slinging of Stones an ancient Art--II. Known to the
Saxons--III. And the Normans--IV. How practised of late
Years--V. Throwing of Weights and Stones with the Hand--VI.
By the Londoners--VII. Casting of the Bar and Hammer--VIII.
Of Spears--IX. Of Quoits--X. Swinging of Dumb Bells--XI.
Foot Races--XII. The Game of Base--XIII. Wrestling much
practised formerly--XIV. Prizes for--XV. How performed--XVI.
Swimming--XVII. Sliding--XVIII. Skating--XIX. Rowing--XX. Sailing 71
CHAPTER III.
I. Hand-ball an ancient Game--The Ball, where said to have been
invented--II. Used by the Saxons--III. And by the Schoolboys of
London--IV. Ball Play in France--V. Tennis Courts erected--VI.
Tennis fashionable in England--VII. A famous Woman Player--VIII.
Hand-ball played for Tansy Cakes--IX. Fives--X. Ballon-ball--XI.
Stool-ball--XII. Hurling--XIII. Foot-ball;--Camp-ball--XIV.
Goff;--Cambuc;--Bandy-ball--XV. Stow-ball--XVI. Pall-mall--XVII.
Ring-ball--XVIII. Club-ball--XIX. Cricket--XX. Trap-Ball--XXI.
Northen-spell--XXII. Tip-cat 91
BOOK III.
PASTIMES USUALLY EXERCISED IN TOWNS AND CITIES, OR PLACES
ADJOINING TO THEM.
CHAPTER I.
I. Tournament a general Name for several Exercises--II. The
Quintain an ancient Military Exercise--III. Various Kinds of the
Quintain--IV. Derivation of the Term--V. The Water Quintain--VI.
Running at the Quintain practised by the Citizens of London; and
why--VII. The Manner in which it was performed--VIII. Exhibited
for the Pastime of Queen Elizabeth--IX. Tilting at a Water
Butt--X. The Human Quintain--XI. Exercises probably derived
from it--XII. Running at the Ring--XIII. Difference between the
Tournaments and the Justs--XIV. Origin of the Tournament--XV.
The Troy Game;--the Bohordicum or Cane Game--XVI. Derivation of
Tournament;--how the Exercise was performed--XVII. Lists and
Barriers--XVIII. When the Tournament was first practised--XIX.
When first in England--XX. Its Laws and Ordinances--XXI. Pages,
and Perquisites of the Kings at Arms, &c.--XXII. Preliminaries
of the Tournament--XXIII. Lists for Ordeal Combats--XXIV.
Respect paid to the Ladies--XXV. Justs less honourable than
Tournaments--XXVI. The Round Table--XXVII. Nature of the
Justs--XXVIII. Made in honour of the Fair Sex--XXIX. Great
Splendour of these Pastimes;--The Nobility partial to them--XXX.
Toys for initiating their Children in them--XXXI. Boat Justs, or
Tilting on the Water--XXXII. Challenges to all comers 111
CHAPTER II.
I. Ancient Plays--II. Miracle Plays, Dramas from Scripture, &c.
continued several Days--III. The Coventry Play--IV. Mysteries
described--V. How enlivened--VI. Moralities described--The
Fool in Plays, whence derived--VII. Secular Plays--VIII.
Interludes--IX. Chaucer's Definition of the Tragedies of his
Time--X. Plays performed in Churches--XI. Cornish Miracle
Plays--XII. Itinerant Players, their evil Characters--XIII.
Court-Plays--XIV. Play in honour of the Princess Mary's
Marriage--XV. The Play of Hock Tuesday--XVI. Decline of Secular
Plays--XVII. Origin of Puppet Plays--XVIII. Nature of the
Performances--XIX. Giants and other Puppet Characters--XX. Puppet
Plays superseded by Pantomimes--XXI. The modern Puppet-show
Man--XXII. Moving Pictures described 150
CHAPTER III.
I. The British Bards--II. The Northern Scalds--III. The
Anglo-Saxon Gleemen--IV. The Nature of their Performances--V.
A Royal Player with three Darts--VI. Bravery of a Minstrel in
the Conqueror's Army--VII. Other Performances by Gleemen--VIII.
The Harp an Instrument of Music much used by the Saxons--IX.
The Norman Minstrels, and their different Denominations and
Professions--X. Troubadours--XI. Jestours--XII. Tales and
Manners of the Jesters--XIII. Further Illustration of their
Practices--XIV. Patronage, Privileges, and Excesses of the
Minstrels--XV. A Guild of Minstrels--XVI. Abuses and Decline of
Minstrelsy--XVII. Minstrels were Satirists and Flatterers--XVIII.
Anecdotes of offending Minstrels, Women Minstrels--XIX. The
Dress of the Minstrels--XX. The King of the Minstrels, why so
called--XXI. Rewards given to Minstrels--XXII. Payments to
Minstrels--XXIII. Wealth of certain Minstrels--XXIV. Minstrels
were sometimes Dancing Masters 170
CHAPTER IV.
I. The Joculator--II. His different Denominations and
extraordinary Deceptions--III. His Performances ascribed
to Magic--IV. Asiatic Jugglers--V. Remarkable Story from
Froissart--VI. Tricks of the Jugglers ascribed to the Agency of
the Devil; but more reasonably accounted for--VII. John Rykell,
a celebrated Tregetour--VIII. Their various Performances--IX.
Privileges of the Joculators at Paris.--The King's Joculator an
Officer of Rank--X. The great Disrepute of modern Jugglers 197
CHAPTER V.
I. Dancing, Tumbling, and Balancing, part of the Joculator's
Profession--II. Performed by Women--III. Dancing connected
with Tumbling--IV. Antiquity of Tumbling--much encouraged--V.
Various Dances described--VI. The Gleemen's Dances--VII.
Exemplification of Gleemen's Dances--VIII. The Sword Dance--IX.
Rope Dancing and wonderful Performances on the Rope--X.
Rope Dancing from the Battlements of St. Paul's--XI. Rope
Dancing from St. Paul's Steeple--XII. Rope Dancing from All
Saints' Church, Hertford--XIII. A Dutchman's Feats on St.
Paul's Weathercock--XIV. Jacob Hall the Rope Dancer--XV.
Modern celebrated Rope Dancing--XVI. Rope Dancing at Sadler's
Wells--XVII. Fool's Dance--XVIII. Morris Dance--XIX. Egg
Dance--XX. Ladder Dance--XXI. Jocular Dances--XXII. Wire
Dancing--XXIII. Ballette Dances--XXIV. Leaping and Vaulting--XXV.
Balancing--XXVI. Remarkable Feats--XXVII. The Posture-Master's
Tricks--XXVIII. The Mountebank--XXIX. The Tinker--XXX. The
Fire-Eater 207
CHAPTER VI.
I. Animals, how tutored by the Jugglers--Tricks performed by
Bears--II. Tricks performed by Apes and Monkeys--III. By Horses
among the Sybarites--IV. In the thirteenth Century--V. In Queen
Anne's Reign--VI. Origin of the Exhibitions at Astley's, the
Circus, &c.--VII. Dancing Dogs--VIII. The Hare beating a Tabor,
and learned Pig--IX. A Dancing Cock--The Deserter Bird--X.
Imitations of Animals--XI. Mummings and Masquerades--XII.
Mumming to Royal Personages--XIII. Partial Imitations of
Animals--XIV. The Horse in the Morris dance--XV. Counterfeit
Voices of Animals--XVI. Animals trained for Baiting--XVII. Paris
Garden--XVIII. Bull and Bear Baiting patronised by Royalty--XIX.
How performed--XX. Bears and Bear-wards--XXI. Baiting in
Queen Anne's time--XXII. Sword Play. &c.--XXIII. Public
Sword Play--XXIV. Quarter Staff--XXV. Wrestling, &c. in Bear
Gardens--XXVI. Extraordinary Trial of Strength 239
CHAPTER VII.
I. Ancient Specimens of Bowling--Poem on Bowling--II.
Bowling-greens first made by the English--III.
Bowling-alleys--IV. Long-bowling--V. Supposed Origin of
Billiards--VI. Kayles--VII. Closh--VIII. Loggats--IX.
Nine-pins--Skittles--X. Dutch-pins--XI. Four-corners--XII.
Half-bowl--XIII. Nine-holes--XIV. John Bull--XV. Pitch and
Hustle--XVI. Bull-baiting in Towns and Villages--XVII.
Bull-running--At Stamford, &c.--XVIII. At Tutbury--XIX.
Badger-baiting--XX. Cock-fighting--XXI. Throwing at Cocks--XXII.
Duck-hunting--XXIII. Squirrel-hunting--XXIV. Rabbit-hunting 266
BOOK IV.
DOMESTIC AMUSEMENTS OF VARIOUS KINDS; AND PASTIMES
APPROPRIATED TO PARTICULAR SEASONS.
CHAPTER I.
I. Secular Music fashionable--II. Ballad-singers encouraged
by the Populace--III. Music Houses--IV. Origin of
Vauxhall--V. Ranelagh--VI. Sadler's Wells--VII. Marybone
Gardens--Operas--Oratorios--VIII. Bell-ringing--IX. Its
Antiquity--X. Hand-bells--XI. Burlesque Music--XII.
Dancing--XIII. Its Antiquity, &c.--XIV. Shovel-board--XV.
Anecdote of Prince Henry--XVI. Billiards--XVII.
Mississippi--XVIII. The Rocks of Scilly--XIX. Shove-groat--XX.
Swinging--XXI. Tetter-totter--XXII. Shuttle-cock 286
CHAPTER II.
I. Sedentary Games--II. Dice-playing;--Its Prevalency and
Bad Effects--III. Ancient Dice-box;--Anecdote relating to
false Dice--IV. Chess;--Its Antiquity--V. The Morals of
Chess--VI. Early Chess-play in France and England--VII. The
Chess-board--VIII. The Pieces, and their Form--IX. The various
Games of Chess--X. Ancient Games similar to Chess--XI. The
Philosopher's Game--XII. Draughts, French and Polish--XIII.
Merelles, or Nine Mens' Morris--XIV. Fox and Geese--XV. The
Solitary Game--XVI. Backgammon, anciently called Tables;--The
different Manners of playing at Tables--XVII. Backgammon, its
former and present Estimation--XVIII. Domino--XIX. Cards, when
invented--XX. Card-playing much practised--XXI. Forbidden--XXII.
Censured by Poets--XXIII. A Specimen of ancient Cards--XXIV.
Games formerly played with Cards--XXV. The Game of Goose--and of
the Snake--XXVI. Cross and Pile 305
CHAPTER III.
I. The Lord of Misrule said to be peculiar to the English--II.
A Court Officer--III. The Master of the King's Revels--IV.
The Lord of Misrule and his Conduct reprobated--V. The King
of Christmas--of the Cockneys--VI. A King of Christmas at
Norwich--VII. The King of the Bean--VIII. Whence originated--IX.
The Festival of Fools--X. The Boy Bishop--XI. The Fool
Plough--XII. Easter Games--XIII. Shrove-Tuesday--XIV.
Hock-Tuesday--XV. May-Games--XVI. The Lord and Lady of the
May--XVII. Grand May-Game at Greenwich--XVIII. Royal May-Game at
Shooter's-hill-- XIX. May Milk-Maids--XX. May Festival of the
Chimney Sweepers--XXI. Whitsun-Games--XXII. The Vigil of Saint
John the Baptist, how kept--XXIII. Its supposed origin--XXIV.
Setting of the Midsummer Watch--XXV. Processions on Saint
Clement's and Saint Catherine's day--XXVI. Wassails--XXVII.
Sheep-shearing and Harvest-home--XXVIII. Wakes--XXIX Sunday
Festivals--XXX. Church Ales--XXXI. Fairs, and their Diversions
and Abuses--XXXII. Bonfires--XXXIII. Illuminations--XXXIV.
Fireworks--XXXV. London Fireworks--XXXVI. Fireworks on
Tower-hill, at Public Gardens, and in Pageants 339
CHAPTER IV.
I. Popular manly Pastimes imitated by Children--II. Horses--III.
Racing and Chacing--IV. Wrestling and other Gymnastic
Sports--V. Marbles, and Span-counter--VI. Tops, &c.;--The Devil
among the Tailors--VII. Even or Odd--Chuck-halfpenny;--Duck
and Drake--VIII. Baste the Bear;--Hunt the Slipper,
&c.--IX. Sporting with Insects;--Kites;--Windmills--X.
Bob-cherry--XI. Hoodman-blind;--Hot-cockles--XII.
Cock-fighting--XIII. Anonymous Pastimes;--Mock Honours at
Boarding-schools--XIV. Houses of Cards;--Questions and
Commands;--Handy-dandy;--Snap-dragon;--Push-pin;--Crambo;--Lotteries
--XV. Obsolete Pastimes-XVI. Creag;--Queke-board;--Hand
in and Hand out;--White and Black, and Making and
Marring;--Figgum;--Mosel the Peg;-Hole about the
Church-yard;--Penny-prick;--Pick-point, &c.;--Mottoes, Similes,
and Cross-purposes;--The Parson has lost his Cloak 379
INTRODUCTION.
A GENERAL ARRANGEMENT OF THE POPULAR SPORTS, PASTIMES, AND
MILITARY GAMES, TOGETHER WITH THE VARIOUS SPECTACLES OF MIRTH
OR SPLENDOUR, EXHIBITED PUBLICLY OR PRIVATELY, FOR THE SAKE OF
AMUSEMENT, AT DIFFERENT PERIODS, IN ENGLAND.
CONTENTS.
I. Object of the Work, to describe the Pastimes and trace their
Origin.--II. The Romans in Britain.--III. The Saxons.--IV.
The Normans.--V. Tournaments and Justs.--VI. Other Sports of
the Nobility, and the Citizens and Yeomen.--VII. Knightly
Accomplishments.--VIII. Esquireship.--IX. Military Sports
patronized by the Ladies.--X. Decline of such Exercises--XI.
and of Chivalry.--XII. Military Exercises under Henry the
Seventh--XIII. and under Henry the Eighth.--XIV. Princely
Exercises under James the First.--XV. Revival of Learning.--XVI.
Recreations of the Sixteenth Century.--XVII. Old Sports
of the Citizens of London.--XVIII. Modern Pastimes of the
Londoners.--XIX. Cotswold and Cornish Games.--XX. Splendour
of the ancient Kings and Nobility.--XXI. Royal and noble
Entertainments.--XXII. Civic Shows.--XXIII. Setting out of
Pageants.--XXIV. Processions of Queen Mary and King Philip
of Spain in London.--XXV. Chester Pageants.--XXVI. Public
Shows of the Sixteenth Century.--XXVII. Queen Elizabeth at
Kenelworth Castle.--XXVIII. Love of Public Sights illustrated
from Shakspeare.--XXIX. Rope-dancing, tutored Animals, and
Puppet-shows.--XXX. Minstrelsy, Bell-ringing, &c.--XXXI. Baiting
of Animals.--XXXII. Pastimes formerly on Sundays.--XXXIII.
Royal Interference with them.--XXXIV. Zeal against Wakes and
May-Games.--XXXV. Dice and Cards.--XXXVI. Regulation of Gaming for
Money by Richard Cœur de Lion &c.--XXXVII. Statutes against Cards,
Ball-play, &c.--XXXVIII. Prohibitions of Skittle-play.--XXXIX.
Archery succeeded by Bowling.--XL. Modern Gambling.--XLI. Ladies'
Pastimes, Needle-work.--XLII. Dancing and Chess-play.--XLIII.
Ladies' Recreations in the Thirteenth Century.--XLIV. The Author's
Labours.--Character of the Engravings.
I.--OBJECT OF THE WORK, TO DESCRIBE THE PASTIMES AND TRACE THEIR ORIGIN.
In order to form a just estimation of the character of any particular
people, it is absolutely necessary to investigate the Sports and
Pastimes most generally prevalent among them. War, policy, and
other contingent circumstances, may effectually place men, at
different times, in different points of view, but, when we follow
them into their retirements, where no disguise is necessary, we are
most likely to see them in their true state, and may best judge of
their natural dispositions. Unfortunately, all the information that
remains respecting the ancient inhabitants of this island is derived
from foreign writers partially acquainted with them as a people,
and totally ignorant of their domestic customs and amusements: the
silence, therefore, of the contemporary historians on these important
subjects leaves us without the power of tracing them with the least
degree of certainty; and as it is my intention, in the following pages,
to confine myself as much as possible to positive intelligence, I
shall studiously endeavour to avoid all controversial and conjectural
arguments. I mean also to treat upon such pastimes only as have
been practised in this country; but as many of them originated on
the continent, frequent digressions, by way of illustrations, must
necessarily occur: these, however, I shall make it my business to
render as concise as the nature of the subject will permit them to be.
II.--THE ROMANS IN BRITAIN.
We learn, from the imperfect hints of ancient history, that, when the
Romans first invaded Britain, her inhabitants were a bold, active,
and warlike people, tenacious of their native liberty, and capable of
bearing great fatigue; to which they were probably inured by an early
education, and constant pursuit of such amusements as best suited the
profession of a soldier; including hunting, running, leaping, swimming,
and other exertions requiring strength and agility of body. Perhaps
the skill which the natives of Devonshire and Cornwall retain to the
present day, in hurling and wrestling, may properly be considered
as a vestige of British activity. After the Romans had conquered
Britain, they impressed such of the young men as were able to bear
arms for foreign service, and enervated the spirit of the people by
the importation of their own luxurious manners and habits; so that the
latter part of the British history exhibits to our view a slothful and
effeminate race of men, totally divested of that martial disposition,
and love of freedom, which so strongly marked the character of their
progenitors; and their amusements, no doubt, partook of the same
weakness and puerility.
III.--THE SAXONS.
The arrival of the Saxons forms a new epoch in the annals of this
country. These military mercenaries came professedly to assist
the Britons against their incessant tormentors the Picts and the
Caledonians; but no sooner had they established their footing in the
land, than they invited more of their countrymen to join them, and
turning their arms against their wretched employers, became their most
dangerous and most inexorable enemies, and in process of time obtained
full possession of the largest and best part of the island; whence
arose a total change in the form of government, laws, manners, customs,
and habits of the people.
The sportive exercises and pastimes practised by the Saxons appear
to have been such as were common among the ancient northern nations;
and most of them consisted of robust exercises. In an old Chronicle
of Norway,[1] we find it recorded of Olaf Tryggeson, a king of that
country, that he was stronger and more nimble than any man in his
dominions. He could climb up the rock Smalserhorn, and fix his shield
upon the top of it; he could walk round the outside of a boat upon
the oars, while the men were rowing; he could play with three darts,
alternately throwing them in the air, and always kept two of them
up, while he held the third in one of his hands; he was ambidexter,
and could cast two darts at once; he excelled all the men of his
time in shooting with the bow; and he had no equal in swimming. In
one achievement this monarch was outdone by the Anglo-Saxon ᵹlıᵹman,
represented by the engraving No. 50,[2] who adds an equal number of
balls to those knives or daggers. The Norman minstrel Tallefer, before
the commencement of the battle at Hastings, cast his lance into the air
three times, and caught it by the head in such a surprising manner,
that the English thought it was done by the power of enchantment.
Another northern hero, whose name was Kolson, boasts of nine
accomplishments in which he was well skilled: "I know," says he, "how
to play at chess; I can engrave Runic letters; I am expert at my book;
I know how to handle the tools of the smith;[3] I can traverse the
snow on skates of wood; I excel in shooting with the bow; I use the
oar with facility; I can sing to the harp; and I compose verses."[4]
The reader will, I doubt not, anticipate me in my observation, that
the acquirements of Kolson indicate a much more liberal education
than those of the Norwegian monarch: it must, however, be observed,
that Kolson lived in an age posterior to him; and also, that he made
a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, which may probably account in great
measure for his literary qualifications. Yet, we are well assured that
learning did not form any prominent feature in the education of a young
nobleman during the Saxon government: it is notorious, that Alfred the
Great was twelve years of age before he learned to read; and that he
owed his knowledge of letters to accident, rather than to the intention
of his tutors. A book adorned with paintings in the hands of his
mother, attracted his notice, and he expressed his desire to have it:
she promised to comply with his request on condition that he learned
to read it, which it seems he did; and this trifling incident laid the
groundwork of his future scholarship.[5]
Indeed, it is not by any means surprising, under the Saxon government,
when the times were generally very turbulent, and the existence of
peace exceedingly precarious, and when the personal exertions of the
opulent were so often necessary for the preservation of their lives
and property, that such exercises as inured the body to fatigue, and
biassed the mind to military pursuits, should have constituted the
chief part of a young nobleman's education: accordingly, we find that
hunting, hawking, leaping, running, wrestling, casting of darts, and
other pastimes which necessarily required great exertions of bodily
strength, were taught them in their adolescence. These amusements
engrossed the whole of their attention, every one striving to excel
his fellow; for hardiness, strength, and valour, out-balanced, in the
public estimation, the accomplishments of the mind; and therefore
literature, which flourishes best in tranquillity and retirement, was
considered as a pursuit unworthy the notice of a soldier, and only
requisite in the gloomy recesses of the cloister.
