g to my
lady Morley's saying in that, and as she had seen used in places of
worship (_gentlemen's houses_) there as she had been.' ... After the
middle of the fifteenth century, cards came into very general use; and
at the beginning of the following century, there was such a rage for
card-playing, that an attempt was made early in the reign of Henry
VIII. to restrict their use by law to the period of Christmas. When,
however, people sat down to dinner at noon, and had no other
occupation for the rest of the day, they needed amusement of some sort
to pass the time; and a poet of the fifteenth century observes truly--

'A man may dryfe forthe the day that long tyme dwellis
With harpyng and pipyng, and other mery spellis,
With gle, and wyth game.'"

[Illustration: LADY MUSICIAN OF THE 15TH CENTURY.]

Another book well known to bibliomaniacs ("Dives and Pauper," ed. W.
de Worde; 1496) says: "For to represente in playnge at Crystmasse
herodes and the thre kynges and other processes of the gospelles both
then and at Ester and other tymes also it is lefull and
c[=o]mendable."

[Illustration: RUSTIC CHRISTMAS MINSTREL WITH PIPE AND TABOR.]

EDWARD THE FIFTH

succeeded his father, Edward IV., in the dangerous days of 1483. He
was at Ludlow when his father died, being under the guardianship of
his uncle, Earl Rivers, and attended by other members of the Woodville
family. Almost immediately he set out for London, but when he reached
Stony Stratford, on April 29th, he was met by his uncle Richard, Duke
of Gloucester, who had arrested Lord Rivers and Lord Richard Grey. The
young king (a boy of thirteen) renewed his journey under Gloucester's
charge, and on reaching London was lodged in the Tower. His mother, on
hearing of the arrest of Rivers and Grey, had taken sanctuary at
Westminster. Lord Hastings, a supporter of the king, was arrested and
executed because he would not sanction Gloucester's nefarious schemes
for obtaining the throne. About the same time Rivers and Grey were
beheaded at Pontefract, whither they had been taken by Gloucester's
orders. Soon afterwards the Queen was compelled to deliver up the
young Duke of York to Richard, who sent him to join his brother in the
Tower. On June 22nd, at the request of Richard, Dr. Shaw, brother of
the Lord Mayor of London, delivered a sermon at St. Paul's Cross, in
which he insisted on the illegitimacy of Edward V. and his brother. On
June 25th a deputation of