Summary:

This book is a key source for information on leisure time activities in 'Olde England,' including sports, hunting, games, dancing, gymnastics, music, festivals including Christmas and May Day and customs such as Mumming, The Boy Bishop, and The Lord of Misrule. Strutt documents the constant conflict between popular culture and the religious and secular powers. Since English spelling was still in a state of flux when this book was originally published in 1801, and the book quotes from many older documents, spelling varies widely in the body of the text. The asterisks which appear in front of many of the paragraphs were in the original book and do not indicate footnotes; rather, they indicate material added in this second edition.