Among the vices of the Anglo-Saxons may be reckoned their propensity
to gaming, and especially with the dice, which they derived from their
ancestors; for Tacitus[6] assures us that the ancient Germans would
not only hazard all their wealth, but even stake their liberty, upon
the turn of the dice; "and he who loses," says the author, "submits
to servitude, though younger and stronger than his antagonist, and
patiently permits himself to be bound, and sold in the market; and
this madness they dignify by the name of honour." Chess was also a
favourite game with the Saxons; and likewise backgammon, said to have
been invented about the tenth century. It appears moreover, that a
large portion of the night was appropriated to the pursuit of these
sedentary amusements. In the reign of Canute the Dane, this practice
was sanctioned by the example of royalty, and followed by the nobility.
Bishop Ætheric, having obtained admission to Canute about midnight
upon some urgent business, found the king engaged with his courtiers
at play, some at dice, and some at chess.[7] The clergy, however, were
prohibited from playing at games of chance, by the ecclesiastical
canons established in the reign of Edgar.[8]
IV.--THE NORMANS.
The popular sports and pastimes, prevalent at the close of the Saxon
era, do not appear to have been subjected to any material change by the
coming of the Normans: it is true, indeed, that the elder William and
his immediate successors restricted the privileges of the chase, and
imposed great penalties on those who presumed to destroy the game in
the royal forests, without a proper licence.[9] By these restrictions
the general practice of hunting was much confined, but by no means
prohibited in certain districts, and especially to persons of opulence
who possessed extensive territories of their own.
V.--TOURNAMENTS AND JUSTS.
Among the pastimes introduced by the Norman nobility, none engaged
the general attention more than the tournaments and the justs. The
tournament, in its original institution, was a martial conflict, in
which the combatants engaged without any animosity, merely to exhibit
their strength and dexterity; but, at the same time, engaged in great
numbers to represent a battle. The just was when two knights, and
no more, were opposed to each other at one time. These amusements,
in the middle ages, which may properly enough be denominated the
ages of chivalry, were in high repute among the nobility of Europe,
and produced in reality much of the pomp and gallantry that we find
recorded with poetical exaggeration in the legends of knight-errantry.
I met with a passage in a satirical poem among the Harleian MSS. of the
thirteenth century,[10] which strongly marks the prevalence of this
taste in the times alluded to. It may be thus rendered in English:
If wealth, sir knight, perchance be thine,
In tournaments you're bound to shine
Refuse--and all the world will swear
You are not worth a rotten pear.[11]
VI.--OTHER SPORTS OF THE NOBILITY, AND THE CITIZENS AND YEOMEN.
While the principles of chivalry continued in fashion, the education
of a nobleman was confined to those principles, and every regulation
necessary to produce an accomplished knight was put into practice.
In order fully to investigate these particulars, we may refer to the
romances of the middle ages; and, generally speaking, dependence may
be placed upon their information. The authors of these fictitious
histories never looked beyond the customs of their own country;
and whenever the subject called for a representation of remote
magnificence, they depicted such scenes of splendour as were familiar
to them: hence it is, that Alexander the Great, in his legendary
life, receives the education of a Norman baron, and becomes expert in
hawking, hunting, and other amusements coincident with the time in
which the writer lived. Our early poets have fallen into the same kind
of anachronism; and Chaucer himself, in the Knight's Tale, speaking of
the rich array and furniture of the palace of Theseus, forgets that he
was a Grecian prince of great antiquity, and describes the large hall
belonging to an English nobleman, with the guests seated at table,
probably as he had frequently seen them, entertained with singing,
dancing, and other acts of minstrelsy, their hawks being placed upon
perches over their heads, and their hounds lying round about upon the
pavement below. The two last lines of the poem just referred to are
peculiarly applicable to the manners of the time in which the poet
lived, when no man of consequence travelled abroad without his hawk
and his hounds. In the early delineations, the nobility are frequently
represented seated at table, with their hawks upon their heads. Chaucer
says,
Ne what hawkes sytten on perchen above,
Ne what houndes lyggen on the flour adoun.
The picture is perfect, when referred to his own time; but bears
not the least analogy to Athenian grandeur. In the romance called
The Knight of the Swan, it is said of Ydain duchess Roulyon, that
she caused her three sons to be brought up in "all maner of good
operacyons, vertues, and maners; and when in their adolescence they
were somwhat comen to the age of strengthe, they," their tutors, "began
to practyse them in shootinge with their bow and arbelstre,[12] to
playe with the sword and buckeler, to runne, to just,[13] to playe
with a poll-axe, and to wrestle; and they began to bear harneys,[14]
to runne horses, and to approve them, as desyringe to be good and
faythful knightes to susteyne the faith of God." We are not, however
to conceive, that martial exercises in general were confined to the
education of young noblemen: the sons of citizens and yeomen had also
their sports resembling military combats. Those practised at an early
period by the young Londoners seem to have been derived from the
Romans; they consisted of various attacks and evolutions performed on
horseback, the youth being armed with shields and pointless lances,
resembling the ludus Trojæ, or Troy game, described by Virgil.[15]
These amusements, according to Fitz Stephen, who lived in the reign
of Henry II., were appropriated to the season of Lent; but at other
times they exercised themselves with archery, fighting with clubs and
bucklers, and running at the quintain; and in the winter, when the
frost set in, they would go upon the ice, and run against each other
with poles, in imitation of lances, in a just; and frequently one or
both were beaten down, "not always without hurt; for some break their
arms, and some their legs; but youth," says my author, "emulous of
glory, seeks these exercises preparatory against the time that war
shall demand their presence." The like kind of pastimes, no doubt, were
practised by the young men in other parts of the kingdom.
VII.--KNIGHTLY ACCOMPLISHMENTS.
The mere management of arms, though essentially requisite, was not
sufficient of itself to form an accomplished knight in the times of
chivalry; it was necessary for him to be endowed with beauty, as well
as with strength and agility of body; he ought to be skilled in music,
to dance gracefully, to run with swiftness, to excel in wrestling, to
ride well, and to perform every other exercise befitting his situation.
To these were to be added urbanity of manners, strict adherence to the
truth, and invincible courage. Hunting and hawking skilfully were also
acquirements that he was obliged to possess, and which were usually
taught him as soon as he was able to endure the fatigue that they
required. Hence it is said of sir Tristram, a fictitious character
held forth as the mirror of chivalry in the romance entitled The
Death of Arthur, that "he learned to be an harper, passing all other,
that there was none such called in any countrey: and so in harping
and on instruments of musike he applied himself in his youth for to
learne, and after as he growed in might and strength he laboured ever
in hunting and hawking, so that we read of no gentlemen who more,
or so, used himself therein; and he began good measures of blowing
blasts of venery,[16] and chase, and of all manner of vermains;[17]
and all these terms have we yet of hunting and hawking; and therefore
the book of venery, and of hawking and hunting, is called the Boke of
Sir Tristram." In a succeeding part of the same romance, king Arthur
thus addresses the knight: "For all manner of hunting thou bearest the
prize; and of all measures of blowing thou art the beginner, and of all
the termes of hunting and hawking thou art the beginner."[18] We are
also informed, that sir Tristram had previously learned the language of
France, knew all the principles of courtly behaviour, and was skilful
in the various requisites of knighthood. Another ancient romance says
of its hero, "He every day was provyd in dauncyng and in songs that the
ladies coulde think were convenable for a nobleman to conne;[19] but
in every thinge he passed all them that were there. The king, for to
assaie him, made justes and turnies; and no man did so well as he, in
runnyng, playing at the pame,[20] shotyng, and castyng of the barre, ne
found he his maister."[21]
VIII.--ESQUIRESHIP.
The laws of chivalry required that every knight should pass through
two offices: the first was a page; and, at the age of fourteen, he was
admitted an esquire. The office of the esquire consisted of several
departments; the esquire for the body, the esquire of the chamber, the
esquire of the stable, and the carving esquire; the latter stood in the
hall at dinner, carved the different dishes, and distributed them to
the guests. Several of the inferior officers had also their respective
esquires.[22] Ipomydon, a king's son and heir, in the romance that
bears his name, written probably at the commencement of the fourteenth
century, is regularly taught the duties of an esquire, previous to his
receiving the honours of knighthood; and for this purpose his father
committed him to the care of a "learned and courteous knight called Sir
'Tholomew." Our author speaks on this subject in the following manner:
'Tholomew a clerke he toke,
That taught the child uppon the boke
Both to synge and to rede;
And after he taught hym other dede.
Afterward, to serve in halle
Both to grete and to smalle;
Before the kynge mete to kerve;
Hye and low fayre to serve.
Both of howndes and hawkis game,
After, he taught hym all; and same,
In sea, in feld, and eke in ryvere;
In woode to chase the wild dere,
And in feld to ryde a stede;
That all men had joy of hys dede.[23]
Here we find reading mentioned; which, however, does not appear to have
been of any great importance in the middle ages, and is left out in the
Geste of King Horne, another metrical romance,[24] which seems to be
rather more ancient than the former. Young Horne is placed under the
tuition of Athelbrus, the king's steward, who is commanded to teach him
the mysteries of hawking and hunting, to play upon the harp,
Ant toggen o' the harpe
With his nayles sharpe,
to carve at the royal table, and to present the cup to the king when
he sat at meat, with every other service fitting for him to know. The
monarch concludes his injunctions with a repetition of the charge to
instruct him in singing and music:
Tech him of harp and of song.
And the manner in which the king's carver performed the duties of his
office is well described in the poem denominated the Squyer of Lowe
Degree:[25]
There he araied him in scarlet red,
And set a chaplet upon his hedde;
A belte about his sydes two,
With brode barres to and fro;
A horne about his necke he caste;
And forth he went at the laste,
To do his office in the halle
Among the lordes both greate and small.
He toke a white yeard in his hand;
Before the kynge than gan he stande;
And sone he set hym on his knee,
And served the kynge ryght royally
With deynty meates that were dere.--
--And, when the squyer had done so,
He served them all[26] to and fro.
Eche man hym loved in honeste,
Hye and lowe in their degre;
So dyd the kyng--&c.
IX.--MILITARY SPORTS PATRONIZED BY THE LADIES.
Tournaments and justs were usually exhibited at coronations royal
marriages, and other occasions of solemnity where pomp and pageantry
were thought to be requisite. Our historians abound with details of
these celebrated pastimes. The reader is referred to Froissart, Hall,
Holinshed, Stow, Grafton, &c. who are all of them very diffuse upon
this subject; and in the second volume of the Manners and Customs of
the English are several curious representations of these military
combats both on horseback and on foot.
One great reason, and perhaps the most cogent of any, why the nobility
of the middle ages, nay, and even princes and kings, delighted so
much in the practice of tilting with each other, is, that on such
occasions they made their appearance with prodigious splendour, and had
the opportunity of displaying their accomplishments to the greatest
advantage. The ladies also were proud of seeing their professed
champions engaged in these arduous conflicts; and, perhaps, a glove
or riband from the hand of a favourite female might have inspired the
receiver with as zealous a wish for conquest, as the abstracted love
of glory; though in general, I presume, both these ideas were united;
for a knight divested of gallantry would have been considered as a
recreant, and unworthy of his profession.
X.--DECLINE OF MILITARY EXERCISES.
When the military enthusiasm which so strongly characterised the middle
ages had subsided, and chivalry was on the decline, a prodigious
change took place in the nurture and manners of the nobility. Violent
exercises requiring the exertions of muscular strength grew out of
fashion with persons of rank, and of course were consigned to the
amusement of the vulgar; and the education of the former became
proportionably more soft and delicate. This example of the nobility
was soon followed by persons of less consequence; and the neglect of
military exercises prevailed so generally, that the interference of
the legislature was thought necessary, to prevent its influence from
being universally diffused, and to correct the bias of the common mind;
for, the vulgar readily acquiesced with the relaxation of meritorious
exertions, and fell into the vices of the times, resorting to such
games and recreations as promoted idleness and dissipation, by which
they lost their money, and, what is worse, their reputation, entailing
poverty and distress on themselves and their families.
XI.--DECLINE OF CHIVALRY.
The romantic notions of chivalry appear to have lost their vigour
towards the conclusion of the fifteenth century, especially in this
country, where a continued series of intestine commotions employed
the exertions of every man of property, and real battles afforded but
little leisure to exercise the mockery of war. It is true, indeed, that
tilts and tournaments, with other splendid exhibitions of military
skill, were occasionally exercised, and with great brilliancy, so far
as pomp and finery could contribute to make them attractive, till the
end of the succeeding century. These splendid pastimes were encouraged
by the sanction of royalty, and this sanction was perfectly political;
on the one hand, it gratified the vanity of the nobility, and, on the
other, it amused the populace, who, being delighted with such shows of
grandeur, were thereby diverted from reflecting too deeply upon the
grievances they sustained. It is, however, certain that the justs and
tournaments of the latter ages, with all their pomp, possessed but
little of the primitive spirit of chivalry.
XII.--MILITARY EXERCISES UNDER HENRY VII.
Henry VII. patronized the gentlemen and officers of his court in the
practice of military exercises. The following extract may serve as a
specimen of the manner in which they were appointed to be performed:
"Whereas it ever hath bene of old antiquitie used in this realme of
most noble fame, for all lustye gentlemen to passe the delectable
season of summer after divers manner and sondry fashions of disports,
as in hunting the red and fallowe deer with houndes, greyhoundes,
and with the bowe; also in hawking with hawkes of the tower; and
other pastimes of the field. And bycause it is well knowen, that in
the months of Maie and June, all such disports be not convenient;
wherefore, in eschewing of idleness, the ground of all vice," and to
promote such exercises as "shall be honourable, and also healthfull
and profitable to the body," we "beseech your most noble highness to
permit two gentlemen, assosyatying to them two other gentlemen to be
their aides," by "your gracious licence, to furnish certain articles
concerning the feates of armes hereafter ensuinge:"--"In the first
place; On the twenty-second daye of Maie, there shall be a grene tree
sett up in the lawnde of Grenwich parke; whereupon shall hange, by a
grene lace, a vergescu[27] blanke; upon which white shield it shal
be lawful for any gentleman that will answer the following chalenge
to subscribe his name.--Secondly; The said two gentlemen, with their
two aides, shal be redye on the twenty-thirde daie of Maie, being
Thursdaye, and on Mondaye thence next ensewinge, and so everye Thursday
and Monday untill the twentieth daye of June, armed for the foote, to
answear all gentlemen commers, at the feate called the Barriers, with
the casting-speare, and the targett, and with the bastard-sword,[28]
after the manner following, that is to saie, from sixe of the clocke
in the forenoone till sixe of the clocke in the afternoone during the
time.--Thirdly; And the said two gentlemen, with their two aiders,
or one of them, shall be there redye at the said place, the daye and
dayes before rehearsed, to deliver any of the gentlemen answeares of
one caste with the speare hedded with the morne,[29] and seven strokes
with the sword, point and edge rebated, without close, or griping one
another with handes, upon paine of punishment as the judges for the
time being shall thinke requisite.--Fourthly; And it shall not be
lawfull to the challengers, nor to the answearers, with the bastard
sword to give or offer any foyne[30] to his match, upon paine of like
punishment.--Fifthly; The challengers shall bringe into the fielde,
the said daies and tymes, all manner of weapons concerning the said
feates, that is to saye, casting speares hedded with mornes, and
bastard swords with the edge and point rebated; and the answerers to
have the first choise."[31]
XIII.--MILITARY EXERCISES UNDER HENRY VIII.
Henry VIII. not only countenanced the practice of military pastimes by
permitting them to be exercised without restraint, but also endeavoured
to make them fashionable by his own example. Hall assures us, that,
even after his accession to the throne, he continued daily to amuse
himself in archery, casting of the bar, wrestling, or dancing, and
frequently in tilting, tournaying, fighting at the barriers with
swords, and battle-axes, and such like martial recreations, in most of
which there were few that could excel him. His leisure time he spent in
playing at the recorders, flute, and virginals, in setting of songs,
singing and making of ballads.[32] He was also exceedingly fond of
hunting, hawking, and other sports of the field; and indeed his example
so far prevailed, that hunting, hawking, riding the great horse,
charging dexterously with the lance at the tilt, leaping, and running,
were necessary accomplishments for a man of fashion.[33] The pursuits
and amusements of a nobleman are placed in a different point of view by
an author of the succeeding century;[34] who, describing the person and
manners of Charles lord Mountjoy, regent of Ireland, in 1599, says, "He
delighted in study, in gardens, in riding on a pad to take the aire, in
playing at shovelboard, at cardes, and in reading of play-bookes for
recreation, and especially in fishing and fish-ponds, seldome useing
any other exercises, and useing these rightly as pastimes, only for
a short and convenient time, and with great variety of change from
one to the other." The game of shovelboard, though now considered as
exceedingly vulgar, and practised by the lower classes of the people,
was formerly in great repute among the nobility and gentry; and few
of their mansions were without a shovelboard, which was a fashionable
piece of furniture. The great hall was usually the place for its
reception.
XIV.--PRINCELY EXERCISES UNDER JAMES I.
We are by no means in the dark respecting the education of the nobility
in the reign of James I.; we have, from that monarch's own hand, a set
of rules for the nurture and conduct of an heir apparent to the throne,
addressed to his eldest son Henry, prince of Wales. From the third book
of this remarkable publication, entitled ΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΟΝ ΔΩΡΟΝ, or, a Kinge's
Christian Dutie towards God," I shall select such parts as respect the
recreations said to be proper for the pursuit of a nobleman, without
presuming to make any alteration in the diction of the royal author.
"Certainly," he says, "bodily exercises and games are very commendable,
as well for bannishing of idleness, the mother of all vice; as for
making the body able and durable for travell, which is very necessarie
for a king. But from this court I debarre all rough and violent
exercises; as the foote-ball, meeter for lameing, than making able,
the users thereof; as likewise such tumbling trickes as only serve for
comœdians and balladines to win their bread with: but the exercises
that I would have you to use, although but moderately, not making a
craft of them, are, running, leaping, wrestling, fencing, dancing, and
playing at the caitch, or tennise, archerie, palle-malle, and such like
other fair and pleasant field-games. And the honourablest and most
recommendable games that yee can use on horseback; for, it becometh a
prince best of any man to be a faire and good horseman: use, therefore,
to ride and danton great and courageous horses;--and especially use
such games on horseback as may teach you to handle your armes thereon,
such as the tilt, the ring, and low-riding for handling of your sword.
"I cannot omit heere the hunting, namely, with running houndes, which
is the most honourable and noblest sort thereof; for it is a theivish
forme of hunting to shoote with gunnes and bowes; and greyhound
hunting[35] is not so martial a game.
"As for hawkinge, I condemn it not; but I must praise it more
sparingly, because it neither resembleth the warres so neere as hunting
doeth in making a man hardie and skilfully ridden in all grounds, and
is more uncertain and subjec. to mischances; and, which is worst of
all, is there through an extreme stirrer up of the passions.
"As for sitting, or house pastimes--since they may at times supply the
roome which, being emptie, would be patent to pernicious idleness--I
will not therefore agree with the curiositie of some learned men of
our age in forbidding cardes, dice, and such like games of hazard:[36]
when it is foule and stormie weather, then I say, may ye lawfully play
at the cardes or tables; for, as to diceing, I think it becommeth best
deboshed souldiers to play at on the heads of their drums, being only
ruled by hazard, and subject to knavish cogging; and as for the chesse,
I think it over-fond, because it is over-wise and philosophicke a
folly."
His majesty concludes this subject with the following good advice to
his son: "Beware in making your sporters your councellors, and delight
not to keepe ordinarily in your companie comœdians or balladines."
XV.--REVIVAL OF LEARNING.
