their laws which throw any light upon the history or condition of the minstrels are--one which requires that they should not take “any new brother except he be mynstrell to some man of honour or worship, or waite of some towne corporate or other ancient town, or else of such honestye and conyng (_knowledge_) as shall be thought laudable and pleasant to the hearers there;” and another, to the effect that “no mylner, shepherd, or of other occupation, or husbandman, or husbandman servant, playing upon pype or other instrument, shall sue (_follow_) any wedding, or other thing that pertaineth to the said science, except in his own parish.” Institutions like these, however, had little effect in counteracting the natural decline of minstrelsy, for the state of society in which it existed was passing away. It would be curious to trace the changes in its history by the instruments which became especially characteristic of the popular jougleur. The harp had given way to the fiddle, and already, towards the end of the thirteenth century, the fiddle was yielding its place to the tabor. In the Anglo-Norman romance of Horn, of the thirteenth century, we are told of a ribald “who goes to marriages to play on the tabor”-- _A li piert qu’il est las un lechur_ _Ki à ces nocces vient pur juer od tabur_; and the curious fabliau of the king of England and the jougleur of Ely describes the latter as carrying his tabor swung to his neck-- _Entour son col porta soun tabour._ [Illustration: _No. 137. The Minstrels of Beverley._] CHAPTER X. AMUSEMENTS AFTER DINNER.--GAMBLING.--THE GAME OF CHESS.--ITS HISTORY.--DICE.--TABLES.--DRAUGHTS.