I. Ancient Specimens of Bowling--Poem on Bowling.--II.
Bowling-greens first made by the English.--III.
Bowling-alleys.--IV. Long-bowling.--V. Supposed Origin of
Billiards.--VI. Kayles.--VII. Closh.--VIII. Loggats.--IX.
Nine-pins--Skittles.--X. Dutch-pins--XI. Four-corners.--XII.
Half-bowl.--XIII. Nine-holes.--XIV. John Bull.--XV. Pitch
and Hustle.--XVI. Bull-baiting in Towns and Villages.--XVII.
Bull-running--At Stamford, &c.--XVIII. At Tutbury.--XIX.
Badger-baiting.--XX. Cock-fighting.--XXI. Throwing at
Cocks.--XXII. Duck-hunting.--XXIII. Squirrel-hunting.--XXIV.
Rabbit-hunting.
I.--ANCIENT BOWLING--POEM ON BOWLING.
The pastime of bowling, whether practised upon open greens or in
bowling-alleys, was probably an invention of the middle ages. I cannot
by any means ascertain the time of its introduction; but I have traced
it back to the thirteenth century. The earliest representation of a
game played with bowls, that I have met with, occurs in a MS. in the
Royal Library,[826] as here represented.
[Illustration: 90. BOWLING.--XIII. CENTURY.]
Here two small cones are placed upright at a distance from each
other; and the business of the players is evidently to bowl at them
alternately; the successful candidate being he who could lay his bowl
the nearest to the mark. The French, according to Cotgrave, had a
similar kind of game, called Carreau, from a square stone which, says
he, "is laid in level with and at the end of a bowling-alley, and in
the midst thereof an upright point set as the mark whereat they bowl."
The following engraving, from a drawing in a beautiful MS. Book of
Prayers, in the possession of Francis Douce, esq., represents two other
bowlers; but they have no apparent object to play at, unless the bowl
cast by the first may be considered as such by the second, and the game
require him to strike it from its place.
[Illustration: 91. BOWLING.--XIV. CENTURY.]
Below these we see three persons engaged in the pastime of bowling;
and they have a small bowl, or jack, according to the modern practice,
which serves them as a mark for the direction of their bowls: the
action of the middle figure, whose bowl is supposed to be running
towards the jack, will not appear by any means extravagant to such as
are accustomed to visit the bowling-greens.
[Illustration: 92. BOWLING.--XIV. CENTURY.]
The following little poem, by William Stroad, which I found in "Justin
Pagitt's Memorandum Book,"[827] one of the Harleian manuscripts at the
British Museum,[828] expresses happily enough the turns and chances of
the game of bowls:
A PARALLEL BETWIXT BOWLING AND PREFERMENT.
Preferment, like a game at boules,
To feede our hope hath divers play:
Heere quick it runns, there soft it roules,
The betters make and shew the way
On upper ground, so great allies
Doe many _cast_ on their desire;
Some up are thrust and forc'd to rise,
When those are stopt that would aspire.
Some, whose heate and zeal exceed,
Thrive well by _rubbs_ that curb their haste,
And some that languish in their speed
Are cherished by some favour's blaste;
Some rest in other's _cutting out_
The fame by whom themselves are made;
Some fetch a _compass_ farr about,
And secretly the marke invade.
Some get by _knocks_, and so advance
Their fortune by a boysterous aime:
And some, who have the sweetest chance,
Their en'mies _hit_, and win the game.
The fairest _casts_ are those that owe
No thanks to fortune's giddy sway;
Such honest men good _bowlers_ are
Whose own true _bias cutts_ the way.
In the three delineations just represented, we may observe that the
players have only one bowl for each person: the modern bowlers have
usually three or four.
II.--BOWLING-GREENS FIRST MADE BY THE ENGLISH.
Bowling-greens are said to have originated in England;[829] and
bowling upon them, in my memory, was a very popular amusement. In
most country towns of any note they are to be found, and some few are
still remaining in the vicinity of the metropolis; but none of them, I
believe, are now so generally frequented as they were accustomed to be
formerly.
III.--BOWLING-ALLEYS.
The inconveniency to which the open greens for bowling were necessarily
obnoxious, suggested, I presume, the idea of making bowling-alleys,
which, being covered over, might be used when the weather would not
permit the pursuit of the pastime abroad; and therefore they were
usually annexed to the residences of the opulent; wherein if the ladies
were not themselves performers, they certainly countenanced the pastime
by being spectators; hence the king of Hungary, in an old poem entitled
The Squyer of Low Degree, says to his daughter, "to amuse you in your
garden
An hundredth knightes, truly tolde,
Shall play with bowles in alayes colde."
Andrew Borde, in his Dictarie of Helthe, describing a nobleman's
mansion, supposes it not to be complete without "a bowling-alley."
Among the additions made by Henry VIII. at Whitehall, were "divers fair
tennice-courtes, bowling-alleys, and a cock-pit."[830]
It appears that soon after the introduction of bowling-alleys they
were productive of very evil consequences; for they became not only
exceedingly numerous, but were often attached to places of public
resort, which rendered them the receptacles of idle and dissolute
persons; and were the means of promoting a pernicious spirit of
gambling among the younger and most unwary part of the community. The
little room required for making these bowling-alleys was no small cause
of their multiplication, particularly in great towns and cities. In
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries these nurseries of vice were
universally decried, and especially such of them as were established
within the city and suburbs of London,[831] where the ill effects
arising from them were most extensive.
IV.--LONG-BOWLING.
Bowling-alleys, I believe, were totally abolished before I knew London;
but I have seen there a pastime which might originate from them, called
long-bowling. It was performed in a narrow enclosure, about twenty or
thirty yards in length, and at the farther end was placed a square
frame with nine small pins upon it; at these pins the players bowled in
succession; and a boy, who stood by the frame to set up the pins that
were beat down by the bowl, called out the number, which was placed
to the account of the player; and the bowl was returned by the means
of a small trough, placed with a gradual descent from the pins to
the bowlers, on one side of the enclosure. Some call this game
Dutch-rubbers.
Bowling, according to an author in the seventeenth century, is a
pastime "in which a man shall find great art in choosing out his
ground, and preventing the winding, hanging, and many turning
advantages of the same, whether it be in open wilde places, or in close
allies; and for his sport, the chusing of the bowle is the greatest
cunning; your flat bowles being best for allies, your round byazed
bowles for open grounds of advantage, and your round bowles, like a
ball, for green swarthes that are plain and level."[832]
V.--SUPPOSED ORIGIN OF BILLIARDS.
Below is a representation which seems to bear some analogy to bowling.
[Illustration: 93. A CURIOUS ANCIENT PASTIME.]
Here the bowls, instead of being cast by the hand, are driven with a
battoon, or mace, through an arch, towards a mark at a distance from
it; and hence, I make no doubt, originated the game of billiards, which
formerly was played with a similar kind of arch and a mark called the
king, but placed upon the table instead of the ground. The improvement
by adding the table answered two good purposes; it precluded the
necessity for the player to kneel, or stoop exceedingly, when he struck
the bowl and accommodated the game to the limits of a chamber.
VI.--KAYLES.
Kayles, written also cayles and keiles, derived from the French word
quilles, was played with pins, and no doubt gave origin to the modern
game of nine-pins; though primitively the kayle-pins do not appear to
have been confined to any certain number, as we may observe by the two
following engravings:
[Illustration: 94. KAYLES.--XIV. CENTURY.]
In this engraving, from a Book of Prayers in the possession of Francis
Douce, esq., the pastime of kayles is playing with six pins. The
annexed is from another drawing on a MS. in the Royal Library.[833]
[Illustration: 95. KAYLES.--XIV. CENTURY.]
Here the pastime is played with eight pins; and the form of these pins
is also different, but that might depend entirely upon the fancy of the
makers. One of them, in both cases, is taller than the rest.
The arrangement of the kayle-pins differs greatly from that of the
nine-pins, the latter being placed upon a square frame in three rows,
and the former in one row only. The two delineations here copied
represent that species of the game called club-kayles, "jeux de quilles
à baston," so denominated from the club or cudgel that was thrown at
them.
VII.--CLOSH.
The game of cloish, or closh, mentioned frequently in the ancient
statutes,[834] seems to have been the same as kayles, or at least
exceedingly like it: cloish was played with pins, which were thrown at
with a bowl instead of a truncheon, and probably differed only in name
from the nine-pins of the present time.
VIII.--LOGGATS.
This, I make no doubt, was a pastime analogous to kayles and cloish,
but played chiefly by boys and rustics, who substituted bones for pins.
"Loggats," says sir Thomas Hanmer, one of the editors of Shakespeare,
"is the ancient name of a play or game, which is one of the unlawful
games enumerated in the thirty-third statute of Henry VIII.: it is the
same which is now called kittle-pins, in which the boys often make use
of bones instead of wooden pins, throwing at them with another bone
instead of bowling." Hence Shakespeare, in Hamlet, speaks thus; "did
these bones cost no more the breeding, but to play at loggats with
them?" And this game is evidently referred to in an old play, entitled
The longer thou livest the more Fool thou art, published in the reign
of queen Elizabeth,[835] where a dunce boasts of his skill
At skales, and the playing with a sheepes-joynte.
In skales, or kayles, the sheepes-joynte was probably the bone used
instead of a bowl.
IX.--NINE-PINS--SKITTLES.
The kayle-pins were afterwards called kettle, or kittle-pins; and
hence, by an easy corruption, skittle-pins, an appellation well known
in the present day. The game of skittles, as it is now played, differs
materially from that of nine-pins, though the same number of pins are
required in both. In performing the latter, the player stands at a
distance settled by mutual consent of the parties concerned, and casts
the bowl at the pins: the contest is, to beat them all down in the
fewest throws. In playing at skittles, there is a double exertion; one
by bowling, and the other by tipping: the first is performed at a given
distance, and the second standing close to the frame upon which the
pins are placed, and throwing the bowl through in the midst of them;
in both cases, the number of pins beaten down before the return of the
bowl, for it usually passes beyond the frame, are called fair, and
reckoned to the account of the player; but those that fall by the
coming back of the bowl are said to be foul, and of course not counted.
One chalk or score is reckoned for every fair pin; and the game of
skittles consists in obtaining thirty-one chalks precisely: less loses,
or at least gives the antagonist a chance of winning the game; and more
requires the player to go again for nine, which must also be brought
exactly, to secure himself.
The preceding quotation from Hanmer intimates that the kittle-pins
were sometimes made with bones; and this assertion is strengthened by
the language of a dramatic writer, the author of the Merry Milk-maid
of Islington, in 1680, who makes one of his characters speak thus to
another: "I'll cleave you from the skull to the twist, and make nine
skittles of thy bones."
X.--DUTCH-PINS.
Dutch-pins is a pastime much resembling skittles; but the pins are
taller and slenderer, especially in the middle pin, which is higher
than the rest, and called the king-pin. The pins are nine in number,
and placed upon a frame in the manner of skittles; and the bowls used
by the performers are very large, but made of a light kind of wood.
The game consists of thirty-one scores precisely; and every player
first stands at a certain distance from the frame, and throws his bowl
at the pins, which is improperly enough called bowling; afterwards he
approaches the frame and makes his tipp by casting the bowl among the
pins, and the score towards the game is determined by the number of
them beaten down. If this pin be taken out singly, when the bowl is
thrown from a distance, the game is won; this instance excepted, it
reckons for no more than the other pins.
XI.--FOUR-CORNERS.
Is so called from four large pins which are placed singly at each
angle of a square frame. The players stand at a distance, which may
be varied by joint consent, and throw at the pins a large heavy bowl,
which sometimes weighs six or eight pounds. The excellency of the game
consists in beating them down by the fewest casts of the bowl.
XII.--HALF-BOWL.
This is one of the games prohibited by Edward IV.;[836] and received
its denomination from being played with one half of a sphere of wood.
Half-bowl is practised to this day in Hertfordshire, where it is
commonly called rolly-polly; and it is best performed upon the floor of
a room, especially if it be smooth and level. There are fifteen small
pins of a conical form required for this pastime; twelve of which are
placed at equal distances upon the circumference of a circle of about
two feet and a half diameter; one of the three remaining pins occupies
the centre; and the other two are placed without the circle at the back
part of it, and parallel with the bowling-place, but so as to be in a
line with the middle pin; forming a row of five pins, including two
of those upon the circumference. In playing this game, the bowl, when
delivered, must pass above the pins, and round the end-pin, without
the circle, before it beats any of them down; if not, the cast is
forfeited: and, owing to the great bias of the bowl, this task is not
very readily performed by such as have not made themselves perfect
by practice. The middle pin is distinguished by four balls at the
top; and, if thrown down, is reckoned for four towards the game; the
intermediate pin upon the circle, in the row of five, has three balls,
and is reckoned for three; the first pin without the circle has two
balls, and is counted for two; and the value of all the others singly
is but one. Thirty-one chalks complete the game; which he who first
obtains is the conqueror. If this number be exceeded, it is a matter of
no consequence: the game is equally won.
XIII.--NINE-HOLES.
This is mentioned as a boyish game, played at the commencement of
the seventeenth century. I have not met with any description of this
pastime; but I apprehend it resembled a modern one frequently practised
at the outskirts of the metropolis; and said to have been instituted,
or more probably revived, about 1780, as a succedaneum for skittles,
when the magistrates caused the skittle grounds in and near London
to be levelled, and the frames removed. Hence some say the game of
nine-holes was called "Bubble the Justice," on the supposition that
it could not be set aside by the justices, because no such pastime was
named in the prohibitory statutes; others give this denomination to a
different game: the name by which it is now most generally known is
"Bumble-puppy;" and the vulgarity of the term is well adapted to the
company by whom it is usually practised. The game is simply this: nine
holes are made in a square board, and disposed in three rows, three
holes in each row, all of them at equal distances, about twelve or
fourteen inches apart; to every hole is affixed a numeral, from one
to nine, so placed as to form fifteen in every row. The board, thus
prepared, is fixed horizontally upon the ground, and surrounded on
three sides with a gentle acclivity. Every one of the players being
furnished with a certain number of small metal balls, stands in his
turn, by a mark made upon the ground, about five or six feet from the
board; at which he bowls the balls; and according to the value of
the figures belonging to the holes into which they roll, his game is
reckoned; and he who obtains the highest number is the winner. Doctor
Johnson confounds this pastime with that of kayles, and says, "it is a
kind of play still retained in Scotland, in which nine holes, ranged
in threes, are made in the ground, and an iron bullet rolled in among
them."[837]
I have formerly seen a pastime practised by school-boys, called
nine-holes: it was played with marbles, which they bowled at a board,
set upright, resembling a bridge, with nine small arches, all of them
numbered; if the marble struck against the sides of the arches, it
became the property of the boy to whom the board belonged; but, if it
went through any one of them, the bowler claimed a number of marbles
equal to the number upon the arch it passed through.
XIV.--JOHN BULL.
This is the name of a modern pastime, which may be played in the open
air, or in a room. A square flat stone, being laid level on the surface
of the ground, or let into the floor, is subdivided into sixteen small
squares; in every one of these compartments a number is affixed,
beginning from one; the next in value being five, the next ten; thence
passing on by tens to an hundred, and thence again, by hundreds, to
five hundred. These numbers are not placed regularly, but contrasted,
so that those of the smallest value are nearest to those of the
highest; and in some instances, as I am informed, the squares for the
greater numbers are made much smaller than those for the small ones.