The discontinuation of bodily exercises afforded a proportionable
quantity of leisure time for the cultivation of the mind; so that
the manners of mankind were softened by degrees, and learning, which
had been so long neglected, became fashionable, and was esteemed an
indispensable mark of a polite education. Yet some of the nobility
maintained for a long time the old prejudices in favour of the
ancient mode of nurture, and preferred exercise of the body to mental
endowments; such was the opinion of a person of high rank, who said to
Richard Pace, secretary to king Henry VIII., "It is enough for the sons
of noblemen to wind their horn and carry their hawke fair, and leave
study and learning to the children of meaner people."[37] Many of the
pastimes that had been countenanced by the nobility, and sanctioned
by their example, in the middle ages, grew into disrepute in modern
times, and were condemned as vulgar and unbecoming the notice of a
gentleman. "Throwing the hammer and wrestling," says Peacham, in his
Complete Gentleman, published in 1622, "I hold them exercises not so
well beseeming nobility, but rather the soldiers in the camp and the
prince's guard." On the contrary, sir William Forest, in his Poesye of
Princelye Practice, a MS. in the Royal Library,[38] written in the year
1548, laying down the rules for the education of an heir apparent to
the crown, or prince of the blood royal, writes thus:
So must a prince, at some convenient brayde,
In featis of maistries bestowe some diligence:
Too ryde, runne, leape, or caste by violence
Stone, barre, or plummett, or suche other thinge,
It not refusethe any prince or kynge.
However, I doubt not both these authors spoke agreeably to the taste of
the times in which they lived. Barclay, a more early poetic writer, in
his Eclogues, first published in 1508, has made a shepherd boast of his
skill in archery; to which he adds,
I can dance the raye; I can both pipe and sing,
If I were mery; I can both hurle and sling;
I runne, I wrestle, I can well throwe the barre,
No shepherd throweth the axeltree so farre;
If I were mery, I could well leape and spring;
I were a man mete to serve a prince or king.
XVI.--RECREATIONS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy, published in 1660, gives us a
general view of the sports most prevalent in the seventeenth century.
"Cards, dice, hawkes, and hounds," says he, "are rocks upon which men
lose themselves, when they are imprudently handled, and beyond their
fortunes." And again, "Hunting and hawking are honest recreations,
and fit for some great men, but not for every base inferior person,
who, while they maintain their faulkoner, and dogs, and hunting nags,
their wealth runs away with their hounds, and their fortunes fly
away with their hawks." In another place he speaks thus: "Ringing,
bowling, shooting, playing with keel-pins, tronks, coits, pitching
of bars, hurling, wrestling, leaping, running, fencing, mustering,
swimming, playing with wasters, foils, foot-balls, balowns, running at
the quintain, and the like, are common recreations of country folks:
riding of great horses, running at rings, tilts and tournaments,
horse-races, and wild-goose chases, which are disports of greater men,
and good in themselves, though many gentlemen by such means gallop
quite out of their fortunes." Speaking of the Londoners, he says, "They
take pleasure to see some pageant or sight go by, as at a coronation,
wedding, and such like solemn niceties; to see an ambassador or a
prince received and entertained with masks, shows, and fireworks.
The country hath also his recreations, as May-games, feasts, fairs,
and wakes." The following pastimes he considers as common both in
town and country, namely, "bull-baitings and bear-baitings, in which
our countrymen and citizens greatly delight, and frequently use;
dancers on ropes, jugglers, comedies, tragedies, artillery gardens,
and cock-fighting." He then goes on: "Ordinary recreations we have
in winter, as cards, tables, dice, shovelboard, chess-play, the
philosopher's game, small trunks, shuttle-cock, billiards, music,
masks, singing, dancing, ule-games, frolicks, jests, riddles, catches,
cross purposes, questions and commands, merry tales of errant knights,
queens, lovers, lords, ladies, giants, dwarfs, thieves, cheaters,
witches, fairies, goblins, and friars." To this catalogue he adds:
"Dancing, singing, masking, mumming, and stage-plays, are reasonable
recreations, if in season; as are May-games, wakes, and Whitson-ales,
if not at unseasonable hours, are justly permitted. Let them," that
is, the common people, "freely feast, sing, dance, have puppet-plays,
hobby-horses, tabers, crowds,[39] and bagpipes:" let them "play at ball
and barley-brakes;" and afterwards, "Plays, masks, jesters, gladiators,
tumblers, and jugglers, are to be winked at, lest the people should do
worse than attend them."
A character in the Cornish Comedy, written by George Powell, and
acted at Dorset Garden in 1696, says, "What is a gentleman without
his recreations? With these we endeavour to pass away that time
which otherwise would lie heavily upon our hands. Hawks, hounds,
setting-dogs, and cocks, with their appurtenances, are the true marks
of a country gentleman." This character is supposed to be a young
heir just come to his estate. "My cocks," says he, "are true cocks of
the game--I make a match of cock-fighting, and then an hundred or two
pounds are soon won, for I never fight a battle under."
XVII.--OLD SPORTS OF THE CITIZENS OF LONDON.
In addition to the May-games, morris-dancings, pageants and
processions, which were commonly exhibited throughout the kingdom in
all great towns and cities, the Londoners had peculiar and extensive
privileges of hunting, hawking, and fishing:[40] they had also large
portions of ground allotted to them in the vicinity of the city for the
practice of such pastimes as were not prohibited by the government,
and for those especially that were best calculated to render them
strong and healthy. We are told by Fitz Stephen, in the twelfth
century, that on the holidays during the summer season, the young men
of London exercised themselves in the fields with "leaping, shooting
with the bow, wrestling, casting the stone, playing with the ball, and
fighting with their shields." The last species of pastime, I believe,
is the same that Stow, in his Survey of London, calls "practising with
their wasters and bucklers;" which in his day was exercised by the
apprentices before the doors of their masters. The city damsels had
also their recreations on the celebration of these festivals, according
to the testimony of both the authors just mentioned. The first tells
us that they played upon citherns,[41] and danced to the music; and
as this amusement probably did not take place before the close of
the day, they were, it seems, occasionally permitted to continue it
by moonlight. We learn from the other, who wrote at the distance of
more than four centuries, that it was then customary for the maidens,
after evening prayers, to dance in the presence of their masters and
mistresses, while one of their companions played the measure upon a
timbrel; and, in order to stimulate them to pursue this exercise with
alacrity, the best dancers were rewarded with garlands, the prizes
being exposed to public view, "hanged athwart the street," says Stow,
during the whole of the performance. This recital calls to my mind a
passage in Spenser's Epithalamium, wherein it appears that the dance
was sometimes accompanied with singing. It runs thus:
----The damsels they delight,
When they their timbrels smite,
And thereunto dance and carol sweet.
XVIII.--MODERN PASTIMES OF THE LONDONERS.
A general view of the pastimes practised by the Londoners soon after
the commencement of the last century occurs in Strype's edition of
Stow's Survey of London, published in 1720.[42] "The modern sports of
the citizens," says the editor, "besides drinking, are cock-fighting,
bowling upon greens, playing at tables, or backgammon, cards, dice,
and billiards; also musical entertainments, dancing, masks, balls,
stage-plays, and club-meetings, in the evening; they sometimes ride
out on horseback, and hunt with the lord-mayor's pack of dogs when the
common hunt goes out. The lower classes divert themselves at foot-ball,
wrestling, cudgels, nine-pins, shovelboard, cricket, stow-ball, ringing
of bells, quoits, pitching the bar, bull and bear baitings, throwing at
cocks, and, what is worst of all, lying at alehouses." To these are
added, by an author of later date, Maitland, in his History of London,
published in 1739, "Sailing, rowing, swimming and fishing, in the river
Thames, horse and foot races, leaping, archery, bowling in allies, and
skittles, tennice, chess, and draughts; and in the winter scating,
sliding, and shooting." Duck-hunting was also a favourite amusement,
but generally practised in the summer. The pastimes here enumerated
were by no means confined to the city of London, or its environs: the
larger part of them were in general practice throughout the kingdom.
XIX.--COTSWOLD AND CORNISH GAMES.
Before I quit this division of my subject, I shall mention the annual
celebration of games upon Cotswold Hills, in Gloucestershire, to which
prodigious multitudes constantly resorted. Robert Dover, an attorney,
of Barton on the Heath, in the county of Warwick, was forty years
the chief director of these pastimes. They consisted of wrestling,
cudgel-playing, leaping, pitching the bar, throwing the sledge, tossing
the pike, with various other feats of strength and activity; many of
the country gentlemen hunted or coursed the hare; and the women danced.
A castle of boards was erected on this occasion, from which guns were
frequently discharged. "Captain Dover received permission from James
I. to hold these sports; and he appeared at their celebration in the
very clothes which that monarch had formerly worn, but with much more
dignity in his air and aspect."[43] I do not mean to say that the
Cotswold games were invented, or even first established, by captain
Dover; on the contrary, they seem to be of much higher origin, and
are evidently alluded to in the following lines by John Heywood the
epigrammatist:[44]
He fometh like a bore, the beaste should seeme bolde,
For he is as fierce as a lyon of Cotsolde.
Something of the same sort, I presume, was the Carnival, kept every
year, about the middle of July, upon Halgaver-moor, near Bodmin in
Cornwall; "resorted to by thousands of people," says Heath, in his
description of Cornwall, published in 1750. "The sports and pastimes
here held were so well liked by Charles II. when he touched here in
his way to Sicily, that he became a brother of the jovial society. The
custom of keeping this carnival is said to be as old as the Saxons."
XX.--SPLENDOUR OF THE ANCIENT KINGS AND NOBILITY.
Paul Hentzner, a foreign writer, who visited this country at the close
of the sixteenth century, says of the English, in his Itinerary,
written in 1598, that they are "serious like the Germans, lovers
of show, liking to be followed wherever they go by whole troops of
servants, who wear their master's arms in silver."[45] This was no
new propensity: the English nobility at all times affected great
parade, seldom appearing abroad without large trains of servitors and
retainers; and the lower classes of the people delighted in gaudy
shows, pageants, and processions.
If we go back to the times of the Saxons, we shall find that, soon
after their establishment in Britain, their monarchs assumed great
state. Bede tells us that "Edwin, king of Northumberland, lived in much
splendour, never travelling without a numerous retinue; and when he
walked in the streets of his own capital, even in the times of peace,
he had a standard borne before him. This standard was of the kind
called by the Romans tufa, and by the English tuuf: it was made with
feathers of various colours, in the form of a globe, and fastened upon
a pole."[46] It is unnecessary to multiply citations; for which reason,
I shall only add another. Canute the Dane, who is said to have been
the richest and most magnificent prince of his time in Europe, rarely
appeared in public without being followed by a train of three thousand
horsemen, well mounted and completely armed. These attendants, who
were called house carles, formed a corps of body guards, or household
troops, and were appointed for the honour and safety of that prince's
person.[47] The examples of royalty were followed by the nobility and
persons of opulence.
In the middle ages, the love of show was carried to an extravagant
length; and as a man of fashion was nothing less than a man of letters,
those studies that were best calculated to improve the mind were held
in little estimation.
XXI.--ROYAL AND NOBLE ENTERTAINMENTS.
The courts of princes and the castles of the great barons were daily
crowded with numerous retainers, who were always welcome to their
masters' tables. The noblemen had their privy counsellors, treasurers,
marshals, constables, stewards, secretaries, chaplains, heralds,
pursuivants, pages, henchmen or guards, trumpeters, and all the other
officers of the royal court.[48] To these may be added whole companies
of minstrels, mimics, jugglers, tumblers, rope-dancers, and players;
and especially on days of public festivity, when, in every one of the
apartments opened for the reception of the guests, were exhibited
variety of entertainments, according to the taste of the times, but in
which propriety had very little share; the whole forming a scene of
pompous confusion, where feasting, drinking, music, dancing, tumbling,
singing, and buffoonery, were jumbled together, and mirth excited too
often at the expense of common decency.[49] If we turn to the third
Book of Fame, a poem written by our own countryman Chaucer, we shall
find a perfect picture of these tumultuous court entertainments, drawn,
I doubt not, from reality, and perhaps without any exaggeration. It
may be thus expressed in modern language: Minstrels of every kind
were stationed in the receptacles for the guests; among them were
jesters, that related tales of mirth and of sorrow; excellent players
upon the harp, with others of inferior merit[50] seated on various
seats below them, who mimicked their performances like apes to excite
laughter; behind them, at a great distance, was a prodigious number of
other minstrels, making a great sound with cornets, shaulms, flutes,
horns,[51] pipes of various kinds, and some of them made with green
corn,[52] such as are used by shepherds' boys; there were also Dutch
pipers to assist those who chose to dance either "love-dances, springs,
or rayes,"[53] or any other new-devised measures. Apart from these
were stationed the trumpeters and players on the clarion; and other
seats were occupied by different musicians playing variety of mirthful
tunes. There were also present large companies of jugglers, magicians,
and tregetours, who exhibited surprising tricks by the assistance of
natural magic.
Vast sums of money were expended in support of these absurd and
childish spectacles, by which the estates of the nobility were
consumed, and the public treasuries often exhausted. But we shall have
occasion to speak more fully on this subject hereafter.[54]
XXII.--CIVIC SHOWS.
The pageantry and shows exhibited in great towns and cities on
occasions of joy and solemnity were equally deficient in taste and
genius. At London, where they were most frequently required, that
is to say, at the reception of foreign monarchs, at the processions
of our own through the city of London to Westminster previous to
their coronation, or at their return from abroad, and on various
other occasions; besides such as occurred at stated times, as the
lord-mayor's show, the setting of the midsummer watch, and the like, a
considerable number of different artificers were kept, at the city's
expense, to furnish the machinery for the pageants, and to decorate
them. Stow tells us that, in his memory, great part of Leaden Hall was
appropriated to the purpose of painting and depositing the pageants for
the use of the city.
The want of elegance and propriety, so glaringly evident in these
temporary exhibitions, was supplied, or attempted to be supplied, by
a tawdry resemblance of splendour. The fronts of the houses in the
streets through which the processions passed were covered with rich
adornments of tapestry, arras, and cloth of gold; the chief magistrates
and most opulent citizens usually appeared on horseback in sumptuous
habits and joined the cavalcade; while the ringing of bells, the sound
of music from various quarters, and the shouts of the populace, nearly
stunned the ears of the spectators. At certain distances, in places
appointed for the purpose, the pageants were erected, which were
temporary buildings representing castles, palaces, gardens, rocks,
or forests, as the occasion required, where nymphs, fawns, satyrs,
gods, goddesses, angels, and devils, appeared in company with giants,
savages, dragons, saints, knights, buffoons, and dwarfs, surrounded
by minstrels and choristers; the heathen mythology, the legends of
chivalry, and Christian divinity, were ridiculously jumbled together,
without meaning; and the exhibition usually concluded with dull
pedantic harangues, exceedingly tedious, and replete with the grossest
adulation. The giants especially were favourite performers in the
pageants; they also figured away with great applause in the pages of
romance; and, together with dragons and necromancers, were created by
the authors for the sole purpose of displaying the prowess of their
heroes, whose business it was to destroy them.
Some faint traces of the processional parts of these exhibitions
were retained at London in the lord mayor's show about twenty or
thirty years ago;[55] but the pageants and orations have been long
discontinued, and the show itself is so much contracted, that it is in
reality altogether unworthy of such an appellation.
XXIII.--SETTING OUT OF PAGEANTS.
In an old play, the Historie of Promos and Cassandra, part the second,
by George Whetstone, printed in 1578,[56] a carpenter, and others,
employed in preparing the pageants for a royal procession, are
introduced. In one part of the city the artificer is ordered "to set
up the frames, and to space out the rooms, that the Nine Worthies may
be so instauled as best to please the eye." The "Worthies" are thus
named in an heraldical MS. in the Harleian Library:[57] "Duke Jossua;
Hector of Troy; kyng David; emperour Alexander; Judas Machabyes;
emperour Julyus Cæsar; kyng Arthur; emperour Charlemagne; and syr
Guy of Warwycke;" but the place of the latter was frequently, and I
believe originally, supplied by Godefroy, earl of Bologne: it appears,
however, that any of them might be changed at pleasure: Henry VIII. was
made a "Worthy" to please his daughter Mary, as we shall find a little
farther on. In another part of the same play the carpenter is commanded
to "errect a stage, that the wayghtes[58] in sight may stand;" one
of the city gates was to be occupied by the fowre Virtues, together
with "a consort of music;" and one of the pageants is thus whimsically
described:
They have Hercules of monsters conquering;
Huge great giants, in a forrest, fighting
With lions, bears, wolves, apes, foxes, and grayes,
Baiards and brockes----
----Oh, these be wondrous frayes!
The stage direction then requires the entry of "Two men apparelled
lyke greene men at the mayor's feast, with clubbs of fyreworks;" whose
office, we are told, was to keep a clear passage in the street, "that
the kyng and his trayne might pass with ease."--In another dramatic
performance of later date, Green's Tu Quoque, or the City Gallant, by
John Cooke, published in 1614, a city apprentice says, "By this light,
I doe not thinke but to be lord mayor of London before I die; and have
three pageants carried before me, besides a ship and an unicorn." The
following passage occurs in Selden's Table Talk, under the article
Judge, "We see the pageants in Cheapside, the lions and the elephants;
but we do not see the men that carry them we see the judges look big
like lions; but we do not see who moves them."
XXIV.--PROCESSIONS OF QUEEN MARY AND KING PHILIP OF SPAIN IN LONDON.
In the foregoing quotations, we have not the least necessity to make an
allowance for poetical licence: the historians of the time will justify
the poets, and perfectly clear them from any charge of exaggeration;
and especially Hall, Grafton, and Holinshed, who are exceedingly
diffuse on this and such like popular subjects. The latter has recorded
a very curious piece of pantomimical trickery exhibited at the time
that the princess Mary went in procession through the city of London,
the day before her coronation:--At the upper end of Grace-church-Street
there was a pageant made by the Florentines; it was very high; and
"on the top thereof there stood foure pictures; and in the midst of
them, and the highest, there stood an angell, all in greene, with a
trumpet in his hand; and when the trumpetter who stood secretlie within
the pageant, did sound his· trumpet, the angell did put his trumpet
to his mouth, as though it had been the same that had sounded." A
similar deception but on a more extensive scale, was practised at the
gate of Kenelworth Castle for the reception of queen Elizabeth.[59]
Holinshed, speaking of the spectacles exhibited at London, when Philip
king of Spain, with Mary his consort, made their public entry in the
city, calls them, in the margin of his Chronicle, "the vaine pageants
of London;" and he uses the same epithet twice in the description
immediately subsequent; "Now," says he, "as the king came to London,
and as he entered at the drawbridge, [on London Bridge,] there was a
vaine great spectacle, with two images representing two giants, the
one named Corineus, and the other Gog-magog, holding betweene them
certeine Latin verses, which, for the vaine ostentation of flatterye,
I overpasse."[60] He then adds: "From the bridge they passed to the
conduit in Gratious-street, which was finely painted; and, among other
things," there exhibited, "were the Nine Worthies; of these king Henry
VIII. was one. He was painted in harnesse,[61] having in one hand a
sword, and in the other hand a booke, whereupon was written Verbum
Dei.[62] He was also delivering, as it were, the same booke to his
sonne king Edward VI. who was painted in a corner by him." This device,
it seems, gave great offence; and the painter, at the queen's command,
was summoned before the bishop of Winchester, then lord chancellor,
where he met with a very severe reprimand, and was ordered to erase the
inscription; to which he readily assented, and was glad to have escaped
at so easy a rate from the peril that threatened him; but in his hurry
to remove the offensive words, he rubbed out "the whole booke, and part
of the hand that held it."[63]
The Nine Worthies appear to have been favourite characters, and were
often exhibited in the pageants; those mentioned in the preceding
passage were probably nothing more than images of wood or pasteboard.
These august personages were not, however, always degraded in this
manner, but, on the contrary, they were frequently personified by human
beings uncouthly habited, and sometimes mounted on horseback. They also
occasionally harangued the spectators as they passed in the procession.
XXV.--CHESTER PAGEANTS.
The same species of shows, but probably not upon so extensive a scale,
were exhibited in other cities and large towns throughout the kingdom.
