and stage.

by farces more efficacious and popular than their former sermons. The reformers retaliated by converting the mysteries of the church into a satirical representation of the corruptions of popery, and repeated ordinances were afterwards necessary, to suppress these ludicrous polemics of the church In churches the performers were chiefly the choristers; at court they were probably minstrels, of whom a company followed Queen Margaret from England, and exhibited several plays or mysteries in the Scottish court. The minstrels, who disappeared under Henry VIII. were probably converted by the prevalence of theatrical amusements, into itinerant players, in the succeeding reign, an established and apparently a numerous profession. A more ignoble, perhaps a more popular spectacle, consisted of Bears; of which,' says Erasmus, many herds are maintained in Britain for the purpose of dancing. Bear-baiting was a favourite diversion, exhibited as a suitable amusement for a princess,

Winter Domestic Amusements, &c.

The winter solstice, when the Sun regains its northern direction, was celebrated by our remote and idolatrous ancestors; and Christianity, unable to suppress the festival, transferred it under the same name to a different day. At Christmas, or the feast of Yule, peculiar dishes have been always employed, and every domestic diversion adopted that tends to cheer or to dissipate the gloom of winter, To reVOL. I,

N

gulate, or rather to promote such pastimes, a Lord or abbot of misrule was also created; but of these amusements, perhaps the most rational was the recital of old and romantic tales. The domestic amusements, in a period subsequent to the present, are thus enumerated: "The ordinary recreations which we have in winter, are cards, tables, and dice, shovel board, chesse play, the philosopher's › game, small trunkes, balliards, musicke, maskes, singing, dancing, all games, catches, purposés, questions, merry tales of errant knights, kings, queens, lovers, lords, ladies, giants, dwarfs, thieves, fayries, goblins, friars, witches, and the rest. Among these amusements cards began to predominate, to beprohibited by parliament, and licensed by the king. Gaming became more inordinate and ruinous; but let not cards be therefore depreciated, a happy invention, which, adapted equally to every capacity, removes the invidious! distinctions of nature, bestows on the fools the preeminence of genius, or reduces wit and wisdom to the level of folly.

ACCOUNT OF THE SEVERAL PUBLIC RECORDS, ¡ &c., discovered in the recORD OFFICE AT THE TOWER, SINCE THE BEGINNING OF THE YEAR 1804,

BY THE RECORD COMMISSION.

LETTERS missive from kings to lord-chancellors, and from the different sovereigns of Europe to the

Kings of England, from the beginning of the reign of Henry III., to the end of the reign of Richard III., were lately found in the Tower of London, some of them under the arch at the N.W. corner of the White Tower, and some in the North Gallery of the Chapel. Above 500 of these, during the reigns of King Richard II, Henry IV., Henry V., Henry VI., Edward IV., and Richard III., which are written on paper, have been cleaned, arranged, and made smooth, and about half of them inlaid in strong drawing paper, and bound.

A great number of letters were also found from the heads of different religious houses, and other ecclesiastics to the king; and about a hundred have been found addressed by the nobility and ecclesiastics, particularly Pandulf, the legate, to Hubert de Burgh, the chief justice in the beginning of the reign of Henry III., the greater part of which have been smoothed and arranged. The letters of the Kings of England, and those addressed to them by their subjects, already arranged, amount to eight large folio volumes.

A great number of those from the Kings of France, the kings of Spain, and the Kings of the Romans, and from the Dukes of Norway, the Earls of Holland, and Earls of Flanders, have been cleaned, smoothed, and assorted in portfolios.

There are also several instruments, containing instructions to ambassadors, memorandums of · treatises, &c,

A great mass of state papers, also discovered in a closet in the Wakefield Tower, tied up in bundles, have been placed in a large box, in the closet of that tower, for the purpose of being examined and arranged at the first convenient opportunity: from a cursory examination of them, it appears, that several of these instruments, printed in Rymer, without any intimation of the repository where the originals were preserved, are in this collection*.

ABSTRACT OF LETTERS MISSIVE.
TEMP. HENRY III†.

From William de Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, to Hubert de Burgh, Chief Justice.—[This and the two following letters have no date; it should be observed, that the year of our Lord, or of the king's reign, is very rarely mentioned in the Letters Missive.]

His kinsman, John Marshal, having signified to him that he had sent letters of the king to Fawkes [Falcasius, de Brealte, for him to have peaceable possession of his wood at Norton, &c. . within the bailiwick of the said Falcasius, To which Falcasius answered, That if he sent him 30 pair of letters of the king, he should not enjoy his wood, &c. peaceably; and used outrageous language, and imprisoned his bailiff, &c. He entreats the Chief Justice to restrain his excesses.

Many of them are greatly injured by the improper use of the infusion of galls.

↑ All the letters in this reign are written in Latin.

From William Longespée, Earl of Sarum, to the

same.

To the same effect as the preceding, and nearly in the same terms.

From Llewellin, Prince of North Wales, to the King.

The prince acknowledges the receipt of the king's command, that he should not receive, or afford any assistance to, Falcasius de Breaute, who had seized Henry de Braybroc, one of the king's justices, and imprisoned him in Bedford Castle; to which he answers, that Falcasius came to him grievously complaining of the wrongs which had been done him by the king's council on this occasion, he being ignorant of the seizure of the said Henry, and having offered that his brother William should be answerable for it; and that he departed the same day that he came.. Nevertheless, the prince conceives that he should have been justified if he had received him; for he does not enjoy less liberty in that behalf than the king of Scotland, who receives outlaws from England with impunity: that he never had heard of any injury Falcasius had done towards the king or his father, but on the contrary, that he had served both faithfully; and concludes with heavy complaints of the injuries done to himself, which he has no expectation that the king's council will redress; and prays that on these, and other matters, God will give his majesty and himself wholesome counsel, of which they both stand in great need.