Lauthier describes four ways of playing at pall mall, viz.:—(1) the rouet, or pool game; (2) en partie, a match game; (3) à grands coups, at long shots; and (4) chicane, or hockey. Moreover, he proposes a new game to be played like billiards.
We may now pass from St. James's Park to Hyde Park, which became a place of public resort in the reigns of James I. and Charles I. It was then considered to be quite a country place. Ben Jonson mentions in the Prologue to his comedy, The Staple of News (1625), the number of coaches which congregated there, and Shirley describes the horse-races in his comedy entitled Hide Parke (1637).
The park, being Crown property, was sold by order of Parliament in 1652 for about £17,000 in three lots, the purchasers being Richard Wilcox, John Tracy, and Anthony Deane. Cromwell was a frequent visitor, and on one occasion when he was driving in the park his horses ran away, and he was thrown off his coach.
After the Restoration the park was the daily resort of all the gallantry of the court, and Pepys found driving there very pleasant, although he complained of the dust. The Ring, which is described in Grammont's Memoirs as "the rendezvous of magnificence and beauty," was a small enclosure of trees round which the carriages circulated.
Pepys writes April 4th, 1663:—
"After dinner to Hide Park ... At the Park was the King and in another coach my Lady Castlemaine, they greeting one another at every tour."
This passage is illustrated in Wilson's Memoirs, 1719, where we are told that when the coaches "have turned for some time round one way, they face about and turn t'other."
John Macky, in his Journey through England (1724), affirms that in fine weather he had seen above three hundred coaches at a time making "the Grand Tour."
Cosmo tells of the etiquette which was observed among the company:—
"The King and Queen are often there, and the duke and duchess, towards whom at the first meeting and no more all persons show the usual marks of respect, which are afterwards omitted, although they should chance to meet again ever so often, every one being at full liberty, and under no constraint whatever, and to prevent the confusion and disorder which might arise from the great number of lackies and footmen, these are not permitted to enter Hyde Park, but stop at the gate waiting for their masters."