Tilting on the Thames at Easter

FitzStephen, writing in the twelfth century and quoted by Stow, describes a water game played by the young men of London in the Easter holidays. A shield hung on a pole fixed in midstream, and a boat without oars was carried down on the tide with a youth standing in the bow to charge it with his lance. If he broke the lance and kept his feet he had done well; if not, he went into the river and was fished out by the boats waiting on either side. Crowds watched from the bridge, the wharves and the houses along the river and laughed at those who fell.