Makes them salute so rudely breast to breast,
That their encounter seems too rough for jest.”
A game of similar character to “the ball at Scone” appears also to have been played yearly at Kingston-on-Thames on Shrove Tuesday, which, as we shall see later, continued an annual fixture until far into the present century.
Sunday was a great day for all sports and pastimes throughout the Tudor times; and it was long indeed before the Puritan reaction caused them to be entirely stopped on that day. There is an amusing extract from Thomas Cartwright’s Admonition to Parliament, which gives some material for the formation of an idea of the manner in which our forefathers spent the Sunday. It should be mentioned that the learned writer originally wrote with the object of showing that an established form of prayer was unsuitable for church service. “Among his arguments,” says the easily-satisfied historian, “is the following:—‘He,’ meaning the minister, ‘posteth it over as fast as he can galloppe; for eyther he hath two places to serve, or else there are some games to be playde in the afternoon, as lying for the whetstone, heathenishe dauncing for the ring, a beare or a bulle to be baited, or else a jackanapes to ride on horsebacke, or an interlude to be playde. And, if no place else can be gotten, this interlude must be plaide in the church.’” And, in order that a clear idea of the details of Sunday life may be obtained, the antiquary adds an extract from “The Pope’s Kingdom” (1570), translated from the Latin of T. Neorgeorgus by Barnaby Googe:—
“Now when the dinner our is done, and that they well have fed,
To play they go; to casting of the stone, to runne or shoote;
To tosse the light and windy ball aloft with hand or foote;
Some others trie their skille in gonnes; some wrastel all the day;
And some to schooles of fence do goe, to gaze upon the play;
Another sort there is that does not love abroad to roame,