GAME OF CHESS.

The etymology of the word chess, is like the origin of the game, somewhat uncertain, but is supposed to be derived from the Persian schah, which signifies king. The Italians call it scacchi; the Germans, schachspul, and the French, echees, from some of which, we may have taken our word check. The pawn seems to have been evidently so called, after the peon, while the rook, though more generally termed a castle, took its name from the Persian rukh, which is the corresponding piece; and it is remarkable, that in all the languages here enumerated, the word mat, or mate, is preserved, and a term is used corresponding with the schahmat of the Persians.

BACKGAMMON.

Of this game we have no clue to its origin; at any rate, we can give our readers the derivation of the term: viz. out of bach, little, and cammuun, battle, sprang Backgammon

ARCHERY.

"And thou, peculiar weapon of our land,
Graceful, yet sturdy bow."

The bow and arrow are of Scythian origin, and were first introduced into England in the reign of Egbert, the Saxon. It was not, however, used as a marshal weapon until the reign of Edward the First. The period at which the long bow had attained its meridian fame, may be fixed in the reign of Henry 5th, whose archers destroyed the whole French cavalry, clothed in complete steel, with their yard long arrows. At the battle of Flodden-field, likewise, the English archers made sad havoc. As to the amusement, the bow was extremely fashionable in the reign of Henry 8th; and Holinshead reports, that the prince shot as well as any of his guard. After the siege of Devizes, in the civil wars, 1647, the bow, as a military weapon, was entirely laid aside. During the reigns of Charles 2d, and James 2d, the amusement was continued, and the Artillery Company, and Finsbury Archers, then so celebrated, have survived to the present time; but with the exception of these societies, till within these last fifty years, the bow was scarcely known. It derived its name of archery from the bow, being when drawn, in the shape of an arch.

MORRIS DANCE.

The term Morris Dance is derived from, or rather, is a corruption of, Morisco Dance, and was introduced from Spain, by John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster.

FIVES AND FIVES' COURT.

"Tost and retost, the ball incessant flies."

A game so called, because when first played, in the reign of Elizabeth, there was five competitors in it; and not, as generally supposed, from the hand which strikes the ball, consisting of four fingers and a thumb, vulgarly called a "bunch of fives."

The place so celebrated in the annals of pugilism, derives its name from the circumstance of its being once equally famed for the game of Fives.

GAME OF RACKETS.

The French palm-play, consisted in receiving the ball, and driving it back again with the palm of the hand, similar to our game of Fives. Anciently they played Rackets with their naked hand, then with a glove, which, in some instances, was lined; afterwards they bound cords and tendons round their hands, to make the ball rebound more forcibly; and hence, says St. Foix, the Racket derived its origin.

DANCING.

"Hail, loveliest art! thou canst all hearts insnare,
And make the fairest still appear more fair.

Hence with her sister arts, shall dancing claim

An equal right to universal fame;

And Isaac's rigadoon shall live as long

As Raphael's painting, or as Virgil's song."—Jenyns.

Dancing, applied to harmonize the motions of the body, to teach an easy gesture, and a graceful attitude, is highly useful, and the poet's numbers have thus been attuned to its eulogy.

To trace the origin of dancing would be a difficult task. That it was used by the Jews, in their religious rites, there can be no question of; for we are informed, that "David danced before the Lord with all his might, until his linen Ephod came off." It passed from the religious ceremonies of the Jews to the Egyptians, and afterwards to the Greeks and Romans, with whom it was a principal part of the worship of their gods. It was afterwards adopted in many Pagan nations; and Christians ultimately, in Popish countries, celebrated certain festivals, particularly the Sacrament of the Passion of our Lord, with dancing. Socrates learned to dance at an advanced time of life; it is no wonder, therefore, that such honourable mention is made of dancing by his disciples, Plato and Xenophon. The people of Sparta and Crete went to the attack, dancing. On the other hand, Cicero reproaches Galbinus, a consular man, with having danced. Tiberius expelled the dancers from Rome; and Domitian excluded several members from the senate, for having danced: but the acts of these imperial despots, may be considered rather as the suggestions of caprice and folly, than as the dictates of wisdom and virtue.

