SPORTS AND AMUSEMENTS
A list of sports in 1600 is quoted in Furnivall’s notes to Stubbes
(Part I. Series vi. No. 6, p. 316).
“Man, I dare challenge thee to throw the sledge,
To iumpe or leape ouer a ditch or hedge,
To wrestle, play at stooleball, or to runne,
To pitch the barre, or to shoote off a gunne:
To play at loggets, nine holes, or ten pinnes,
To trie it out at foot-ball by the shinnes;
At Ticktacke, Irish, Noddie, Maw, and Ruffe;
At hot-cockles, leape-frogge, or blindman-buffe;
To drinke halfe pots, or deale at the whole canne
To play at base, or pen-and-ynk-horne sir Ihan:
To daunce the Morris, play at Barly-breake:
At all exploytes a man can thinke or speake:
At shoue-groute, venter-poynt, or crosse and pile:
At beshrow him that’s last at yonder style.”
The prohibition of games on Sunday by the Puritans led to the abolition
of the working-class’s amusements altogether, and was therefore
answerable for much of that hideous brutality which possessed that
class during the latter part of the eighteenth century. They were not
to wrestle, shoot, play at bowls, ring bells, hold masques, wakes, play
games of any kind, dance, or exercise any other pastime on Sunday. Now,
as Sunday was the only day when the working people could play games or
have any recreation, this prohibition destroyed the knowledge of these
games, the old delight in them, the desire for them, the skill in them.
After eighteen years of Puritan rule a new type of working man grew up,
one who knew no games and could practise none; a duller creature, heavy
witted, slow of sight, and clumsy of hand; one who would yield to the
temptation of drink without resistance; one who was capable of sinking
lower and lower still. This is one of the many blessings which have
been bestowed upon London by the Puritans.
For winter amusements the better class had a variety of games, such
as “cards, tables, dice, shovelboard, chess, the philosophers game,
small trunks, shuttlecock, billiards, music, masks, singing, dancing,
all games, frolicks, jests, riddles, catches, purposes, questions
and commands, merry tales of knights errant, queens, lovers, lords,
ladies, giants, dwarfs, thieves, cheaters, witches, fairies, goblins,
friars”—Malcolm[12] has picked this list out of Burton.
[Illustration: SPORTS OF THE PERIOD
From contemporary engravings by Hollar.]
{Transcription:
FEASANT HAWKING.
The Feasant Cock the woods doth most frequent,
Where Spanniells spring & pearch him by the sent.
And when in flight, the Hawk w^{th}. quickned speed
With’s beake and savage talens makes him bleede.
ANGLING.
_Angling on river banks, trowling for pike,
Is noble Sport when as the fish doth strike,
And when your pleasure’s over, then at night
You and your freinds doe eate them with delight._}
The shows and performances at the fairs were extremely popular. There
were puppet shows, at which scriptural pieces were represented, or the
Patient Grizzle, or the Lady Godiva; there were tight-rope dancers;
there were performing dogs or monkeys; there were strong men and
cunning men; jugglers, and conjurers.
Athletic sports were in vogue. Many of the young nobles were expert
swimmers; others, among whom was the Duke of Monmouth, were fast
runners, so that foot-races were a favourite amusement. Two of them
once ran down a buck. Tennis was a favourite game, as was also
pall-mall; skating, when there was ice, was extensively practised;
bowl-racing and horse-racing were common. Bowls continued as a game
which never goes wholly out of fashion. Baiting of the bull and the
bear were resumed after the Restoration, but the lust for this brutal
sport seems to have gone out.
