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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B05975	The vaulting master: or the art of vaulting: Reduced to a method, comprized under certaine rules, illustrated by examples, and now primarily set forth, by Will. Stokes.	Stokes, William, fl. 1641.	1641 (1641)	Wing S5727; ESTC R184647	14,047	72

one qualitie more noble and necessarie than motion and activitie it being that whereby Aire excelleth the Earth and Water and Fire the Aire and the Heavens the Fire and that whereby all these doe preserve themselves and those creatures they containe So neither in the little world Man whether in respect of the Soule as being most neerly allied to the nature thereof it being in it selfe a perpetuall Motion as also the fountaine of all Activitie or in respect of the body as being that only whereby we are knowne to live and which chiefly distinguisheth that Earth wee are made of from the residue we tread on Now although it be impossible for a man to attaine to that height of agility which is found in those greater bodies it will be sufficient never thelesse if Art conspiring with an able Constitution may and hath rendred men equall to the most active of the beasts This no doubt will seeme a paradox to some that are enamoured of the admirable speed of a Hart or Horse or the nimblenesse of a Cat or have seene the Apes but let such consider the wonderfull frame of a mans body how it is the patterne as it were whereby both the world and all other creatures were made how in his thight the Horse in his heart the Lion in his hands the Ape in his back the Elephant are as it were stored up all making one by so much more mightie than they all by how much he is but one and they shall find that Nature is not wanting to man but man to himselfe and that it is not lack of abilitie but lack of use that has shrunk mens sinews and enfeebled them even to the contempt of beasts Is it not a shame then that men shoul so forget that they live and out of a base love of idlenesse suffer their bones to gather rust as it were and the gout lock up their joynts chusing rather a chaire than legs of their owne and the perpetuall trouble and torment of Physick than to need none a man may not unfitly think they practise to lye still all their life time lest their grave being not used to it should be too troublesome Certainly ashame it is in any but especially in a Gentleman as in a Gentleman likewise the contrary love of ingenious exercise is most praise-worthy considering the meaner sort of people are called to it by their necessities when as the Gentleman is or should be stirred up to it by the desire he has to doe his Countrey good and to heap honours on his name by his brave and heroick actions which how can hee when by a degenerous and unactive life his body becomes utterly unserviceable and his soule when she would shew her selfe in action is in fetters and set as they doe Horses in their triall to draw at a tree Well then doe those and worthy are they of their Ancestours as of the hearts and eyes of all men who loathing the lazie and unmanly life doe so accustome themselves by dayly use to exercises of all sorts that they may bee no slower in their actions than their intentions and have bodies like the soules of the other Equally blameable with those sons of idlenesse are those who out of a having and parsimonious disposition will not goe to the price of Art Art that is as it were another creation and gives those helps which Nature never meant nor hop'd which must alwayes sister Vse and be in joynt commission with Industrie or a man can never arrive at that excellencie and height in this kind which he is capable of And this I speake as well in generall in respect of all bodily exercises since there is not one of them though meere strength and Vse may performe things indifferently admirable but must expect their sinishings and perfection from the hand of Art as also more especially in respect of the Art of Vaulting the Subject of this present Treatise as being as excellent and amiable as any of her sisters if not more and partaking in as high a degree of the favours of Art and the advantageous helps of masterie and skill as those that have their title Sub privilegio and happily have gained the more early approbation of the world Not that I doe herein chalenge the Science of Defence or by comparison provoke to the combat since I know she is as sufficiently arm'd as able to defend her selfe but as considering they are sisters and therefore in hope they will without grudging endure each others praises so neither that I would hereby detract from the facultie of Dancing for what were it but for one hand to wound the other since I professe both No rather let the ingenious that desire to be acquainted with this Art suspend their judgements till by some triall they find it though boldly yet deservedly praised in the mean time I shall have my ends if what I have said may provoke men only to the love of it and excite in the gentle brest a desire to see what he has read not doubting then but the successe will warrant my confidence and that the Art will commend it selfe to the shame of words Neverthelesse I must not omit those parts of its praises which are yet behind lest I betray the former and if any thing can raise it to an equall glorie with its fellowes what more authentically than its antiquitie example in any thing being that which most readily procures mens assent to it and the more ancient the example the more assuredly ready the assent There might be much probably alleaged to this purpose but let this one suffice for all it is Homers the ancientest of the Greeke Poets when describing Ajax leaping from the beake of one ship to another he useth this Simile Iliad 15. As when a man well knowing how to use The vaulting Horse of many a Steed doth chuse Foure from the field and to the Citie drives Whilst many a man and woman thronging strives To see he safely and nimbly leaps from one To th' other horse yet they still forward run So Ajax c. Certainly a most ancient and infallible testimony To its antiquitie we may adde its use which daily experience has found to be manifold both in peace and war for need and pleasure In war the nimble avoydance of a mans horse if wounded or killed under him and in like manner the ready ascent into his enemies saddle if it be his hap to unhorse him and much more which the experienced Souldier shall find In peace a thousand graces to horse-manship services to Ladies and other courtly feats depend on it besides infinite that practise will meet with which cannot now be thought on One thing more the generally embraced esteeme and communitie thereof it has been loved even of Princes and now is Doe not thou then gentle Reader distaste or neglect an Art so honoured by its Fautors so anciently worthy and so generally necessarie but give it entertainment and love

