CLASSES 77

When Richard III. came to York in 1483, part
of his entertainment consisted of performances of
pageants.

The only other public dramatic entertainments
were crude, coarse, popular plays, done by strolling
players. A mediaeval crowd at fair time was
entertained by mountebanks, tumblers, and similar
rough makers of unrefined mirth.

The Corporation had a band of minstrels in its
service.

Of physical games archery was the most
practised. This was the national physical exercise,
one which had helped the English soldiers to gain
a great reputation for themselves, as at Agincourt
(1415). At York the " butts/' where men practised
archery, were outside the city walls.

G. CLASSES

Class divisions were well marked. They appeared
in manners, in dress, and in occupation.

Fashions varied considerably as the century
progressed. There were close-fitting dresses and
loose ones, small head-dresses like the caul (a jewelled
net to bind in the hair) and high and broad erections
that went to the other extreme. Men now wore
their hair long; later they had it close-cropped.
Perhaps the most wonderful fashion was that
which men followed in wearing hose of different
colours. With all the vagaries of fashion the most
striking feature of dress was the use of rich and
a manifold variety of colours. Excepting the case
of the dress of the religious, which was generally
of a sombre hue, colour characterised men's clothes
as much as it did the dresses of women. The
doublet was the coat of the time. Sleeves were