I have now before me an ordinance for the mayor, aldermen, and common
councilmen of the city of Chester, to provide yearly for the setting
of the watch, on the eve of the festival of Saint John the Baptist, a
pageant, which is expressly said to be "according to ancient custome,"
consisting of four giants, one unicorn, one dromedary, one luce,[64]
one camel, one ass, one dragon, six hobby-horses, and sixteen naked
boys. This ordinance among the Harleian MSS.[65] is dated 1564. In
another MS. in the same library, it is said, "A. D. 1599, Henry
Hardware, esq. the mayor, was a godly and zealous man;" he caused "the
gyauntes in the midsomer show to be broken," and "not to goe; the devil
in his feathers," alluding perhaps to some fantastic representation not
mentioned in the former ordinance, "he put awaye, and the cuppes and
cannes, and the dragon and the naked boys." In a more modern hand it is
added, "And he caused a man in complete armour to go in their stead. He
also caused the bull-ring to be taken up," &c. But in the year 1601,
John Ratclyffe, beer-brewer, being mayor, "sett out the giaunts and
midsommer show, as of oulde it was wont to be kept."[66] In the time
of the Commonwealth this spectacle was discontinued, and the giants,
with the beasts, were destroyed. At the restoration of Charles II. it
was agreed by the citizens to replace the pageant as usual, on the eve
of the festival of St. John the Baptist, in 1661; and as the following
computation of the charges for the different parts of the show are
exceedingly curious, I shall lay them before the reader without any
farther apology. We are told that "all things were to be made new, by
reason the ould modells were all broken." The computist then proceeds:
"For finding all the materials, with the workmanship of the four great
giants, all to be made new, as neere as may be lyke as they were
before, at five pounds a giant the least that can be, and four men to
carry them at two shillings and six pence each." The materials for the
composition of these monsters are afterwards specified to be "hoops of
various magnitudes, and other productions of the cooper, deal boards,
nails, pasteboard, scaleboard, paper of various sorts, with buckram,
size cloth, and old sheets for their bodies, sleeves, and shirts, which
were to be coloured." One pair of the "olde sheets" were provided to
cover the "father and mother giants." Another article specifies "three
yards of buckram for the mother's and daughter's hoods;" which seems
to prove that three of these stupendous pasteboard personages were the
representatives of females. There were "also tinsille, tinfoil, gold
and silver leaf, and colours of different kinds, with glue and paste
in abundance." Respecting the last article, a very ridiculous entry
occurs in the bill of charges, it runs thus: "For arsnick to put into
the paste to save the giants from being eaten by the rats, one shilling
and fourpence." But to go on with the estimate. "For the new making
the city mount, called the maior's mount, as auntiently it was, and
for hireing of bays for the same, and a man to carry it, three pounds
six shillings and eight pence." The bays mentioned in this and the
succeeding article was hung round the bottom of the frame, and extended
to the ground, or near it, to conceal the bearers. "For making anew the
merchant mount, as it aunciently was, with a ship to turn round, the
hiring of the bays, and five men to carry it, four pounds." The ship
and new dressing it, is charged at five shillings; it was probably made
with pasteboard, which seems to have been a principal article in the
manufacturing of both the moveable mountains; it was turned by means of
a swivel attached to an iron handle underneath the frame. In the bill
of charges for "the merchant's mount," is an entry of twenty pence paid
to a joyner for cutting the pasteboard into several images. "For making
anew the elephant and castell, and a Cupid," with his bow and arrows,
"suitable to it," the castle was covered with tinfoil, and the Cupid
with skins, so as to appear to be naked, "and also for two men to carry
them, one pound sixteen shillings and eightpence. For making anew the
four beastes called the unicorne, the antelop, the flower-de-luce, and
the camell, one pound sixteen shillings and fourpence apiece, and for
eight men to carry them, sixteen shillings. For four hobby-horses, six
shillings and eightpence apiece; and for four boys to carry them, four
shillings. For hance-staves, garlands, and balls, for the attendants
upon the mayor and sheriffs, one pound nineteen shillings. For makinge
anew the dragon, and for six naked boys to beat at it, one pound
sixteen shillings. For six morris-dancers, with a pipe and tabret,
twenty shillings."
The sports exhibited on occasions of solemnity did not terminate with
the pageants and processions: the evening was generally concluded with
festivity and diversions of various kinds to please the populace. These
amusements are well described in a few lines by an early dramatic
poet, whose name is not known; his performance is entitled A pleasant
and stately Morall of the Three Lordes of London, black letter, no
date:[67]--
--------Let nothing that's magnifical,
Or that may tend to London's graceful state,
Be unperformed, as showes and solemne feasts,
Watches in armour, triumphes, cresset lights.
Bonefires, belles, and peales of ordinaunce
And pleasure. See that plaies be published,
Mai-games and maskes, with mirthe and minstrelsie.
Pageants and school-feastes, beares and puppet-plaies.
The "cresset light" was a large lanthorn placed upon a long pole, and
carried upon men's shoulders. There is extant a copy of a letter from
Henry VII. to the mayor and aldermen of London, commanding them to make
bonfires, and to show other marks of rejoicing in the city, when the
contract was ratified for the marriage of his daughter Mary with the
prince of Castile.[68]
XXVI.--PUBLIC SHOWS IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
These motley displays of pomp and absurdity, proper only for the
amusement of children, or to excite the admiration of the populace,
were, however, highly relished by the nobility, and repeatedly
exhibited by them, on extraordinary occasions. One would think, indeed,
that the repetitions would have been intolerable; on the contrary, for
want of more rational entertainments, they maintained for ages their
popularity, and do not appear to have lost the smallest portion of
their attraction by the frequency of representation. Shows of this kind
were never more fashionable than in the sixteenth century, when they
were generally encouraged by persons of the highest rank, and exhibited
with very little essential variation; and especially during the reign
of Henry VIII.[69] His daughter Elizabeth appears to have been equally
pleased with this species of pageantry; and therefore it was constantly
provided for her amusement, by the nobility whom she visited from
time to time, in her progresses or excursions to various parts of
the kingdom.[70] I shall simply give the outlines of a succession of
entertainments contrived to divert her when she visited the earl of
Leicester at Kenelworth castle, and this shall serve as a specimen for
the rest.
XXVII.--QUEEN ELIZABETH AT KENELWORTH.
Her majesty came thither on Saturday the ninth of July, 1575;[71] she
was met near the castle by a fictitious Sibyl, who promised peace and
prosperity to the country during her reign. Over the first gate of the
castle there stood six gigantic figures with trumpets, real trumpeters
being stationed behind them, who sounded as the queen approached.
This pageant was childish enough, but not more so than the reason for
its being placed there. "By this dumb show," says my author, "it was
meant that in the daies of king Arthur, men were of that stature; so
that the castle of Kenelworth should seem still to be kept by king
Arthur's heirs and their servants." Laneham says these figures were
eight feet high. Upon her majesty entering the gateway, the porter, in
the character of Hercules, made an oration, and presented to her the
keys. Being come into the base court, a lady "came all over the pool,
being so conveyed, that it seemed she had gone upon the water; she was
attended by two water nymphs, and calling herself the Lady of the Lake,
she addressed her majesty with a speech prepared for the purpose." The
queen then proceeded to the inner court, and passed the bridge, which
was railled on both sides, and the tops of the posts were adorned with
"sundry presents and gifts," as of wine, corn, fruits, fishes, fowls,
instruments of music, and weapons of war. Laneham calls the adorned
posts "well-proportioned pillars turned:" he tells us there were
fourteen of them, seven on each side of the bridge; on the first pair
were birds of various kinds alive in cages, said to be the presents of
the god Silvanus; on the next pair were different sorts of fruits in
silver bowls, the gift of the goddess Pomona; on the third pair were
different kinds of grain in silver bowls, the gift of Ceres; on the
fourth, in silvered pots, were red and white wine with clusters of
grapes in a silver bowl, the gift of Bacchus; on the fifth were fishes
of various kinds in trays, the donation of Neptune; on the sixth were
weapons of war, the gift of Mars; and on the seventh, various musical
instruments, the presents of Apollo. The meaning of these emblematical
decorations was explained in a Latin speech delivered by the author
of it. Then an excellent band of music began to play as her majesty
entered the inner court, where she alighted from her horse, and went up
stairs to the apartments prepared for her.
On Sunday evening she was entertained with a grand display of
fireworks, as well in the air as upon the water.
On Monday, after a great hunting, she was met on her return by
Gascoigne the poet, so disguised as to represent a savage man, who paid
her many high-flown compliments in a kind of dialogue between himself
and an echo.
On Tuesday she was diverted with music, dancing, and an interlude upon
the water.
On Wednesday was another grand hunting.
On Thursday she was amused with a grand bear-beating, to which were
added tumbling and fireworks. Bear-beating and bull-baiting were
fashionable at this period, and considered as proper pastimes for the
amusement of ladies of the highest rank. Elizabeth, though a woman,
possessed a masculine mind, and preferred, or affected to prefer, the
exercises of the chace and other recreations pursued by men, rather
than those usually appropriated to her sex.
On Friday, the weather being unfavourable, there were no open shows.
On Saturday there was dancing within the castle, and a country
brideale, with running at the quintain in the castle yard, and a
pantomimical show called "the Old Coventry Play of Hock Thursday,"
performed by persons who came from Coventry for that purpose. In the
evening a regular play was acted, succeeded by a banquet and a masque.
On the Sunday there was no public spectacle.
On the Monday there was a hunting in the afternoon, and, on the queen's
return, she was entertained with another show upon the water, in which
appeared a person in the character of Arion, riding upon a dolphin
twenty-four feet in length; and he sung an admirable song, accompanied
with music performed by six musicians concealed in the belly of the
fish. Her majesty, it appears, was much pleased with this exhibition.
The person who entertained her majesty in the character of Arion is
said to have been Harry Goldingham, of whom the following anecdote is
related: "There was a spectacle presented to queen Elizabeth upon the
water, and among others, Harry Goldingham was to represent Arion upon
the back of a dolphin; but finding his voice to be very hoarse and
unpleasant when he came to perform his part, he tears off his disguise,
and swears that he was none of Arion, not he, but even honest Harry
Goldingham; which blunt discoverie pleased the queen better than if it
had gone thorough in the right way. Yet he could order his voice to an
instrument exceedingly well."[72] This story has been applied to the
performance above mentioned, but I trust mistakenly; it certainly must
have happened on some other occasion, for such a circumstance would
not have escaped the observation of the facetious Laneham; besides it
appears in this instance that the part of Arion was performed without
defect, and the song well executed.
On Tuesday the Coventry play was repeated, because the queen had not
seen the whole of it on Saturday.
On Wednesday, the twentieth of the same month, she departed from
Kenelworth. Various other pastimes were prepared upon this occasion;
but, for want of time and opportunity, they could not be performed.
XXVIII.--LOVE OF PUBLIC SIGHTS ILLUSTRATED FROM SHAKSPEARE.
The English are particularised for their partiality to strange sights;
uncommon beasts, birds, or fishes, are sure to attract their notice,
and especially such of them as are of the monstrous kind; and this
propensity of our countrymen is neatly satirised by Shakspeare in the
Tempest; where Stephano, seeing Calaban lying upon the stage, and being
uncertain whether he was a fish, a beast, or one of the inhabitants of
the island, speaks in the following manner: "Were I in England now, as
once I was, and had this fish painted, not a holiday fool there but
would give me a piece of silver. There would this monster make a man:
any strange beast there makes a man. When they will not give a doit to
relieve a lame beggar, they will lay out ten to see a dead Indian."[73]
Indeed, we may observe that a cow with two heads, a pig with six legs,
or any other unnatural production, with proper management, are pretty
certain fortunes to the possessors.
XXIX.--ROPE-DANCING, TUTORED ANIMALS, AND PUPPET-SHOWS.
They also take great delight in seeing men and animals perform such
feats as appear to be entirely contrary to their nature; as, men
and monkeys dancing upon ropes, or walking upon wires; dogs dancing
minuets, pigs arranging letters so as to form words at their master's
command; hares beating drums, or birds firing off cannons. These
exhibitions, for all of them have in reality been brought to public
view, are ridiculed by the Spectator, in a paper dated the 3d of April,
1711. The author pretends that he received the following letter from a
sho-man who resided near Charing-Cross:
"Honoured Sir,--Having heard that this nation is a great
encourager of ingenuity, I have brought with me a rope-dancer
that was caught in one of the woods belonging to the great
Mogul, he is by birth a monkey, but swings upon a rope, takes a
pipe of tobacco, and drinks a glass of ale, like any reasonable
creature.[74] He gives great satisfaction to the quality; and if
they will make a subscription for him, I will send for a brother
of his out of Holland, that is a very good tumbler; and also for
another of the same family whom I design for my merry-andrew, as
being an excellent mimic, and the greatest droll in the country
where he now is. I hope to have this entertainment in readiness
for the next winter; and doubt not but it will please more than
the opera or the puppet-show. I will not say that a monkey is a
better man than some of the opera heroes; but certainly he is a
better representative of a man than any artificial composition of
wood and wire."
The latter part of this sarcasm relates to a feigned dispute for
seniority between Powel, a puppet-showman, who exhibited his wooden
heroes under the little piazza in Covent-garden, and the managers of
the Italian opera; which is mentioned in a preceding paper[75] to this
effect: "The opera at the Haymarket, and that under the little piazza
of Covent-garden, are at present the two leading diversions of the
town; Powel professing in his advertisements to set up Whittington and
his Cat against Rinaldo and Armida."--After some observations, which
are not immediately to the present purpose, the author proceeds: "I
observe that Powel and the undertakers of the opera had both of them
the same thought, and I think much about the same time, of introducing
animals on their several stages. though indeed with different success.
The sparrows and chaffinches at the Haymarket fly as yet very
irregularly over the stage, and instead of perching on the trees,
and performing their parts, these young actors either get into
the galleries, or put out the candles; whereas Powel has so well
disciplined his pig, that in the first scene he and Punch dance a
minuet together. I am informed that Powel resolves to excel his
adversaries in their own way, and introduce larks into his opera of
Susanna, or Innocence betrayed; which will be exhibited next week with
a pair of new elders."
From the same source of information, in a subsequent paper,[76] we may
find a catalogue of the most popular spectacles exhibited in London
at the commencement of the last century. Our author has introduced a
projector, who produces a scheme for an opera entitled The Expedition
of Alexander the Great; and proposes to bring in "all the remarkable
shows about the town among the scenes and decorations of his piece;"
which is described in the following manner: "This Expedition of
Alexander opens with his consulting the Oracle at Delphos; in which
the Dumb Conjurer, who has been visited by so many persons of quality
of late years, is to be introduced as telling his fortune; at the same
time Clench of Barnet[77] is represented in another corner of the
temple, as ringing the bells of Delphos for joy of his arrival. The
Tent of Darius is to be peopled by the ingenious Mrs. Salmon, where
Alexander is to fall in love with a piece of waxwork that represents
the beautiful Statira. When Alexander comes to that country in which,
Quintus Curtius tells us, the dogs were so exceedingly fierce, that
they would not loose their hold, though they were cut to pieces limb by
limb, and that they would hang upon their prey by their teeth when they
had nothing but a mouth left, there is to be a scene of Hockley in the
Hole, in which are to be represented all the diversions of that place,
the Bull-Baiting only excepted, which cannot possibly be exhibited in
the theatre by reason of the lowness of the roof. The several Woods
in Asia, which Alexander must be supposed to pass through, will give
the audience a sight of Monkies dancing upon ropes, with many other
pleasantries of that ludicrous species. At the same time, if there
chance to be any strange animals in town, whether birds or beasts,
they may be either let loose among the woods, or driven across the
stage by some of the country people of Asia. In the last Great Battle,
Pinkethman is to personate king Porus upon an Elephant, and is to
be encountered by Powel, representing Alexander the Great upon a
Dromedary, which, nevertheless, he is desired to call by the name of
Bucephalus. On the close of this great Decisive Battle, when the two
Kings are thoroughly reconciled, to show the mutual friendship and
good correspondence that reigns between them, they both of them go
together to a puppet-show, in which the ingenious Mr. Powel junior may
have an opportunity of displaying his whole art of machinery for the
diversion of the two monarchs." It is further added, that, "after the
reconciliation of these two kings, they might invite one another to
dinner, and either of them entertain his guest with the German artist,
Mr. Pinkethman's Heathen Gods, or any of the like Diversions which
shall then chance to be in vogue."
The projector acknowledged the thought was not originally his own,
but that he had taken the hint from "several Performances he had seen
upon our stage; in one of which there was a Raree Show, in another a
Ladder-Dance, and in others a posture or a moving picture with many
curiosities of the like nature."[78]
XXX.--MINSTRELSY, BELL-RINGING, &c.
The people of this country in all ages delighted in secular music,
songs, and theatrical performances;[79] which is abundantly evident
from the great rewards they gave to the bards, the scalds, the gleemen,
and the minstrels, who were successively the favourites of the opulent,
and the idols of the vulgar. The continual encouragement given to these
professors of music, poetry, and pantomime, in process of time swelled
their numbers beyond all reasonable proportion, inflamed their pride,
increased their avarice, and corrupted their manners; so that at
length they lost the favour they had so long enjoyed among the higher
classes of society; and, the donations of the populace not being
sufficient for their support, they fell away from affluence to poverty,
and wandered about the country in a contemptible condition, dependent
upon the casual rewards they might occasionally pick up at church-ales,
wakes, and fairs.[80]
Hentzner, who wrote at the conclusion of the sixteenth century, says,
"the English excel in dancing and music, for they are active and
lively." A little further on he adds, "they are vastly fond of great
noises that fill the ear, such as the firing of cannon, beating of
drums, and the ringing of bells; so that it is common for a number of
them that have got a glass in their hands to get up into some belfry
and ring the bells for hours together for the sake of exercise."[81]
Polydore Vergil mentions another remarkable singularity belonging to
the English, who celebrated the festival of Christmas with plays,
masques, and magnificent spectacles, together with games at dice and
dancing, which, he tells us, was as ancient as the year 1170, and not
customary with other nations;[82] and with respect to the Christmas
prince, or lord of the misrule, he was, as the same author informs us,
a personage almost peculiar to this country.[83]
XXXI.--BAITING OF ANIMALS.
It were well if these singularities were the only vulnerable parts of
the national character of our ancestors; but it must be confessed that
there are other pastimes which equally attracted their attention, and
manifested a great degree of barbarism, which will admit of no just
defence. Sir Richard Steele, reprobating the inhumanity of throwing
at cocks, makes these pertinent observations: "Some French writers
have represented this diversion of the common people much to our
disadvantage, and imputed it to a natural fierceness and cruelty of
temper, as they do some other entertainments peculiar to our nation; I
mean those elegant diversions of bull-baiting, and prize-fighting, with
the like ingenious recreations of the bear-garden. I wish I knew how
to answer this reproach which is cast upon us, and excuse the death
of so many innocent cocks, bulls, dogs, and bears, as have been set
together by the ears, or died an untimely death, only to make us
sport."[84]
The ladies of the present day will probably be surprised to hear, that
all, or the greater part of these barbarous recreations, were much
frequented by the fair sex, and countenanced by those among them of the
highest rank and most finished education, being brought by degrees, no
doubt, to sacrifice their feelings to the prevalency of a vicious and
vulgar fashion, which even the sanction of royalty, joined with that of
ancient custom, cannot reconcile with decency or propriety.
XXXII.--PASTIMES FORMERLY ON SUNDAYS.
I know not of any objection that can have more weight in the
condemnation of these national barbarisms, than the time usually
appropriated for the exhibition of them; which, it seems, was the
after part of the Sabbath-day. The same portion of time also was
allotted for the performance of plays, called, in the writing's of the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, "vaine playes and interludes;"[85]
to which are added, "dice and card-playing, dancing, and other idle
pastimes." Stephen Gosson, a very zealous, if not a very correct
writer, declaiming vehemently against plays and players, says of the
latter, "because they are permitted to play every Sunday, they make
four or five Sundayes at leaste every weeke."[86] Nor is he less severe
upon those who frequented such amusements: "To celebrate the Sabbath,"
says he, "they go to the theatres, and there keepe a general market of
bawdrie; by which means," as he afterwards expresses himself, "they
make the theatre a place of assignation, and meet for worse purposes
than merely seeing the play."[87] A contemporary writer, endeavouring
to prove the impropriety of an established form of prayer for the
church service, among other arguments, uses the following: "He,"
meaning the ministers "posteth it over as fast as he can galloppe;
for, eyther he hath two places to serve; or else there are some games
to be playde in the afternoon, as lying for the whetstone, heathenishe
dauncing for the ring, a beare or a bull to be baited, or else a
jackanapes to ride on horsebacke, or an interlude to be plaide; and,
if no place else can be gotten, this interlude must be playde in the
church. We speak not of ringing after matins is done."[88] To what
has been said, I shall add the following verses, which made their
appearance rather earlier than either of the foregoing publications;
and they describe, with much accuracy I doubt not, the manner of
spending the Sunday afternoons according to the usage of that time: but
it is proper previously to observe, that such amusements on holidays
were by no means peculiar to the young gallants of this country, but
equally practised upon the continent.
