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RIDING AT THE RING.

IN the "Statistical Account of Scotland," vol. xx. p. 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 competition 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 cross-beam, 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," 4to. Lond. 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."

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GAY describes the well-known sport of See-saw thus:
"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.

MR. DOUCE'S MS. Notes say, 66 They have a custom at Ashton-under-Line, on the 16th of April, of shooting the Black Lad on horseback. It is said to have 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 Shakspeare'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. Reed's edit. of Shaksp. 1803, vol. xii. p. 96. (1)

See

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." (a)

(a) Stow's "Annals," edit. 1592, p. 894.

NOTE TO SHOVE-GROAT.

(1) Mr. 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, Slide-board, Slide-thrift, and Slipthrift. See the Illustr. of Shaksp. and of Anc. Manners, vol. i. p. 454.

SHUFFLE-BOARD,

OR Shovel-board, is still or was very lately played. Mr. Douce, a few years ago, heard a man ask another to go into an alehouse in the Broad Sanctuary, Westminster, to play at it. See Reed's Shaksp., vol. v. p. 23.

In honest Izaak Walton's time, a shovelboard was probably to be found in every public-house.

That shovel-board, in the time of Charles I.,

was even a royal game, may be ascertained from the inventory of goods taken at Ludlow Castle belonging to that monarch, Oct. 31, 1650. We have not only "the shovellboard roome;" but "One large shovell-board table, seven little joyned formes, one side table, and a court cup-board," were sold to Mr. Bass for the sum of 21. 10s.(1)

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TAPPIE-TOUSIE.

Of this sport among children Dr. Jamieson gives the following account: "One, taking hold of another by the forelock of his hair, says to him, Tappie, tappie, tousie, will ye be my man?' If the other answers in the affirmative, the first says, 'Come to me, then, come to me, then,' giving him a smart pull towards him by the lock which he holds in his hand. If the one who is asked answers in the negative, the other gives him a push backwards, saying, 'Gae fra me, then, gae fra me, then.'

"The literal meaning of the terms is ohvious. The person asked is called tappietousie, q. dishevelled head, from tap, and tousie, q. v. It may be observed, however, that the Suio-Gothic tap signifies a lock or tuft of hair. Haertapp, floccus capillorum; Ihre, p. 857.

"But the thing that principally deserves our attention is the meaning of this play. Like some other childish sports, it evidently retains a singular vestige of very ancient manners. It indeed represents the mode in which one received another as his bondman.

"The thride kind of nativitie, or bondage, is quhen ane frie man, to the end he may have the menteinance of ane great and potent man, randers himself to be his bond-man in his court, be the haire of his forehead; and gif he thereafter withdrawes himselfe, and flees

away fra his maister, or denyes to him his nativitie: his maister may prove him to be his bondman, be ane assise, before the justice; challengand him, that he, sic ane day, sic ane yeare, compeirid in his court, and there yeilded himselfe to him to be his slave and bond-man. And quhen any man is adjudged and decerned to be a native or bondman to any maister; the maister may take him be the nose, and reduce him to his former slaverie." Quon. Attach. c. lvi. s. 7.

"This form of rendering one's self by the hair of the head seems to have had a monkish origin. The heathenish rite of consecrating the hair, or shaving the head, was early adopted among Christians, either as an act of pretended devotion, or when a person dedicated himself to some particular saint, or entered into any religious order. Hence it seems to have been adopted as a civil token of servitude. Thus those who entered into the monastic life were said capillos ponere, and per capillos se tradere. In the fifth century Clovis committed himself to St. Germer by the hair of his head: Vit. S. Germer. ap. Carpentier, vo. Capilli. Those who thus devoted themselves were called the servants of God, or of any particular saint.

"This then being used as a symbol of servitude, we perceive the reason why it came to be viewed as so great an indignity to be

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