village to another. The origin of Plough Monday dates back to
pre-Reformation times, when societies of ploughmen called guilds
used to keep lights burning upon the shrine of some saint, to invoke
a blessing on their labour. The Reformation put out the lights, but
it could not extinguish the festival.

In the long winter evenings the country folk amused themselves
around their winter's fireside by telling old romantic stories of
errant knights and fairies, goblins, witches, and the rest; or by
reciting

"Some merry fit
Of Mayde Marran, or els of Robin Hood."

In the Tudor times there were plenty of winter games for those who
could play them, amongst which we may mention chess, cards, dice,
shovel-board, and many others.

And when the ponds and rivers were frozen, as early as the twelfth
century the merry skaters used to glide over the smooth ice. Their
skates were of a very primitive construction, and consisted of the
leg-bones of animals tied under their feet by means of thongs.
Neither were the skaters quite equal to cutting "threes" and
"eights" upon the ice; they could only push themselves along by
means of a pole with an iron spike at the end. But they used to
charge each other after the manner of knights in a tournament, and
use their poles for spears. An old writer says that "they pushed
themselves along with such speed that they seemed to fly like a bird
in the air, or as darts shot out from the engines of war." Some of
the less adventurous youths were content with sliding, or driving