privileges of the chase, and imposed great penalties on
those who presumed to destroy the game in the royal forests without a
proper license. The wild boar and the wolf still afforded sport at the
Christmas season, and there was an abundance of smaller game. Leaping,
running, wrestling, the casting of darts, and other pastimes which
required bodily strength and agility were also practised, and when the
frost set in various games were engaged in upon the ice. It is not
known at what time skating made its first appearance in England, but
we find some traces of such an exercise in the thirteenth century, at
which period, according to Fitzstephen, it was customary in the
winter, when the ice would bear them, for the young citizens of London
to fasten the leg bones of animals under the soles of their feet by
tying them round their ankles; and then, taking a pole shod with iron
into their hands, they pushed themselves forward by striking it
against the ice, and moved with celerity equal, says the author, to a
bird flying through the air, or an arrow from a cross-bow; but some
allowance, we presume, must be made for the poetical figure: he then
adds, "At times, two of them thus furnished agree to start opposite
one to another, at a great distance; they meet, elevate their poles,
attack, and strike each other, when one or both of them fall, and not
without some bodily hurt; and, even after their fall, are carried a
great distance from each other, by the rapidity of the motion, and
whatever part of the head comes upon the ice it is sure to be laid
bare."

The meetings of the King and his Wise Men for the consideration of
state affairs were continued at the great festivals, and that held at
Christmas in 1085 is memorable on account of the resolution then
passed to make the Domesday survey, in reference to which Freeman
says: "One of the greatest acts of William's reign, and that by which
we come to know more about England in his time than from any other
source, was done in the assembly held at Gloucester at the Christmas
of 1085. Then the King had, as the Chronicle says, 'very deep speech
with his Wise Men.' This 'deep speech' in English is in French
_parlement_; and so we see how our assemblies came by their later
name. And the end of the deep speech was that commissioners were sent
through all England, save only the Bishopric of Durham and the earldom
of Northumberland, to make a survey of the land. They were to set down
by w