Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 4.djvu/246

 ILLUSTRATIONS OF MEDIEVAL MANNERS AND COSTUME FROM ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS. JOUSTS OF PEACE, TOURNAMENTS, AND JUDICIAL COMBATS. •• HOW A MAN SCHALLE BE ARMYD AT HIS ESE WHEN HE SCHAL FIGHTE ON FOOTE." The chivalrous diversions of our forefathers, devised with admirable effect to sustain the ardour of military enterprise dm'ing the times of peace, appear to have been controlled by detailed and precise regulations. In an age when every man of gentle descent was liable on the first occasion to be called into active service in the field, it was most desu'able that the sports of youth, and the brilliant passages of arms which formed the greatest delight of riper years, should be ren- dered subservient to the maintenance not less of the disci- pline, than of the practice, of actual warfare.