CHAPTER III.
I.—HAND BALL.
The ball has given origin to many popular pastimes, and I have appropriated this chapter to such of them as are or have been usually practised in the fields and other open places. The most ancient amusement of this kind, is distinguished with us by the name of hand-ball, and is, if Homer may be accredited, coeval at least with the destruction of Troy. Herodotus attributes the invention of the ball to the Lydians; [391] succeeding writers have affirmed, that a female of distinction named Anagalla, a native of Corcyra, was the first who made a ball for the purpose of pastime, which she presented to Nausica, the daughter of Alcinous, king of Phœacia, and at the same time taught her how to use it; [392] this piece of history is partly derived from Homer, who introduces the princess of Corcyra with her maidens, amusing themselves at hand-ball:
Homer has restricted this pastime to the young maidens of Corcyra, at least he has not mentioned its being practised by the men; in times posterior to the poet, the game of hand-ball was indiscriminately played by both sexes.
II.—ANGLO-SAXON BALL PLAY.
It is altogether uncertain at what period the ball was brought into England: the author of a manuscript in Trinity College, Oxford, written in the fourteenth century, and containing the life of Saint Cuthbert, [394] says of him, that when he was young, "he pleyde atte balle with the children that his fellowes were." On what authority this information is established I cannot tell. The venerable Bede, who also wrote the life of that saint, makes no mention of ball play, but tells us he excelled in jumping, running, wrestling, and such exercises as required great muscular exertion, [395] and among them, indeed, it is highly probable that of the ball might be included.
III.—LONDON BALL PLAY.
Fitzstephen, who wrote in the thirteenth century, speaking of the London school-boys, says, "Annually upon Shrove Tuesday, they go into the fields immediately after dinner, and play at the celebrated game of ball; [396] every party of boys carrying their own ball;" for it does not appear that those belonging to one school contended with those of another, but that the youth of each school diverted themselves apart. Some difficulty has been stated by those who have translated this passage, respecting the nature of the game at ball here mentioned. Stowe, considering it as a kind of goff or brandy-ball, has, without the least sanction from the Latin, added the word bastion, [397] meaning a bat or cudgel; others again have taken it for foot-ball, [398] which pastime, though probably known at the time, does not seem to be a very proper one for children: and indeed, as there is not any just authority to support an argument on either side, I see no reason why it should not be rendered hand-ball. [399]
IV.—BALL PLAY IN FRANCE.
The game of hand-ball is called by the French palm play, [400] because, says St. Foix, a modern author, originally "this exercise consisted in receiving the ball and driving it back again with the palm of the hand. In former times they played with the naked hand, then with a glove, which in some instances was lined; afterwards they bound cords and tendons round their hands to make the ball rebound more forcibly, and hence the racket derived its origin." [401] During the reign of Charles V. palm play, which may properly enough be denominated hand-tennis, was exceedingly fashionable in France, being played by the nobility for large sums of money; and when they had lost all that they had about them, they would sometimes pledge a part of their wearing apparel rather than give up the pursuit of the game. The duke of Burgundy, according to an old historian, [402] having lost sixty franks at palm play with the duke of Bourbon, Messire William de Lyon, and Messire Guy de la Trimouille, and not having money enough to pay them, gave his girdle as a pledge for the remainder; and shortly afterwards he left the same girdle with the comte D'Eu for eighty franks, which he also lost at tennis.
V.—TENNIS-COURTS.
At the time when tennis play was taken up seriously by the nobility, new regulations were made in the game, and covered courts erected, wherein it might be practised without any interruption from the weather. In the sixteenth century tennis-courts were common in England, and the establishment of such places countenanced by the example of the monarchs. In the Vocabulary of Commenius, [403] we see a rude representation of a tennis-court divided by a line stretched in the middle, and the players standing on either side with their rackets ready to receive and return the ball, which the rules of the game required to be stricken over the line. Hence the propriety of Heywoode's proverb, "Thou hast stricken the ball under the line;" meaning he had failed in his purpose. [404]
VI.—TENNIS FASHIONABLE IN ENGLAND.
