In the thirteenth century, however, it became the custom for these MIRACLE-PLAYS, as they were called, to be performed no longer in the church, but on moveable platforms, known as ‘pageants,’ in streets and market-places, or on village greens, at the different fairs and festivals throughout the country. Yorkshire seems to have taken a prominent share in their creation; for we have to-day a manuscript of forty-eight plays performed regularly at York for two hundred years, and another of thirty plays performed at Wakefield. We know also that at Beverley such plays were produced each year on the festival of Corpus Christi—the Thursday after Trinity Sunday—from 1407 to 1604, and that at Hull the play of _Noah_ was performed in the streets once each year for a space of three centuries. [Illustration: A MIRACLE PLAY IN THE OLDEN TIME.] What the performance of a Miracle Play was like may be judged pretty well from the accompanying illustration. The pageant was a large ‘two-decker’ vehicle, which could be drawn by men or horses from one ‘station’ to another. [Illustration: NOAH’S ARK. (_From an old French Miracle Play_). ] It was the custom at York for the first play in the series—_God the Father Almighty Creating and Forming the Heavens_—to begin on Corpus Christi morning at 5 o’clock. This was at the gates of the Priory of Holy Trinity. When this part of the Creation had been satisfactorily got through, its pageant passed on to take up its second station ‘at the door of Robert Harpham’; while another play showing _God the Father Creating the Earth_ took its place. And so on through the whole series, each play being thus performed at twelve different stations during the course of the day. The performers of these plays were the members of the various Trade Gilds of a town. So far as the number of plays allowed, each Gild might have its own play, and the plays were as far as possible appropriately distributed. Thus at York the Goldsmiths had allotted to them _The Three Kings Coming from the East_, the Vintners had _The Turning of Water into Wine_, and the Butchers had _The Crucifixion_. At both York and Hull the Shipmen, or Mariners, had the play of _Noah_. Stage properties were well looked after. The ‘ark’ used in a French performance of _The Deluge_ is here shown, while that used in the corresponding play produced each ‘Plough Monday’[41] by the Hull Shipmen was equally elaborate though built more in resemblance to an ordinary ship. It had mast and rigging, and pictures of the animals that ‘went in two by two’ hung round its sides painted on boards. From one festival to another it remained suspended from the roof of Holy Trinity Church. Footnote 41: The first Monday after ‘Twelfth Night,’ _i.e._ the Monday following January 6th. Some curious items occur in the old accounts of the Hull Trinity House in this connection:— To Robert Brown, playing God 6d.