formerly concerned in the pyrotechnical shows. Those said above to have been on board the city foyst, or galley, are called monstrous wilde men; others are frequently distinguished by the appellation of green men; and both of them were men whimsically attired and disguised with droll masks, having large staves or clubs, headed with cases of crackers. At the bottom of the thirty-second plate is one of the green men, equipped in his proper habit, and flourishing his fireclub ;" and at the top a savage man, or wode house, a character very common in the pageants of the former times, and probably resembled the wilde men.'

f See p. 331.

* See note (*) p. 332; and the Introduction, p. xxiv; whence it appears these green men attended the pageants, and preceded the principal persons in the procession to clear the way.

Taken from a book of fireworks written by John Bate, and published at London 1635. These characters appeared on variety of occasions, and seem to have been very popular. In a dress like this, I suppose, Gascoigne appeared before queen Elizabeth; see p. 224. The figure itself is taken from a ballad, in black letter, entitled, 'The mad, merry Pranks of Robin Good Fellow.' The bishop of Dromore, probably with great justice, supposes it to have been one of the stage-disguisements for the representation of this facetious spirit.

CHA P. IV.

The popular Pastimes among the Men imitated by the Children.--A general description of the Children's Games.—Various Pastimes, the names of which are unknown.-Amusements mentioned by different Writers, but not described.

I. MOST of the popular pastimes mentioned in the preceding pages were imitated by the younger part of the community, and in some degree, at least, became the sports of children. Archery, and the use of missive weapons of all kinds were formerly considered as an essential part of a young man's education; for which reason the bow, the sling, the spear, and other military instruments were put in his hands at a very early period of his life; he was also encouraged in the pursuit of such sports as promoted muscular strength, or tended to make him acquainted with the duties of a soldier. When the bow and the sling were laid aside in favour of the gun, prudence naturally forbad the putting an instrument of so dangerous a nature into the hands of children; they however provided themselves a substitute for the gun, and used a long hollow tube called a trunk, in which they thrust a small pointed arrow, contrived to fit the cavity with great exactness, and then blowing into the trunk with all their might, the arrow was driven through it and discharged at the other end by the expansion of the compressed air. Sometimes pellets of clay were used instead of the arrows;* the trunks were succeeded by pot-guns' made with hollow pieces of elder, or of quills, the pellets being thrust into them by the means of a ramrod.

• Dr. Johnson's Dictionary under the article trunk, where he has this quotation from Ray: 'In a shooting trunk, the longer it is to a certain limit, the swifter and more forcibly the air drives the pellet.'

b Called also pop-guns, and perhaps more properly from the popping noise they make in discharging the pellets. Big bouncing words are compared to potgun reports in a comedy called, The Knave in Graine,' printed 1640. Garrick's Collection, G. vol. ii.

II. Most boys are exceedingly delighted with riding, either on horses or in carriages, and also upon men's shoulders, which we find to be a very ancient sport; and I trust there are but few of my readers who have not seen them with a bough or a wand substituted for a horse, and highly pleased in imitating the galloping and prancing of that noble animal. This is an amusement of great antiquity, well known in Greece, and if report speaks truth, some of the greatest men have joined in it, either to relax the vigour of their own minds for a time, or to delight their children. If we turn to the fifteenth plate we shall see two boys, each of them having two wands, the one serves for a horse, and the other for a spear, and thus equipt they are justing together. Again upon the ninth plate a boy is mounted upon a wooden horse, drawn by two of his companions, and tilting at the quintain; and here we may remark that the bohourts, the tournaments, and most of the other superior pastimes have been subjected to youthful imitation.' Nay, some writers, and not without the support of ancient documents, derive the origin of all these splendid spectacles from the sportive exercises of the Trojan boys.

III. Contending with each other for superiority in racing on foot is natural to children;" and this emulation has been productive of many different amusements, among which the following seem to be the most prominent.

Base, or Prisoners Bars, described in a preceding part of this work.i

Hunt the fox. In this game one of the boys is permitted to run out, and having law given to him, that is, being permitted to go to a certain distance from his comrades before they pursue him, their object is to take him if possible before he can return home. We have

e The Persian ambassadors found Agesilaus, the Lacedemonian monarch, employed in this manner. Plut. in Apophthegm. Laced. et Ælian. Var. Hist. lib. xii. cap. 15. Socrates also did the same, for which it seems his pupil Alcibiades used to laugh at him. Val. Max. lib. viii. cap. 8.

f And toys were made on purpose to train up the young nobility in the knowledge and pursuit of military pastimes. Page 131.

See page 114.

Page 70.

i Page 71.