ie bones to their feet and under their heels, and, shoving
themselves by a little picked staff, do slide as swiftly as a bird
flieth in the air, or as an arrow out of a crossbow. Sometimes two run
together with poles, and, hitting one another, either one or both do
fall, not without hurt; some break their arms, some their legs; but
youth desirous of glory in this sort exerciseth itself against the time
of war." Lord Roberts and other patriots would like to see the youth of
the present day, not breaking their arms and legs, but exercising
themselves against the time of war. The citizens used also to delight
themselves in hawks and hounds, for they had liberty of hunting in
Middlesex, Hertfordshire, all Chiltron, and in Kent to the water of
Cray. The game of quintain, which I need not describe, was much in
vogue. Stow saw a quintain at Cornhill, where men made merry disport,
and the maidens used to dance for garlands hung athwart the streets.
Time would fail to tell of the May-day junketings, of the setting up of
the May-pole in Cornhill before the church of St. Andrew, hence called
Undershaft; of the Mayings at early dawn, the bringing in of the may,
the archers, morris dancers and players, Robin Hood and Maid Marian, the
horse races at Smithfield, so graphically described by Fitzstephen, and
much else that tells of the joyous life of the people.

Life was not to them all joy. There was much actual misery. The dark,
narrow, unsavoury, insanitary streets bred dire fevers and plagues.
Thousands died from this dread malady. The homes of the artizans and
craftsmen were not remarkable for comfort. They were bound down by
strict regulations as regards their work. No one could dwell where he
pleased, but only nigh the craftsmen of his particular trade. But, on
the whole, the lot of the men of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries
was by no means an unhappy one. They were very quick, easily aroused,
turbulent, savage in their punishments, brutal perhaps in their sport;
but they had many sterling qualities which helped to raise England to
attain to her high rank among the nations of the world, and they left
behind them sturdy sons and daughters who made London great and their
country honoured.

THE TEMPLE

BY THE REV. HENRY GEORGE WOODS, D.D.

_Master of the Temple_

"On the 10th of February in the year from the Incarnation of our Lord
1185, this Church was consecrated in honour of the Blessed Mary by the
Lord Hera