66 MR HARDY ON BOWLING. 



men being matched against the bachelors. Sometimes it happens that 

 one township will challenge a rival to a trial of skill. The sum de- 

 pending on the combatants of each side will be between fourteen or 

 fifteen pounds. Two of the most noted bowlers are selected to decide 

 the superiority. A certain distance of from two to three miles is marked 

 out on the public thoroughfare, and whoever first, by alternate throws, 

 attains the goal, is acknowledged as conqueror. Four individuals who 

 have acquired a competent knowledge of the game, two on each side, are 

 chosen umpires, and determine all controversies. The two opponents, 

 mutually confident as to the issue, stand forth, and an introductory race 

 being premised, give forth the bowl from the same barrier. The rule 

 of the game is, that where the bowl settles, thence the next throw 

 must commence. At this point a straw is laid down, and two men, 

 named triggers, must see that when the race for the succeeding cast of 

 the bowl has concluded, the straw is exactly between the feet of the 

 party whose turn it is to dismiss the bowl. If this be not the case, 

 and any dispute arise, the bowl is recalled, and the throw is renewed. 

 If the bowl rolls into a ditch, thence it must be thrown. On one oc- 

 casion near the village of Etal, an awkward player dashed his bowl 

 through the roof of a house, and by this means two throws were lost, 



when little removed from their original condition, is the following. Sometime after 

 the year 667, Wilfred Bishop of York *' built a new church at Ripon, of smoothed 

 stone, adorned with various columns and porticoes, which excited the admiration of 

 his contemporaries ; and at its dedication, the brother Kings Ecgfrid, and Aelwin, 

 of Northumbria and Mercia, with the principal nobles of the kingdom, held a riotous 

 and continuous feast, during three days and three nights, a custom which was bor- 

 rowed from the older observances of paganism." Wright's Biog. Brit. Literaria, 

 p. 174; who cites Eddius Vit. Wilf. c. 17. Excepting Paxton feast, unless "house- 

 heating" be regarded as their illegitimate progeny, I have found no traces of these 

 ** merry wakes" in Berwickshire, though doubtless such occasions of good fellowship 

 would not be neglected, as their occurrence is noticed in various parts of Scotland. 

 " Peblis to the play," attributed to James I., is descriptive of the scenes of fun and 

 frolic witnessed at such jocular convocations. 



" For it wes thair feist-day thay said 



Of Peblis to the play.*' 



" Chrystes Kirk on the grene," another regal production, is a still more vivid por- 

 traiture of the obstreperous and unlicensed *' deray" of a village revel. Another old 

 poem, " The piper of Kilbarchan," said to have been composed by Sir Robert Sem- 

 pill of Beltries, mentions St Barchan's feast. Kilbarchan is in Renfrewshire. To 

 these feasts we probably owe the institution of several of our village fairs. This is 

 the opinion of Sir Henry Spelman ; and Dr Burns terms it "just and rational." 

 (Burns' Ecclesiastical Law, vol. i. p. 310.) 