Now, when their dinner once is done, and that they well have fed,
To play they go; to casting of the stone, to runne, or shoote;
To tosse the light and windy ball aloft with hand or foote;
Some others trie their skill in gonnes; some wrastell all the day;
And some to schooles of fence do goe, to gaze upon the play;
Another sort there is, that doe not love abroad to roame,
But, for to passe their time at cardes, or tables, still at
home.[89]
XXXIII.--ROYAL INTERFERENCE WITH SUNDAY PASTIMES.
Citations to this purpose might be made from infinity of pamphlets,
written professedly against the profanation of the Sabbath: it was
certainly an evil that called loudly for redress; and the pens of
various writers, moral and religious, as well of the clergy as the
laity, have been employed for that purpose. There are some few
treatises on this subject that do honour to their authors; but far
the larger part of them are of a different description, consisting of
vehement and abusive declamations wherein the zeal of the writers is
too frequently permitted to run at random, without the least restraint
from reason and moderation, and, what is still worse, without that
strict adherence to the truth which the seriousness of the subject
necessarily required. It must be granted, however, that the continued
remonstrances from the grave and religious parts of the community
were not without effect. In the twenty-second year of the reign of
Elizabeth, the magistrates of the city of London obtained from the
queen an edict, "that all heathenish playes and interludes should be
banished upon Sabbath days;"[90] but this restriction, I apprehend,
was confined to the jurisdiction of the lord mayor; for, it is certain
that such amusements were publicly exhibited in other districts, and
especially at the Paris Garden in Southwark, a place where these sort
of sports were usually exhibited; and where three years afterwards a
prodigious concourse of people being assembled together on a Sunday
afternoon, to "see plays and a bear-baiting, the whole theatre gave way
and fell to the ground; by which accident many of the spectators were
killed, and more hurt."[91] This lamentable misfortune was considered
as a judgment from God, and occasioned a general prohibition of all
public pastimes on the Sabbath-day. The wise successor of Elizabeth,
on the other hand, thought that the restrictions on the public sports
were too generally and too strictly applied, and especially in the
country places; he therefore published on the 24th of May, 1618, the
following declaration: "Whereas we did justly, in our progresse through
Lancashire, rebuke some puritanes and precise people, in prohibiting
and unlawfully punishing of our good people for using their lawfull
recreations and honest exercises on Sundayes and other holy dayes,
after the afternoone sermon or service: It is our will, that after
the end of divine service, our good people be not disturbed, letted,
or discouraged, from any lawful recreation, such as dauncing, either
for men or women; archery for men, leaping, vaulting, or any other
such harmless recreation; nor for having of May-games, Whitson-ales,
and morris-daunces, and the setting up of May-poles, and other sports
therewith used; so as the same be had in due and convenient time,
without impediment or neglect of divine service. But withall, we doe
here account still as prohibitted, all unlawfull games to be used
upon Sundayes onely, as beare and bull-baitings, interludes, and, at
all times in the meaner sort of people by law prohibited, bowling."
This proclamation was renewed by Charles I. in the eighth year of his
reign; which occasioned many serious complaints from the puritanical
party; but, three years afterwards, a pamphlet was published which
defended the principles of the declaration;[92] wherein the author, who
was a high church-man, endeavours to fine away the objections of its
opponents. In one part[93] he says, "those recreations are the meetest
to be used, which give the best refreshment to the bodie, and leave
the least impression in the minde. In this respect, shooting, leaping,
pitching the barre, stool-ball, and the like, are rather to be chosen
than diceing or carding." This publication was immediately answered by
the other party, who certainly had the best end of the argument, and
were not sparing in their severity, but wounded the ordinance itself
through the sides of its defender. The more precise writers objected
not only to the profanation of the Sabbath, but to the celebration of
most of the established festivals and holidays, as we find from the
following verses:
Their feastes, and all their holydayes they keep throughout
the yeare,
Are full of vile idolatry, and heathen like appeare.
I shew not here their daunces yet with filthy gestures mad,
Nor other wanton sports that on the holydayes are had.
In some place solemne sights and showes, and pageants faire
are play'd
With sundry sorts of maskers brave, in straunge attire arrai'd.[94]
XXXIV.--ZEAL AGAINST WAKES AND MAY-GAMES.
But nothing seems to have excited their indignation more than the
church-ales, wakes, and May-games. An author I have before me inveighs
greatly against the erecting and decorating of the May-poles;[95] among
others, he uses the following arguments: "Most of these May-poles are
stollen; yet they give out that the poles are given to them; when, upon
thorow examination, 'twill be found that most of them are stollen.
There were two May-poles set up in my parish; the one was stollen, and
the other was given by a profest papist. That which was stollen
was said to be given; when it was proved to their faces that it was
stollen, and they made to acknowledge their offence: this pole was
rated at five shillings. If all the poles, one with another, were so
rated which were stollen this May, what a considerable summ it would
amount to!" So much for his reasoning. He then attempts to be witty;
and arraigns the goddess Flora at the bar: "Flora, hold up thy hand;
thou art here indited by the name of Flora, of the city of Rome, in
the county of Babylon, for that thou, contrary to the peace of our
sovereign lord, his crown and dignity, hast brought in a pack of
practical fanaticks; viz. ignorants, atheists, papists, drunkards,
swearers, swash-bucklers, maid-marrions, morrice-dancers, maskers,
mummers, May-pole stealers, health-drinkers, gamesters, lewd men, light
women, contemners of magistrates, affronters of ministers, rebellious
to masters, disobedient to parents, mispenders of time, and abusers of
the creature, &c." This silly invective is concluded with a poem as
dull and insipid as the prose; in which the May-pole is supposed to be
addressing itself to one who is passing by it. The last lines run thus:
Now, traveller, learn more grace to shew
And see that thou thy betters know:
Thou hear'st what I say for myself,
I am no ape, I am no elf;
I am no base one's parasite;
I am the great world's favourite;
And, sith thou must now past me fro,
Let this my blessing with thee go:
There's not a knave in all the town,
Nor swearing courtier, nor base clown,
Nor dancing lob, nor mincing quean,
Nor popish clerk, be't priest or dean,
Nor knight debausht, nor gentleman
That follows drabs, or cup or cann,
That will give thee a friendly look
If thou a May-pole can'st not brook.
These zealous reformists have extended their censures to the church-men
as well as to the laity; they accuse them with strengthening, by their
example, the general depravation of manners and decay of religion:
how far the charge was just, I cannot take upon me to answer. It is
obvious enough that ignorant persons will not be induced to prize those
qualifications very highly, which they who have the reputation of
wisdom and learning neglect to appreciate as they ought to do.
XXXV.--DICE AND CARDS.
The Saxons and the Danes, as we have observed already,[96] were much
addicted to gaming; and the same destructive propensity was equally
prevalent among the Normans. The evil consequences arising from the
indulgence of this pernicious pleasure have in all ages called loudly
for reprehension, and demanded at last the more powerful interference
of the legislature. The vice of gambling, however, is by no means
peculiar to the people of this country: its influence is universally
diffused among mankind; and in most nations the same strong measures
that have been adopted here are found to be absolutely necessary to
prevent its extension beyond the limits of subordination. Dice, and
those games of chance dependent upon them, have been most generally
decried; and cards, in latter times, are added to them as proper
companions. Cards, when compared with dice, are indeed of modern
invention, and originally, I doubt not, were productive only of
innocent amusement; they were, however, soon converted into instruments
of gambling equally dangerous as the dice themselves, and more enticing
from the variety of changements they admit of, and the pleasing mixture
of chance with skill, which often gives the tyro an advantage over the
more experienced player; that is, supposing fair play on both sides;
but woeful experience has convinced many that this is not always the
case.
XXXVI.--REGULATION OF GAMES FOR MONEY, BY RICHARD CŒUR DE LION, &c.
Towards the close of the twelfth century, we meet with a very curious
edict relative to gaming, and which shows how generally it even
prevailed among the lower classes of the people at that period. This
edict was established for the regulation of the Christian army under
the command of Richard I. of England, and Philip of France, during the
crusade in 1190: It prohibits any person in the army beneath the degree
of a knight from playing at any sort of game for money: knights and
clergymen might play for money, but no one of them was permitted to
lose more than twenty shillings in one whole day and night, under the
penalty of one hundred shillings, to be paid to the archbishops in
the army; the two monarchs had the privilege of playing for what they
pleased; but their attendants were restricted to the sum of twenty
shillings; and, if they exceeded, they were to be whipped naked through
the army for three days.[97]
XXXVII.--STATUTES AGAINST DICE, CARDS, BALL-PLAY, &c.
The decrees established by the council held at Worcester, in the
twenty-fourth year of Henry III. prohibited the clergy from playing at
dice, or at chess:[98] but neither the one nor the other of these games
are mentioned in the succeeding penal statutes, before the twelfth
year of Richard II., when diceing is particularised, and expressly
forbidden; though perhaps they were both of them included under the
general title of games of chance, and dishonest games, mentioned in
the proclamation of Edward III. which, with other pastimes therein
specified, were generally practised to the great detriment of military
exercises, and of archery in particular.
In the eleventh year of Henry VII. cards are first mentioned among the
games prohibited by the law;[99] and at that time they seem to have
been very generally used; for, the edict expressly forbids the practice
of card-playing to apprentices, excepting the duration of the Christmas
holidays, and then only in their masters' houses.[100] We learn from
Stow, that these holidays extended "from All-Hallows evening to the day
after Candlemas-day, when," says the historian, "there was, among other
sports, playing at cards for counters, nailes, and points in every
house, more for pastime than for gain."[101] The recreations prohibited
by proclamation in the reign of Edward III., exclusive of the games of
chance, are thus specified; throwing of stones,[102] wood, or iron;
playing at hand-ball, foot-ball, club-ball, and cambucam, which I take
to have been a species of goff, and probably received its name from the
crooked bat with which it was played. These games, as before observed,
were not forbidden from any particular evil tendency in themselves,
but because they engrossed too much of the leisure and attention of
the populace, and diverted their minds from the pursuits of a more
martial nature. I should not forget to add, that "bull-baiting and
cock-fighting" are included with "other dishonest games as trivial
and useless." In[103] the reign of Edward IV. we find coits, closh or
claish, kayles or nine-pins, half-bowl, hand-in and hand-out, with
quick-borde, classed among the unlawful amusements;[104] which list was
considerably augmented in the succeeding reigns, and especially in the
eighteenth year of Henry VIII., when bowling, loggating, playing at
tennice, dice, cards and tables, or backgammon, were included.[105]
In the preamble to the Parliamentary Statutes as early as the sixth
year of Edward III., there is a clause prohibiting of boys or others
from playing at barres, or snatch-hood,[106] or any other improper
games, in the king's palace at Westminster during the sitting of the
parliament; neither might they, by striking, or otherwise, prevent any
one from passing peaceably about his business.
XXXVIII.--PROHIBITIONS OF SKITTLE-PLAY.
In modern times, the penal laws have been multiplied, and much
invigorated, in order to restrain the spirit of gambling; and in some
measure they have had a salutary effect; but the evil is so fascinating
and so general, that in all probability it will never be totally
eradicated from the minds of the people. The frequent repetition and
enforcement of the statutes in former times, proves that they were
then, as they are now, inadequate to the suppression of gaming for
a long continuance; and, when one pastime was prohibited, another
was presently invented to supply its place. I remember, about twenty
years back,[107] the magistrates caused all the skittle-frames in or
about the city of London to be taken up, and prohibited the playing at
dutch-pins, nine-pins, or in long bowling allies, when in many places
the game of nine-holes was revived as a substitute, with the new name
of Bubble the Justice, because the populace had taken it into their
heads to imagine, that the power of the magistrates extended only to
the prevention of such pastimes as were specified by name in the public
acts, and not to any new species of diversion.
XXXIX.--ARCHERY SUCCEEDED BY BOWLING.
The general decay of those manly and spirited exercises, which formerly
were practised in the vicinity of the metropolis has not arisen from
any want of inclination in the people, but from the want of places
proper for the purpose: such as in times past had been allotted to
them are now covered with buildings, or shut up by enclosures, so
that, if it were not for skittles, dutch-pins, four-corners, and the
like pastimes, they would have no amusements for the exercise of the
body; and these amusements are only to be met with in places belonging
to common drinking-houses, for which reason their play is seldom
productive of much benefit, but more frequently becomes the prelude to
drunkenness and debauchery. This evil has been increasing for a long
series of years; and honest Stow laments the retrenchments of the
grounds appropriated for martial pastimes which had begun to take place
in his day. "Why," says he, "should I speak of the ancient exercises
of the long bow, by the citizens of this city, now almost clean left
off and forsaken? I overpass it; for, by the means of closeing in of
common grounds, our archers, for want of room to shoot abroad, creep
into bowling-alleys and ordinarie diceing-houses neer home, where they
have room enough to hazard their money at unlawful games."[108] He also
tells us, that "Northumberland house, in the parish of St. Katherine
Coleman, belonging to Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, in the
thirty-third year of Henry the Sixth; but of late, being deserted by
that noble family, the gardens were converted into bowling-alleys, and
the other parts of the estate into diceing houses. But bowling-alleys
and houses for the exercise of diceing and other unlawful games are at
this time so greatly increased in the other parts of the city and its
suburbs, that this parent spot," or, as he afterwards calls it, "the
ancient and only patron of misrule, is forsaken of its gamesters."[109]
And here we may add the following remark from an author somewhat more
ancient than Stow:[110] "common bowling-alleyes are privy mothes that
eat up the credit of many idle citizens, whose gaynes at home are not
able to weigh downe theyr losses abroad; whose shoppes are so farre
from maintaining their play, that theyr wives and children cry out
for bread, and go to bedde supperlesse ofte in the yeere." In another
place, his reflections are more general, and he exclaims, "Oh, what
a wonderful change is this! our wreastling at armes is turned to
wallowing in ladies' laps, our courage to cowardice, our running to
royot, our bowes into bowls, and our darts into dishes."
XL.--MODERN GAMBLING.
The evils complained of by these writers were then in their infancy;
they have in the present day attained to a gigantic stature; and
we may add to them E. O. tables, as also other tables for gambling
distinguished by the appellation of Rouge et Noir, Pharo-banks, and
many more fashionable novelties, equally as detrimental to morality,
and as equally destructive to the fortunes of those who pursue them,
as any of the recreations of the former times. Even horse-racing,
which anciently was considered as a liberal sport, and proper for
the amusement of a gentleman, has been of late years degraded into
a dangerous species of gambling, by no means the less deserving of
censure, because it is fashionable and countenanced by persons of the
highest rank and fortune. The good old Scotch poet little dreamed of
such an innovation, when he lamented that horse-racing was falling into
disrepute through the prevalency of games of chance. His words are
these:
Halking, hunting, and swift horse running
Are changit all in wrangus, wynning;
There is no play but cartes and dyce, &c.[111]
XLI.--LADIES' PASTIMES--NEEDLE-WORK.
It now remains to say a few words in a general way respecting the
diversions of the English ladies. In the early ages, our fair
countrywomen employed a large portion of their time in needle-work and
embroidery; and their acquirements in these elegant accomplishments
most probably afforded them little leisure for the pursuits of trifling
and useless amusements; but, though we are not acquainted with the
nature of their recreations, there is no reason to suppose that they
were unbecoming in themselves, or indulged beyond the bounds of reason
or decorum. I have already, on a former occasion, particularly noticed
the skilfulness of the Saxon and Norman ladies in handling the needle,
embroidering, and working in tapestry; and that their performances were
not only held in very high estimation at home, but were equally prized
upon the continent, where none were produced that could be placed in
competition with them.[112]
XLII.--DANCING AND CHESS PLAY.
Dancing was certainly an ancient and favourite pastime with the women
of this country: the maidens even in a state of servitude claimed, as
it were by established privilege, the license to indulge themselves in
this exercise on holidays and public festivals; when it was usually
performed in the presence of their masters and mistresses.[113]
In the middle ages, dice, chess, and afterwards tables, and cards,
with other sedentary games of chance and skill, were reckoned among
the female amusements; and the ladies also frequently joined with the
men in such pastimes, as we find it expressly declared in the metrical
romance of Ipomydon. The passage alluded to runs thus:
When they had dyned, as I you saye,
Lordes and ladyes yede to playe;
Some to tables, and some to chesse,
With other gamys more or lesse.[114]
In another poem, by Gower,[115] a lover asks his mistress, when she
is tired of "dancing and caroling," if she was willing to "play at
chesse, or on the dyes to cast a chaunce." Forrest, speaking in praise
of Catharine of Arragon, first wife of Henry VIII., says, that when she
was young,
With stoole and with needyl she was not to seeke,
And other practiseings for ladyes meete;
To pastyme at tables, tick tacke or gleeke,
Cardis and dyce--&c.[116]
XLIII.--LADIES' RECREATIONS IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY.
The English ladies did not always confine themselves to domestic
pastimes, they sometimes participated with the other sex in diversions
of a more masculine nature; and engaged with them in the sports of the
field. These violent exercises seem to have been rather unfashionable
among them in the seventeenth century; for Burton, in his Anatomy of
Melancholy, speaks of their pastimes as much better suited to the
modesty and softness of the sex. "The women," says he, "instead of
laborious studies, have curious needle-works, cutworks, spinning,
bone-lace making, with other pretty devices to adorn houses, cushions,
carpets, stool-seats," &c.[117] Not but some of these masculine females
have occasionally made their appearance: and at the commencement of the
last century, it should seem that they were more commonly seen than in
Burton's time, which gave occasion for the following satirical paper
in one of the Spectators,[118] written by Addison: "I have," says he,
"very frequently the opportunity of seeing a rural Andromache, who came
up to town last winter, and is one of the greatest fox-hunters in the
country; she talks of hounds and horses, and makes nothing of leaping
over a six-bar gate. If a man tells her a waggish story, she gives him
a push with her hand in jest, and calls him an impudent dog; and, if
her servant neglects his business, threatens to kick him out of the
house. I have heard her in her wrath call a substantial tradesman a
lousie cur; and I remember one day when she could not think of the name
of a person, she described him, in a large company of men and ladies,
by the fellow with the broad shoulders."
XLIV.--THE AUTHOR'S LABOURS--CHARACTER OF THE ENGRAVINGS.
Having laid before my readers a general view of the sports and pastimes
of our ancestors, I shall proceed to arrange them under their proper
heads, and allot to each of them a separate elucidation. The task in
truth is extremely difficult; and many omissions, as well as many
errors, must of necessity occur in the prosecution of it; but none,
I hope, of any great magnitude, nor more than candour will overlook,
especially when it is recollected, that in a variety of instances, I
have been constrained to proceed without any guide, and explore, as
it were, the recesses of a trackless wilderness. I must also entreat
the reader to excuse the frequent quotations which he will meet with,
which in general I have given verbatim; and this I have done for his
satisfaction, as well as my own, judging it much fairer to stand upon
the authority of others than to arrogate to myself the least degree of
penetration to which I have no claim.
It is necessary to add, that the engravings, which constitute an
essential part of this work, are not the produce of modern invention,
neither do they contain a single figure that has not its proper
authority. Most of the originals are exceedingly ancient, and all the
copies are faithfully made without the least unnecessary deviation. As
specimens of the art of design they have nothing to recommend them to
the modern eye, but as portraitures of the manners and usages of our
ancestors, in times remote, they are exceedingly valuable, because they
not only elucidate many obsolete customs, but lead to the explanation
of several obscurities in the history of former ages.
_January, 1801._
SPORTS AND PASTIMES
OF THE
PEOPLE OF ENGLAND.
BOOK I.
RURAL EXERCISES PRACTISED BY PERSONS OF RANK.
CHAPTER I.
I. Hunting more ancient than Hawking.--II. State of Hunting
among the Britons.--III. The Saxons expert in Hunting.--IV. The
Danes also.--V. The Saxons subsequently;--The Normans.--VI.
Their tyrannical Proceedings.--VII. Hunting and Hawking after
the Conquest.--VIII. Laws relating to Hunting.--IX. Hunting and
Hawking followed by the Clergy.--X. The Manner in which the
dignified Clergy in the Middle Ages pursued those Pastimes.--XI.
The English Ladies fond of these Sports.--XII. Privileges
of the Citizens of London to Hunt;--Private Privileges for
Hunting.--XIII. Two Treatises on Hunting considered.--XIV.
Names of Beasts to be hunted.--XV. Wolves not all destroyed in
Edgar's Time.--XVI. Dogs for Hunting.--XVII. Various Methods of
Hunting.--XVIII. Terms used in Hunting;--Times when to hunt.
