Quintain

Quintain was an instrument used in the ancient practice of tilting on horseback with the lance. It consisted of an upright post, surmounted by a cross-bar turning on a pivot, which had at one end a flat board, at the other a bag of sand. The object of the tilter was to strike the board at such speed that he would be well past before the bag of sand, as it whirled round, could hit him on the back. At Offham in Kent, 7 miles WNW. of Maidstone, there are the remains of an old quintain; and at the May games held at St Mary Cray in Kent, near Bromley, in 1891 the quintain was also revived.