Unknown sport
The following engraving from a manuscript book of prayers of the fourteenth century, in the possession of Mr. Douce, represents two men with a pole or headless spear, who grasp it at either end, and are contending which shall dispossess the other of his hold.
Unknown sport
The contest between the two figures, seems to depend upon the breaking of the stick which both of them hold, or is a struggle to overthrow each other.
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.
Toys, representing Knights Justing
Sometimes these toys were made without wheels, and pushed by the hand upon a table towards each other; but in both cases the effect was evidently the same as seen below.
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
Tumbling.—XIII. Century
This engraving represents a woman bending herself backwards, from a MS. of the thirteenth century, in the Cotton Library
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—XIV. Century
In this second representation a man is performing the same feat (as in picture below), but in a more extraordinary manner. The original is contained in a MS. in the library of sir Hans Sloane.
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.
Two boys challenging each other
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.
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.
XIV. Century
A man balancing a wheel on his shoulder
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.
Living Quintain
And again where his opponent is seated in a swing and drawn back by a third person, so that the rope being left at liberty in the swing, the man of course descended with great force, and striking the foot of his antagonist with much violence, no doubt very frequently overthrew him.
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Boat Tilting
Here we may also add the boat justs, or tilting upon the water. The representation of a pastime of this kind is given, from a manuscript of the fourteenth century in the Royal Library. The conqueror at these justs was the champion who could dexterously turn aside the blow of his antagonist with his shield, and at the same time strike him with his lance in such a manner as to overthrow him into the river, himself remaining unmoved from his station; and perhaps not a little depended upon the skill of the rowers. When queen Elizabeth visited Sandwich in 1573, she was entertained with a tilting upon the water, "where certain wallounds that could well swym had prepared two boates, and in the middle of each boate was placed a borde, upon which borde there stood a man, and so they met together, with either of them a staff and a shield of wood; and one of them did overthrowe another, at which the queene had good sport."
Anglo-Saxon Gleemen's Bear Dance.—X. Century
One part of the gleeman's profession, as early as the tenth century, was, teaching animals to dance, to tumble, and to put themselves into variety of attitudes, at the command of their masters. This engraving is the copy of a curious though rude delineation, being little more than an outline, which exhibits a specimen of this pastime. The principal joculator appears in the front, holding a knotted switch in one hand, and a line attached to a bear in the other; the animal is lying down in obedience to his command; and behind them are two more figures, the one playing upon two flutes or flageolets, and elevating his left leg while he stands upon his right, supported by a staff that passes under his armpit; the other dancing, in an attitude exceedingly ludicrous. This performance takes place upon an eminence resembling a stage made with earth; and in the original a vast concourse are standing round it in a semicircle as spectators of the sport, but they are so exceedingly ill drawn, and withal so indistinct, that I did not think it worth the pains to copy them. The dancing, if I may so call it, of the flute player, is repeated twice in the same manuscript.
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A Bear standing on his Head
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.
A Cock dancing on Stilts to the Music of a Pipe and Tabor
A curious ancient Pastime
A Feat in the XIV. Century
Two boys are depicted holding the hoop, and the third preparing to leap through it, having deposited his cloak upon the ground to receive him.
A Fool's Dance.—XIV. Century
The fool's dance, or a dance performed by persons equipped in the dresses appropriated to the fools, is very ancient, and originally, I apprehend, formed a part of the pageant belonging to the festival of fools. This festival was a religious mummery, usually held at Christmas time; and consisted of various ceremonials and mockeries, not only exceedingly ridiculous, but shameful and impious. A vestige of the fool's dance, preserved in a MS. in the Bodleian Library, written and illuminated in the reign of king Edward III. and completed in 1344, is copied below.
A Green Man
A Horse baited with Dogs
A manuscript of the fourteenth century, in the Royal Library, contains the following cruel diversion: horse baiting with dogs
A Horse dancing to the Pipe and Tabor
A Horse dancing to the Pipe and Tabor
A Horse dancing- A Justing Toy
Persons of `rank` were taught in their childhood to relish such exercises as were of a martial nature, and the very toys that were put into their hands as playthings, were calculated to bias the mind in their favour. On the opposite page the reader will find two views of a knight on horseback, completely equipped for the just; four wheels originally were attached to the pedestal, which has a hole in the front for the insertion of a cord. The knight and his horse are both made with brass; the spear and the wheels are wanting in the original, but the hole in which the spear was inserted, still remains under the right arm, and it is supplied upon the print by something like it placed in the proper situation. This curious figure was probably made in the fifteenth century. The man represented may be readily separated from the horse, and is so contrived as to be thrown backwards by a smart blow upon the top of the shield or the front of his helmet, and replaced again with much ease: two such toys were requisite; each of them having a string made fast in the front of the pedestal, being then placed at a distance in opposition the one to the other, they were violently drawn together in imitation of two knights tilting; and by the concussion of the spears and shields, if dexterously managed, one or both of the men were cast to the ground. 
A Posture-Master.—XIV. Century
The display of his abilities consisted in twisting and contorting his body into strange and unnatural attitudes. This art was, in doubt, practised by the jugglers in former ages; and a singular specimen of it, delineated on the last mentioned Bodleian MS., in the reign of Edward III., is here represented. The performer bends himself backwards, with his head turned up between his hands, so as nearly to touch his feet; and in this situation he hangs by his hams upon a pole, supported by two of his confederates.