I.--HUNTING MORE ANCIENT THAN HAWKING.
We have several English treatises upon the subject of Hunting, but none
of them very ancient; the earliest I have met with is a MS. in the
Cotton Library at the British Museum,[119] written at the commencement
of the fourteenth century. These compositions bear great resemblance
to each other, and consist of general rules for the pursuit of game;
together with the names and nature of the animals proper for hunting,
and such other matters as were necessary to be known by sportsmen.
Hawking most commonly forms a part of these books; and, though this
pastime can only be considered as a modern invention, when it is put in
competition with that of hunting, yet it has obtained the precedency,
notwithstanding the sanction of antiquity is so decidedly against it. I
shall, however, in the following pages, revert the arrangement of those
amusements, and begin with hunting, which naturally, in my opinion,
claims the priority of place.
II.--HUNTING AMONG THE BRITONS.
Dio Nicæus, an ancient author, speaking of the inhabitants of the
northern parts of this island, tells us, they were a fierce and
barbarous people, who tilled no ground, but lived upon the depredations
they committed in the southern districts, or upon the food they
procured by hunting.[120] Strabo also says, that the dogs bred in
Britain were highly esteemed upon the continent, on account of their
excellent qualities for hunting; and these qualities, he seems to hint,
were natural to them, and not the effect of tutorage by their foreign
masters.[121] The information derived from the above-cited authors,
does not amount to a proof that the practice of hunting was familiar
with the Britons collectively; yet it certainly affords much fair
argument in the support of such an opinion; for it is hardly reasonable
to suppose that the pursuit of game should have been confined to the
uncultivated northern freebooters, and totally neglected by the more
civilised inhabitants of the southern parts of the island. We are well
assured that venison constituted a great portion of their food,[122]
and as they had in their possession such dogs as were naturally prone
to the chase, there can be little doubt that they would exercise them
for the purpose of procuring their favourite diet; besides, they kept
large herds of cattle, and flocks of sheep, both of which required
protection from the wolves, and other ferocious animals, that infested
the woods and coverts, and must frequently have rendered hunting an act
of absolute necessity.
If it be granted that the Britons, generally speaking, were expert
in hunting, it is still uncertain what animals were obnoxious to the
chase; we know however, at least, that the hare was not anciently
included; for Cæsar tells us, "the Britons did not eat the flesh of
hares, notwithstanding the island abounded with them." And this
abstinence, he adds, arose from a principle of religion;[123] which
principle, no doubt, prevented them from being worried to death: a
cruelty reserved for more enlightened ages.
We do not find, that, during the establishment of the Romans in
Britain, there were any restrictive laws promulgated respecting the
killing of game. It appears to have been an established maxim, in the
early jurisprudence of that people, to invest the right of such things
as had no master with those who were the first possessors. Wild beasts,
birds, and fishes, became the property of those who first could take
them. It is most probable that the Britons were left at liberty to
exercise their ancient privileges; for, had any severity been exerted
to prevent the destruction of game, such laws would hardly have been
passed over without the slightest notice being taken of them by the
ancient historians.
III.--HUNTING AMONG THE SAXONS.
The Germans, and other northern nations, were much more strongly
attached to the sports of the field than the Romans, and accordingly
they restricted the natural rights which the people claimed of
hunting. The ancient privileges were gradually withdrawn from them,
and appropriated by the chiefs and leaders to themselves; at last they
became the sole prerogative of the crown, and were thence extended to
the various ranks and dignities of the state at the royal pleasure.
As early as the ninth century, and probably long before that period,
hunting constituted an essential part of the education of a young
nobleman. Asser assures us, that Alfred the great, before he was twelve
years of age, "was a most expert and active hunter, and excelled in
all the branches of that most noble art, to which he applied with
incessant labour and amazing success."[124] It is certain that,
whenever a temporary peace gave leisure for relaxation, hunting was one
of the most favourite pastimes followed by the nobility and persons of
opulence at that period. It is no wonder, therefore, that dogs proper
for the sport should be held in the highest estimation. When Athelstan,
the grandson of Alfred, had obtained a signal victory at Brunanburgh
over Constantine king of Wales, he imposed upon him a yearly tribute of
gold, silver, and cattle; to which was also added a certain number of
"hawks, and sharp-scented dogs, fit for hunting of wild beasts,"[125]
His successor, Edgar, remitted the pecuniary payment on condition of
receiving annually the skins of three hundred wolves.[126] We do not
find, indeed, that the hawks and the hounds were included in this new
stipulation; but it does not seem reasonable that Edgar, who, like his
predecessor, was extremely fond of the sports of the field, should have
given up that part of the tribute.
IV.--HUNTING AMONG THE DANES.
The Danes deriving their origin from the same source as the Saxons,
differed little from them in their manners and habitudes, and perhaps
not at all in their amusements; the propensity to hunting, however, was
equally common to both. When Canute the Dane had obtained possession
of the throne of England, he imposed several restrictions upon the
pursuit of game, which were not only very severe, but seem to have
been altogether unprecedented; and these may be deemed a sufficient
proof of his strong attachment to this favourite pastime, for, in other
respects, his edicts breathed an appearance of mildness and regard for
the comforts of the people.
V.--HUNTING DURING THE RESTORATION OF THE SAXONS.
After the expulsion of the Danes, and during the short restoration of
the Saxon monarchy, the sports of the field still maintained their
ground. Edward the Confessor, whose disposition seems rather to have
been suited to the cloister than to the throne, would join in no other
secular amusements; but he took the greatest delight, says William of
Malmsbury, "to follow a pack of swift hounds in pursuit of game, and to
cheer them with his voice."[127] He was equally pleased with hawking,
and every day, after divine service, he spent his time in one or other
of these favourite pastimes.[128] Harold, who succeeded him, was so
fond of his hawk and his hounds, that he rarely travelled without
them. He is so represented upon the famous tapestry of Bayeux, with
his hounds by his side and a hawk upon his hand, when brought before
William duke of Normandy.[129] Travelling thus accompanied, was not a
singular trait in the character of a nobleman at this period.
[Illustration: 1. SWINE HUNTING--IX. CENTURY.]
The above engraving represents a Saxon chieftain, attended by his
huntsman and a couple of hounds, pursuing the wild swine in a forest,
taken from a manuscriptal painting of the ninth century in the Cotton
Library.[130]
[Illustration: 2. SPEARING A BOAR--XIV. CENTURY.]
The above is a representation of the manner of attacking the wild boar,
from a manuscript written about the commencement of the fourteenth
century, in the possession of Francis Douce, Esq.
[Illustration: 3. THE UNEARTHING OF A FOX.]
The preceding engraving is from a manuscript in the Royal Library,[131]
written about the same time as the latter.
VI.--HUNTING AMONG THE NORMANS OPPRESSIVELY EXERCISED.
During the tyrannical government of William the Norman, and his two
sons who succeeded him, the restrictions concerning the killing of game
were by no means meliorated. The privileges of hunting in the royal
forests were confined to the king and his favourites; and, to render
these receptacles for the beasts of the chase more capacious, or to
make new ones, whole villages were depopulated, and places of divine
worship overthrown; not the least regard being paid to the miseries of
the suffering inhabitants, or the cause of religion. These despotic
proceedings were not confined to royalty, as may be proved from good
authority. I need not mention the New Forest, in Hampshire, made by the
elder William, or the park at Woodstock in Oxfordshire, seven miles
in circumference, and walled round with stone by Henry his son.[132]
This park, Stowe tells us, was the first made in England. The royal
example was first followed by Henry earl of Warwick, who made a park
at Wedgenoke, near Warwick, to preserve his deer and other animals for
hunting; after this the practice of park-making became general among
persons of opulence.
This subject is delineated, with great force of colouring, by John of
Salisbury, a writer of the twelfth century, when the severity of the
game laws was somewhat abated. "In our time," says the author, "hunting
and hawking are esteemed the most honourable employments, and most
excellent virtues, by our nobility; and they think it the height of
worldly felicity to spend the whole of their time in these diversions;
accordingly they prepare for them with more solicitude, expense, and
parade, than they do for war; and pursue the wild beasts with greater
fury than they do the enemies of their country. By constantly following
this way of life, they lose much of their humanity, and become as
savage, nearly, as the very brutes they hunt." He then proceeds in this
manner: "Husbandmen, with their harmless herds and flocks, are driven
from their well cultivated fields, their meadows, and their pastures,
that wild beasts may range in them without interruption." He adds,
addressing himself to his unfortunate countrymen, "If one of these
great and merciless hunters shall pass by your habitation, bring forth
hastily all the refreshment you have in your house, or that you can
readily buy, or borrow from your neighbours: that you may not be
involved in ruin, or even accused of treason."[133] If this picture
of Norman tyranny be correct, it exhibits a melancholy view of the
sufferings to which the lower classes of the people were exposed; in
short, it appears that, these haughty Nimrods considered the murder of
a man as a crime of less magnitude than the killing of a single beast
appointed for the chase.
VII.--HUNTING AND HAWKING AFTER THE CONQUEST.
King John was particularly attached to the spoils of the field; and his
partiality for fine horses, hounds, and hawks, is evident, from his
frequently receiving such animals, by way of payment, instead of money,
for the renewal of grants, fines, and forfeitures, belonging to the
crown.[134]
In the reign of Edward I. this favourite amusement was reduced to a
perfect science, and regular rules established for its practice; these
rules were afterwards extended by the master of the game belonging to
king Henry IV. and drawn up for the use of his son, Henry prince of
Wales. Both these tracts are preserved, and we shall have occasion to
speak a little fuller concerning them in the course of this chapter.
Edward III. took so much delight in hunting, that even at the time he
was engaged in war with France, and resident in that country, he had
with him in his army sixty couple of stag hounds, and as many hare
hounds,[135] and every day he amused himself with hunting or hawking.
It also appears that many of the great lords in the English army had
their hounds and their hawks, as well as the king; to this may be
added, from the same author, that is, Froissart, who was himself a
witness to the fact, that Gaston earl of Foix, a foreign nobleman
contemporary with king Edward, kept upwards of six hundred dogs in his
castle for the purpose of hunting. He had four greyhounds called by the
romantic names of Tristram, Hector, Brute, and Roland.[136]
James I. preferred the amusement of hunting to hawking or shooting. It
is said of this monarch that he divided his time betwixt his standish,
his bottel, and his hunting; the last had his fair weather, the two
former his dull and cloudy.[137] One time when he was on a hunting
party near Bury St. Edmunds he saw an opulent townsman, who had joined
the chase, "very brave in his apparel, and so glittering and radiant,
that he eclipsed all the court." The king was desirous of knowing the
name of this gay gentleman, and being informed by one of his followers,
that it was Lamme, he facetiously replied, "Lamb, call you him? I know
not what kind of lamb he is, but I am sure he has got a fleece upon his
back."[138] Thus it seems that even the puns of royalty are worthy of
record.
It would be an endless, as well as a needless task, to quote all the
passages that occur in the poetical and prose writings of the last
three centuries, to prove that this favourite pastime had lost nothing
of its relish in the modern times; on the contrary, it seems to have
been more generally practised. Sir Thomas More, who wrote in the reign
of Henry VIII., describing the state of manhood, makes a young gallant
to say,
Man-hod I am, therefore I me delyght
To hunt and hawke, to nourishe up and fede
The greyhounde to the course, the hawke to th' flight,
And to bestryde a good and lusty stede.[139]
These pursuits are said by latter writers to have been destructive
to the fortunes of many inconsiderate young heirs, who, desirous of
emulating the state of their superiors, have kept their horses, hounds,
and hawks, and flourished away for a short time, in a style that
their income was inadequate to support. Others again, not having it
in their power to proceed so far, contented themselves more prudently
with joining the parties that were hunting, and partook with them the
pleasure of following the game.
VIII.--LAWS RELATING TO HUNTING.
Laws for punishing such as hunted, or destroyed the game, in the royal
forests, and other precincts belonging to the crown, were, as we have
just hinted above, established with unprecedented severity by Canute
the Dane, when he ascended the throne of England. By these edicts the
great thanes, bishops, and abbots, were permitted to hunt in the king's
chases: but all unqualified persons were subjected to very heavy fines,
not only for hunting, but even for disturbing of the game. If a
gentleman, or an inferior thane, killed a stag in the king's forests,
he was degraded from his rank; if a ceorl, or husbandman, committed the
same offence, he was reduced to slavery; and if a slave killed one,
he suffered death. Magistrates were appointed, in every county, or
shire, to put these laws in execution, and under them were appointed
inferior officers or gamekeepers, whose province it was to apprehend
the offenders.[140] By another law enacted by the same monarch, every
proprietor of land had the privilege to hunt game within his own fields
and woods; but might not pursue them into the royal forests.[141] This
prince also prohibited the exercise of hunting, or hawking, upon the
sabbath day.[142]
The severity of the game laws was rather increased, than abated, under
the governance of the four first Norman monarchs. Henry II. is said
to have relaxed their efficacy; rather, I presume, by not commanding
them to be enforced with rigour, than by causing them to be abrogated;
for they seem to have virtually existed in the reign of king John;
and occasioned the clause in the Forest Charter, insisting that no
man should forfeit his life, or his limbs, for killing the king's
deer;--but, if he was taken in the fact of stealing venison belonging
to the king, he should be subjected to a heavy fine; and, in default
of payment, be imprisoned for one year and one day; and after the
expiration of that time, find surety for his good behaviour, or be
banished the land.[143] This charter was afterwards confirmed by his
son Henry III. and the succeeding monarchs.
IX.--HUNTING BY THE CLERGY.
Another clause in the same charter grants to an archbishop, bishop,
earl, or baron, when travelling through the royal forests, at the
king's command, the privilege to kill one deer or two in the sight of
the forester, if he was at hand; if not, they were commanded to cause
a horn to be sounded,[144] that it might not appear as if they had
intended to steal the game.
It is evident that this privilege was afterwards construed into a
permission for the personages named therein to hunt in the royal
chases; but the words of the charter are not to that amount, and ought,
says Spelman, to be taken literally as they stand in the translation:
they could not however, at any rate, adds he, mean, "that the
ecclesiastics are to hunt the deer themselves, for they suppose them to
be no hunters, as the earls and barons might be; and therefore it is
not said, that he who claims the venison shall blow the horn, but only
that he shall cause it to be sounded."[145]
The propensity of the clergy to follow the secular pastimes, and
especially those of hunting and hawking, is frequently reprobated by
the poets and moralists of the former times. Chaucer, in his Canterbury
Tales, makes the monk much better skilled in riding and hunting, than
in divinity. The same poet, afterwards, in the Ploughman's Tale, takes
occasion to accuse the monks of pride, because they rode on coursers
like knights, having their hawks and hounds with them. In the same
tale he severely reproaches the priests for their dissolute manners,
saying, that many of them thought more upon hunting with their dogs,
and blowing the horn, than of the service they owed to God.[146]
The prevalence of these excesses occasioned the restrictions, contained
in an edict established in the thirteenth year of Richard II. which
prohibits any priest, or other clerk, not possessed of a benefice to
the yearly amount of ten pounds, from keeping a greyhound, or any other
dog for the purpose of hunting; neither might they use ferrits, hayes,
nets, hare-pipes, cords, or other engines to take or destroy the deer,
hares, or rabbits, under the penalty of one year's imprisonment.[147]
The dignified clergy were not affected by this statute, but retained
their ancient privileges, which appear to have been very extensive.
By the game laws of Canute the Dane they were permitted to hunt in
the forests belonging to the crown; and these prerogatives were not
abrogated by the Normans. Henry II., displeased at the power and
ambition of the ecclesiastics, endeavoured to render these grants of
none effect; not by publicly annulling them, but by putting in force
the canon law, which strictly forbade the clergy to spend their time in
hunting and hawking: and for this purpose, having obtained permission
from Hugo Pertroleonis, the Pope's legate, he caused a law to be made,
authorising him to convene the offenders before the secular judges, and
there to punish them.[148] The establishment of this edict was probably
more to show his power, than really to restrain them from hunting.
X.--HUNTING AND HAWKING IN THE MIDDLE AGES BY BISHOPS, &c.
The bishops and abbots of the middle ages hunted with great state,
having a large train of retainers and servants; and some of them are
recorded for their skill in this fashionable pursuit. Walter bishop
of Rochester, who lived in the thirteenth century, was an excellent
hunter, and so fond of the sport, that at the age of fourscore he made
hunting his sole employment, to the total neglect of the duties of his
office.[149] In the succeeding century an abbot of Leicester surpassed
all the sportsmen of the time in the art of hare hunting;[150] and
even when these dignitaries were travelling from place to place, upon
affairs of business, they usually had both hounds and hawks in their
train. Fitzstephen assures us, that Thomas à Becket, being sent as
ambassador from Henry II. to the court of France, assumed the state of
a secular potentate; and took with him dogs and hawks of various sorts,
such as were used by kings and princes.[151]
The clergy of rank, at all times, had the privilege of hunting in
their own parks and inclosures; and therefore, that they might not be
prevented from following this favourite pastime, they took care to have
such receptacles for game belonging to their priories. At the time
of the Reformation, the see of Norwich, only, was in the possession
of no less than thirteen parks, well stocked with deer and other
animals for the chase.[152] At the end of a book of Homilies in MS.,
in the Cotton Library,[153] written about the reign of Henry VI., is
a poem containing instructions to priests in general, and requiring
them, among other things, not to engage in "hawkynge, huntynge, and
dawnsynge."
XI--HUNTING AND HAWKING BY LADIES.
The ladies often accompanied the gentlemen in hunting parties; upon
these occasions it was usual to draw the game into a small compass
by means of inclosures, and temporary stands were made for them to be
spectators of the sport; though in many instances they joined in it,
and shot at the animals as they passed by them, with arrows. Agreeable
to these manners, which custom reconciled to the fair sex, most of the
heroines of romance are said to be fond of the sports of the field.
In an old poem entitled the "Squyer of lowe degre,"[154] the king of
Hungary promises his daughter that in the morning she shall go with him
on a hunting party, arrayed most gorgeously and riding in a chariot
covered with red velvet, drawn by
Jennettes of Spayne that ben so white,
Trapped to the ground with velvet bright.
In the field, says he, the game shall be inclosed with nets, and you
placed at a stand so conveniently that the harts and the hinds shall
come close to you--
Ye shall be set at such a tryst,
That hert and hynde shall come to your fyst.
He then commends the music of the bugle-horn--
To here the bugles there yblow
With theyr bugles in that place,
And seven score raches at his rechase
He also assures her that she should have--
A lese of herhounds with her to strake.
The harehound, or greyhound, was considered as a very valuable present
in former times,[155] and especially among the ladies, with whom it
appears to have been a peculiar favourite; and therefore in another
metrical romance, probably more ancient than the former, called "Sir
Eglamore,"[156] a princess tells the knight, that if he was inclined
to hunt, she would, as an especial mark of her favour, give him on
excellent greyhound, so swift that no deer could escape from his
pursuit--
Syr yf you be on huntynge founde,
I shall you gyve a good greyhounde
That is dunne as a doo:
For as I am trewe gentylwoman,
There was never deer that he at ran,
That myght yscape him fro.
It is evident, however, that the ladies had hunting parties by
themselves.
[Illustration: 4. LADIES HUNTING--XIV. CENTURY.]
We find them, according to this representation, in the open fields
winding the horn, rousing the game, and pursuing it, without any other
assistance: this delineation, which is by no means singular, is taken
from a manuscript in the Royal Library, written and illuminated early
in the fourteenth century.[157] We may also observe, that, upon these
occasions, the female Nimrods dispensed with the method of riding best
suited to the modesty of the sex, and sat astride on the saddle like
the men; but this indecorous custom, I trust, was never general, nor
of long continuance, even with the heroines who were most delighted
with these masculine exercises. An author of the seventeenth century
speaks of another fashion, adopted by the fair huntresses of the town
of Bury in Suffolk. "The Bury ladies," says he, "that used hawking and
hunting, were once in a great vaine of wearing breeches" which it seems
gave rise to many severe and ludicrous sarcasms. The only argument in
favour of this habit, was decency in case of an accident. But it was
observed that such accidents ought to be prevented, in a manner more
consistent with the delicacy of the sex, that is, by refraining from
those dangerous recreations.[158]
Queen Elizabeth was extremely fond of the chase, and the nobility
who entertained her in her different progresses, made large hunting
parties, which she usually joined when the weather was favourable.