On reaching five hundred a mark is made, at an optional distance from
the stone, for the players to stand; who, in succession, throw up
one halfpenny or more, and make their score according to the number
assigned lo the compartment in which the halfpenny rests, which must be
within the square; for, if it lies upon one of the lines that divide
it from the others, the cast is forfeited, and nothing scored. Two
thousand is usually the game; but this number is extended or diminished
at the pleasure of the gamesters.
XV.--PITCH AND HUSTLE.
This is a game commonly played in the fields by the lowest classes of
the people. It requires two or more antagonists, who pitch or cast an
equal number of halfpence at a mark set up at a short distance; and the
owner of the nearest halfpenny claims the privilege to hustle first;
the next nearest halfpenny entitles the owner to a second claim; and
so on to as many as play. When they hustle, all the halfpence pitched
at the mark are thrown into a hat held by the player who claims the
first chance; after shaking them together, he turns the hat down
upon the ground; and as many of them as lie with the impression of
the head upwards belong to him; the remainder are then put into the
hat a second time, and the second claimant performs the same kind of
operation; and so it passes in succession to all the players, or until
all the halfpence appear with the heads upwards. Sometimes they are
put into the hands of the player, instead of a hat, who shakes them,
and casts them up into the air; but in both instances the heads become
his property: but if it should so happen, that, after all of them have
hustled, there remain some of the halfpence that have not come with the
heads uppermost, the first player then hustles again, and the others in
succession, until they do come so.
XVI.--BULL-BAITING IN TOWNS AND VILLAGES.
I have already informed my readers, that bull-baiting, or worrying of
bulls with dogs, was one of the spectacles exhibited by the jugglers
and their successors.[838] It is also necessary to observe, that this
cruel pastime was not confined to the boundaries of the bear-gardens;
but was universally practised on various occasions, in almost every
town or village throughout the kingdom, and especially in market
towns, where we find it was sanctioned by the law;[839] and in some of
them, I believe, the bull-rings, to which the unfortunate animals were
fastened, are remaining to the present hour. It may seem strange, that
the legislature should have permitted the exercise of such a barbarous
diversion, which was frequently productive of much mischief by drawing
together a large concourse of idle and dissipated persons, and
affording them an opportunity of committing many gross disorders with
impunity. Indeed a public bull-baiting rarely ended without some riot
and confusion. A circumstance of this sort is recorded in the annals of
the city of Chester. The author[840] tells us, that "a bull was baited
at the high-cross, on the second of October, (1619,) according to the
ancient custome for the mayor's farewell out of his office; it chaunced
a contention fell out betwixt the butchers and the bakers of the cittye
aboute their dogges then fyghtynge; they fell to blowes; and in the
tumult of manye people woulde not be pacifyed; so that the mayor,
seeing there was greate abuse, being citezens, could not forbeare, but
he in person hymself went out amongst them, to have the peace kept; but
they in their rage, lyke rude and unbroken fellowes, did lytill regarde
hym. In the ende, they were parted; and the begynners of the sayde
brawle, being found out and examined, were commytted to the northgate.
The mayor smotte freely among them and broke his white staffe; and the
cryer Thomas Knowstley brake his mase; and the brawle ended."
XVII.--BULL-RUNNING AT STAMFORD, &c.
This is another barbarous diversion somewhat different from
bull-baiting, and much less known: I do not recollect that it was
regularly practised in any part of the kingdom, excepting at Stamford,
in Lincolnshire, and at Tutbury, in Staffordshire. The traditionary
origin of the bull-running at Stamford, and the manner in which it was
performed in the seventeenth century, are given by Butcher, in his
Survey of that town;[841] and this account I shall lay before my
readers, in the author's own words. "The bull-running is a sport of
no pleasure, except to such as take a pleasure in beastliness and
mischief: it is performed just the day six weeks before Christmas. The
butchers of the town, at their own charge, against the time provide the
wildest bull they can get. This bull over night is had into some stable
or barn belonging to the alderman. The next morning, proclamation is
made by the common bellman of the town, round about the same, that each
one shut up their shop-doors and gates, and that none, upon pain of
imprisonment, offer to do any violence to strangers; for the preventing
whereof, the town being a great thoroughfare, and then being term-time,
a guard is appointed for the passing of travellers through the same,
without hurt; that none have any iron upon their bull-clubs, or other
staff, which they pursue the bull with. Which proclamation made, and
the gates all shut up, the bull is turned out of the alderman's house;
and then hivie-skivy, tag and rag, men, women, and children, of all
sorts and sizes, with all the dogs in the town, promiscuously running
after him with their bull-clubs, spattering dirt in each other's faces,
that one would think them to be so many furies started out of hell
for the punishment of Cerberus, &c. And, which is the greater shame,
I have seen persons of rank and family, of both sexes,[842] following
this bulling-business. I can say no more of it, but only to set forth
the antiquity thereof as tradition goes. William earl of Warren, the
first lord of this town in the time of king John, standing upon his
castle walls in Stamford, saw two bulls fighting for a cow in a meadow
under the same. A butcher of the town, owner of one of the bulls, set a
great mastiff-dog upon his own bull, who forced him up into the town;
when all the butchers' dogs, great and small, followed in pursuit of
the bull, which, by this time made stark mad with the noise of the
people and the fierceness of the dogs, ran over man, woman, and child,
that stood in his way. This caused all the butchers and others in the
town to rise up, as it were, in a kind of tumult." The sport so highly
diverted the earl, who, it seems, was a spectator, that "he gave all
those meadows in which the two bulls had been fighting, perpetually as
a common to the butchers of the town, after the first grass is eaten,
to keep their cattle in till the time of slaughter, upon the condition
that, on the anniversary of that day, they should yearly find, at their
own expense, a mad bull for the continuance of the sport."
XVIII.--BULL-RUNNING AT TUTBURY.
The company of minstrels belonging to the manor of Tutbury had several
peculiar privileges granted to them by a charter from John of Gaunt
duke of Lancaster.[843] In this charter it is required of the minstrels
to perform their respective services, upon the day of the assumption
of our Lady, (the 15th of August,) at the steward's court, held for
the honour of Tutbury, according to ancient custom. They had also, it
seems, a privilege, exclusive of the charter, to claim upon that day a
bull from the prior of Tutbury.[844] In the seventeenth century, these
services were performed the day after the assumption; and the bull was
given by the duke of Devonshire, as the prior's representative.
The historian of Staffordshire[845] informs us, that a dinner was
provided for the minstrels upon this occasion, which being finished,
they went anciently to the abbey gate, but of late years to "a little
barn by the town side, in expectance of the bull to be turned forth to
them." The animal provided for this purpose had his horns sawed off,
his ears cropped, his tail cut short, his body smeared over with soap,
and his nose blown full of beaten pepper, in order to make him as mad
as it was possible for him to be. Whence, "after solemn proclamation
first being made by the steward, that all manner of persons should give
way to the bull, and not come near him by forty feet, nor by any means
to hinder the minstrels, but to attend to his or their own safeties,
every one at his peril; he was then put forth, to be caught by the
minstrels, and none other, within the county of Stafford, between the
time of his being turned out to them, and the setting of the sun, on
the same day; which if they cannot doe, but the bull escapes from them
untaken, and gets over the river into Derbyshire, he continues to be
lord Devonshire's property: on the other hand, if the minstrels can
take him and hold him so long as to cut off but some small matter of
his hair, and bring the same to the market cross, in token that they
have taken him; the bull is brought to the bailiff's house in Tutbury,
and there collared and roped, and so conveyed to the bull-ring in the
High-street, where he is baited with dogs; the first course allotted
for the king, the second for the honour of the town, and the third for
the king of the minstrels;[846] this done, the minstrels claim the
beast, and may sell, or kill and divide him amongst them according to
their pleasure." The author then adds, "this rustic sport, which they
call bull-running, should be annually performed by the minstrels only;
but now a-days, they are assisted by the promiscuous multitude, that
flock thither in great numbers, and are much pleased with it; though
sometimes, through the emulation in point of manhood that has been
long cherished between the Staffordshire and Derbyshire men, perhaps
as much mischief may have been done, as in the bull-fighting[847]
practised at Valentia, Madrid, and other places in Spain."[848] The
noise and confusion occasioned by this exhibition is aptly described in
The Marriage of Robin Hood and Clorinda, Queen of Titbury Feast,[849] a
popular ballad published early in the last century:
Before we came to it, we heard a strange shouting,
And all that were in it looked madly,
For some were a bull-back, some dancing a morrice,
And some singing Arthur O'Bradley.
XIX.--BADGER-BAITING.
May also be placed in this chapter. In order to give the better effect
to this diversion, a hole is dug in the ground for the retreat of the
animal; and the dogs run at him singly in succession; for it is not
usual, I believe, to permit any more than one of them to attack him at
once; and the dog which approaches him with the least timidity, fastens
upon him the most firmly, and brings him the soonest from his hole, is
accounted the best. The badger was formerly called the "grey," hence
the denomination of greyhounds applied to a well known species of dogs,
on account of their having been generally used in the pursuit of this
animal.
XX.--COCK-FIGHTING.
This barbarous pastime, which claims the sanction of high antiquity,
was practised at an early period by the Grecians, and probably still
more anciently in Asia. It is a very common sport, and of very long
standing, in China.[850] It was practised by the Romans:[851] with
us, it may be traced back to the twelfth century; at which period we
are certain it was in usage, and seems to have been considered as a
childish sport. "Every year," says Fitzstephen, "on the morning of
Shrove-Tuesday, the school-boys of the city of London[852] bring game
cocks to their masters, and in the fore part of the day, till dinner
time, they are permitted to amuse themselves with seeing them fight."
Probably the same custom prevailed in other cities and great towns.
Stow having cited the preceding passage from Fitzstephen, adds, "cocks
of the game are yet," that is at the close of the sixteenth century,
"cherished by divers men for their pleasures, much money being laid
on their heads when they fight in pits, whereof some are costly made
for that purpose."[853] The cock-pit was the school, and the master
the controller and director of the pastime. This custom, according to
Mr. Brand, "was retained in many schools in Scotland within the last
century, and perhaps may be still in use there: the schoolmasters
claimed the runaway cocks as their perquisites; and these were called
fugees, 'corrupt, I suppose,' says he, 'of refugees.'"[854]
In the reign of Edward III. cock-fighting became a fashionable
amusement; it was then taken up more seriously than it formerly had
been, and the practice extended to grown persons; even at that early
period it began to be productive of pernicious consequences, and was
therefore prohibited in 1366 by a public proclamation, in which it
was ranked with other idle and unlawful pastimes. But notwithstanding
it was thus degraded and discountenanced, it still maintained its
popularity, and in defiance of all temporary opposition has descended
to the modern times. Among the additions made by Henry VIII. to the
palace at Whitehall, was a cock-pit;[855] which indicates his relish
for the pastime of cock-fighting; and James I. was so partial to this
diversion, that he amused himself in seeing it twice a week.[856]
Exclusive of the royal cock-pit, we are told there was formerly one
in Drury-lane, another in Jewin-street, and if the following story be
founded on fact, a third in Shoe-lane: "Sir Thomas Jermin, meaning to
make himself merry, and gull all the cockers, sent his man to the pit
in Shoe-lane, with an hundred pounds and a dunghill cock, neatly cut
and trimmed for the battle; the plot being well layd the fellow got
another to throw the cock in, and fight him in sir Thomas Jermin's
name, while he betted his hundred pounds against him; the cock was
matched, and bearing sir Thomas's name, had many betts layd upon his
head; but after three or four good brushes, he showed a payre of
heeles: every one wondered to see a cock belonging to sir Thomas cry
_craven_, and away came the man with his money doubled."[857]
I shall not expatiate upon the nature and extent of this fashionable
divertisement; but merely mention a part of it called the Welch main,
which seems to be an abuse of the modern times; and as a late judicious
author justly says, "a disgrace to us as Englishmen."[858] It consists
of a certain or given number of pairs of cocks, suppose sixteen, which
fight with each other until one half of them are killed; the sixteen
conquerors are pitted a second time in like manner, and half are slain;
the eight survivors, a third time; the four, a fourth time; and the
remaining two, a fifth time: so that "thirty-one cocks are sure to be
inhumanly murdered for the sport and pleasure of the spectators." I
am informed that the Welch main usually consists of fourteen pair of
cocks, though sometimes the number might be extended.
In the old illuminated manuscripts we frequently meet with paintings
representing cocks fighting; but I do not recollect to have seen in
any of them the least indication of artificial spurs; the arming their
heels with sharp points of steel is a cruelty, I trust, unknown in
former ages to our ancestors. I have been told the artificial spurs are
sometimes made with silver.
In addition to what has been said, I shall only observe, that the
ancients fought partridges and quails as well as cocks; in like manner,
says Burton, as the French do now;[859] how far, if at all, the example
has been followed in England, I know not.
XXI.--THROWING AT COCKS.
If the opposing of one cock to fight with another may be justly
esteemed a national barbarism, what shall be said of a custom more
inhuman, which authorised the throwing at them with sticks, and
ferociously putting them to a painful and lingering death? I know not
at what time this unfortunate animal became the object of such wicked
and wanton abuse: the sport, if such a denomination may be given to
it, is certainly no recent invention, and perhaps is alluded to by
Chaucer,[860] in the Nonnes Priests' Tale, when he says,
"----There was a cocke,
For that a priestes' sonne gave hym a knocke,
Upon his legges, when he was yonge and nice,
He made him for to lose his benefice."
The story supposes the cock to have overheard the young man ordering
his servant to call him at the cock-crowing; upon which the malicious
bird forbore to crow at the usual time, and owing to this artifice the
youth was suffered to sleep till the ordination was over.
Throwing at cocks was a very popular diversion, especially among the
younger parts of the community. Sir Thomas Moore, who wrote in the
sixteenth century, describing the state of childhood, speaks of his
skill in casting a cok-stele, that is, a stick or cudgel to throw at
a cock. It was universally practised upon Shrove-Tuesday. If the poor
bird by chance had its legs broken, or was otherwise so lamed as not
to be able to stand, the barbarous owners were wont to support it with
sticks, in order to prolong the pleasure received from the reiteration
of its torment. The magistrates, greatly to their credit, have for
some years past put a stop to this wicked custom, and at present it is
nearly, if not entirely, discontinued in every part of the kingdom.
Heath, in his account of the Scilly Islands,[861] speaking of St.
Mary's, says, "on Shrove-Tuesday each year, after the throwing at cocks
is over, the boys of this island have a custom of throwing stones in
the evening against the doors of the dwellers' houses; a privilege they
claim from time immemorial, and put in practice without control, for
finishing the day's sport; the terms demanded by the boys are pancakes
or money, to capitulate. Some of the older sort, exceeding the bounds
of this whimsical toleration, break the doors and window shutters,
&c. sometimes making a job for the surgeon as well as for the smith,
glazier, and carpenter."
In some places it was a common practice to put the cock into an earthen
vessel made for the purpose, and to place him in such a position that
his head and tail might be exposed to view; the vessel, with the bird
in it, was then suspended across the street, about twelve or fourteen
feet from the ground, to be thrown at by such as chose to make trial of
their skill; two-pence was paid for four throws, and he who broke the
pot, and delivered the cock from his confinement, had him for a reward.
