YOUNG PEOPLE OF OLDEN TIME.

Southern Cross, Volume 2, Issue 9, 2 June 1894, Page 11

YOUNG PEOPLE OF OLDEN TIME.

We sometimes hear old peoplespeak of “the good old days’ ” but I am sure we young people have no reason to complain of the time in which we live. In the old Anglo-Saxon times the peopl® were very superstitions. When their babies were only a few months old, they placed them on the waving’ branch, of a tree nr on a sloping roof where they were in peril of falling at the least breath of wind. If the child cried it was killed, for the people were afraid it would grow up a coward ; if it laughed it was taken home to its frightened mother. When they grew old enough the little ones were taught psalm-singing and poetry. There was only one way of teaching them ; the teachers first told them what to learn and then flogged them to make them remember it. This cruel practice was so common that the older Saxons invariably spoke of their childhood as the days when they were “ under the rod.” For very many years children were kept at a distance and treated with great severity by their parents. They wei’e never permitted to sit in the presence of their elders or to speak unless spoken to, while ladies carried f; ni with handles a yard long with which to punish their daughters eveu if they were grown up. The unhappy Lady Jane Grey once said to Roger Ascham : —“One of the greatest benefits God ever gave me is that He sent me so sharp and severe parents and so gentle a schoolmaster, for when I am in presence eitheiyif father or mother, whether I speak, keep silence, sit, stand, or go eat, drink, be merry or sad, be sewing, playing, dancing or anything else t must do it, as it were, so perfectly as God made the world or else I am so sharply taunted, so cruelly threatened, yea, with pinches, nips, and bobs, and other ways (which I will not name for the horror 1 bear them), so without measure rnisordered that I think myself in torment, till time come that 1 must go to Mr Elmer, who teacheth me so gently, so pleasantly that I think time nothing while with him, and when I am called from him I fall to weeping because whatsoever I do else but learning is full of trouble, fear,'and whol.e misliking to rne.” What a dismal picture of a girl’s life at that time, her only refuge in the schoolroom, but let us hope all parents were not so unnatural. We must not imagine that the young folks of long ago never had any good times. The gills revelled in dancing, the boys in wrestling, bull and bear baiting, running, and other kindred sports. About the twelfth century, too, balls, tops, dolls, and ninepins made their appearance.

They also had live pets, dogs and birds, while part of the bedroom furniture was a perch for falcons used in hunting. Magpies and monkeys were great favourites, and once the history of England might have been quite changed by a monkey. When Oliver Cromwell was a baby he was taken on a visit to his grandfather, who had a large, strong monkey. One day, in the absence of the nurse, the monkey caught up little Oliver out of the cradle and made his way to the roof of the house. Of course all the family were greatly alarmed, and as it was vain to attempt to catch the monkey they put beds all round the house for the baby to fall on in case the monkey should drop him. But the monkey was well able* to hold him and soon brought him down safe and sound. Every year, also, there were splendid feasts and festivals, —the May Day dance around the ’may pole, harvest home, sheep shearing, and above all Christmas. The hobbyhorse, dance, blind man’s buff, and hot cockles were the chief Christmas sports led by the Lord of Misrule, who reigned twelve days, but, alas, it was a sorry ending’ to the fun on Innocents’ Day, when .all the poor children were beaten in their beds to make them remember the murder of the innocents. The girls of olden time were ahead of the present time in one thing at least. I mean needlework. Queen Elizabeth, when only six years old, made the christening shirt for her baby brother, Edward VI. It wms not uncommon for young people to be married at a very early age—even as early as ten years, or earlier. The second wife of Kichard II was married do him when only eight years old. But gradually times improved, and toys and juvenile books delighted the hearts of the young, but I am sure you will think with me that the present time is the golden age of childhood in spite of all we hear of the “good old days,” when children were supposed to be so perfect that they despised toys and childish pleasures. Now-a-days much is done for the happiness and instruction of the young. I would like to say a good deal more about these old time children, their school books, games etc., but this paper must not be too long. Scotia.