- Living Quintain
The living quintain, according to the representation just given, is seated upon a stool with three legs without any support behind; and the business, I presume, of the tilter, was to overthrow him; while, on his part, he was to turn the stroke of the pole or lance on one side with his shield, and by doing so with adroitness occasion the fall of his adversary. Something of a similar kind of exercise, though practised in a different way, appears in the engraving, where a man seated, holds up one of his feet, opposed to the foot of another man, who standing upon one leg endeavours to thrust him backwards. - Ancient sport
The Greeks had a pastime called Hippas, which, we are told, was one person riding upon the shoulders of another, as upon a horse; a sport of this kind was in practice with us at the commencement of the fourteenth century, but generally performed by two competitors who struggled one with the other, and he who pulled his opponent from the shoulders of his carrier was the victor. - Ancient sport
The Greeks had a pastime called Hippas, which, we are told, was one person riding upon the shoulders of another, as upon a horse; a sport of this kind was in practice with us at the commencement of the fourteenth century, but generally performed by two competitors who struggled one with the other, and he who pulled his opponent from the shoulders of his carrier was the victor. - XIV. Century
A man balancing a wheel on his shoulder - Water-Tub Quintain—XIV. Century
Below is a representation from a MS. in the Bodleian Library, dated 1343, of three boys tilting jointly, at a tub full of water, which is to be struck in such a manner as not to throw it over them. I presume they are learners only, and that therefore they are depicted without their clothes; they undressed themselves, I apprehend, in order to save their garments from being wetted in case the attempt should prove unsuccessful. - Two Saxon Archers—VIII. Century
Two Saxon Archers The one accompanied by his dog, is in search of the wild deer; the other has no companion, but is depicted in the act of shooting at a bird; and from the adornment of his girdle, appears to have been no bad marksman. The first represents Esau going to seek venison for his father, and the second, Ishmael, after his expulsion from the house of Abraham, and residing in the desert. - Two boys challenging each other
- Tutored Bear.—XIV. Century
One great part of the joculator's profession was the teaching of bears, apes, horses, dogs, and other animals, to imitate the actions of men, to tumble, to dance, and to perform a variety of tricks, contrary to their nature; and sometimes he learned himself to counterfeit the gestures and articulations of the brutes. - Tutored Bear.—XIV. Century
One great part of the joculator's profession was the teaching of bears, apes, horses, dogs, and other animals, to imitate the actions of men, to tumble, to dance, and to perform a variety of tricks, contrary to their nature; and sometimes he learned himself to counterfeit the gestures and articulations of the brutes. - Tumbling.—XIV. Century
This representation of a girl turning over upon her hands, is from a MS. in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. It is not by any means my intention to insinuate, from what has been said, that there were no dances performed by the Saxon gleemen and their assistants, but such as consisted of vaulting and tumbling: on the contrary, I trust it may be proved, that their dances were varied and accommodated to the taste of those for whom the performance was appropriated; being calculated, as occasion required, to excite the admiration and procure the applause of the wealthy or the vulgar. - Tumbling.—XIII. Century
This engraving represents a woman bending herself backwards, from a MS. of the thirteenth century, in the Cotton Library - Trap-Ball.—XIV. Century
Trap-ball, so called from the trap used to elevate the ball when it is to be stricken by the batsman, is anterior to cricket, and probably coeval with most of the early games played with the bat and ball: we trace it as far back as the commencement of the fourteenth century, and a curious specimen of the manner in which it was then played is here presented from a beautiful MS. in the possession of Francis Douce, Esq - Sylvanus D. Locke's Harvester and Binder
- Gladstone's Reaping Machine (1806)
- Bell's Reaping-Machine (1826)
- Bailey's American Mowing Machine (1822)
- The 'Champion' Harvester
- Reaper in Gaul (70 AD)
