the air, and always kept two of them up, while he held the third in one of his hands; he was ambidexter, and could cast two darts at once; he excelled all the men of his time in shooting with the bow; and he had no equal in swimming. In one achievement this monarch was outdone by the Anglo-Saxon gligman, represented by the engraving No. 52,1 who adds an equal number of balls to those knives or daggers. The Norman minstrel Tallefer, before the commencement of the battle at Hastings, cast his lance into the air three times, and caught it by the head in such a surprising manner, that the English thought it was done by the power of enchantment. Another northern hero, whose name was Kolson, boasts of nine accomplishments in which he was well skilled: 'I know,' says he, how to play at chess; I can engrave Runic letters; I am expert at my book; I know how to handle the tools of the smith; 2 I can traverse the snow on skates of wood; I excel in shooting with the bow; I use the oar with facility; I can sing to the harp; and I compose verses.' The reader will, I doubt not, anticipate me in my observation, that the acquirements of Kolson indicate a much more liberal education than those of the Norwegian monarch: it must, however, be observed, that Kolson lived in an age posterior to him; and also, that he made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, which may probably account in great measure for his literary qualifications. Yet, we are well assured that learning did not form any prominent feature in the education of a young nobleman during the Saxon government: it is notorious, that Alfred the Great was twelve years of age before he learned to read; and that he owed his knowledge of letters to accident, rather than to the intention of his tutors. A book adorned with paintings, in the hands of his mother, attracted his notice, and he expressed his desire to have it: she promised to comply with his request on condition that he learned to read it, which it seems he did; and this trifling incident laid the groundwork of his future scholarship.+ 1 On p. 173. The famous Dunstan was also an excellent blacksmith. 3 Olai, Worm. Lit. Run., p. 129; Bartholin., p. 420. • Asser. in Vit. Ælfredi. Indeed, it is not by any means surprising, under the Saxon government, when the times were generally very turbulent, and the existence of peace exceedingly precarious, and when the personal exertions of the opulent were so often necessary for the preservation of their lives and property, that such exercises as inured the body to fatigue, and biassed the mind to military pursuits, should have constituted the chief part of a young nobleman's education: accordingly, we find that hunting, hawking, leaping, running, wrestling, casting of darts, and other pastimes which necessarily required great exertions of bodily strength, were taught them in their adolescence. These amusements engrossed the whole of their attention, every one striving to excel his fellow; for hardiness, strength, and valour out-balanced, in the public estimation, the accomplishments of the mind; and therefore literature, which flourishes best in tranquillity and retirement, was considered as a pursuit unworthy the notice of a soldier, and only requisite in the gloomy recesses of the cloister. Among the vices of the Anglo-Saxons may be reckoned their propensity to gaming, and especially with the dice, which they derived from their ancestors; for Tacitus1 assures us that the ancient Germans would not only hazard all their wealth, but even stake their liberty, upon the turn of the dice; and he who loses,' says the author, 'submits to servitude, though younger and stronger than his antagonist, and patiently permits himself to be bound, and sold in the market; and this madness they dignify by the name of honour.' Chess was also a favourite game with the Saxons; and likewise backgammon, said to have been invented about the tenth century. It appears, moreover, that a large portion of the night was appropriated to the pursuit of these sedentary amusements. In the reign of Canute the Dane, this practice was sanctioned by the example of royalty, and followed by the nobility. Bishop Etheric, having obtained admission to Canute about midnight upon some urgent business, found the king engaged with his courtiers at play, some De Moribus Germ. at dice, and some at chess.1 The clergy, however, were prohibited from playing at games of chance, by the ecclesiastical canons established in the reign of Edgar.2 IV. THE NORMANS. The popular sports and pastimes, prevalent at the close of the Saxon era, do not appear to have been subjected to any material change by the coming of the Normans it is true, indeed, that the elder William and his immediate successors restricted the privileges of the chase, and imposed great penalties on those who presumed to destroy the game in the royal forests, without a proper licence. By these restrictions the general practice of hunting was much confined, but by no means prohibited in certain districts, and especially to persons of opulence who possessed extensive territories of their own. V.