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Introductory

CROQUET is a comparatively recent addition to the many games of which balls, of one sort or another, form the principal feature. There are several very ancient ball-games closely allied to each other, as Chicane or Hockey, Golf, and Pall Mall; of which the latter, as played in the 16th century, appears to have consisted in striking a ball through a hoop with an implement very like a croquet mallet.

But Croquet as now played is a very different thing from these ancient pastimes, having more the character of billiards on the lawn than anything else. Its cradle seems to have been the South of France or Italy, where the simple peasants amused themselves by knocking wooden balls through hoops of willow-rods with a mallet made of a broomstick stuck into a piece of hard wood. We know that it was introduced into Ireland about 25 years ago, and thence into England, where it was first played on the lawn of the late Lord Lonsdale.

Although Croquet soon became universally known as a means of spending a pleasant afternoon, yet the progress of the game was retarded for a long time by the confusion of rules which then existed--each maker and each writer on the subject (for of these there were many) having his own rules and recognising no others. At last, however, public matches began to be played, a conference of all the Croquet Clubs was held, and a code of laws agreed upon, which, with subsequent amendments and improvements, is now acknowledged to contain the only correct Laws of Croquet. Since then Croquet has taken its stand as a highly interesting, health-giving, and attractive out-door game, and one which we may particularly recommend to such of our young readers as are unable to take part in more athletic forms of recreation; for, without requiring too large an amount of bodily exertion, it demands sufficient calculation and forethought to render it an agreeable diversion for the mind--indeed it is asserted by some to afford more scope for combination and skill in tactics than even billiards. The difference between the present style of Croquet and the old form, which has been appropriately termed "Garden-Party Croquet," is in this respect very great.

With these few remarks we must dismiss the history of the game, and will now procced to describe the game itself, its implements, and the various sorts of strokes, and after explaining the principal points of interest in the Laws, will conclude with a few Hints to Beginners, which we hope will enable the young player to become, if not a "crack," a least tolerably proficient