At North Walsham, in Norfolk, about 1760, some wags put an owl into
one of these vessels; and having procured the head and tail of a dead
cock, they placed them in the same position as if they had appertained
to a living one: the deception was successful, and at last, a labouring
man belonging to the town, after several fruitless attempts, broke the
pot, but missed his prize; for the owl being set at liberty, instantly
flew away, to his great astonishment, and left him nothing more than
the head and tail of the dead bird, with the potsherds, for his money
and his trouble; this ridiculous adventure exposed him to the continual
laughter of the town's people, and obliged him to quit the place, to
which, I am told, he returned no more.
XXII.--DUCK-HUNTING.
This is another barbarous pastime, and for the performance it is
necessary to have recourse to a pond of water sufficiently extensive
to give the duck plenty of room for making her escape from the dogs
when she is closely pursued; which she does by diving as often as
any of them come near to her. Duck-hunting was much practised in the
neighbourhood of London about thirty or forty years ago; but of late it
is gone out of fashion; yet I cannot help thinking, that the
deficiency, at present, of places proper for the purpose, has done more
towards the abolishment of this sport than any amendment in the nature
and inclinations of the populace.
Sometimes the duck is tormented in a different manner, without the
assistance of the dogs; by having an owl tied upon her back, and so put
into the water, where she frequently dives in order to escape from the
burden, and on her return for air, the miserable owl, half drowned,
shakes itself, and hooting, frightens the duck; she of course dives
again, and replunges the owl into the water; the frequent repetition of
this action soon deprives the poor bird of its sensation, and generally
ends in its death, if not in that of the duck also.
XXIII.--SQUIRREL-HUNTING.
This is a rustic pastime, and commonly practised at Christmas-time and
at Midsummer; those who pursue it find plenty of exercise; but nothing
can excuse the wantonly tormenting so harmless an animal.
XXIV.--RABBIT-HUNTING.
Hentzner, who visited England at the close of the sixteenth century,
mentions this diversion, and assures us that he saw it performed in the
presence of the lord mayor of London, when the annual wrestling was
concluded: his words are as follow; "after this is over, a parcel of
live rabbits are turned loose among the crowd, which are pursued by a
number of boys, who endeavour to catch them with all the noise they can
make."
BOOK IV.
DOMESTIC AMUSEMENTS OF VARIOUS KINDS; AND PASTIMES APPROPRIATED TO
PARTICULAR SEASONS.
CHAPTER I.
I. Secular Music fashionable.--II. Ballad-singers encouraged
by the Populace.--III. Music Houses.--IV. Origin of
Vauxhall.--V. Ranelagh.--VI. Sadler's Wells.--VII. Marybone
Gardens--Operas--Oratorios.--VIII. Bell-ringing.--IX. Its
Antiquity.--X. Hand-bells.--XI. Burlesque Music.--XII.
Dancing.--XIII. Its Antiquity, &c.--XIV. Shovel-board.--XV.
Anecdote of Prince Henry.--XVI. Billiards.--XVII.
Mississipi.--XVIII. The Rocks of Scilly.--XIX. Steve groat.--XX.
Swinging.--XXI. Tetter-totter.--XXII. Shuttle-cock.
I.--SECULAR MUSIC FASHIONABLE
The national passion for secular music admitted of little or no
abatement by the disgrace and dispersion of the minstrels. Professional
musicians, both vocal and instrumental, were afterwards retained
at the court, and also in the mansions of the nobility. In the
sixteenth century, a knowledge of music was considered as a genteel
accomplishment for persons of high rank. Henry VIII. not only sang
well, but played upon several sorts of instruments; he also wrote
songs, and composed the tunes[862] for them; and his example was
followed by several of the nobility, his favourites. An author, who
lived in the reign of James I. says, "We have here," that is, in
London, "the best musicians in the kingdom, and equal to any in Europe
for their skill, either in composing and setting of tunes, or singing,
and playing upon any kind of instruments. The musicians have obtained
of our sovereign lord the king, his letters patent to become a society
and corporation."[863] To which we may add, that the metropolis never
abounded more, if so much as at present, with excellent musicians, not
such only as make a profession of music, but with others who pursue it
merely for their amusement; nor must we omit the fair sex; with them
the study of music is exceedingly fashionable; and indeed there are few
young ladies of family who are not in some degree made acquainted with
its rudiments.[864]
II.--PUBLIC BALLAD-SINGERS.
The minstrel being deprived of all his honours, and having lost the
protection of the opulent, dwindled into a mere singer of ballads,
which sometimes he composed himself, and usually accompanied his voice
with the notes of a violin. The subjects of these songs were chiefly
taken from popular stories, calculated to attract the notice of the
vulgar, and among them the musical poets figured away at wakes, fairs,
and church-ales.[865] Warton speaks of two celebrated trebles; the one
called Outroaringe Dick; and the other Wat Wimbas, who occasionally
made twenty shillings a day by ballad-singing;[866] which is a strong
proof that these itinerants were highly esteemed by the common people.
III.--MUSIC HOUSES.
Towards the close of the seventeenth century, the professed musicians
assembled at certain houses in the metropolis, called music houses,
where they performed concerts, consisting of vocal and instrumental
music, for the entertainment of the public; at the same period there
were music booths at Smithfield during the continuance of Bartholomew
fair. An author of the time,[867] however, speaks very contemptibly of
these music meetings, professing that he "had rather have heard an old
barber[868] ring Whittington's bells upon a cittern than all the music
the houses afforded." There were also music-clubs, or private meetings
for the practice of music, which were exceedingly fashionable with
people of opulence. Hence, in The Citizen turned Gentleman, a comedy
by Edw. Ravenscroft, published in 1675, the citizen is told that, in
order to appear like a person of consequence, it was necessary for
him "to have a music club once a week at his house." The music houses
first mentioned were sometimes supported by subscription; and from
them originated three places of public entertainment well known in the
present day; namely, Vauxhall, Ranelagh, and Sadler's Wells.
IV.--ORIGIN OF VAUXHALL.
Spring Gardens, now better known by the name of Vauxhall Gardens, is
mentioned in the Antiquities of Surrey, by Aubrey, who informs us, that
sir Samuel Moreland "built a fine room at Vauxhall, (in 1667,) the
inside all of looking-glass, and fountains very pleasant to behold;
which," adds he, "is much visited by strangers. It stands in the middle
of the garden, covered with Cornish slate, on the point whereof he
placed a punchanello, very well carved, which held a dial; but the
winds have demolished it."[869] "The house," says a more modern author,
sir John Hawkins,[870] "seems to have been rebuilt since the time
that sir Samuel Moreland dwelt in it; and, there being a large garden
belonging to it, planted with a great number of stately trees, and
laid out in shady walks, it obtained the name of Spring Gardens; and,
the house being converted into a tavern, or place of entertainment, it
was frequented by the votaries of pleasure." This account is perfectly
consonant with the following passage in a paper of the Spectator,[871]
dated May 20, 1712: "We now arrived at Spring Gardens, which is
exquisitely pleasant at this time of the year. When I considered the
fragrancy of the walks and bowers, with the choirs of birds that sung
upon the trees, and the loose tribe of people that walked underneath
their shades, I could not but look upon the place as a kind of
Mahometan paradise." In 1730 the house and gardens came into the hands
of a gentleman whose name was Jonathan Tyers, who opened it with an
advertisement of a "ridotto al fresco;"[872] a term which the people of
this country had till then been strangers to. These entertainments
were several times repeated in the course of the summer, and numbers
resorted to partake of them; which encouraged the proprietor to make
his garden a place of musical entertainment for every evening during
the summer season: to this end he was at great expense in decorating
the gardens with paintings; he engaged an excellent band of musicians,
and issued silver tickets for admission at a guinea each; and receiving
great encouragement, he set up an organ in the orchestra; and in a
conspicuous part of the gardens erected a fine statue of Handel, the
work of Roubiliac, a very famous statuary, to whom we owe several of
the best monuments in Westminster Abbey.
V.--RANELAGH.
The success of this undertaking was an encouragement to another of a
similar kind. A number of persons purchased the house and gardens of
the late earl of Ranelagh; they erected a spacious building of timber,
of a circular form, and within it an organ, and an orchestra capable
of holding a numerous band of performers. The entertainment of the
auditors during the performance is, either walking round the room, or
refreshing themselves with tea and coffee in the recesses thereof,
which are conveniently adapted for that purpose. Sir John Hawkins[873]
says, "The performance here, as at Vauxhall, is instrumental,
intermixed with songs and ballad airs, calculated rather to please the
vulgar than gratify those of a better taste."
VI.--SADLER'S WELLS.
We meet with what is said to be "a true account of Sadler's Well," in
a pamphlet published by a physician at the close of the seventeenth
century.[874] "The water," says he, "of this well, before the
Reformation, was very much famed for several extraordinary cures
performed thereby, and was thereupon accounted sacred, and called
Holy-well. The priests belonging to the priory of Clerkenwell using to
attend there, made the people believe that the virtues of the water
proceeded from the efficacy of their prayers; but at the Reformation
the well was stopped, upon the supposition that the frequenting of
it was altogether superstitious; and so by degrees it grew out of
remembrance, and was wholly lost until then found out; when a gentleman
named Sadler, who had lately built a new music-house there, and being
surveyor of the highways, had employed men to dig gravel in his garden,
in the midst whereof they found it stopped up and covered with an
arch of stone."[875] After the decease of Sadler, one Francis Forcer,
a musician and composer of songs, became occupier of the well and
music-room; he was succeeded by his son, who first exhibited there the
diversion of rope-dancing and tumbling,[876] which were then performed
abroad in the garden. There is now a small theatre appropriated to
this purpose, furnished with a stage, scenes, and other decorations
proper for the representation of dramatic pieces and pantomimes. The
diversions of this place are of various kinds, and form upon the whole
a succession of performances very similar to those displayed in former
ages by the gleemen, the minstrels, and the jugglers.
VII.--MARY-BONE GARDENS--ORATORIOS.
To the three preceding places of public entertainment, we may add a
fourth, not now indeed in existence, but which about thirty years
back[877] was held in some degree of estimation, and much frequented;
I mean Marybone Gardens; where, in addition to the music and singing,
there were burlettas and fireworks exhibited. The site of these gardens
is now covered with buildings. There were also other places of smaller
note where singing and music were introduced, but none of them of any
long continuance; for being much frequented by idle and dissolute
persons, they were put down by the magistrates.
The success of these musical assemblies, I presume, first suggested the
idea of introducing operas upon the stage, which were contrived at once
to please the eye and delight the ear; and this double gratification,
generally speaking, was procured at the expense of reason and
propriety. Hence, also, we may trace the establishment of oratorios in
England. I need not say that this noble species of dramatic music was
brought to great perfection by Handel: the oratorios produced by him
display in a wonderful manner his powers as a composer of music; and
they continue to be received with that enthusiasm of applause which
they most justly deserve. Under this title, oratorios, are included
several of his serenatas, as Acis and Galatea, Alexander's Feast, &c.;
but generally speaking, the subjects of the oratorios are taken from
the Scriptures, and therefore they are permitted to be performed on the
Wednesdays and Fridays in Lent when plays are prohibited.
VIII.--BELL-RINGING.
It has been remarked by foreigners that the English are particularly
fond of bell-ringing;[878] and indeed most of our churches have a ring
of bells in the steeple, partly appropriated to that purpose. These
bells are rung upon most occasions of joy and festivity, and sometimes
at funerals, when they are muffled, and especially at the funerals of
ringers, with a piece of woollen cloth bound about the clapper, and
the sounds then emitted by them are exceedingly unmelodious, and well
fitted to inspire the mind with melancholy. Ringing of rounds; that
is, sounding every bell in succession, from the least to the greatest,
and repeating the operation, produces no variety; on the contrary, the
reiteration of the same cadences in a short time becomes tiresome: for
which reason the ringing of changes has been introduced, wherein the
succession of the bells is shifted continually, and by this means a
varied combination of different sounds, exceedingly pleasant to the
ear, is readily produced. This improvement in the art of ringing is
thought to be peculiar to the people of this country.[879] Ringing
the bells backwards is sometimes mentioned, and probably consisted in
beginning with the largest bell and ending with the least; it appears
to have been practised by the ringers as a mark of contempt or disgust.
IX.--ANTIQUITY OF BELL-RINGING.
When bell-ringing first arose in England cannot readily be ascertained.
It is said that bells were invented by Paulinas, bishop of Nola,[880]
at the commencement of the fifth century. In 680, according to
Venerable Bede, they were used in Brittany, and thence perhaps brought
into this country. Ingulphus speaks of them as well known in his time,
and tells us, "that Turketullus, the first abbot of Croyland, gave six
bells to that monastery; that is to say, two great ones, which he named
Bartholomew and Betteline; two of a middling size, called Turketulum
and Beterine; and two small ones, denominated Pega and Bega; he also
caused the greatest bell to be made, called Gudhlac, which was tuned to
the other bells, and produced an admirable harmony not to be equalled
in England."[881] Turketullus died in 875.
According to the ritual of the Romish church, the bells were not only
blessed and exorcised, but baptized as those above mentioned, and
anointed with holy oil.[882] After these ceremonies had passed it was
believed that the evil spirits lurking in the air might be driven
away by their sound. The general use of bells is expressed in the two
following Latin lines:
"Laudo Deum verum--plebem voco--congrego clerum--
Defunctos ploro--pestum fugo--festa decoro."
That is, to praise the true God--to call the people--to congregate the
clergy--to bemoan the dead--to drive away pestilential disorders--to
enliven the festivals.
I know not how far the pastime of bell-ringing attracted the notice
of the opulent in former times; at present it is confined to the
lower classes of the people, who are paid by the parish for ringing
upon certain holidays. At weddings, as well as upon other festive
occurrences, they usually ring the bells in expectance of a pecuniary
reward.
X.--HAND-BELLS.
These, which probably first appeared in the religious processions, were
afterwards used by the secular musicians, and practised for the sake
of pastime. The joculator dancing before the fictitious goat, depicted
by the engraving No. 85, has two large hand-bells, and nearly of a
size; but in general, they are regularly diminished, from the largest
to the least; and ten or twelve of them, rung in rounds or changes by
a company of ringers, sometimes one to each bell, but more usually
every ringer has two. I have seen a man in London, who I believe is now
living,[883] ring twelve bells at one time; two of them were placed
upon his head, he held two in each hand, one was affixed to each of his
knees, and two upon each foot; all of which he managed with great
adroitness, and performed a vast variety of tunes.
The small bells were not always held in the hand; they were sometimes
suspended upon a stand, and struck with hammers, by which means one
person could more readily play upon them. An example of this kind,
taken from a manuscript in the Royal Library,[884] is given below.
[Illustration: 96. HAND-BELLS.--XIV. CENTURY.]
The figure in the original is designed as a representation of king
David, and affixed to one of his psalms.
XI.--BURLESQUE MUSIC.
The minstrels and joculators seem to have had the knack of converting
every kind of amusement into a vehicle for merriment, and among others,
that of music has not escaped them.
Here we see one of these drolls holding a pair of bellows by way of a
fiddle, and using the tongs as a substitute for the bow.
[Illustration: 97. BURLESQUE MUSIC.]
This, and such like vagaries, were frequently practised in the
succeeding times; and they are neatly ridiculed in one of the papers
belonging to the Spectator,[885] where the author mentions "a tavern
keeper who amused his company with whistling of different tunes,
which he performed by applying the edge of a case knife to his lips.