The Vaulting Master OR The Art of Vaulting Reduced to a Method comprized under certaine Rules illustrated by Examples And Now primarily set forth By VVILL STOKES Xenoph. de magisterio equitum Juniores persuadendi sunt ut in equos insilire discant Landem verò jure mereberis si quem adhibueris magistrum sen praeceptorem Imprinted at London by I. Okes. 1641. The Epistle to the Reader Courteous Reader ALthough now adayes it be little better than paper cast away to entertaine the Reader in the entrance of a Book though with never so necessarie an eloquence since men will not so lose the pleasure and Venerie of envious Censure but hastily run on to banquet their gall with those faults which they will either find or make And although as one sayes well a man had better never write than give an account to everie one of that hee has written Neverthelesse I am determined not to give eare to such a cowardly wisdome lest I incur a double imputation either as not daring to meet with the Detractour or not caring to salute the Ingenious There are some I make no doubt though in other matters sufficiently knowing yet ignorant in this who doe and will dislike the thing it selfe nay the verie name of Vaulting as accounting it an unnecessarie and dangerous exercise a device to breake ones neck or limbs or the like but such when they know more will answer themselves in the meane time their ignorance is a sufficient punishment Another sort there are who are content to allow the thing but will by no meanes have it an Art but rather the child of an accidentall and undigested experience receiving the degrees of its excellencie from blind custome only and difference of bodies It were too long to confute these by reason and likewise unnecessary in this place seeing I have amply shewne it in the following leaves A third sort there are who grant it to be an Art and this Art extraordinarily available in the practice but they will say it is not so accurately handled nor in so exact a method as it deserves To such since it concernes my selfe I ingenuously confesse I have done in it what I was able nor am I such an enemy to the common good as to envie or not rather calmly to suffer my selfe to be cast out before him that can and will performe it better Yet let me comfort my selfe with this truth that all Arts if they bee so handled that they may teach will nor admit of that elegancie of word and phrase which though they becommingly dresse yet they dazle the eye of the Reader A fourth sort there are yet behind who I know will wonder whence I amongst all the excellent Professours of this Art both English and forraine should have the confidence to enter upon this Tract which had been worthy of the best of them and first of any I thinke I may safely say so dare expose my selfe under this tirle to the Presse and publike view This indeed comes neerest me of any but I shall answer and as I thinke beside their expectation that what they account in me a fault and a malapert undertaking I esteeme as my greatest happinesse nor would I change the glorie of being the first that have written with that of having written Since in all mens opinions the first Founders of all Arts and Sciences have beene as honourable as those that have built upon their foundations to the fairest height but enough of this lest I seeme to hug my good fortune even to ostentation which might have beene anothers and perhaps more fit for such a burthen and far more better deserving the honour of precedencie Yet Reader this I will say if happily it may adde any value to mee or this my work although I had rather my work should praise both it selfe and me Thou hast the fruit and observations of almost thirrie yeares and Rules confirmed by daily practice during so long a time if this may adde any thing to the esteeme of my labours so be it For the rest examine the whole piece and thou shalt find Reason embracing Experience thorowout and among reasonable men then how can it misse of its ends viz. the publike good and a just acceptance Nor need the Practitioner complaine of obscuritie as in many other who doe so interlard their writings with the knottie tearmes of Art that they may bee said both to teach and not to teach I have labour'd to avoyd that vice as having seene the uglinesse of it in them Besides the plainnesse of the phrase too wherein everie Passe is drest I have added to each a lively and beautifull Cut that so what is but dead as it were in words may be there seene in motion and to the life the rule and the example mutually illustrating one another What is else requisite for thy learning gentle Reader thou shalt find it there only as I have freely and painfully opened my selfe to doe thee good so doe thou stop the mouth of malice and defend this child of mine in the fathers absence and esteeme according to his merits of him that is Thine to command WILL. STOKES To the truly noble Gentleman Mr. Heury Percy Master of the Horse to the Prince his Highnesse c. Honoured Sir IT is in me a boldnesse I must confesse that deserves not to be pardoned on so small interest to present a Toy a light and undigested Pamphlet to you that are so far above it And yet mee thinks this boldnesse is much more answerable when I consider that you were once pleased during that time in which you were both an Ornament and an Honour to the Uniuersitie to make use of my meane skill and humblest service in this kind and likewise that there is none more able either to protect or judge of what I have written From the first I draw encouragement proper to my selfe in the other I make that encouragement mine which is or ought to be common to all that would make a fit choyce of patronage And on these grounds I have presumed among those many happier and more worthy labors which wait on your Name to place this little one which although as it can never hope so it can never have the happinesse to enjoy that measure of your Sun-shine and so bounteous an eye as those more deserving shall neverthelesse rest content in the conscience of that everlasting service which the Father of it owes Be pleased then most worthy Sir to suffer your Name in the Front of this otherwise poore and defencelesse Book So that by that meanes it becomming acceptable to the world I may not doubt but afterwards it will prove as profitable My last but not my least hopes are that as you loved this Art in your youth and have honour'd it since so you will still advance it and continue your favours to him that is Your most humble Servant WILL. STOKES The Preface AS in the greater world there is no