8 



Skating and sliding : Both of these, being winter amusements, 

 probably had their origin in a northern climate. Skating appears 

 to find no record until early in the 13th century. A runner of bone 

 was at first used, and this in later years gare place to iron. 



Battledore and shuttlecock : This is a boyish sport of long 

 standing. There are drawings extant of the 14th century, showing 

 boys engaged in this well-known game. It was a fashionable pastime 

 among grown persons in the reign of James I. That it had an 

 Asiatic origin there can be no question, and it is much played in 

 China at the present-day, though frequently the shuttlecock is struck 

 with the sole of the foot instead of a battledore. 



Scratch-cradle appears upon one of Greek vases in the Hamilton 

 collection. A figure is seen holding in each hand the loops of the 

 entangled threads. 



Dice-playing also belongs to our sedentary pastimes, and is of 

 extreme antiquity. It owes its origin to the Astragali of the 

 ancients, and to the knucklebones or hucklebones of the present day- 

 Astragali were used in divination in old Eome. the sides being num- 

 bered so as to convert them into dice. Some of these are preserved 

 in the British Museum, The ancient Germans, as we learn from 

 Tacitus, were much addicted to gambling with dice. The same may 

 be said of the Saxons, the Danes, and the Normans. In the 12th 

 century there were no fewer than 10 different games of dice in 

 fashion. .John of Salisbury speaks of dice-playing as a damnable 

 art, and a contemporary author refers to the attractions it presented 

 to clergymen and bishops. 



Ducks and drakes was played by the ancient Eomans — by the 

 old as well as by the young. 



The Lectui'er observed, that in tracing the descent of any par- 

 ticular pastime or amusement, it is often difficult to discover how it 

 first cauie among us. How impossible would it seem to be to trace 

 the pedigree of such an expression as " Buck, buck, howmanj^ horns 

 do I hold up?" Every one knows the line, yet how did it get here ? 

 In a passage from Petronius Arbiter, dating from the reign of 

 Nero, a boy is described as climbing upon a man's shoulders, 

 and crying out " Bucca, bucca, quot sunt hie ? " 



The Lecturer concluded by saying that ascertaining, through 



