The Anatomy of Melancholy

For hawking and hunting are very strenuous, involving much riding and many dangers; fishing is still and quiet. Even if the angler catches no fish, he has a healthy walk to the brookside, pleasant shade beside the lovely silver streams, good air, and the sweet scents of fresh meadow flowers. He hears the birds’ melodious harmony and sees swans, herons, ducks, moorhens, coots, and many other birds with their young. He thinks this better than the noise of hounds, the blast of horns, and all the sport they can provide.

There are many other sports and recreations in common use, such as bell-ringing, bowls, and archery, which Ascham recommends in a whole volume. In former times archery was required by statute as an exercise for defence and an honour to our country, as our victories in France may well testify. Skittles, trunks, quoits, throwing bars, hurling, wrestling, jumping, running, fencing, military drill, swimming, practice swords, foils, football, balloon ball, quintain, and many similar pastimes are the usual recreations of country people.

Riding great horses, tilting at rings, jousts and tournaments, horse races, and wild-goose chases are the sports of men of higher rank, and good in themselves, though many gentlemen by these means gallop right out of their fortunes.

But the pleasantest of all outdoor pastimes is the one Aretaeus recommends, “walking through delightful places”: making a little tour, a cheerful journey now and then with good companions, to visit friends and see cities, castles, and towns.

Often to visit clear rivers and lovely Tempe, And seek gentle breezes on the mountain heights.

To see the pleasant fields and crystal springs, And breathe the gentle air among the mountains.

To walk among orchards, gardens, bowers, raised mounds and arbours, planted wildernesses, green thickets, arches, groves, lawns, little streams, fountains, and other delightful places, like Daphne near Antioch; among brooks, pools, and fishponds, between wood and water, in a fine meadow beside a river, “where there are varied birdsongs, colours of flowers, and shrubs in the meadows,” and so forth; to amuse oneself in some pleasant open ground or park, sometimes run up a steep hill, or sit in a shady place: all this must be delightful recreation.

“The prince’s garden and a house built for pleasure, with a wood, a mound, and a fishpond, commonly called La Montagna”: Schottus highly praises the prince’s garden at Ferrara, with its groves, hills, and ponds, for its delightful view; it pleased him greatly. To his eyes, a Persian paradise, or pleasure park, could not be more delightful. St Bernard, in the description of his monastery, is almost enraptured by its pleasures.