We have undoubted authority to prove that Henry VII. was a tennis player. In a MS. register of his expenditures made in the thirteenth year of his reign, and preserved in the Remembrancer's Office, this entry occurs: "Item, for the king's loss at tennis, twelvepence; for the loss of balls, threepence." Hence one may infer, that the game was played abroad, for the loss of the balls would hardly have happened in a tennis-court. His son Henry, who succeeded him, in the early part of his reign was much attached to this diversion; which propensity, as Hall assures us, [405] "being perceived by certayne craftie persons about him, they brought in Frenchmen and Lombards to make wagers with hym, and so he lost muche money; but when he perceyved theyr crafte, he eschued the company and let them go." He did not however give up the amusement, for we find him, according to the same historian, in the thirteenth year of his reign, playing at tennis with the emperor Maximilian for his partner, against the prince of Orange and the marquis of Brandenborow: "the earl of Devonshire stopped on the prince's side, and the lord Edmond on the other side; and they departed even handes on both sides, after eleven games fully played." [406] Among the additions that king Henry VIII. made to Whitehall, if Stowe be correct, were "divers fair tennis-courts, bowling-allies, and a cock-pit." [407]
James I., if not himself a tennis player, speaks of the pastime with commendation, and recommends it to his son as a species of exercise becoming a prince. [408] Charles II. frequently diverted himself with playing at tennis, and had particular kind of dresses made for that purpose. So had Henry VIII. In the wardrobe rolls we meet with tenes-cotes for the king, also tennis-drawers and tennis-slippers. [409]
VII.—A FAMOUS WOMAN PLAYER.
A French writer speaks of a damsel named Margot, who resided at Paris in 1424, and played at hand-tennis with the palm, and also with the back of her hand, better than any man; and what is most surprising, adds my author, at that time the game was played with the naked hand, or at best with a double glove. [410]
VIII.—HAND-BALL PLAY FOR TANSY CAKES.
Hand-ball was formerly a favourite pastime among the young persons of both sexes, and in many parts of the kingdom it was customary for them to play at this game during the Easter holidays for tansy cakes; but why, says Bourne, they should prefer hand-ball at this time to any other pastime, or play it particularly for a tansy cake, I have not been able to find out. [411] The learned Selden conceives the institution of this reward to have originated from the Jewish custom of eating bitter herbs at the time of the passover. [412]
Anciently the mayor, aldermen, and sheriff of Newcastle, accompanied with a great number of burgesses, used to go every year at the feasts of Easter and Whitsuntide to the Forth, the little Mall of the town, with the mace, the sword, and the cap of maintenance carried before them. The young people still continue to assemble there at those seasons particularly, and play at hand-ball, or dance, but are no longer countenanced by the presence of their governors. [413]
Fuller mentions the following proverbial saying used by the citizens of Chester, "when the daughter is stolen shut Pepper Gate," which he thus explains: "The mayor of the city had his daughter, as she was playing at ball with other maidens in Pepper-street, stolen away by a young man through the same gate, whereupon he caused it to be shut up." [414]
IX.—FIVES.
Hand-tennis still continues to be played, though under a different name, and probably a different modification of the game; it is now called fives, which denomination perhaps it might receive from having five competitors on each side, as the succeeding passage seems to indicate. In 1591, when queen Elizabeth was entertained at Elvetham in Hampshire, by the earl of Hertford, "after dinner, about three o'clock, ten of his lordship's servants, all Somersetshire men, in a square greene court before her majesties windowe, did hang up lines, squaring out the forme of a tennis-court, and making a cross line in the middle; in this square they (being stript out of their dublets) played five to five with hand-ball at bord and cord as they tearme it, to the great liking of her highness." [415]
X.—BALLOON-BALL.
The balloon or wind-ball resembled the follis of the Romans. The follis was a large ball of leather, blown full of wind, and beaten backwards and forwards with the fist, and seems to have been much played with.
The balloon-ball, was a large ball made of double leather, which being filled with wind by means of a ventil, says Commenius, [417] was driven to and fro by the strength of men's arms; and for this purpose every one of the players had a round hollow bracer of wood to cover the hand and lower part of the arm, with which he struck the ball. This pastime was usually practised in the open fields, and is much commended for the healthiness of the exercise it afforded. The balloon-ball seems certainly to have originated from the hand-ball, and was, I apprehend, first played in England without the assistance of the bracer; this supposition will be perfectly established if it be granted, and I see no reason why it should not, that the four figures represented below are engaged in the balloon-ball play: the original delineation occurs in a manuscript of the fourteenth century in the Royal Library. [418]
The following engraving represents a gentleman and lady playing at hand-ball, and as far as one can judge from the representation, the pastime consisted in merely beating the ball from one to the other.
