Here have I seen the armed rings revolve In artful flights, in order then advance, Attack, retire in all the forms of war, Their eye still on the signal of the chief; Then face about, ringing their brazen shields Against their corslets, or uplifted high Threaten the ecchoing skies; whilst steely blades Harsh murmur, and the clanging targets sound Alternate struck, the martial concert close. The equestrian games of this denomination required more room and _apparatus_ for spectators: therefore probably they fenced in a larger space of ground, of a circular or oval form, with a _vallum_, to keep the spectators at proper distance, and upon which they might more commodiously behold the sport. This I suppose was provided for by those bowers or burroughs mentioned, where there was no ditch behind; for that would be dangerous, if the people crouding one another, as is natural on those occasions, should thrust the outermost from such an elevation: so that they were a larger sort of amphitheatres, or circs: and this seems expressly intimated by the great Mantuan in those verses, _Munera principio ante oculos circoque locantur In medio—— Et tuba commissos medio canit aggere ludos._ These games on horseback he thus describes: _Olli discurrere pares, atque agmina terni Diductis solvere choris, rursusque vocati Convertere vias, infestaque tela tulere. Inde alios ineunt cursus aliosque recursus Adversis spatiis, alternosque orbibus orbes Impediunt, pugnæque cient simulachra sub armis. Et nunc terga fugâ nudant; nunc spicula vertunt Infensi, factâ pariter nunc pace feruntur._ They ride by pairs: the martial cavalcade Triple battalions form, which open first With adverse front, and show of dreadful fight. Then new careers they take, wheeling about In various circles and self-ending orbs, In all the mazy arts and forms of war; Now turn their backs, and now afresh attack: At length in peaceful order all march off. It seems that our tournaments, so much in fashion till queen Elizabeth’s time, are remainders of these warlike diversions; and the triple order, by which they were conducted, may possibly be imitated in some degree by the common figure in dancing, called the _hedge_, or the _hay_; both which I suppose are derived from the Saxon _hæg_, perhaps from the Latin _agger_.