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diff --git a/14315-0.txt b/14315-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..64b1496 --- /dev/null +++ b/14315-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3584 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14315 *** + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 14315-h.htm or 14315-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/3/1/14315/14315-h/14315-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/3/1/14315/14315-h.zip) + + + + + +OLD ENGLISH SPORTS + +Pastimes and Customs + +by + +P. H. DITCHFIELD, M.A. + +Fellow of the Royal Historical Society; Rector of Barkham, Berks +Hon. Sec. of Berks Archæological Society, etc. + +First published by Methuen & Co., 1891 + + + + + + + +TO + +LADY RUSSEL + +THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED WITH THE AUTHOR'S +KINDEST REGARDS. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +Encouraged by the kind reception which his former book, _Our English +Villages_, met with at the hands of both critics and the public, the +author has ventured to reproduce in book-form another series of +articles which have appeared during the past year in the pages of +_The Parish Magazine_. He desires to express his thanks to Canon +Erskine Clarke for kindly permitting him to reprint the articles, +which have been expanded and in part rewritten. The Sports and +Pastimes of England have had many chroniclers, both ancient and +modern, amongst whom may be mentioned Strutt, Brand, Hone, Stow, and +several others, to whose works the writer is indebted for much +valuable information. + +The object of this book is to describe, in simple language, the +holiday festivals as they occurred in each month of the year; and +the sports, games, pastimes, and customs associated with these rural +feasts. It is hoped that such a description may not be without +interest to our English villagers, and perhaps to others who love +the study of the past. Possibly it may help forward the revival of +the best features of old village life, and the restoration of some +of those pleasing customs which Time has deprived us of. The writer +is much indebted to Mr. E.R.R. Bindon for his very careful revision +of the proof-sheets. + +BARKHAM RECTORY, +1891. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + +CHAPTER I. + +JANUARY. + +Dedication Festivals--New Year's Day--"Wassail"--Twelfth +Night--"King of the Bean"--St. Distaffs Day--Plough +Monday--Winter Games--Skating--Sword-dancing + +CHAPTER II. + +FEBRUARY. + +Hunting--Candlemas Day--St. Blaize's Day--Shrove-tide-- +Football--Battledore and Shuttlecock--Cock-throwing + +CHAPTER III. + +MARCH. + +Archery--Lent--"Mothering" Sunday--Palm Sunday-- +"Shere" Thursday--Watching the Sepulchre + +CHAPTER IV. + +APRIL. + +Easter Customs--Pace Eggs--Handball in Churches--Sports confined +to special localities--Stoolball and Barley-brake--Water +Tournament:--Quintain--Chester Sports--Hock-tide + +CHAPTER V. + +MAY. + +May-day Festivities--May-pole--Morris-dancers--The Book of +Sports--Bowling--Beating the Bounds--George Herbert's description +of a Country Parson + +CHAPTER VI. + +JUNE. + +Whitsuntide Sports--Church-ales--Church-house--Quarter-staff-- +Whistling and Jingling Matches--St. John's Eve--Wrestling + +CHAPTER VII. + +JULY. + +Cricket--Club-ball--Trap-ball--Golf--Pall-mall--Tennis--Rush-bearing + +CHAPTER VIII. + +AUGUST. + +Lammas Day--St. Roch's Day--Harvest Home--"Ten-pounding" +--Sheep-shearing--"Wakes"--Fairs + +CHAPTER IX. + +SEPTEMBER. + +Hawking--Michaelmas--Bull and Bear-baiting + +CHAPTER X. + +OCTOBER. + +Tournaments--"Mysteries"--"Moralities"--Pageants + +CHAPTER XI. + +NOVEMBER. + +All-hallow Eve--"Soul Cakes"--Diving for Apples--The Fifth +of November--Martinmas--"Demands Joyous "--Indoor Games + +CHAPTER XII. + +DECEMBER. + +St. Nicholas' Day--The Boy Bishop--Christmas Eve--Christmas +Customs--Mummers--"Lord of Misrule"--Conclusion + +INDEX + + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +JANUARY. + + "Come then, come then, and let us bring + Unto our pretty Twelfth-Tide King, + Each one his several offering." + + HERRICK'S _Star Song_. + +Dedication Festivals--New Year's Day--"Wassail"--Twelfth + Night--"King of the Bean"--St. Distaff's Day--Plough + Monday--Winter Games--Skating--Sword-dancing. + + +In the old life of rural England few things are more interesting +than the ancient sports and pastimes, the strange superstitions, and +curious customs which existed in the times of our forefathers. We +remember that our land once rejoiced in the name of "Merry England," +and perhaps feel some regret that many of the outward signs of +happiness have passed away from us, and that in striving to become a +great and prosperous nation, we have ceased to be a genial, +contented, and happy one. In these days new manners are ever pushing +out the old. The restlessness of modern life has invaded the +peaceful retirement of our villages, and railway trains and cheap +excursions have killed the old games and simple amusements which +delighted our ancestors in days of yore. The old traditions of the +country-side are forgotten, and poor imitations of town manners have +taken their place. Old social customs which added such diversity to +the lives of the rustics two centuries ago have died out. Very few +of the old village games and sports have survived. The village +green, the source of so much innocent happiness, is no more; and +with it has disappeared much of that innocent and light-hearted +cheerfulness which brightened the hours of labour, and refreshed the +spirit of the toiling rustic, when his daily task was done. Times +have changed, and we have changed with them. We could not now revive +many of the customs and diversions in which our fathers took +delight. Serious and grave men no longer take pleasure in the +playthings which pleased them when they were children; and our +nation has become grave and serious, and likes not the simple joys +which diversified the lives of our forefathers, and made England +"merry." + +Is it possible that we cannot restore some of these time-honoured +customs? The sun shines as brightly now as ever it did on a May-day +festival; the Christmas fire glows as in olden days. Let us try to +revive the spirit which animated their festivals. Let us endeavour +to realize how our village forefathers used to enjoy themselves, how +they used to spend their holidays, and to picture to ourselves the +scenes of social intercourse which once took place in our own +hamlets. Every season of the year had its holiday customs and quaint +manner of observance, some of them confined to particular counties, +but many of them universally observed. + +In the volume, recently published, which treated of the story and +the antiquities of "Our English Villages," I pointed out that the +Church was the centre of the life of the old village--not only of +its religious life, but also of its secular every-day life. This is +true also with regard to the amusements of the people. The festival +of the saint, to whom the parish church was dedicated, was +celebrated with much rejoicing. The annual fair was held on that +day, when, after their business was ended, friends and neighbours +met together and took part in some of the sports and pastimes which +I shall try to describe. The other holidays of the year were +generally regulated by the Church's calendar, the great +festivals--Christmas, Easter, Ascension Day, Whit Sunday---being all +duly observed. I propose to record in these pages the principal +sports, pastimes, and customs which our forefathers delighted in +during each month of the year, the accounts of which are not only +amusing, but add to our historical knowledge, and help us to realize +something of the old village life of rural England. + +We will begin with New Year's Day[1]. It was an ancient Saxon custom +to begin the year by sending presents to each other. On New Year's +Eve the wassail bowl of spiced ale was carried round from house to +house by the village maidens, who sang songs and wished every one "A +Happy New Year." "Wassail" is an old Saxon word, meaning "Be in +health." Rowena, the daughter of the Saxon king Hengist, offered a +flowing bowl to the British king Vortigern, welcoming him with the +words, "Lloured King Wassheil." In Devonshire and Sussex it was the +custom to wassail the orchards; a troop of boys visited the +orchards, and, encircling the apple-trees, they sang the words-- + + "Stand fast, bear well top, + Pray God send us a howling crop; + Every twig, apples big; + Every bough, apples enow; + Hats full, caps full, + Full quarter-sacks full." + +Then the boys shouted in chorus, and rapped the trees with their +sticks. + +The custom of giving presents on New Year's Day is as old as the +time of the Romans, who attached superstitious importance to it, and +thought the gifts brought them a lucky year. Our Christian +forefathers retained the pleasant custom when its superstitious +origin was long forgotten. Fathers and mothers used to delight each +other and their little ones by their mutual gifts; the masters gave +presents to their servants, and with "march-paynes, tarts, and +custards great," they celebrated the advent of the new year. Oranges +stuck with cloves, or a fat capon, were some of the usual forms of +New Year's gifts. + +The "bringing-in" of the new year is a time-honoured custom; which +duty is performed by the first person who enters the house after the +old year has expired. In the North of England this important person +must be a dark man, otherwise superstitious folk believe that +ill-luck would befall the household. In other parts of England a +light-complexioned man is considered a more favourable harbinger of +good fortune. + +The Christmas holidays extended over twelve days, which bring us to +January 6th, the Feast of the Epiphany. It is stated that "in the +days of King Alfred a law was made with regard to holidays, by +virtue of which the twelve days after the Nativity of our Saviour +were made festivals." Twelfth Day Eve was a great occasion among the +rustics of England, and many curious customs are connected with it. +In Herefordshire the farmers and servants used to meet together in +the evening and walk to a field of wheat. There they lighted twelve +small fires and one large one[2], and forming a circle round the +huge bonfire, they raised a shout, which was answered from all the +neighbouring fields and villages. At home the busy housewife was +preparing a hearty supper for the men. After supper they adjourned +to the ox-stalls, and the master stood in front of the finest of the +oxen and pledged him in a curious toast; the company followed his +example with all the other oxen, and then they returned to the house +and found all the doors locked, and admittance sternly refused until +they had sung some joyous songs. + +In the south of Devonshire, on the eve of the Epiphany, the +best-bearing trees in the orchard were encircled by the farmer and +his labourers, who sang the following refrain-- + + "Here's to thee, old apple-tree, + Whence thou may'st bud, and whence thou may'st blow, + And whence thou may'st bear apples enow! + Hats full! caps full! + Bushel-bushel-sacks full, + And my pockets full too! Huzza!" + +The returning company were not allowed to enter the house until some +one guessed what was on the spit, which savoury tit-bit was awarded +to the man who first named it. + +The youths of the village during the holidays had plenty of sport, +outdoor and indoor, which kept out the cold by wholesome exercise +and recreative games. Many a hard battle was fought with snowballs, +or with bat-and-ball on the ice; the barns were the scenes of many a +wrestling match or exciting game at skittles; and in the evenings +they played such romping games as blind-man's-buff, hunt the +slipper, and others of a similar character. While the company sat +round the yule-log blazing on the hearth, eating mince-pies, or plum +porridge, and quaffing a bowl of well-spiced elder wine, the mummers +would enter, decked out in ribands and strange dresses, execute +their strange antics, and perform their curious play. So the wintry +days passed until Twelfth Night, with its pleasing associations and +mirthful customs. + +Twelfth Night was a very popular festival, when honour was done to +the memory of the Three Wise Men from the East, who were called the +Three Kings. The election of kings and queens by beans was a very +ancient custom. The farmer invited his friends and labourers to +supper, and a huge plumcake was brought in, containing a bean and a +pea. The man who received the piece of cake containing the bean was +called the King of the Bean, and received the honour of the company; +and the pea conferred a like privilege on the lady who drew the +favoured lot. The rest of the visitors assumed the rank of ministers +of state or maids of honour. The festival was generally held in a +large barn decorated with evergreens, and a large bough of mistletoe +was not forgotten, which was often the source of much merriment. +When the ceremony began, some one repeated the lines-- + + "Now, now the mirth comes + With the cake full of plums, + When Bean is King of the Sport here. + Beside, you must know, + The Pea also + Must revel as Queen of the Court here." + +Then the cake was cut and distributed amid much laughter and merry +shouts. The holders of the bean and pea were hailed as king and +queen for the night, the band struck up some time-honoured melody, +and a country dance followed which was ever carried on with much +spirit. The king exercised his royal prerogative by choosing +partners for the women, and the queen performed a like office for +the men; and so they merrily played their parts till the hours grew +late. + +But the holidays were nearly over, and the time for resuming work +had arrived. However, neither the women nor the men seemed to be in +any hurry to begin. The day after Twelfth Day was humorously called +St. Distaft's[3] Day, which was devoted to "partly work and partly +play." Herrick, the recorder of many social customs, tells us that +the ploughmen used to set on fire the flax which the maids used for +spinning, and received pails of water on their heads for their +mischief. The following Monday was called Plough Monday, when the +labourers used to draw a plough decked with ribbons round the +parish, and receive presents of money, favouring the spectators with +sword-dancing and mumming. The rude procession of men, clad in clean +smock-frocks, headed by the renowned "Bessy," who sang and rattled +the money-box, accompanied by a strangely-dressed character called +the Fool, attired in skins of various animals and having a long +tail, threw life into the dreary scenery of winter, as the +gaily-decked plough was drawn along the quiet country lanes from one +village to another. The origin of Plough Monday dates back to +pre-Reformation times, when societies of ploughmen called guilds +used to keep lights burning upon the shrine of some saint, to invoke +a blessing on their labour. The Reformation put out the lights, but +it could not extinguish the festival. + +In the long winter evenings the country folk amused themselves +around their winter's fireside by telling old romantic stories of +errant knights and fairies, goblins, witches, and the rest; or by +reciting + + "Some merry fit + Of Mayde Marran, or els of Robin Hood." + +In the Tudor times there were plenty of winter games for those who +could play them, amongst which we may mention chess, cards, dice, +shovel-board, and many others. + +And when the ponds and rivers were frozen, as early as the twelfth +century the merry skaters used to glide over the smooth ice. Their +skates were of a very primitive construction, and consisted of the +leg-bones of animals tied under their feet by means of thongs. +Neither were the skaters quite equal to cutting "threes" and +"eights" upon the ice; they could only push themselves along by +means of a pole with an iron spike at the end. But they used to +charge each other after the manner of knights in a tournament, and +use their poles for spears. An old writer says that "they pushed +themselves along with such speed that they seemed to fly like a bird +in the air, or as darts shot out from the engines of war." Some of +the less adventurous youths were content with sliding, or driving +each other forward on great pieces of ice. "Dancing with swords" was +a favourite form of amusement among the young men of Northern +nations, and in those parts of England where the Norsemen and Danes +settled, this graceful gymnastic custom long lingered. + +[Illustration: DANCING ON THE VILLAGE GREEN.] + +The old country dances which used to delight our fathers seem to be +vanishing. I have not seen for many years the village rustics +"crossing hands" and going "down the middle," and tripping merrily +to the tune of a fiddle; but perhaps they do so still. + +In olden days the city maidens of London were often "dancing and +tripping till moonlight" in the open air; and later on we read that +on holidays, after evening prayer, while the youths exercised their +wasters and bucklers, the maidens, "one of them playing on a +timbrel, in sight of their masters and dames, used to dance for +garlands hanged athwart the streets." Stow, the recorder of this +custom, wisely adds, "which open pastimes in my youth, being now +suppressed, worser practices within doors are to be feared." In some +parts of England they still trip it gaily in the moonlight. A +clergyman in Gloucestershire tried to establish a cricket club in +his parish, but his efforts were all in vain; the young men +preferred to dance together on the village green, and the more manly +diversion had no charms for them. Dancing was never absent from our +ancestors' festivities, and round the merry May-pole + + "Where the jocund swains + Dance with the maidens to the bagpipe strains;" + +or in the festal hall, adorned with evergreens and mistletoe, with +tripping feet they passed the hours "till envious night commands +them to be gone." + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +FEBRUARY. + + "Down with rosemary and bayes, + Down with the mistleto, + Instead of holly, now up-raise + The greener box, for show." + + "The holly hitherto did sway; + Let box now domineere, + Untill the dancing Easter-day, + Or Easter's eve appeare." + +Hunting--Candlemas Day--St. Blaize's Day--Shrove-tide-- + Football--Battledore and Shuttlecock--Cock-throwing. + + +The fox-hounds often meet in our village during this cheerless +month, and I am reminded by the red coats of the huntsmen, and by +the sound of the cheerful horn, of the sportsmen of ancient days, +who chased the wolf, hart, wild boar, and buck among these same +woods and dales of England. All hearts love to hear the merry sound +of the huntsman's horn, except perhaps that of the hunted fox or +stag. The love of hunting seems ingrained in every Englishman, and +whenever the horsemen appear in sight, or the "music" of the hounds +is heard in the distance, the spade is laid aside, the ploughman +leaves his team, the coachman his stables, the gardener his +greenhouses, books are closed, and every one rushes away to see the +sport. The squire, the farmers, and every one who by hook or by +crook can procure a mount, join in the merry chase, for as an old +poet sings-- + + "The hunt is up, the hunt is up, + Sing merrily we, the hunt is up; + The birds they sing, + The deer they fling: + Hey, nony, nony-no: + The hounds they cry, + The hunters they fly, + Hey trolilo, trolilo, + The hunt is up." + +We English folks come of a very sporting family. The ancient Britons +were expert hunters, and lived chiefly on the prey which they +killed. Our Saxon forefathers loved the chase, and in some very old +Saxon pictures illustrating the occupations of each month we see the +lord, attended by his huntsmen, chasing the wild boars in the woods +and forests. The Saxon king, Edgar, imposed a tribute of wolves' +heads, and Athelstan ordered the payment of fines in hawks and +strong-scented dogs. Edward the Confessor, too, who scorned worldly +amusements, used to take "delight in following a pack of swift dogs, +and in cheering them with his voice." The illustration is taken from +an old illumination which adorned an ancient MS., and represents +some Saxons engaged in unearthing a fox. + +[Illustration: HUNTING IN SAXON TIMES (from an ancient MS.).] + +When the Normans came to England great changes were made, and +hunting--the favourite sport of the Conqueror--was promoted with a +total disregard of the welfare of the people. Whole villages and +churches were pulled down in order to enlarge the royal forests, and +any one who was rash enough to kill the king's deer would lose his +life or his eyesight. It was not until the reign of Henry III. that +this law was altered. William the Conqueror, who forbade the killing +of deer and of boars, and who "loved the tall stags as though he +were their father," greatly enlarged the New Forest, in Hampshire. +Henry I. built a huge stone wall, seven miles in circumference, +round his favourite park of Woodstock, near Oxford; and if any one +wanted a favour from King John, a grant of privileges, or a new +charter, he would have to pay for it in horses, hawks, or hounds. +The Norman lords were as tyrannical in preserving their game as +their king, and the people suffered greatly through the selfishness +of their rulers. There is a curious MS. in the British Museum, +called _The Craft of Hunting_, written by two followers of Edward +II., which gives instructions with regard to the game to be hunted, +the rules for blowing the horn, the dogs to be used in the chase, +and so on. It is too long to quote, but I may mention that the +animals to be hunted included the hare, hart, wolf, wild boar, +buck, doe, fox ("which oft hath hard grace"), the martin-cat, +roebuck, badger, polecat, and otter. Many of these animals have long +since disappeared through the clearing of the old forests, or been +exterminated on account of the mischief which they did. Our modern +hunters do not enjoy quite such a variety of sport. + +Otter-hunting, now very rare, was once a favourite sport among +villagers who dwelt near a river. Isaac Walton, in his book called +_The Complete Angler_, thus describes the animated scene: "Look! +down at the bottom of the hill there, in the meadow, checkered with +water-lilies and lady-smocks; there you may see what work they make; +look! look! you may see all busy--men and dogs--dogs and men--all +busy." At last the otter is found. Then barked the dogs, and shouted +the men! Boatmen pursue the poor animal in the water. Horsemen dash +into the river. The otter dives, and strives to escape; but all in +vain her efforts, and she perishes by the teeth of the dogs or the +huntsmen's spears. + +Foreigners are always astonished at our love of sport and hunting, +and our disregard of all danger in the pursuit of our favourite +amusement, and one of our visitors tells the following story: "When +the armies of Henry VIII. and Francis, King of France, were drawn up +against each other, a fox got up, which was immediately pursued by +the English. The 'varmint' ran straight for the French lines, but +the Englishmen would not cease from the chase; the Frenchmen opposed +them, and killed many of these adventurous gentlemen who for the +moment forgot their warfare in the charms of the chase." + +But I must proceed to mention other February customs and sports. +Great importance was attached to the Feast of the Purification, +commonly called Candlemas Day (February 2nd), when consecrated +candles were distributed and carried about in procession. At the +Reformation this custom did not entirely disappear, for we find a +proclamation of Henry VIII., in 1539 A.D., which orders that "on +Candlemas Day it shall be declared that the bearing of candles is +done in memory of Christ the spiritual light, whom Simeon did +prophesy, as it is read in the Church on that day." Christmas +decorations were removed from the houses; the holly, rosemary, bay, +and mistletoe disappeared, to make room for sprigs of box, which +remained until Easter brought in the yew. Our ancestors were very +fond of bonfires, and on the 3rd of this month, St. Blaize's Day,[4] +the red flames might be seen darting up from every hilltop. But why +they should do this on that day is not evident, except that the good +Bishop's name sounded something like _blaze_, and perhaps that was +quite a sufficient reason! And why the day of St. Valentine should +have been selected for the drawing lots for sweethearts, and for the +sending affectionate greetings, is another mystery. St. Valentine +was a priest and martyr in Italy in the third century, and had +nothing to do with the popular commemoration of the day. + +Now we come to the diversions of Shrove-tide,[5] which immediately +precedes the Lenten Fast. The Monday before Ash Wednesday was called +Collop Monday in the north, because slices of bacon (or collops) +were the recognized dish for dinner. But on Tuesday the chief +amusements began; the bells were rung, pancakes tossed with great +solemnity, and devoured with great satisfaction, as an old writer, +who did not approve of so much feasting, tells us-- + + "In every house are shouts and cries, and mirth and revel rout, + And dainty tables spread, and all beset with guests about." + +He further describes this old English carnival, which must have +rivalled any that we read of on the Continent-- + + "Some run about the streets attired like monks, and some like + kings, + Accompanied with pomp, and guard, and other stately things. + Some like wild beasts do run abroad in skins that divers be + Arrayed, and eke with loathsome shapes, that dreadful are to + see, + They counterfeit both bears and wolves, and lions fierce in + sight, + And raging bulls; some play the cranes, with wings and stilts + upright." + +But the great game for Shrove Tuesday was our time-honoured +football, which has survived so many of the ancient pastimes of our +land, and may be considered the oldest of all our English national +sports. The play might not be quite so scientific as that played by +our modern athletes, but, from the descriptions that have come down +to us, it was no less vigorous. "After dinner" (says an old writer) +"all the youths go into the fields to play at the ball. The ancient +and worthy men of the city come forth on horseback to see the sport +of the young men, and to take part of the pleasure in beholding +their agility." There are some exciting descriptions of old football +matches; and we read of some very fierce contests at Derby, which +was renowned for the game. In the seventeenth century it was played +in the streets of London, much to the annoyance of the inhabitants, +who had to protect their windows with hurdles and bushes. At +Bromfield, in Cumberland, the annual contest on Shrove Tuesday was +keenly fought. Sides having been chosen, the football was thrown +down in the churchyard, and the house of the captain of each side +was the goal. Sometimes the distance was two or three miles, and +each step was keenly disputed. He was a proud man at Bromfield who +succeeded in reaching the goal with the ball, which he received as +his guerdon. How the villagers used to talk over the exploits of the +day, and recount their triumphs of former years with quite as much +satisfaction as their ancestors enjoyed in relating their feats in +the border wars! + +The Scots were famous formerly, as they now are, for prowess in the +game, and the account of the Shrove Tuesday match between the +married and single men at Scone, in Perthshire, reads very like a +description of a modern Rugby contest. At Inverness the women also +played, the married against the unmarried, when the former were +always victorious. King James I., who was a great patron of sports, +did not approve of his son Henry being a football player. He wrote +that a young man ought to have a "moderate practice of running, +leaping, wrestling, fencing, dancing, and playing at the caitch, or +tennis, bowls, archery, pall-mall, and riding; and in foul or stormy +weather, cards and backgammon, dice, chess, and billiards," but +football was too rough a game for his Majesty, and "meeter for +laming than making able." Stubbs also speaks of it as a "bloody and +murthering practice, rather than a fellowly sport or pastime." From +the descriptions of the old games, it seems to have been very +painful work for the shins, and there were no rules to prevent +hacking and tripping in those days. + +Football has never been the spoilt child of English pastimes, but +has lived on in spite of royal proclamations and the protests of +peace-loving citizens who objected to the noise, rough play, and +other vagaries of the early votaries of the game. Edward II. and +succeeding monarchs regarded it as a "useless and idle sport," which +interfered with the practice of archery, and therefore ought to be +shunned by all loyal subjects. The violence displayed at the matches +is evident from the records which have come down to us, and from the +opinions of several writers who condemn it severely. Free fights, +broken limbs, and deaths often resulted from old football +encounters; and when the games took place in the streets, lines of +broken windows marked the progress of the players. "A bloody and +murdering practice," "a devilish pastime," involving "beastly fury +and extreme violence," the breaking of necks, arms, legs and +backs--these were some of the descriptions of the football of olden +times. The Puritans set their faces against it, and the sport +languished for a long period as a general pastime. In some places it +was still practised with unwonted vigour, but it was not until the +second half of the present century that any revival took place. But +football players have quickly made up for lost time; few villages do +not possess their club, and our young men are ready to "Try it out +at football by the shins," with quite as much readiness as the +players in the good old days, although the play is generally less +violent, and more scientific. + +Hurling, too, was a fast and furious game, very similar to our game +of hockey, and played with sticks and a ball. Two neighbouring +parishes used to compete, and the object was to drive the ball from +some central spot to one, or other, village. The contest was keen +and exciting; a ball was driven backwards and forwards, over hills, +dales, hedges, and ditches, through bushes, briars, mires, plashes, +and rivers, until at length the wished-for goal was gained. +Battledore and shuttlecock were favourite games for the girls, which +they played singing quaint rhymes-- + + "Great A, little A; + This is pancake day!" + +and the men also indulged in tip-cat, or billet. + +There is one other custom, of a most barbarous and cruel +description, which was practised on Shrove Tuesday by our +forefathers, and which happily has perished,[6] and that was +throwing at cocks or hens with sticks. The poor bird was tied by the +leg, and its tormentors stood twenty-two yards distant and had three +throws each for twopence, winning the bird if they could knock it +down. The cock was trained beforehand to avoid the sticks, so as to +win more money for its brutal master. Well might a learned +foreigner remark, "The English eat a certain cake on Shrove Tuesday, +upon which they immediately run mad, and kill their poor cocks." +Cock-fighting was a favourite amusement on Shrove Tuesday, as well +as at other times. This shameful and barbarous practice was +continued until the eighteenth century; some of our kings took +delight in it, and in the old grammar schools in the North of +England it was sanctioned by the masters, who received from their +scholars a small tax called "cock-fight dues." Happily, with +bull-baiting, bear-baiting, dog-fighting, and the like, this cruel +and brutal pastime has ceased to exist. If we have lost some of the +simple joys and cheerful light-heartedness of our forefathers, we +have also happily lost some of their cruel disregard for the +sufferings of animals, and abandoned such barbarous amusements as I +have tried to describe. But the old sports of England were not all +like these; the archery, running, leaping, wrestling, football, and +other games in which our ancestors delighted, made the young men of +England a manly and a sturdy race, and our nation mainly owes its +greatness to the courage, manliness, and daring of her sons. + +But Ash Wednesday has dawned, and all is still in town and village. +The Shrove-tide feast is ended, and the days of fasting and of +prayer have hushed the sounds of merriment and song. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +MARCH. + + "And now a solemn fast we keep, + When earth wakes from her winter sleep." + + "And he was clad in cote and hode of grene; + A shefe of pecocke arrowes bryght and shene + Under his belt he bare ful thriftely, + Well could he dresse his tackle yomanly; + His arrowes drouped not with fethers lowe, + And in hande he bare a myghty bowe." + +Archery--Lent--"Mothering" Sunday--Palm Sunday-- + "Shere" Thursday--Watching the Sepulchre. + + +Of all the sports and pastimes of old England, archery was the most +renowned, and many a hard-fought victory has been gained through +the skill which our English archers acquired in the use of their +famous bows. "Alas, alas for Scotland when English arrows fly!" was +the sad lament of many a Highland clan, and Frenchmen often learnt +to their cost the force of our bowmen's arms. The accounts of the +fights of Creçy and Poitiers tell of the prowess of our archers; and +the skill which they acquired by practising at the butts at home has +gained many a victory. Archery was so useful in war that several +royal proclamations were issued to encourage the sport, and in many +parishes there were fields set apart for the men to practise. +Although the sport has died out as a popular pastime, the old name, +the butts, remains in many a town and village, recording the spot +where our forefathers acquired their famous skill. The name is still +retained in the neighbouring town of Reading, and in some old +records I find that in 1549 a certain "Will'm Watlynton received +xxxvi_s_. for making of the butts;" and there are several items of +charges in other years for repairing and renewing the same. + +[Illustration: TWO ARCHERS WEARING ARMOR.] + +Edward III. ordered "that every one strong in body, at leisure on +holidays, should use in their recreation bows and arrows, and learn +and exercise the art of shooting, forsaking such vain plays as +throwing stones, handball, football, bandyball, or cock-fighting, +which have no profit in them." Edward IV. ordered every Englishman, +of whatever rank, to have a bow his own height always ready for use, +and to instruct his children in the art. In every township the butts +were ordered to be set up, and the people were required to shoot +"up and down" every Sunday and feast-day, under penalty of one +halfpenny. + +The sport began to decline in the sixteenth century, in spite of +royal proclamations and occasional revivals. Henry VIII. forbade the +use of the cross-bow, lest it should interfere with the practice of +the more ancient weapon, and many old writers lament over the decay +of this famous pastime of old England, which, as Bishop Latimer +stated in one of his sermons, "is a goodly art, a wholesome kind of +exercise, and much commended as physic." + +The Finsbury archers had, in 1594, no less than one hundred and +sixty-four targets in Finsbury Fields, set up on pillars with +curious devices over them; but four years later Stow laments that +"by reason of closing in of common grounds, our archers, for want of +room to shoot abroad, creep into ordinary dicing-houses and +bowling-alleys near home." + +The famous Robin Hood, who lived in the reign of Richard I., was the +king of archers. The exploits of this renowned outlaw and his merry +men form the subject of many old ballads and romances, and the old +oaks in Sherwood Forest could tell the tale of many an exciting +chase after the king's deer, and of many a luckless traveller who +had to pay dearly for the hospitality of Robin Hood and Little John. +The ballads narrate that they could shoot an arrow a measured mile, +but this is a flight of imagination which we can hardly follow! + + "But he was an archer true and good, + And people called him Robin Hood; + Such archers as he and his men + Will England never see again." + +Another ballad relates the prowess of William of Cloudslee, who +scorned to shoot at an ordinary target, and cutting a hazel rod +from a tree, he shot at it from twenty score paces, cleaving the rod +in two. + +[Illustration: CROSS-BOW SHOOTING AT THE BUTTS (from MS. dated 1496).] + +[Illustration: AN ARCHER.] + +Like William Tell of great renown, our English archer could split an +apple placed on his son's head at the distance of six score paces. + +In time of war the archers were armed with a body-armour, the arms +being left free. They had a long bow made of yew, a sheaf of arrows +winged with gray goose-feathers, a sword, and small shield. Such was +the appearance of the men who struck such terror among the knights +and chivalry of France, and won many victories for England before +the days of muskets and rifles. + +We are now in the season of Lent, and our towns and villages were +very still and quiet during these weeks. But there was an old custom +on Refreshment[7] or Mid-Lent Sunday for people to visit their +mother-church and make offerings on the altar. Hence probably arose +the practice of "mothering," or going to visit parents on that day, +and taking presents to them. Herrick alludes to this pleasant custom +in the following lines-- + + "I'll to thee a simnell bring, + 'Gainst thou go'st a mothering; + So that when she blesseth thee, + Half that blessing thou'lt give me." + +Many a mother's heart would rejoice to welcome to the old village +home once again some fond youth or maiden who had gone to seek their +fortunes in the town, and many happy recollections would long linger +of "Mothering" Sunday. The cakes alluded to in the above verse, +which children presented to their parents on these occasions, were +called Simnells. In some parts of England--in Lancashire, +Shropshire, and Herefordshire--these cakes are still eaten on +Mid-Lent Sunday. Possibly they had some religious signification, for +the Saxons were in habit of eating consecrated cakes at their +festivals. The name Simnell is derived from a Latin word signifying +fine flour, and not from the mythical persons, Simon and Nell, who +are popularly supposed to have invented the cake. Hot cross buns are +a relic of an ancient rite of the Saxons, who ate cakes in honour of +the goddess of spring, and the early Christian missionaries strove +to banish the heathen ideas associated with the cakes (which latter +the people would not abandon) by putting a cross upon them. + +In memory of our Lord's triumphal entry into Jerusalem, when the +people took branches of palm-trees and scattered them in the way, on +Palm Sunday our ancestors went in procession through the town or +village, bearing branches of willow, yew, or box (as there were no +palms growing in this country), which were subsequently carried to +the church and offered at the altar. This custom lingered on after +the Reformation, and until recent times the practice of going +a-palming, or gathering branches of willow, on the Saturday before +Palm Sunday, has continued. Sometimes in mediæval times a wooden +figure representing our Saviour riding upon an ass was drawn along +by the crowds in the procession, and the people scattered their +willow branches before the figure as it passed. + +Thursday before Easter Day was called Shere, or Maundy, Thursday. +The first name is derived from the ancient custom of _shering_ the +head and clipping the beard on that day; and Maundy is a corruption +of the Latin word _mandatum_, which means "a command," and refers to +the command of our Lord to imitate His example in the humility which +He showed in washing the feet of His disciples. In memory of His +lowly act the kings and queens of England used to wash the feet of a +large number of poor men and women, and bestowed upon them gifts and +money. This practice was continued until the reign of James II., and +in our own day the Queen presents to a certain number of poor people +bags of silver pennies, called Maundy money, which is coined for +that special purpose. + +Many of my readers are familiar with the rhyme concerning "Hot cross +buns," but perhaps they are not acquainted with the superstition +which our forefathers attached to them. A writer on Cornish customs +says: "In some of our farmhouses the Good Friday cake may be seen +hanging to the bacon-rack, slowly but surely diminishing, until the +return of the season replaces it by a fresh one. It is of sovereign +good in all manner of diseases that may afflict the family, or +flocks and herds. I have seen a little of this cake grated into a +warm mash for a sick cow." Hot cross buns were supposed to have +great power in preserving friendship. If two friends broke a bun in +half exactly at the cross, while standing within the church-doors on +Good Friday morning before service, and saying the words-- + + "Half for you, and half for me, + Between us two good-will shall be. Amen," + +then, so long as they kept their halves, no quarrel would arise +between them. In the West of England it was considered very sinful +to work on Good Friday, and woe betide the luckless housewife who +did her washing on that day, for one of the family, it was believed, +would surely die before the end of the year. There are many other +superstitions attached to the day, such as the preserving of eggs +laid on Good Friday, which were supposed to have power to extinguish +fire; the making of cramp-rings out of the handles of coffins, which +rings were blessed by the King of England as he crept on his knees +to the cross, and were supposed to be preservatives against cramp. + +In old churchwardens' account-books we find such entries as the +following-- + + "To the sextin for watching the sepulture two nyghts viii_d_." + + "Paide to Roger Brock for watching of the sepulchre 8_d_." + +And as the nights were cold we find an additional item-- + + "Paid more to said Roger Brock for syses and colles, 3_d._" + +These entries allude to the ancient custom of erecting on Good +Friday a small building to represent the Holy Sepulchre, and setting +a person to watch for two nights in remembrance of the soldiers +watching the grave in which our Lord's Body was laid. At the dawning +of the Easter morn the bells rang joyously, and all was life and +animation. The sun itself was popularly supposed to dance with joy +on the Feast of the Resurrection. But the manners and customs, +sports and pastimes, which were associated with Easter, I will +reserve for my next chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +APRIL. + + "The spring clad all in gladness + Doth laugh at winter's sadness; + And to the bagpipe's sound + The nymphs tread out their ground. + + "Fie then, why sit we musing, + Youth's sweet delight refusing; + Say dainty nymphs, and speak: + Shall we play barley-breake?" + + _Old Ballad_ (A.D. 1603). + +Easter Customs--Pace Eggs--Handball in Churches--Sports + confined to Special Localities--Stoolball and Barley-brake + --Water Tournament--Quintain--Chester Sports--Hock-tide. + + +From the earliest days of Christianity Easter has always been +celebrated with the greatest joy, and accounted the Queen of +Festivals. Many curious customs are associated with this feast, some +of which represented in a rude, primitive way the Resurrection of our +Lord. There was an old Miracle Play which was performed at Easter; +for we find in the churchwardens' books at Kingston-upon-Thames, in +the reign of Henry VIII., certain expenses for "a skin of parchment +and gunpowder for the play on Easter Day," for a player's coat, +stage, and "other things belonging to the play." + +Then there was the custom in the North of England of "lifting" or +"heaving," which was originally designed to represent our Saviour's +Resurrection. On Easter Monday the men used to lift the women, whom +they met, thrice above their heads into the air, and the women +responded on Easter Tuesday, and lifted the men. This custom +prevailed also in North Wales, Warwickshire, and Shropshire. + +The Pace Eggs, or _Pasche_, or _Paschal_ Eggs, were originally +intended to show forth the same truth, as the egg retaining the +elements of future life was used as an emblem of the Resurrection. +These Pace eggs were dyed, decorated with pretty devices, and +presented by friends to each other. In the North of England, the home +of so many of our old customs, the practice of giving Pace eggs still +lingers on; and we find amongst the household expenses of King Edward +I. an item of "four hundred and a half of eggs--eighteenpence," which +were purchased on Easter Day. The prices current in the thirteenth +century for eggs would scarcely be deemed sufficient by our modern +poultry-keepers! + +The decoration of churches and houses with flowers just risen from +their winter sleep, the practice of always wearing some part of the +dress new on Easter Day, all seem to have had their origin in the +holy lessons which cluster round the festival of the resurrection. +An old writer tells us that it was the custom in some churches for +the clergy to play at handball at this season; even bishops and +archbishops took part in the pastime; but why they should profane +God's house in this way we are at a loss to discover. The reward of +the victors was a tansy-cake, so called from the bitter herb tansy, +which was supposed to be beneficial after eating so much fish during +Lent. Of the various kinds of games with balls I propose to treat in +another chapter. + +At Easter there were numerous sports in vogue in different parts of +the country. In olden times almost every county had its peculiar +sport, which was regarded as a monopoly of that district. People did +not work so hard in those days, and seem to have had more time and +energy for ancient pastimes. Many of these old games have entirely +vanished; others have left their old neighbourhoods, and received a +hearty welcome all over the country. Berkshire and Somersetshire +were the ancestral homes of cudgel-play, quarter-staff, and +single-stick. Skating and pole-leaping were the characteristic +sports of the fen country. Kent and Sussex were famous for their +cricket; the northern counties for their football. Scotland rejoiced +in golf, curling, and tossing the caber; while Cumberland and +Westmoreland, Cornwall and Devon, were noted for their vigorous and +active wrestlers. Curling, tossing the caber[8], and wrestling have +clung to their old homes; but the other sports have wandered far and +wide, and are no longer confined to their native counties. + +At Easter the local favourite sport was renewed with zest and +eagerness, and almost everywhere foot-races were run, the prize of +the conqueror being a tansy-cake. Stoolball and barley-brake were +also favourite games in this month, as Poor Robin says in his +_Almanack_ for 1677. Barley-brake seems to have been a very merry +game, in which the ladies took part, and of which we find some very +bright descriptions in the writings of some old English poets. The +only science of the pastime consisted in one couple trying with +"waiting foot and watchful eye" to catch the others and bear them +off as captives. + +An old writer thus describes a water tournament, which seems to have +been a popular pastime among the youths of London at Easter--"They +fight battels on the water. A shield is hanged upon a pole (this is +a kind of quintain) fixed in the midst of the stream. A boat is +prepared without oars, to be carried by the violence of the water, +and in the fore-part thereof standeth a young man ready to give +charge upon the shield with his lance. If so be he break his lance +against the shield, and do not fall, he is thought to have performed +a worthy deed. If so be that, without breaking his lance, he runneth +strongly against the shield, down he falleth into the water, for the +boat is violently tossed with the tide; but on each side of the +shield ride two boats furnished with young men, which recover him +that falleth as soon as they may. Upon the bridge, wharves, and +houses by the river-side, stand great numbers to see and laugh +thereat." Stow thus describes the water tournament--"I have seen +also in the summer season, upon the river Thames, some rowed in +wherries, with staves in their hands, flat at the fore-end, running +one against the other; and for the most part, one or both of them +were overthrown and well ducked." This sport on the water was a +variety of the famous quintain, which was itself derived from the +jousts or tournaments, only, instead of a human adversary, the +knight or squire, riding on a horse, charged a shield or wooden +figure attached to a piece of wood, which easily turned round upon +the top of a post. At the other end of the wood was a heavy bag of +sand, which, when the rider struck the shield with his lance, swung +round and struck him with great force on the back if he did not ride +fast and so escape his ponderous foe. There were other forms of this +sport, which is so ancient that its origin has been lost in +antiquity. Queen Elizabeth was very much amused at Kenilworth Castle +by the hard knocks which the inexpert riders received from the +rotating sand-bag when they charged "a comely quintane" in her royal +presence in the year 1575. + +A handsome quintain still stands on Offham village green, in Kent, +although it is no longer used for the skilful practice of former +days. It is the custom to hoist married men, who are not blest with +children, on the quintain, which is made to revolve rapidly. +Sometimes discontented and disobedient wives share the same fate. + +Chester was famous for its Easter sports, when the mayor with his +mace, the corporation with twenty guilds, marched to the Rood-eye, +to play at football. But "inasmuch as great strife did arise among +the young persons of the same city" on account of the game, a +change was made in the reign of Henry VIII., and foot-races and +horse-races were substituted for the time-honoured football, and an +arrow of silver was given to the best archer. + +But Easter sports are almost finished: however, we have not long to +wait for another popular anniversary; for the famous Hock-tide +sports always took place a fortnight after Easter, and much +amusement, and profit also, were derived from the quaint observances +of Hock Monday and Tuesday. The meaning of the word and the origin +of the custom have been the subjects of much conjecture; but the +festival is supposed to be held in remembrance of the victory of our +Saxon forefathers over the Danes in the time of Ethelred. The custom +was that on Hock Monday the men should go out into the streets and +roads with cords, and stop and bind all the women they met, +releasing them on payment of a small ransom. On the following day +the women bound the men, and the proceeds were devoted to charitable +purposes. It is to be noted that the women always extracted the most +money, and in the old churchwardens' accounts we find frequent +records of this strange method of collecting subscriptions--_e.g._, +St. Lawrence's, Reading, A.D. 1499:--"Item, received of Hoc money +gaderyd" (gathered) "of women xx_s_. Item, received of Hoc money +gaderyd of men iiij_s_." We also find that the women had a supper +given to them as a reward for their exertions, for there is the +"item for wives' supper at Hock-tide xxiij_d_." + +The observance of Hock-tide seems to have been particularly popular +in the ancient town of Reading. At Coventry there was an "old +Coventry Play of Hock Tuesday," which was performed with great +delight before Queen Elizabeth at Kenilworth: the players divided +themselves into two companies to represent the Saxons and the Danes: +a great battle ensued, and by the help of the Saxon women the former +were victorious, and led the Danes captive. The queen laughed much +at the pageant, and gave the performers two bucks and five marks in +money. + +So ends the month of sunshine and of shower; but the rustic youths +are making ready for the morris-dance, and the merry milk-maids are +preparing their ribbons to adorn themselves for the revels of May +Day. The May-pole is being erected on the village green, and all is +in readiness for the rejoicings of to-morrow. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +MAY. + + "Colin met Sylvia on the green + Once on the charming first of May, + And shepherds ne'er tell false, I ween, + Yet 'twas by chance, the shepherds say. + + "Colin he bow'd and blush'd, then said, + 'Will you, sweet maid, this first of May, + Begin the dance by Colin led, + To make this quite his holiday?' + + "Sylvia replied, 'I ne'er from home + Yet ventur'd, till this first of May; + It is not fit for maids to roam, + And make a shepherd's holiday.' + + "'It is most fit,' replied the youth, + 'That Sylvia should this first of May + By me be taught that love and truth + Can make of life a holiday.'"--LADY CRAVEN. + +May Day Festivities--May-pole--Morris-dancers--The Book of + Sports--Bowling--Beating the Bounds--George Herbert's + description of a Country Parson. + + +The spring has dawned with all its brightness and beauty; the +nightingale's song is heard, and all nature seems to rejoice in the +sweet spring-time. Our forefathers delighted, too, in the advent of +the bright month of May, which the old poets used to compare to a +maiden clothed in sunshine dancing to the music of birds and brooks; +and May Day was the great rural festival of the year. + +Long before the break of day, men and women, old and young, of all +classes, used to assemble and hurry away to the woods and groves to +gather the blooming hawthorn and spring flowers, and laden with +their spoils returned when the sun rose, with merry shouts and +horn-blowings, and adorned every door and window in the village. The +poet Herrick sings of this pleasant beginning to the day's +festivities. Addressing a maiden named Corinna, he says-- + + "Come, my Corinna, come, and coming mark + How each field turns a street, and each street a park, + Made green and trimmed with trees; see how + Devotion gives each house a bough + Or branch; each porch, each door, ere this + An ark, a tabernacle is + Made up of white-thorn neatly interwove." + +The men blew cow-horns to usher in the spring, and the maids carried +garlands to hang them in the churches; while at Oxford the +choristers of Magdalen College assemble at the top of the tower at +early dawn, and sing hymns of thankfulness because spring has come +again. This pleasing custom is still observed every year on the +first of May. + +But let us away to the village green, where the May-pole is being +adorned with a few finishing touches, and is covered with flowers +and ribbons. It has been carried here by twenty or thirty yoke of +oxen, their horns decorated with sweet flowers, and then, with +shouts and laughter, and with song, the young men raise the massive +pole with handkerchiefs and flags streaming on the top, and the +rustic feast and dance begin. + + "The May-pole is up, + Now give me the cup, + I'll drink to the garlands around it; + But first unto those + Whose hands did compose + The glory of flowers that crown'd it."[9] + +A company of morris-dancers approach, and a circle is made round the +May-pole in which they can perform. First comes a man dressed in a +green tunic, with a bow, arrows, and bugle-horn, who represents +Robin Hood, and by his side, attended by some maidens, walks Maid +Marian, the May Queen.[10] Will Stukeley, Little John, and other +companions of the famous outlaw, are represented; and last, but not +least, comes the hobby-horse--a man with a light wooden framework +representing a horse about him, covered with trappings reaching to +the ground, so as to prevent the man's feet from being seen. The +hobby-horse careered about, pranced and curveted, to the great +amusement of the company. The morris-dancers are adorned with bells, +which jingle merrily as they dance. But a formidable-looking dragon +approaches, which hisses and flaps his wings, and looks very fierce, +making the hobby-horse kick and rear frantically. When the animals +have wearied themselves, the maidens dance again, and the archers +set up their targets on the lower end of the green, where a close +contest ensues, and after many shots the victor is crowned with a +laurel wreath. + +Such were some of the sights and sounds of May Day in olden times. +But the Puritans, who slew their king, Charles I., were very much +opposed to all joyousness and mirth, and one of their first acts +when they came into power was to put down the May-pole. They ordered +that all May-poles (which they called "a heathenish vanity, +generally abused to superstition and wickedness") shall be taken +down by the constables and churchwardens, and that the said officers +be fined five shillings till the said May-poles be taken down. So +the merry May songs were hushed for many a long year, until Charles +II. was restored to his throne, and then the stately pole was reared +once more, and Robin Hood and his merry crew began their sports +again. But times change, and we change with them: customs pass away, +and with them have long vanished the May-pole and its bright group +of light-hearted rustics. An American writer who visited this +country thus describes his feeling when he saw an old May-pole still +standing at Chester--"I shall never forget my delight. My fancy +adorned it with wreaths of flowers, and peopled the green bank with +all the dancing revelry of May Day. I value every custom that tends +to infuse poetical feeling into the common people, and to sweeten +and soften the rudeness of rustic manners without destroying their +simplicity. Indeed, it is to the decline of this happy simplicity +that the decline of this custom may be traced, and the rural dance +on the green, and the homely May-day pageant, have gradually +disappeared in proportion as the peasantry have become expensive and +artificial in their pleasures, and too knowing for simple enjoyment. +Some attempts, indeed, have been made by men of both taste and +learning to rally back the popular feeling to their standards of +primitive simplicity; but the time has gone by, the feeling has +become chilled by habits of gain and traffic, the country apes the +manners and amusements of the town, and little is heard of May Day +at present, except from the lamentations of authors, who sigh after +it from among the brick walls of the city." + +The name of the parish of St. Andrew _Undershaft_ records the place +where the city May-pole, or _shaft,_ was erected, and _Shaft Alley_ +the place where it lay when it was not required for use. + +The proclamation of James I., called the "Book of Sports," which was +renewed by King Charles I., throws some light upon the sports in +vogue during his reign. It was enacted "for his good people's lawful +recreation, after the end of Divine service, that his good people be +not disturbed, or discouraged, from any lawful recreation, such as +dancing for men and women, archery for men, leaping, vaulting, or +any such harmless recreations; nor from having May games, Whitsun +ales, and morris dances, 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. And that +women shall have leave to carry rushes to the church for the +decorating of it, according to their old custom. But withal his +Majesty doth hereby account still as prohibited all unlawful games +to be used on Sundays only, as bear and bull-baiting, interludes, +and at all times in the meaner sort of people by law prohibited, +bowling." + +Why his Majesty should have been so very severe on the game of bowls, +which is a very ancient pastime, and innocent enough, is not at first +quite clear; but it appears that the numerous bowling-alleys in +London were, in the sixteenth century, the resorts of very bad +company, and the nests of gambling and vice. Hence the severity of +King James' strictures on bowling. + +The people of Lancashire in the time of James I. were as devoted to +sports and amusement as they are now; and when the king was making a +progress through Lancashire, "he received a petition from some +servants, labourers, mechanics, and other vulgar persons, +complaining that they were debarred from dancing, playing, +church-ales--in a word, from all recreations on Sundays after Divine +service." King James hated Puritanism and loved recreation; so he +readily granted the petition of the Lancashire folk, and issued a +proclamation encouraging Sunday pastimes, which is known as the +famous "Book of Sports." + +In Ireland on May Day Bale-fires are lighted, and to this day young +men jump through the flames, and children are passed across the +embers, in order to secure them good luck during the coming year. On +this day, too, the Irish kings are supposed to rise from their +graves and gather together a ghostly army of rude warriors to fight +for their country. The wild cries of the shadowy host, the clashing +of shields, and the sound of drums are said to have been heard +during the period of the last rebellion in Ireland. + +On one of the Rogation Days, or on Ascension Day, it was the custom +to go in procession round the boundaries of the parish to ask God's +blessing on the fruits of the earth, and as there were few maps and +divisions of land, to call to mind and pass on to the next +generation the boundaries of the township or village. The choir sang +hymns, and under certain trees, which were called Gospel Trees, the +clergyman read the Gospel for the day, with a litany and prayers. +Sometimes boys were whipped, or bumped against trees, or thrown into +a river, in order to impress upon them where the boundaries were. +But they received a substantial recompense afterwards, and the whole +company, when the procession was over, sat down to the perambulation +dinner, and talked about their recollections of former days. + +The advantages of this practice are set forth in George Herbert's +description of a country parson. He says, "The country parson is a +lover of old customs, if they be good and harmless. Particularly he +loves procession, and maintains it, because there are contained in +it four manifest advantages, 1. A blessing of God for the fruits of +the earth. 