and there you are sure to see a great many persons of the first quality, and almost all the gentlemen of the neighbourhood. It is pretty common for them to lay wagers of two thousand pounds sterling upon one race. I have seen a horse, that after having run twenty miles in fifty-five minutes, upon ground less even than that where the races are run at Newmarket, and won the wager for his master, would have been able to run anew without taking breath, if he that had lost durst have ventured again. There are also races run by men."

In Hinde's Life of Master John Bruen, a Puritan of great celebrity, 1641, p. 104, the author recommends "unto many of our gentlemen, and to many of inferior rank, that they would make an exchange of their foot-races and horse-races," &c.

A proclamation was issued by the Protector Cromwell, 8th April, 1658, "prohibiting horse-races in England and Wales for eight moneths."

DIVERSION OF THE RING.

MISSON, in his Travels in England, p. 126, speaking of Hyde Park, "at the end of one of the suburbs of London," says: "Here the people of fashion take the diversion of the ring. In a pretty high place, which lies very open, they have surrounded a circumference of two or three hundred paces diameter, with a sorry kind of balustrade, or rather with poles placed upon stakes, but three foot from the ground; and the coaches drive round and round this. When they have turned for some time round one way, they face about and turn t'other so rowls the world."

RIDING AT THE RING.

IN the Statistical Account of Scotland, xx. 433, parish of Dunkeld, Perthshire, we have an account of the diversion with this name. "To prevent that intemperance," the writer says, "to which social meetings in such situations are sometimes prone, they spend the evening in some public competi

tion of dexterity or skill. Of these, riding at the ring (an amusement of ancient and warlike origin) is the chief. Two perpendicular posts are erected on this occasion, with a crossbeam, from which is suspended a small ring: the competitors are on horseback, each having a pointed rod in his hand, and he who, at full gallop, passing betwixt the posts, carries away the ring on the rod, gains the prize." This is undoubtedly a game of long standing. In the King of Denmarkes Welcome, 1606, the author, giving an account of the reception of Christian IV. in England that year, says: "On Monday, being the 4th day of August, it pleased our kings majestie himself in person, and the kings majestie of Denmarke likewise in person, and divers others of his estate, to runne at the ⚫ring in the tilt-yard at Greenwich, where the King of Denmarke approved to all judgements that majestie is never unaccompanied with vertue: for there, in the presence of all his beholders, he tooke the ring fower severall times, and would I thinke have done the like four score times, had he runne so many courses."

RUFFE.

THERE appears by the following passage to have been an ancient game called ruffe: "A swaggerer is one that plays at ruffe, from whence he tooke the denomination of a ruffyn," &c., from Characters at the end of the House of Correction, or certaine Satyrical Epigrams, by J. H., Gent. 1619. It was a game at cards. See further notices in Halliwell's Dictionary, p. 697.

SWIFT-FOOT-PASSAGE.

IN the Dedication to Michael Mumchance, we read: "making the divel to daunce in the bottome of your purses, and to turn your angels out of their houses like bad tenants." Ibid. "Novum, hassard, and swift-foot-passage," occur as games.

RUNNING THE FIGURE OF EIGHT.

THIS sport is still followed by boys, and is alluded to by Shakespeare in his Midsummer Night's Dream, in the line"And the quaint mazes in the wanton green."

SCOTCH AND ENGLISH.

HUTTON, in his History of the Roman Wall, 1804, p. 104, after an account of the incessant irruptions upon each other's lands between the inhabitants of the English and Scottish borders, in ancient times, and before the union of the two kingdoms, observes: "The lively impression, however, of former scenes did not wear out with the practice; for the children of this day, upon the English border, keep up the remembrance by a common play, called Scotch and English, or the Raid, i. e. inroad. The boys of the village choose two captains out of their body; each nominates, alternately, one out of the little tribe. They then divide into two parties, strip, and deposit their clothes, called wad (from weed), in two heaps, each upon their own ground, which is divided by a stone, as a boundary between the two kingdoms. Each then invades the other's territories; the English crying, 'Here's a leap into thy land, dry-bellied Scot.' He who can, plunders the other side. If one is caught in the enemie's jurisdiction, he becomes a prisoner, and cannot be released except by his own party. Thus one side will sometimes take all the men and property of the other." 1

This seems to be the same game with that described by Dr. Jamieson, in his Etymological Dictionary, under the name

Our author appears to be mistaken in his etymology when he derives wad from weed, a garment. Had he consulted Lye (Junii Etymologicon), he would have found "wad Scoti dicunt pro wedd pactum; and "wedd' rendered "pactum, sponsio; A.S. peo est pignus vel pactum, ac peculiari acceptione pactum sponsalitium, vel dos." Hence our word wedding for a marriage.

of Wadds. In the Glossary to Sibbald's Chronicle of Scottish Poetry, Wadds is defined, "A youthful amusement, wherein much use is made of pledges.' Wad, a pledge, says Dr. Jamieson, is the same with the vadium of medieval Latin.

SCOTCH-HOPPERS.

IN Poor Robin's Almanack for 1677, in his verses to the reader, on the back of the title-page, concerning the chief matters in his annual volume, among many other articles of intelligence, our star-gazer professes to show

"The time when school-boys should play at Scotch-hoppers."

[Another allusion occurs in the same periodical for 1707: Lawyers and Physitians have little to do this month, and therefore they may (if they will) play at Scotch-hoppers. Some men put their bands into peoples pockets open, and extract it clutch'd, of that beware. But counsel without a cure, is a body without a soul." And again, in 1740: "The fifth house tells ye whether whores be sound or not; when it is good to eat tripes, bloat herrings, fry'd frogs, rotten eggs, and monkey's tails butter'd, or an ox liver well stuck with fish hooks; when it is the most convenient time for an old man to play at Scotch-hoppers amongst the boys. In it also is found plainly, that the best armour of proof against the fleas, is to go drunk to bed."]

SEE-SAW.

GAY thus describes this well-known sport:

"Across the fallen oak the plank I laid,

And myself pois'd against the tott'ring maid;
High leap'd the plank, adown Buxoma fell," &c.

SHOOTING THE BLACK LAD.

THEY have a custom at Ashton-under-Line, on the 16th of April, of shooting the black lad on horseback. It is said to nave arisen from there having been formerly a black knight who resided in these parts, holding the people in vassalage, and using them with great severity.

SHOVE-GROAT.

Slide-thrift, or shove-groat, is one of the games prohibited by statute, 33 Henry VIII. It has been already noticed from Rowland's Satyres, under "Drawing Dun out of the Mire."

A shove-groat shilling is mentioned in Shakespeare's Second Part of King Henry the Fourth, and is supposed by Steevens to have been a piece of polished metal made use of in the play of shovel-board. Douce, however, has shown that shove-groat and shovel-board were different games. The former was invented in the reign of Henry the Eighth, for in the statute above alluded to it is called a new game. It was also known by the several appellations of slide-groat, slideboard, slide-thrift, and slip-thrift. See the Illustr. of Shakesp. i. 454.

In 1527, when the warrant arrived at the Tower for the execution of the Earl of Kildare, he was playing with the lieutenant at shovel-groat. When the lieutenant read it and sighed, "By St. Bryde, lieutenant (quoth he), there is some mad game in that scrole: but fall out how it will, this throw is for a huddle." Stow's Annals, edit. 1592, p. 894.

SHUFFLE-BOARD

Or SHOVEL-BOARD, is still or was very lately played. Douce, a few years ago, heard a man ask another to go into an alehouse in the Broad Sanctuary, Westminster, to play at it. In