of the events. Portable watches of the time were "rare, costly, and relatively unreliable devices", but perhaps just as importantly "nobody in Dover's time was much interested in sports record-keeping or record-breaking". Visitors from all strata of society attended, from agricultural labourers to the nobility, some of whom travelled up to to attend the games. Prince Rupert attended in 1636. Other diversions A harper dressed as the Greek poet Homer entertained the crowds, enhancing the classical Olympic theme. There was also a maze, known as a Troy Town, constructed from piled up turf with walls about high, through which villagers would dance. Various games were played for small stakes in booths and tents, including chess, Irisha game similar to backgammonand card games such as cent, a game like piquet. King James approved of card games "when you have no other thing ado ... and are weary of reading ... and when it is foul and stormy weather", but he considered chess to be "too obsessive a game". The games ended with a grand firework display, centred on the castle. Controversy In the 17th century many Puritans believed that the slightest action might lead to sin, and even to Hell if it was not repented. They frowned on festivities such as the games as being of pagan origin, promoting immorality and drunkenness, and disapproved of any celebration on a church holiday such as Whitsun. A Puritan revolt over a 1627 "Bringing in the May" festival at Mount Wollaston in present-day Massachusetts resulted in the expulsion of its organiser from the colony. King James, on the other hand, viewed Puritanism as a challenge to the authority of the monarch. The fine clothes donated by the King, which Dover wore when he presided over the games, were not just a fashion statement, but also a political one. The feather in Dover's hat was a "flag of defiance to virtue" in Puritan eyes, and even the starch probably used in the washing of his ruff was evil, according to the Puritan writer Philip Stubbes. He described starch as "[a] certain kind of liquid matter ... wherein the Devil hath learned them [non-Puritans] to wash and die their ruffs". James was succeeded by King Charles I in 1625. The new king reluctantly consented to an Act of Parliament "for punishing divers abuses on the Lord's Day, called Sunday". The Act restricted the activities that were