MB HARDY ON BOWLING. 67 



as it had to be tossed out at the breach it had made. Such was the 

 nice construction of the law on tlie point. It has been remarked, that 

 the strongest person is not always successful at this game, as excellence 

 depends upon the poising, levelling, and dexterous projection of the bowl, 

 rather than upon the amount of corporal might exerted. Sometimes 

 the loser will be a quarter of a mile in the rear, at other times the 

 victory will be closely contested. One hundred yards is reckoned a good 

 distance in casting a bowl, though expert bowlers often surpass it. 



There is considerable danger attending the practice of this sport on 

 the public roads. There have been instances of death resulting from 

 the blow of a bowl carelessly directed. To a stranger, the animated 

 concourse on the occasion of a bowling match, presents a scene at once 

 alarming and picturesque. The excited movements of a large body of 

 men, as if on the eve of an outbreak, the vehement gesticulations and 

 discordant acclaim of encouragement and applause, the succession of 

 stones, volley after volley, and the disorderly tumult that accompanies 

 the players to the goal, give it the appearance of a straggling fight, 

 rather than of an association of peaceable rustics for holiday recreation. 



Such are the scattered hints I have been able to glean respecting the 

 mode in which this game is pursued. It remains that I add a few par- 

 ticulars connected with its history. Fitzstephens, in his History of 

 London, mentions casting of stones as one of the amusements of the 

 young Londoners in the twelfth century. It was one of the sports pro- 

 hibited by edict in the 39th year of Edward the III. (1339) as engross- 

 ing too much the public attention, to the neglect of the long bow and 

 other martial exercises, which that politic monarch wished to encourage. 

 Barclay's Eclogues, 1508, includes among the ** featis of maistries," 

 "on which it not refuseth any prince or kinge" to ** bestowe some dili- 

 gence," the casting 



** by violence, 



Stone, barre, or plmnniett, or suche other thinge." 



It is one of the many complaints, and in this instance justly, of 

 Barnabe Googe, in his translation of the Pope's Kingdom, from the 

 Latin of The. Neogeorgius, 1570, 



" Now, when their dinner once is done, and that they have well fed, 



To play they go, to casting of the stone, to ninne or shoote on Sunday aflemoone." 



It is to be borne in mind that this is not the sport interdicted by the 

 infamous proclamations of James I. and Charles I. respecting games 

 that may be practised on Sundays ;— " at all times in the meaner sort 



B. N. C. — VOL. II. NO. XI. B 