Upon laying down the knife he took up a pair of clean tobacco pipes,
and after having slid the small ends of them over a table in a most
melodious trill, he fetched a tune out of them, whistling to them at
the same time in concert. In short the tobacco pipes became musical
pipes in the hands of our virtuoso, who," says the writer, "confessed
ingenuously that he broke such quantities of pipes that he almost
broke himself, before he brought this piece of music to any tolerable
perfection."[886] This man also "played upon the frying-pan and
gridiron, and declared he had layed down the tongs and key because
it was unfashionable." I have heard an accompaniment to the violin
exceedingly well performed with a rolling-pin and a salt-box, by a
celebrated publican named Price, who kept the Green Man, formerly
well known by the appellation of the Farthing Pye House, at the top
of Portland Row, St. Mary-le-bone. I have also seen a fellow who used
to frequent most of the public houses in and about the town, blow up
his cheeks with his breath, and beat a tune upon them with his fists,
which feat he seemed to perform with great facility. The butchers have
a sort of rough music, made with marrow-bones and cleavers, which they
usually bring forward at weddings; and in the Knave in Grain, a play
first acted in 1640,[887] ringing of basons is mentioned. This music,
or something like it, I believe, is represented by the engraving No. 57.
XII.--DANCING.
To what has been said upon this subject in a former chapter,[888] I
shall here add a few words more, and consider it as performed for
amusement only. In the middle ages dancing was reckoned among the
genteel accomplishments necessary to be acquired by both sexes; and in
the romances of those times, the character of a hero was incomplete
unless he danced excellently.[889] The knights and the ladies are often
represented dancing together, which in the MS. poem of Launfal, in the
Cotton Collection,[890] is called playing:
The quene yede to the formeste ende,
Betweene Launfal and Gauweyn the hende,[891]
And after her ladyes bryght;
To daunce they wente alle yn same,
To see them playe hyt was fayr game,
A lady and a knyght;
They had menstrelles of moche honours,
Fydelers, sytolyrs, and trompetors,
And else hyt were unright.
The poet then tells us, they continued their amusement great part of a
summer's day, that is, from the conclusion of dinner to the approach of
night.
Dancing was constantly put in practice among the nobility upon days
of festivity, and was countenanced by the example of the court. After
the coronation dinner of Richard II., the remainder of the day was
spent in the manner described by the foregoing poem; for the king,
the prelates, the nobles, the knights, and the rest of the company,
danced in Westminster Hall to the music of the minstrels.[892] Sir John
Hawkins mentions a dance called pavon, from pavo, a peacock, which
might have been proper upon such an occasion. "It is," says he, "a
grave and majestic dance; the method of dancing it anciently was by
gentlemen dressed with caps and swords, by those of the long robe in
their gowns, by the peers in their mantles, and by the ladies in gowns
with long trains, the motion whereof in dancing resembled that of a
peacock."[893] Several of our monarchs are praised for their skill in
dancing, and none of them more than Henry VIII., who was peculiarly
partial to this fashionable exercise. In his time, and in the reign
of his daughter Elizabeth, the English, generally speaking, are said
to have been good dancers; and this commendation is not denied to
them even by foreign writers. Polydore Virgil praises the English for
their skill in dancing,[894] and Hentzner says, "the English excell in
danceing."[895]
XIII.--ANTIQUITY, &c. OF DANCING.
The example of the nobility was followed by the middling classes of the
community; they again were imitated by their inferiors, who spent much
of their leisure time in dancing, and especially upon holidays; which
is noticed and condemned with great severity by the moral and religious
writers, as we may find by turning to the Introduction. Dancing is
there called a heathenish practice, and said to have been productive of
filthy gestures, for which reason it is ranked with other wanton sports
unfit to be exhibited. An old drama without date, but probably written
early in the reign of Elizabeth, entitled A new Interlude and a Mery,
of the Nature of the four Elements,[896] accuses the people at large,
with "loving pryncypally disportes, as daunsynge, syngynge, toys,
tryfuls, laughynge, and gestynge; for," adds the author, "connynge
they set not by."[897] But Sebastian Brant, in his Ship of Fooles, is
much more severe upon this subject. I shall give the passage as it is
paraphrased by Barclay:[898]
The priestes, and clerkes, to daunce have no shame;
The frere, or monke in his frocke and cowle,
Must daunce; and the doctor lepeth to play the foole.
He derives the origin of dancing from the Jews, when they worshipped
the golden calf:
Before this ydoll dauncing, both wife and man
Despised God; thus dauncing first began.
The damsels of London, as far back as the twelfth century, spent the
evenings on holidays in dancing before their masters' doors. Stow
laments the abolition of this "open pastime," which he remembered to
have seen practised in his youth,[899] and considered it not only as
innocent in itself, but also as a preventive to worse deeds "within
doors," which he feared would follow the suppression. The country
lasses perform this exercise upon the greens, where it is said they
dance all their rustic measures, rounds, and jiggs.[900] We read also
of dancing the Raye,[901] or Reye, as it is written by Chaucer, and
which appears to have been a rustic dance, and probably the same as
that now called the Hay, where they lay hold of hands, and dance round
in a ring. A dance of this kind occurs several times in the Bodleian
MS.,[902] dated A. D. 1344, whence many of the engravings which
elucidate this work are taken. Chaucer speaks also of love-dances,
and springs, as well known in his time;[903] but none of them are
described. Of late years dancing is generally thought to be an
essential part of a young female's education, and is commonly taught
her at the boarding-school; and perhaps, when used with moderation,
may not be improper. But some of the dances that the girls are
permitted to perform are justly to be censured; among these may be
ranked one called Hunt the Squirrel, in which, while the woman flies
the man pursues her, but as soon as she turns, he runs away, and she
is obliged to follow; and the Kissing-dance, the same, I suppose, as
the Cushion-dance mentioned by Heywood at the commencement of the
seventeenth century:[904] both of them are discommended in a paper of
the Spectator.[905]
XIV.--SHOVEL-BOARD.
Among the domestic pastimes, playing at shovelboard claims a principal
place. In former times the residences of the nobility, or the mansions
of the opulent, were not thought to be complete without a shovelboard
table; and this fashionable piece of furniture was usually stationed
in the great hall.[906] The tables for this diversion were sometimes
very expensive, owing to the great pains and labour bestowed upon their
construction. "It is remarkable," says Dr. Plott, in his History of
Staffordshire, "that in the hall at Chartley the shuffle-board table,
though ten yards one foot and an inch long, is made up of about two
hundred and sixty pieces, which are generally about eighteen inches
long, some few only excepted, that are scarce a foot, which, being laid
on longer boards for support underneath, are so accurately joined and
glewed together, that no shuffle-board whatever is freer from rubbs or
casting.--There is a joynt also in the shuffle-board at Madeley Manor
exquisitely well done."
The length of these tables, if they be perfectly smooth and level,
adds to their value in proportion to its increase; but they rarely
exceed three feet or three feet and a half in width. At one end of the
shovelboard there is a line drawn across parallel with the edge, and
about three or four inches from it; at four feet distance from this
line another is made, over which it is necessary for the weight to pass
when it is thrown by the player, otherwise the go is not reckoned. The
players stand at the end of the table, opposite to the two marks above
mentioned, each of them having four flat weights of metal, which they
shove from them one at a time alternately: and the judgment of the play
is, to give sufficient impetus to the weight to carry it beyond the
mark nearest to the edge of the board, which requires great nicety,
for if it be too strongly impelled, so as to fall from the table, and
there is nothing to prevent it, into a trough placed underneath for
its reception, the throw is not counted; if it hangs over the edge,
without falling, three are reckoned towards the player's game; if it
lie between the line and the edge without hanging over, it tells for
two; if on the line, and not up to it, but over the first line, it
counts for one. The game, when two play, is generally eleven; but the
number is extended when four or more are jointly concerned. I have seen
a shovelboard-table at a low public-house in Benjamin-street, near
Clerkenwell-green, which is about three feet in breadth and thirty-nine
feet two inches in length, and said to be the longest at this time in
London.
XV.--ANECDOTE OF PRINCE HENRY.
There certainly is not sufficient variety in this pastime to render it
very attractive, but in point of exercise it is not inferior to any
of the domestic amusements; for which reason it was practised by the
nobility in former ages, when the weather would not admit of employment
abroad. Prince Henry, the eldest son of James I., occasionally
exercised himself in this manner, as the following anecdote may prove:
it is recorded by one of his attendants, who declares that he was
present at the time, and that he has not attributed to him a single
sentence not uttered by him in this or any other of the anecdotes
related by him;[907] and therefore I will give it in the author's own
words:--"Once when the prince was playing at shoffleboard, and in his
play changed sundry pieces, his tutor, being desirous that even in
trifles he should not be new-fangled, said to him, that he did ill to
change so oft; and therewith took a piece in his hand, and saying that
he would play well enough therewith without changing, threw the piece
on the board; yet not so well but the prince, smileing thereat, said,
Well throwne, Sir. Whereupon Master Newton telling him, that he would
not strive with a prince at shoffleboard, he answered, You gownsmen
should be best at such exercises, being not meete for those that are
more stirring. Yes, quoth Master Newton, I am meete for whipping of
boyes. And hereupon the prince answered, You need not vaunt of that
which a ploughman or cartdriver can doe better than you. Yet I can
doe more, said Master Newton, for I can governe foolish children. The
prince respecting him, even in jesting, came from the further end of
the table, and smiling, said, while he passed by him, Hee had neede be
a wise man himselfe that could doe that."
XVI.--BILLIARDS.
This pastime, which in the present day has superseded the game of
shovelboard, and is certainly a more elegant species of amusement,
admits of more variety, and requires at least an equal degree of skill
in the execution. The modern manner of playing at billiards, and the
rules by which the pastime is regulated, are so generally known, that
no enlargement upon the subject is necessary. The invention of this
diversion is attributed to the French, and probably with justice; but
at the same time I cannot help thinking it originated from an ancient
game played with small bowls upon the ground; or indeed that it was,
when first instituted, the same game transferred from the ground to the
table.[908] At the commencement of the last century, the billiard-table
was square, having only three pockets for the balls to run in, situated
on one of the sides; that is, at each corner one, and the third
between them. About the middle of the table was placed a small arch of
iron, and in a right line, at a little distance from it, an upright
cone called the king. A representation of the billiard-table, according
to this description, may be found in the frontispiece to a little
duodecimo treatise called The School of Recreation, published in 1710.
At certain periods of the game it was necessary for the balls to be
driven through the one and round the other, without beating either of
them down; and their fall might easily be effected because they were
not fastened to the table; this is called the French game; and much
resembled the Italian method of playing, known in England by the name
of Trucks, which also had its king at one end of the table. Billiards
are first mentioned as an unlawful game towards the close of the last
reign, when billiard-tables were forbidden to be kept in public-houses,
under the penalty of ten pounds for every offence.[909]
XVII.--MISSISSIPI.
This is played upon a table made in the form of a parallelogram. It
much resembles a modern billiard-table, excepting that, instead of
pockets, it has a recess at one end, into which the balls may fall;
and this recess is faced with a thin board equal in height to the
ledge that surrounds the table; and in it are fifteen perforations,
or small arches, every one of them surmounted by a number from one
to fifteen inclusive, the highest being placed in the middle, and
the others intermixed on either side. The players have four or six
balls at pleasure. These balls, which are usually made of ivory, and
distinguished from each other by their colour, some being red and some
white, they cast alternately, one at a time, against the sides of
the table, whence acquiring an angular direction, and rolling to the
arches, they strike against the intervening parts, or pass by them.
In the first instance the cast is of no use; in the second the value
of the numbers affixed to the arches through which they run is placed
to the score of the player; and he who first attains one hundred and
twenty wins the game. This pastime is included in the statute above
mentioned relating to billiards, and the same penalty is imposed upon
the publican who keeps a table in his house for the purpose of playing.
XVIII--THE ROCKS OF SCILLY.
This diversion requires a table oblong in its form, and curved at the
top, which is more elevated than the bottom. There is a hollow trunk
affixed to one side, which runs nearly the whole length of the table,
and is open at both ends. The balls are put in singly at the bottom,
and driven through it by the means of a round batoon of wood. When a
ball quits the trunk it is impelled by its own gravity towards the
lower part of the table, where there are arches similar to those upon
the mississipi-table, and numbered in like manner; but it is frequently
interrupted in its descent by wires inserted at different distances
upon the table, which alter its direction, and often throw it entirely
out of the proper track. The game is reckoned in the same manner as at
mississipi, and the cast is void if the ball does not enter any of the
holes.
XIX.--SHOVE-GROAT, &c.
Shove-groat, named also Slyp-groat, and Slide-thrift, are sports
occasionally mentioned by the writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, and probably were analogous to the modern pastime called
Justice Jervis, or Jarvis, which is confined to common pot-houses,
and only practised by such as frequent the tap-rooms. It requires a
parallelogram to be made with chalk, or by lines cut upon the middle
of a table, about twelve or fourteen inches in breadth, and three or
four feet in length: which is divided, latitudinally, into nine equal
partitions, in every one of which is placed a figure, in regular
succession from one to nine. Each of the players provides himself with
a smooth halfpenny, which he places upon the edge of the table, and
striking it with the palm of his hand, drives it towards the marks; and
according to the value of the figure affixed to the partition wherein
the halfpenny rests, his game is reckoned; which generally is stated at
thirty-one, and must be made precisely: if it be exceeded, the player
goes again for nine, which must also be brought exactly, or the turn
is forfeited; and if the halfpenny rests upon any of the marks that
separate the partitions, or overpasses the external boundaries, the
go is void. It is also to be observed, that the players toss up to
determine who shall go first, which is certainly a great advantage.
Some add a tenth partition, with the number ten, to the marks above
mentioned; and then they play with four halfpence, which are considered
as equivalent to so many cards at cribbage; and the game is counted, in
like manner, by fifteens, sequences, pairs, and pairials, according to
the numbers appertaining to the partitions occupied by the halfpence.
XX.--SWINGING.
This is a childish sport, in which the performer is seated upon the
middle of a long rope, fastened at both ends, a little distance from
each other, and the higher above his head the better. The rope we
call the Swing, but formerly it was known by the name of Meritot,
or Merry-trotter.[910] This simple pastime was not confined to the
children, at least in the last century, but practised by grown persons
of both sexes, and especially by the rustics. Hence Gay:
On two near elms the slacken'd cord I hung,
Now high, now low, my Blouzalinda swung.
It was also adopted at the watering-places by people of fashion, and
the innovation is justly ridiculed in the Spectator.[911]
Of late years a machine has been introduced to answer the purpose of
the swing. It consists of an axletree, with four or six double arms
inserted into it, like the spokes of a large water-wheel; every pair
of arms is connected at the extremities by a round rod of iron, of
considerable thickness, and upon it a box is suspended, resembling the
body of a post-chaise, which turns about and passes readily between
the two spokes, in such a manner as to continue upright whatever may
be the position of its supporters. These carriages usually contain
two or three persons each, and being filled with passengers, if I
may be allowed the term, the machine is put into action, when they
are successively elevated and depressed by the rotatory motion. This
ridiculous method of riding was in vogue for the space of two summers,
and was exhibited at several places in the neighbourhood of London; and
the places where the machines were erected frequented by persons
of both sexes, and by some whose situation in life, one might have
thought, would have prevented their appearance in such a mixed, and
generally speaking, vulgar company; but the charms of novelty may be
pleaded in excuse for many inadvertencies.
The Grecian boys had a game called in Greek Ελκυστινδα,[912] which I
have seen played by the youth of our own country; it was performed by
the means of a rope passed through a hole made in a beam, and either
end held by a boy, who pulls the rope, in his turn, with all his
strength; and by this means both of them are alternately elevated from
the ground.
