by the use of billiards, was the pastime and chief ornament of every old hall, and doubtless of that at Skipton castle. As it consisted in pushing or shoving pieces of smooth money along a very polished surface to certain fixed marks, the currency of the day so employed was often distinguished by an epithet corresponding with this occasional application of it; thus, in the reign of Henry the Eighth, the era of the invention of shovel-board, the silver groats of that monarch were called shovegroats; and when the smooth broad shillings, of Edward the Sixth came into being, they, from a like cause, were denominated shovel-board shillings. That this board was sometimes a piece of furniture of magnificent dimensions, and worthy of the most splendid baronial hall, is evident from what Dr. Plot has told us of that at Chartley in Staffordshire, which was more than thirty feet in length, and consisted of two hundred and sixty pieces *.

Whether the ladies at Skipton castle ever partook of this diversion cannot now be ascertained;

* Natural History of Staffordshire, p. 383. For a copious and minute description of this board, and the mode of playing at it, see my "Shakspeare and his Times," vol. i. pp. 306, 307, 308.

but as they had a somewhat similar amusement of their own, though under a different name, it is probable they did not. This was called trol-my-dames or pigeon-holes, two of the boards for which are mentioned, in the Skipton inventory of 1643, as being in lady Frances' closet.

This game, which consisted in rolling small ivory balls through arches resembling pigeon holes, and placed at one end of the machine, has been thus recommended by a physician of some celebrity in his day, as a proper in-door diversion for his female patients: "The ladyes, gentle woomen, wyves, maydes, if the weather be not agreeable," says the doctor, "may have in the ende of a benche, eleven holes made, intoo the which to troule pummits, either wyolent or softe, after their own discretion: the pastyme troule in madame is termed *."

It appears from the Winter's Tale of Shakspeare, that, in his day, the boards for this game were carried round the country for sale; for Autolycus, in answer to the query of the clown as to who had robbed him, replies, "A fellow, sir, that I have

* Dr. Jones on Buckstone Bathes, as cited by Farmer. Vide Reed's Shakspeare, vòl. ix. p. 326.

known to go about with trol-my-dames." Act iv. Sc. 2.

The time, however, which these domestic amusements consumed at Skipton was trifling, when compared with that which was given to the out-door diversions, or sports of the field. That the pleasures of hunting formed a great part of the serious occupation of the Cliffords of Craven there can be no doubt. They seem, indeed, to have pursued this diversion with more than common enthusiasm, to have been extremely jealous of their rights and privileges concerning it, and to have carried it on with a preparation, state, and train of attendants truly imposing. "Their vast domains," remarks sir Egerton Brydges, speaking of this family, "and all the wild splendour of the feudal habits, which they exhibited, fill the imagination with the sentiments and the figures of a rich romance. them still pursuing their manly sports over the picturesque and magnificent solitudes of Craven; I see them afterwards presiding with courteous state at the hall of hospitality, unweakened by effeminate luxuries, and unsophisticated by the rivalry or artifices of commerce and manufactures *."

* Censura Literaria, vol vi. p. 395.

I see

It is scarcely possible, indeed, after such a description, to look upon these great huntings in Arc and Wharfdale, upon the immense parks and forests through which they ranged, and which have since disappeared, without experiencing some slight feelings of sorrow that they no longer exist.

Of the vast extent of Craven, which was then tenanted by the deer of the lords of Skipton, some estimate may be formed from the number of keeperships belonging to the family, and which amounted, in 1609, to thirteen; namely, to those of Birks, Grossington, Old Parke, The Hawe, Threshfield, where mention is made of a buck famous in its day, called "the Great Buck of Threshfield," Brodshawe, Craco-Fell, Thorpe-Fell, Carlton Park, Barden, Longstrother, Littondale, and Skipton.

As to the apparatus required for this manly diversion, it is worthy of remark, that of the stud belonging to the second earl, and which consisted of about fifty horses, geldings, and mares, a few are designated, in the inventory of 1572, by the names of individuals of the family, or by those of its friends, such as Grey Clifford, White Dacre, Sorell Tempest, Bay Middleton, &c.; a custom, observes Whitaker, much more noble than the contemptible

and nonsensical manner of denominating race horses at present. It brings to the recollection "saddle White Surrey for the field to-morrow *.”

We have also, in the same inventory, a very curious enumeration of what extra-equipage was then thought necessary for a long and distant chase in Craven. Thus, after a list of some items of horse furniture, and of various riding hats, with a morion covered with crimson velvet, and intended as a light skull-cap for the defence of the head in hunting, follows the mention of one trussing bedd for the field, in two trounks of rede cloth, with my lord's armes on, frynged with rede silke, and lyned with rede sarcynet; one bedd of downe, and a bolster thereto belongynge, and one matteress; articles which being placed under the head of my lord's apparel, and not classed with the munition of the castle, were evidently meant for the accommodation of hunting parties, and which, it has been justly remarked, might be used in an ordinary house where it might be necessary to spend the night, and where every convenience might be wanting. After a hard day's chase in Longstroth-dale, for instance, it would be too much for a wearied train of men and horses to

* King Richard III. Act 5. Sc. 3.