ds his hands in
readiness to catch the ball. He has the appearance of a very careful
fielder. Here we have the rudimentary idea of cricket; but how they
scored their game, what rules they had, we cannot determine.
Stool-ball claims also to be an ancestor of cricket, and consists in
one player defending a stool with his hand from being hit by a ball
bowled by another player. Here is a simple form of the modern game,
the stool being used as a wicket, and the hand for a bat.

Trap-ball is a much older game than cricket, and can be traced to
the beginning of the fourteenth century. The modern game differs
little from that which the old pictures describe, except in the
shape of the trap which holds the ball. But the most ancient of all
games of this nature is golf, or goff (as it used to be spelt),
which was played with a crooked club or staff, sometimes called a
bandy. Scotsmen are very fond of this game, which has lately
migrated into England and found many admirers. It was probably
introduced into Scotland from Holland, and was a popular pastime as
early as 1457. In spite of proclamations encouraging archery, and
forbidding golf, it continued to flourish; it has a long list of
royal patrons; and the Stuart monarchs seem to have been as
enthusiastic over the game as all true golfers ought to be. Poets
have sung the praises of golf, and the glory of the heroes who drove
their balls along St. Andrew's Links, or those of East Neuk. The
object of the game is to drive the ball into certain holes in the
fewest number of strokes. James II. was an expert golfer, and had
only one rival, an Edinburgh shoemaker, named Paterson.

[Illustration: PALL-MALL.]

If you have visited London you will probably have walked along the
street called Pall Mall, which name is derived from an old game
fashionable in the reign of Charles II. The merry monarch and his
courtiers frequently amused themselves with this game, which
somewhat resembled golf, and consisted in driving a ball by means of
a mallet through an iron hoop suspended from the ground in the
fewest blows. The game was played in St. James's Park, where the
street which bears its name now runs.

Tennis also has a history. It commenced its career as hand-ball, the
ball being driven backwards and forwards with the palm of the hand.
Then the players used gloves, and afterwards bound cords round their
hands to make the ball rebound more forcibly. Here we have the
primitive idea of a rac