G A 
manner in which he and his companions lived. The king 
complied with the requeft, and the archers, blowing their 
horns, conduced him and his train into the wood under 
the hill, where an arbour was made with green boughs, 
having a hall, a great chamber, and an inner chamber, 
and the whole was covered with flowers and fweet herbs. 
When the company had entered (lie arbour, Robin Hood 
excufed the want of more abundant refrefliment, faying to 
the king, “ Sir, we outlaws ufually breakfalf upon veni- 
Ibn, and have no other food to offer you.” Tlie king and 
queen then fat down, and were ferved with venifon and 
wine; and, after the entertainment, with which it feems 
they were well pleafed, they departed, and on tlieir re¬ 
turn were met by two ladies riding in a rich open chariot, 
drawn by five horfes. Both of thefe ladies were fplen- 
didly apparelled, one of them perfonifying lady May, 
and the other lady Fiora; “who,” we are told, “ faki- 
ted the king with d'lvers goodly fongs, and fo brought 
him to Greenwich.”—We may, however, juft obferve, 
that the May-games had attradfed the notice of the nobi¬ 
lity long before the time of Henry ; and, agreeable to the 
curtom of the times, no doubt, was the following curious 
pafl’.ige in the old romance called the Deati. of Arthur; 
“ Now it befell in the moneth of lufty May, that queene 
Guenever called unto her the knyghtesof the round table, 
and gave them warning that, early in the morning, fhe 
fhould ride on maying into the v/oods and fields befide 
Weftminfler.” The knights were all of them to be do- 
thed in green, to be well horfed, and every one of them 
to have a lady behind him, followed by an efquire and 
two yeomen, &c. 
“ It is at this time” (that is, in May), fays the autlior 
of one of the papers in the Spebtator, “we fee tlie brifk 
young wenches, in the country puriflies, dancing round 
the maypole. It is likewife on the firft day of this month 
that we fee the ruddy milkmaid exerting herfelf in a moft 
fprightly manner under a pyramid of filver tankards, and, 
like the virgin Tarpeia, opprelfed by the coftly ornaments 
which her benefaftors lay upon her.” Tliefe decorations 
of filver cups, tankards, and falvers, were borrowed for 
the purpofe, and hung round the milkpails, with the ad¬ 
dition of flowers and ribands, which t!ie maidens carried 
upon their heads when they went to the houfes of their 
ciiftomers, and danced in order to obtain a fmall gratuity 
from each of them. Of late years the plate, with the 
other decorations, were placed in a pyraraidical form, and 
carried by two chairmen upon a wooden horfe. The 
maidens w-alked before it, and performed the dance witli- 
oiit any incumbrance. In other places, inltead of tliefe 
weighty ornaments, they fubftituted a cow. The animal 
had her horns gilt, and was ii'carly covered with ribands 
of various colours, formed into bows and rofes, and inter- 
fperfed with green oaken leaves and bunches of flowers. 
The chimney-Jweepers of London, it muft alfo be re¬ 
membered, have Angled out the firft of May for their 
feftival ; at which time tliey parade the ftreets i.n compa¬ 
nies, difguifed in various manners. Their drefics are 
ufnally decorated with gilt paper, and other mock fine- 
*ries; they have their fhovels and brulhes in their hands, 
which they rattle one upon the other ; and to this rough 
mufic they jump about in imitation of dancing. Some of 
the larger companies have a fiddler with them, and a jack 
in the green, as well as a lord and'lady of the may, who 
follow the minflrel with great ftatelinel's, and dance as 
occafion requires. 
On the vigil of Saint John the Baptift, commonly call¬ 
ed Midfnmmer Eve, it was ufual in moft country places, 
And alfo in towns and citie.^, for the inhabitants, both old 
and young, and of both fexes, to meet together, and make 
merry by the fide of a large fire made in the middle of the 
ftreet, or in fonie open and convenient place, over which 
the young men frequently leaped by way of Irolic, and 
alfo exercifed themlelves witli various fports and paftimes, 
more efpecially with running, wreftling, and dancing. 
