A to amerous, to adventurous; ne anger the too much.
B to bold, to busy, and board thou not too brode.
C to curtes, to cruel, and care not too sore.
D to dull, to dreadfull, and drynk thou not too oft.
E to ellynge, to excellent; ne to ernestfull neyther.
F to fierce, ne too familier but frendely of chere.
G to glad, to gloryous, and gealosy thou shalt hate.
H to hasty, to hardy, ne too hevy yn thyne herte.
I to jettyng, to jangling, and jape not too oft.
K to keeping, to kynd, and ware knaves taches among.
L to lothe, to lovyng, to lyberall of goods.
M to medlurs, to merry but as manner asketh.
N to noyous, to nyce, ne nought to newe fangle.
O to orpyd, to oveyrthwarte, and othes do thee hate.
P to preysyng, to prevy, ne peerless with prynces.
Q to queynt, to querelous, but quyene wele thee may.
R to ryetous, to revelyng, ne rage not too moche.
S to strange, ne to stervyng, nor stare not too brode.
T to taylours, ne tayle wyse, for temperance yt hatyth.
V to venemous, to violent, and waste not too mych.
W to wyld, ne wrathful, and ne too wyse deeme thee.
For fear of a fall.
A measurable meane way is best for us all.
Explicit."

There are two copies of this alphabet among the Harleian manuscripts, one marked 1706, written in the fourteenth century, and another marked 541; whence the above is chiefly taken. At the end of the former we read "XY wyth ESED AND per se—Amen."

Lotteries, in which toys and other trifling prizes were included to be drawn for by children, were in fashion formerly, but by degrees, and especially since the establishment of the State Lottery, they have been magnified into a dangerous species of gambling, and are very properly suppressed by the legislature. They were in imitation of the State Lotteries, with prizes of money proportionable to the value of the tickets, and drawn in like manner. These lotteries are called little goes.

XV.—OBSOLETE PASTIMES.

I have here attempted to give some account of the principal sports practised by the children of this country. I am fully sensible that the list will admit of very many additions, and also that the pastimes which are included in it have been subject to numberless variations. I have, however, set down all that I can recollect, and described them according to the manner in which I have seen the larger part of them performed. It only remains for me to enumerate a few more, which indeed are not well known to me, but may be elucidated hereafter by some more able writer.

129.

This engraving represents a kind of a mock procession, where one of the company, equipped in a royal habit with a crown upon his head, is walking with his mantle displayed by two attendants, and preceded by a zany beating a tambourin with knotted thong. I presume it to be the installation of the King of the Bean, who has already been introduced to the reader.

Below it are two figures, one of them blinded with his hood, having a club upon his shoulder, and approaching towards an iron cauldron, in order no doubt to strike it with his club.

130.

This may probably refer to the amusement at wakes and fairs, where various tasks for pastime sake are frequently assigned to blindfolded persons, as the Wheelbarrow Race, described on a preceding page. [1138] The drawings from whence the two last engravings are derived, are in the Bodleian MS. of 1344 already mentioned.

The sport in the next representation is quite unknown to me, unless it may be thought to bear some resemblance to the Greek game called apodidraskinda, Αποδιδρασκινδα, [1139] where one being seated in the midst of his comrades, closed his eyes, or was blinded by the hand of another, while the rest concealed themselves, and he who was found by him after he was permitted to rise, took his place; this was evidently a species of the pastime called hide and seek. The original of this engraving is in a MS. of the thirteenth century, in the Royal Library. [1140]

131.

I am equally at a loss respecting the two next representations.

132.
133.

Those that are standing, and those that are seated below them, are evidently engaged in a similar kind of pastime. The only game within the compass of my knowledge that bears any resemblance to it, I have seen played by two persons one of them alternately holds up the fingers of his right hand, varying the number at his pleasure, and the other is obliged to answer promptly by exposing a like number of his fingers, which is called by both, and the least variation on either side loses. In these delineations there are three players, and he in the middle seems to be alternately answering to the other two. They are in the Bodleian MS. of 1344.

Mr. Douce's Book of Prayers of the fourteenth century contains the following representation.

134.

Here we see a rope apparently made fast at both ends, and a man laying hold of it with his teeth, by which he seems to support himself. If this be the meaning of the delineator, the trick may properly be classed with those that were exhibited by the minstrels and the joculators.