XXI.--TITTER-TOTTER.
To the foregoing we may add another pastime well known with us by the
younger part of the community, and called Titter-totter. It consists
in simply laying one piece of timber across another, so as to be
equipoised; and either end being occupied by a boy or a girl, they
raise or depress themselves in turn. This sport was sometimes played by
the rustic lads and lasses, as we find from Gay:
Across the fallen oak the plank I laid,
And myself pois'd against the tott'ring maid;
High leap'd the plank, adown Buxoma fell, &c.
XXII.--SHUTTLE-COCK.
This a boyish sport of long standing. It is represented by the
following engraving from a drawing on a MS. in the possession of
Francis Douce, esq.
[Illustration: 98. SHUTTLE-COCK.--XIV. CENTURY.]
It appears to have been a fashionable pastime among grown persons in
the reign of James I. In the Two Maids of Moreclacke, a comedy printed
in 1609, it is said, "To play at shuttle-cock methinkes is the game
now." And among the anecdotes related of prince Henry, son to James 1.,
is the following: "His highness playing at shittle-cocke, with one farr
taller than himself, and hittyng him by chance with the shittle-cocke
upon the forehead, 'This is,' quoth he, 'the encounter of David with
Goliath.'"[913]
CHAPTER II
I. Sedentary Games.--II. Dice-playing;--Its Prevalency and
bad Effects.--III Ancient Dice-box;--Anecdote relating to
false Dice.--IV. Chess;--Its Antiquity.--V. The Morals of
Chess.--VI. Early Chess-play in France and England.--VII. The
Chess-board.--VIII. The Pieces, and their Form.--IX. The various
Games of Chess.--X. Ancient Games similar to Chess.--XI. The
Philosopher's Game.--XII. Draughts, French and Polish.--XIII.
Merelles, or Nine Mens' Morris.--XIV. Fox and Geese.--XV. The
Solitary Game.--XVI. Backgammon, anciently called Tables;--The
different Manners of playing at Tables.--XVII Backgammon,
its former and present estimation.--XVIII. Domino.--XIX.
Cards, when invented.--XX. Card-playing much practised.--XXI.
Forbidden.--XXII. Censured by Poets.--XXIII. A specimen of ancient
Cards.--XXIV. Games formerly played with Cards.--XXV. The Game of
Goose--and of the Snake.--XXVI. Cross and Pile.
I.--SEDENTARY GAMES.
This chapter is appropriated to sedentary games, and in treating upon
most of them I am under the necessity of confining myself to very
narrow limits. To attempt a minute investigation of their properties,
to explain the different manners in which they have been played, or
to produce all the regulations by which they have been governed, is
absolutely incompatible with my present design. Instead, therefore, of
following the various writers upon these subjects, whose opinions are
rarely in unison, through the multiplicity of their arguments, I shall
content myself by selecting such of them as appear to be most cogent,
and be exceedingly brief in my own observations.
II.--DICE PLAY--ITS PREVALENCY AND BAD EFFECTS.
There is not, I believe, any species of amusement more ancient than
dice-playing; none has been more universally prevalent, and, generally
speaking, none is more pernicious in its consequences. It is the
earliest, or at least one of the most early pastimes in use among the
Grecians. Dice are said to have been invented, together with chess, by
Palamedes, the son of Nauplius, king of Eubœa.[914] Others, agreeing
to the time of the invention of dice, attribute it to a Greek soldier
named Alea, and therefore say that the game was so denominated.[915]
But Herodotus[916] attributes both dice and chess to the Lydians, a
people of Asia; in which part of the world, it is most probable, they
originated at some very remote but uncertain period. We have already
seen that the ancient Germans, even in their state of barbarism,
indulged the propensity for gambling with the dice to a degree of
madness, not only staking all they were worth, but even their liberty,
upon the chance of a throw, and submitted to slavery if fortune
declared against them.[917] The Saxons, the Danes, and the Normans
their descendants, were all of them greatly addicted to the same
infatuating pastime. One would not, at first sight, imagine that the
dice could afford any great variety of amusement, especially if they
be abstractedly considered; and yet John of Salisbury, in the twelfth
century, speaks of ten different games of dice then in use; but as he
has only given us the names, their properties cannot be investigated.
He calls it,[918] "The damnable art of dice-playing." Another author,
contemporary with him, says, "The clergymen and bishops are fond of
dice-playing."[919]
III.--ANCIENT DICE-BOX--ANECDOTE RELATING TO FALSE DICE.
The common method of throwing the dice is with a hollow cylinder of
wood, called the dice-box, into which they are put, and thence, being
first shaken together, thrown out upon the table; but in one of the
prints which occur in the Vocabulary of Commenius,[920] we meet with a
contrivance for playing with the dice that does not require them to be
numbered upon their faces. This curious machine[921] is copied below.
[Illustration: 99. OLD DICE-BOX.]
The dice are thrown into the receptacle at the top, whence they fall
upon the circular part of the table below, which is divided into six
compartments, numbered as the dice usually are; and according to the
value of the figures affixed to the compartments into which they fall
the throw is estimated. Perhaps the inner part of the circle, with the
apparatus above it, was so constructed as to move round with great
rapidity when the dice were put into the tunnel. It would then be
analogous to the E O tables of the present day, wherein a ball is used,
and the game is determined by the letters E or O being marked upon the
compartment into which it falls. The E O tables may have derived their
origin from the above contrivance.
Dice-playing has been reprobated by the grave and judicious authors
of this country for many centuries back; the legislature set its face
against it at a very early period;[922] and in the succeeding statutes
promulgated for the suppression of unlawful games, it is constantly
particularised and strictly prohibited.
Supposing the play to be fair on either side, the chances upon the
dice are equal to both parties; and the professed gamblers being well
aware of this, will not trust to the determination of fortune, but
have recourse to many nefarious arts to circumvent the unwary; hence
we hear of loaded dice, and dice of the high cut. The former are dice
made heavier on one side than the other by the insertion of a small
portion of lead; and the latter may be known by the following anecdote
in an anonymous MS. written about the reign of James I., and preserved
in the Harleian Collection.[923] "Sir William Herbert, playing at
dice with another gentleman, there rose some questions about a cast.
Sir William's antagonist declared it was a four and a five; he as
positively insisted that it was a five and six; the other then swore,
with a bitter imprecation,[924] that it was as he had said: Sir William
then replied, 'Thou art a perjured knave; for give me a sixpence, and
if there be a four upon the dice, I will return you a thousand pounds;'
at which the other was presently abashed, for indeed the dice were
false, and of a high cut, without a four." The dice are usually made of
bone or ivory, but sometimes of silver, and probably of other metals.
The wife of the unfortunate Arden of Feversham, sent to Mosbie, her
paramour, a pair of silver dice, in order to reconcile a disagreement
that had subsisted between them, and occasioned his abstaining from her
company.[925]
IV.--CHESS--ITS ANTIQUITY.
This noble, or, as it is frequently called, royal pastime, is said, by
some authors, to have originated, together with dice-playing, at the
siege of Troy; and the invention of both is attributed to Palamedes,
the son of Nauplius, king of Eubœa;[926] others make Diomedes, and
others again, Ulysses, the inventor of chess.[927] The honour has also
been attributed to Ledo and Tyrrheno, two Grecians, and brothers,
who being much pressed by hunger, sought to alleviate their bodily
sufferings by diverting the mind.[928] None of these stories have any
solid foundation for their support; and I am inclined to follow the
opinion of Dr. Hyde and other learned authors, who readily agree that
the pastime is of very remote antiquity, but think it first made its
appearance in Asia.
V.--THE MORALS OF CHESS.
John de Vigney wrote a book which he called The Moralization of Chess,
wherein he assures us that this game was invented by a philosopher
named Xerxes in the reign of Evil Merodach, king of Babylon, and
was made known to that monarch in order to engage his attention and
correct his manners. "There are three reasons," says de Vigney, "which
induced the philosopher to institute this new pastime: the first, to
reclaim a wicked king; the second, to prevent idleness; and the third,
practically to demonstrate the nature and necessity of nobleness." He
then adds, "The game of chess passed from Chaldea into Greece, and
thence diffused itself all over Europe." I have followed a MS. copy at
the Museum in the Harleian Library.[929] Our countryman Chaucer, on
what authority I know not, says it was
--Athalus that made the game
First of the chesse, so was his name.[930]
The Arabians and the Saracens, who are said to be admirable players at
chess, have new-modelled the story of de Vigney and adapted it to
their own country, changing the name of the philosopher from Xerxes to
Sisa.[931]
VI.--EARLY CHESS-PLAY IN FRANCE AND ENGLAND.
It is impossible to say when the game of chess was first brought into
this kingdom; but we have good reason to suppose it to have been well
known here at least a century anterior to the Conquest, and it was
then a favourite pastime with persons of the highest rank. Canute the
Dane, who ascended the throne of England A. D. 1017, was partial to
this pastime.[932] The following story is told of William, duke of
Normandy, afterwards king of England. When a young man, he was invited
to the court of the French king, and during his residence there,
being one day engaged at chess with the king's eldest son, a dispute
arose concerning the play; and William, exasperated at somewhat his
antagonist had said, struck him with the chess-board; which obliged
him to make a precipitate retreat from France, in order to avoid the
consequences of so rash an action.[933] A similar circumstance is said
by Leland to have happened in England.[934] John, the youngest son of
Henry II., playing at chess one day with Fulco Guarine, a nobleman of
Shropshire, a quarrel ensued, and John broke the head of Guarine with
the chess-board, who in return struck the prince such a blow that he
almost killed him. It seems, however, that Fulco found means of making
his peace with king Henry, by whom he was knighted, with three of his
brethren, a short time afterwards. John did not so easily forgive the
affront; but, on the contrary, showed his resentment long after his
accession to the English throne, by keeping him from the possession
of Whittington Castle, to which he was the rightful heir.[935] It
is also said of this monarch, that he was engaged at chess when the
deputies from Rouen came to acquaint him that the city was besieged
by Philip king of France, but he would not hear them out till he had
finished the game. In like manner Charles I. was playing at chess when
he was told that the final resolution of the Scots was to sell him
to the parliament; and he was so little discomposed by the alarming
intelligence, that he continued the game with great composure.[936]
Several other instances to the same purpose might be produced, but
these may suffice; and in truth, I know not what interpretation to put
upon such extraordinary conduct; it proves at least that the
fascinating powers of this fashionable diversion are very extensive
upon the minds of those who pursue it earnestly.
VII.--THE CHESS-BOARD.
The number of the pieces and the manner in which they are placed do not
appear to have undergone much, if any, variation for several centuries.
The following is the most ancient representation of the pastime that I
have met with.
[Illustration: 100. ANCIENT-CHESS-PLAY.]
This engraving· is from a drawing in a beautifully illuminated MS.
preserved in the British Museum among the Harleian Collection.[937]
This MS. was written at the close of the fourteenth century, and bears
every mark of being the very copy presented to Isabel of Bavaria, the
queen of Charles VI. of France. Her portrait, very neatly finished,
occurs twice, and that of the king her husband once. The author of
this MS. makes Ulysses to be the inventor of chess; and the painting
is intended to represent that chieftain engaged with some other
Grecian hero who is come to visit and play the game with him, the two
bystanders, I presume, are the umpires to decide the matter in case of
any dispute.
The Cotton Library contains a MS. of the thirteenth century with the
following:
[Illustration: 101. CHESS-BOARD.--XIV. CENTURY.]
In this representation is exhibited the manner of placing the pieces,
which are thus called in Latin verse:
Miles et Alphinus, rex, roc, regina pedinus.
The same MS. supplies a perfect singularity:
[Illustration: 102. CIRCULAR CHESS-BOARD.--XIV CENTURY.]
It will be observed that the pieces are also placed on the above board.
VIII.--CHESS-PIECES, AND THEIR FORM.
The names of the chess pieces, as they are given in
the foregoing manuscript, are these: Rey--Reyne, or
Ferce--Roc--Alfin--Chivaler--Poun:--that is, 1. The King--2. The Queen,
or Ferce[938]--3. The Rock--4. The Alfin--5. The Knight--6. The Pawn.
Their forms are annexed.
[Illustration: 103. CHESSMEN.--XIV. CENTURY.]
In modern times the roc is corruptedly called a rook, but formerly it
signified a rock or fortress, or rather, perhaps, the keeper of the
fortress; the alfin was also denominated by the French fol, and with us
an archer, and at last a bishop.
IX.--THE VARIOUS GAMES OF CHESS.
In a manuscript in the Royal Library,[939] written about the same time
as that last mentioned, we find no less than forty-four different
names given to so many games of chess, and some of them are played
more ways than one, so that in the whole they may be said to amount to
fifty-five; and under every title there are directions for playing the
game, but I apprehend they would be of little use to a modern player.
I shall, however, give the several denominations as they occur, with
an attempt at a translation. If the learned reader should find that I
have mistaken the meaning of any of these titles, which is very likely
to be the case, he will consider the difficulty I had to encounter, and
remember I give the translation with diffidence.
1. Guy de chivaler, played three ways--2. De dames--3. De
damoyseles--4. De alfins, two ways--5. De anel--6. De covenant--7.
De propre confusion--8. Mal assis--9. Cotidian, two ways--10. Poynt
estraunge, two ways--11. Ky perde sey sauve--12. Ky ne doune ces ke
il eyme, ne prendrant ke disire--13. Bien trove--14. Beal petit--15.
Mieut vaut engyn ke force--16. Ky est larges est sages--17. Ky doune
ganye--18. Ly enginous e ly coveytous--19. Covenaunt fet ley--20. Ve
pres sen joyst ke loyns veyt--21. Meschief fet hom penser--22. La chace
de chivaler--23. La chace de ferce et de chivaler--24. Bien fort--25.
Fol si prent--26. Ly envoyons--27. Le seon sey envoye--28. Le veyl
conu--29. Le haut enprise--30. De cundut--31. Ky put se prenge--32. La
batalie sans array--33. Le tret emble, two ways--34. Ly desperes--35.
Ly marvelious, two ways--36. Ne poun ferce home fet--37. Muse
vyleyn--38. De dames et de damoyceles--39. Fol si sey fie, two
ways--40. Mal veysyn, two ways--41. Je mat de ferces--42. Flour de
guys--43. La batalie de rokes--44. Double eschec.
1. The knights' game--2. The ladies' game--3. The damsels'
game--4. The game of the alfins--5. The ring--6. The agreement--7.
Self-confounded--8. Ill placed or bad enough--9. Day by day--10. The
foreign point--11. The loser wins--12. He that gives not what he
esteems, shall not take that he desires--13. Well found--14. Fair
and small--15. Craft surpasses strength--16. He that is bountiful
is wise--17. Who gives gains--18. Subtilty and covetousness--19.
Agreement makes law--20. He sees his play at hand who sees it at a
distance--21. Misfortunes make a man think--22. The chace of the
knight--23. The chace of the queen and the knight--24. Very strong--25.
He is a fool if he takes--26. The messengers--27. Sent by his own
party--28. The old one known--29. The high place taken--30. Perhaps
for conduit, managed or conducted--31. Take if you can--32. The battle
without arrangement--33. The stolen blow--34. The desperates--35.
The wonder--36. A pawn cannot make a queen--37. The clown's lurking
place--38. The ladies and the damsels--39. A fool if he trusts--40.
Bad neighbour--41. I mate the queen--42. The flower or beauty of the
games--43. The battle of the rooks--44. Double chess.
