in the seventeenth century. In various parts it was preferred, on holidays, to other sports. Running horses were highly valued by John, Edward III. &c. and prized on account of their breed temp. Eliz. The mere pleasure of gambling in horses goes two centuries back 1. A silver bell was the prize temp. James I.2 Camden mentions a golden bell as the prize (whence the proverb "bear the bell"), and Mr. Surtees, in his Durham (iii. 332) subscription purses in 1613. Charles II. altered the bell to a bowl, or cup, upon which the exploits and pedigree of the horse were engraved. Public races began to have their present arrangements established in the reign of James I. all the rules for carrying weights, physicking, &c. &c. being the same very nearly as now 3. HUNTING. This sport is contemporary with eating the flesh of animals. Boars' tusks and stags' horns were fastened to the doors of the Temple of Diana. Hunters have the chlamys twisted round the left arm for a buckler, helmet, and buskins. Thus the statues of Meleager. Without the chlamys they are quite naked. The hounds were brought out in couples, as now; and they and the horses were directed by a whistle or hollow. Martial says that hunters had the venabulum, with which they killed the beast close, and lancea, which they darted at him; also a knife. La Chausse and Montfaucon have engraved a hunter (personifying Winter) on his return from sport, by which it appears that the dead hares were carried upon a pole, or the hunting-spear across the shoulders, hanging by the hind-legs, exactly like the rabbit-sellers in London. Montfaucon notes Hare-hunting; Stag-hunting, within an inclosure; Boarhunting, where, besides the spear, they hold in advancing a napkin or cloth to receive the bite; Tiger-hunting, where they either form a wall of shields, standing behind, or present a looking-glass to divert the beast's attention, or carrying away cubs on horseback to the sea-side, the furious mother pursuing; then the hunters dropping one which she carries home, they in the meanwhile embarking with the others on board a boat. He also mentions Lion-hunting, but does not explain it. Plutarch notes that the hunters of beasts cloathed themselves with their hairy skins. There were also Bull-hunting, Panther-hunting, &c. but the hunting of the Classical Ancients is rather fighting than chasing, so far as concerns wild-beasts. The hunters of Ossian chased deer with bows, arrows, and greyhounds; and took food with them to eat at noon. Mention will be made CHAP. XVII. of the skeletons of hunting-dogs found in barrows, the excellent British breed mentioned by Strabo, and the great quantity of woods, stags, and animals, feræ naturæ, in Britain. Alfred was skilled in hunting. Bows, arrows, hounds, and nets were used. Hunters severally brought their own dogs. Strutt notes that hunting was reduced to a science temp. Edward II. and persons regularly instructed in it. He adds, that when ladies accompanied the gentlemen it was usual to draw the game into an inclosure, that the ladies might see it from temporary stands, though they often joined in the sport, and shot at the animals with arrows or cross-bows. The killing the stag was reserved for the lady the highest in rank. This is told of Queen Elizabeth. In one plate of Strntt we have ladies hunting by themselves, winding the horn, and riding straddle like the men. Some even wore breeches. The hunters carried horns supended from their necks 4. The post of huntsman was some Ibid. At Pisa in Enc. Burn. Mus. i. 375. Du Cange, v. Equinum. Strutt's Sports, 31-36. 1264, the prize was a mantle of silk, cloth, or rich stuff (Du Cange, v. Palum); of foot-races, a ring. Id. v. Equinum. 3 Berenger on Horsemanship, i. 189, 199. 4 Enc. Plut. de Curiosit. Doem. Socrat. De Alex. Mart. Spectac. xi. iv. 35. Montfauc. iii. p. 2. b. 4. c. 5. XV. Scriptor. 