Sports, Book Of

Formally  Declaration of Sports  order issued by King James I of England for use in Lancashire to resolve a conflict, on the subject of Sunday amusements, between the Puritans and the gentry, many of whom were Roman Catholics. Permission was given for dancing, archery, leaping and vaulting, and for “having of May games, Whitsun ales and morris dances, and the setting up of May-poles and other sports therewith