Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-09-19
The Ball in Antiquity.

1t is not a little remarkable that near-
ly all the open air games in which tho
human family has INDUCED from the
days of Homer down to the present
time have revolved round a ball of
some kind. Homer, indeed, introduces
us to the Princess of Corcyra, who
amuses herself with her maidens at
hand ball, and is alluded to in lines
translated from the "Odysscy" by
Pope: ''O'er the green mead the sport
i've virgins play. Their shining walls
unbound; along the skies tossed and
RECESSED the ball inccssant flies" He
rodotus again attributes the invention
of the ball to the Lydlans, and at least
one passage of the .'Iliad'' shows us
during the siege of Troy. So far IS
these islands are concerned. we know
that Fitzstephen, who wrote in the
Thirteenth Century. speaks of the
London boys ''as going annually into
the fields Immediately after dinner on
Shroye Tuesday to play at the cele-
brated game of ball.". There is no
reason to believe that they INDUCED in
football, which is supposed not to havo
been introduced or started in this
country until the reign O.: Edward Ill.
long after the death Of Fitzstephen,
to whom, by the way, we are indebted
for some of the earliest notices of
h~orse-racing in these islands. While
the boys of England were amusing
themselves with hand-ball, which prob
ably bore some resemblance to 1ives,
we learn from st. Folk that the boys of
Paris We're engaged in the lien de
paume,H Or palm play, (Which con-
sisted in receiving the bail and driving
it back again with the palm of the
hand" He adds that in former times
the French youths .'played with the
naked hand and then with a glove,
which in some instances was lined. At
terward they bound cords and tendons
round their hands to make the ball re-
bound more forcibly. and from this
practice the racket derives it's origin"
Four or five centuries ago, hand tennis
was extremely fashionable in France,
and was played ty the most illustrious
mobiles for what were then considered
large sums of money. The Duke of
Burgundy is said to have lost sixty
francs in 1868 to the Duke OF Bourbon
at palm play, and, not having enough
money to pay his losses, he left his Cir
die behind HIM as q pledge for the re-
mainder. 1t was not until two CEN
turtles later that tennis courts
sprang up simultaneously all over
France and England and that evil
denees appear in the public registers
showing that many of our Kings took
part in the game of tennis. Charles H.,
the most French OF our monarchs, was
extremely partial to the game and in
vented a dress specially adapted for its
player to wear. Prior, however. to the
Introduction of tennis it appears that
palm play was usually INDUCED in by
live competitors on either side, and
hence it got the name which it has ever
since retained of Gives" Three cen
turtles since Queen Elizabeth was on a
visit to llvetham, in Hampshire, which
was then the property OF the Earl of
Hartford, and belongs now TO Lord
C~aithorpe. MI. Nichols tells us in his
'.iaoyal Progresses chat .'after dinner,
about three of the clock, ten Of his
Lordships servants, all S~omersetshire
men, in 4 square greene court, before
her Ma estie's window, did haul up
lines, ssuaring out the form of q court
and making a cross line in the middle
In this square they, being stript of their
dublets, played five to five with hand
ball at bord and cord, as they tearm it,
to the great satisfaction and liking Of
her Highness. "-London Telegraph.