These figures are taken from a manuscript in the Harleian Library, [419] nearly, if not altogether, coeval in point of antiquity with the former. The balls are unlike each other; that in the engraving No. 20 is the largest, and bears the marking of the seams.
XI.—STOOL-BALL.
Stool-ball is frequently mentioned by the writers of the three last centuries, but without any proper definition of the game. Doctor Johnson tells us, [420] it is a play where balls are driven from stool to stool, but does not say in what manner or to what purpose. I have been informed, that a pastime called stool-ball is practised to this day in the northern parts of England, which consists in simply setting a stool upon the ground, and one of the players takes his place before it, while his antagonist, standing at a distance, tosses a ball with the intention of striking the stool; and this it is the business of the former to prevent by beating it away with the hand, reckoning one to the game for every stroke of the ball; if, on the contrary, it should be missed by the hand and touch the stool, the players change places. I believe the same also happens if the person who threw the ball can catch and retain it when driven back, before it reaches the ground. The conqueror at this game is he who strikes the ball most times before it touches the stool. Again, in other parts of the country a certain number of stools are set up in a circular form, and at a distance from each other, and every one of them is occupied by a single player; when the ball is struck, which is done as before with the hand, every one of them is obliged to alter his situation, running in succession from stool to stool, and if he who threw the ball can regain it in time to strike any one of the players, before he reaches the stool to which he is running, he takes his place, and the person touched must throw the ball, until he can in like manner return to the circle.
Stool-ball seems to have been a game more properly appropriated to the women than to the men, but occasionally it was played by the young persons of both sexes indiscriminately; as the following lines from a song written by D'Urfey for his play of Don Quixote, acted at Dorset Gardens in 1694, [421] sufficiently indicate:
XII.—HURLING.
Hurling is an ancient exercise, and seems originally to have been a species of the hand-ball; it was played by the Romans with a ball called harpastum, a word probably derived from harpago, to snatch or take by violence. The contending parties endeavoured to force the ball one from the other, and they who could retain it long enough to cast it beyond an appointed boundary were the conquerors. The inhabitants of the western counties of England have long been famous for their skill in the practice of this pastime. There were two methods of hurling in Cornwall, at the commencement of the seventeenth century, and both are particularly described by Carew, a contemporary writer, [422] whose words are these: "Hurling taketh his denomination from throwing of the ball, and is of two sorts; in the east parts of Cornwall to goales, and in the west to the country. For hurling to goales there are fifteen, twenty, or thirty players, more or less, chosen out on each side, who strip themselves to their slightest apparell and then join hands in ranke one against another; out of these rankes they match themselves by payres, one embracing another, and so passe away, every of which couple are especially to watch one another during the play; after this they pitch two bushes in the ground, some eight or ten feet asunder, and directly against them, ten or twelve score paces off, other twain in like distance, which they terme goales, where some indifferent person throweth up a ball, the which whosoever can catch and carry through his adversaries goale, hath woune the game; but herein consisteth one of Hercules his labours, for he that is once possessed of the ball, hath his contrary mate waiting at inches and assaying to lay hold upon him, the other thrusteth him in the breast with his closed fist to keep him off which they call butting." According to the laws of the game, "they must hurle man to man, and not two set upon one man at once. The hurler against the ball must not but nor hand-fast under the girdle, he who hath the ball must but only in the other's breast, and deale no fore ball, that is, he may not throw it to any of his mates standing nearer to the goale than himself." In hurling to the country, "two or three, or more parishes agree to hurl against two or three other parishes. The matches are usually made by gentlemen, and their goales are either those gentlemen's houses, or some towns or villages three or four miles asunder, of which either side maketh choice after the nearnesse of their dwellings; when they meet there is neyther comparing of numbers nor matching of men, but a silver ball is cast up, and that company which can catch and carry it by force or slight to the place assigned, gaineth the ball and the victory. Such as see where the ball is played give notice, crying 'ware east,' 'ware west,' as the same is carried. The hurlers take their next way over hilles, dales, hedges, ditches; yea, and thorow bushes, briars, mires, plashes, and rivers whatsoever, so as you shall sometimes see twenty or thirty lie tugging together in the water scrambling and scratching for the ball."