Thefe divcrlions they continued till midnight, and fdme- 
M E. 203 
times til! cock-crowing. At London, in addition to the 
bonfires, “ on the eve of this faint, as well as upon that 
of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, every man’s door was (haded 
with green birch, long fennel, Saint John’s wort, orpin, 
white lilies, and the like, ornamented with garlands of 
beautiful flowers. They (the citizens) had al(b lamps of 
glafs with oil burning in them all night; and fome of 
tliem hung out branches of iron, curioufly wrought, con¬ 
taining hundreds of lamps lighted at once, which made a 
very fplendid appearance.” This iniormation we receive 
from Stow, who tells us that, in his time. New Fii'k- 
ftreet and Thames-ftreet were peculiarly brilliant upon 
thefe occafions. 
The reafons afligned for making bonfires upon the vigil 
of Saint John in particular are various, for many writers- 
have attempted the invefligation of their crigln; but un- 
fortunately all their arguments, owing to the want of pro¬ 
per information, are nrerely hypothetical, ;;nd of courfe 
cannot be miicli depended upon. Thofe who fiippofe thefe 
fires to be a relique of fome ancient heatlienifli fuperfti- 
.tion engrafted upon the variegated (lock of ceremonies 
belonging to the Romilh church, are not, perhaps, far 
diltant from the truth. 
Tire Anglo-Saxons, and the Danes, as we have obferv- 
ed already, were much addidted to fedentary games; and 
the lame deftrnttive propenfity was eijually prevalent 
among the Normans. Tlie evil confequences arifing from 
tire indulgence of this pernicious pleafurc have in all ages- 
called loudly for reprehenfion, and demanded at lail tiie 
ferious interference of the legiflature. The vice of gamb¬ 
ling, however, is by no means peculiar to the people of 
England ; its influence is iiniverfally dilTufed among man¬ 
kind; and in moft nations the fame ftrong meafures thac 
have been adopted here, are found neceirary to prevent 
itsextenfion beyond the limits, of reafon and propriety. 
Dice, and thole games of chance dependent upon then:,- 
have been moft generally decried ; and cards, in later 
times, are added to them as proper companions. Cards, 
when compared with dice, are indeed of modern inven¬ 
tion, and originally, we doubt not, produtflive only of in¬ 
nocent amulement ; they were, liowever, foon convened 
into inftruments of gambling equally dangerous as the dice 
themfel ves, and more enticii'g from the variety of change- 
ments lliey admit cf, and the pleafing mixture of chance 
with fxiil, which often gives the learner an advantage over 
the more experienced player. Towards the clofe of the 
tv/elftli century, we meet with a very curious ediift reia. 
live to gaming, which (hews how generally it i)revailed 
even among the lower claifes at that period. This edidl 
tvas eftablilhed for the regujation of the Chriftian army 
under the command cf Richard I. of England, and Philip 
of France, duiiiig the crufade : It'prohibits any perCori 
in the army beneath the degree of a knight from playing 
at any fort of game for money ; knights and clergymen 
might play for money, but no one of them was permitted, 
to lo.^e more than twenty (hillings in one whole, day aiid 
night, under the penalty of one hundred (hillings, to be 
p.iid to the archbifliops in the army ; the two nionarclss 
had the privilege of playing for what they pleafed ; but 
(heir attendants were reftrided to the Aim of twenty (hil¬ 
lings, and, if they exceeded, they were to be whipped n.de¬ 
ed through the army for three days. The decrees eflab- 
lifhed by th.e council held at Worcefter, in the twenty- 
fourth year of Henry III. prohibited the clergy Iroiu. 
playing at dice, or at chefs : but neither the one nor die 
other of thefe games are mentioned in the Aicceeding pe¬ 
nal ftatutes, before the twelfth year of Richard II. ulieii 
diceing is particularifed, and expreftly forbidden ; though 
perhaps they were both of tlictn included under the ger^e. 
ral title of “ games ofchance, and diflioneft games,” men- 
tioned in the proclamation ot Edward III. 
In the eleventh year of Henry VII. cards are fifft men¬ 
tioned among the games prohibited by law; and at that 
time they (eem to have been very generally iifed ; for, the 
edidt exprelsly forbids the pradtice of card-playing to ap.. 
p rent ice Sj, 