2. Justice in the preservation of bounds. 3. Charity, in +loving, walking, and neighbourly accompanying one another, with +reconciling of differences at that time, if there be any. 4. Mercy, +in relieving the poor by a liberal distribution and largess, which +at that time is, or ought to be, used. Wherefore he exacts of all to +be present at the perambulation, and those that withdraw and sever +themselves from it he mislikes, and rebukes as uncharitable and +unneighbourly; and if they will not reform, presents them" (_i.e._ +to the bishop for censure). + +This custom is still preserved, or has been revived, in many +parishes, and at Oxford the boys may be seen on Ascension Day +bearing white willow-wands, and beating the bounds of some of the +old city parishes. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +JUNE. + + "The woods, or some near town + That is a neighbour to the bordering down, + Hath drawn them thither, 'bout some lusty sport, + Or spiced wassel-bowl, to which resort + All the young men and maids of many a cote, + Whilst the trim minstrell strikes his merry note." + + FLETCHER, _The Faithful Shepherdess_. + +Whitsuntide Sports--Church-ales--Church-house--Quarter-staff +--Whistling and Jingling Matches--St. John's Eve--Wrestling. + + +After May Day our villagers had not long to wait until the +Whitsuntide holiday came round. This holiday was notorious for the +"Church-ales," which were held at this season. These feasts were a +means of raising money for charitable purposes. If the church needed +a new roof, or some poor people were in sad straits, the villagers +would decide to have a "Church-ale"; generally four times a year the +feast was given, and always at Whitsuntide. The churchwardens +bought, and received presents of, a large quantity of malt, which +they brewed into beer, and sold to the company, and any inhabitant +of the parish who did not attend had to pay a fine. Every one who +was able contributed something to the entertainment. The feast was +held in the church-house, a building which stood near the church. +This was the scene of many social gatherings, and is thus described +by an old writer-- + + "In every parish was a church-house, to which belonged + spits, crocks, and other utensils for dressing provisions. + Here the housekeepers met. The young people were there, + too, and had dancing, bowling, shooting at butts, &c., the + ancients (_i.e._ the old folk) sitting gravely by and + looking on. All things were civil, and without scandal. + The church-ale is, doubtless, derived from the Agapai or + Love Feasts, mentioned in the New Testament." + +Whether the learned writer was right in his conjecture we cannot be +quite certain, but church-ales subsequently degenerated into +something quite different from New Testament injunctions, and were +altogether prohibited on account of the excess to which they gave +rise. Let us hope that all these feasts were not so bad as they were +represented, and indeed in early times great reverence was attached +to them, which prevented excess. The neighbours, too, would come in +from the adjoining parishes and share the feast. An arbour of boughs +was erected in the churchyard, called Robin Hood's Bower, where the +maidens collected money for the "ales" in the same way which they +employed at Hock-tide, and which was called "Hocking." The old books +of St. Lawrence's Church, Reading (to which I have before referred), +contain a record of this custom--"1505 A.D. Item. Received of the +maidens' gathering at Whitsuntide by the tree at the church door, +ij^s. vi^d." The morris-dancers and minstrels, the ballad-singers +and players, were in great force on these occasions, and were +entertained at the cost of the parish. In the churchwardens' account +of St. Mary's, Reading, we find in the year 1557-- + + "Item--paid to Morris-dancers and the Minstrels, meat and + drink at Whitsuntide--iii^s. iiii^d." + +When the feasting had ended, archery, running races in sacks, +grinning through a horse-collar (each competitor trying to make the +most ludicrous grimaces), afforded amusement to the light-hearted +spectators. + +The game of quarter-staff is an old pastime which was a great +favourite among the rustics of Berkshire. The quarter-staff is a +tough piece of wood about eight feet long, which the player grasped +in the middle with one hand, while with the other he kept a loose +hold midway between the middle and one end. The object of the game +was, to use the forcible language of the time, to "break the head" +of the opponent. On the White Horse Hill, where Alfred fought +against the Danes, and carved out on the hill-side the White Horse +as a memorial of his victory, many a rural sport has been played, +and at the periodical "scourings of the Horse" many a Berkshire head +broken to see who was the noted champion of the game. An old +parishioner of mine, James of Sandhurst, was once the hero of +quarter-staff in the early part of the century. The whistling match +was not so dangerous a contest; the prize was conferred upon the +whistler who could whistle clearest, and go through his tune while a +clown, or merry-andrew, made laughable grimaces before him. + +[Illustration: QUARTER-STAFF.] + +Another diversion common at these country gatherings was the +jingling match. A large circle was inclosed with ropes, in which the +players took their place. All were blindfolded with the exception of +one, who was the jingler, and who carried a bell in each hand, which +he was obliged to keep ringing. His object was to elude the pursuit +of his blinded companions, and he won the prize if he was still free +when the play ceased. It was an amusing sight to see the men trying +to catch the active jingler, running into each other's arms, and +catching every one but the right one. When the jingling match was +over, a pig with a short, well-soaped tail was turned out for the +people to run after, and he who could hold it by the tail without +touching any other part obtained it for his pains. There was also a +game called Pigeon-holes, which appears to have been somewhat +similar to our present game of bagatelle. + +And so with laughter and with song the feast ended, the evening +shadows fell around, and the happy rustics retired to their humble +thatched-roofed homes. The proceeds of these church-ales were often +considerable. "There were no rates for the poor in my grandfather's +time," says one writer, "the church-ale of Whitsuntide did the +business"; and whether the parishioners had to pay a tax for the +support of the King's army, or to repair the church, or to maintain +some orphan children, it was generally found "that something still +remained to cover the bottom of the purse." + +Of the "mysteries," or miracle plays, as they were called, which +were performed in towns on Corpus Christi Day and at other times, I +propose to write in another chapter; and we will now proceed to the +hillsides near our villages on the eve of St. John's Day, when we +should witness the lighting of large bonfires, and some curious +customs connected with that ceremony. Both the old and the young +people used to sally forth from the village to some neighbouring +height, and there, amidst much laughter and with many a shout, they +lighted the large bonfire. Then they danced round the blazing logs, +and afterwards leaped through the flames, and at the close of the +ceremony each person brought away with him a burning branch. This +rite appears to have been a relic of Paganism. Probably the fire was +originally lighted in honour of the sun, which our forefathers +worshipped before they became Christians. The leaping through the +flames had also a superstitious meaning, and the simple people +thought that in this way they could ward off evil spirits and +prevent sickness. The Roman shepherds used to leap through the +Midsummer blaze in honour of Pales. The Scandinavians lit their +bonfires in honour of their gods Odin and Thor, and the leaping +through the flames reminds us of the worshippers of Baal and Moloch, +who, as we read in the Bible, used to "pass their children through +the fire" in awe of their cruel god. St. John's Day, or Midsummer +Day (June 24th), was chosen because on that day the sun reaches its +highest point in the zodiac. There is, however, another +interpretation of the meaning of the fires on St. John's Day, as +illustrating the verse which speaks of him "as a burning and a +shining light" (St. John v. 35); but this interpretation was +probably invented by some pious divine who endeavoured to attach a +Christian meaning to an ancient heathen custom. The connection of +the ceremony with the old worship of the sun is indisputable. Its +practice was very general in nearly all European nations, and in not +very remote times from Norway to the shores of the Mediterranean the +glow of St. John's fires might have been seen. The Emperor +Charlemagne in the ninth century forbade the custom as a heathen +rite, but the Church endeavoured to win over the custom from its +Pagan associations and to attach to it a Christian signification. In +the island of Jersey the older inhabitants used to light fires under +large iron pots full of water, in which they placed silver +articles--as spoons, mugs, &c., and then knocked the silver against +the iron with the idea of scaring away all evil spirits.[11] +Sometimes bones were burnt in the fire, for we are told in a quaint +homily on the Feast of St. John Baptist, that bones scared away the +evil spirits in the air, since "wise clerks know well that dragons +hate nothing more than the stink of burning bones, and therefore the +country folk gather as many as they might find, and burned them; and +so with the stench thereof they drove away the dragons, and so they +were brought out of great disease." + +In some most remote northern parts of England the farmer lights a +wisp of straw, which he carries round his fields to protect them +from the tare and darnel, the devil and witches. In some places they +used to cover a wheel with straw, set it on fire, and roll it down a +hill. A learned writer on antiquities tells us that the people +imagined that all their ill-luck rolled away from them together with +this burning wheel. All these customs are relics of the old fire and +sun worship, to which our forefathers were addicted. Wrestling, +running races, and dancing were afterwards practised by the +villagers. Wrestling is a very ancient sport, and the men of +Cornwall and Devon, of Westmoreland and Cumberland, were famous for +their skill. A "Cornish hug" is by no means a tender embrace. +Sometimes the people bore back to their homes boughs of trees, with +which they adorned their doors and windows. At Oxford the +quadrangle of Magdalen College was decorated with boughs on St. +John's Day, and a sermon preached from the stone pulpit in the +corner of the quadrangle; this was meant to represent the preaching +of St. John the Baptist in the wilderness. + +At length the villagers, wearied with their exertions, retire to +their cottage homes, marching in procession from the scene of their +observances; and silence reigns o'er the village for a few short +hours, till the sunlight summons them to their daily toil. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +JULY. + + "Swift o'er the mead with lightning speed + The bounding ball flies on; + And hark! the cries of victory rise + For the gallant team that's won." + + +Cricket--Club-ball--Trap-ball--Golf--Pall-mall--Tennis-- + Rush-bearing. + + +At this time of the year all the cricket-clubs in town and village +are very busy, and matches are being played everywhere. It may not +therefore be inappropriate if I tell you in this chapter of the +history of that game which has become so universally popular +wherever our countrymen live. On the plains of India, in Australia +(as some of our English cricketers have learnt to their cost), in +Egypt, wherever Englishmen go, there cricket finds a home and a +hearty welcome. But it is not nearly so ancient a game as others +which I have already mentioned, although it had some fairly old +parents, simple and humble-minded folk, who would have been greatly +astonished to see the extraordinary development of their precocious +offspring. + +Kent and Sussex were the ancestral homes of cricket, which is thus +described by an old writer--"A game most usual in Kent, with a +cricket-ball bowled and struck with two cricket-bats between two +wickets. The name is derived from the Saxon word _cryc_, baculus, a +bat or staff; which also signifies fulcimentum, a support or prop, +whence a cricket or little stool to sit upon. Cricket play among the +Saxons was also called _stef-plege_ (staff-play)." + +I fear that our old writer must have made a great mistake if he +imagined that the Saxons ever played cricket, and I believe that the +word was not known before the sixteenth century. In the records of +Guildford we find that a dispute arose about the enclosure of a +piece of land in the time of Elizabeth; and in the suit that arose +one John Derrick stated in his evidence that he knew the place well +"for fifty years or more, and that when he was a scholar in the free +school at Guildford he and several of his companions did run and +play there at cricket and other plays." Also in Cotgrave's French +Dictionary, published in 1611, the word _crosse_ is translated "a +cricket-staff, or the crooked-staff wherewith boys play at cricket." + +In the eighteenth century allusions to the game become more +frequent, although it was still a boy's game. It had its poet, who +sang-- + + "Hail, cricket, glorious, manly, British game, + First of all sports, be first alike in fame." + +It had its calumniators, who said that it "propagated a spirit of +idleness" in bad times, when people ought to work and not play, and +that it encouraged gambling. But the game began to prosper, and +several noted men, poets and illustrious statesmen, recall the +pleasurable memories of their prowess with the bat and ball. In a +book of songs called _Pills to purge Melancholy_, published in 1719, +we find the verse-- + + "He was the prettiest fellow + At football or at cricket: + At hunting chase or nimble race + How featly he could prick it." + +In the early part of the eighteenth century the game was in a very +rudimentary condition, very different from the scientific pastime it +has since become. There were only two wickets, a foot high and two +feet apart, with one long bail at the top. Between the wickets there +was a hole large enough to contain the ball, and when the batsman +made a run, he had to place the end of his bat in this hole before +the wicket-keeper could place the ball there, otherwise he would be +"run out." + +The bat, too, was a curved, crooked arrangement very different from +our present weapon. The Hambledon Club, in Hampshire, which has +produced some famous players, seems to have been mainly instrumental +in reforming and improving the game. Its members introduced a limit +to the width of the bat, viz., four and a quarter inches--the +standard still in force--in order to prevent players, such as a hero +from Reigate, bringing bats as wide as the wicket. In 1775 they +wisely introduced a middle stump, as they found the best balls +harmlessly flying between the wide wickets. It was feared lest this +alteration would shorten the game too much, but it does not seem to +have had that effect, as in an All England match against the +Hambledon Club, two years later, one Aylward scored 167 runs, and +stayed in two whole days. England owes much to the old Club at +Hambledon for the improvements which it wrought in the game, which +has become our great national pastime. + +Miss Mitford, in her charming book, _Our Village_, describes the +rivalry which existed between the village elevens at the beginning +of the nineteenth century, and gives a sketch of a match between two +Berkshire village teams, which brought about some very happy results +of a romantic nature. She tells us, too, of the comments of the +rustics on the "new-fashioned" style of bowling which one of the +team had introduced from London, which did not at all commend itself +to them, but effectually took their wickets. When that celebrated +company of cricketers, dressed in frock-coats and tall hats, whose +portraits adorn many a pavilion, competed for the honour of All +England, they were quite ignorant of "round-arm" bowling, which is, +of course, an invention of modern times. Only "lobs," or +"under-hands," were the order of the day. It has been stated that we +are indebted to the ladies for the important discovery of the modern +style of delivering the ball. The story may be legendary, but I have +read somewhere that the elder Lillywhite used to practise cricket +all through the winter, and that his daughters used to bowl to him. +During the bitter cold of a winter's day they wore their shawls, and +found it more convenient to bowl with extended arms than in the old +method. Their balls so delivered used to puzzle their father, and +often take his wicket; so he began to imitate them, and introduced +his new method into matches, and thus the age of round-arm bowling +was inaugurated. I cannot vouch for the truth of the story, and only +tell it as it was told to me.