The evening amusements of James the First, which seem stupid and coarse
enough, may be perhaps regarded as the natural swing of the pendulum
after a day spent in the maintenance of the Royal dignity by a king in
whom there was naturally very little of dignity. The passage also shows
the kind of amusement which rich men who could afford to keep buffoons
were pleased to adopt:—
“The Monarch, it is said, would leave his dining or supping room to
witness the pastimes and fooleries performed by Sir Edward Zouch, Sir
George Goring, and Sir John _Finit_. The first sung indecent songs
and related tales of the same description, the former of which were
written by _Finit_, who procured fiddlers as an accompanyment to Zouch;
and Goring was master of the game for fooleries, sometimes presenting
David Droman and Archee Armstrong, the King’s fool, on the back of the
other fools, to tilt one at another, till they fell together by the
ears; sometimes antick dances; but Sir John Millisent, who was never
known before, was commended for notable fooling, and so he was the best
extempore fool of them all.”
Chamberlayn’s _Present State of England_ presents the most complete
picture of the sports of this century:—
“For variety of Devertisements, Sports and Recreations, no Nation
doth excel the English.
The King hath abroad his Forests, Chases, and Parks, full of
variety of Game; for Hunting Red and Fallow Deer, Foxes, Otters;
Hawking, his Paddock-Courses, Horse-Races, etc., and at home,
Tennis, Pelmel, Billiard, Comedies, Opera, Mascarades, Balls,
Ballets, etc. The Nobility and Gentry have their Parks, Warrens,
Decoys, Paddock-Courses, Horse-Races, Hunting, Coursing, Fishing,
Fowling, Hawking, Setting-Dogs, Tumblers, Lurchers, Duck-hunting,
Cock-fighting, Guns for Birding, Low-Bells, Bat-Fowling, Angling,
Nets, Tennis, Bowling, Billiards, Tables, Chess, Draughts, Cards,
Dice, Catches, Questions, Purposes, Stage-Plays, Masks, Balls,
Dancing, Singing, all sorts of Musical Instruments, etc. The
citizen and peasants have Hand-Ball, Foot-Ball, Skittles, or
Nine Pins, Shovel-Board, Stow-Ball, Goffe, Trol Madams, Cudgels,
Bear-baiting, Bull-baiting, Shuttlecock, Bowling, Quoits, Leaping,
Wrestling, Pitching the Bar, and Ringing of Bells, a Recreation
used in no other Country of the World.
Amongst these, Cock-fighting seems to all Foreigners too childish
and unsuitable for the Gentry, and for the Common People
Bull-baiting and Bear-baiting seem too cruel; and for the Citizens,
Foot-Ball, and Throwing at Cocks, very uncivil, rude, and barbarous
within the City.”
In the Directory of London, 1761, there are fifteen streets, lanes,
and alleys, which are named after the game of bowls. This simple fact
proves the popularity of the bowling green. These places were licensed
by James the First. They were allowed to have tennis courts, rooms
for cards and dice, and such diversions besides bowling greens. They
were all in the suburbs; there had formerly, however, been a bowling
green in Thames Street. Twenty-four were allotted to the suburbs of
London and Westminster; four to Southwark; one to St. Katherine’s
by the Tower; two to Lambeth; one to Shoreditch; and one to every
town, village, or hamlet within two miles of London or Westminster.
In Charles’s reign a barber set up a place provided with two bowling
greens in Piccadilly, between the Haymarket and St. James Street;
nothing is said about any licence being required for this venture.
Fencing schools were much frequented. The terms used in fencing, which
are enumerated by Ben Jonson, were all Italian. The masters granted
degrees to their disciples, _Master_, _Provost_, _Scholar_. These
schools became haunts of vice, and attempts were made to suppress them,
but without success.
Duke Cosmo says that the fencing masters, in order to gain reputation,
give a general challenge, offering twenty or thirty jacobuses or more
to any one who has a mind to fight with them.
Josevin de Rochefort, whose travels in England were published in 1672,
gives a long account of a fencing match:—
“We went to see the Bergiardin, which is a great amphitheatre, where
combats are fought between all sorts of animals, and sometimes men, as
we once saw. Commonly, when any fencing masters are desirous of shewing
their courage and their great skill, they issue mutual challenges, and
before they engage, parade the town with drums and trumpets sounding,
to inform the public there is a challenge between two brave masters of
the science of defence, and that the battle will be fought on such a
day. We went to see this combat, which was performed on a stage in the
middle of this amphitheatre, where, on the flourishes of trumpets and
the beat of drums, the combatants entered, stripped to their shirts.
