ial places for the holding of tournaments, namely
between Sarum and Wilton, between Stamford and Wallingford, between
Warwick and Kenilworth, between Brakely and Mixeberg, and between Blie
and Tykehill. There was much pomp and ceremony attached to these
knightly exercises. The lists, as the barriers were called which
inclosed the scene of combat, were superbly decorated, and surrounded by
pavilions belonging to the champions, ornamented with their arms and
banners. The seats reserved for the noble ladies and gentlemen who came
to see the fight were hung with tapestry embroidered with gold and
silver. Everyone was dressed in the most sumptuous manner; the minstrels
and heralds were clothed in the costliest garments; the knights who were
engaged in the sports and their horses were most gorgeously arrayed. The
whole scene was one of great splendour and magnificence, and, when the
fight began, the shouts of the heralds who directed the tournament, the
clashing of arms, the clang of trumpets, the charging of the combatants,
and the shouts of the spectators, must have produced a wonderfully
impressive and exciting effect upon all who witnessed the strange
spectacle.

The regulations and laws of the tournament were very minute. When many
preliminary arrangements had been made with regard to the examination of
arms and helmets and the exhibition of banners, etc., at ten o'clock on
the morning of the appointed day, the champions and their adherents were
required to be in their places. Two cords divided the combatants, who
were armed with a pointless sword and a truncheon hanging from their
saddles. When the word was given by the lord of the tournament, the
cords were removed, and the champions charged and fought until the
heralds sounded the signal to retire. It was considered the greatest
disgrace to be unhorsed. A French earl once tried to unhorse our King
Edward I., when he was returning from Palestine, wearied by the journey.
The earl threw away his sword, cast his arms around the king's neck, and
tried to pull him from his horse. But Edward put spurs to his horse and
drew the earl from the saddle, and then shaking him violently, threw him
to the ground.

The joust (or just) differed from the tournament, because in the former
only lances were used, and only two knights could fight at once. It was
not considered quite so important as the grand feat of arms which I have
just described, but was often practised when the more se