2) The people of Bristol,” wrote Pedro de Ayala in 1498 to his masters in Spain”, “ have for the last seven years every year sent out two, three or four light Ships in search of the Island of Brazil and the Seven Cities. This was not the Brazil in South America but a mythical island in the North Atlantic.
3) The game of bowls was played much like the Italian game of bocce ball. The small ball that was thrown first to be aimed at by subsequent throws was sometimes called the “jack” and sometimes the “mistress”.
4) On January 29th, 1530, Mr Fitzwilliam, the treasurer, won £4 10s. From Henry VIII at bowls [lawn bowling].
5) Shakespeare often included images from lawn bowling in his plays such as the following from Cymbeline, II.i.
Cloton. Was there ever man had such luck! When I kissed the jack, upon an up-cast to be hit away! I had a hundred pound on it.
An “up-cast” refers to lofting a ball up to come down on the opponent's ball.
6) In his pamphlet Thieves Falling Out, Robert Greene declares that
The Ape ever killeth that young one which he loveth most with embracing it too fervently.
This is but another myth from Pliny and certainly refers to the behavior of the mother of a baby chimpanzee that has died. She will hold it to her for days and even weeks before giving up and letting it fall to the ghround.
7) In 1512 it was established that English soldiers and sailors traveling in their official capacity were to receive six pence per day “conduct money”. Each day's travel was established to be 12 miles.
8) The first tulip bulbs were sent to England from Vienna in the late 16th century.
9) According to Beckman's, Inventions and Discoveries, I. 115., “Covered carriages were known in the beginning of the sixteenth century; but they were used only by women of the first rank, for the men thought it disgraceful to ride in them.”
10) The earliest official list "constitutions and orders," of the Fleet was framed in 1561, in the wardenship of Richard Tyrrell, Esq.,… The cost of " lodging" a prisoner, as signed by eight commissioners, was exorbitant, and every official in the prison seems to have had his " charge." The weekly payment for " dyett," &c, including "dismission fee," ranged from archbishop, duke or duchess, £24 16s. 8d., down to a yeoman, £1 18s. 2d.—ladies of each class being charged the same. "A poore man that hath his parte at the boxe," paid nothing, except 7s. 8d. upon dismissal.
Sources: The Growth of English Industry and Commerce (1905), A History of Inventions and Discoveries (1797), Memorials of Temple Bar (1869), Sports and Pastimes of the English People (1801), Natural History in Shakespeare's Time (1896), etc.
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