-TOURNAMENTS AND JUSTS. Among the pastimes introduced by the Norman nobility, none engaged the general attention more than the tournaments and the justs. The tournament, in its original institution, was a martial conflict, in which the combatants engaged without any animosity, merely to exhibit their strength and dexterity; but, at the same time, engaged in great numbers to represent a battle. The just was when two knights, and no more, were opposed to each other at one time. These amusements, in the middle ages, which may properly enough be denominated the ages of chivalry, were in high repute among the nobility of Europe, and produced in reality much of the pomp and gallantry that we find recorded with poetical exaggeration in the legends of knight-errantry. I met with a passage in a satirical poem among the Harleian MSS. of the thirteenth century, which strongly marks the prevalence of this taste in the times alluded to. It may be thus rendered in English: Hist. Ramsien. apud Gale, vol. i. an. 85. 2 A. D. 960, can. 64, Johnson's Canons. 3 See p. 61. 4 No. 2253, fol. 108. If wealth, sir knight, perchance be thine, VI.-OTHER SPORTS OF THE NOBILITY, AND THE CITIZENS AND YEOMEN. While the principles of chivalry continued in fashion, the education of a nobleman was confined to those principles, and every regulation necessary to produce an accomplished knight was put into practice. In order fully to investigate these particulars, we may refer to the romances of the middle ages; and, generally speaking, dependence may be placed upon their information. The authors of these fictitious histories never looked beyond the customs of their own country; and whenever the subject called for a representation of remote magnificence, they depicted such scenes of splendour as were familiar to them: hence it is, that Alexander the Great, in his legendary life, receives the education of a Norman baron, and becomes expert in hawking, hunting, and other amusements coincident with the time in which the writer lived. Our early poets have fallen into the same kind of anachronism; and Chaucer himself, in the Knight's Tale, speaking of the rich array and furniture of the palace of Theseus, forgets that he was a Grecian prince of great antiquity, and describes the large hall belonging to an English nobleman, with the guests seated at table, probably as he had frequently seen them, entertained with singing, dancing, and other acts of minstrelsy, their hawks being placed upon perches over their heads, and their hounds lying round about upon the pavement below. The two last lines of the poem just referred to are peculiarly applicable to the manners of the time in which the poet lived, when no man of consequence travelled abroad without his hawk and his hounds. In the early delineations, the nobility are frequently represented seated at table, with their hawks upon their heads. Chaucer says, ' In the original it is purry poume, that is, rotten apple. Ne what hawkes sytten on perchen above, The picture is perfect, when referred to his own time; but bears not the least analogy to Athenian grandeur. In the romance called The Knight of the Swan, it is said of Ydain duchess Roulyon, that she caused her three sons to be brought up in all maner of good operacyons, vertues, and maners; and when in their adolescence they were somwhat comen to the age of strengthe, they,' their tutors, ‘began to practyse them in shootinge with their bow and arbelstre,' to playe with the sword and buckeler, to runne, to just,2 to playe with a poll-axe, and to wrestle; and they began to bear harneys, to runne horses, and to approve them, as desyringe to be good and faythful knightes to susteyne the faith of God.' We are not, however, to conceive that martial exercises in general were confined to the education of young noblemen: the sons of citizens and yeomen had also their sports resembling military combats. Those practised at an early period by the young Londoners seem to have been derived from the Romans; they consisted of various attacks and evolutions performed on horseback, the youth being armed with shields and pointless lances, resembling the ludus Troja, or Troy game, described by Virgil. These amusements, according to Fitz Stephen, who lived in the reign of Henry II., were appropriated to the season of Lent; but at other times they exercised themselves with archery, fighting with clubs and bucklers, and running at the quintain; and in the winter, when the frost set in, they would go upon the ice, and run against each other with poles, in imitation of lances, in a just; and frequently one or both were beaten down, 'not always without hurt; for some break their arms, and some their legs; but youth,' says my author, emulous of glory, seeks these exercises preparatory against the time that war shall demand their presence.' The like kind of pastimes, no doubt, were practised by the young men in other parts of the kingdom. The cross-bow. 4 2 That is, to practise with lances, two persons running one against the other. 3 Armour. 4 See p. 126 of this work. |