Our ancestors used to keep the sport up till midnight, and it was an indispensable accompaniment of weddings. The monks used to dance in their dormitories. Swords, called Dancing Rapiers, were worn in the dancing schools; which schools existed in the Universities, in Evelyn's time. In the grand rebellion, a clergyman was charged with having taught, in the pulpit, that we ought to learn to dance, and that if we could not dance we were damned.

The London servants, in the 12th century, used to dance before their master's doors. Hawkins notices dancing to a bagpipe, played by a domestic; and that no dance tunes are known so early as 1400; 66 Sellenger's Round," to be traced nearly to Henry 8th, being the oldest. In the most ancient dances, a man and woman danced together, holding each other by the hand or arm; and a kiss was the established fee of the lady's partner. In the time of queen Elizabeth, at a solemn dancing, were first the grave measures, (as now minuets), then the corrantoes, and goliards; at length to frenchmore, or trenchmore, and the cushion dance, after which all the company danced, lord and groom, lady and kitchen-maid, without distinction! Before the reign of Francis 1st, they danced in France

to fife and drum. Coryatt notices, that the brother to the duke of Guise, and his gentlemen, danced corrantoes and lovaltoes in the court of an inn.

FANDANGO.

This far-famed dance, so peculiar to the South Americans, of which writers have said so much, and which has recently been imported into this country, intended as a dumb representation of courtship. The music begins at first slow and monotonous, but gradually increases from andante to allegro. The gentleman commences by pursuing the lady quietly and gently, who retreats in the like manner, making short circles, and turning on her heel at each time that her partner approaches, quickening her step and evolutions as the tune of the music increases, until she perceives that he seems inclined to give up the pursuit; repentance follows, and the pursuer is in his turn pursued, making similar retreats, and the same circumvolutions, that the lady so recently practiced; until at last, relenting, he turns to meet her, and they approach each other more closely; and being apparently reconciled, make three or four peculiar stamps with their feet, bow to each other, and retire to their seats literally exhausted, amidst the acclamations of the by-standers.

SKAITING.

Skaiting was first introduced into this country from Holland, at an early period, and the Dutch introduced it from Lapland Skate or skait, in the German, signifying to glide along a smooth surface. The Dutch are allowed to be the first skaiters in Europe; the farmer's daughters frequently skaiting on the canals to the market towns, with milk, eggs, butter, &c. in baskets, on their heads. Fitzstephens, who wrote in the reign of Henry 2d, thus notices it: "when that great moor, which washes Moorfields, at the north wall of the city is frozen over, great companies of young men go to sport upon the ice, and bind to their shoes, bones, as the legs of beasts, and hold stakes in their hands, headed with sharp iron, which sometimes they strike against the ice, and then men go with speed, as doth a bird in the air, or darts shot from some warlike engine."

"Sometimes, two men set themselves at a distance, and run one against another, as it were at tilt, with these stakes, wherewith one, or both parties, are thrown down, not without some hurt to their bo dies, and after their fall, by reason of their violent motion, are carried a good distance one from another. Thus do the young men exercise themselves in counterfeit battles, that they may bear the bront more strongly when they come to it in good earnest."

BULL-BAITING IN ENGLAND).

"In Lincolnshire, where virtuous worth
Does raise the minstrelsy, not birth;
Where bulls do choose the boldest king

And ruler, o'er the men of string."-Hudibras.

The first bull-bait in this country was held at Stamford, in Lincolnshire, about the year 1209, and was introduced from the following circumstances:

"Earl Warrenare, lord of the town, standing upon the walls of the

* See Moorfields.

castle, observed two bulls fighting, until the butcher's dogs interposed and pursued one of them through the town, which sight so pleased his lordship, that he gave the meadow where the fray began, to the butchers of the town, to be used as a common after the first grass was mown, on condition that they should find a mad bull the day six weeks before Christmas-day, for the continuance of that sport for ever."

BEAR-BAITING.

"We read, in Nero's time, the Heathen,

When they destroy'd the Christian brethren,
They sew'd them in the skins of bears,
And then set dogs about their ears:

From whence, no doubt, th' invention came
Of this lewd Anti-Christian game.

This cruel and unmanly amusement is of African origin, and was introduced into Europe by the Romans,

"For authors do affirm it came

From Isthmian, or Nemean game.

