SUNDAY SPORTS THREE HUNDRED YEARS AGO.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 22, Issue 92, 28 November 1911, Page 3

SUNDAY SPORTS THREE HUNDRED YEARS AGO.

Although sports were allowed bj James I. on Sunday after divine service in 1617, such as bowls, qnoits, ninepmsi archery, shuffle-board, &c., they seem to have been indulged in a.t the time of the Puritans; but among tae amusements disliked by sober-minded people were bull and bear baitibg, and these cruel sports were often scenes of riot and vio■ent disorder. In 1590 two of the Horners forcibly took a bear from the bear-keeper at Taunton on a Saturday at midnight, and ; ‘did, by the space of thiee homes, with dogges and other devices, ami whipps and wheelbarrows, bayt the said beare, and did not tye the said beare, but in this manner bayted him lose.” (“ Star Chamber Proceedings,” by the Rev. FBrown, in “The Somerset Archaeological Society’s Piuceedings.”) Bulls were actually baited within the precincts of Wells Cathedral on Sunday, and the sport was enforced by law, for it was considered that it made the tlesh more wholesome. Accordingly we find that in 1.611 a butcher of Wells was summoned before the city magistrates f having slaughtered a bull not first bayted,” and punished accordingly. While James 1., by the Act mentioned, in 1617 prohibited bull and bear baiting on Sundays, he insisted that the people' should carry on their sports after morning prayer, and this in the very year that episcopacy was established in Scotland by his order.

But the question of Sunday sports ;ame to a crisis in the diocese of Bath and Wells on the attempt to put down ‘* wakes ” and “ ales.” The wakes were parish feasts originally held on the dedication day of the church. They *had, however, come to be held on Sundays; and church “ales,” forbidden by the commissioners of Edward VI. in 1551, had been revived. Bishop Piers in 1632 strongly upheld them. “By church ales,” he writes, “ many poor parishes have cast their bells, repaired their towers, beautified their churches, and raised slock for the poor.” There were also “ clerk ales,” for paying the parish clerk, held on Sundays ; but “bid ales,’ for setting up poor men were laid aside.

These wakes and ales were often scenes of debauchery and violence. The report of an “ale” held in 1592 is curious. Langhara and Horner, having a quarrel with Sydenham, ranger of Exmoor, about a prosecution for deerstalking, determined to hold a Sunday “ale” and sports at Kilgate, where Sydenham was churchwarden, in order to raise money to prosecute suits against him. in spite of Sydenham’s resistance, they stored the ale in the church house, and sent round to sixteen parishes,, bidding the clergy give notice of the “ ale ’• in their churches during the service, and this was accordingly done. On the day of the “ ale,” a large party was expected from Taunton, and a man was set on the church tower to watch for their coming. As soon as he saw them he ran into the church where Mr. Langham, the curate, was in the middle of the service, crying —“ They are come—they are come, Mr. Langham ! Ring out the bells !” On this the service was stopped, and all the congregation went out to meet the visitors.

They were forbidden again in 1632 by Lord Chief Justice Richardson, and described as the “deboysest and worst ’’ desecration of the Sabbath, but Bishop Piers appealed to Archbishop Laud, saying that “ if the people could not have their sports and recreations upon Sundays after evening prayers, they would gather into tippling houses, and there at their ale benches do things worse." Upon this the king (Charles I.) ordered his father’s “ Declaration of Sunday Sports ”to be read in the churches, and Piers censured the Lector-of Beercrombe for preaching twice on the revel day, “as i hindrance to the revel, and an utterance to the church-ale provided-.” Nevertheless, the vicar of Montacute vts bold enough, on the day of Montacute Wake in 1635, to preach from Joel ii. on a text which the oishop is said to have described as ; scandalous to the revels,” and the clergy by their counsel answered Laud ;hac on the “ Sundays on which sports vere held there were better congregaions, and larger communions, and that hey tended to the settlement of quanels, rnd the relief of the poor.” — Scraps.