which they display: medieval antiquities, deficient, very frequently, in their artificial workmanship as in elegance of design, arrest our notice because they bear an impress of reality; because in each the practised eye may trace some evidence of the habitual feelings of our forefathers, of the train of their thought, of their superstitious weaknesses, or their devotion to high and noble purposes.
At a period when, in default of a standing mercenary force, the safety of a kingdom lay in the military spirit which pervaded all the higher classes of the community, the strains of poetry and the fictions of romance aroused them to warlike deeds; the very light of heaven penetrated into their chambers, tinged with the colouring of some tale of prowess or chivalry pourtrayed on the glass in their casements; their household utensils, or the objects of their pastime, bore the impress of the spirit of an age of chivalrous enterprise. The toys of childhood seemed devised in order to instil that military ardour which should become the dominant principle of riper years; and even in the seclusion of domestic life the arras on the walls, the decorative accessories of the banqueting table or the bower, served to keep ever in view the more stirring attractions of the tournament and warlike emprise. With this design, indeed, were the brilliant passages of arms in times of peace designed: even the quinten, the diversion of the lower orders, bore the head of the Saracen, the object of most inveterate antipathy; so that even village sports were subservient to the purpose of keeping ever on the alert the spirit of valorous resolution, which has raised England to her position as a nation.
Strutt has given representations of a very singular toy, of German fabrication, about the time of Henry VII. It is a small brazen knight equipped for the joust, so contrived as to fall back from the saddle when struck by a blow on the salade or shoulder-shield. These diminutive combatants were mounted upon a platform with wheels, and violently drawn together by a string[1]. An interesting illustration of such pas- time occurs amongst the fine woodcuts by Burghmair, in the Weiss Kunig, representing the education of Maximilian I.; two children are there pourtrayed eagerly pushing their miniature horsemen one against the other. Still more curious, however, are some ancient chess-men, which have been preserved in
- ↑ Sports and Pastimes, p 112. pl. xiii.
