“Perhaps,” said Mr. Seymour, “you will enhance the value of this favour, by giving us an antiquarian history of the ball, which will be very acceptable to us at this time, as we have just concluded a philosophical enquiry upon that subject.”
To this request the vicar readily assented, and proceeded as follows:--
“The Greeks appear to have played with four kinds of ball: viz. the little ball, the great ball, the empty ball ( σφαιρα κενη ), which was blown up with air, like our foot-ball, and the leathern ball ( κωρυκον ), which was suspended from the ceiling, and stuffed with bran or sand, as those who tossed it were robust or delicate. The Romans,” continued the vicar, “had also four kinds of pilæ, or balls. The follis, a large ball made of leather and blown up with air, like our foot-ball; the larger kinds of which were struck with the arm, the smaller ones with the fist. Suetonius tells us that Augustus Cæsar greatly delighted in the amusement; and in truth it was a glorious sport, an exercise equally adapted for the young and old; or as Martial has it,--
‘Folle decet pueros ludere, folle senes.’“[[27]]
“And yet,” said Mr. Seymour, “neither Horace nor Virgil played at it; do not you remember the lines in the fifth satire?--
‘Lusum it Mæcenas, dormitum ego Virgiliusque;
Namque pilâ lippis inimicum et ludere crudis.’”[[28]]
“Many thanks, Mr. Seymour, many thanks for brushing up my recollection; but I am a little doubtful about the game at which Mæcenas played at Capua: I have, by-the-by, lately read[[29]] an account of a peculiar game of ball for which the city of Sierra is celebrated, and it is supposed to be that referred to by Horace--‘It is played in the foss, which has a very high wall, and it is not unlike a tennis-court; the ball is very large, and appears to be inflated with air; the arm is defended by a wooden guard or shield; at certain periods of the game, one of the players runs down a spring-board, and throwing the whole of his weight, momentum, and strength upon the ball, as it is thrown towards him, he strikes it to an astonishing distance.’ The second kind of ball,” continued the vicar, “was termed trigonalis, which is conjectured to have been nearly the same as our tennis-ball. It derived its name from the position of the three persons who played with it; they were placed in a triangle, and alternately caught and tossed the ball, and he who first let it fall to the ground was the loser. The third kind of ball was the paganica, as being much used in country villages. Some authors state it to have been constructed of leather and stuffed with feathers, while others conjecture it to have been a large kind of follis. The fourth was the harpastum; a small ball, so called because the gamesters endeavoured to snatch it from each other.”
“It seems,” observed Louisa, “to be a sport better adapted to boys than girls.”
“In that supposition you are quite mistaken,” replied the vicar; “on the contrary, the hand-ball would seem to have been originally a female sport, for Homer has restricted the pastime to the princess and young maidens of Corcyra; at least, he has not mentioned its ever having been practised by the men.