256. M. Paris, 150, 1071. Strutt's Sports, 5-14. Hoare's Giraldus, i. 106. Nichols's Progresses of Elizabeth, new edit. i, 201 ; ii. 598. times filled by men of rank; but the maintenance of inferior sorts, as well as that of the dogs, was sometimes imposed upon the tenants 1. See Fox, HARE, CHAP. XVII. LOW-BELLING. A kind of ancient bird-batting. They took cressets or rags of linen, dipped in tallow, which gave a good light, and placed these in a plate or pan, made like a lanthorn, with a great socket for the light, and held it before on the breast, with a bell in the other hand. Two companions with nets, one on each side, attended, and the light and the noise of the bell, occasioned the birds to turn up their bellies, and the nets were quietly laid on them. It is called an excellent method to catch larks, woodlarks, partridges, &c. Bat-fowling was similar, only they had bushy poles, if they had not nets?. QUINTAIN. This sport was originally but the trunk of a tree, or post set up for the practice of the Tyros in arms 3. Afterwards a staff or spear was fixed in the earth, and a shield being hung up, it was the mark to strike at. The skill of the performer consisted in inflicting the blow in such a manner as to break the ligatures and bear it to the ground. In process of time the figures of a Turk or Saracen, armed with a shield and brandishing a club or sabre, was erected. The figure was placed upon a pivot in order to turn round, and if it was not struck dexterously upon the forehead, between the eyes, it turned round, and struck the player with the club or sabre, which was deemed a disgrace. The Saracens still use this quintain, and call it "Il Saraceno 5." The pell or post quintain (engr. Meyrick, i. pl. xxv.) was the attack of a post as if it had been a living enemy, and is the Roman sport. Justinian first ordered pointless spears to be used. The boat-quintain was the same as the boat justs. See JUSTS, p. 608, and the Plate of Sports, p. 602, fig. 8. The sand-bag quintain consisted of a board at one end and a bag at the other, turning upon a pivot, where the skill was to go so fast as to avoid the blow of the bag. (See the Plate of Sports, p. 602, fig. 10.) The sand-bag was marked with a horse-shoe, meaning uncertain, unless it were to prevent witchcraft. There was an English sport, which consisted in raising rams upon wheels, thought by Bishop Kennet to have been a kind of sand-bag quintain 7, but the word aries more probably refers to a battering ram, from the following assimilation. In Strutt's plates [N° 9], we have a lad mounted upon a wooden horse with four wheels, and drawn by one of his comrades, tilting at an immoveable quintain; and also tilting against a bucketfull of water, which, if the blow was not skilfully struck, upset and drenched the party. There were also the quintain against a man armed, who parried the blow with his shield, and acted only upon the defensive; and the living quintain, seated upon a stool with three legs, without any support behind. The object was to overthrow him, while his part was so to turn off the pole or lance with his shield as to occasion the fall of his adversary 8. All these sports were manifestly exercises to teach dexterity in avoiding or inflicting blows during battle. The term is said to have been derived from one Quintus, the inventor 9. Bishop Kennet's remark, that he never knew the quintain practised but where there had been Roman stations 10, if just, is important in an archæological view. "I'll not just with him, but make a quintain of him," is a contemptuous remark in the Roman de Gyron ". Indeed yeomen, &c. not being permitted to just, the quintain was the substitute 12; notwithstanding which it was used by youth of rank for practice 13, and to this the contumelious expression in the Romance alludes. See MARRIAGE, CHAP. XV. QUOITS. The invention of the discus is ascribed to Perseus, son of Danae. The Discoboli had two methods of throwing the discus; one perpendicularly in the air, to try their strength; the other before, to reach their mark, of which the latter form only remains1. The Roman discus was a round plate of metal very large and heavy?. TRAINSCENT. A method of hunting similar to the drag, by which they anciently tried the goodness of horses 3. WILD-GOOSE CHACE. Some fowling for wild geese was certainly usual, and probably gave name to the term Wild-goose Chace 4; which, however, implied a method of trying horses, so called from its resemblance to a flight of wild geese, who fly for the most part one after another. In this chace, when the horses were started, and had run twelve-score yards, then those which could not get the lead were bound to follow the first wherever he went, and that within a certain distance, as twice or thrice his length, or else to be whipped up by the triers, who rode by to see fair play; and if either horse got