[12] At any rate Lillywhite was the +father of modern bowling, which would have startled and considerably +puzzled the veteran cricketers in the early part of the present +century. + +The proper parent of cricket seems to have been club-ball, which is +a very old game, and of which there is a picture in the Bodleian +Library at Oxford, dated 1344 A.D. It represents a female throwing a +ball to a man who is in the act of raising his bat to strike it. +Behind the woman, at a little distance, appear several other figures +of men and women waiting attentively to catch or stop the ball when +hit by the batsman. There is a still more ancient picture of two +club-ball players, representing the batsman holding the ball also +and preparing to hit it, while the other player holds his hands in +readiness to catch the ball. He has the appearance of a very careful +fielder. Here we have the rudimentary idea of cricket; but how they +scored their game, what rules they had, we cannot determine. +Stool-ball claims also to be an ancestor of cricket, and consists in +one player defending a stool with his hand from being hit by a ball +bowled by another player. Here is a simple form of the modern game, +the stool being used as a wicket, and the hand for a bat. + +Trap-ball is a much older game than cricket, and can be traced to +the beginning of the fourteenth century. The modern game differs +little from that which the old pictures describe, except in the +shape of the trap which holds the ball. But the most ancient of all +games of this nature is golf, or goff (as it used to be spelt), +which was played with a crooked club or staff, sometimes called a +bandy. Scotsmen are very fond of this game, which has lately +migrated into England and found many admirers. It was probably +introduced into Scotland from Holland, and was a popular pastime as +early as 1457. In spite of proclamations encouraging archery, and +forbidding golf, it continued to flourish; it has a long list of +royal patrons; and the Stuart monarchs seem to have been as +enthusiastic over the game as all true golfers ought to be. Poets +have sung the praises of golf, and the glory of the heroes who drove +their balls along St. Andrew's Links, or those of East Neuk. The +object of the game is to drive the ball into certain holes in the +fewest number of strokes. James II. was an expert golfer, and had +only one rival, an Edinburgh shoemaker, named Paterson. + +[Illustration: PALL-MALL.] + +If you have visited London you will probably have walked along the +street called Pall Mall, which name is derived from an old game +fashionable in the reign of Charles II. The merry monarch and his +courtiers frequently amused themselves with this game, which +somewhat resembled golf, and consisted in driving a ball by means of +a mallet through an iron hoop suspended from the ground in the +fewest blows. The game was played in St. James's Park, where the +street which bears its name now runs. + +Tennis also has a history. It commenced its career as hand-ball, the +ball being driven backwards and forwards with the palm of the hand. +Then the players used gloves, and afterwards bound cords round their +hands to make the ball rebound more forcibly. Here we have the +primitive idea of a racket. France seems to have been the original +home of tennis, which in the thirteenth century was played in +unenclosed spaces; but in the fourteenth it migrated to the towns, +and walls enclosed the motions of the ball. In Paris alone there +were said to be eighteen hundred tennis-courts. In the sixteenth +century there were several covered tennis-courts in England, and +some of our English monarchs were very devoted to the game. Henry +VII. used to play tennis, and there is a record of his having lost +twelvepence at tennis, and threepence for the loss of balls. Henry +VIII. was also very fond of the game, and lost much money at wagers +with certain Frenchmen; but, like a sensible man, "when he perceived +their craft he eschewed their company, and let them go." He built +the famous court at Hampton, which still remains. Charles II. also +played tennis. The old game is very different from the modern +lawn-tennis which is now so popular: it was always the game of the +select few, and not of the many, like its precocious offspring; and +there are only thirty-one tennis-courts in England at the present +day. The court attached to the palace of the French King Louis XVI. +at Versailles was the scene of some very exciting meetings in the +early days of the French Revolution in 1789. + +[Illustration: PALL-MALL.] + +[Illustration: TENNIS.] + +There were some other forms of ball-play, such as balloon-ball, +stow-ball, &c.; but of these it is hardly needful for me to speak, +as they are only varieties of those games which I have already +described. The history of football has been narrated in a preceding +chapter. You will be able to trace from the descriptions of these +old sports the ancestors of our noble game of cricket, and wonder at +the extraordinary development of so scientific a game from such rude +and simple beginnings. + +The floors of the houses and churches of old England consisted +simply of the hard, dry earth, which the people covered with rushes; +and once a year there was a great ceremony called "Rush-bearing," +when the inhabitants of each village or town went in procession to +the church to strew the floor with newly-cut rushes. The company +went to a neighbouring marsh and cut the rushes, binding them in +long bundles, and decorating them with ribands and flowers. Then a +procession was formed, every one bearing a bundle of rushes; and +with music, drums, and ringing of bells they marched to the church, +and strewed the floor with their honoured burdens. Long after the +rushes ceased to be used in churches the ceremony was continued, and +I have witnessed a rush-bearing procession such as I have described. +There was a rush-cart with a large pile of decorated rush-sheaves, +and some characters from the May-day games were introduced. A queen +sat under a canopy of rushes, a few morris-dancers performed their +antics, and a jester amused the spectators with his quaint sayings. +A village feast, followed by dancing round a May-pole, generally +formed the conclusion of the day's festivities. In 1884 this +pleasant custom was revived at Grasmere in the Lake district, when +the children of the village carried out a "rush-bearing" after the +manner of their forefathers, and the village green again resounded +with songs of joy. + +I fear that our ancestors were not always very cleanly people; they +seldom washed their floors, and therefore they were obliged to adopt +some device to hide their uncleanliness. The old rushes were not +taken away before the new ones were brought in; hence the lowest +layer became filthy, and one writer attributes the frequent +pestilences which often broke out to the dirtiness of their floors +and the masses of filthy rushes lying upon them. Perhaps some of the +wise folks in Lancashire discovered this, for we find the following +entry in the account books of Kirkham Church, 1631--"Paid for +carrying the rushes out of the Church in the sickness time, 5._s_. +0_d_." Straw was used in winter: it would seem very strange to us to +have our floors covered with straw, like a stable! + +In this matter of cleanliness we have certainly improved upon the +habits of our forefathers: dirty cottages are the exception, and not +the rule, as they were in the days of "good Queen Bess"; and the +absence of those terrible plagues which used to devastate our land +in former times is due in a great measure to the improved +cleanliness and more careful regard for sanitation by the people of +England. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +AUGUST. + + "Crowned with the ears of corn, now come, + And to the pipe sing harvest home. + Come forth, my lord, and see the cart + Dressed up with all the country art: + The horses, mares, and frisking fillies + Clad all in linen white as lilies. + The harvest swains and wenches bound + For joy, to see the hock-cart crowned." + + HERRICK'S _Hesperides_. + +Lammas Day--St. Roch's Day--Harvest-home--"Ten-pounding"-- + Sheep-shearing--"Wakes"--Fairs. + + +The harvest fields have begun to ripen, and the corn will soon be +ready for the sickle; of this fact our forefathers were reminded by +the Lammas Festival, which was celebrated on the first of this +month. _Lammas_ is a shortened form of the word Loaf-mass, or feast +of the loaf. A loaf of bread was made of the first-ripe corn, and +used in Holy Communion on this day; so this feast was a preliminary +harvest thanksgiving festival--a feast of "first-fruits," such as +the Jews were commanded in the old Mosaic law to observe. + +When the harvest was gathered in there were great festivities, and +it has been thought that August 16th, St. Roch's Day, was generally +observed as the harvest-home. St. Roch, or Roque, was a Frenchman, +who lived in the early part of the fourteenth century, and was +supposed to have performed miraculous cures, but August 16th seems +to have been rather early in the year for a harvest-home. However, +when the feast of ingathering did take place, there were great +rejoicings in our English villages, and the mode of its celebration +helped to knit together the masters and labourers, and to promote +good feeling between them. + +When the fields were almost cleared of the golden grain, the last +few sheaves were decorated with flowers and ribbons, and brought +home in a waggon, called the "Hock-cart," while the labourers, their +wives and children, carrying green boughs, sheaves of wheat and rude +flags, formed a glad procession. All the pipes and tabors in the +village sounded, and shouts of laughter and of song were raised as +the glad procession marched along. They sang-- + + "Harvest-home, harvest-home, + We have ploughed, we have sowed, + We have reaped, we have mowed, + We have brought home every load. + Hip, hip, hip, harvest-home!" + +or, as they say in Berkshire-- + + "Whoop, whoop, whoop, harvest whoam!" + +Sometimes the most comely maiden in the village was chosen as +Harvest Queen, and placed upon her throne at the top of the sheaves +in the hock-cart as it was drawn homewards to the farm. + +[Illustration: HARVEST-HOME.] + +The rustics receive a hearty welcome at their master's house, where +they find the fuelled chimney blazing wide, and the strong table +groaning beneath the smoking sirloin-- + + "Mutton, veal, + And bacon, which makes full the meal, + With several dishes standing by, + As here a custard, there a pie, + And here all-tempting frumenty." + +Frumenty, which is made of wheat boiled in milk was a standing dish +at every harvest supper. And then around the festive board old tales +are told, well-known jests abound, and thanks given to the good +farmer and his wife for their hospitality in some such homely rhymes +as these-- + + "Here's a health to our master, + The lord of the feast; + God bless his endeavours, + And send him increase. + + "May everything prosper + That he takes in hand, + For we be his servants, + And do his command." + +The youths and maidens dance their country dances, as an old writer, +who lived in the reign of Charles II., tells us:--"The lad and the +lass will have no lead on their heels. O, 'tis the merry time +wherein honest neighbours make good cheer, and God is glorified in +His blessings on the earth." When the feast is over, the company +retire to some near hillock, and make the welkin ring with their +shouts, "Holla, holla, holla, largess!"--largess being the presents +of money and good things which the farmer had bestowed. + +Such was the harvest-home in the good old days--joy and delight to +both old and young. The toils of the labourers did not seem so hard +and wearisome when they knew that the farmers had such a grateful +sense of their good services; and if any one felt aggrieved or +discontented, the mutual intercourse at the harvest-home, when all +were equal, when all sat at the same table and conversed freely +together, soon banished all ill-feeling, and promoted a sense of +mutual trust, which is essential to the happiness and well-being of +any community. Shorn of much of its merriment and quaint customs, +the harvest-home still lingers on in some places; but modern habits +and notions have deprived it of much of its old spirit and +light-heartedness. We have our harvest thanksgiving services, which +(thank God!) are observed in almost every village and hamlet. It is, +of course, our first duty to thank God for the fruits of His bounty +and love; but the harvest-home should not be forgotten. When +labourers simply regard harvest-time as a season when they can earn +a few shillings more than usual, and take no further interest in +their work, or in the welfare of their master, all brightness +vanishes from their industry: their minds become sordid and +mercenary; and mutual trust, good-feeling, and fellowship cease to +exist. + +Neither did the harvest-men allow drunkenness, laziness, swearing, +quarrelling, nor lying, to go unpunished. The labourers in Suffolk, +if they found one of their number guilty, would hold a court-martial +among themselves, lay the culprit down on his face, and an +executioner would administer several hard blows with a shoe studded +with hob-nails. This was called "ten-pounding," and must have been +very effectual in checking any of the above delinquencies. + +Besides the harvest-home there was also observed another feast of a +similar character in the spring, when the sheep were shorn. A +plentiful dinner was given by the farmer to the shearers and their +friends, and a table was often set in the open village for the young +people and children. Tusser, who wrote a book upon _Five Hundred +Points of Husbandry_, did not forget the treats which ought to be +given to the labourers, and alludes to the sheep-shearing festival +in the following lines-- + + "Wife, make us a dinner; spare flesh, neither corn, + Make wafers and cakes, for our sheep must be shorn; + At sheep-shearing, neighbours none other things crave, + But good cheer and welcome like neighbours to have." + +We have in many villages and towns a feast called "the Wakes," which +is one of the oldest of our English festivals. The day of "the +Wakes" is the festival of the Saint to whom the parish church is +dedicated, and it is so called because, on the previous night, or +vigil, the people used to watch, or "wake," in the church till the +morning dawned. It was the custom for the inhabitants of the parish +to keep open house on that day, and to entertain all their relations +and friends who came to them from a distance. In early times the +people used to make booths and tents with the boughs of trees near +to the church, and were directed to celebrate the feast in them with +thanksgiving and prayer. By degrees they began to forget their +prayers, and remembered only the feasting, and other abuses crept +in, so at last the "waking" on the eve of the festival was +suppressed. But these primitive feasts were the origin of most of +our fairs, which are generally held on the dedication festival of +the parish church.[13] The neighbours from the adjoining villages +used to attend the wakes, so the peddlers and hawkers came to find a +market for their wares. Their stalls began to multiply, until at +last an immense fair sprang into existence, which owed its origin +entirely to the religious festival of "the wakes." Fairs have +degenerated like many other good things, and we can hardly realize +their vastness in the middle ages. The circuit of a fair sometimes +was very great, and it would have been impossible in those days to +carry on the trade of the country without them. The great +Stourbridge Fair, near Cambridge, I have described in my former book +on _English Villages_. The booths were planted in a cornfield, and +the circuit of the fair, which was one of the largest in Europe, was +over three miles. All kinds of sports were held on these occasions: +plays, comedies, tragedies, bull-baiting, &c., and King James was +very wroth with the undergraduates of Cambridge who would insist +upon frequenting Stourbridge Fair rather than attend to their +studies. + +The "Wakes," or village feast, was a great day for all sports and +pastimes. A writer in the _Spectator_ describes the "country wake" +which he witnessed at Bath. The green was covered with a crowd of +all ages and both sexes, decked out in holiday attire, and divided +into several parties, "all of them endeavouring to show themselves +in those exercises wherein they excelled." In one place there was a +ring of cudgel-players, in another a football match, in another a +ring of wrestlers. The prize for the men was a hat, and for the +women, who had their own contests, a smock. Running and leaping also +found a place in the programme. In Berkshire back-sword play and +wrestling were the favourite amusements for vigorous youths, and men +strove hard to win the honour of being champion and the prizes which +were offered on the occasion. There were "cheap jacks," and endless +booths containing all kinds of fairings, ribands, gingerbread cakes, +and shows, with huge pictures hung outside of giants and wild +Indians, pink-eyed ladies, live lions, and deformities of all kinds. +There were minor sports, such as climbing the pole, jumping in +sacks, rolling wheelbarrows blindfolded, donkey races, muzzling in a +flour-tub, &c.; but the back-sword play was the chief and most +serious part of the programme. + +A good sound ash-stick with a large basket handle was the weapon +used, very similar to, but heavier and shorter than an ordinary +single-stick. The object is to "break the head" of the opponent-- +_i.e._ to cause blood to flow anywhere above the eyebrow. A slight +blow will often accomplish this, so the game is not so savage +as it appears to be. The play took place on a stage of rough planks +about four feet high. Each player was armed with a stick, looping the +fingers of his left hand in a handkerchief or strap, which he +fastened round his left leg, measuring the length, so that when he +drew it tight with his left elbow up he had a perfect guard for the +left side of his head.[14] Guarding his head with the stick in his +right hand, he advanced, and then the fight began; fast and furious +came the blows, until at last a red streak on the temple of one of +the combatants declared his defeat. The _Reading Mercury_ of May 24, +1819, advertised the rural sports at Peppard, when the not very +magnificent prize of eighteenpence was offered to every man who broke +a head at cudgel-play, and a shilling to every one who had his head +broken. + +Such was the sport which our old Berkshire rustics delighted in. +Back-sword play, wrestling, and other pastimes made them a hardy +race, full of courage, and developed qualities which it is hoped +their descendants have not altogether lost. The gallant Berkshire +Regiment, which fought so bravely at Maiwand, is composed of the +sons of those who used to wield the back-sword on the Berkshire +downs, and showed themselves not unworthy of their ancestry, +although the quarter-staff and ashen-swords are forgotten. The old +village feasts are forgotten too--more's the pity. Then old quarrels +were healed, old bitternesses removed: aged friends met, and became +young again in heart, as they revived old memories and sweet +recollections of youthful days. Rich and poor, the squire and the +farmer, the farmer and his labourers, all mingled together, class +with class; and good-fellowship, harmony, and mutual confidence were +promoted by these annual gatherings. It is true that these village +feasts degenerated, because the well-to-do folk abstained from them; +but would it not be possible to revive them, to preserve the good +which they certainly did, and to eliminate the evil which is so +often mingled with the good? Such a consideration is worthy of the +attention of all who have the welfare of the people at heart. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +SEPTEMBER. + + "Nor is there hawk which mantleth her on pearch, + Whether high tow'ring or accoasting low, + But I the measure of her flight do search, + And all her prey, and all her diet know."