On a signal from the drum, they drew their swords, and immediately
began the fight, skirmishing a long time without any wounds. They were
both very skilful and courageous. The tallest had the advantage over
the least: for, according to the English fashion of fencing, they
endeavoured rather to cut than push in the French manner, so that by
his height he had the advantage of being able to strike his antagonist
on the head, against which the little one was on his guard. He had in
his turn an advantage over the great one, in being able to give him
the jarnac stroke, by cutting him on his right ham, which he left in
a manner quite unguarded. So that, all things considered, they were
equally matched. Nevertheless, the tall one struck his antagonist on
the wrist, which he almost cut off: but this did not prevent him from
continuing the fight, after he had been dressed, and taken a glass of
wine or two to give him courage, when he took ample vengeance for his
wound: for a little afterwards, making a feint at the ham, the tall
man, stooping in order to parry it, laid his whole head open, when the
little one gave him a stroke, which took off a slice of his head, and
almost all of his ear. For my part I think there is an inhumanity,
a barbarity and cruelty, in permitting men to kill each other for
diversion. The surgeons immediately dressed them, and bound up their
wounds: which being done, they resumed the combat, and both being
sensible of their respective disadvantages, they therefore were a long
time without giving or receiving a wound, which was the cause that the
little one, failing to parry so exactly, being tired with this long
battle, received a stroke on his wounded wrist, which dividing the
sinews, he remained vanquished, and the tall conqueror received the
applause of the spectators. For my part I should have had more pleasure
in seeing the battle of the bears and dogs, which was fought the
following day on the same theatre.”
Just as, early in the eighteenth century, there was a scare about the
Mohocks, so in the reign of Charles II. there was a scare about the
so-called “Scowerers.” There were “Roreres,” in the thirteenth century;
“Roaring Boys,” in the sixteenth; “Scowerers,” in the seventeenth;
Mohocks in the eighteenth; and Corinthian Tom in the nineteenth
century. And the facts and achievements of their young bloods are
always exaggerated. We are now told that the Scowerers assembled in
bands, stormed taverns, broke windows, upset apple carts, and generally
showed their indomitable spirit. Shadwell wrote a comedy about them. I
record the common belief, but doubt the fact.
Wrestling, and the sight of wrestling, was a favourite amusement of the
time:—
“In 1681,” (_Manners and Customs_) “the King witnessed a wrestling
match where the abettors were the Monarch and the Duke of Albemarle:
a meadow below the castle was the scene of action, and the match
was composed of twelve men on each side: the King’s party wore red
waistcoats, and the Duke’s blue: a ring or inclosure was formed, and a
space in it admitted the Royal coach: the Queen and her ladies viewed
the contest from the terrace, but the Duke mixed with the crowd.
The activity displayed on this occasion excited great applause, and
only one of the number offered foul play, which the Duke punished by
tripping up his heels.
The victory was gained by the blues: and they thus procured their
employer 200 guineas, the wager depending: the sum of 10s. each was
given to the King’s men, and 20s. to the victors. After which the
King’s men challenged the Duke’s at back-sword: in which exercise some
being unskilful, others were taken in to complete the number. This was
performed with great skill and courage, but not attended with those
barbarous circumstances which were usual with the Roman gladiators,
who, to shew the Emperor sport, sheathed their swords in one another’s
bowels: our most clement and gracious King abominating all acts of
cruelty. The issue of this was only some broken pates, and the palm was
again given to the blues. The King’s men being heated, and unwilling
that the Duke’s should thus carry a victory, resolved to have another
trial with them, and challenged them at football, which being accepted,
the goals staked out, and the ball placed in the middle, the Duke held
up an handkerchief over the ball, the letting fall of which was the
signal to give the start, and the handkerchief a reward to him that
got the first kick, which was one of the Duke’s men, who (in all three
exercises) behaved himself so singularly active, that his Majesty took
particular notice of him, and gave him a guinea. And, notwithstanding
fortune still appeared on the Duke’s side, his Majesty seemed highly
pleased with that day’s divertisement.”
