Alehouses were more frequented,
drunkenness more general, tale-mongery and sedition, the vices of
sedentary idleness, prevailed, while a fanatical gloom was spreading
over the country. The King, whose gaiety of temper instantly sympathised
with the multitude, being perhaps alarmed at this new shape which
Puritanism was assuming, published the _Book of Sports_, which soon
obtained the contemptuous name of 'The Dancing Book'" (_Life of James_,
p. 135). In reply to this view of the subject we shall, for the present,
conclude with Dr Whitaker's remark, that "The King was little aware of
the effects which the ill-judged licence was likely to produce on the
common people. The relics of it are hardly worn out to this day; and
there is scarcely a Sunday evening in any village of the county of
Lancaster which does not exhibit symptoms of obedience to the injunction
of honest 'recreation.'"--_Royal Progresses of James I_.
On the 15th of August, in the year 1617, a day memorable for its heat
and brightness, and for the more enduring glory shed over this remote
corner of our rejoicing and gladdened realm, came forth King James, from
the southern gate of his loyal borough of Preston, in a gilded and
unwieldy caroche, something abated of its lustre by reason of long
service and the many vicissitudes attending his Majesty's "progresses,"
which he underwent to the great comfort and well-being of his dominions.
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