before the other twelve-score yards, or according as the match was made, then the hinder horses lost the match; and if the horses who at the beginning were behind could not get before those who first led, then they likewise were bound to follow till they could get before, or the match was finished 5. VII. RUSTICK SPORTS. CLOISH, OR CLOSH. A game played with pins thrown at with a bowl, instead of a truncheon 6. CLUB-BALL. See Art V. GYMNASTICKS, p. 607. CLUB-KAYLES, a sort of nine-pins, or skittles, thrown at with a club or cudgel7. FOOL-DANCE. A Christmas dance, which formed part of the feast of fools. See p. 590. FOOL-PLOUGH. In the North of England there was formerly a pageant, which consisted of several sword-dancers dragging a plough, with musick, and one, sometimes two, in very strange attire. The Bessy was in the grotesque habit of an old woman, and the fool was almost covered with skins, a hairy cap on his head, and the tail of some animal hanging from his back. One of these characters rattled a box to collect money. The plough and the sword dance occur abroad; and all these customs are of very ancient origin. The fool and bessy were derived from the feast of fools 9. See p. 590. A custom in the Scilly Isles, where the maidens, dressed in male attire, and the young men in that of females, go from house to house in company, dancing 1o. GOOSE-DANCING. HARVEST-HOME. The old Gauls used to parade a figure of Berecynthia over the fields in a car drawn by oxen, the people following in crowds, dancing, singing, &c. for the success of the crops. This figure is also called by Dr. Clarke Ceres; by Brand Vacuna, to whom the Romans offered sacrifices at the end of harvest. This is the Kern, or Cornbaby. At the harvest, or mell-supper, the servant and master sat at the same table, conversed freely together, and spent the night in singing, dancing, &c. This custom was derived from the Jews at the feast of tabernacles, and also from the heathens, Macrobius mentioning it. There were other local accompaniments, as making a knack, a curious kind of figure, hung up and kept till the next year. Cry 'Winckelm. Art. iv. 4. 'Strutt, 58. 3 Bereng. Horsemansh. i. 187. • Du Cange, v. Aucellatio. Markham ap Berenger, i. 118. Strutt, p. 202. 7 Id. pl. 28. • Strutt, 171. Popul. Antiq. i. 398-403. See plura, Strutt, 259, 260. 10 Strutt, 261. 8 ing the Mare, a term signifying the tops of the last ears held together, at which the reapers threw their sickles, and he who cut the knot won the prize, and a goose at the feast 1. KEEL-PINS. The French Guilles, called also Cayles, Keilles, afterwards Kettle, or Kittle-pins, whence Skittles, and sometimes made with bones, were the ancestors of nine-pins and skittles. The cayle-pins were placed in one row only, not in three; in nine-pins there was no common number, and the form was different, one being taller than the rest 2. See CLUB-KAYLES, p. 617. MAW. A game at cards, accompanied with some grotesque bodily action, called heaving the maw 3. MERELLES. See before, p. 605. MORRIS-DANCE. See before, p. 580. NINE-PINS. See KEEL-PINS, before. QUOITS. See before, p. 617. SMOCK-RACES. Domitian not only exhibited battles of women, but foot-races of virgins 4. SKITTLES. See KEEL-PINS, before. VIII. CHILDREN'S SPORTS. Battledore and Shuttlecock was known in the fourteenth century, and played by adults temp. James I.5-Buck, Buck, &c. [See CHAP. XII. p. 533].-Building cabins, and yoking mice in a small waggon, was a favourite play of Roman children.-Chytrinda. According to Pollux this game is our Frog in the middle, and French "Collin Maillard." See Hot-cockles, p. 619.-Musca ænea7-Crambo. A game where one gave a word to which another found a rhyme, and was a pastime much in vogue in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, called the A B C of Aristotle 8.-Chafers, spinning of, is mentioned by Aristophanes (in Nubibus), but the Greek boys hung the threads about the beetles' legs. Our boys also spun butterflies.