one of the most Conspicuous Parts of the House, and looked upon
by the whole Family as something redounding much more to their Honour
than a Coat of Arms. There was a Fellow who was so busy in regulating
all the Ceremonies, and seemed to carry such an Air of Importance in
his Looks, that I could not help inquiring who he was, and was
immediately answered, _That he did not value himself upon nothing, for
that he and his Ancestors had won so many Hats, that his Parlour
looked like a Haberdashers Shop:_ However this Thirst of Glory in them
all, was the Reason that no one Man stood _Lord of the Ring_ for above
three _Falls_ while I was amongst them.

The young Maids, who were not Lookers on at these Exercises, were
themselves engaged in some Diversion; and upon my asking a Farmer's
Son of my own Parish what he was gazing at with so much Attention, he
told me, _That he was seeing_ Betty Welch, whom I knew to be his
Sweet-Heart, _pitch a Bar_.

In short, I found the men endeavoured to shew the Women they were no
Cowards, and that the whole Company strived to recommend themselves to
each other, by making it appear that they were all in a perfect State
of Health, and fit to undergo any Fatigues of bodily Labour.

Your Judgment upon this Method of _Love_ and _Gallantry_, as it is at
present practised amongst us in the Country, will very much oblige,

_SIR, Yours_, &c.'

If I would here put on the Scholar and Politician, I might inform my
Readers how these bodily Exercises or Games were formerly encouraged in
all the Commonwealths of _Greece_; from whence the _Romans_ afterwards
borrowed their _Pentathlum_, which was composed of _Running, Wrestling,
Leaping, Throwing_, and _Boxing_, tho' the Prizes were generally nothing
but a Crown of Cypress or Parsley, Hats not being in fashion in those
Days: That there is an old Statute, which obliges every Man in
_England_, having such an Estate, to keep and exercise the long Bow; by
which Means our Ancestors excelled all other Nations in the Use of that
Weapon, and we had all the real Advantages, without the Inconvenience of
a standing Army: And that I once met with a Book of Projects, in which
the Author considering to what noble Ends that Spirit of Emulation,
which so remarkably shews it self among our common People in these
Wakes, might be directed, proposes that for the Improvement of all our
handicraft Trades there should be annual Prize