Danish ambassador at Greenwich, who was treated with the sight of a bear and bull baiting, "tempered," says Holinshed, "with other merry disports ;" and, for the diversion of the populace, there was a horse with an ape upon his back; which highly pleased them, so that they expressed their inward conceived joy and delight with shrill shouts and variety of gestures.

*

It is probable that bear-baiting claimed no royal patronage after the demise of Elizabeth. James had no propensity to such rough sports; the taste of the higher classes gradually improved; and the beauties of Shakespeare` and Ben Jonson triumphed, at length, over the abominations of the bear-garden. We find one allusion, indeed, in the literature of the close of the seventeenth century, to the once important character of bear-ward, or keeper royal of the king's bears; in an epilogue of Dryden's, written in 1682, in which, complaining of the noise made by the servants in the play-house, he favours us with

* Strutt's Sports and Pastimes, p. 228.

the name of, possibly, the last of these celebrated public officers:

"They roar so loud, you'd think behind the stairs Tom Dove, and all the brotherhood of bears."

We find, from Stowe, that there were two bear-gardens on the spot called Paris Gardens, in Southwark, the old and the new: "places," says he," wherein were kept bears, bulls, and other beasts, to be baited; as, also, mastiffs, in their several kennels, to bait them. bears and other beasts," he adds, "are there baited, in plots of ground scaffolded round, for the beholders to stand safe.

These

"For the foulness of these rude sights," he continues, "and for that these beastly combats were usually performed on Sundays, and that so much money was idly thrown away,, that might have been better given to the poor, a poet, in the latter time of Henry VIII. made and printed these homely verses, more, commendable for his zeal than his poetry.

"What folly is this to keep with danger

A great mastiff dog, and a foul ugly bear?
And for this one end, to see them two fight
With terrible tearings; a full ugly sight.

And yet methinks those men be most fools of all,
Whose store of money is but very small;

And yet every Sunday they will surely spend

One penny or two, the bear-ward's living to mend.
At Paris Garden, each Sunday a man shall not fail
To find two or three hundred for the bear-ward's vale.
One halfpenny a piece they use for to give,
When some have not more in their purses, I believe.
Well, at the last day their conscience will declare,
That the poor ought to have all that they may spare.
If you therefore it give to see a bear-fight,'

Be sure God his curse upon you will light."*

An Act of Parliament, passed in the reign of Charles II., converted Paris Garden into the parish of Christchurch.

HOCH-TUESDAY, HOKE-DAY, or HOKETIDE.-The origin of this once popular game or play, which the author of Kenilworth describes as being represented to the queen by the men of Coventry, is involved in considerable obscurity. By some writers it is supposed to be commemorative of the massacre of the Danes, in the reign of Ethelred, on the 13th of November, 1002; whilst by others, the deliverance of the English from the tyranny of the Danes, by the death of Stowe, book iv. p. 6.

The

Hardicanute, on Tuesday the 8th of June, 1042, iş pointed out as its origin. weight of argument preponderates in favour of the national deliverance by Hardicanute's death; and it must not be forgotten, that the festival was celebrated on a Tuesday, and that Hoke-Tuesday was the Tuesday in the second week after Easter. Spelman derives the term from the German Hocken, in reference to the act of binding, which was formerly prac tised by the women upon the men, on Hoke Tuesday; an opinion which Mr. Denne has well supported.-Archæolog. vol. vii. page 244. A payment, called Hock-Tuesday money, was anciently made, by the tenant to the landlord, for the permission given by the latter to the former, to celebrate the festivities of this memorable day.—Jac. Law Dict. in verb.

Whatever the etymology of its name, or the origin of the game itself, might be, its subject was the massacre of the Danes, expressed in actions and rhymes, and acted annually in the town of Coventry, till its suppression, shortly after the Reformation.

It consisted of fierce sham contests between the English and Danish forces; first, by the "launce knights" on horseback, armed with spears and shields, who being many of them dismounted, then fought with swords and targets. Afterwards succeeded two "hosts of footmen," one after the other; first marching in ranks; then facing about in military array, they changing their form from ranks into squadrons, then into triangles, then into rings, and then "winding out again, they joined in battle. Twice the Danes had the better; but at the last conflict they were beaten down, overcome, and many of them led captive for triumph by our English women."

BRYDEALE.-In Laneham's account of the festivities of Kenilworth Castle, for the "disport" of her Majesty, is a ludicrous narrative of a rustic marriage or bryde-ale, celebrated before her; and which makes part of our author's description. The History of Jack of Newbury affords the following mention of this procession.

*Strutt's Sports and Pastimes, &c. p. 148.