Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 11.djvu/290

 254 ON THE OAMH OF PALI. MALL. nil petit maillot, mis au bout (.Vuii baton crime longueur proportionnee, une boulle de buis. Ailleurs, cola se fait dans do longues allees plantees expres et garnies tout a I'entour de planches de bois. Ensuite, ce que les nostres ont fait a pied, les Grecs I'ont pratique montez sur des chevaux, et avec des raquettes, qui estoit la forme de leur chicane.^ " T have no intention to controvert the supposition thus stated by Ducange, that such games may have originated in France. From an carl}^ period the French were addicted to ball-play, especially the jeu de pabnc, the prototype o^ pamno or tennis, so called from its being practised with the naked hand, in later times protected by a glove, or, as it has been supposed, by a covering of interlaced cords, to give greater force to the blow.'^ Thence, as it is said, the racket had its origin, and that term has accordingly been derived from tho Latin reticidam, a net.^ It is, however, foreign to my })urpose to advert to these medii^n^al amusements, except to show how much in vogue they were amongst the higher cla.sses in France and other continental countries. In the xvth century the jeu de pahne, in its simpler form, was as 'fashionable amongst the French nobles, who staked large sums upon the game, as tennis was in tho xviith and xviiith centuries. Pasquier cites the relation of St. Foix, that as early as 1427 a damsel of Ilainault, named JMargot, astonished the best Parisian players by her superior skill ; and her tonr de force consisted in playing w^itli the back of lier hand. That the game was in favour also in England at that j)criod may be gathered from the tale, so often rc})eated, of tlic gift ironically sent to Henry V., in 1414. "The Dol])hyn (as Hall relates the incident) thynkyng K^'ng Henry to be geven still to suche j)laies and lyght folyes as he exercised and used before the tymc that he was exalted to the croune, sent to hym a tunnc of tennis balles to playo witjj, as who saied that lie could better skill of tennis then of warrc. ^ TIm- pi'ecisc timo' when ball-play willi llic wooden mallet was devised, or whence it was inlrodnced into I^higland, lias not b(.'(ni ascertained. The long-liandled mallet was tei-nied by the i''ieii(li, as also the game; itself, iinlf}iuitli and ' .Jriiiivill.-, I)iHHi<|iiiLT, KcflarcluM ilf In I'niini-, ' lliili'.i ( Immiilc, lo. i,. Ii. edit. j.'i.'iO. liv. iv. clmp. I.*).