Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1892-11-09
OLD-TIME LONDON.
Pleasures aad Pastin1es of the People Cenu
turtles Ago.


Pleasures aad Pastimes of the People Con-
turtles Ago.
If medieval London was a city of
hard work, it was also a city of play in
plenty. London citizens, old and
young, have always delighted beyond
measure in games, shows, sports and
amusements of every kind There
were many holidays, and Sunday was
not day of gloom.
The calendar of sport begins with the
FIRST day of the year, and ends with the
last day.
The year began with New Years
gifts:
These CITIES the husband gives his wife and
father exc the child
And master on his men bestows the like
with favour milde,
And good beginning of the year they wish
and wish again,
According to the ancient guise of heath en-
people vaine.
These eight days no man doth require his
debtes of any man;
Their tables do they furnish forth with oil
the meat they can.
There was skating and sliding upon
the ice ia Moorfelds, where the shallow
ponds froze easily; or they played at
quarter-staff, at hooking, at single
stick, at football and at bucklers. In
the evening they played at cards and
tables" and dice.
Now men and maids do merry make
At stool ball at barley break
On Shrove Tuesday they had cock
fighting, a sport continued with una
bated popularity until within the mem
DRY of man-nay, it is rumored that he
who knows where to look for it NAV
still enjoy that humanizing spectacle.
Every Friday in Lent the young men
went forth to Smithfield and held mock
tights, but the custom was in time dis
continued; at Easter they had boat
tournaments. At this holy season also
they had boar fights, and the batting of
bulls and bears. They had stage plays
the parish clerk in Chaucer played
Herod on scaffold high" In the year
1891 the parish clerks had a play at
SINNERS Well, Smithfield, which lasted
for three days. In 1409 they represents
ed the creation of the world, and il
lasted eight days.
Then there were the pageants, shows,
and rulings in the city. Whenever an ex-
cuse could be found, the mayor, sheriffs
and aldermen held solemn riding in
all their bravery. Not even in Client
or Antwerp were there such splendid
rulings and so many of them Search
all chronicles" says an old writer, "aLl
histories and records in what language
or letter soever, let the inquisitive man
waste the deere treasures of his time
and eyesight, he shall conclude his life
only in the certainty that there is no
subject received into the place of his
government with the like style and
magnifcence IS is the lord mayor of the
city of London" We shall see later on
what kind of show would be held in the
time of Queen Elizabeth.
AS for pageants, they were so SPLEEN
did that he was unhappy, indeed, who
could not remember one But there
were few SO unfortunate. Whenever the
king paid visit to the city, on his &C
cesslon, on his marriage, On the birth
of prince, the city held pageant.
When you read the account of the
pageant when Henry v. and the city re-
turned thanks for the victory of Agip-
court, remember to cover in imaQiuAr
tion the houses with scarlet cloth, to
dress the people with such bravery Of
attire and such colors as you can mag
inc, to let music play at every corner,
to let the horses be appareled as brave
ly as their riders to let the bells be
pealing and clasping. to fill up the mar
rative with the things which the his
torian neglects, and then own that in
the matter of pageants we are poor, in
deed, compared with our forefathers
five hundred years ago.-Walter Be-
SAINT, in Harper's Magazine