About the year 1775, the hurling to the goals was frequently played by parties of Irishmen, in the fields at the back of the British Museum, but they used a kind of bat to take up the ball and to strike it from them; this instrument was flat on both sides, and broad and curving at the lower end. I have been greatly amused to see with what facility those who were skilful in the pastime would catch up the ball upon the bat, and often run with it for a considerable time, tossing it occasionally from the bat and recovering it again, till such time as they found a proper opportunity of driving it back amongst their companions, who generally followed and were ready to receive it. In other respects, I do not recollect that the game differed materially from the description above given. The bat for hurling was known and probably used in England more than two centuries ago, for it is mentioned in a book published in the reign of queen Elizabeth, [423] and is there railed "a clubbe" or "hurle batte."
XIII.—FOOT-BALL—CAMP-BALL.
Foot-ball is so called because the ball is driven about with the feet instead of the hands. It was formerly much in vogue among the common people of England, though of late years it seems to have fallen into disrepute, and is but little practised. I cannot pretend to determine at what period the game of foot-ball originated; it does not however, to the best of my recollection, appear among the popular exercises before the reign of Edward III., and then, in 1349, it was prohibited by a public edict; [424] not, perhaps, from any particular objection to the sport in itself, but because it co-operated, with other favourite amusements, to impede the progress of archery.
When a match at foot-ball is made, two parties, each containing an equal number of competitors, take the field, and stand between two goals, placed at the distance of eighty or an hundred yards the one from the other. The goal is usually made with two sticks driven into the ground, about two or three feet apart. The ball, which is commonly made of a blown bladder, and cased with leather, is delivered in the midst of the ground, and the object of each party is to drive it through the goal of their antagonists, which being achieved the game is won. The abilities of the performers are best displayed in attacking and defending the goals; and hence the pastime was more frequently called a goal at foot-ball than a game at foot-ball. When the exercise becomes exceeding violent, the players kick each other's shins without the least ceremony, and some of them are overthrown at the hazard of their limbs.
Barclay in his fifth eclogue [425] has these lines.
And a more modern poet, Waller,
The danger attending this pastime occasioned king James I. to say, "From this court I debarre all rough and violent exercises, as the foot-ball, meeter for lameing than making able the users thereof." [426]
The rustic boys made use of a blown bladder without the covering of leather by way of foot-ball, putting peas and horse beans withinside, which occasioned a rattling as it was kicked about:
"It had been the custom," says a Chester antiquary, [428] "time out of mind, for the shoemakers yearly on the Shrove Tuesday, to deliver to the drapers, in the presence of the mayor of Chester, at the cross on the Rodehee, [429] one ball of leather called a foote-ball, of the value of three shillings and fourpence or above, to play at from thence to the Common Hall of the said city; which practice was productive of much inconvenience, and therefore this year (1540), by consent of the parties concerned, the ball was changed into six glayves of silver of the like value, as a reward for the best runner that day upon the aforesaid Rodehee."
In an old comedy, the Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green, by John Day, [430] one of the characters speaks thus of himself: "I am Tom Stroud of Hurling, I'll play a gole at camp-ball, or wrassel a fall a the hip or the hin turn." Camp-ball, I conceive, is only another denomination for foot-ball, and is so called, because it was played to the greatest advantage in an open country. The term may probably be a contraction of the word campaign.
XIV.—GOFF—CAMBUC—BANDY-BALL.
There are many games played with the ball that require the assistance of a club or bat, and probably the most ancient among them is the pastime now distinguished by the name of goff. In the northern parts of the kingdom goff is much practised. It requires much room to perform this game with propriety, and therefore I presume it is rarely seen at present in the vicinity of the metropolis. It answers to a rustic pastime of the Romans which they played with a ball of leather stuffed with feathers, called paganica, because it was used by the common people: the goff-ball is composed of the same materials to this day: I have been told it is sometimes, though rarely, stuffed with cotton. In the reign of Edward III. the Latin name cambuca [431] was applied to this pastime, and it derived the denomination, no doubt, from the crooked club or bat with which it was played; the bat was also called a bandy, from its being bent, and hence the game itself is frequently written in English bandy-ball. Below are two figures engaged at bandy-ball, and the form of the bandy, as it was used early in the fourteenth century, from a MS. book of prayers beautifully illuminated and written about that time, in the possession of Francis Douce Esq.
