DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15#0309
29β THE HISTORY OF SUNDAY.
hunting on Sunday was forbidden. In the reign of
Richard II., tennis, football, gambling, and putting
the stone, were included among forbidden Sunday-
amusements. Attempts were made at this time to
enforce the laws for closing all shops on Sundays,
especially barbers' shops ; for then, as now,
barbers were great offenders against Sunday laws
.—whether because beards will continue to grow
during Saturday night and Sunday morning, or for
some other as yet undetermined reason, I do not
know. Eustace, Abbot of Flay, in 1201, main-
tained the duty of observing Sunday most strictly ;
and he was able (probably as a reward for his great
virtues, and especially, it should seem, his great
veracity) to put in documentary evidence on this
point in the form of a letter from Christ, miracu-
lously ' delivered ' on the altar of St. Simeon at
Golgotha : by this letter all kinds of work were
forbidden from three on Saturday until Monday
morning.
' It is said also,' says a writer in the * West-
minster Review' (who puts one of the following
stories so delicately that I cannot do better than
follow him), 'that certain miraculous penalties
visited those who paid no heed to this prohibition.
One woman weaving after three o'clock on Satur-
day was struck with the dead palsy ; whilst another,
hunting on Sunday was forbidden. In the reign of
Richard II., tennis, football, gambling, and putting
the stone, were included among forbidden Sunday-
amusements. Attempts were made at this time to
enforce the laws for closing all shops on Sundays,
especially barbers' shops ; for then, as now,
barbers were great offenders against Sunday laws
.—whether because beards will continue to grow
during Saturday night and Sunday morning, or for
some other as yet undetermined reason, I do not
know. Eustace, Abbot of Flay, in 1201, main-
tained the duty of observing Sunday most strictly ;
and he was able (probably as a reward for his great
virtues, and especially, it should seem, his great
veracity) to put in documentary evidence on this
point in the form of a letter from Christ, miracu-
lously ' delivered ' on the altar of St. Simeon at
Golgotha : by this letter all kinds of work were
forbidden from three on Saturday until Monday
morning.
' It is said also,' says a writer in the * West-
minster Review' (who puts one of the following
stories so delicately that I cannot do better than
follow him), 'that certain miraculous penalties
visited those who paid no heed to this prohibition.
One woman weaving after three o'clock on Satur-
day was struck with the dead palsy ; whilst another,