Boys Tilting in Pastime
All persons below the `rank` of an esquire were excluded from the justs and the tournaments; but the celebration of these pastimes attracted the common mind in a very powerful manner, and led to the institution of sports, that bore at least some resemblance to them: tilting at the quintain was generally practised at a very early period, and justing upon the ice by the young Londoners. The early inclination to join in such kind of pastimes is strongly indicated by the two boys represented here: the place of the horse is supplied by a long switch, and that of a lance by another. The original delineation occurs in a beautiful MS. book of prayers, written in the fourteenth century.