Goff, according to the present modification of the game, is performed with a bat, not much unlike the bandy: the handle of this instrument is straight, and usually made of ash, about four feet and a half in length; the curvature is affixed to the bottom, faced with horn and backed with lead; the ball is a little one, but exceedingly hard, being made with leather, and, as before observed, stuffed with feathers. There are generally two players, who have each of them his bat and ball. The game consists in driving the ball into certain holes made in the ground; he who achieves it the soonest, or in the fewest number of strokes, obtains the victory. The goff-lengths, or the spaces between the first and last holes, are sometimes extended to the distance of two or three miles; the number of intervening holes appears to be optional, but the balls must be struck into the holes, and not beyond them; when four persons play, two of them are sometimes partners, and have but one ball, which they strike alternately, but every man has his own bandy.
It should seem that goff was a fashionable game among the nobility at the commencement of the seventeenth century, and it was one of the exercises with which prince Henry, eldest son to James I., occasionally amused himself, as we learn from the following anecdote recorded by a person who was present: [432] "At another time playing at goff, a play not unlike to pale-maille, whilst his schoolmaster stood talking with another, and marked not his highness warning him to stand farther off, the prince thinking he had gone aside, lifted up his goff-club to strike the ball; mean tyme one standing by said to him, 'beware that you hit not master Newton:' wherewith he drawing back his hand, said, 'Had I done so, I had but paid my debts.'"
XV.—STOW-BALL.
A pastime called stow-ball is frequently mentioned by the writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, which, I presume, was a species of goff, at least it appears to have been played with the same kind of ball. In Littleton's Latin and English Dictionary, under the word paganica, the goff-ball and the stow-ball are the same.
XVI.—PALL-MALL.
According to the author, in the reign of James I., quoted above, pall-mall was a pastime not unlike goff, but if the definition of the former given by Cotgrave be correct, it will be found to differ materially from the latter, at least as it was played in modern times. "Pale-maille," says he, "is a game wherein a round box ball is struck with a mallet through a high arch of iron, which he that can do at the fewest blows, or at the number agreed upon, wins." It is to be observed, that there are two of these arches, that is, "one at either end of the alley." The game of mall was a fashionable amusement in the reign of Charles II., and the walk in St. James's Park, now called the Mall, received its name from having been appropriated to the purpose of playing at mall, where Charles himself and his courtiers frequently exercised themselves in the practice of this pastime. The denomination mall given to the game, is evidently derived from the mallet or wooden hammer used by the players to strike the ball.
XVII.—RING-BALL.
Commenius [433] mentions a game which he attributes indeed to the children, and tells us, it consisted in striking a ball with a bandy through a ring fastened into the ground. A similar kind of pastime, I am informed, exists to this day in the north of England; it is played in a ground or alley appropriated to the purpose, and a ball is to be driven from one end of it to the other with a mallet, the handle of which is about three feet three or four inches in length; and so far it resembles pall-mall; but there is the addition of a ring, which is not mentioned by Cotgrave; I have however been told, that it was sometimes used in the game of mall. This ring is placed at an equal distance from the sides of the alley, but much nearer to the bottom than the top of the ground, and through this ring it is necessary for the ball to be passed in its progress. The ring is made to turn with great facility upon a swivel, and the two flat sides are distinguished from each other: if the ball passes through the one it is said to be lawful, and the player goes on; but if through the other, it is declared to be unlawful, and he is obliged to beat the ball back, and drive it through again until such time as he causes it to pass on the lawful side; this done, he proceeds to the bottom of the ground, where there is an arch of iron through which it is also necessary for the ball to be passed, and then the game is completed. The contest is decided by the blows given to the ball in the performance, and he who executes his task with the smallest number is the victor.
XVIII.—CLUB-BALL.
Club-ball is a pastime clearly distinguished from cambuc or goff, in the edict above mentioned established by Edward III. The difference seems to have consisted in the one being played with a curved bat and the other with a straight one. The following engravings represent two specimens of club-ball; the first, from a MS. in the Bodleian Library, dated 1344, [434] exhibits a female figure in the action of throwing the ball to a man who elevates his bat to strike it.