X.--ANCIENT GAMES SIMILAR TO CHESS.
The ancient pastimes, if more than one be meant, which bear the names
of ludus latrunculorum, ludus calculorum, et ludus scrupulorum, have
been generally considered as similar to chess, if not precisely the
same; but the authors of the Encyclopédie Françoise, assure us they
did not bear any resemblance to it, at least in those essential parts
of the game which distinguish it from all others; but were played with
stones, shells, or counters. The ancients, we are told, used little
stones, shells, and nuts, in making their calculations without the
assistance of writing. These little stones were called by the Greeks
Ψηφοι, and calculi or scrupuli by the Romans; and such articles, it is
supposed, were employed by them in playing the games above mentioned.
This method of reckoning passed from the Greeks to the Romans, but
when luxury introduced itself at Rome, the stones and shells were laid
aside, and counters made with ivory became their substitutes. If the
foregoing observations be well founded, we may justly conclude that
the ludus calculorum which Homer mentions as a pastime practised by
his heroes, called in Greek πετος or πεσσος, consisted in a certain
arrangement and combination of numbers, every piece employed in the
game being marked with an appropriate number, and probably might
resemble a more modern pastime, which still retains the Greek name
of Rithmomachia, from αριθμος, numerus, et μαχι, pugna, expressive
of a battle with numbers, said by some to have been invented by
Pythagoras,[940] and by others to be more ancient: with us it is called
the Philosopher's Game, and seems indeed to have been well calculated
for the diversion of soldiers, because it consists, not only in a
contention for superiority by the skilful adjustment of the numbers,
but in addition, allows the conqueror to triumph and erect his trophy
in token of the victory; this part of the game, we are told, requires
much judgment to perform with propriety, and if the player fails, his
glories are but half achieved.
XI.--THE PHILOSOPHER'S GAME.
We have some account of the philosopher's game, but very loosely drawn
up, in a manuscript in the Sloanian Library[941] at the British Museum.
It is called, says the author, "a number fight," because in it men
fight and strive together by the art of counting or numbering how one
may take his adversary's king and erect a triumph upon the deficiency
of his calculations. It is then said, "you may make your triumph as
well with your enemy's men taken, as with your own not taken."
The board or table for playing this game is made in the form of a
parallelogram just as long again as it is broad; it is divided into
eight squares the narrow way, and extended to sixteen the other, and
bears the resemblance of two chess-boards fastened together: the
chequers in like manner being alternately black and white, and two
persons only at one time can properly play the game; to either party is
assigned twenty-four soldiers, which constitute his army, (hoste, in
the original,) and one of them is called the Pyramis or king: one third
of these pieces are circular, which form two rows in the front of the
army; one third are triangular, which are placed in the middle; and one
third are square, which bring up the rear, and one of these situated in
the fifth row is the Pyramis. The men belonging to the two parties are
distinguished by being black and white, and every one of them is marked
with an appropriate number. There were sometimes added to these numbers
certain signs or algebraic figures, called cossical signings, which
increased the intricacy of the game. The army that presents a front of
even numbers is called the even hoste, and the other the odd hoste. The
two armies at the commencement of the play are drawn up in the order
represented below.[942]
[Illustration: 104.]
[Illustration: 105. THE PHILOSOPHER'S GAME.]
It was my wish to have subjoined a general outline of the method
of playing the game, but the author is so exceedingly obscure in
his phraseology, and negligent in his explanations, that I found it
impossible to follow him with the least degree of satisfaction.[943]
It is, however, certain, that the great object of each player is to
take the king from his opponent, because he who succeeds may make his
triumph and erect his trophy.
Burton, speaking of this pastime, in his Anatomy of Melancholy,[944]
calls it the Philosophy Game, and thinks it "not convenient for
students;" to which he adds, "the like I say of Dr. Fulke's
Metromachia, and his Ouronomachia, with the rest of those intricate,
astrological, and geometrical fictions, for such as are mathematically
given, and other curious games." Dr. Fulke was a Cambridge man, and his
book was printed at London 1566.
XII.--DRAUGHTS--FRENCH AND POLISH.
This pastime is well known in the present day; and I believe there are
now in London as excellent draught-players as ever existed. Draughts,
no doubt, is a modern invention, and easier to be learnt than chess,
because it is not so intricate; for the pieces are of equal value till
they become kings, and can only move one way, that is, diagonally;
but, like chess, it depends entirely upon skill, and one false move
frequently occasions the loss of the game. There are two methods of
playing at draughts, the one commonly used in England, denominated
the French Game, which is played upon a chess-board, and the other
called the Polish Game, because, I presume, the first was invented
in France and the latter in Poland. This requires a board with ten
squares or chequers in each row, and twenty men, for so the pieces are
usually named. The draught-man is called in French dame. The men in
the Polish game can only move forwards as they do in the French game,
but they have the privilege of taking backwards as well as forwards;
and the king, if not opposed by two men close together, can move from
one corner of the board to the other. The Polish game admits of most
variety, and is, in my opinion, infinitely the best; but it is little
known in this country, and rarely played, except by foreigners. We
have a recent publication upon the French game of draughts, which
fully explains the nature of the pastime, and points out most of the
important moves, published by Sturges, who, I am told, is an excellent
player.
XIII.--MERELLES--NINE MENS' MORRIS.
Merelles, or, as it was formerly called in England, nine mens' morris,
and also five-penny morris, is a game of some antiquity. Cotgrave
describes it as a boyish game, and says it was played here commonly
with stones, but in France with pawns, or men, made on purpose, and
they were termed merelles; hence the pastime itself received that
denomination. It was certainly much used by the shepherds formerly,
and continues to be used by them, and other rustics, to the present
hour. But it is very far from being confined to the practice of boys
and girls. The form of the merelle-table, and the lines upon it, as it
appeared in the fourteenth century, is here represented.
[Illustration: 106. MERELLES.]
These lines have not been varied. The black spots at every angle and
intersection of the lines are the places for the men to be laid upon.
The men are different in form or colour for distinction sake; and from
the moving these men backwards or forwards, as though they were dancing
a morris, I suppose the pastime received the appellation of nine
mens' morris; but why it should have been called five-penny morris,
I do not know. The manner of playing is briefly this: two persons,
having each of them nine pieces, or men, lay them down alternately,
one by one, upon the spots; and the business of either party is to
prevent his antagonist from placing three of his pieces so as to form
a row of three, without the intervention of an opponent piece. If a
row be formed, he that made it is at liberty to take up one of his
competitor's pieces from any part he thinks most to his own advantage;
excepting he has made a row, which must not be touched if he have
another piece upon the board that is not a component part of that
row. When all the pieces are laid down, they are played backwards and
forwards, in any direction that the lines run, but only can move from
one spot to another at one time: he that takes off all his antagonist's
pieces is the conqueror. The rustics, when they have not materials at
hand to make a table, cut the lines in the same form upon the ground,
and make a small hole for every dot. They then collect, as above
mentioned, stones of different forms or colours for the pieces, and
play the game by depositing them in the holes in the same manner that
they are set over the dots upon the table. Hence Shakspeare, describing
the effects of a wet and stormy season, says,
The folds stand empty in the drowned field,
And crows are fatted with the murrain flock,
The nine mens' morris is filled up with mud.
XIV.--FOX AND GEESE.
This is a game somewhat resembling that of merelles in the manner the
pieces are moved, but in other respects, as well as in the form of the
table, it differs materially; the intersection and angles are more
numerous, and the dots of course increased, which adds to the number of
the moves.
[Illustration: 107. FOX AND GEESE.]
To play this game there are seventeen pieces, called geese, which are
placed as we see them upon the engraving, and the fox in the middle,
distinguished either by his size or difference of colour, as here, for
instance, he is black. The business of the game is to shut the fox up,
so that he cannot move. All the pieces have the power to move from one
spot to another, in the direction of the right lines, but cannot pass
over two spots at one time. It is to be observed, that this board is
sometimes made with holes bored through it, where the dots are made,
and pegs equal to the number of geese put into them, and the fox is
distinguished by being larger and taller than the rest. The geese are
not permitted to take the fox if he stands close to them, but the fox
may take a goose, in like case, if the spot behind it be unoccupied,
or not guarded by another goose; and if all be taken, or the number
so reduced that the fox cannot be blocked, the game is won. The great
deficiency of this game is, that the fox must inevitably be blocked if
the geese are played by a skilful hand; for which reason, I am told, of
late some players have added another fox; but this I have not seen.
XV.--THE SOLITARY GAME.
This is so denominated because it is played by one person only. It is
said to have been invented by an unfortunate man who was several years
kept in solitary confinement at the Bastile in Paris. The board for
this pastime is of a circular form, and perforated with holes at half
an inch distance from each other, to the amount of fifty or sixty. A
certain number of pegs are then fitted to these holes, but not enough
to fill them all; and the manner of playing the game is, to pass one
of the pegs over another into a hole that is unoccupied, taking the
peg so passed from the board, and to continue doing so till all the
pegs but one are taken away; which is an operation much more difficult
to perform than any one could readily imagine who had not made the
attempt. It must be remembered that only one peg can be passed over at
a time, and that no peg can be put over another, unless it stands close
to it without an intervening hole.
XVI.--BACKGAMMON, OR TABLES.
The game of chess, and most of the pastimes derived from it, depend
entirely upon the skill of the players, and afford no chance of
success to an indifferent one if his antagonist be possessed of more
knowledge in moving the pieces than himself. Therefore, in order
to bring two players of unequal talents nearer to a level, other
diversions were invented, in which both chance and skill were united,
as we see they are in the game at tables, which in Latin is called
tabularum ludus, and in French tables. Hence the following line in the
romance of Parise la Duchesse:
Puis aprist il as tables et eschas joier;
Then he learned to play at tables and at chess.[945] The game of tables
is better known at present by the name of Backgammon. This pastime is
said to have been discovered about the tenth century,[946] and the name
derived from two Welsh words signifying "little battle." But I trust,
as before observed, that the derivation may be found nearer home. The
words are perfectly Saxon, as Bac, or Bæc, and gamen, that is, Back
Game; so denominated because the performance consists in the players
bringing their men back from their antagonists' tables into their own;
or because the pieces are sometimes taken up and obliged to go back,
that is, re-enter at the table they came from. The ancient form of the
backgammon-table is represented by the annexed engraving:
[Illustration: 108. TABLES.--XIII. CENTURY.]
The original of the engraving occurs in a beautifully illuminated
manuscript in the Harleian Collection.[947] The table, as here
delineated, is not divided in the middle, but the points, on
either side, are contained in a single compartment. Annexed is the
representation of a backgammon-table at least a century more modern.
[Illustration: 109. TABLES.--XIV. CENTURY.]
In this the division is fairly made, but the points are not
distinguished by different colours, according to the present, and
indeed more ancient usage. The writer of the latter manuscript, which
is in the King's Library,[948] says, "There are many methods of playing
at the tables with the dice. The first of these, and the longest, is
called the English game, Ludus Anglicorum, which is thus performed: he
who sits on the side of the board marked 1-12 has fifteen men (homines)
in the part marked 24, and he who sits on the side marked 13-24 has a
like number of men in the part 1. They play with three dice, or else
with two, allowing always (semper, that is, at every throw) six for a
third die. Then he who is seated at 1-12 must bring all his men placed
at 24 through the partitions (paginas), from 24 to 19, from 18 to 13,
and from 12 to 7, into the division 6-1, and then bear them off; his
opponent must do the same from 1 to 7, thence to 12, thence to 18,
into the compartment 19-24; and he who first bears off all his men is
conqueror." Here we may observe, that the most material circumstances
in which the game differed, at this remote period, from the present
method of playing it, are, first, in having three dice instead of two,
or reckoning a certain number for the third; and secondly, in placing
all the men within the antagonist's table, which, if I do not mistake
the author, must be put upon his ace point. But to go on: "There is,"
says he, "another game upon the tables called Paume Carie, which is
played with two dice, and requires four players, that is, two on either
side; or six, and then three are opposed to three." He then speaks of a
third game, called "Ludus Lumbardorum, the Game of Lombardy, and thus
played: he who sits on the side marked 13-24 has his men at 6, and his
antagonist has his men at 19;" which is changing the ace point in the
English game for the size point: and this alteration probably shortened
the game. He then mentions the five following variations by name only;
the Imperial game, the Provincial game, the games called Baralie,
Mylys, and Faylis.
XVII.--BACKGAMMON--ITS FORMER AND PRESENT ESTIMATION.
At the commencement of the last century backgammon was a very favourite
amusement, and pursued at leisure times by most persons of opulence,
and especially by the clergy, which occasioned dean Swift, when writing
to a friend of his in the country, sarcastically to ask the following
question: "In what esteem are you with the vicar of the parish; can you
play with him at backgammon?" But of late years this pastime is become
unfashionable, and of course it is not often practised. The tables,
indeed, are frequently enough to be met with in the country mansions;
but upon examination you will generally find the men deficient, the
dice lost, or some other cause to render them useless. Backgammon is
certainly a diversion by no means fitted for company, which cards are
made to accommodate in a more extensive manner; and therefore it is no
wonder they have gained the ascendancy.
XVIII.--DOMINO.
This is a very childish sport, imported from France a few years back,
and could have nothing but the novelty to recommend it to the notice of
grown persons in this country. It consists of twenty-eight small oblong
and flat pieces of ivory or bone, and all of the same size and shape.
The back of every piece is plain, and sometimes black; the face is
white, divided into two parts by a line in the middle, and marked with
a double number, or with two different numbers, or with a number and
a blank, and one of them is a double blank. The numbers are the same
as those upon the dice, from one to six inclusive. When two play, the
whole of the pieces, which are ridiculously enough called cards, are
hustled about the table with their faces downwards, and each of them
draw seven or nine, according to agreement, and the remaining pieces
are undiscovered until the hand is played, which is thus performed:
the right of first playing being cut for, he who obtains it lays down
one of his pieces, and the other is to match one of the numbers marked
upon it with a similar number marked upon a piece of his own, which
he lays close to it; the other then matches one of the open numbers
in like manner; and thus they continue alternately to lay down their
pieces as long as they can be matched; and he who first gets rid of all
his pieces wins the game: but if it so happen, as it often does, that
neither of them have exhausted their pieces, nor can match the open
numbers on the table, they then discover what remains on both sides,
and he whose pieces contain the fewest spots obtains the victory.
Sometimes four play, in which case they deal out six cards to each,
leaving only four upon the table, and then play on in rotation.
XIX.--CARDS--WHEN INVENTED.
The general opinion respecting the origin of playing-cards is, that
they were first made for the amusement of Charles VI. of France, at the
time he was afflicted with a mental derangement, which commenced in
1392, and continued for several years. The proof of this supposition
depends upon an article in the treasury registers belonging to that
monarch, which states that a payment of fifty-six sols was made to
Jacquemin Gringonneur, painter, for three packs of cards gilded and
painted with divers colours and different devices, to be carried
to the king for his diversion.[949] If it be granted, and I see no
reason why it should not, that this entry alludes to playing-cards,
the consequences that have been deduced from it, do not necessarily
follow; I mean, that these cards were the first that were made, or that
Gringonneur was the inventor of them; it by no means precludes the
probability of cards having been previously used in France, but simply
states that those made by him were gilt and diversified with devices
in variegated colours, the better to amuse the unfortunate monarch.
