SFA'EXTEEXTII CEXTrRV. III'.) 



a hundred years earlier. At Levens there still remain some 

 of the bowls with the Bellingham crest, and as Colonel 

 Grahme bought the place from the Bellinghams in 16S7, the 

 bowling-green must have existed some years previously. Many 

 examples of old bowling-greens still remain : — there is a very 

 fine one at Chilham Castle, in Kent, 207 ft. long and 126 ft. 

 wide, also good examples at Cusworth and Bramham, in 

 Yorkshire, Holme Lacy in Herefordshire, at Powis Castle and 

 many other places. They were of various forms and sizes, 

 and there was generally a raised bench or terrace on one or 

 more sides of the open green, frequently with a pavilion 

 from which the spectators looked on at the game, while the 

 bowling-alley, on the contrary, was completely hidden by 

 overshadowing trees. A bowling-green at Warwick Castle is thus 

 described in 1673 : — " Within the gate ... is a fair Court, and 

 within that, encompassed with a pale, a dainty bowling-green, 

 set about with laurel, firs, and other curious trees," * and in 

 16S1 the Duke of Norfolk's garden near Norwich is described 

 by the same writer, Thomas Baskerville: "Taking a boat for 

 pleasure to view this city by water, the boatman brought 

 us to a fair garden belonging to the Duke of Norfolk, having 

 handsome stairs leading to the water, by which we ascended 

 into the garden, and saw a good bowling-green, and many 

 fine walks." In all his journals, Baskerville notices the 

 public bowling-greens at all the small towns, and attached 

 to many of the inns he stayed at. Thus, of Pontefract 

 Castle, he writes, "of which now only remains the plat- 

 form and stump of the bottom of the wall 2 or 3 yards above 

 ground, but yet it is handsome, because employed to fine 

 gardens and a bowling-green, where you may have for your 

 money good wine," also at Bedford " the ruins of an old 

 castle, containing within it a fine bowhng-green." Among 

 others he notes Saffron Walden, " a very good bowling-green 

 without the town," and of Watton, a small town in Norfolk, 

 he says there is little remarkable, save a fine new bowling- 



* Thomas Baskerville's Journal MSS. of the Duke of Portland, Hist. MSS. 

 Report 13. 



