SPORRAN (Gaelic sporan, purse, pouch), a pouch which is worn, in Highland costume, hanging from the belt over the front of the kilt. The older sporrans were quite modest objects and ordinarily of leather; in modern Highland costume and in the uniform of Highland kilted regiments it has become a highly ornamental adjunct, with silver or metal rims, and a heavy long backing of horsehair or fur.
SPORT (a contracted or shortened form of “disport,” to amuse, divert oneself, O. Fr. se desporter or deporter, to leave off work, hence to play, Lat. dis-, away, and portare, to carry; the origin of the meaning lies in the notion of turning away from serious occupations, cf. “diversion”), play, amusement, entertainment or recreation. The term was applied in early times to all forms of pastime. It was, however, particularly used of out-of-door or manly recreations, such as shooting with the bow, hunting and the like. Modern usage has given several meanings to “sport” and “sports.” Generally speaking “sport” includes the out-of-door recreations, the “field-sports,” such as fishing, shooting, fox-hunting, &c., connected with the killing or hunting of animals as opposed to organized “games,” which are contests of skill or strength played according to rules. It also includes the special class of horse-racing, the votaries of which, and also of the prize-ring, have arrogated to themselves sometimes the name of “sportsman,” applying that word even to those who follow racing simply as an occasion for betting. On the other hand, the plural “sports” is generally confined to athletic contests such as running, jumping, &c. (see Athletic Sports and subsidiary articles).
In zoology and botany the word has a specific meaning of a sudden or singular variation from type, “diversion” in a more etymological sense of the term.
SPORTS, THE BOOK OF, or more properly the Declaration of Sports, an order issued by James I. in 1617 on the recommendation of Thomas Morton, bishop of Chester, for use in Lancashire, where the king on his return from Scotland found a conflict on the subject of Sunday amusements between the Puritans and the gentry, many of whom were Roman Catholics. Permission was given for dancing, archery, leaping, vaulting and other harmless recreations, and of “having of May games, Whitsun ales and morris dances, and the setting up of May-poles and other sports therewith used, so as the same may be had in due and convenient time without impediment or neglect of divine service, and that women shall have leave to carry rushes to church for the decorating of it.” On the other hand, “bear and bull-baiting, interludes, and (at all times in the meane sort of people by law prohibited) bowling” were not to be permitted on Sunday (Wilkins, Concilia, iv. 483). In 1618 James transmitted orders to the clergy of the whole of England to read the declaration from the pulpit; but so strong was the opposition that he prudently withdrew his command (Wilson, in Kennet, ii. 709; Fuller, Church History, v. 452). In 1633 Charles I. not only directed the republication of his father’s declaration (Rushworth, ii. 193) but insisted upon the reading of it by the clergy. Many of the clergy were punished for refusing to obey the injunction. With the fall of Laud all attempts to enforce it necessarily came to an end.
SPOTSWOOD (Spottswood or Spottiswood), ALEXANDER (1676–1740), American colonial governor, was born, of an old Scotch family, in Tangier, Africa, in 1676. He served under Marlborough in the War of the Spanish Succession, and was wounded at Blenheim. He became lieutenant governor of Virginia in June 1710, when he was received with some enthusiasm, because he brought to the colony the privilege of habeas corpus; his term as governor closed in September 1722—probably because he meddled in ecclesiastical matters; but he remained in Virginia, living near his ironworks in Germanna, a settlement of Germans, on the Rapidan in Spottsylvania county (named in his honour) and he was deputy postmaster-general of the colonies from 1730 to 1739. He was the first representative of the British government in America who fully appreciated the value of the western territory. As governor he recommended the establishment of a Virginia company to carry on trade with the Indians, he urged upon the provincial government and also upon the British authorities the wisdom of constructing forts along the frontier, and he personally organized and conducted an exploring expedition (Aug. 17 to Sept. 20, 1716) into the Shenandoah Valley reaching the water-parting between the Atlantic and the Ohio river.[1] These ambitious and expensive schemes, coupled with his haughty and overbearing conduct, involved him in a controversy with the rather niggardly House of Burgesses. He developed the iron industry of Virginia, promoted the religious education of the Indians and tried to advance the interests of education, and especially of the College of William and Mary. In 1740 he was commissioned major-general to conduct the expedition against Cartagena, but died while attending to the embarcation, at Annapolis, Maryland, on the 7th of June 1740. His library he left to the College of William and Mary.
See R. A. Brock (ed.), “The Official Letters of Alexander Spotswood” (with a memoir), in The Collections of the Virginia Historical Society (2 vols., Richmond, 1882–1885).
SPOTTISWOODE (Spottiswood, Spotiswood or Spotswood), JOHN (1565–1639), archbishop of St Andrews and historian of Scotland, eldest son of John Spottiswood, minister of Calder and “superintendent” of Lothian, was born in 1565. He was educated at Glasgow University (M.A. 1581), and succeeded his father in the parish of Calder in 1583. In 1601 he attended Ludowick, duke of Lennox, as his chaplain, in an embassy to the court of France, returning in 1603. He followed James to England on his accession, but was the same year nominated to the see of Glasgow, his consecration in London, however, not taking place until October 1610. Spottiswoode had originally become prominent as an ardent supporter of the strict Presbyterian party, but gradually came to see the inconveniences of “parity in the Church,” attributed little importance to the existing matters of dispute, and thought that the interests of both church and state were best secured by keeping on good terms with the king. He was therefore ready to co-operate with James in curtailing the powers of the Kiik which encroached on the royal authority, and in assimilating the church of Scotland to that of England. On the 30th of May 1605 he became a member of the Scottish privy council. In 1610 he presided as moderator over the assembly in which presbytery was abolished, in 1615 he was made archbishop of St Andrews and primate of Scotland, and in 1618 procured the sanction of the privy council to the Five Articles of Perth with their ratification by parliament in 1621. In 1633 he crowned Charles I. at Holyrood. In 1635 he was appointed lord chancellor of Scotland, an office which he retained till 1638. He was opposed to the new liturgy as inexpedient, but when he could not prevent its introduction he took part in enforcing it. He was a spectator of the riot of St Giles’s, Edinburgh, on the 23rd of July 1637, endeavoured in vain to avoid disaster by concessions, and on the taking of the Covenant perceived that “now all that we have been doing these thirty years past is thrown down at once.” He escaped to Newcastle, was deposed by the assembly on the 4th of Decembei on a variety of ridiculous charges, and died in London on the 26th of November 1639, receiving burial in Westminster Abbey. Spottiswoode published in 1620 Refutatio libelli de regimint ecclesiae scoticanae, an answer to a tract of Calderwood, who replied in the Vindiciae subjoined to his Altare damascenum, (1623). The only other writing published during his lifetime was the sermon he preached at the Perth assembly. His most considerable work was The History of the Church and State of Scotland (London, 1655, seq.). It displays considerable research and sagacity, and even when dealing with contemporary events gives a favourable impression, upon the whole, of the author’s candour and truth. The opposite side can be studied in Calderwood’s History.
Spottiswoode married Rachel, daughter of David Lindsay, bishop of Ross, and besides a daughter left two sons, Sir John Spottiswoode of Dairsie in Fife, and Sir Robert, president
- ↑ To each of his comrades in this journey Spotswood presented a small golden horseshoe, lettered “Sic juvat transcendere montes.”