--SPENSER. + +Hawking--Michaelmas--Bull and Bear-baiting. + + +Of all old English sports hawking is one of the most ancient and the +most fashionable. It has almost died out now, but there are one or +two hawking enthusiasts who have endeavoured to revive this old +English pastime, and on the Berkshire Downs a hawking party was seen +a few years ago. Hawking consists in the training and flying of +hawks for the purpose of catching other birds. Kings and noblemen, +barons and ladies of feudal times, used to delight in following the +sport on horseback, and to watch their favourite birds towering high +to gain the upward flights in order to swoop down upon some heron, +crane, or wild duck, and bear it to the ground. Persons of high rank +always carried their hawks with them wherever they went, and in old +paintings the hawk upon the wrist of a portrait was the sign of +noble birth. The sport was practised by our Saxon forefathers before +the Normans came, and the first trained hawk in England is said to +have been sent by St. Boniface, the "Apostle of the Germans," as a +present to Ethelbert, King of Kent, in the eighth century. The +history of the sport of the kings who loved to take part in it, and +of their adventures, would require a volume, and my space only +allows me to give you a brief account of the manner in which the +sport was conducted. + +I may mention that before the reign of King John only kings and +noblemen were allowed to take part in hawking; but in the forest +Charter, which that monarch was compelled to sign, every freeman was +permitted to have his own hawks and falcons. The falconer, who took +care of the hawks, was a very important person. The chief falconer +of the King of France received four thousand florins a year, besides +a tax upon every hawk sold in the kingdom. The Welsh princes +assigned the fourth place of honour in their courts to this officer; +but this proud distinction had its responsibilities, and this high +official was only allowed to take three draughts from his horn, lest +his brain should not be as clear as it ought to be, and the precious +birds might be neglected. + +Sometimes the hawking party went on foot, carrying long poles to +enable them to jump the ditches and to follow the course. Henry +VIII. nearly lost his life on one occasion through falling (his pole +having broken) into a bog, from which he was rescued by one John +Moody, who happened to see the accident. But mounted on gallant +steeds the lords and ladies were accustomed to follow their +favourite pastime, and amid the blowing of horns and laughter and +shoutings they rode along, galloping up-hill and down-hill, with +their eyes fixed upon the birds, which were battling or chasing each +other high overhead. The hawk did not always win the fight: +sometimes a crafty heron would turn his long bill upwards just as +the hawk was descending upon him, and pierce his antagonist through +the body. + +Great skill and perseverance were required in training these birds. +When they were not flying after their prey, they were hoodwinked, +_i.e._ their heads were covered with caps, which were often finely +embroidered. On their legs they had strings of leather, called +_jesses_, with rings attached. When a hawk was being trained, a long +thread was fastened to these rings to draw the bird back again, but +when it was well educated, it would obey the voice of the falconer +and return when it had performed its flight. It was necessary for +the bird to know its master very intimately, so a devoted follower +of the sport would always carry his hawk about with him, and the two +were as inseparable as a Highland shepherd and his dog. The +sportsman would feed his bird and train it daily, and in an old book +of directions he is advised "at night to go to the mews, and take it +from its perch, and set it on his fist, and bear it all the night," +in order to be ready for the morrow's sport. + +[Illustration: A FALCONER.] + +The mews were the buildings where the hawks were kept when moulting, +the word "mew" being a term used by falconers to signify to moult, +or cast feathers; and the King's Mews, near Charing Cross, was the +place where the royal hawks were kept. This place was afterwards +enlarged, and converted into stables for horses; but the old name +remained, and now most stables in London are called mews, although +the word is derived from falconry, and the hawks have long since +flown away. + +The sport declined at the end of the seventeenth century, when +shooting with guns became general, but our language has preserved +some traces of this ancient pastime. When a person is blinded by +deceit, he is said to be "hoodwinked," and this word is derived from +the custom of placing a hood over the hawk's eyes before it was +released from restraint. + +On the Feast of St. Michael, or Michaelmas, the tenants were in the +habit of bringing presents of a fat goose to their landlord, in +order to make him kind and lenient in the matters of rent, repairs, +and the renewal of leases, and the noble landlords used to entertain +their tenants right royally in the great halls of their ancestral +mansions, roast goose forming a standing dish of the repast. This is +probably the origin of the custom which prevails at the present time +of eating geese at Michaelmas. + +When the harvest was over, and the farmers were not so busy, they +often amused themselves by the cruel sport of baiting a bull. An old +gentleman who lived at Wokingham was so fond of this savage pastime +that he left in his will a sum of money for the purpose of providing +every year two bulls to be baited for the amusement of the people of +his native town. The bulls are still bought, but they are put to +death in a more merciful manner, and the meat given to the poor. +Amongst the hills in Yorkshire there is a small village, through +which a brook runs, crossed by two bridges, and having a stone wall +on each side. Thus, when the bridges were stopped up, there was +formed a wall-encircled space, into which, once a year, at least, a +poor bull was placed, to be worried to death by dogs, and within the +memory of men now living this cruel sport has been carried on. + +Nor was this only a sport for ignorant rustics; kings and noble +courtiers, and even ladies, used to frequent the bear-gardens of the +metropolis, and witness with delight the slaughter of bulls, and +bears, and dogs. Erasmus tells us that in the reign of Henry VIII. +"many herds of bears were maintained in this country for the purpose +of baiting." Queen Elizabeth commanded bears, bulls, and the +ape to be baited in her presence, and James I. was not averse +to the sight. The following is a description of this barbarous +entertainment--"There is a place built in the form of a theatre, +which serves for baiting of bulls and bears. They are fastened +behind, and then worried by great English bull-dogs; but not without +risk to the dogs from the horns of the one and the teeth of the +other." Even horses were sometimes baited, and sometimes asses. +Evelyn, in his _Diary_, thus describes the strange sight--"June +16th, 1670. I went with some friends to the bear-garden, where was +cock-fighting, dog-fighting, bear and bull-baiting, it being a +famous day for all these butcherly sports, or rather barbarous +cruelties. The bulls did exceedingly well, but the Irish wolf-dog +exceeded, which was a tall greyhound, a stately creature indeed, who +beat a cruel mastiff. One of the bulls tossed a dog full into a +lady's lap, as she sat in one of the boxes at a considerable height +from the arena. Two poor dogs were killed, and so all ended with the +ape on horseback, and I most heartily weary of the rude and dirty +pastime, which I had not seen, I think, in twenty years before." +Foreigners, who have visited England in by-gone times, often allude +scornfully to our forefathers' barbarous diversions; but on the +whole they seem rather to have enjoyed the sport. A Spanish nobleman +was taken to see a poor pony baited with an ape fastened on its +back; and he wrote--"to see the animal kicking amongst the dogs, +with the screams of the ape, beholding the curs hanging from the +ears and neck of the pony, is very laughable!" But enough has been +said of these terrible and monstrous cruelties. Happily for us they +no longer exist, and together with cock-fighting, throwing at cocks +and hens, and other barbarous amusements, cannot now be reckoned +among our sports and pastimes. It was a happy thing for us when the +conscience of the nation was aroused, and the law stepped in to put +an end to such disgraceful scenes which were witnessed in the Paris +Garden at Southwark, or in the rude bull-run of a Yorkshire village. +The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was not known +in the days of bear-baiting and cock-throwing. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +OCTOBER. + + "Rivet well each coat of mail; + Blows shall fall like showers of hail; + Merrily the harness rings, + Of tilting lists and tournay sings, + Honour to the valiant brings. + Clink, clink, clink!"--_Armourers' Chorus_. + +Tournaments--_Mysteries_--_Moralities_--_Pageants_. + + +In the days of chivalry, when gallant knights used to ride about in +search of adventures; and when there were many wars, battles, and +crusades, martial exercises were the chief amusements of the people +of England. We have already mentioned some of these sports in which +the humbler folk used to show their strength and dexterity, and now +I propose to tell you of those wonderful trials of military skill +called tournaments, which were the favourite pastimes of the +noblemen and gentry of England in the middle ages, and afforded much +amusement to their poorer neighbours who flocked to see these +gallant feats of arms. Tournaments were fights in miniature, in +which the combatants fought simply to exhibit their strength and +prowess. There was a great deal of pomp and ceremony attached to +them. The lists, as the barriers were called which inclosed the +scene of combat, were superbly decorated, and surrounded by +pavilions belonging to the champions, ornamented with their arms and +banners. The seats reserved for the noble ladies and gentlemen who +came to see the fight were hung with tapestry embroidered with gold +and silver. Everyone was dressed in the most sumptuous manner: the +minstrels and heralds were clothed in the costliest garments; the +knights who were engaged in the sports and their horses were most +gorgeously arrayed. The whole scene was one of great splendour and +magnificence, and, when the fight began, the shouts of the heralds +who directed the tournament, the clashing of arms, the clang of +trumpets, the charging of the combatants, and the shouts of the +spectators, must have produced a wonderfully impressive and exciting +effect upon all who witnessed the strange spectacle. + +The regulations and laws of the tournament were very minute. When +many preliminary arrangements had been made with regard to the +examination of arms and helmets and the exhibition of banners, &c., +at ten o'clock on the morning of the appointed day the champions and +their adherents were required to be in their places. Two cords +divided the combatants, who were each armed with a pointless sword +and a truncheon hanging from their saddles. When the word was given +by the lord of the tournament, the cords were removed, and the +champions charged and fought until the heralds sounded the signal to +retire. It was considered the greatest disgrace to be unhorsed. A +French earl once tried to unhorse our King Edward I. when he was +returning from Palestine, wearied by the journey. The earl threw +away his sword, cast his arms around the king's neck, and tried to +pull him from his horse. But Edward put spurs to his horse and drew +the earl from the saddle, and then shaking him violently, threw him +to the ground. + +The joust (or just) differed from tournament, because in the former +only lances were used, and only two knights could fight at once. It +was not considered quite so important as the grand feat of arms +which I have just described, but was often practised when the more +serious encounter had finished. Lances or spears without heads of +iron were commonly used, and the object of the sport was to ride +hard against one's adversary and strike him with the spear upon the +front of the helmet, so as to beat him backwards from his horse, or +break the spear. You will gather from these descriptions that this +kind of sport was somewhat dangerous, and that men sometimes lost +their lives at these encounters. In order to lessen the risk and +danger of the two horses running into each other when the knights +charged, a boarded railing was erected in the midst of the lists, +about four or five feet high. The combatants rode on separate sides +of this barrier, and therefore could not encounter each other except +with their lances. + +[Illustration: A TOURNAMENT.] + +In the days of chivalry ladies were held in high honour and +respect. It was their privilege to assign the prizes to those who +had distinguished themselves most in the tournament. They were the +arbiters of the sport; and, indeed, the jousts were usually held in +honour of the ladies, who received as their right the respect and +devotion of all true knights. This respect for women had a softening +and ennobling influence, which was of great value in times when such +influences were rare. It was probably derived (according to a French +writer) from our ancestors, the Germans, "who attributed somewhat of +divinity to the fair sex." It is the sign of a corrupt age and +degraded manners when this respect ceases to be paid. + +Only men of noble family, and who owned land, were allowed to take +part in the jousts or tournament; but the yeomen and young farmers +used to practise similar kinds of sport, such as tilting at a ring, +quintain, and boat jousts, which have already been mentioned in a +preceding chapter. Richard I., the lion-hearted king, was a great +promoter of these martial sports, and appointed five places for the +holding of tournaments in England, namely, at some place between +Salisbury and Wilton, between Warwick and Kenilworth, between +Stamford and Wallingford, between Brackley and Mixbury, and between +Blie and Tykehill. But in almost every part of England tournaments +or jousts have been held, and scenes enacted such as I have +described. Sometimes two knights would fight in mortal combat. If +one knight accused the other of crime or dishonour, the latter +might challenge him to fight with swords or lances, and, according +to the superstition of the times, the victor was considered to be +the one who spoke the truth. But this ordeal combat was far removed +from the domain of sport. + +When jousts and tournaments were abandoned, tilting on horseback at +a ring became a favourite courtly amusement. A ring was suspended on +a level with the eye of the rider; and the sport consisted in riding +towards the ring, and sending the point of a lance through it, and +so bearing it away. Great skill was required to accomplish this +surely and gracefully. Ascham, a writer in the sixteenth century, +tells us what accomplishments were required from the complete +English gentleman of the period. "To ride comely, to run fair at the +tilt or ring, to play at all weapons, to shoot fair in bow, or +surely in gun; to vault lustily, to run, to leap, to wrestle, to +swim, to dance comely, to sing, and play of instruments cunningly; +to hawk, to hunt, to play at tennis, and all pastimes generally +which be joined to labour, containing either some fit exercises for +war, or some pleasant pastime for peace--these be not only comely +and decent, but also very necessary for a courtly gentleman to use." +The courtly gentleman must have been very industrious to acquire all +these numerous accomplishments! + +There was another form of spectacle which gave great pleasure to our +ancestors; and often in the market-places of old towns, or in open +fields, at the bottom of natural amphitheatres near some of the +ancient monasteries, were Scriptural plays performed, which were +called _Miracles_, or _Mysteries_, because they treated of scenes +taken from the Old or New Testament, or from the lives of saints and +martyrs. The performances were very simple and often grotesque, but +the plays were regarded by the monks, who assisted in these +representations, as a means of teaching the people sacred truths. +The miracle play of Norman and mediæval times was a long, +disconnected performance, which often lasted many days. In the reign +of Henry IV. there was a play which lasted eight days, and, +beginning with the creation of the world, contained the greater part +of the history of the Old and the New Testament. The words of the +play seem to us strange, and sometimes profane; but they were not +thought to be so by those who listened to them. The _Mystery_ play +only lasted one day, and consisted of one subject, such as _The +Conversion of St. Paul_. _Noah and the Flood_ was a very popular +piece. His wife is represented as being much opposed to the perilous +voyage in the ark, and abuses Noah very severely for compelling her +to go. Sometimes the authors thought it necessary to introduce a +comic character to enliven the dullness of the performance. But, in +spite of humorous demons, these mysteries ceased to attract, and +plays called _Moralities_ were introduced, in which the actors +assumed the parts of personified virtues, &c., and you might have +heard "Faith" preaching to "Prudence," or "Death" lecturing "Beauty" +and "Pride." The first miracle play performed in England was that of +_St. Catherine_, which was acted at Dunstable, 1110 A.D.; and +another early piece was the play called _The Image of St. Nicholas_. +These were of a religious nature and were performed in church during +Divine service. The following is an outline of the plot of the +latter: instead of the image of St. Nicholas, which adorned his +shrine, a man stood in the garb of the saint whom he represented. +The service is divided into two portions, and the play is produced +during the interval. A stranger appears at the west door, who is +evidently a rich heathen, and lays down his treasures before the +image of the saint and beseeches him to take care of them. A band of +thieves enter and steal the treasures, and when the heathen returns, +he is so enraged that he proceeds to chastise the image of the +saint; when lo! the figure descends, marches out of the church, and +convinces the thieves of their wickedness. Struck with fear on +account of the miracle, they restore the treasures, the Pagan sings +a song of joy, and St. Nicholas tells him to worship God, and to +praise Christ. Then, after an act of adoration to the Almighty, the +service is resumed.[15] + +There were also strolling companies of minstrels, jugglers, and +jesters, who went about the country, and acted secular pieces +composed of comic stories, jokes, and dialogues, interspersed with +dancing and tumbling. The whole performance was very absurd and +often indecent, and the clergy did their utmost to suppress these +strolling companies. + +The stage upon which the _Mysteries_ were played was built on +wheels, in order that it might be drawn to different parts of the +town. Sometimes religious plays were acted in churches before the +Reformation; but in Cornwall the people formed an earthen +amphitheatre in some open field, and as the players did not learn +their parts very well, a prompter used to follow them about with a +book and tell them what to say. Coventry, York, Wakefield, Reading, +Hull, and Leicester were famous for their plays, and in the +churchwardens' accounts we find many entries referring to the +performances. + +1469.--_e.g._ Item paid to Noah and his wife ... ... xxi^d. + " " for a rope to hang the ship in the church ... ii^d. + +These performances would probably seem very foolish and childish to +a modern audience, but they helped to enliven and diversify the +lives of our more simple-minded forefathers. + +The people, too, loved pageants which were performed on great +occasions, during a Royal progress for instance, or to welcome the +advent of some mighty personage. Great preparations were made for +these exhibitions of rustic talent; long verses were committed to +memory; rehearsals were endless, and the stories of Greek and Roman +mythology were ransacked to provide scenes and subjects for the +rural pageant. All this must have afforded immense amusement and +interest to the country-folk in the neighbourhood of some lord's +castle, when the king or queen was expected to sojourn there. +Shepherds and shepherdesses, gods and goddesses, clowns and mummers, +all took part in the play, and it may interest my readers to give an +account of one of these pageants, which was performed before Queen +Elizabeth when she visited the ancient and historic castle of +Sudeley.