The citizens and peasants have hand-ball, foot-ball, skittles or nine-pins, shovelboard, stow-ball, golf, troll-madam, cudgels, bear-baiting, bull-baiting, bow and arrow, throwing at cocks, bowlings, quoits, leaping, wrestling, pitching the bar, and ringing of bells, a recreation used in no other country in the world.
Amongst these, cock-fighting seems to all foreigners too childish and unsuitable for the gentry, and for the common people bull-baiting and bear-baiting seem too cruel, and for the citizens foot-ball very uncivil, rude, and barbarous within the city" - Meaning and context.">
p. 319-320; Cited in: Jeffrey L. Forgeng. Daily Life in Stuart England, p. 169-170
“

The King hath his forests, chases, and parks, full of variety of game, for hunting red and fallow deer, foxes, otters, hawking; his paddock courses, horse-races &c. abroad and at home; tennis, balloon, billiards, interludes, balls, masks, &c. The nobility and chief gentry have their parks, warrens, decoys, paddock courses horse-races, hunting, coursing, fi shing, fowling, hawking, setting dogs, tumblers, lurchers, duck-hunting, cock-fi ghting, tennis, bowling, billiards, tables, chess, draughts, cards, dice, catches, Questions, Purposes, stage-plays, dancing, singing, all sorts of musical instruments, &c. The citizens and peasants have hand-ball, foot-ball, skittles or nine-pins, shovelboard, stow-ball, golf, troll-madam, cudgels, bear-baiting, bull-baiting, bow and arrow, throwing at cocks, bowlings, quoits, leaping, wrestling, pitching the bar, and ringing of bells, a recreation used in no other country in the world.
Amongst these, cock-fighting seems to all foreigners too childish and unsuitable for the gentry, and for the common people bull-baiting and bear-baiting seem too cruel, and for the citizens foot-ball very uncivil, rude, and barbarous within the city

— Edward Chamberlayne

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "The King hath his forests, chases, and parks, full of variety of game, for hunting red and fallow deer, foxes, otters, hawking; his paddock courses, horse-races &c. abroad and at home; tennis, balloon, billiards, interludes, balls, masks, &c. The nobility and chief gentry have their parks, warrens, decoys, paddock courses horse-races, hunting, coursing, fi shing, fowling, hawking, setting dogs, tumblers, lurchers, duck-hunting, cock-fi ghting, tennis, bowling, billiards, tables, chess, draughts, cards, dice, catches, Questions, Purposes, stage-plays, dancing, singing, all sorts of musical instruments, &c. The citizens and peasants have hand-ball, foot-ball, skittles or nine-pins, shovelboard, stow-ball, golf, troll-madam, cudgels, bear-baiting, bull-baiting, bow and arrow, throwing at cocks, bowlings, quoits, leaping, wrestling, pitching the bar, and ringing of bells, a recreation used in no other country in the world.
Amongst these, cock-fighting seems to all foreigners too childish and unsuitable for the gentry, and for the common people bull-baiting and bear-baiting seem too cruel, and for the citizens foot-ball very uncivil, rude, and barbarous within the city" in the context of "p. 319-320; Cited in: Jeffrey L. Forgeng. Daily Life in Stuart England, p. 169-170" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "Edward Chamberlayne" (Quotes, Angliæ Notitia, 1676, 1704) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Edward Chamberlayne

About Edward Chamberlayne

Edward Chamberlayne (13 December 1616 – May 1703) was an English writer, known as the author of Anglicæ Notitia or The Present State of England.