. Each player was armed with a stick, looping the
fingers of his left hand in a handkerchief or strap, which he
fastened round his left leg, measuring the length, so that when he
drew it tight with his left elbow up he had a perfect guard for the
left side of his head.[14] Guarding his head with the stick in his
right hand, he advanced, and then the fight began; fast and furious
came the blows, until at last a red streak on the temple of one of
the combatants declared his defeat. The _Reading Mercury_ of May 24,
1819, advertised the rural sports at Peppard, when the not very
magnificent prize of eighteenpence was offered to every man who broke
a head at cudgel-play, and a shilling to every one who had his head
broken.

Such was the sport which our old Berkshire rustics delighted in.
Back-sword play, wrestling, and other pastimes made them a hardy
race, full of courage, and developed qualities which it is hoped
their descendants have not altogether lost. The gallant Berkshire
Regiment, which fought so bravely at Maiwand, is composed of the
sons of those who used to wield the back-sword on the Berkshire
downs, and showed themselves not unworthy of their ancestry,
although the quarter-staff and ashen-swords are forgotten. The old
village feasts are forgotten too--more's the pity. Then old quarrels
were healed, old bitternesses removed: aged friends met, and became
young again in heart, as they revived old memories and sweet
recollections of youthful days. Rich and poor, the squire and the
farmer, the farmer and his labourers, all mingled together, class
with class; and good-fellowship, harmony, and mutual confidence were
promoted by these annual gatherings. It is true that these village
feasts degenerated, because the well-to-do folk abstained from them;
but would it not be possible to revive them, to preserve the good
which they certainly did, and to eliminate the evil which is so
often mingled with the good? Such a consideration is worthy of the
attention of all who have the welfare of the people at heart.

CHAPTER IX.

SEPTEMBER.

"Nor is there hawk which mantleth her on pearch,
Whether high tow'ring or accoasting low,
But I the measure of her flight do search,
And all her prey, and all her diet know."--SPENSER.

Hawking--Michaelmas--Bull and Bear-baiting.

Of all old English sports hawking is one of the most ancient and the
most fashionable. It has almost died out now, but there