A tumbling Ape
A tumbling Ape
A Wodehouse
Ancient Wrestling
Other rewards, no doubt, were sometimes proposed, as we may see upon the engraving below, where two men are wrestling for a cock: the original drawing, from a manuscript in the Royal Library, is certainly more ancient than the time of Chaucer.
Ancient-Chess-play
Anglo-Saxon Dance.—VIII. Century
This engraving represents two persons dancing to the music of the horn and the trumpet, and it does not appear to be a common dance in which they are engaged; on the contrary, their attitudes are such as must have rendered it very difficult to perform
Anglo-Saxon Gleeman—X. Century
We here see a man throwing three balls and three knives alternately into the air, and catching them one by one as they fall, but returning them again in a regular rotation. To give the greater appearance of difficulty to this feat, it is accompanied with the music of an instrument resembling the modern violin.
Anglo-Saxon Harper and Hoppestere.—X. Century
Here we see a youth playing upon a harp with only four strings, and apparently singing at the same time, while an elderly man is performing the part of a buffoon or posture master, holding up one of his legs, and hopping upon the other to the music.
Ancient Wrestling
The manner in which this pastime was exhibited in the western parts of England, at the distance of two centuries, is thus described by Carew, an author then living. "The beholders then cast, or form themselves into a ring, in the empty space whereof the two champions step forth, stripped into their dublets and hosen, and untrussed, that they may so the better command the use of their lymmes; and first shaking hands, in token of friendship, they fall presently to the effect of anger; for each striveth how to take hold of the other with his best advantage, and to bear his adverse party downe; wherein, whosoever overthroweth his mate, in such sort, as that either his backe, or the one shoulder, and contrary heele do touch the ground, is accounted to give the fall. If he be only endangered, and makes a narrow escape, it is called a foyle."
Archery.—XIV. Century
The Cornish men are spoken of as good archers, and shot their arrows to a great length; they are also, says Carew, "well skilled in near shooting, and in well aimed shooting;—the butts made them perfect in the one, and the roaving in the other, for the prickes, the first corrupters of archery, through too much preciseness, were formerly scarcely known, and little practised." Other marks are occasionally mentioned, as the standard, the target, hazel wands, rose garlands, and the popinjay, which, we are told, was an artificial parrot. I have not met with such a mark in any manuscript delineation; but, in the following engraving, the reader will find a cock substituted for the parrot, and the archer has discharged his arrow very skilfully.
Balancing 2
Balancing —XIV. Century
Man balancing a sword on his hand
Balancing
Balancing.—XIV. Century
This engraving, from a MS. in the Bodleian Library, represents a girl, as the length of the hair seems to indicate, habited like a boy, and kneeling on a large broad board, supported horizontally by two men; before her are three swords, the points inclined to each other, and placed in a triangular form; she is pointing to them with her right hand, and holds in her left a small instrument somewhat resembling a trowel, but I neither know its name nor its use.
Balancing—XIV. Century
The man in this engraving, from a drawing in a MS. book of prayers possessed by Francis Douce, esq., is performing a very difficult operation: he has placed one sword upright upon the hilt, and is attempting to do the like with the second; at the same time his attitude is altogether as surprising as the trick itself.
Balloon-Ball.—XIV. Century
The balloon-ball, was a large ball made of double leather, which being filled with wind by means of a ventil, says Commenius, was driven to and fro by the strength of men's arms; and for this purpose every one of the players had a round hollow bracer of wood to cover the hand and lower part of the arm, with which he struck the ball. This pastime was usually practised in the open fields, and is much commended for the healthiness of the exercise it afforded. The balloon-ball seems certainly to have originated from the hand-ball, and was, I apprehend, first played in England without the assistance of the bracer; this supposition will be perfectly established if it be granted, and I see no reason why it should not, that the four figures represented below are engaged in the balloon-ball play: the original delineation occurs in a manuscript of the fourteenth century in the Royal Library.
Bandy-Ball.—XIV. Century
Here are two figures engaged at bandy-ball, and the form of the bandy, as it was used early in the fourteenth century, from a MS. book of prayers beautifully illuminated and written about that time, in the possession of Francis Douce Esq.
Bear and Monkey
A tutored bear and monkey performing
Justing.—XIV. Century
The figure is a representation of the just, taken from a manuscript in the Royal Library, of the thirteenth, or early in the fourteenth century, where two knights appear in the action of tilting at each other with the blunted spears.
Boys Tilting in Pastime
All persons below the `rank` of an esquire were excluded from the justs and the tournaments; but the celebration of these pastimes attracted the common mind in a very powerful manner, and led to the institution of sports, that bore at least some resemblance to them: tilting at the quintain was generally practised at a very early period, and justing upon the ice by the young Londoners. The early inclination to join in such kind of pastimes is strongly indicated by the two boys represented here: the place of the horse is supplied by a long switch, and that of a lance by another. The original delineation occurs in a beautiful MS. book of prayers, written in the fourteenth century.
Bob-Cherry
Bowling.—XIII. Century
Bowling.—XIV. Century 2