Some, allowing that Gringonneur was the first maker of playing-cards,
place the invention in the reign of Charles V., upon the authority of
Jean de Saintre, who was page to that monarch; he mentions card-playing
in his chronicle; for he was an author. The words he uses are these:
"Et vous qui etes noyseux joueux de cartes et de des.--And you who are
contentious play at cards and at dice."[950] This would be sufficient
evidence for the existence of cards before the ascension of Charles VI.
to the throne of France, if it could be proved that the page did not
survive his master; but, on the other hand, if he did, they may equally
be applied to the amusements of the succeeding reign.
XX.--CARD-PLAYING MUCH PRACTISED.
A prohibitory edict against the usage of cards was made in Spain
considerably anterior to any that have been produced in France. In
Spain, as early as A. D. 1387, John I., king of Castile, in an edict,
forbade playing of cards and dice in his dominions. The provost of
Paris, January 22, A. D. 1397, published an ordinance, prohibiting the
manufacturing part of the people from playing at tennice, dice, cards,
&c.[951] which has inclined several modern writers upon this subject
to refer the invention of cards from France to Spain; and the names of
some of the cards, as well as of many of the most ancient games, being
evidently derived from the Spanish language, are justly considered as
strong corroborating arguments in favour of such an opinion. Such, for
instance, as primero and the principal card in the game quinola; ombre
and the cards spadill, manill, basto, punto, matador, quadrille, a
species of ombre, &c. The suit of clubs upon the Spanish cards is not
the trefoils as with us, but positively clubs, or cudgels, of which
we retain the name, though we have lost the figures; the original
name is bastos. The spades are swords, called in Spain espadas; in
this instance we retain the name and some faint resemblance of the
figure.[952]
A very intelligent writer upon the origin of engraving, baron
Heineken, asserts that playing-cards were invented in Germany, where
they were used towards the latter end of the fourteenth century; but
his reasons are by no means conclusive. He says they were known there
as early as the year 1376.[953]
An author of our own country produces a passage cited from a wardrobe
computus made in 1377, the sixth year of Edward I., which mentions
a game entitled, "the four kings;"[954] and hence with some degree
of probability he conjectures that the use of playing-cards was then
known in England, which is a much earlier period than any that has
been assigned by the foreign authors. It is the opinion of several
learned writers well acquainted with Asiatic history, that cards were
used in the eastern parts of the world long before they found their
way into Europe.[955] If this position be granted, when we recollect
that Edward I. before his accession to the throne resided nearly five
years in Syria, it will be natural enough to suppose that he might have
learned the game of "the four kings" in that country, and introduced
it at court upon his return to England. An objection, which indeed
at first sight seems to be a very powerful one, has been raised in
opposition to this conjecture: it is founded upon the total silence of
every kind of authority respecting the subject of card-playing from the
time that the above-mentioned entry was made to 1464, an early period
in the reign of Edward IV., including an interval of one hundred and
eighty-six years. An omission so general, it is thought, would not
have taken place, if the words contained in that record alluded to the
usage of playing-cards. A game introduced by a monarch could not fail
of becoming fashionable; and if it continued to be practised in after
times, must in all probability have been mentioned occasionally in
conjunction with other pastimes then prevalent. But this silence is by
no means a proof that the game of "the four kings" was not played with
cards, nor that cards did not continue to be used during the whole of
the above-mentioned interval in the higher circles, though not perhaps
with such abuses as were afterwards practised, and which excited the
reprehension of the moral and religious writers. Besides, at the time
that cards were first introduced, they were drawn and painted by the
hand without the assistance of a stamp or plate; it follows of course
that much time was required to complete a set or pack of cards; and
the price they bore no doubt was adequate to the labour bestowed upon
them, which necessarily must have enhanced their value beyond the
purchase of the under classes of the people. For this reason it is, I
presume, that card-playing, though it might have been known in England,
was not much practised until such time as inferior sets of cards,
proportionably cheap, were produced for the use of the commonalty,
which seems to have been the case when Edward IV. ascended the throne,
for in 1463, early in his reign, an act was established on a petition
from the card-makers of the city of London, prohibiting the importation
of playing-cards;[956] and soon after that period card-playing became a
very general pastime.
The increasing demand for these objects of amusement, it is said,
suggested the idea of cutting the outlines appropriated to the
different suits upon separate blocks of wood and stamping them upon the
cards;[957] the intermediate spaces between the outlines were filled up
with various colours laid on by the hand. This expeditious method of
producing cards reduced the price of them, so that they might readily
be purchased by almost every class of persons: the common usage of
cards was soon productive of serious evils, which all the exertions of
the legislative power have not been able to eradicate.[958]
Another argument against the great antiquity of playing-cards is drawn
from the want of paper proper for their fabrication. We certainly have
no reason to believe that paper made with linen rags was produced in
Europe before the middle of the fourteenth century, and even then the
art of paper-making does not appear to have been carried to any great
perfection. It is also granted that paper is the most proper material
we know of for the manufacturing of cards; but it will not therefore
follow that they could not possibly be made with any other; and if we
admit of any other, the objection will fall to the ground.
XXI.--CARD-PLAYING FORBIDDEN.
Card-playing appears to have been a very fashionable court amusement
in the reign of Henry VII. In an account of money disbursed for the
use of that monarch, an entry is made of one hundred shillings paid at
one time to him for the purpose of playing at cards.[959] The princess
Margaret, his daughter, previous to her marriage with James IV., king
of Scotland, understood the use of cards. She played with her intended
husband at Harbottle Castle; the celebration of their nuptials took
place A. D. 1503, she being then only fourteen years of age.[960]
Catherine of Spain, the consort of prince Arthur, afterwards married
to Henry VIII. his brother, is said in her youth to have been well
acquainted with the art of embroidery and other works of the needle
proper for ladies to know, and expert in various courtly pastimes;
and she could play at "tables, tick-tacke or gleeke, with cardis and
dyce."[961]
The universality of card-playing in the reign of this monarch is
evident from a prohibitory statute being necessary to prevent
apprentices from using cards except in the Christmas holidays, and then
only in their masters' houses.[962] Agreeable to this privilege, Stow,
speaking of the customs at London, says, "from All-Hallows eve to the
day following Candlemas-day, there was, among other sports, playing at
cards for counters, nails, and points, in every house, more for pastime
than for gain."[963] But this moderation, I apprehend, was by no means
general, for several contemporary writers are exceedingly severe in
their reflections upon the usage of cards, which they rank with dice,
and consider both as destructive to morality and good order.[964]
XXII.--CARD-PLAYING CENSURED BY POETS.
Henry VIII. preferred the sports of the field, and such pastimes as
promoted exercise, to sedentary amusements; his attachment to dice he
gave up at an early part of his life; and I do not recollect that Hall
the historian, who is so minute in describing the various sources of
entertainment pursued by this athletic monarch, ever mentions cards as
one of them: I am, indeed, well aware that Shakspeare speaks of his
"playing at primero with the duke of Suffolk;" and it is very possible,
that the poet might have had some authority for so doing. Sir William
Forrest, who wrote at the close of his reign, and presented a poetical
treatise entitled The Poesye of Princylye Practice, to his son Edward
VI., speaks therein of the pastimes proper for the amusement of a
monarch, and says, he may after dinner indulge himself with music, or
otherwise
Att tables, chesse or cardis awhile himselfe repose;
but adds, that "syttynge pastymes are seldom found good, especially in
the day-time;" he therefore advises the pursuit of those that afforded
both air and exercise.[965] In another part of his poem he speaks in
strong terms against the practice of card-playing, as productive of
idleness, especially when it is followed by the labouring people, in
places of common resort:
Att ale howse too sit, at mack or at mall,
Tables or dyce, or that cardis men call,
Or what oother game owte of season dwe,
Let them be punysched without all rescue.[966]
Forrest's manuscript is in the Royal Library,[967] and at the
commencement of the poem he is represented presenting it to king
Edward VI. The author of an old morality, entitled Hycke Scorner,[968]
written probably some time before this poem by Forrest, has placed the
card-players with such company as evinces he had not a good opinion of
their morals:
Walkers by nyght, with gret murderers,
Overthwarte with gyle, and joly carders.
And also in Barclay's translation of the Ship of Fooles, by Sebastian
Brant, printed by Pynson in 1508, are these lines:
The damnable lust of cardes and of dice,
And other games, prohibite by the lawe.
It is not, however, necessary to produce any further evidence from the
writers of the former times to prove the evil tendency of card-playing,
when it is indulged beyond the limits of discretion. Too many instances
of ruin and destruction may be brought forward in the present day to
convince us of the justness of their censures.
XXIII.--ANCIENT CARDS.
The early specimens of playing-cards that have been produced, differ
very little in their form from those now used. This form is certainly
the most convenient for the purposes assigned to them, and has been
most generally adopted. We shall, however, prove, that it was subject
to variation. The figures and devices that constitute the different
suits of the cards seem anciently to have depended upon the taste
and invention of the card-makers; and they did not bear the least
resemblance to those in present use.
It has been observed, that outlines made upon blocks of wood were
stamped upon the cards, and afterwards filled up by the hand; but, soon
after the invention of engraving upon copper, the devices were produced
by the graver, and sufficiently finished, so that the impressions
did not require any assistance from the pencil. It appears also,
that the best artists of the time were employed for this purpose. I
am exceedingly happy to have it in my power to lay before my readers
a curious specimen of ancient engraved cards, in the possession of
Francis Douce, esq., with whose permission they are added to this work.
I have chosen one from each of the different suits, namely, the King of
Columbines, the Queen of Rabbits, the Knave of Pinks, and the Ace of
Roses; which answered to the spades, the clubs, the diamonds, and the
hearts, of the moderns. The annexed engravings are of the same size as
the originals. They are nearly square, and, originally, I have no doubt
but they were perfectly so.
[Illustration: 110. THE KING OF COLUMBINES.]
[Illustration: 111. THE QUEEN OF RABBITS.
Ancient Cards.]
[Illustration: 112. THE KNAVE OF PINKS.]
[Illustration: 113. THE ACE OF ROSES.
Ancient Cards.]
Upon the other cards belonging to the pack the number of the flowers or
animals answered to the pips at present, with the addition of numeral
figures corresponding with the devices, that they might be readily
distinguished without the trouble of counting them. The originals
of these cards, I make no doubt, are the work of Martin Schoen, a
well-known and justly celebrated German artist; and Mr. Douce is in
possession of part of another set, which evidently appear to be the
production of Israel Van Mecheln, who was contemporary with Schoen.
Mecheln outlived Martin Schoen a considerable time; the latter died in
1486, and the former in 1523. The earliest print that I have seen by
Mecheln with a date is 1480; but he practised the art of engraving some
time prior to that period.
A set or pack of cards, but not equally ancient with those above
mentioned, were in the possession of Dr. Stukeley: the four suits
upon them consisted of bells, of hearts, of leaves, and of acorns;
by which, the doctor imagined, were represented the four orders of
men among us: the bells are such as are usually tied to the legs of
the hawks, and denoted the nobility; the hearts were intended for the
ecclesiastics; the leaves alluded to the gentry, who possess lands,
woods, manors, and parks; the acorns signified the farmers, peasants,
woodmen, park-keepers, and hunters. But this definition will, I trust,
be generally considered as a mere effusion of fancy. It is remarkable
that in these cards there are neither queens nor aces; but the former
are supplied by knights, the latter have no substitute. Dr. Stukeley's
cards were purchased at his sale by Mr. Tuttet, and again at his sale
by Mr. Gough, in whose possession they now remain.[969] The last
gentleman has given a full description of them in a paper upon the
subject of card-playing, in the Archæologia.[970] The figured cards,
by us denominated court cards, were formerly called coat cards; and
originally, I conceive, the name implied coated figures, that is, men
and women who wore coats, in contradistinction to the other devices
of flowers and animals not of the human species. The pack or set of
cards, in the old plays, is continually called a pair of cards; which
has suggested the idea that anciently two packs of cards were used, a
custom common enough at present in playing at quadrille; one pack being
laid by the side of the player who is to deal the next time. But this
supposition rests entirely upon the application of the term itself,
without any other kind of proof whatever: and seems, indeed, to be
entirely overturned by a passage in a very old play entitled The
longer thou livest the more Foole thou art; in which Idleness desires
Moros the clown to look at "his booke," and shows him "a paire of
cardes."[971] In a comedy called A Woman killed with Kindness, a pair
of cards and counters to play with are mentioned.
XXIV.--GAMES FORMERLY PLAYED WITH CARDS.
PRIMERO is reckoned among the most ancient games of cards known to have
been played in England; each player, we are told, had four cards dealt
to him one by one; the seven was the highest card in point of number
that he could avail himself of, which counted for twenty-one; the six
counted for sixteen, the five for fifteen, and the ace for the same;
but the two, the three, and the four, for their respective points only.
The knave of hearts was commonly fixed upon for the quinola, which the
player might make what card or suit he thought proper; if the cards
were of different suits the highest number won the primero, if they
were all of one colour he that held them won the flush.[972]
PRIME, mentioned by Sir John Harrington in his satirical description
of the fashionable court games, published in 1615, the hon. Daines
Barrington thinks was not the same as primero; he has not, however,
specified the difference between them. The poet says,
The first game was the best, when free from crime,
The courtly gamesters all were in their prime.
TRUMP. A game thus denominated in the old plays is perhaps of equal
antiquity with primero, and at the latter end of the sixteenth century
was very common among the lower classes of people. Dame Chat, in Gammer
Gurton's Needle, says to Dicon, "we be set at trump, man, hard by the
fire, thou shalt set upon the king;" and afterwards to her maid,
Come hither, Dol; Dol, sit down and play this game,
And as thou sawest me do, see thou do even the same;
There are five trumps besides the queen, the hindmost thou shalt
find her;
Take heed of Sim Glover's wife, she hath an eye behind her.[973]
Trump is thought to have borne some resemblance to the modern game of
whist.
GRESCO is mentioned in conjunction with primero in the comedy of
Eastward Hoe;[974] "he would play his hundred pounds at gresco and
primero as familiarly as any bright piece of crimson of them all."
Sir John Harrington, after having mentioned prime, proceeds to
enumerate the games that succeeded in the following manner:
The second game was post,[975] until with posting
They paid so fast, 'twas time to leave their bosting.
Then thirdly follow'd heaving of the maw,
A game without civility or law,
An odious play, and yet in court oft seen,
A saucy knave to trump both king and queen.
Then follow'd lodam.[976]----
Now noddy follow'd next.--
The last game now in use is banckerout,[977]
Which will be plaid at still I stand in doubt,
Until lavalta turne the wheele of time
And makes it come aboute again to prime.
GLEEK is mentioned with primero in Green's Tu quoque, where one of
the characters proposes to play at twelve-penny gleek, but the other
insists upon making it for a crown at least.
Coeval with gleek we find MOUNT SAINT, or more properly Cent, in
Spanish Cientos, or hundred, the number of points that win the game.
Thus in a play by Lewis Machin, called the Dumb Knight, the third
edition printed in 1608, the queen says of this game, "the name is
taken from hundreds;" and afterwards to Philocles, "you are a double
game, and I am no less; there is an hundred, and all cards made but one
knave."[978] Mount Saint was played by counting, and probably did not
differ much from PICQUET, or picket, as it was formerly written, which
is said to have been played with counters, and to have been introduced
in France about the middle of the seventeenth century. Picket is
mentioned in Flora's Vagaries, printed in 1670.
NEW CUT is mentioned in A Woman killed with Kindness, a play written by
Thomas Heywood, third edition, 1617, where one of the characters says,
"if you will play at new cut, I am soonest hitter of any one heere for
a wager."
