St. Maries Citty Militiaman

Transcription

1 1 St. Maries Citty Militiaman Ancient and Honourable Order of the Followers of Calvert s Black and Gold in the New World St. Maries Citty, Ancient and Chief Seat of Government of the Lord Baltimore s proprietarie Colony of Mary-Land, Number 319, March 2013 Editor: Ernest J. Willoughby GET READY FOR MARYLAND DAY! Our first muster of the year will be for Maryland Day, Saturday, March 23, in Historic St. Mary s City. We must be on hand Saturday for the official ceremony scheduled at 1:00 PM outside the Visitor Center. There will probably be a wreath-laying ceremony at the reconstructed chapel, and possibly at the Calvert Monument near the State House, too. We are asked to serve as ceremonial escort for these festivities. Our friend Lee Offen (of the Kent County Militia) and others of his group may join us to augment our ranks. We will be cooking mostly over a campfire, as Farthing s Kitchen will be occupied by the caterer, Expressions, to serve the public for most of the day. We will be able to use some refrigeration space there, however. The 1676 State House will be available for overnight both Friday and Saturday. Like last year, however, the College will hold a ceremony for the graduating class on the first floor from 6 to 8 PM on Friday. Therefore, we should plan to set up camp starting as close to 4 PM as we can manage. Ernie will be present at 4 PM Friday afternoon to unlock the State House attic and bring down camping equipment for setup. After that we ll all meet at the Willoughby house for supper. For those who may be unfamiliar with the location of the Willoughby plantation, it is at the end of Hartman Drive in St. Mary s City. Here are directions from Historic St. Mary s City: Take Rte. 5 south about one mile to Bauer Road. Turn right onto Bauer Road and go about 0.4 miles to Smithfield Drive on your left. Take Smithfield Drive to Hartman Drive. Just follow the pavement; you cannot miss it. Continue on Hartman Drive to the end just ahead, number 18335, a total of about 0.3 mi. from Bauer Rd. Park on the street. Telephone numbers: (H) , (Cell) On Sunday before leaving for our respective plantations, weather permitting, we will set up all our extra tents to assess which ones we wish to sell off. Members of our militia will have first choice of those to sell. The rest will be offered to other living history units.

2 2 TIME TO START PLANNING FOR CHARLES TOWNE LANDING Our next muster after Maryland Day will be on Saturday, April 13, for Founders Day at Charles Towne Landing State Historic Site in Charleston, SC. This celebrates the arrival there in April, 1670, of the first English settlers to the Carolina Colony. Over the past 11 years this has always been a rewarding muster, and we encourage as many as possible to turn out and have a great experience at this historic sister site to St. Mary s City. Let us plan to arrive there Friday afternoon, April 12, to set up our camp. There will be a gunnery refresher course scheduled for 2 PM at the Visitor Center for those who need it in order to man the gun crews to fire the cannons on Saturday. If you wish to participate in the firing, but have not had their training, plan to arrive in time to participate. If you need lodging on the way, one of our members, Rob Alley, lives in North Carolina, and invites you to stay overnight with him. His address is 202 Governors Road, Windsor, NC 27983, telephone , 1ralley@comcast.net. For staying overnight Friday and Saturday, in the past we have been permitted to camp at the site, and can probably count on that option again. Let Ernie know beforehand if you do plan to camp so he can confirm it with the park administration. There are numerous hotels just off I-26 at Montague Ave. in nearby North Charleston where many of us have stayed before. Two that we have used before and can recommend are Days Inn Charleston-Airport-Coliseum, 2998 West Montague Ave., tel ; Courtyard by Marriott Charleston Coliseum, 2415 Mall Drive (off Montague Ave. on the east side of I-26 from the Days Inn), tel The Days Inn has nightly rates about half (~ $60) of what the Courtyard charges. There are many other options, and you can probably find some better bargains if you hunt for them. This year the park will reimburse us partially for travel at variable rates depending on how many of our members we muster. MORE FROM FRANCIS WILLUGHBY ABOUT AMUSEMENTS WITH ANIMALS In the January issue of The Militiaman we read what the 17 th -century scientist Francis Willughby wrote about cock fighting in the England of his day, in respect to a possible cock fighting pit unearthed in the yard of the house of Governor Leonard Calvert in St. Mary s City. Willughby had more to say about common amusements with animals. His accounts may give us some insight into the common attitudes of the English concerning treatment of certain animals. Willughby s manuscript on games (Francis Willughby s Book of Games: A Seventeenth-Century Treatise on Sports, Games and Pastimes edited by D. Cram, J. L. Forgeng and D. Johnston, 2003, Ashgate Paublishing Company, Burlington, VT) includes the following accounts on bull baiting and other sports involving animals:

3 3 Everie Shrovetuesday in the afternoon, the sport is to Throw at Cocks. The cock is tied by the leg with a string a yard or 2 long, the other end being tied to a peg fastened in the ground. The staves they throw with are like dog staves a yard long. They stand 12, 14, 16, 18, &c. yards of. Hee that owns the cock lets any bodie have 3 throwes for a penny. If he can knock downe the cock, and run and take him up before hee rises againe, hee wins the cock. But if hee that owns him can make him stand, lifting him up 3 times and setting him down againe before the other comes, hee saves his cock and the other throwes at him againe. The cock must not be lifted up to try to make him stand above 3 times. If hee that throwes can win the cock the 3 first throws, hee must pay 2 d, else but a penny for 3 throwes. A cock that is used to bee thrown at will grow cunning & avoid the blow. Bull Bating A bull is tied to a stake, fast driven into the ground, with a rope or chaine. They bate him with great mastifs, the mastif striving to catch the bull by the nose or eare, and the bull to tosse up the dog with his hornes. When a dog has hung on a good while & made the bull roare, they draw him of, pulling him by the taile & legs. Bulls that grow cunning with having bene often bated will stand by their stakes, that they may have the full length of their chain to run at the dogs. Sometimes they will scape a hole to put their noses in. Butchers throw pepper into the noses & eares of the bulls to make them madder. Bare Bating If a bare rise as a dog is coming, the dog rises with him to catch him by the face. The bare grasps him with his fore feet. The danger is then of the bares bending backwards & breaking the dogs back. Honie pegd in a bone & throwne among bares makes them fight one with another. Crabs sets their teeth on edge & keeps them from biting. Striking bares upon the toes, or hurting them any where, makes them madder & more furious. Men, horses, dogs, as greyhounds, hounds &c., run for wagers. They that kill the hare first or give the first turne &c. win. Hawkes fly for wagers.

4 4 Skittle players in a Dutch garden, about 1658, by Pieter de Hooch Although the reproduction of this painting is of low resolution, we can see what upper class persons of the period were wearing in their leisure time. Note the blues and reds of the clothing. The gentlemen are wearing the fashionable peticoat breeches and very short doublets typical of the Dutch and English of the late 1650s. The very finely-dressed man in right front has decorative red ribbons at his waist. It is not clear how they are holding up their breeches, perhaps by belt at the waist, as the doublets seem too short to permit any points or hooks at the waist. he is also wearing very decorative boot hose over his under stockings, whereas the man in blue on the left has much more modest overstockings. The skittle players in the distance and the woman on the left are more modestly dressed than the fine couple at right front. Men s hats are either black or brown (see the brown hat under the arm of the man in blue). In other paintings the hats may also be of a gray or tan color. Note that both women have hiked up parts of their gowns to show off the underlying peticoats. It was fashionable to wear two or more peticoats and to tuck up the outer one to show that they were adequately and properly dressed. The skittle pins, or nine pins, are arranged in the typical fashion, with a taller king pin at the center. The object was to knock down as many pins as possible with a single bowl, for one point

5 5 each, and if the king pin still stood, to stoop if possible with both feet no closer than where the ball rests and reach it out by hand for 10 more points. Or, if farther away than one can reach, to throw the ball at the pins and try just to knock down the kingpin, for an additional score of 10. If other pins fall, too, then the kingpin yields just 2 points. THE EDITOR S PAGE Your editor reminds you that he is looking for short articles, announcements, and items of interest pertaining to our St. Maries Citty Militia and to Maryland and other English colonies of the 17 th century. If you have anything that you would like to see in The Militiaman, send it in! By ejwilloughby@aol.com; by postal service: Hartman Drive, Lexington Park, MD 20653