The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-05-04
LAWN TENNIS LORE.

A Fascinating Game With . Place In
History and Literature.
WRITTEN FOR THE SUNDAY 1NDEpENDENr.]
splendid game is lawn tennisl A game
for girls and boys, men and women; a
game to brighten the spirits, to awaken
healthy emulation, to promote social inter-
course; to tighten our cares and to heighten
our pleasures; a game requiring no
special strength, agility. study or practice;
easy to learn, pleasant to play and amusing
to witness.
Many are the historic memories that
cluster round the game, for, though in its
modern guise the sport has not yet at
tanned its majority, in the older form of
court tennis we hear of it in the Eleventh
century. It was Louis of France of that
period who, in his desire to taunt the COD
Gueror of England, sent him package of
tennis balls as hint that his increasing
weight was fast reducing him to condi-
ton of "innocuous desuetude.' The king
of England did not rush into print; he
rushed across the channel instead, and laid
bare with fire and sword the fair lands of
his royal cousin of France.
The older game was played in a long, oov-
Tered gallery, but. even as early as the days
of the Grand Monarque, tennis was occa-
sionally played as an open air game, and to
can lay claim. We are told that when, in
1591, the Earl of Hereford entertained
Queen Be6s ut his seat of Elveharn in
Hampshire. "ten of his servants. after din
ner, about O'Clock in the afternoon, did
Set up ON green before her majesty's win
dow, lines of cords squaring out the form
of tennis court, and making cross line
bin the middle. In the square the men,
stripped of their doublets, played five to
five with hand-ball, a horde and corde as
they term it, to the great ikinge OF her
highness."
But her majesty's tennis experiences were
not always so pleasant, If we are to believe
tradition. On one occasion, it is said, that
While playing with her favorite, the Earl of
Essex, the queen was so thoroughly unjust
over some point in dispute between them
That the polished courtier SO far forgot his
manners and her temper as to turn his
back on his royal mistress. This was more
Than Elizabeth could brook and her fathers
Laughter promptly boxed the offenders
bars.
To lend fictitious and unnecessary in
ferest to the game, betting was introduced
md 1t ID curious to note that by the regu-
cations each player was required to deposit
his stake by the net, before the game be-
gan. At least SO We may judge from the
following passage taken from a contempor-
bry play:
T.-Let US keepe the laws of the court.
G.-Ihat IS. stake money under the line.
s it not so?
F.-Yea. sir; you HIT it right.
G.-Here ls my monte; now stake YOU.
So popular. indeed, does the game seem
% have become that many of its phrases
became current coin of the language of the
day, and Haywood, in his proverbs and
Epigrams," explains s.Thou hast striken
he ball under the lyne'' as equ ivalent to
Thou hast lost" an obvious reference to
lawn tennis; while James l.. 1.-THE most
learned fool In Christendom," az his chan
eeilor dubbed him, ranked tennis az a
sport worthy of cultivation by his sons.
Nor did the game escape the attention of
he Obseryant SHAKESPEARE. When Ste-
piano, Trinculo and Caliban make their
drunken raid ON Prospero's wash line, the