sporting with martins, hawks and other birds of a like kind, and also with dogs that hunt in the wood.' It was one thing to go out into the fields to play these games, but when there was a large population within the walls it must have been very inconvenient to the inhabitants to find the streets occupied by footballers. The practice seems to have been allowed until it became a public nuisance. In the year 1406 proclamation was issued forbidding hocking in streets of London: 'Let proclamation be made that no person of this city, or within the suburbs thereof, of whatsoever estate or condition such person may be, whether man or woman, shall, in any street or lane thereof, take hold of or constrain any person, of whatsoever estate or condition he may be, within house or without, for hokkyng on the Monday or Tuesday next, called Hokkedayes, on pain of imprisonment, and of making fine at the discretion of the Mayor and Aldermen.'[104] Hock Monday and Tuesday were the Monday and Tuesday following the second Sunday after Easter day, and Spelman describes the sport of hocking as consisting 'in the men and women binding each other, and especially the women the men.' Hone writes (_Every Day Book_): 'Tuesday was the principal day, Hock Monday was for the men and Hock Tuesday for the women. On both days the men and women alternately, with great merriment, intercepted the public roads with ropes and pulled passengers to them, from whom they exacted money to be laid out for pious uses. Monday probably having been originally kept as only the vigil or introduction to the festival of Hock-day.' The proclamation of 1406 does not seem to have been effectual, and therefore three years afterwards another proclamation was issued against 'Hokkyng, Foteballe and Cokthresshyng.' The prohibition of hocking is expressed in the same terms as in the proclamation of 1406, and to this is added the following: 'And that no person shall levy money, or cause it to be levied, for the games called "foteballe" and "cokthreshyng" because of marriages that have recently taken place in the said city, or the suburbs thereof, on pain of imprisonment, and of making fine at the discretion of the Mayor and aldermen.'[105] Cock-throwing and football were specially in season at Shrovetide, and at that time it was difficult for the authorities to hold the Londoners in hand, and prevent them from making the streets their playground. The cases of punishment already referred to are connected with prohibitions, but in 1389 a curious case of a fine inflicted for stopping a procession on the festival of Corpus Christi is recorded. A citizen was brought before the Mayor, and the sheriffs, recorder, and aldermen, to answer for having prevented a procession from passing through his house, which the parishioners believed to be their right.