Hockey

I have not observed that this has been yet noticed: if such be the case, permit me to refer to a letter of the poet Cowper, dated 5th Nov., 1785 (5th vol. *Works*, edit. by Southey, p. 174.) in which, alluding to that day, he says, "The boys at Olney have likewise a very entertaining sport which commences annually upon this day; they call it *hockey*, and it consists in dashing each other with mud, and the windows also, so that I am forced to rise now and then and to threaten them with a horsewhip, to preserve our own."