“One of the most curious and ingenious amusements” ever offered to
the public ear was contrived in the year 1682, when an elm plank was
exhibited to the King and the credulous of London, which, being touched
by a hot iron, invariably produced a sound resembling deep groans.
“This sensible and very irritable board received numbers of noble
visitors: and other boards, sympathising with their afflicted brother,
demonstrated how much affected they might be by similar means. The
publicans in different parts of the City immediately applied ignited
metal to all the woodwork of their houses, in hopes of finding
sensitive timber: but I do not perceive any one so successful as the
landlord of the Bowman tavern in Drury Lane, who had a mantle tree
so extremely prompt and loud in its responses, that the sagacious
observers were nearly unanimous in pronouncing it part of the same
trunk which had afforded the original plank.”
The following paragraph is from the _Loyal London Mercury_, October 4,
1682:—
“Some persons being this week drinking at the Queen’s Arms tavern in
St. Martin’s le Grand, in the kitchen, and having laid the fire-fork in
the fire to light their pipes, accidentally fell a discoursing of the
groaning board, and what might be the cause of it. One in the company
having the fork in his hand to light his pipe, would needs make trial
of a long dresser that stood there, which, upon the first touch, made a
great noise and groaning, more than ever the board that was shewed did,
and when they touched it three or four times, and found it far beyond
the other. They all having seen it, the house is almost filled with
spectators day and night, and any company calling for a glass of wine
may see it: which, in the judgment of all, is far louder, and makes a
longer groan, than the other, which to report, unless seen, would seem
incredible.”
The subject of fairs is treated very fully in the volume on the
eighteenth century; nevertheless, they cannot be here altogether
omitted, as they formed one of the chief amusements of the seventeenth
century.
Fairs began by being serious markets, but later became a place of less
important trade, where lace, gold and silver embroidery, jewellery,
and finery of every kind were exposed for sale. A further decline took
place when people of fashion ceased to attend the fair for the purchase
of these things. Then the fair became frankly a place of amusement and
pleasure with booths. These are the several stages of a fair: first,
the exhibition and sale of its staple as wool; next, or in addition,
its ordinary trade; thirdly, a catering for children and the lower
class. All this time its shows and amusements are growing of more and
more importance, until at length they become the principal object of
the fair. Paul Hentzner, writing in 1598, describes St. Bartholomew’s
Fair as follows:—
[Illustration: _Habit of the_ LORD MAYOR _of London in 1640_.
HABIT _of the_ LADY MAYORESS _of London in 1640_.
From a contemporary print.]
“Every year upon St. Bartholomew’s Day, when the Fair is held, it is
usual for the Mayor, attended by the twelve principal Aldermen, to walk
into a neighbouring field dressed in his scarlet gown, and about his
neck a golden chain, to which is hung a Golden Fleece, and besides,
that particular ornament (the collar of SS.) which distinguishes the
most noble Order of the Garter. During the year of his magistracy he is
obliged to live so magnificently that foreigner or native, without any
expense, is free, if he can find a chair empty, to dine at his table,
where there is always the greatest plenty. When the Mayor goes out
of the precincts of the City a sceptre, a sword, and a cap are borne
before him, and he is followed by the principal Aldermen in scarlet
gowns with gold chains, himself and they on horseback. Upon their
arrival at a place appointed for that purpose, where a tent is pitched,
the mob begin to wrestle before them, two at a time; the conquerors
receive rewards from the Mayor. After this is over a parcel of live
rabbits are turned loose among the crowd, which boys chase with great
noise. While we were at this show one of our company, Tobias Salander,
Doctor of Physic, had his pocket picked of his purse, with nine crowns
(ecus du soleil), which, without doubt, was so cleverly taken from him
by an Englishman, who always kept very close to him, that the Doctor
did not in the least perceive it” (_England, as seen by Foreigners_, p.