Long, however, as it disgraced the continent, the Romans, to their credit, did not introduce it here; judging, it is presumed, that our ancestors were of themselves savage enough. The first we read of bear-baiting in England, was in the reign of king John, at Ashbyde-la-Zouch, where "thys straynge passtime was introduced by some Italyans for his highness's amusement, wherewith he and his court were highly delyghted."

CATS.

"E'en now I see, descending from his throne,
Thy venerable Cat, O, Whittington!"

Cats were brought into England from the island of Cyprus, by some foreign merchants, who came hither for tin. In the old Welsh laws, a kitten from its birth till it could see, was valued at a penny; when it began to mouse, two pence; and after it had killed mice, at four-pence, which was the price of a calf! Wild cats were kept by our ancient kings for hunting. The officers who had the charge of these cats, seem to have had appointments of equal consequence with the masters of the king's hounds; they were called catatores.

DOGS.

"Every dog has his day."

The bull-dog was originally from Italy; the greyhound and the beagle, as well as the fox-hound, are peculiar to Britain. This country was once famous for the export of dogs: they are thus described in a passage of Appian.

"There is a kind of dogs of mighty fame

For hunting, worthy of a fairer frame,

By painted Britons brave in war they're bred,
Are beagles call'd, and to the chase are led;
Their bodies small, and of so mean a shape,

You'd think them curs that under tables gape."

The blood-hound was once peculiar to this country, but now are seldom met with, save in the West India Islands, particularly St. Domingo and the island of St. Lucie.

HAWKING.

"Say, will the falcon, stooping from above,

Smit with her varying plumage, spare the dove ?-Pope. Hawking, according to Beckman, was known to the Greeks and Romans; its origin, in England, cannot be traced till the reign of king Ethelbert, the Saxon monarch, in the year 760, when he wrote to Germany for a brace of falcons. In the reign of James 1st, Sir James Monson is said to have given a thousand pounds for a cast of hawks. In the reign of Edward 3d, it was made felony to steal a hawk; to take its eggs, even in a person's own ground, was punishable with imprisonment for a year and a day, together with a fine at the king's pleasure. In former times, the custom of carrying a hawk on the hand, was confined to men of high distinction, so that it was a saying among the Welsh, ". you may know a gentleman by his hawk, horse, and greyhound." Even the ladies in those days, were partakers of this gallant sport, and have been represented in sculpture with hawks on their hands. See "Bewick's British Birds," vol. i. p. 26. It is recorded that a falcon belonging to a duke of Cleves, flew out of Westphalia into Prussia in one day; and in the county of Norfolk, a hawk has made a flight at a woodcock near thirty miles in an hour. Some of the larger kind have been taught to fly at the wild boar and the wolf.

*

With this view, they should be accustomed to feed, when young, from out of the sockets of the eyes of a wolf or boar's head, the whole skin of the animal being stuffed, so as to make it appear alive. While the bird is feeding, the falconer begins to move the figure gradually, in consequence of which, the bird learns to fasten itself so as to stand firm, notwithstanding the precipitate motions which are gradually given to the stuffed animal; he would lose his meat if he quitted his hold, and therefore he takes care to secure himself. When these first exercises are finished, the skin is placed on a cart, drawn by a horse at full speed; the bird follows it, and is particu larly eager in feeding; and then, when they come to fly him in the field, he never fails to dart on the first beast of the kind he discovers, and begins to scoop out the eyes. This puts the animal to such distress, that the hunters have time to approach and dispatch it with their spears.-See Rees's Cyclopædia.

This species of inhuman education, would be more honoured in the breach than the observance. The grand seignior usually keeps 6,000 falconers in his service. The French king had a grand falconer.

The duke of St. Albans is hereditary Grand Falconer of England. St. Albans seems to have been a favourite place for hawking. Shakspeare says,

"Ride unto St. Albans,

Where the king and queen do mean to hawk."

And at this place was printed, by Caxton, a Treatise on Hunting, Hawking, and Heraldry. Strutt, in his Sports and Pastimes, mentions an historical fact, related by Hall, who informs us, that Henry8th, pursuing his hawk on foot, at Hitchen, in Hertfordshire, attempted, with the assistance of his pole, to jump over a ditch that was half

*See Origin of St. Alban's family.

"It can be no more disgrace to a great lord_to draw a fair picture, than to cut his hawk's meat."-Peacham.