Behind the woman at a little distance appear in the original delineation several other figures of both sexes, waiting attentively to catch or stop the ball when returned by the batsman: these figures have been damaged, and are very indistinct in many parts, for which reason I did not think it proper to insert them. The next specimen of ball, taken from a drawing more ancient than the former, a genealogical roll of the kings of England to the time of Henry III. in the Royal Library, [435] presents two players only, and he who is possessed of the bat holds the ball also, which he either threw into the air and struck with his bat as it descended, or cast forcibly upon the ground, and beat it away when it rebounded; the attention of his antagonist to catch the ball need not be remarked, it does not appear in either of these instances how the game was determined.
XIX.—CRICKET.
From the club-ball originated, I doubt not, that pleasant and manly exercise, distinguished in modern times by the name of cricket; I say in modern times, because I cannot trace the appellation beyond the commencement of the last century, where it occurs in one of the songs published by D'Urfey. [436] The first four lines, "Of a noble race was Shenkin," run thus:
Cricket of late years is become exceedingly fashionable, being much countenanced by the nobility and gentlemen of fortune, who frequently join in the diversion. This game, which is played with the bat and the ball, consists of single and double wicket. The wicket was formerly two straight thin battons called stumps, twenty-two inches high, which were fixed into the ground perpendicularly six inches apart, and over the top of both was laid a small round piece of wood called the bail, but so situated as to fall off readily if the stumps were touched by the ball. Of late years the wicket consists of three stumps and two bails; the middle stump is added to prevent the ball from passing through the wicket without beating it down. The external stumps are now seven inches apart, and all of them three feet two inches high. Single wicket requires five players on each side, and double wicket eleven; but the number in both instances may be varied at the pleasure of the two parties. At single wicket the striker with his bat is the protector of the wicket, the opponent party stand in the field to catch or stop the ball, and the bowler, who is one of them, takes his place by the side of a small batton or stump set up for that purpose two-and-twenty yards from the wicket, and thence delivers the ball with the intention of beating it down. It is now usual to set up two stumps with a bail across, which the batsman, when he runs, must beat off before he returns home. If the bowler proves successful the batsman retires from the play, and another of his party succeeds; if, on the contrary, the ball is struck by the bat and driven into the field beyond the reach of those who stand out to stop it, the striker runs to the stump at the bowler's station, which he touches with his bat and then returns to his wicket. If this be performed before the ball is thrown back, it is called a run, and one notch or score is made upon the tally towards his game; if, on the contrary, the ball be thrown up and the wicket beaten down with it by the opponent party before the striker is at home, or can ground his bat within three feet ten inches of the wicket, at which distance a mark made in the ground is called the popping-crease, he is declared to be out of the play, and the run is not reckoned: he is also out if he strikes the ball into the air, and it be caught by any of his antagonists before it reaches the ground, and retained long enough to be thrown up again. When double wicket is played, two batsmen go in at the same time, one at each wicket; there are also two bowlers, who usually bowl four balls in succession alternately. The batsmen are said to be in as long as they remain at their wickets, and their party is called the in-party; on the contrary, those who stand in the field with the bowlers are called the out-party. Both parties have two innings, and the side that obtains the most runs in the double contest claims the victory. These are the general outlines of this noble pastime, but there are many other particular rules and regulations by which it is governed; and those rules are subject to frequent variations, according to the joint determination of the players.
XX.—TRAP-BALL.
Trap-ball, so called from the trap used to elevate the ball when it is to be stricken by the batsman, is anterior to cricket, and probably coeval with most of the early games played with the bat and ball: we trace it as far back as the commencement of the fourteenth century, and a curious specimen of the manner in which it was then played is here presented from a beautiful MS. in the possession of Francis Douce, Esq. [437]
Here are only two players, but the game is not restricted to any particular number, though I think it seldom exceeds six or eight on a side. The size of the bat indicates the holder to have possessed no great judgment in striking the ball, but the trap is sufficiently elevated to preclude the necessity of the batsman's stooping when he raises the ball in order to strike it away, which gives it a decided advantage over the machine now used for the same purpose. This is generally made in the form of a shoe, the heel part being hollowed out for the reception of the ball; but boys and the common herd of rustics, who cannot readily procure a trap, content themselves with making a round hole in the ground, and, by way of a lever, use the brisket bone of an ox, or a flat piece of wood of like size and shape, which is placed in a slanting position, one half in the hole with the ball upon it, and the other half out of it: the elevated end being struck smartly with the bludgeon occasions the ball to rise to a considerable height, and all the purposes of a trap are thus answered, especially if the ground be hard and dry. It is usual, in the present game of trap-ball, when properly played, to place two boundaries at a given distance from the trap, between which it is necessary for the ball to pass when it is struck by the batsman, for if it falls withoutside of either, he gives up his bat and is out; he is also out if he strikes the ball into the air and it is caught by one of his adversaries before it grounds; and again, if the ball when returned by the opponent party touches the trap, or rests within one bat's length of it: on the contrary, if none of these things happen, every stroke tells for one towards the striker's game.