-Cross and Pile, or tossing up; the Greek Ostrachinda, or shell smeared over with pitch on one side, and the other left white. It was tossed up, and the call was voor nuepa, night or day. The Encyclopedists, from Macrobius, limit the call of head or ship (from the prow of a ship being the reverse of the most ancient As) to the Roman boys tossing up, but Aurelius Victor proves that they used it also with regard to putting money under the hand. Cross and pile (a term derived from the money of the second race of French kings, on the reverse of which was a peristyle, or columns, then called Pila), and now converted into head and tail, was common in the court of Edward II. 10-Duck and drake is the Greek Epostrachismos. Minucius Felix admirably describes it ".-Elkustinda, the Greek game still played, consisting of a rope passed through a hole made in a beam, and both ends held, by which boys pull each other 12-Frog in the middle. (See Chytrinda.)-Halper-pots, a game of the seventeenth century, undefined 13.-Hide and seek. The Greek Apodidraskinda, where a person blindfolded was seated in the middle of the room, and not permitted to rise till the others had concealed themselves. The first whom he found 1 Enc. Hentzner, 35, 56. Strutt's Sports, 272. Clarke's Trav. iii. 286. Hist. Aug. ii. 120. Lips. 6 Enc. 7 Enc. Strutt. Popul. Antiq. i. 439-452. 10 Enc. Macrob. Saturn. i. 7. Aurel. Vict. Orig. Gent. In took his place1-Hoodman-blind, or Blindman's-buff, Strutt, from Pollux, makes 1 Strutt, 297. 2 Id. 29. Taylor's Works, pt. ii. 142. 3 Count Caylus (Rec. i. 202. pl. 28. n. 3.) thinks, that the exercise of the Trochus was divided into two kinds among the Greeks and Romans, of which the first was called Cricelasia. According to Oribasus (Coll. in Julian, L. 6.) the player took a large circle, around which rolled many bells, as high as his heart. He moved it by means of a stick of iron in a handle of wood. He did not roll it upon the ground, for the rings inserted in the circumference would not permit that, but raised it in the air, and turned it over his head, in directing it with his stick. The second kind, more properly the Trochus, consisted in a similar hoop, but The circumference has eight rings, to each of which is attached a smaller. Mercurialis has engraved one. bell, and besides that there are nine hooks or pins, which, being very loose in their holes, augment the noise of the rings, and produce the same sound as the bars which cross the sistra. Upon a tomb, engraved in the Bartoli Collection, is another hoop similar to that described. It has rings, pins, and further, a bird, which appears attached to them, a singularity, which can only give room to vague conjectures.-The bronze circles, says the Count elsewhere (iii. pl. 64. n. 4.) similar to that in this number, served for one of the exercises, which the Romans practised in order to augment their bodily strength. Two hands placed in the most disIn the Townley Collection, tant intervals, and distinguished by buttons, strive one against the other, and the strongest carried it off. "De Ripa Transone," has detailed this exercise. Father Paciaudi, in his history says D'Hancarville, is a bas-relief of two Sileni of the faun kind, because much younger than the others; they are represented holding a circle, upon which they lean their hands, while treading grapes under their feet; and turning upon the floor, which holds them. It was one of the methods of pressing wine among the Ancients, and by this monument we may see one of those small bronze circles, which were used for this purpose. It is divided by mouldings, which leave room enough to place the wrist upon it. The Romans borrowed this exercise from the Greeks; and the form of the hook occasioned it to be called Rota and Canthus. This last term implies the band of metal which covered the circumference of the wheels (Mart. xiv. 168.) Winckelman in his Monum. Antichi, No. 195, 196, has published two fine gems, upon which the sport of the Trochus distinctly appears. The first is thus described in Stosch, Cl. v. n. 2. A young man naked is running and rolling the Trochus. He touches it with a crooked instrument called clavis, resembling a racquet but The Trosolid, and mentioned by Propertius, L. iii. El. 12. Turnebus, &c. have mistaken the Trochus, in making it a wheel with radii, and it was much larger than the pretended one in C. Caylus, Rec. i. pl. 81. n. 3. chus may also be seen in Mercurialis, Art. Gymnast. L. 3. c. 8. p. 2, 18. though the explication is erroneous, in Bellori, Sepolchr. Antich, pl. 48. The Paintings of Herculaneum, i. pl. 15. Winckelman's Monumenti Antichi, &c. &c. 4 v. i. p. i. b. 3. c. 23. 5 P. 292. 6 Strutt, 288. 7 Id. 288. 9 Enc. Pollux, ix. 7. Enc. Phot. 247. |