He waxes eloquent over the races, the expert jockeys, the
eager horses, the shouting crowds. "The riders, inspired with the love
of praise and the hope of victory, clap spurs to their flying horses,
lashing them with their whips, and inciting them by their shouts"; so
wrote the worthy monk Fitzstephen. He evidently loved a horse-race,
but he need not have given us the startling information, "their chief
aim is to prevent a competitor getting before them." That surely would
be obvious even to a monk. He also examined the goods of the peasants,
the implements of husbandry, swine with their long sides, cows with
distended udders, _Corpora magna boum, lanigerumque pecus_, mares
fitted for the plough or cart, some with frolicsome colts running by
their sides. A very animated scene, which must have delighted the
young eyes of the stone arch in the days of its youth, as it did the
heart of the monk.
Still gayer scenes the old gate has witnessed. Smithfield was the
principal spot in London for jousts, tournaments, and military
exercises, and many a grand display of knightly arms has taken place
before this priory gate. "In 1357 great and royal jousts were then
holden in Smithfield; there being present the Kings of England,
France, and Scotland, with many other nobles and great estates of
divers lands," writes Stow.
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