[CROQUET.]
In Dr. Prior's "Notes on Croquet," published in 1872, the origin of the game is traced to Pêle Mêle, or Pall Mall, a game played with mallet and balls as long ago as 1661, and written of by the celebrated Mr. Pepys in his diary about that time. Pall mall was played with long handled mallets, with small balls, on gravel, and with long swinging strokes, and appears to have much more resembled golf than croquet; but Dr. Prior writes of a modified form of the game which only occupied a narrow but smooth space of ground, and in which two small arches and one iron peg were employed, while the strokes were made with a spoon-headed mallet, resembling the mace used at billiards.
A hundred years later, a game bearing the name croquet was played by the peasants of Brittany, a rough pastime, detailed accounts of which may be read in Mr. A. Lillie's work on croquet published last year, or in Dr. Prior's earlier book. The game, as first known in this country, seems to have come from Ireland somewhere about 1857, when it was brought out by Mr. Jaques as a social garden game; a trivial enough pastime from which gradually developed the more interesting game of the present day. It was to Mr. Walter Jones Whitmore that the first start of really scientific croquet is due, and he it was who organised the first tournament in 1867, held at Evesham, when Mr. Whitmore became the champion. In the following year, a much larger tournament was held at Moreton-in-the-Marsh, when the Championship fell to the late Mr. W. H. Peel, whose interest in the game never flagged, and to whose untiring exertions much of the success of the present revival is due. He founded the present All-England Croquet Association, two years ago, (1896), and became its honorary secretary, his sadly sudden death last October leaving a blank hard to fill.
In 1868, Mr. Whitmore got up the All-England Croquet Club, and from this point the tactics of the game became its prominent feature. With the expulsion of tight croquet (viz., when two balls were together, placing your foot on your own ball to keep it in position, and hitting it so as to send the other ball away), and the introduction of the dead boundary, croquet became a game more of the head than the hands, the various positions in a game requiring perfectly different treatment according to the capabilities of the antagonists. At this time, too, a code of laws was drawn up by Mr. Whitmore and a few leading spirits, which in some respects differed materially from the rules of to-day, notably in that requiring the side stroke.
From 1869, the date of the first Open Tournament, held on the All-England Club grounds, at Wimbledon, till 1882, yearly matches were played there for the Championship and Challenge Cup, and for some years there was also a Ladies' Championship contest, but either the extreme narrowness of the hoops, the large size of the grounds, or the necessity for constant practice, so reduced the number of competitors that these matches were abandoned, and even the Gentlemen's Championship for three or four years practically dwindled down to a match between two players (Mr. Bonham Carter and Mr. Spong), till in 1882, the Cup having been finally won by the latter, croquet became a thing of the past at Wimbledon. The club grounds were then handed over to lawn-tennis players until 1896, when a small body of enthusiastic croquet players started the game afresh, and in a few weeks several old players rallied round them, and one or two small but successful meetings were held.
In the interval, croquet had not altogether died out. At Brentwood, a small club had held its meetings for some time, and at Maidstone, a yearly tournament had taken place since 1894, while players were to be found in the remote village of Budleigh Salterton, and in the far west of Somersetshire, Dr. Prior kept up a perfect lawn, on which in former years most of the well-known players had tried their skill.
To make a croquet lawn as perfect as possible, it should be absolutely level, of fine hill turf, not mossy or intersected with plantains, and if possible there should be a layer of cinders or other Ballast a few inches below the surface, as this serves to drain it more quickly and also prevents worms from working through.
