Old England: A Pictorial Museum (page 42/48)

1376.—St. Albans Hawking Party

Falconry in the 15th century, with St. Albans Abbey in the background. [more...]

1377.—Whitsun Morris-Dance.

Whitsunday, or Whitsun, is the seventh Sunday after Easter, and is a time for a holiday. The Morris-dance was originally a Moorish dance. These days it involves men with white socks (always a bad start) and bells on their wrists and ankles, and lots of beer. There are also Morris dances on May Day. [more...]

Stratford Church.

Interior, seen from the door. [more...]

1378.—Bowling Ball. (From a MS. in the Douce Collection.)

[After the end of the Wars of the Roses, in the fifteenth century] the green sward that had been trampled by unaccustomed feet is re-levelled for the bowls (Fig. 1378) (p. 384) [more...]

Two-wheeled plough. (From Harleian MS. No. 4374)

The two-wheeled plough here is pulled by a pair of oxen and has one man behind. [more...]

1381.—Trap-Ball.

This game may be similar to Ball-and-Trap or Knurr and Spell, two traditional English ball-games that are still played. If so, the ball is on a see-saw an the play will hit the other end of it to make the ball fly into the air; when the ball escends the player will strike the ball with the bat, trying to hit a particular target or to get the ball to [...] [more...]

1384.—Golf, or Bandy-ball.

(From a M.S. in the Douce Collection.) [more...]

1385.—The Dance in the ‘Garden of Pleasure:’ from the ‘Roman de la Rose.’—(Harl. MS. 4425.)

The Story of the Rose was a very popular mediæval French story about chivalry and knightly love. Here we have an engraving based on a painting in one particular manuscript copy made in about A.D. 1500. There’s some word-play going on: the walled garden is owned by one M. Déduit; the man’s name istself means “pleasure.” We see the wingéd God of Love in the background. [more...]