Trap-ball, when compared with cricket, is but a childish pastime; but I have seen it played by the rustics in Essex in a manner differing materially from that now practised in the vicinity of the metropolis, and which requires much more dexterity in the performance; for, instead of a broad bat with a flatted face, they use a round cudgel about an inch and a half diameter and three feet in length, and those who have acquired the habit of striking the ball with this instrument rarely miss their blow, but frequently strike it to an astonishing distance. The ball being stopped by one of the opponent party, the striker forms his judgment of the ability of the person who is to throw it back, and calls in consequence for any number of scores towards his game that he thinks proper; it is then returned, and if it appears to his antagonist to rest at a sufficient distance to justify the striker's call, he obtains his number; but when a contrary opinion is held, a measurement takes place, and if the scores demanded exceed in number the lengths of the cudgel from the trap to the ball, he loses the whole, and is out; while, on the other hand, if the lengths of the bat are more than the scores called for, the matter terminates in the striker's favour, and they are set up to his account.
XXI.—NORTHEN SPELL.
Northen-spell is played with a trap, and the ball is stricken with a bat or bludgeon at the pleasure of the players, but the latter, I believe, is most commonly used. The performance of this pastime does not require the attendance of either of the parties in the field to catch or stop the ball, for the contest between them is simply who shall strike it to the greatest distance in a given number of strokes; the length of each stroke is measured before the ball is returned, by the means of a cord made fast at one end near the trap, the other being stretched into the field by a person stationed there for that purpose, who adjusts it to the ball wherever it may lie; the cord is divided into yards, which are properly numbered upon it in succession, so that the person at the bottom of the ground can easily ascertain the distance of each stroke by the number of the yards which he calls to the players, who place it to their account, and the ball is thrown back. This pastime possesses but little variety, and is by no means so amusing to the bystanders as cricket or trap-ball.
XXII.—TIP-CAT.
Tip-cat, or perhaps more properly the game of cat, is a rustic pastime well known in many parts of the kingdom, and is always played with a cudgel or bludgeon resembling that used for trap-ball. Its denomination is derived from a piece of wood called a cat, of about six inches in length, and an inch and a half or two inches in diameter, diminished from the middle, to both the ends, in the shape of a double cone; by this curious contrivance the places of the trap and of the ball are at once supplied; for when the cat is laid upon the ground, the player with his cudgel strikes it smartly, it matters not at which end, and it will rise with a rotatory motion, high enough for him to beat it away as it falls, in the same manner as he would a ball.
There are various methods of playing the game of cat, but I shall only notice the two that follow. The first is exceedingly simple, and consists in making a large ring upon the ground, in the middle of which the striker takes his station; his business is to beat the cat over the ring. If he fails in so doing he is out, and another player takes his place; if he is successful he judges with his eye the distance the cat is driven from the centre of the ring, and calls for a number at pleasure to be scored towards his game: if the number demanded be found upon measurement to exceed the same number of lengths of the bludgeon, he is out; on the contrary, if it does not, he obtains his call. The second method is to make four, six, or eight holes in the ground, in a circular direction, and as nearly as possible at equal distances from each other, and at every hole is placed a player with his bludgeon: one of the opposite party who stand in the field, tosses the cat to the batsman who is nearest him, and every time the cat is struck the players are obliged to change their situations, and run once from one hole to another in succession; if the cat be driven to any great distance they continue to run in the same order, and claim a score towards their game every time they quit one hole and run to another; but if the cat be stopped by their opponents and thrown across between any two of the holes before the player who has quitted one of them can reach the other, he is out.