She very frequently indulged herself in following of the hounds. "Her
majesty," says a courtier, writing to Sir Robert Sidney, "is well
and excellently disposed to hunting, for every second day she is on
horseback and continues the sport long."[159] At this time her majesty
had just entered the seventy-seventh year of her age, and she was then
at her palace at Oatlands. Often, when she was not disposed to hunt
herself, she was entertained with the sight of the pastime. At Cowdrey,
in Sussex, the seat of lord Montecute, A. D. 1591, one day after dinner
her grace saw from a turret, "sixteen bucks all having fayre lawe,
pulled downe with greyhounds in a laund or lawn."[160]
The hunting dresses, as they appeared at the commencement of the
fifteenth century, are given from a manuscript of that time, in the
Harleian Collection.[161]
[Illustration: 5. HUNTING DRESSES.--XV. CENTURY.]
XII.--PRIVILEGES OF THE CITIZENS OF LONDON TO HUNT AND HAWK.
The citizens of London were permitted to hunt and hawk in certain
districts. And one of the clauses, in the royal charter granted to them
by Henry I., runs to this purport: "The citizens of London may have
chases, and hunt as well, and as fully, as their ancestors have had;
that is to say, in the Chiltre, in Middlesex, and Surry."[162] Hence we
find, that these privileges were of ancient standing. They were also
confirmed by the succeeding charters. Fitzstephen, who wrote towards
the close of the reign of Henry II., says, that the Londoners delight
themselves with hawks and hounds, for they have the liberty of hunting
in Middlesex, Hertfordshire, all Chilton, and in Kent to the waters of
Grey,[163] which differs somewhat from the statement in the charter.
These exercises were not much followed by the citizens of London at the
close of the sixteenth century, not for want of taste for the
amusement, says Stow, but for leisure to pursue it.[164] Strype,
however, so late as the reign of George I., reckons among the modern
amusements of the Londoners, "Riding on horseback and hunting with my
Lord Mayor's hounds, when the common-hunt goes out."
This common-hunt of the citizens is ridiculed in an old ballad called
the "London Customs," published in D'Urfey's Collection,[165] I shall
select the three following stanzas only.
Next once a year into Essex a hunting they go;
To see 'em pass along, O 'tis a most pretty shew;
Through Cheapside and Fenchurch-street, and so to Aldgate pump,
Each man with 's spurs in's horses sides, and his back-sword cross
his rump.
My lord he takes a staff in hand to beat the bushes o'er;
I must confess it was a work he ne'er had done before.
A creature bounceth from a bush, which made them all to laugh;
My lord, he cried, a hare a hare, but it prov'd an Essex calf.
And when they had done their sport, they came to London where
they dwell,
Their faces all so torn and scratch'd, their wives scarce knew
them well;
For 'twas a very great mercy, so many 'scap'd alive,
For of twenty saddles carried out, they brought again but five.
Privileges to hunt in certain districts, were frequently granted to
individuals either from favour, or as a reward for their services.
Richard I. gave to Henry de Grey, of Codnor, the manor of Turroe, in
Essex, with permission to hunt the hare and the fox, in any lands
belonging to the crown, excepting only the king's own demesne parks;
and this special mark of the royal favour was confirmed by his brother
John, when he succeeded to the throne.[166]
Others obtained grants of land, on condition of their paying an annual
tribute in horses, hawks, and hounds. And here I cannot help noticing
a curious tenure, by which Bertram de Criol held the manor of Setene,
or Seaton, in Kent, from Edward I.; he was to provide a man, called
"veltarius," or huntsman,[167] to lead three greyhounds when the king
went into Gascony so long as a pair of shoes, valued at fourpence,
should last him.[168]
XIII.--TWO EARLY TREATISES ON HUNTING.
I have mentioned two treatises upon hunting, in a former part (the
first section) of this chapter; the earliest of them was originally
written in French, by William Twici, or Twety, grand huntsman to king
Edward II.[169] I have never seen the French tract, but the manuscript
I spoke of is in English, and from its appearance nearly coeval with
the original, but the name of John Gyfford is joined to that of
Twety, and both of them are said to be "maisters of the game" to king
Edward,[170] and to have composed this treatise upon "the crafte of
huntynge." The other, as before observed, was written by the master
of the game to Henry IV. for the use of prince Henry his son, and is
little more than an enlargement of the former tract.[171] The Book of
St. Albans, so called because it was printed there, contains the first
treatise upon the subject of hunting that ever appeared from the press.
It is however evidently compiled from the two tracts above mentioned,
notwithstanding the legendary authority of Sir Tristram, quoted in
the beginning. The Book of St. Albans is said to have been written by
Juliana Barnes, or Berners, the sister of lord Berners, and prioress
of the nunnery of Sopewell, about the year 1481, and was printed soon
afterwards. This book contains two other tracts, the one on hawking,
and the other on heraldry. It has been reprinted several times, and
under different titles, with some additions and amendments, but the
general information is the same.
XIV.--NAMES OF BEASTS OF SPORT.
Twici introduces the subject with a kind of poetical prologue, in which
he gives us the names of the animals to be pursued; and these are
divided into three classes.
The first class contains four, which, we are informed, may be properly
called beasts for hunting; namely, the hare, the hart, the wolf, and
the wild boar.[172]
The second class contains the names of the beasts of the chase, and
they are five; that is to say, the buck, the doe, the fox, the martin,
and the roe.[173]
In the third class we find three, that are said to afford "greate
dysporte" in the pursuit, and they are denominated, the grey or badger,
the wild-cat and the otter.
Most of the books upon hunting agree in the number and names of the
first class; but respecting the second and third they are not so clear.
The beasts of the chase in some are more multifarious, and divided into
two classes: the first called beasts of sweet flight, are the buck,
the doe, the bear, the rein deer, the elk, and the spytard, which, as
the author himself informs us, is a hart one hundred years old. In the
second class, are placed the fulimart, the fitchat, or fitch, the cat,
the grey, the fox, the wesel, the martin, the squirrel, the white rat,
the otter, the stoat, and the pole-cat; and these are said to be beasts
of stinking flight.[174]
XV.--WOLVES.
The reader may possibly be surprised, when he casts his eye over the
foregoing list of animals for hunting, at seeing the names of several
that do not exist at this time in England, and especially of the
wolf, because he will readily recollect the story so commonly told of
their destruction during the reign of Edgar. It is generally admitted
that Edgar gave up the fine of gold and silver imposed by his uncle
Athelstan, upon Constantine the king of Wales, and claimed in its stead
the annual production of three hundred wolves' skins; because, say the
historians, the extensive woodlands and coverts, abounding at that time
in Britain, afforded shelter for the wolves, which were exceedingly
numerous, and especially in the districts bordering upon Wales. By
this prudent expedient, add they, in less than four years the whole
island was cleared from those ferocious animals, without putting his
subjects to the least expense; but, if this record be taken in its full
latitude, and the supposition established, that the wolves were totally
exterminated in Britain during the reign of Edgar, more will certainly
be admitted than is consistent with the truth, as certain documents
clearly prove.
The words of William of Malmsbury relative to wolves in Edgar's time
are to this purport. "He, Edgar, imposed a tribute upon the king of
Wales exacting yearly three hundred wolves. This tribute continued to
be paid for three years, but ceased upon the fourth, because _nullum se
ulterius posse invenire professus_; it was said that he could not find
anymore;"[175] that is, in Wales, for it can hardly be supposed that he
was permitted to hunt them out of his own dominions.
As respects the existence of wolves in England afterwards, and till a
much later period; it appears, that in the tenth year of William I.
Robert de Umfranville, knight, held the lordship, &c. of Riddlesdale,
in the county of Northumberland, by service of defending that part of
the country from enemies and "wolves."[176] Also in the forty-third
year of Edward III. Thomas Engaine held lands in Pitchley, in the
county of Northampton, by service of finding at his own cost certain
dogs for the destruction of wolves, foxes, &c. in the counties of
Northampton, Rutland, Oxford, Essex, and Buckingham.[177] As late as
the eleventh year of Henry VI. Sir Robert Plumpton held one bovate of
land, in the county of Nottingham, called Wolf hunt land, by service of
winding a horn, and chasing or frighting the wolves in the forest of
Shirewood.[178]
XVI.--DOGS OF THE CHASE.
In the manuscripts before mentioned we find the following names for the
dogs employed in the sports of the field; that is to say, raches, or
hounds; running hounds, or harriers, to chase hares; and greyhounds,
which were favourite dogs with the sportsmen; alauntes, or bull-dogs,
these were chiefly used for hunting the boar; the mastiff is also said
to be "a good hounde" for hunting the wild boar; the spaniel was of
use in hawking; "hys crafte," says the author, "is for the perdrich
or patridge, and the quaile; and, when taught to couch, he is very
serviceable to the fowlers, who take those birds with nets." There
must, I presume, have been a vast number of other kinds of dogs known
in England at this period; these, however, are all that the early
writers, upon the subject of hunting, have thought proper to
enumerate. In the sixteenth century the list is enlarged; besides those
already named, we find bastards and mongrels, lemors, kenets, terrours,
butcher's hounds, dunghill dogs, trindel-tail'd dogs, "pryckereard"
curs, and ladies small puppies.[179]
There formerly existed a very cruel law, which subjected all the dogs
that were found in the royal chases and forests, excepting such as
belonged to privileged persons, to be maimed by having the left claw
cut from their feet, unless they were redeemed by a fine; this law
probably originated with the Normans, and certainly was in force in the
reign of Henry I.[180]
XVII.--DIFFERENT MODES OF HUNTING.
Several methods of hunting were practised by the sportsmen of this
kingdom, as well on horseback as on foot. Sometimes this exercise
took place in the open country; sometimes in woods and thickets; and
sometimes in parks, chases, and forests, where the game was usually
enclosed with a haye or fence-work of netting, supported by posts
driven into the ground for that purpose. The manner of hunting at large
needs no description; but, as the method of killing game within the
enclosures is now totally laid aside, it may not be amiss to give the
reader some idea how it was performed, and particularly when the king
with the nobility were present at the sport. All the preparations and
ceremonies necessary upon the occasion are set down at large in the
manuscript made for the use of prince Henry, mentioned before;[181] the
substance of which is as follows.
When the king should think proper to hunt the hart in the parks or
forests, either with bows or greyhounds, the master of the game, and
the park-keeper, or the forester, being made acquainted with his
pleasure, was to see that every thing be provided necessary for the
purpose. It was the duty of the sheriff of the county, wherein the
hunting was to be performed, to furnish fit stabling for the king's
horses, and carts to take away the dead game. The hunters and officers
under the forester, with their assistants, were commanded to erect a
sufficient number of temporary buildings[182] for the reception of the
royal family and their train; and, if I understand my author clearly,
these buildings were directed to be covered with green boughs,[183]
to answer the double purpose of shading the company and the hounds
from the heat of the sun, and to protect them from any inconveniency
in case of foul weather. Early in the morning, upon the day appointed
for the sport, the master of the game, with the officers deputed by
him, was to see that the greyhounds were properly placed, and the
person nominated to blow the horn, whose office was to watch what
kind of game was turned out, and, by the manner of winding his horn,
signify the same to the company, that they might be prepared for its
reception upon its quitting the cover. Proper persons were then to be
appointed, at different parts of the enclosure, to keep the populace
at due distance. The yeomen of the king's bow, and the grooms of his
tutored greyhounds,[184] had in charge to secure the king's standing,
and prevent any noise being made to disturb the game before the arrival
of his majesty. When the royal family and the nobility were conducted
to the places appointed for their reception, the master of the game,
or his lieutenant, sounded three long mootes, or blasts with the horn,
for the uncoupling of the hart hounds. The game was then driven from
the cover, and turned by the huntsmen and the hounds so as to pass by
the stands belonging to the king and queen, and such of the nobility as
were permitted to have a share in the pastime; who might either shoot
at them with their bows, or pursue them with the greyhounds, at their
pleasure. We are then informed that the game which the king, the queen,
or the prince or princesses, slew with their own bows, or particularly
commanded to be let run, was not liable to any claim by the huntsmen or
their attendants; but of all the rest that was killed they had certain
parts assigned to them by the master of the game, according to the
ancient custom.
This arrangement was for a royal hunting, but similar preparations
were made upon like occasions for the sport of the great barons and
dignified clergy. Their tenants sometimes held lands of them by the
service of finding men to enclose the grounds, and drive the deer to
the stands whenever it pleased their lords to hunt them.[185]
XVIII.--HUNTING TERMS--SEASONS FOR HUNTING.
There was a peculiar kind of language invented by the sportsmen of the
middle ages, which it was necessary for every lover of the chase to be
acquainted with.
When beasts went together in companies, there was said to be a pride
of lions; a lepe of leopards; an herd of harts, of bucks, and of all
sorts of deer; a bevy of roes; a sloth of bears; a singular of boars;
a sownder of wild swine; a dryft of tame swine; a route of wolves; a
harras of horses; a rag of colts; a stud of mares; a pace of asses;
a baren of mules; a team of oxen; a drove of kine; a flock of sheep;
a tribe of goats; a sculk of foxes; a cete of badgers; a richess of
martins; a fesynes of ferrets; a huske or a down of hares; a nest of
rabbits; a clowder of cats, and a kendel of young cats; a shrewdness of
apes; and a labour of moles.
And also, of animals when they retired to rest; a hart was said to be
harbored, a buck lodged, a roebuck bedded, a hare formed, a rabbit set,
&c.
Two greyhounds were called a brace, three a leash, but two spaniels
or harriers were called a couple. We have also a mute of hounds for a
number, a kenel of raches, a litter of whelps, and a cowardice of curs.
It is well worthy notice, that this sort of phraseology was not
confined to birds and beasts, and other parts of the brute creation,
but it was extended to the various ranks and professions of men, as the
specimen, which I cannot help adding, will sufficiently demonstrate;
the application of some of them, will, I trust, be thought apt enough:--
A state of princes; a skulk of friars; a skulk of thieves; an
observance of hermits; a lying of pardoners; a subtiltie of serjeants;
an untruth of sompners; a multiplying of husbands; an incredibility
of cuckolds; a safeguard of porters; a stalk of foresters; a blast
of hunters; a draught of butlers; a temperance of cooks; a melody of
harpers; a poverty of pipers; a drunkenship of coblers; a disguising of
taylors; a wandering of tinkers; a malepertness of pedlars; a fighting
of beggars; a rayful, (that is, a netful,) of knaves; a blush of boys;
a bevy of ladies; a nonpatience of wives; a gagle of women; a gagle
of geese; a superfluity of nuns; and a herd of harlots. Similar terms
were applied to inanimate things, as a caste of bread, a cluster of
grapes, a cluster of nuts, &c.
I shall now conclude this long, and, I fear, tedious chapter with "the
seasons for alle sortes of venery;" and the ancient books upon hunting,
seem to be agreed upon this point.
The "time of grace" begins at Midsummer, and lasteth to Holyrood-day.
The fox may be hunted from the Nativity to the Annunciation of our
Lady;[186] the roebuck from Easter to Michaelmas; the roe from
Michaelmas to Candlemas; the hare from Michaelmas to Midsummer; the
wolf as the fox; and the boar from the Nativity to the Purification of
our Lady.
CHAPTER II.
I. Hawking practised by the Nobility.--II. Its Origin not well
known;--A favourite Amusement with the Saxons.--III. Romantic
Story relative to Hawking.--IV. Grand Falconer of France, his
State and Privileges.--V. Edward III. partial to Hawking;--Sir
Thomas Jermin.--VI. Ladies fond of Hawking.--VII. Its
Decline.--VIII. How it was performed.--IX. Embellishments of the
Hawk.--X. Treatises concerning Hawking;--Superstitious Cure of
Hawks.--XI. Laws respecting Hawks.--XII. Their great Value.--XIII.
The different Species of Hawks, and their Appropriation.--XIV.
Terms used in Hawking.--XV. Fowling and Fishing;--The Stalking
Horse;--Lowbelling.
I.--HAWKING BY THE NOBILITY.
Hawking, or the art of training and flying of hawks, for the purpose
of catching other birds, is very frequently called falconry or
fauconry; and the person who had the care of the hawks is denominated
the falconer, but never I believe the hawker. The sport is generally
placed at the head of those amusements that can only be practised in
the country, and probably it obtained this precedency from its being
a pastime so generally followed by the nobility, not in this country
only, but also upon the continent. Persons of high rank rarely appeared
without their dogs and their hawks; the latter they carried with them
when they journeyed from one country to another,[187] and sometimes
even when they went to battle, and would not part with them to procure
their own liberty when taken prisoners. Sometimes they formed part
of the train of an ecclesiastic.[188] These birds were considered as
ensigns of nobility: and no action could be reckoned more dishonourable
to a man of rank than to give up his hawk.[189] The ancient English
illuminators have uniformly distinguished the portrait of king Stephen
by giving him a hawk upon his hand, to signify, I presume, by that
symbol, that he was nobly, though not royally born.[190]
Sebastian Brant, a native of Germany, the author of a work entitled
Stultifera Navis, the Ship of Fools, published towards the conclusion
of the fifteenth century, accuses his countrymen of bringing their
hawks and hounds into the churches, and interrupting the divine
service; which indecency he severely reprobates and with the greatest
justice. The passage is thus translated by Alexander Barclay:[191]
Into the church then comes another sotte,
Withouten devotion, jetting up and down,
Or to be seene, and showe his garded cote.
Another on his fiste a sparhawke or fawcone,
Or else a cokow; wasting so his shone;
Before the aulter he to and fro doth wander,
With even as great devotion as doth a gander.
In comes another, his houndes at his tayle,
With lynes and leases, and other like baggage;
His dogges barke, so that withouten fayle,
The whole church is troubled by their outrage.
II.--ORIGIN OF HAWKING.
I cannot trace the origin of hawking to an earlier period than the
middle of the fourth century. Julius Firmicus, who lived about that
time, is the first Latin author that speaks of falconers, and the art
of teaching one species of birds to fly after and catch others.[192]
Pliny is thought to have attributed a sport of this kind to the
inhabitants of a certain district in Thrace, but his words are too
obscure for much dependance to be placed upon them.[193] An English
writer, upon what authority I know not, says, that hawking was first
invented and practised by Frederic Barbarossa, when he besieged
Rome.[194] It appears, however, to be very certain that this amusement
was discovered abroad, where it became fashionable, some time before
it was known in this country: the period of its introduction cannot
be clearly determined; but, about, the middle of the eighth century,
Winifred, or Boniface, archbishop of Mons, who was himself a native
of England, presented to Ethelbert, king of Kent, one hawk and two
falcons; and a king of the Mercians requested the same Winifred to
send to him two falcons that had been trained to kill cranes.[195]
In the succeeding century, the sport was very highly esteemed by the
Anglo-Saxon nobility; and the training and flying of hawks became one
of the essentials in the education of a young man of rank. Alfred
the great is commended for his early proficiency in this, as well
as in other fashionable amusements;[196] he is even said to have
written a treatise upon the subject of hawking, but there is no such
work at present in existence, that can with any degree of certainty
be attributed to him. The pastime of hawking must, no doubt, at this
period, have been very generally followed, to call for the prohibition
inserted in a charter granted to the Abbey of Abington, by Kenulph,
king of the Mercians; which restrains all persons from carrying of
hawks, and thereby trespassing upon the lands belonging to the monks
who resided therein.[197] This amusement continued to be a fashionable
one to the end of the Saxon æra. Byrhtric, a Saxon nobleman, who died
towards the end of the tenth century, among other valuable articles,
left by will, to earl Ælfric, two hawks, and all his heaꝺoꞃ hunꝺaꞅ
which Lambarde renders hedge-hounds; spaniels, I suppose, for the
purpose of flushing the game.[198] We have already seen that Edward the
confessor was highly pleased with the sports of the field, and pursued
them constantly every day, allotting the whole of his leisure time to
hunting or hawking.[199]
III.--ROMANTIC STORY RELATIVE TO HAWKING.
The monkish writers, after the conquest, not readily accounting for the
first coming of the Danes, or for the cruelties that they committed
in this country, have assigned several causes; and, among others,
the following story is related, which, if it might be depended upon,
would prove that the pastime of hawking was practised by the nobility
of Denmark at a very early period; such a supposition has at least
probability on its side, even if it should not be thought to derive
much strength from the authority of this narrative.