KNAVE OUT OF DOORS occurs also in the same play, together with RUFF,
which is proposed to be played with honours; double ruff, and English
ruff, with honours, are mentioned in the Complete Gamester, published
in 1674, and is distinguished from French ruff.
LANSQUENET is a French game, and took its name from the Lansquenets, or
light German troops, employed by the kings of France in the fifteenth
century.[979]
BASSET, said by Dr. Johnson to have been invented at Venice, was a very
fashionable game towards the close of the seventeenth century.
OMBRE was brought into England by Catherine of Portugal, queen to
Charles II.
QUADRILLE, a modern game, bears great analogy to ombre, with the
addition of a fourth player, which is certainly a great improvement.
WHIST, or as it was formerly written, whisk, is a game now held in high
estimation. At the commencement of last century, according to Swift,
it was a favourite pastime with clergymen, who played the game with
swabbers; these were certain cards by which the holder was entitled
to part of the stake, in the same manner that the claim is made for
the aces at quadrille. Whist, in its present state of improvement, may
properly be considered as a modern game, and was not, says the hon.
Daines Barrington, played upon principles till about fifty years ago,
when it was much studied by a set of gentlemen who frequented the Crown
coffee-house in Bedford-row. Mr. Barrington's paper on card-playing in
the Archæologia, was published in 1787, and the author says that the
first mention he finds of the game of whist is in the Beaux Stratagem,
a comedy by Geo. Farquhar, pub. A. D. 1707. He also thinks that whist
might have originated from the old game of trump. Cotgrave explains the
French word triomphe in this manner; the game called ruff, or trump;
also the ruff, or trump in it.
To the games already mentioned we may add the following: _Put_, and the
_High Game_; _Plain Dealing_, _Wit and Reason_, _Costly Colours_, _Five
Cards_, _Bone Ace_,[980] _Queen Nazareen_, _Lanterloo_, _Penneech_,
_Art of Memory_, _Beast_, _Cribbage_, and _All Fours_. Nearly all these
games may be found in a small book entitled the Complete Gamester,
with the directions how to play them. _Crimp_, mentioned in the
Spectator,[981] I take to be a game played with the cards, and one
might be led to think the same of _Roulet_ by the wording of the act
18 Geo. II. by which it is prohibited. The words are, "And whereas
a certain pernicious game, called Roulet, or Roly-poly, is daily
practised," the act then directs "that no place shall be kept for
playing at the said game of roulet, or roly-poly, or any other game
with cards or dice," &c.
XXV.--THE GAME OF GOOSE--AND OF THE SNAKE.
In addition to the pastimes mentioned in the preceding pages, I shall
produce two or three more; and they are such as require no skill in the
performance, but depend entirely upon chance for the determination of
the contest.
We have a childish diversion usually introduced at Christmas time,
called the Game of Goose. This game may be played by two persons;
but it will readily admit of many more; it originated, I believe, in
Germany, and is well calculated to make children ready at reckoning the
produce of two given numbers. The table for playing at goose is usually
an impression from a copper-plate pasted upon a cartoon about the size
of a sheet almanack, and divided into sixty-two small compartments
arranged in a spiral form, with a large open space in the midst marked
with the number sixty-three; the lesser compartments have singly an
appropriate number from one to sixty-two inclusive, beginning at the
outmost extremity of the spiral lines. At the commencement of the play,
every one of the competitors puts a stake into the space at No. 63.
There are also different forfeitures in the course of the game that
are added, and the whole belongs to the winner. At No. 5 is a bridge
which claims a forfeit at passing; at 19, an alehouse where a forfeit
is exacted and to stop two throws; at 30, a fountain where you pay for
washing; at 42, a labyrinth which carries you back to 23; at 52, the
prison where you must rest until relieved by another casting the same
throw; at 58, the grave whence you begin the game again; and at 61,
the goblet where you pay for tasting.[982] The game is played with two
dice, and every player throws in his turn as he sits at the table: he
must have a counter or some other small mark which he can distinguish
from the marks of his antagonists, and according to the amount of the
two numbers thrown upon the dice he places his mark; that is to say,
if he throws a four and a five, which amount to nine, he places his
mark at nine upon the table, moving it the next throw as many numbers
forward as the dice permit him, and so on until the game be completed,
namely, when the number sixty-three is made exactly; all above it
the player reckons back, and then throws again in his turn. If the
second thrower at the beginning of the game casts the same number as
the first, he takes up his piece, and the first player is obliged to
begin the game again. If the same thing happens in the middle of the
game, the first player goes back to the place the last came from. It
is called the game of the goose, because at every fourth and fifth
compartment in succession a goose is depicted, and if the cast thrown
by the player falls upon a goose, he moves forward double the number of
his throw.
We have also the Game of Snake, and the more modern Game of Matrimony,
with others of the like kind; formed upon the same plan as that of the
goose, but none of them, according to my opinion, are in the least
improved by the variations.
XXVI.--CROSS AND PILE.
Cross and pile, or with us head or tail, is a silly pastime well enough
known among the lowest and most vulgar classes of the community, and
to whom it is at present very properly confined; formerly, however, it
held a higher rank, and was introduced at the court. Edward II. was
partial to this and such like frivolous diversions, and spent much of
his time in the pursuit of them. In one of his wardrobe rolls we meet
with the following entries: "Item, paid to Henry, the king's barber,
for money which he lent to the king to play at cross and pile, five
shillings. Item, paid to Pires Barnard, usher of the king's chamber,
money which he lent the king, and which he lost at cross and pile; to
Monsieur Robert Wattewille eightpence."[983]
A halfpenny is generally now used in playing this game; but any other
coin with a head impressed on one side will answer the purpose: the
reverse of the head being called the tail without respect to the figure
upon it, and the same if it was blank. Anciently the English coins were
stamped on one side with a cross. One person tosses the halfpenny
up and the other calls at pleasure head or tail; if his call lies
uppermost when the halfpenny descends and rests upon the ground, he
wins; and if on the contrary, of course he loses. Cross and pile is
evidently derived from a pastime called Ostrachinda, Οστρακινδα, known
in ancient times to the Grecian boys, and practised by them upon
various occasions; having procured a shell, it was seared over with
pitch on one side for distinction sake, and the other side was left
white; a boy tossed up this shell and his antagonist called white or
black, Νυξ et ημερα, (literally night and day), as he thought proper,
and his success was determined by the white or black part of the shell
being uppermost.
CHAPTER III.
I. The Lord of Misrule said to be peculiar to the English.--II.
A Court Officer.--III. The Master of the King's Revels.--IV.
The Lord of Misrule and his Conduct reprobated.--V. The
King of Christmas--of the Cockneys--VI. A King of Christmas
at Norwich.--VII. The King of the Bean.--VIII. Whence
originated.--IX. The Festival of Fools.--X. The Boy Bishop.--XI.
The Fool-Plough.--XII. Easter Games.--XIII. Shrove-Tuesday.--XIV.
Hock-Tuesday.--XV. May-Games.--XVI. The Lord and Lady of the
May.--XVII. Grand May-Game at Greenwich.--XVIII. Royal May-Game
at Shooter's-hill.--XIX. May Milk-Maids.--XX. May Festival of the
Chimney Sweepers.--XXI Whitsun-Games.--XXII. The Vigil of Saint
John the Baptist, how kept.--XXIII. Its supposed origin.--XXIV.
Setting of the Midsummer Watch.--XXV. Processions on Saint
Clement's and Saint Catherine's day.--XXVI. Wassails.--XXVII.
Sheep-shearing and Harvest-home.--XXVIII. Wakes.--XXIX. Sunday
Festivals.--XXX. Church Ales.--XXXI. Fairs, and their diversions
and abuses.--XXXII. Bonfires.--XXXIII. Illuminations.--XXXIV.
Fireworks.--XXXV. London Fireworks.--XXXVI. Fireworks on
Tower-hill, at Public Gardens, and in Pageants.
I.--THE LORD OF MISRULE PECULIAR TO ENGLAND.
It is said of the English, that formerly they were remarkable for the
manner in which they celebrated the festival of Christmas; at which
season they admitted variety of sports and pastimes not known, or
little practised in other countries.[984] The mock prince, or lord
of misrule, whose reign extended through the greater part of the
holidays, is particularly remarked by foreign writers, who consider
him as a personage rarely to be met with out of England;[985] and, two
or three centuries back, perhaps this observation might be consistent
with the truth; but I trust we shall upon due examination be ready to
conclude, that anciently this frolicksome monarch was well known upon
the continent, where he probably received his first honours. In this
kingdom his power and his dignities suffered no diminution, but on the
contrary were established by royal authority, and continued after they
had ceased to exist elsewhere. But even with us his government has
been extinct for many years, and his name and his offices are nearly
forgotten. In some great families, and also sometimes at court, this
officer was called the Abbot of Misrule. Leland says, "This
Christmas[986] I saw no disguiseings at court, and right few playes;
but there was an abbot of misrule that made much sport, and did right
well his office."[987] In Scotland he was called the Abbot of Unreason,
and prohibited there in 1555 by the parliament.[988] No doubt in many
instances the privileges allowed to this merry despot were abused, and
not unfrequently productive of immorality; the institution itself, even
if we view it in its most favourable light, is puerile and ridiculous,
adapted to the ages of ignorance, when more rational amusements were
not known, or at least not fashionable.
II.--THE LORD OF MISRULE A COURT OFFICER.
Holingshed, speaking of Christmas, calls it, "What time there is
alwayes one appointed to make sporte at courte called commonly lorde of
misrule, whose office is not unknowne to such as have bene brought up
in noblemens' houses and among great housekeepers, which use liberal
feasting in the season."[989] Again: "At the feast of Christmas," says
Stow, "in the king's court wherever he chanced to reside, there was
appointed a lord of misrule, or master of merry disports; the same
merry fellow made his appearance at the house of every nobleman and
person of distinction, and among the rest the lord mayor of London
and the sheriffs had severally of them their lord of misrule, ever
contending, without quarrel or offence, who should make the rarest
pastimes to delight the beholders; this pageant potentate began his
rule at All-hallow eve, and continued the same till the morrow after
the Feast of the Purification; in which space there were fine and
subtle disguisings, masks, and mummeries."[990]
III.--THE MASTER OF THE KING'S REVELS.
In the fifth year of Edward VI., at Christmas time, a gentleman
named George Ferrers, who was a lawyer, a poet, and an historian,
was appointed by the council to bear this office; "and he," says
Holingshed, "being of better calling than commonly his predecessors had
been before, received all his commissions and warrauntes by the name of
master of the kinge's pastimes; which gentleman so well supplied his
office, both of shew of sundry sights, and devises of rare invention,
and in act of divers interludes, and matters of pastime, played by
persons, as not only satisfied the common sorte, but also were verie
well liked and allowed by the council, and others of skill in lyke
pastimes; but best by the young king himselfe, as appeared by his
princely liberalitie in rewarding that service." It was certainly
an act of much policy in the council to appoint so judicious and
respectable an officer for the department at this time, and was done
in order to counteract by shows and pastimes the discontent that
prevailed, and divert the mind of the king from reflecting too deeply
upon the condemnation of his uncle the duke of Somerset.
IV.--THE LORD OF MISRULE--AND HIS CONDUCT REPROBATED.
This master of merry disports was not confined to the court, nor to
the houses of the opulent, he was also elected in various parishes,
where, indeed, his reign seems to have been of shorter date. Philip
Stubbs, who lived at the close of the sixteenth century, places this
whimsical personage, with his followers, in a very degrading point
of view.[991] I shall give the passage in the author's own words,
and leave the reader to comment upon them. "First of all, the wilde
heades of the parish flocking togither, chuse them a graund captaine
of mischiefe, whom they innoble with the title of Lord of Misrule;
and him they crowne with great solemnity, and adopt for their king.
This king annoynted chooseth forth twentie, fourty, threescore, or
an hundred lustie guttes, like to himself, to waite upon his lordly
majesty, and to guarde his noble person. Then every one of these men
he investeth with his liveries of greene, yellow, or some other light
wanton colour, and as though they were not gawdy ynough, they bedecke
themselves with scarffes, ribbons, and laces, hanged all over with gold
ringes, pretious stones, and other jewels. This done, they tie aboute
either legge twentie or fourtie belles, with riche handkerchiefes in
their handes, and sometimes laide acrosse over their shoulders and
neckes, borrowed, for the most part, of their pretie mopsies and loving
Bessies. Thus all thinges set in order, then have they their hobby
horses, their dragons, and other antiques, together with their baudie
pipers, and thundring drummers, to strike up the devil's daunce with
all. Then march this heathen company towards the church, their pypers
pyping, their drummers thundring, their stumpes dauncing, their
belles jyngling, their handkerchiefes fluttering aboute their heades
like madde men, their hobbie horses and other monsters skirmishing
amongst the throng: and in this sorte they go to the church, though
the minister be at prayer or preaching, dauncing and singing like
devils incarnate, with such a confused noise that no man can heare
his owne voyce. Then the foolish people they looke, they stare, they
laugh, they fleere, and mount upon the formes and pewes to see these
goodly pageants solemnized. Then after this, aboute the church they
go againe and againe, and so fourthe into the churche yard, where
they have commonly their sommer-halls, their bowers, arbours, and
banquetting-houses set up, wherein they feast, banquet, and daunce
all that day, and paradventure all that night too; and thus these
terrestrial furies spend the sabbath day. Then, for the further
innobling of this honourable lardane, lord I should say, they have
certaine papers wherein is painted some babelerie[992] or other of
imagerie worke, and these they call my Lord of Misrule's badges or
cognizances. These they give to every one that will give them money
to maintain them in this their heathenish devilrie; and who will not
show himself buxome to them and give them money, they shall be mocked
and flouted shamefully; yea, and many times carried upon a cowlstaffe,
and dived over heade and eares in water, or otherwise most horribly
abused. And so besotted are some, that they not only give them money,
but weare their badges or cognizances in their hates or cappes openly.
Another sorte of fantasticall fooles bring to these helhounds, the
Lord of Misrule and his complices, some bread, some good ale, some new
cheese, some old cheese, some custardes, some cracknels, some cakes,
some flauns, some tartes, some creame, some meat, some one thing, and
some another." Hence it should seem the Lord of Misrule was sometimes
president over the summer sports. The author has distinguished this
pageantry from the May-games, the wakes, and the church-ales, of which,
I should otherwise have thought, it might have been a component part.
V.--THE KING OF CHRISTMAS.
The society belonging to Lincoln's-inn had anciently an officer
chosen at this season, who was honoured with the title of king of
Christmas-day, because he presided in the hall upon that day. This
temporary potentate had a marshal and a steward to attend upon him.
The marshal, in the absence of the monarch, was permitted to assume
his state, and upon New-Year's-day he sat as king in the hall when the
master of the revels, during the time of dining, supplied the marshal's
place. Upon Childermas-day they had another officer, denominated the
King of the Cockneys, who also presided on the day of his appointment,
and had his inferior officers to wait upon him.[993]
VI.--A KING OF CHRISTMAS AT NORWICH.
In the history of Norfolk[994] mention is made of a pageant exhibited
at Norwich upon a Shrove Tuesday, which happened in the month of March,
"when one rode through the street, having his horse trapped with
tyn foyle and other nyse disgysynges, crowned as Kyng of Christmas,
in token that the season should end with the twelve moneths of the
year; and afore[995] hym went yche[996] moneth dysgysyd as the season
requiryd."
VII.--THE KING OF THE BEAN.