107).
Hentzner might have observed also that by the law of England the
cut-purse was liable to execution. In 1612 one John Pelman, a
cut-purse, was actually hanged for stealing a purse containing forty
shillings in the King’s Chapel of Whitehall. It is said of him that he
came in “good and seemly apparel like a Gentleman, a fair black coat
laced and either lined thorow, or faced, with velvet.” What says and
sings Nightingale in the play?—
“My masters and friends and good people, draw near,
And look to your purses, for that I do say;
And though little money in them you do bear,
It costs more to get than to lose in a day.
You oft have been told,
Both the young and the old,
And bidden beware of the cut-purse so bold;
Then if you take heed not, free me from the curse,
Who both give you warning, you, and the cut-purse.
Youth, youth, thou hadst better been starved by thy nurse,
Than live to be hanged for cutting a purse!”
The following was the Proclamation made before the fair (Morley[13]):—
“The Right Honourable Lord Mayor of the City of London and his right
worshipful brethren the aldermen of the said city, streightly charge
and command, on the behalf of our sovereign lady the Queen, that all
manner of persons, of whatsoever estate, degree, or condition they be,
having recourse to this Fair, keep the peace of our said sovereign lady
the Queen.
That no manner of persons make any congregation, conventicles, or
affrays, by which the same peace may be broken or disturbed, upon pain
of imprisonment and fine, to be made after the discretion of the lord
mayor and aldermen.
Also, that all manner of sellers of wine, ale, or beer, sell by
measures ensealed, as by gallon, pottle, quart, and pint, upon pain
that will fall thereof.
And that no person sell any bread, but if it keep the assize, and that
it be good and wholesome for man’s body, upon pain that will fall
thereof.
And that no manner of person buy or sell, but with true weights and
measures, sealed according to the statute in that behalf made, upon
pain that will fall thereof.
And that no manner of person, or persons, take upon him, or them,
within this Fair, to make any manner of arrest, attachment, summons,
or execution, but if it be done by the officer of this City thereunto
assigned, upon pain that will fall thereof.
And that no person or persons whatsoever, within the limits and bounds
of this Fair, presume to break the Lord’s Day in selling, showing, or
offering to sale, or in buying or offering to buy, any commodities
whatsoever, or in sitting, tippling, or drinking in any tavern, inn,
ale-house, or cook’s-house, or in doing any other thing that may lead
to the breach thereof, upon the pain and penalties contained in several
acts of Parliament, which will be severely inflicted upon the breakers
thereof.
And finally, that whatever person soever find themselves aggrieved,
injured, or wronged by any manner of person in this Fair, that they
come with their plaints before the stewards in this Fair, assigned
to hear and determine pleas, and they will minister to all parties
justice, according to the laws of this land, and the customs of this
city. God save the Queen!”
The mayor, sheriffs, and aldermen sitting on horseback, robed in their
violet gowns, having made this proclamation at a point between the
city Fair and that owned by the Warwick or Holland family, as the
rest of the official rule details, “the proclamation being made, they
ride through the Cloth Fair, and so return back again, through the
Churchyard of Great St. Bartholomew’s to Aldersgate, and so ride home
again to the Lord Mayor’s house.”
“It is remarkable,” to quote from a scarce tract of 1641, which is
given at length by Morley, “and worth your observation, to behold
and hear the strange sights and confused noises in the fair. Here a
Knave in a Fool’s Coat, with a trumpet sounding, or on a drum beating,
invites you and would fain persuade you to see his puppets; there a
Rogue like a Wild Woodman, or in an antick shape like an Incubus,
desires your company to view his motion; on the other side, Hocus
Pocus with three yards of tape or ribbon in’s hand, showing his art
of Legerdemain to the admiration and astonishment of a company of
cockaloaches. Amongst these you shall see a gray goose-cap (as wise as
the rest), with a What do ye lack? in his mouth, stand in his booth
shaking a rattle or scraping on a fiddle, with which children are so
taken, that they presently cry out for these fopperies; and all these
together make such a distracted noise, that you would think Babel were
not comparable to it. Here there are also your gamesters in action;
some turning of a whimsey, others throwing for pewter, who can quickly
dissolve a round shilling into a three-halfpenny saucer.