[16] + +The play is founded on the old classical story of Apollo and Daphne. +The sun-god, Apollo, was charmed by the beauty of the fair Daphne, +the daughter of a river-god, and pursued her with base intent. Just +as she was about to be overtaken she prayed for aid, and was +immediately changed into a laurel-tree, which became the favourite +tree of the disappointed lover. The pageant founded on this old +classical legend commenced with a man, who acted the part of Apollo, +chasing a woman, who represented Daphne, followed by a young +shepherd bewailing his hard fate. He, too, loved the fair and +beautiful Daphne, but Apollo wooed her with fair words, and +threatened him with diverse penalties, saying he would change him +into a wolf, or a cockatrice, or blind his eyes. The shepherd in a +long speech tells how Daphne was changed into a tree, and then +Apollo is seen at the foot of a laurel-tree weeping, accompanied by +two minstrels. The repentant god repeats the verse-- + + "Sing you, play you; but sing and play my truth; + This tree my lute, these sighs my note of ruth: + The laurel leaf for ever shall be green, + And Chastity shall be Apollo's Queen. + If gods may die, here shall my tomb be placed, + And this engraven, 'Fond Phoebus, Daphne chaste.'" + +A song follows, and then, wonderful to relate, the tree opens, and +Daphne comes forth. Apollo resigns her to the humble shepherd, and +then she runs to her Majesty the Queen, and with a great deal of +flattery wishes her a long and prosperous reign. + +Such was the simple play which delighted the minds of our +forefathers, and helped to raise them from sordid cares and the dull +monotony of continual toil. In our popular amusements the village +folk do not take part, except as spectators, and therefore lose half +the pleasure; whereas in the time of the Virgin Queen the +rehearsals, the learning the speeches by heart, the dresses, the +excitement, all contributed to give them fresh ideas and new +thoughts. The acting may not have been very good; indeed Queen +Elizabeth did not always think very highly of the performances of +her subjects at Coventry, and was heard to exclaim, "What fools ye +Coventry folk are!" but I think her Majesty must have been pleased +at the concluding address of the players at Sudeley. After the +shepherds had acted a piece in which the election of the King and +Queen of the Bean formed a part, they knelt before the real Queen, +and said, "Pardon, dread Sovereign, poor shepherds' pastimes, and +bold shepherds' presumptions. We call ourselves kings and queens to +make mirth; but when we see a king or queen, we stand amazed. At +chess there are kings and queens, and they of wood. Shepherds are no +more, nor no less, wooden. In theatres workmen have played emperors; +yet the next day forgotten neither their duties nor occupation. For +our boldness in borrowing their names, and in not seeing your +Majesty for our blindness, we offer these shepherds' weeds: which, +if your Majesty vouchsafe at any time to wear, it shall bring to our +hearts comfort, and happiness to our labours." + +When the Queen visited Kenilworth Castle, splendid pageants were +performed in her honour. As she entered the castle the gigantic +porter recited verses to greet her Majesty, gods and goddesses +offered gifts and compliments on bended knee, and the Lady of the +Lake, surrounded by Tritons and Nereids, came on a floating island +to do homage to the peerless Elizabeth, and to welcome her to all +the sport the castle could afford. For an account of the strange +conduct of Orion and his dolphin upon this occasion, we refer our +readers to Sir Walter Scott's _Kenilworth_, and the lover of +pageants will find much to interest him in Gascoigne's _Princely +Progress_. In many of the chief towns of England the members of the +Guilds were obliged by their ordinances to have a pageant once every +year, which was of a religious nature. The Guild of St. Mary at +Beverley made a yearly representation of the Presentation of Christ +in the Temple, one of their number being dressed as a queen to +represent the Virgin, "having what may seem a son in her arms," two +others representing Joseph and Simeon, and two others going as +angels carrying lights. The people of England seem always to have +had a great fondness for shows and pageants. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +NOVEMBER. + + "The ploughman, though he labour hard, + Yet on the holiday + Heigh trolollie, lollie loe. + No emperor so merrily + Doth pass his time away; + Then care away, + And wend along with me."--_Complete Angler_. + + "The curious preciseness, + And all pretended gravity of those + That seek to banish hence these harmless sports, + Have thrust away much ancient honesty."--IRVING'S _Sketch Book_. + +All-hallow Eve--"Soul Cakes"--Diving for Apples--The Fifth of +November--Martinmas--_Demands Joyous_--Indoor Games. + + +The first of November is All Saints' Day, and the eve of that day, +called All-hallow Even, was the occasion of some very ancient and +curious customs. It seems to have been observed more by the +descendants of the Celts than by the Saxons; and Wales, Scotland, +and Ireland were the homes of many of the popular superstitions +connected with this festival. In Scotland the bonfires were set up +in every village, and each member of a family would throw in a white +stone marked with his name; and if that stone could not be found +next morning, it was supposed that that person would die before the +following All Saints' Day. This foolish superstition may be classed +with the other well-known superstition with regard to the sitting of +thirteen people at one table, in which some are still foolish enough +to believe. + +All-hallow Even was supposed to be a great night for witches: +possibly it was with the intention of guarding against their spells +that the farmers used to carry blazing straw around their cornfields +and stacks. It was the custom for the farmer to regale his men with +seed cake on this night; and there were cakes called "Soul Mass +Cakes," or "Soul Cakes," which were given to the poor. These were of +triangular shape, and poor people in Staffordshire used to go +_a-souling_, i.e. collecting these soul cakes, or anything else they +could get. + +On this night the fishermen of Scotland signed their boats, that is +put a cross of tar upon them, in order that their fishing might +prosper. The church bells were rung all night long for all Christian +souls, and we find from some old account books that the good folk +were very careful to have all their bell-ropes and bells in good +order for All-hallow Even. This ringing was supposed to benefit the +souls of the dead in Purgatory, and was suppressed after the +Reformation. + +There were some very homely pastimes for All-hallow Even for the +young folk in the north of England. Apples were placed in a vessel +of water and "dived for"; or they were suspended from the roof and +caught at by several expectant mouths. Sometimes a rod was suspended +with an apple at one end, and at the other a lighted candle. The +youths had their hands tied behind their backs, and caught at the +apple, often causing the candle to swing round and burn their hair. +The cracking of nuts was an important ceremony among the young men +and maidens, who threw nuts into the fire, and from the way in which +they cracked, or burned, foretold all kinds of happiness or misery +for themselves. The nuts that burned brightly prophesied prosperity +to their owners, but those that crackled or burned black denoted +misfortune. In olden times, when people were more superstitious than +they are now, they attached great importance to these omens and +customs, but happily the young people of our times have ceased to +believe in magic and foolish customs, and country girls strive to +attract their swains by other charms than those of nut-cracking on +All-hallow Even. + +We have still our bonfires on November 5th, but the event which +happened on that day is very recent as compared with many of the old +customs of which I have been writing. However, it is nearly three +hundred years ago since Guy Fawkes and his companions attempted to +blow up the Houses of Parliament with gunpowder; and yet we still +light our bonfires and burn Guy Fawkes' effigy, with much +accompaniment of squibs and crackers, just as if the event which we +commemorate only occurred last year. Probably very few of our +rustics think much of the origin of the customs observed on November +the Fifth, or remember that it was instituted by the House of +Commons as "a holiday for ever in thankfulness to God for our +deliverance, and detestation of the Papists;" but this ignorance +does not prevent them from keeping up the custom and enjoying the +excitement of the bonfire and fireworks. If you are not acquainted +with the history of the conspiracy, I would advise you to read it in +some good history book, and-- + + "Pray to remember + The fifth of November + Gunpowder treason and plot, + When the King and his train + Had nearly been slain, + Therefore it shall not be forgot." + +The Berkshire boys, as they carried their Guy and collected wood for +their bonfires, used to add the words-- + + "Our king's a valiant soldier, + With his blunderbuss on his shoulder, + Cocks his pistol, draws his rapier; + Pray give us something for his sake here. + A stick and a stake, for our good king's sake: + If ye won't give one, I'll take two, + The better for me, and the worse for you. + + CHORUS-- + "Hollow, boys, hollow, boys, make the bells ring, + Hollow, boys, hollow, boys, God save the King." + +Some of the rhymes tell us about the nefarious deeds of wicked Guy +Fawkes, who + + "... with his companions did contrive + To blow the House of Parliament up alive, + With three score barrels of powder down below, + To prove Old England's wicked overthrow; + But by God's mercy all of them got catched, + With their dark lantern, and their lighted match. + Ladies and gentlemen sitting by the fire, + Please put hands in pockets and give us our desire: + While you can drink one glass, we can drink two, + The better for we, and none the worse for you." + +This rhyme was concluded with the following strange jingle-- + + "Rumour, rumour, pump a derry, + Prick his heart and burn his body, + And send his soul to Purgatory."[17] + +The streets of Oxford used to be the scenes of great encounters +between the townsmen and gownsmen (or college students) on this +night, who, on any other night in the year, never thought of +fighting. Happily in recent years these fights have ceased, but even +now the gownsmen are "gated" on the night of the Fifth of November, +_i.e._ are confined to their colleges, lest there should be a +renewal of these encounters. So severe were the battles in ancient +times, that the tower of Carfax Church was lowered because the +townsfolk used to ascend thither and shoot their arrows at the +undergraduates; and the butchers were obliged to ply their trade +beyond the city walls, because they had used their knives and +cleavers in their annual fight. + +At Martinmas, or the Feast of St. Martin, it was the custom to lay +in a stock of winter provisions, and many cows, oxen, and swine were +killed at this time, their flesh being salted and hung up for the +winter, when fresh provisions were seldom to be had. + +And now the long evenings have set in, and our ancestors in hall or +cottage assemble round the blazing hearth, and listen to the +minstrel's lays, and recite their oft-told tales of adventure and +romance. Sometimes they indulge in asking each other riddles, and +there exists at the present time an old collection of these early +efforts of wit and humour which are not of a very high order. The +book is called _Demands Joyous,_ and was printed in A.D. 1511. I may +extract the following riddles:--"What is it that never was and never +will be? Answer: A mouse's nest in a cat's ear. Why does a cow lie +down? Because it cannot sit. How many straws go to a goose's nest? +Not one, for straws, not having feet, cannot go anywhere." + +With such feeble efforts of wit did the country folk try to beguile +the long evenings. In those days there were no newspapers, very few +books, even if they could be read, and the only means of gathering +information from other parts of the country were the peddlers or +wandering minstrels, who told them the news as they passed from +place to place. Consequently, the above humble efforts of wit were +not to be despised, and served to beguile the tediousness of the +long winter's night. Besides, the villagers had the carols to +practise for Christmas, many of which were handed down from father +to son for many generations, and probably both words and music +received many variations in their course. Old collections of these +carols still exist, such as the one entitled, "Good and True, Fresh +and New, Christmas Carols," which was made in the middle of the +seventeenth century. As an instance of the way in which the words +became changed as they were passed on by illiterate singers, I may +mention a carol of which the refrain is now printed "Now Well, Now +Well"; originally this must have been "Noel, Noel." Some of the +carols degenerated into songs about the wassail bowl, and the +virtues of strong ale, and our forefathers were not unlike some of +their children, who forget the Saviour in the enjoyment of His +gifts. And besides the carols the villagers had the ordinary hymns +to practise, with grand accompaniment of violins, flutes, +clarionets, etc., for each village had its own musicians, who took +great pride and interest in their playing, and used to practise +together in the evenings. The old instruments have vanished: we have +our organs and harmoniums: our choirs sing better and more +reverently; but there are no reunions of the village orchestra, +which used to afford so much pleasure to the rustics of former days. + +In the lord's hall there were plenty of sedentary games, and amongst +these pre-eminently stands the noble pastime of chess. It is very +ancient, and is supposed to have been invented by Xerxes, a +philosopher in the court of Evil-Merodach, king of Babylon. It was +well known in England before the Conquest, and Canute was very fond +of the chessboard. King John was so engrossed in this game that when +some messengers came to tell him that the French king had besieged +one of his cities, he would not listen to them until he had finished +his chess. The complicated movements of the various men seem to show +that the game was developed and improved, and not the invention of +one man, but few changes have been made during several centuries. +Players are checkmated now in very much the same way as they were +five hundred years ago. + +Besides chess they had backgammon, or tables, as the game was +called, Merelles, or Nine men's Morris (which also found its way to +the shepherds' cottages), dice, and card games, some of which I have +described before. Gambling was often carried on to a great extent, +but evidently our modern people are not wiser than their ancestors +in this matter; and instead of playing games for recreation, are not +satisfied until they lose fortunes on the hazard of a dice or a +card. Let us hope that men will at length become wiser as the world +grows older. + +[Illustration: TWO INDIVIDUALS PLAYING CHESS AS TWO OTHERS LOOK ON.] + +Erasmus, the learned Dutchman, in his _Colloquies_ suggests some +curious awards for victors. He represents two youths, Adolphus and +Bernard, who begin to play a game at bowls. Adolphus says, "What +shall he that beats get, or he that is beaten lose?" Bernard +replies, "What if he that beats shall have a piece of his ear cut +off? It is a mean thing to play for money: you are a German, and I a +Frenchman: we will both play for the honour of his country. If I +shall beat you, you shall cry out thrice, 'Let France flourish!' if +I shall be beat (which I hope I shall not), I will in the same words +celebrate your Germany." They bowl away: a stone represents the +Jack: a mischievous bit of brickbat rather interferes with the +German's accuracy, of aim, but in the end he wins, and the French +cock has to crow thrice, "Let Germany flourish." In another game +between two students who are contending in the play of striking a +ball through an iron ring, it is arranged that he that is beat shall +make and repeat extempore some verses in praise of him that beat +him. This certainly would make many a youth keen to win the contest! + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +DECEMBER. + + "The Darling of the world is come, + And fit it is we find a room + To welcome Him. The nobler part + Of all the house here is the heart, + + "Which we will give Him; and bequeath + This holly and this ivy wreath + To do Him honour, who's our King, + And Lord of all this revelling." + + HERRICK, _A Christmas Carol_. + +St. Nicholas Day--The Boy Bishop--Christmas Eve--Christmas +Customs--Mummers--"Lord of Misrule"--Conclusion. + + +Now dark and chill December has arrived; and very dark and chill it +must have seemed to our ancestors. No gaslights illuminated the +streets, here and there a feeble oil lamp helped to make the +darkness visible, when the oil was not frozen: the roads were deep +with mud, and everything outside was cold and cheerless. But within +the farmer's kitchen the huge logs burned brightly, and the +Christmas holidays were at hand with the accustomed merrymakings, to +cheer the hearts of all in the depths of the dreary winter. + +But before Christmas Day arrived, the children enjoyed a great treat +on St. Nicholas' Day, December 6th, when it was the custom for +parents to convey secretly presents of various kinds to their little +sons and daughters, who were taught to believe that they owed them +to the kindness of St. Nicholas, who, going up and down among the +towns and villages, came in at the windows and distributed the +gifts. St. Nicholas, who died A.D. 343, threw a purse filled with +money into the bedroom of a poor man for the benefit of his three +daughters, who were in sore trouble; and this story seems to have +originated the custom which has been observed in many countries, and +brought much enjoyment to the young folk who received St. Nicholas' +bounty. + +Before the Reformation there was another very strange custom +associated with this day; namely, the election of a boy bishop, who +was dressed in episcopal robes, with a mitre on his head, and who +actually was allowed to preach in the church. This was done +regularly at many of our cathedrals and collegiate churches, and we +find records of the custom amongst the archives of Salisbury and +many other places; even the service which they used is in existence. +The youthful bishop was elected by the choir-boys, and exercised his +functions until Holy Innocents' Day. On that day in great state he +entered the cathedral surrounded by the other boys, who played the +part of prebendaries, and attended by the dean and canons, who on +this occasion yielded up their dignity to the youthful prelate and +his followers. The collect for Holy Innocents' Day in our +Prayer-book formed part of the service. It was a strange ceremony, +not unmixed with irreverence, and happily has long been +discontinued, being forbidden by Royal proclamation in 1542, and +finally abolished by Elizabeth. + +In the archives of the ancient town of Bristol there is a book of +directions for the Mayor and his brethren, and on St. Nicholas' Day +they are ordered to go to the Church of St. Nicholas and join in the +festival of the boy bishop, to hear his sermon and receive his +blessing. Then they dined together, and waited for the young bishop +to come to them, playing the meanwhile at dice, the town clerk being +ordered to find the dice, and to receive a penny for every raffle. +The bishop was regaled with bread and wine, and preached again to +the Mayor and corporation in the evening. I am informed that a +curious memorial of this custom existed until recent years in one +village at least. An old lady recollected that when she was a child +she was allowed to play with her companions in church on St. +Nicholas' Day. + +But Christmas is approaching, and we must hasten to describe that +bright and happy festival. The holiday began on Christmas Eve, and +perhaps you have wondered why we hang up mistletoe, and decorate our +churches and houses with holly, why our ancestors brought in the +Yule-log, and performed many other customs which do not seem to be +very closely connected with the celebration of the birthday of our +Lord. But we must remember that our forefathers were originally +heathen, and at this period of the year they practised several +strange customs connected with their Druidical worship, and held +great feasts in honour of their gods. When Christian missionaries +converted these heathen, they strove to put down some of the old +idolatrous practices; but their efforts were in vain, for the people +were warmly attached to these old rights and usages. So a compromise +was effected: the old Pagan customs were shorn of their idolatry and +transferred to our Christian festivals. Cutting the mistletoe was +distinctly a rite practised by the Druids, who cut the sacred plant +with a golden knife, and sacrificed two white bulls to the sylvan +deities whom they thus sought to propitiate. We hang up our bunches +of mistletoe now, but we do not attach any