Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/510

 490 Hijiory of Domejiic Manners than among children, but they are not uncommon. If the driver of a hackney-coach has a difpute about his fare, with a gentleman whom he has carried, and the gentleman otfers to fettle the difpute by fighting, the coachman agrees to it willingly. The gentleman takes off his fword, difpofes of it in fome (hop with his walking-flick, his gloves, and his cravat, and fights in the manner I have defcribed. If the coachman is well beaten, which is almofi always the cafe, he is confidered as paid 3 but if he beats, he who is beaten mull pay the fum that was in queftion, and that which caufed the quarrel. I once law the late duke of Grafton fighting in the open fiireet in the middle of the Strand with a coachman, whom he thrafiied in a terrible manner. In France, we treat fuch kind of people with blows of a ftick or, fometimes, of the flat of the fword ; but in England that is never done ; they never ufe a fword or ftick againft thofe who are not fimilarly armed ; and if any unlucky foreigner (for it would never come into the mind of an Englilhman) lliould flrike with the fword any one who had not got one, it is certain that In an inftant a hundred perfons would fall upon him, and perhaps beat him fo that he would never recover. Wreftling is alio one of the diverfions of the Englilli, efpecially in the northern provinces. Ringing the bells is one of their great pleafures, efpecially in the country 5 there is a way of doing it, but their peal is quite different from thofe of Holland and the Low Countries. In winter football is a ufeful and charming exercife ; it is a ball of leather, as large as a man's head, and filled with wind j it is toffed with the feet in the fireets. To expofe a cock in a place, and kill it at a diftance of forty or fifty paces with a flick, is alfo a very diverting thing J but this pleafure only belongs to a certain feafon. This alfo is the cafe with the dances of the milkwomen, with the throwing at one another of tennis-balls by girls, and with divers other little exercifes." Such was the rude character of the amufement of all clafTes of our population during the feventeenth century. The ladies ftill had their hcufehold pets, though they varied fome- times in their character, which perhaps arofe in fbme meafure from the circumftance that the difcovery of or increafed communication with dirtant countries, brought the knowledge of animals and birds which were not