The accompanying cut is a good restoration of the Gallic harvester of Pliny's day. Palladius wrote the De re Rustica in the fourth century A. D. and gives a good description of this contrivance, which was similar to our "heading-machines," having a row of sharp teeth at the front edge, between which the straw passed, the head being torn off at the angle where the teeth met, and falling into the box of the machine. The description of Palladius is as follows: —" In the plains of Gaul, they use this quick way of reaping, and without reapers cut large fields with an ox in one day. For this purpose a machine is made, carried upon two wheels; the square surface has boards erected at the side, which sloping outward, make a wider space above; the board on the fore part is lower than the others; upon it there are a great many small teeth, wide set in a row, answering to the hight of the can of the corn, and turned upward at the ends; on the back part of this machine two short shafts are fixed, like the poles of a litter; to these an ox is yoked with his head to the machine, and the yoke and traces likewise turned the contrary way: he is well trained, and does not go faster than he is driven. When this machine is pushed through the standing corn, all the ears are comprehended by the teeth, and heaped up in the hollow part of it, being cut off from the straw, which is left behind; the driver setting it higher or lower, as he finds it necessary; and thus, by a few goings and returnings, the whole field is reaped. This machine does very well in plain and smooth fields, and in places where there is no necessity for feeding with straw." - Binding and pulling grain in the Egypt of the pharaohs
Binding and pulling grain in the Egypt of the pharaohs - Boy
Boy - Football tackle
Football tackle - Catching the football
Catching the football - Kicking the football
Kicking the football - Archery
Of physical games archery was the most practised. This was the national physical exercise, one which had helped the English soldiers to gain a great reputation for themselves, as at Agincourt (1415). At York the "butts," where men practised archery, were outside the city walls. - An Abbot
The different kinds of religious men have already been mentioned from archbishops and abbots to the scurrilous impostors who used a religious exterior to rob poor people, at whose expense they lived well a wandering, loose, hypocritical life. In York, there were monks and friars, cathedral, parochial, and chantry priests, and clerks. The monastic life was a recognised profession. - Administering holy communion with the Housel cloth
From a 14th century manuscript - York in the 15th Century
To-day mediæval buildings are to be found all over England. The majority of them are examples of an architecture that has not been surpassed for majesty, beauty, size, and constructional skill. Such buildings, without the help of the literary and other memorials, testify by themselves to the greatness of the Middle Ages. - Cooking with the spit
Rooms were furnished with chairs, tables, benches, chests, bedsteads, and, in some cases, tub-shaped baths. Carpets were to be found only in the houses of the very wealthy. The floors of ordinary houses, like those of churches, were covered with rushes and straw, among which it was the useful custom to scatter fragrant herbs. This rough carpet was pressed by the clogs of working people and the shoes of the fashionable. The spit was a much used cooking utensil. Table-cloths, knives, and spoons were in general use, but not the fork before the fifteenth century. At one time food was manipulated by the fingers. York was advanced in table manners, for it is known that a fork was used in the house of a citizen family here in 1443. The richer members of the middle class owned a large number of silver tankards, goblets, mazer-bowls, salt-cellars and similar utensils and ornaments of silver, for this was a common form in which they held their wealth. - Divider
Divider - Sir Isaac Newton's House, Orange and St. Martin's Streets
- Roger Bacon's House at Oxford
- Ramage's Telescope
- Mariner's Compass
- Map of the Moon
- Hipparchus
- Hadley's Sextant
- Galileo and the Well-sinkers
- Florence
- Birthplace of Newton
- Baghdad
- Ars Longa, Vita Brevis
- Alexandrian Mathematicians
- Alembic and receiver
- Air Pump
- A Court in the Alhambra
- Workman fashioning a spectacle lens
- Tycho Brahe's House and Observatory
- The Screw of Archimedes
- The Present Aspect of Constantinople
- The Magdeburg Experiment on the Large Scale
- The Giralda at Seville
- The Cathedral of Amiens
- The Alchemist
- Hipparchus
- Statue of Newton, Trinity College, Cambridge
- Statue of Francis Bacon in Westminster Abbey
- Descartes
- Copernicus