Long Lane at this time looks very fair, and puts out her best clothes
with the wrong side outward, so turned for their better turning off;
and Cloth Fair is now in great request; well fare the Ale houses
therein; yet better many a man fare (but at a dearer rate) in the Pig
market, _alias_ Pasty nook or Pie Corner, where pigs are all hours of
the day on the stalls piping hot, and would cry (if they could speak),
‘Come eat me’; but they are dear, and the reckonings for them are
saucy.”
D’Urfey’s verses, written in 1655, do not present a fair quite without
attractions:—
“In fifty-five may I never thrive,
If I tell you any more than is true,
To London she came, hearing of the fame
Of a fair they call Bartholomew.
In houses of boards, men talk upon cords,
As easy as squirrels crack filberds;
But the cut-purses they do bite and rob away;
But those we suppose to be ill-birds.
For a penny you may zee a fine puppet play,
And for twopence a rare piece of art;
And a penny a can, I dare swear a man
May put zix of ’em into a quart.
Their zights are so rich, is able to bewitch
The heart of a very fine man-a;
Here’s patient Grisel here, and Fair Rosamond there,
And the History of Susanna.
At Pye Corner end, mark well, my good friend,
’Tis a very fine dirty place;
Where there’s more arrows and bows, the Lord above knows,
Than was handl’d at Chivy-Chase.
Henry III. proclaimed a fifteen days’ fair to begin on the 13th of
October 1248, the Day of the Translation of St. Edward (_Matthew
Paris_, ii. p. 272)—
“On the 13th of October in this year, in the fortnight of Michaelmas,
the king proceeded to London, to keep the feast of St. Edward, that
is, of the translation of that saint, and sent word to a great number
of the prelates and nobles, begging them, out of their friendship and
devotion to him, to make their appearance at Westminster, to join with
him in solemnly and devoutly celebrating the feast of St. Edward.
At this summons, therefore, there came thither Earl Richard, Roger
Bigod, earl marshal, the Earl of Hereford, some select barons, and
certain knights, the bishops of Winchester, London, Ely, Worcester,
and Carlisle, and a great number of abbots and priors. The king then
declared it as his pleasure, and ordered it to be proclaimed by herald
throughout the whole city of London and elsewhere, that he instituted
a new fair to be held at Westminster, to continue for a fortnight
entire. He also strictly interdicted, under penalty of heavy forfeiture
and loss, all fairs which usually lasted for such a length of time in
England; for instance, that of Ely and other places, and all traffic
usually carried on at London, both in and out of doors, in order
that by these means the Westminster fair might be more attended by
people, and better supplied with merchandise. In consequence of this,
innumerable people flocked thither from all quarters, as to the most
famous fair, and the translation of St. Edward was celebrated, and
the blood of Christ worshipped to an unexampled degree by the people
there assembled. But all the merchants, in exposing their goods for
sale there, were exposed to great inconveniences, as they had no
shelter except canvas tents; for, owing to the changeable gusts of wind
assailing them, as is usual at that time of the year, they were cold
and wet, and also suffered from hunger and thirst; their feet were
soiled by the mud, and their goods rotted by the showers of rain; and
when they sat down to take their meals in the midst of their family by
the fireside knew not how to endure this state of want and discomfort.
The bishop of Ely, in consequence of the loss of his fair at Ely, which
was suspended by the king’s warrant, made a heavy complaint to him in
the matter for introducing such novelties, but he gained nothing but
words of soothing promises of future consolation.”