dates, and nuts." As early as February, 1496, Henry VII. paid "to a Portingale for oringes, 6s. 8d." The excess in liquor which so long disgraced England was very prevalent in the sixteenth century. Cavendish, describing the hospitable reception of the French ambassadors and their suite at Hampton Court, already noticed, says, "Then went the cuppes so merrily about, that many of the Frenchmen were faine to be led to their beddes," and this while the cardinal archbishop was presiding at the board! AMUSEMENTS. Hunting, hawking, and other field sports, were favourite amusements. Much stress was laid upon using the appropriate terms, and on conducting every thing according to certain rules. One of these was, to offer a large hunting knife to the principal person who was present at the conclusion of the sport, especially if a lady, that she might cut the throat of the deer with her own hand! Hawking was much esteemed as an amusement for the ladies. Mary queen of Scots continually followed it during her detention in England. The hawk was brought to the field hooded; but when the game was seen, the hood was removed from its head, and the hawk was allowed to pursue the bird. The sportsmen followed as they could, some on horseback, some on foot, the latter often using long poles to leap over hedges and ditches. Henry VIII. was thus following a hawk near Hitchen, when his pole broke; he fell head foremost into a ditch, and was nearly smothered, but an attendant came up just in time to rescue him. Among the expenses of Henry VII. are, “For a white hoby 16s., (a riding horse,) for a greyhound 14s. 4d., for a gose-hawk 47." The last item shows the excessive value set upon a trained bird of prey-five times that of a horse. Tournaments were still practised, but rather for amusement than as duels. Henry 11., king of France, lost his life at a tournament; and Henry VIII. was several times in great danger in these sports. The processions, and displays of finery on public occasions, seem to have taken their place. They_rapidly declined after the retirement of sir Henry Lee, in 1590, from age and infirmities. The pageants so frequently exhibited have been noticed; masques, interludes, and mummeries, were common at Christmas time, but became still more so in the next century. Theatrical amusements began to assume a more regular form in queen Elizabeth's reign. After the Reformation, the profane Scripture mysteries were discontinued. They were succeeded by tragedies and comedies, regularly performed in buildings constructed for the purpose, or inn yards were sometimes used. Much evil was thereby introduced. Theatres have ever been the resort of idle and vicious characters, and are usually surrounded by the haunts of licentiousness. It is to be remarked, that several of the first erected theatres, in London, were built on the Bankside, in the neighbourhood where houses had been licensed for profligacy, by prelates of the church of Rome. At one time, queen Elizabeth was induced to give permission for plays to be acted on Sundays; but this license was recalled. In foreign countries, where popery is the established religion, theatres are now open on Sunday evenings, when they are crowded more than on any other day in the week. The Reformation did much to stop the profanation of the sabbath, which always led to every species of vice and crime. The history of every period shows that vice and profligacy invariably attend the amusements of the theatre; this unvarying experience of two thousand years ought to cause every reflecting mind to avoid these temples of Satan. Stowe speaks plainly of the evils of the theatres, where, he says, abounded "unchaste, uncomely, and unshamefaced speeches, and many other enormities." Bear and badger baiting were favourite amusements; there were theatres especially for these sports, which then were encouraged by the chief nobility, as well as by the lowest of the populace. A poet of that day censures those whose store of money was "but verie small," "And yet everi Sunday they wil surely spend One peny or two, the bearwards' living to mend." These brutal sports always produce numerous evils. Domestic amusements included cards, dice, tables, chess, and other similar games, which then, as now, led to gambling. The professed gambler is enumerated as one of the open pests of society during the latter half of the sixteenth century. Henry VIII. set a bad example in this respect. He gambled away many articles which came into his possession at the spoliation of the monasteries. At one cast of the dice he lost a celebrated ring of bells, and the bell-house in St. Paul's churchyard, to sir Miles Partridge. How many evils result from the accursed practice of gambling! Let parents always discourage their children from games of chance. ments; the latter was encouraged by several statutes during the reign of Henry VIII. Fathers were to provide bows for their children when they were seven years old; masters were to provide bows for their apprentices. Latimer speaks of archery as a wholesome and manly exercise, requiring constant practice from childhood. Archery formed a part of the May games, and other rural sports; it was considered to be important, not only to keep up the use of a weapon, famous in English warfare, but as a manly sport, strengthening the body. In the latter respect it has been succeeded by cricket. The use of gunpowder, and hand guns, both for sport and warfare, caused archery to fall into disuse. Cross-bows, also, were commonly used, both in warfare and for sporting. Gunpowder began to be much used in fireworks: elaborate exhibitions of this sort were displayed before queen Elizabeth at Kenilworth, in 1475, and subsequently at Elvetham, in Hampshire. 66 Some amusements, fashionable at the beginning of this period, are recorded by the expenses of Henry VII.: "To a Spanyard that tumbled, 27. To a felow for eting of coles, 6s. 8d. To one that joculed (or juggled) before the kyng, 10s." Contrast these sums with the very limited amount of his largesses. "To the harvest folk beside Burnham Abbey, 1s. To the repers in the way, reward 2d." Henry VII. appears to have had a menagerie and an aviary. In 1503 was paid, "Making of a birdes cage, 21. 4s. 6d. For a nightingale, 17. For hawkes, popingays, eagle, and wild cats, 17." This seems to have been a cheap lot. 66 The amusements most fashionable at the close of the sixteenth century are enumerated in the account of Mountjoy, lord deputy of Ireland, in 1599. 'He delighted in study, in gardens, in riding on a pad to take the air, in playing at shovelboard, at cards, and in reading play books for recreation; and especially in fish and fish-ponds, seldom using any other exercises, and using these rightly as pastimes, only for a short and convenient time, and with great variety of change from one to the other." But the most interesting and lawful sports are those of childhood and youth. Those in use among boys and girls, in the sixteenth century, are enumerated in the following lines, among which, however, are some games of chance: "Any they dare chalenge for to throw the sledge, At hot cockles, leape frogge, or blind-man's buffe; To drink the halper pottes, or deale at the whole cann, To play at chesse, or pue, and inke horne: To dance the moris, play at barley brake, At all exploits a man can think or speak; At shove groate, venter poynte, or cross and pile, At leaping over a Christmas bonfire, Or at the drawing dame out of the myer; At shoote cocke, Gregory, stoole ball, and what not; BOOKS AND PRINTING. Much time was passed in reading when books became more common. Many romances of chivalry were written as books of amusement. Voyages, travels, and books of history, were also much read. By the discovery of the art of printing, books were brought into general use early in the sixteenth century. The privy purse expenses of Henry VII. contain many interesting items, which mark the period of transition from manuscripts to printed books, and show that the facility for multiplying copies caused an increased demand for them. A few extracts may be given : "To sir Peter (a priest) for gilting and lymning of a book, 17. 15s. To the same for certain bokes, 117. 3s. 4d. A boke bought for my lord of York, 17." (This large price given for a book for a child under ten years old, |