superstitious importance +to it, nor imagine that any gods of the woods will be influenced by +our procedure. The bringing in of the Yule-log was a Norse custom +observed in honour of Thor, from whose name we derive our word +Thursday or Thor's-day. The mighty log was drawn into the baronial +hall with great pomp, while the bards sang their songs of praise and +chanted "Welcome Yule." + + "Welcome be Thou, heavenly King, + Welcome, born on this morning; + Welcome for whom we shall sing + Welcome, Yule." + +Herrick, who delighted so much in singing of + + "Maypoles, hock-carts, wassails, wakes--" + +then bursts out in joyous strains: + + "Come, bring with a noise, + My merry, merry boys, + The Christmas log to the firing; + While my good dame, she + Bids ye all be free + And drink to your heart's desiring. + With the last year's brand + Light the new block, and + For good success in his spending, + On your psaltries play, + That sweet luck may + Come while the log is a-teending." + +We can fancy that we see the ceremony, the glad procession of +retainers and servants, the lights flaring in all directions: we can +hear the shouts and chorus of many voices, the drums beating and +flutes and trumpets sounding. The huge hearth receives the mighty +log, and the flames and sparks shoot up the gaping chimney. + +At Court in olden times Christmas was kept right royally, if we may +judge from the extensive _menu_ of the repasts of King Henry III. +and his courtiers in the year 1247. He kept his Christmas at +Winchester Castle, and the neighbourhood must have been ransacked to +furnish supplies for the royal table. The choice dainties were as +follows: Boars, with heads entire, well cooked and very succulent, +48; fowls, 1900; partridges, mostly "put in paste," 500; swans, 41; +peacocks, 48; hares, 260; eggs, 24,000; 300 gallons of oysters; 300 +rabbits, and more if possible; birds of various sorts, as many as +could be had; of whitings, "particularly good and heavy," and conger +eels the same; a hundred mullets, "fat and very heavy." For bread +the king paid £27 10s., at the price of four loaves to the penny. +When the king kept his Christmas at York in 1250, the royal treasury +must have been very full, for he ordered for the royal banquets 7000 +fowls, 1750 partridges, besides immense numbers of boars, swans, +pheasants, &c. Of course the king had a very large retinue of +vassals and feudal lords to provide for; but the store seems +sufficiently vast to supply the wants of an army of faithful, but +hungry, subjects. Sometimes, when the king was short of money, there +was a considerable reduction in the amount of good things consumed +at Christmas. + +Our ancestors were very careful to attend the services of the +church, which their loving hands had adorned with holly, bay, +rosemary, and laurel. They considered it a day of special +thanksgiving and rejoicing, as an old poet observed-- + + "At Christmas be merry and thankful with all, + And feast thy poor neighbours, the great and the small." + +The solemn service of Holy Communion was celebrated on Christmas +Eve, in mediæval times--the only night in all the year when an +evening celebration was allowed. The halls of the knights and barons +of ancient days were thrown open to all comers, and open house was +kept for a fortnight. Rejoicing at Christmas time seems to have been +universal, and it is not for us to judge whether in their mirth they +sometimes forgot the reason of true Christmas joy, and thought more +of their feasting than of Him who was born on Christmas Day. But by +their hearty manner of keeping this annual festival, by the +hospitality which the farmers and rich men showed to their labourers +and poorer neighbours, they promoted, at any rate, "goodwill amongst +men"--old animosities, quarrels, and bitternesses were forgotten, +and the hearts of the poor cheered. + +In the North of England every farmer gave two feasts, one called +"the old folks' night," and the other "the young folks' night." The +old Squire used to receive his tenants and neighbours at daybreak, +when the black-jacks were passed round, and woe betide the luckless +cook who had overslept herself, and had not boiled the Hackin, or +large sausage, ere the day dawned, for then she was seized by the +arms and made to run round the market-place, or courtyard, until +she was ashamed of her laziness. + +And now let us enter the hall of some great baron and see how our +ancestors kept a merry Christmas. The panelled walls, and stags' +horns, and gallery at one end of the great room were hung with holly +and mistletoe. The Yule-log blazed upon the hearth, and then entered +the vassals, tenants, and servants of the lord to share in the +Christmas banquet. Rank and ceremony were laid aside: all were +deemed equal, whether lords or barons, serfs or peasants--a custom +which arose, doubtless, from the remembrance of Him who on the first +Christmas Day, "although He was rich, yet for our sakes became +poor." + +And now on the huge oaken table were placed the various dishes of +the feast--a mighty boar's head, decorated with laurel and rosemary, +whose approach was often heralded with trumpets as the king of the +feast; then came a peacock, stuffed with spices and sweet herbs, and +adorned with its gay feathers, and then followed a goodly company of +geese, capons, sirloins of beef, pheasants, mince-pies, and +plum-porridge. A carol was often sung when the boar's head was +brought in; here is one from the collection of Wynkyn de Worde: + + Caput Apri defero + Reddens laudes Domino, + The Boar's Head in hand bring I + With garlands gay and rosemary; + I pray you all sing merrily + Qui estis in convivio. + + The Boar's Head, I understand, + Is the chief service in this land; + Look wherever it be fande: + Servile cum cantico. + + Be glad, lords, both more and lasse, + For this hath ordained our stewárd + To cheer you all this Christmasse, + The Boar's Head with mustárd.[18] + +Neither were the ale and wassail-bowl forgotten, and they circulated +sometimes too often, I fear, and laid the seeds of gout and other +evils, from which other generations suffer. But when the prodigious +appetites of the company had been appeased, the maskers and mummers +entered the hall and performed strange antics and a curious play, +fragments of which have come down to our own time. The youths of the +villages of England still come round at Christmas-time and act their +mumming-drama, in which "St. George" kills a "Turkish knight," who +is raised to life by "Medicine Man," and performs a very important +part of the play--passing round the money-box. This is a remnant of +the mumming of ancient days, and perhaps of some "mystery" play, of +which I told you in a previous chapter. + +In Berkshire the characters are represented by "Molly," a stalwart +man dressed in a woman's gown, shawl, and bonnet, with a besom in +his hand, who strives in his dialogue to imitate a woman's voice; +King George, a big burly man dressed as a knight, with a wooden +sword and a home-made helmet; a French officer, with a cocked hat +and sword; a Doctor, who wears a pig-tail; Jack Vinny, a jester; +Happy Jack, a humorous character dressed in tattered garments, and +Old Beelzebub, who appears as Father Christmas. In some parts of the +royal county the part of King George is taken by an "Africky king," +and a Turkish knight instead of the French officer. Very curious are +the words of the old play, and very ludicrous the representation +when the parts are acted by competent players. + +There was also in the baron's hall a great person dressed in a very +fantastic garb, who was here, there, and everywhere, directing the +mummers, making jokes to amuse the company, and looking after +everybody. He was called the "Lord of Misrule." Sometimes his rule +was harmless enough, and did good service in directing the revels; +but often he was more worthy of his name, and was guilty of all +kinds of absurd and mischievous pranks, which did great harm, and +were very profane. But these were not part of the Christmas feast, +where all was happiness and mirth. Sir Walter Scott says, in his +description of the festival-- + + "England was merry England when + Old Christmas brought his sports again; + A Christmas gambol oft would cheer + A poor man's heart through all the year." + +All the old poets sing in praise of the great day which, as Herrick +says, "sees December turned to May," and which makes the "chilling +winter's morn smile like a field beset with corn." Old carols chant +in reverent strains their homage to the infant Saviour: some reflect +time-honoured customs and social joys when old age casts aside its +solemnity and mingles once more in the light-hearted gaiety of +youth, and all unite in chanting the praises of this happy festival. +The poet Withers sings-- + + "Lo! now is come our joyful'st feast! + Let every man be jolly; + Each room with ivy leaves is drest, + And every post with holly. + + "Now all our neighbours' chimneys smoke, + And Christmas blocks are burning; + Their ovens they with baked meats choke, + And all their spits are turning. + + "Without the door let sorrow lie, + And if, for cold, it has to die, + We'll bury it in Christmas pie, + And evermore be merry." + +Thus the happy night was spent; and if, like grave elders, we look +down upon these frolics of a younger age, and think ourselves so +much wiser and better than our forefathers, we should not forget the +benefits which come from open-handed hospitality, goodwill, and +simple manners, nor scornfully regard honest merriment and +light-hearted gaiety. A light heart is generally not far removed +from a holy heart. + +Yes, England was merry England then; and although there were plenty +of troubles in those days, when plagues decimated whole villages, +when wars were frequent, food scarce, and oppression common, yet the +Christmas festivities, the varieties of sports and pastimes which +each season provided, the homely customs and bonds of union between +class and class which these observances strengthened, added +brightness to the lives of our simple forefathers, who might +otherwise have sunk beneath the burdens of their daily toil. We have +seen how many customs and sports, which were at first simple and +harmless, degenerated and were abused: we have noticed some of the +bad features of these ancient pastimes, such as cruelty to animals +and intemperance; and are thankful that there is some improvement +manifest in these respects. But it is interesting to witness again +in imagination the scenes that once took place in our market-places +and on our village greens; and, if it be impossible to restore again +the glories of May Day and the brightness of the Christmas feast, we +may still find plenty of harmless and innocent recreation, and learn +to be merry, and at the same time wise. + + * * * * * + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + + +[Footnote 1: Although the 1st of January was popularly regarded as +the beginning of the year from early times, it was not until 1752 +A.D. that the legal commencement of the year was changed from March +25th to the former date.] + +[Footnote 2: These fires signified our Saviour and the Twelve +Apostles. One of the fires, which represented Judas, the traitor, +was extinguished soon after it was lighted, and the materials of the +fire kicked about.] + +[Footnote 3: The distaff was the staff which held the flax or wool +in spinning. All maidens were engaged in this occupation, and a +"spinster" (_i.e._ one who spins) is still the legal term for an +unmarried woman.] + +[Footnote 4: St. Blaize (or Blasius) was Bishop of Sebaste in +Armenia, and was martyred 316 A.D. His flesh was torn with iron +combs, so the wool-staplers have adopted him as their patron saint.] + +[Footnote 5: _Shrove-tide_ and _Shrove Tuesday_ derive their names +from the ancient practice of confessing one's sins on that day. _To +be shriven,_ or _shrove_, means to obtain absolution from one's +sin.] + +[Footnote 6: It was practised as late as the end of the last +century.] + +[Footnote 7: So called from the Gospel of the day, which treats of +the feeding of the five thousand.--_Cf_. Wheatley on Prayer-book.] + +[Footnote 8: The caber is a small tree, or beam, heavier at one end +than the other. The performer holds this perpendicularly, with the +smaller end downwards, and his object is to toss it so as to make it +fall on the other end.] + +[Footnote 9: _A Pleasant Grove of New Fancies_, 1637.] + +[Footnote 10: Sometimes the May Queen did not consort with +morris-dancers, but sat in solitary state under a canopy of boughs.] + +[Footnote 11: A Correspondence in _Athenæum_, Sept. 20, 1890.] + +[Footnote 12: The same story is told of Willes, who is supposed by +some cricketers to be the inventor of the modern style of delivery.] + +[Footnote 13: The word _fair_ is derived from the ecclesiastical +term, _feria_, a holiday.] + +[Footnote 14: _Cf._ Govett's _King's Book of Sports_, and _Tom +Brown's Schooldays,_ to which I am indebted for the above accurate +description of back-sword play.] + +[Footnote 15: I am indebted for this description to Mr. W. Andrews' +interesting book on the _Curiosities of the Church_.] + +[Footnote 16: Cf. _Annals of Winchcombe and Sudeley_, by Mrs. +Dent.] + +[Footnote 17: Cf. _Glossary of Berkshire Words and Phrases_, by +Major B. Lowsley, R.E.] + +[Footnote 18: The custom of bringing in the boar's head is still +preserved at Queen's College, Oxford. The story is told of a student +of the college who was attacked by a wild boar while he was +diligently studying Aristotle during a walk near Shotover Hill. His +book was his only means of defence, so he thrust the volume down the +animal's throat, exclaiming, "It is Greek!" The boar found Greek +very difficult to digest, and died on the spot, and the head was +brought home in triumph by the student. Ever since that date, for +five hundred years, a boar's head has graced the college table at +Christmas.] + + + + +INDEX. + + +Agape, suggested origin of "Church ales," 53 + +Ales, Church, 52, 53, 57 + +Alfred, laws relating to holidays, 5 + +All-hallow Eve, 105 + +Animals to be hunted, 16 + +April, 36 + +Archery, 25--31 + +Ascension Day, 50 + +Ascham's accomplishments of English Gentleman, 97 + + +Back-sword play, 81 + +Baiting bears, bulls, &c., 89 + +Bale-fires, 50 + +Ball games, 20, 21, 61--71 + +Barley-brake, 39 + +Bath, wakes at, 81 + +Battledore, 23 + +Bean, King of, 7 + +Berks--Old sports, 81 + +"Bessy," 9 + +Blaize St., 18 + +Boar's head at Christmas, 123 + +Bonfires, 6, 57, 106, 108 + +Book of Sports, 48, 50 + +Bounds, beating, 50 + +Bowl, 49 + +Boy bishop, 116 + +Bull-baiting, 89 + +Burning wheel, 59 + +Butts, 27 + + +Caber-tossing, 38 + +Candlemas, 18 + +Carols, 111 + +_Catherine, St._, miracle play, 99 + +Charlemagne, 58 + +Chess, 112 + +Chester, 41, 48 + +Choirs, Old, 111 + +Christmas holidays, 5 + customs, 118-126 + at Court, 120 + +Church decoration, 37, 49, 121 + +Churchwardens' accounts, 34, 36, 42, 54, 72, 100 + +Church ale, 52, 53, 57 + +Church house, 53 + +Cloudslee, William of, 28 + +Club-ball, 65, 66 + +Cock-fighting, 23, 24 + +Cock-throwing, 23 + +Collop Monday, 19 + +_Colloquies_ of Erasmus, 113 + +_Conversion of St. Paul_, mystery play, 98 + +Country parson, 51 + +Coventry, 42, 103 + +_Crafte of Hunting_, 16 + +Cricket, 38, 61-65 + +Cross-bow, 27 + +Cudgel-play, 38 + +Curling, 39 + +Customs, local, 4, 5, 6, 12, 20, 24, 33, 34, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 50, + 54, 60, 62, 78, 81, 106, 108, 109, 117 + + +Dances, country, on village green, 11 + +Dancing with swords, 10 + +December, 115 + +Dedication festivals, 3 + +_Demands Joyous_, 110 + +Devonshire custom, 4 + +Distaff, St., 9 + +Dragons, 59 + +Dues, Cock-fight, 24 + + +Early sport, 14, 16 + +Easter, 36--41 + +Eighteenth century cricket, 63 + +Election of King of Bean, 7 + +England "Merry," 1, 125, 126 + +_English Villages, Our_, 3, 80 + +Epiphany, 5 + +Erasmus, _Colloquies_ of, 113 + +Evelyn's _Diary_, 90 + + +Fairs, 3, 80 + +Falconer, 87 + +February, 13 + +Festivals, 3, 36, 50, 118 + +Finsbury, 28 + +Football, 20, 21, 41 + +Foot-races, 22, 38 + +Fox-hunting extraordinary, 17 + +France, home of tennis, 39 + + +Gambling, 112 + +Games, minor ball, 71 + " ball, 20, 21, 64, 71 + " indoor, 21, 112 + +George Herbert, 51 + +Golf, 66, 68 + +Good Friday cake, 33 + +Gospel trees, 50 + +Grasmere, 72 + +Guildford, cricket at, 62 + +Gunpowder Plot, 108 + +Guy Fawkes, 107 + + +Hambledon Cricket Club, 63, 64 + +Handball, 27 + +Handball in Church, 38 + +Harvest home, 75, 79 + +Hawking, 84 + +Heaving, 37 + +Herbert, George, 51 + +Herefordshire custom, 6 + +Herrick, 9, 31, 74, 115, 119, 125 + +Hobby-horse, 26 + +Hock-cart, 75 + +Hocking, 54 + +Hock-tide, 41, 42 + +Holland, golf introduced from, 66 + +Horse-collar, grinning through a, 54 + +Hot cross buns, 33, 34 + +Hunting, 13, 17 + +Hurling, 22, 23 + + +Indoor games, 21 + +Ireland, 50 + +Isaak Walton, 17 + + +January, 1 + +Jersey, 59 + +Jingling match, 56 + +John's, St., Eve, 57 + +Jousts, 94 + +July, 61 + +June, 52 + + +Kenilworth Castle, pageants at 103 + +Kent and Sussex, first homes of cricket, 62 + +King of the Bean, 7 + + +Lammas, 74 + +Lancashire, 49 + +Lawn-tennis, 70 + +Lifting, 37 + +Lillywhite, 65 + +Local customs, 4, 5, 6, 12, 19, 20, 24, 33, 34, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, + 50, 54, 60, 62, 78, 81, 107, 108, 109, 117, 123 + +"Lord of Misrule," 125 + + +Magdalen hymn, 45 + +Magdalen pulpit, 60 + +March, 25 + +Martinmas, 110 + +Maundy Thursday--Money, 33 + +May--May Day, 44 + +May-pole, 45, 46, 48 + +May Queen, 46 + +"Merry England," 1, 125, 126 + +Mews, origin of word, 88 + +Michaelmas, 88 + +Midsummer Eve, 58 + +Minor ball-games, 71 + +Miracle plays, 36, 57, 98 + +Misrule," "Lord of, 125 + +Mitford, Miss, _Our Village_, 64 + +_Moralities_, 99 + +Mothering-Sunday, 31 + +Mummers, 124 + +_Mysteries_, 57, 98, 100 + + +New Year's Day, 45 + +_Nicholas, St., The Image of_, mystery play, 99 + +Nicholas, Day, St., 116 + +_Noah and the Flood_, mystery play, 98 + +November, 105 + + +October, 92 + +Old songs, 4, 6, 8, 13, 14, 23, 28, 36, 46, 63, 75, 76, 77, 109 + +Orchards, wassailing of, 4, 6 + +Otter-hunting, 17 + +_Our English Villages_, reference, 3, 80 + +_Our Village_, reference, 64 + +Outdoor winter sports, 7 + +Oxford customs, 109, 123 + + +Pace, _Pasche, Paschal_, eggs, 37 + +Pageants, 101 + +Pall Mall, 68 + +Palm Sunday, 32 + +Park, St. James's, 68 + +Parson, country, 50 + +Pea, Queen of, 8 + +Pig-catching, 56 + +Pigeon-holes, 56 + +Plagues, 72 + +Plough Monday, 9 + +Pole-leaping, 38 + +Purification, 18 + +Puritans, 47 + + +Quarter-staff, 38, 54, 56 + +Queen of the Pea, 8 + +Queen of the Play, 46 + +Quintain, 41 + + +Reading town, 27, 42, 54 + +Reformation, 9, 18, 22 + +Refreshment Sunday, 31 + +Relics of Sun-worship, 51, 59 + +Revival of Bounds-beating, 51 + +Robin Hood, 28 + +Roch's, St., Day, 75 + +Rogation Days, 50 + +Royal golfers, 66 + " tennis players, 69, 70 + +Rush-bearing, rushes in Churches, 49, 71, 72 + + +Salisbury, boy bishop, 116 + +September, 84 + +Sepulchres, 35 + +Sheep-shearing, 79 + +Shere Thursday, 33 + +Shrovetide, 19, 24 + +Simnell-cakes, 32 + +Single-stick, 35 + +Skating, 10, 38 + +"Spinster," derivation of, 9 + +Sports, Book of, 48, 49, 50 + +Sports, early, 14, 16 + +Songs, old, 4, 6, 8, 13, 14, 23, 28, 36, 46, 63, 75, 76, 77, 109 + +Soul-cakes, 106 + +Stool-ball, 66 + +Stuarts, 21, 48, 50, 66, 68, 80 + +Sudeley Castle, pageants at, 101 + +Sun-worship, relics of, 57, 59 + +Superstitions, 5, 33, 39, 50, 59, 106, 107 + +Sussex custom, 4 + +Sussex and Kent, first homes of cricket, 62 + + +Tansy-cake, 38 + +Tennis, 68, 71 + +Tilting at a ring, 97 + +Tipcat called Billet, 23 + +Tournaments, 92 + +Trap-ball, 66 + +Tusser, _Five Hundred Points of Husbandry_, 79 + +Twelfth Day Eve, 5, 6 + +Twelfth Night, 7 + + +_Undershaft_, St. Andrew, 48 + +Uncleanliness, 72 + + +Valentine, St., 18 + + +Wakes, 79, 80, 81 + +Walton, Isaak, 17 + +"Wassail," 4 + +Water tournament, 39, 40 + +Whistling match, 56 + +White Horse Hill, 54 + +Whitsuntide, 52 + +Willes, 65 + +Winter games, indoor, 10 + +Wise men from East, 7 + +Withers, Christmas song, 125 + +Wrestling, 59 + + +Year, New, festivities, 4, 5 + +Yule-log, 118 + + + + * * * * * + +Richard Clay & Sons, Limited, London & Bungay + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14315 *** |