A Danish chieftain, of high rank, some say of royal blood, named
Lothbroc, amusing himself with his hawk near sea, upon the western
coasts of Denmark, the bird, in pursuit of her game, fell into the
water; Lothbroc, anxious for her safety, got into a little boat that
was near at hand, and rowed from the shore to take her up, but before
he could return to the land, a sudden storm arose, and he was driven
out to sea. After suffering great hardship, during a voyage of
infinite peril, he reached the coast of Norfolk, and landed at a port
called Rodham: he was immediately seized by the inhabitants, and sent
to the court of Edmund, king of the East Angles; when that monarch was
made acquainted with the occasion of his coming, he received him very
favourably, and soon became particularly attached to him, on account
of his great skill in the training and flying of hawks. The partiality
which Edmund manifested for this unfortunate stranger, excited the
jealousy of Beoric, the king's falconer, who took an opportunity of
murdering the Dane, whilst he was exercising of his birds in the midst
of a wood, and secreted the body: which was soon afterwards discovered
by the vigilance of a favourite spaniel. Beoric was apprehended, and,
it seems, convicted of the murder; for he was condemned to be put into
an open boat (some say the very boat in which the Danish chieftain
came to England) without oars, mast, or rudder, and in that condition
abandoned to the mercy of the ocean. It so chanced, that the boat was
wafted to the very point of land that Lothbroc came from; and Beoric,
escaped from the danger of the waves, was apprehended by the Danes, and
taken before two of the chieftains of the country, named Hinguar and
Hubba; who were both of them the sons of Lothbroc. The crafty falconer
soon learned this circumstance, and, in order to acquire their favour,
made them acquainted with the murder of their father, which he affirmed
was executed at the command of king Edmund, and that he himself had
suffered the hardship at sea, from which he had been delivered by
reaching the shore, because he had the courage to oppose the king's
order, and endeavoured to save the life of the Danish nobleman. Incited
by this abominable falsehood to revenge the murder of their father, by
force of arms, they invaded the kingdom of the East Angles, pillaged
the country, and having taken the king prisoner, caused him to be tied
to a stake, and shot to death with arrows.
This narration bears upon the face of it the genuine marks of a
legendary tale. Lidgate, a monk of Saint Edmund's Bury, has given it a
place, with the addition of several miraculous circumstances, in his
poetical life of king Edmund, who was the tutelar saint of the abbey to
which he belonged.[200] On the other hand, every one who is acquainted
with the history of the Anglo-Saxons must know, that the Danish pirates
had infested the coasts of England, and committed many dreadful
depredations, long before the time assigned for the above event; and
the success of the first parties encouraged others to make the like
attempts.
IV.--GRAND FALCONER OF FRANCE.
Hawking is often mentioned, says a modern author, in the capitularies
of the eighth and ninth centuries. The grand fauconnier of France was
an officer of great eminence; his annual salary was four thousand
florins; he was attended by fifty gentlemen, and fifty assistant
falconers; he was allowed to keep three hundred hawks, he licensed
every vender of hawks in France, and received a tax upon every bird
sold in that kingdom, and even within the verge of the court; and the
king never rode out upon any occasion of consequence without this
officer attending upon him.[201]
In Doomsday-book, a hawk's airy[202] is returned among the most
valuable articles of property; which proves the high estimation these
birds were held in at the commencement of the Norman government; and
probably some establishment, like that above mentioned, was made for
the royal falconer in England.
V.--FONDNESS OF EDWARD III. &c. FOR HAWKING.
Edward III., according to Froissart, had with him in his army when he
invaded France, thirty falconers on horseback, who had charge of his
hawks;[203] and every day he either hunted, or went to the river[204]
for the purpose of hawking, as his fancy inclined him. From the
frequent mention that is made of hawking by the water-side, not only
by the historians, but also by the romance writers of the middle ages,
I suppose that the pursuit of water-fowls afforded the most diversion.
The author last quoted, speaking of the earl of Flanders, says, he was
always at the river,[205] where his falconer cast off one falcon after
the heron, and the earl another. In the poetical romance of the "Squire
of low Degree," the king of Hungary promises his daughter, that, at her
return from hunting, she should hawk by the river-side, with gos hawk,
gentle falcon, and other well-tutored birds;[206] so also Chaucer, in
the rhime of sir Thopas, says that he could hunt the wild deer,
And ryde on haukynge by the ryver,
With grey gos hawke in hande.[207]
An anonymous writer, of the seventeenth century, records the following
anecdote: "Sir Thomas Jermin, going out with his servants, and brooke
hawkes one evening, at Bury,[208] they were no sooner abroad, but fowle
were found, and he called out to one of his falconers, Off with your
jerkin: the fellow being into the wind[209] did not heare him; at which
he stormed, and still cried out, Off with your jerkin, you knave, off
with your jerkin: now it fell out that there was, at that instant, a
plaine townsman of Bury, in a freeze jerkin, stood betwixt him and his
falconer, who seeing sir Thomas in such a rage, and thinking he had
spoken to him, unbuttoned himself amaine, threw off his jerkin, and
besought his worshippe not to be offended, for he would off with his
doublet too, to give him content."[210]
[Illustration: 6. SAXON HAWKING--IX. CENTURY.]
This engraving represents a Saxon nobleman and his falconer, with their
hawks, upon the bank of a river, waiting for the rising of the game.
The delineation is from a Saxon manuscript written at the close of
the ninth century, or at the commencement of the tenth; in the Cotton
Library.[211] Another drawing upon the same subject, with a little
variation, occurs in a Saxon manuscript, somewhat more modern.[212] The
two following engravings are from drawings in a manuscript, written
early in the fourteenth century, preserved in the Royal Library.[213]
We see a party of both sexes hawking by the water side; the falconer
is frightening the fowls to make their rise, and the hawk is in the
act of seizing upon one of them.[214]
[Illustration: 7. HAWKING--XIV. CENTURY.]
[Illustration: 8. LADIES HAWKING--XIV. CENTURY.]
VI.--FONDNESS OF LADIES AND THE CLERGY FOR HAWKING.
We may also here notice, that the ladies not only accompanied the
gentlemen in pursuit of this diversion, but often practised it by
themselves; and, if we may believe a contemporary writer,[215] in
the thirteenth century, they even excelled the men in knowledge and
exercise of the art of falconry, which reason, he very ungallantly
produces, in proof that the pastime was frivolous and effeminate.
Hawking was forbidden to the clergy by the canons of the church; but
the prohibition was by no means sufficient to restrain them from the
pursuit of this favourite and fashionable amusement. On which account,
as well as for hunting, they were severely lashed by the poets and
moralists; and, indeed, the one was rarely spoken of without the other
being included; for those who delighted in hawking were generally
proficients in hunting also.[216]
VII.--DECLINE OF HAWKING.
The practice of hawking declined, from the moment the musket was
brought to perfection, which pointing out a method more ready and
more certain of procuring game, and, at the same time, affording an
equal degree of air and exercise, the immense expense of training, and
maintaining of hawks became altogether unnecessary; it was therefore no
wonder that the assistance of the gun superseded that of the bird; or
that the art of hawking, when rendered useless, should be laid aside.
Its fall was very rapid. Hentzner, who wrote his Itinerary A. D. 1598,
assures us that hawking was the general sport of the English nobility;
at the same time, most of the best treatises upon this subject were
written. At the commencement of the seventeenth century, it seems to
have been in the zenith of its glory. At the close of the same century,
the sport was rarely practised, and a few years afterwards hardly known.
VIII.--METHOD OF HAWKING.
Hawking was performed on horseback, or on foot, as occasion required.
On horseback, when in the fields, and open country; and on foot, when
in the woods and coverts. In following the hawk on foot, it was usual
for the sportsman to have a stout pole with him, to assist him in
leaping over little rivulets and ditches, which might otherwise prevent
him in his progress; and this we learn from an historical fact related
by Hall; who informs us, that Henry VIII. pursuing his hawk on foot, at
Hitchen in Hertfordshire, attempted, with the assistance of his pole,
to jump over a ditch that was half full of muddy water, the pole broke,
and the king fell with his head into the mud, where he would have been
stifled had not a footman, named John Moody, who was near at hand, and
seeing the accident, leaped into the ditch, and released his majesty
from his perilous situation; "and so," says the honest historian, "God
of hys goodnesse preserved him."[217]
IX.--CAPARISON OF A HAWK.
When the hawk was not flying at her game, she was usually hood-winked,
with a cap or hood provided for that purpose, and fitted to her head;
and this hood was worn abroad, as well as at home. All hawks taken
upon "the fist," the term used for carrying them upon the hand, had
straps of leather called jesses, put about their legs. The jesses were
made sufficiently long for the knots to appear between the middle and
the little fingers of the hand that held them, so that the lunes, or
small thongs of leather, might be fastened to them with two tyrrits,
or rings; and the lunes were loosely wound round the little finger.
It appears that sometimes the jesses were of silk. Lastly, their legs
were adorned with bells, fastened with rings of leather, each leg
having one; and the leathers, to which the bells were attached, were
denominated bewits; and to the bewits was added the creance, or long
thread, by which the bird in tutoring, was drawn back, after she had
been permitted to fly; and this was called the reclaiming of the hawk.
The bewits, we are informed, were useful to keep the hawk from "winding
when she bated," that is, when she fluttered her wings to fly after her
game.
Respecting the bells, it is particularly recommended that they should
not be too heavy, to impede the flight of the bird; and that they
should be of equal weight, sonorous, shrill, and musical; not both of
one sound, but the one a semitone below the other;[218] they ought
not to be broken, especially in the sounding part, because, in that
case, the sound emitted would be dull and unpleasing. There is, says
the Book of Saint Albans, great choice of sparrow-hawk bells, and they
are cheap enough; but for gos-hawk bells, those made at Milan are
called the best; and, indeed, they are excellent; for they are commonly
sounded with silver, and charged for accordingly. But we have good
bells brought from Dordreght (Dort), which are well paired, and produce
a very shrill, but pleasant sound.
I am told, that silver being mixed with the metal when the bells are
cast, adds much to the sweetness of the tone; and hence probably the
allusion of Shakespear, when he says,
How silver sweet sound lovers' tongues by night.
I cannot help adding in this place a passage from an old play, written
by Thomas Heywood; wherein one of the characters, speaking of a hawk
flying, says
Her bels, Sir Francis, had not both one waight.
Nor was one semitune above the other.
Mei thinkes these Millane bels do sound too full,
And spoile the mounting of your hawke.[219]
So much for the birds themselves; but the person who carried the hawk
was also to be provided with gloves for that purpose, to prevent their
talons from hurting his hand. In the inventories of apparel belonging
to king Henry VIII. such articles frequently occur; at Hampton Court,
in the jewel house, were seven hawkes' gloves embroidered.[220]
X.--EARLY TREATISES ON HAWKING--SUPERSTITIOUS CURE OF HAWKS.
We have a poetical fragment, written in old Norman French, as early as
the thirteenth century, containing some general observations respecting
the management of hawks, which the author informs us he found in a book
made for, or by, the good king Edward.[221] Wanley, in his catalogue of
the Harleian manuscripts, suspects there is some mistake in the name;
and that this fragment is really part of a treatise upon hawking, which
he tells us was written by king Alfred; but I rather think the author
is correct in this particular; for another manuscript[222] in English,
and about a century more modern, treating upon the same subject, has
the following indication at the close, "Here endith the booke of
haukyng, after Prince Edwarde, kynge of Englande." It appears to me,
that the original treatise referred to by both the above authors,
should be attributed to Edward the confessor; not perhaps written by
him, but at his command; which supposition is partly justified by the
extreme partiality he had for this diversion.[223]
In the last-mentioned manuscript we find not only the general rules
relative to hawking, but an account of the diseases incident to the
birds themselves, and the medicines proper to be administered to them
upon such occasions. I shall only mention the following superstitious
ceremonies: after a hawk has been ill, and is sufficiently recovered
to pursue the game, the owner has this admonition given to him; "On
the morrow tyde, when thou goest oute to haukyng, say, In the name of
the Lord, the birds of heaven shall be beneath thy feet: also, if he
be hurt by the heron, say, The Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of
David, has conquered; Hallelujah: and if he be bitte of any man, say,
He that the wicked man doth bind, the Lord at his coming shall set
free."[224] These sentences, I suppose, were considered as charms, but
how far they operated, I shall leave the reader to judge; the coupling
of texts of scripture with such an amusement, seems also in favour of
the supposition that the book was composed for the monkish monarch,
Edward the confessor.
XI.--LAWS RESPECTING HAWKING.
No persons but such as were of the highest rank were permitted under
the Norman government to keep hawks, as appears from a clause inserted
in the Forest Charter: this charter king John was compelled to sign;
and by it the privilege was given to every free man to have airies
of hawks, sparrow-hawks, falcons, eagles, and herons in his own
woods.[225] In the thirty-fourth year of the reign of Edward III. a
statute was made, by which a person finding a falcon, tercelet, laner,
laneret, or any other species of hawk, that had been lost by its owner,
was commanded to carry the same to the sheriff of the county wherein
it was found; the duty of the sheriff was to cause a proclamation to
be made in all the principal towns of the county, that he had such a
hawk in his custody, and that the nobleman to whom it belonged, or his
falconer, might ascertain the same to be his property, and have it
restored to him, he first paying the costs that had been incurred by
the sheriff; and, if in the space of four months no claimant appeared,
it became the property of the finder, if he was a person of rank,
upon his paying the costs to the sheriff; on the contrary, if he was
an unqualified man, the hawk belonged to the sheriff: but the person
who found it was to be rewarded for his trouble. If the person who
found the hawk concealed the same from the owner or his falconer, he
was liable upon discovery to pay the price of the bird to the owner,
and to suffer two years' imprisonment; and if he was unable to pay
the fine, his imprisonment was extended to a longer term.[226] In the
thirty-seventh year of the same monarch this act was confirmed, with
additional severity; and the stealing and concealing of a hawk, was
made felony.[227] In the same reign the bishop of Ely excommunicated
certain persons for stealing a hawk that was sitting upon her perch in
the cloisters of Bermondsey, in Southwark; but this piece of sacrilege
was committed during divine service in the choir, and the hawk was the
property of the bishop.[228]
In the reign of Henry VII. a restrictive act was established,
prohibiting any man from bearing a hawk bred in England, called a
nyesse,[229] a gos-hawk, a tassel, a laner, a laneret, or a falcon,
upon pain of forfeiting the same to the king, but that he should use
such hawks as were brought from abroad;[230] what good purpose this
ordinance was to promote, I am at a loss to say. The laws respecting
these birds were frequently varied in the succeeding times, and
the alterations seem, in some instances, to have been exceedingly
capricious.
As the hawk was a bird so highly esteemed by the nobility of England,
there will be no wonder if we find the royal edicts established for the
preservation of their eggs; accordingly, in the eleventh year of Henry
VII. it was decreed, that if any person was convicted of taking from
the nests, or destroying the eggs of a falcon, a gos-hawk, a laner, or
a swan, he should suffer imprisonment for one year and one day, and be
liable to a fine at the king's pleasure; one half of which belonged to
the crown, and the other half to the owner of the ground whereon the
eggs were found; and, if a man destroyed the same sort of eggs upon his
own ground, he was equally subject to the penalty.[231] This act was
somewhat meliorated in the reign of Elizabeth, and the imprisonment
reduced to three months: but then the offender was obligated to find
security for his good behaviour for seven years, or remain in prison
until he did.
XII.--VALUE OF HAWKS.
The severity of the above-mentioned laws may probably excite the
surprise of such of my readers, as are not informed how highly this
kind of birds was formerly appreciated. At the commencement of the
seventeenth century, we find, that a gos-hawk and a tassel-hawk were
sold for one hundred marks, which was a large sum in those days; and
the price is by no means mentioned as singular or extravagant; for, on
the contrary, an author, Edmund Best, who published a treatise upon
hawks and hawking, printed at London, 1619, and who himself trained and
sold them, insinuates, that the parting from the birds was considered
as a favour: and no doubt it was so, if the hawks in training required
such incredible pains and watchfulness, both by night and by day, as
he declares are absolutely necessary. And upon this account such as
were properly trained and exercised were esteemed presents worthy the
acceptance of a king or an emperor. In the eighth year of the reign of
Edward III. the king of Scotland sent him a falcon gentle as a present,
which he not only most graciously received, but rewarded the falconer
who brought it with the donation of forty shillings; a proof how
highly the bird was valued.[232] It is further said, that in the reign
of James I. Sir Thomas Monson gave one thousand pounds for a cast of
hawks. A cast of hawks of toure, says an old book on hawking, signifies
two, and a lese three.
XIII.--DIFFERENT SPECIES OF HAWKS.
The books of hawking assign to the different ranks of persons the
sort of hawks proper to be used by them: and they are placed in the
following order--
The eagle, the vulture, and the merloun, for an emperor.
The ger-faulcon, and the tercel of the ger-faulcon, for a king.
The faulcon gentle, and the turcel gentle, for a prince.
The faulcon of the rock, for a duke.
The faulcon peregrine, for an earl.
The bastard, for a baron.
The sacre, and the sacret, for a knight.
The lanere, and the laneret, for an esquire.
The marlyon, for a lady.
The hobby, for a young man.[233]
The gos-hawk, for a yeoman.
The tercel, for a poor man.
The sparrow-hawk, for a priest.
The musket, for a holy water clerk.
The kesterel, for a knave or servant.
This list includes, I presume, the greater part, if not all, of
the names appertaining to the birds used in hawking. The Mews at
Charing-cross, Westminster, is so called, from the word mew, which in
the falconers' language, is the name of a place wherein the hawks are
put at the moulting time, when they cast their feathers. The king's
hawks were kept at this place as early as the year 1377, an. 1 Richard
II.; but A. D. 1537, the 27th year of Henry VIII., it was converted
into stables for that monarch's horses, and the hawks were removed.[234]
XIV.--TERMS USED IN HAWKING.
As in hunting, so in hawking, the sportsmen had their peculiar
impressions, and therefore the tyro in the art of falconry is
recommended to learn the following arrangement of terms as they were
to be applied to the different kinds of birds assembled in companies.
A sege of herons, and of bitterns; an herd of swans, of cranes, and
of curlews; a dopping of sheldrakes;[235] a spring of teels; a covert
of cootes; a gaggle of geese; a badelynge of ducks; a sord or sute of
mallards; a muster of peacocks; a nye of pheasants; a bevy of quails;
a covey of partridges; a congregation of plovers; a flight of doves; a
dule of turtles; a walk of snipes; a fall of woodcocks; a brood of
hens; a building of rooks; a murmuration of starlings; an exaltation
of larks; a flight of swallows; a host of sparrows; a watch of
nightingales; and a charm of goldfinches.
XV.--FOWLING AND FISHING--THE STALKING HORSE--LOWBELLING.
The arts of Fowling and Fishing are usually added to the more modern
treatises upon hunting and hawking. I shall select a few observations
that occur respecting the former; but with regard to the latter, I have
not met with any particulars sufficiently deviating from the present
methods of taking fish to claim a place in this work.
Fowling, says Burton, may be performed with guns, lime-twigs, nets,
glades, gins, strings, baits, pit-falls, pipe-calls, stalking horses,
setting dogs, and decoy ducks; or with chaff-nets for smaller
birds;[236] there may also be added bows and arrows, which answered the
purpose of guns before they were invented and brought to perfection.
The Stalking Horse, originally, was a horse trained for the purpose and
covered with trappings, so as to conceal the sportsman from the game
he intended to shoot at. It was particularly useful to the archer, by
affording him an opportunity of approaching the birds unseen by them,
so near that his arrows might easily reach them; but as this method
was frequently inconvenient, and often impracticable, the fowler had
recourse to art, and caused a canvass figure to be stuffed, and painted
like a horse grazing, but sufficiently light, that it might be moved
at pleasure with one hand. These deceptions were also made in the form
of oxen, cows, and stags, either for variety, or for conveniency sake.
In the inventories of the wardrobes, belonging to king Henry VIII., we
frequently find the allowance of certain quantities of stuff for the
purpose of making "stalking coats, and stalking hose for the use of his
majesty."[237]
There is also another method of fowling, which, says my author, for
I will give it nearly in his own words, is performed with nets, and
in the night time; and the darker the night the better.--"This sport
we call in England, most commonly bird-batting, and some call it
lowbelling; and the use of it is to go with a great light of cressets,
or rags of linen dipped in tallow, which will make a good light; and
you must have a pan or plate made like a lanthorn, to carry your light
in, which must have a great socket to hold the light, and carry it
before you, on your breast, with a bell in your other hand, and of a
great bigness, made in the manner of a cow-bell, but still larger; and
you must ring it always after one order.--If you carry the bell, you
must have two companions with nets, one on each side of you; and what
with the bell, and what with the light, the birds will be so amazed,
that when you come near them, they will turn up their white bellies:
your companion
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