Because the small feathers next the bird fall over each other like the tiles of a roof, and thus throw off the water.
FESTIVALS, GAMES, AND AMUSEMENTS.
BY HORATIO SMITH, ESQ.
(National Library—Vol. v.)
The readers of The Mirror will doubtless expect in its pages some notice of the present work; although it belongs to a Series, which as yet possesses but few attractions for our attention. The title of the volume before us, and the name of its author, however, led us to expect better things; and sorry are we to have little but disappointment to report to the reader.
Mr. Smith sets out by telling us, in his Preface, that he has only been able to produce a mediocre book, and at once shows that his task has been by no means a grateful one. He talks of compilation and selection as if they were the very drudgery of literature, although in the present instance he has executed both so indifferently. He speaks of condensing into "one little volume," whereas the plan adopted by him has but little of the labour of condensation, his book being little but slice upon slice, like preserved fruit, instead of being thoroughly mixed and reduced like jelly. With Strutt's Sports and Pastimes, and Ellis's Edition of Brand's Popular Antiquities before him, he might have produced a volume of exhaustless interest and value, set with hundreds of foot-note references, which he has made but few and far between. Nay, with the example of Brand before him (for we see that he is occasionally quoted), it is difficult to conceive how Mr. Smith could overlook so important a point as the distinct acknowledgment of his authorities.
A slight analysis of Mr. Smith's volume will show the reader that our animadversions are not uncalled for.—Thus, upwards of one hundred pages are devoted to the Festival Games and Amusements of the Jews, Greeks, and Romans, meanly as Mr. Smith talks of "learned lore and antiquarian pedantry." Then follow twenty-two pages on, not of, Modern Festivals, &c.: from thence we quote two pages on the amusements of Londoners:—
"In addition to peculiar and extensive privileges of hunting, hawking, and fishing, the Londoners had large portions of ground allotted to them in the vicinity of the city, for such pastimes as were best calculated to render them strong and healthy. The city damsels had also their recreation on the celebration of these festivals, dancing to the accompaniment of music, and continuing their sports by moonlight. Stow tells us that in his time it was customary for the maidens, after evening prayers, to dance and sing in the presence of their masters and mistresses, the best performer being rewarded with a garland. Who can peruse the recapitulation of London sports and amusements, even so late as the beginning of the last century, without being struck by the contrast it presents in its present state, when, as a French traveller observes, it is no longer a city, but a province covered with houses? In the whole world, probably, there is no large town so utterly unprovided with means of healthful recreation for the mass of the citizens. Every vacant and green spot has been converted into a street; field after field has been absorbed by the builder; all the scenes of popular resort have been smothered with piles of brick; football and cricket-grounds, bowling-greens, and the enclosures of open places, set apart for archery and other pastimes, have been successively parcelled out in squares, lanes, or alleys; the increasing value of land, and extent of the city, render it impossible to find substitutes; and the humbler classes who may wish to obtain the sight of a field, or inhale a mouthful of fresh air, can scarcely be gratified, unless, at some expense of time and money, they make a journey for the purpose. Even our parks, not unaptly termed the lungs of the metropolis, have been partially invaded by the omnivorous builder; nor are those portions of them which are still open available to the commonalty for purposes of pastime and sport. Under such circumstances who can wonder that they should lounge away their unemployed time in the skittle-grounds of ale-houses and gin-shops? or that their immorality should have increased with the enlargement of the town, and the compulsory discontinuance of their former healthful and harmless pastimes? It would be wise to revive, rather than seek any further to suppress them: wiser still would it be, with reference both to the bodily and moral health of the people, if, in all new inclosures for building, provision were legally made for the unrestricted enjoyment of their games and diversions, by leaving large open spaces to be appropriated to that purpose.
"Upon a general review of our present prevailing amusements, it will be found, that if many have been dropped, at least in the metropolis, which it might have been desirable to retain, several also have been abandoned, of which we cannot by any means regret the loss; while those that remain to us, participating in the advancement of civilization, have in some instances become much more intellectual in their character, and in others have assumed more elegant, humane, and unobjectionable forms. Bull and bear-baiting, cock-throwing and fighting, and such like barbarous pastimes, have long been on the wane, and will, it is to be hoped, soon become totally extinct. That females of rank and education should now frequent such savage scenes, seems so little within the scope of possibility that we can hardly credit their ever having done so, even in times that were comparatively barbarous."