190 A Game for Old and Young.

dipped my pen rather with the intention of blackening croquet than otherwise, and now its dissection has converted me.

I do not wonder at the polite rural world playing croquet. It conceals the age of the old, and displays the grace of the young.

Grandpapa, in whose hands a bow would look absurd, whose lumbago would interfere with the exercise of quoits or bowls, can and does often play a very close game at croquet. He need not bend his back; thus it is a good pastime for those who are getting rather stiffish. And for those full of ease and grace, what better?

A girl with neat ankles will play at croquet all day long-it is made for pretty feet and well-shaped boots. And yet, with all these social and coquettish recommendations, it is a game within the pale of the most strict and straitlaced society.

A Quaker might play at croquet with drab balls. Papas and mammas who would not endure seeing their daughters whisked about in the waltz by the young gentlemen of their acquaintance, permit them to tread the mazes of croquet, and see their interests represented in the osculating balls.

If I were a young man in the country, with

an

average appreciation of young ladies' society, I should probably affect to underrate croquet. As it is, being a grave townsman, with only an occasional glimpse, by return ticket, of the green grass carpet with its checkered shade and moving group of playful tapping nymphs, I can only say that young men have now opportunities which we ancients knew

not.

But let us have done with this croquet. The original prejudice against it, with which I began to write, is coming back again, and if I don't get out of the subject soon, shall catch myself sneering at the game as a dawdling, effeminate

There, now, I've cut the thread, and turn to quoits. Lawn billiards are too like croquet for me to venture on them. Let us to quoits. Here we are at once in another atmosphere, though at a garden game. The history of quoits would lead us back into the twilight of the past. It was a national Greek game in the time of Homer; it was still popular and manly at the height of Roman civilization. With modifications, it has survived till now; and though it has in some places a tendency to associate itself with skittles, it is considered both classical and manly, affording wholesome

192

Ancient and Modern.

exercise, and considerable opportunity for skill. The main difference between it as played by the ancients and moderns, is this the latter pitch at a mark, the trial with the former was only who could pitch the quoit farthest. There is a difference, too, in the shape of the old and new quoit the old was larger, flatter, and without a hole in the middle.

Leaving now the contrast, let us look at the game as played in the present day. It is a fair, manly game; there are no patterns, or colours, or devices about it. It has no paraphernalia; it wants only a couple of feathers, the quoit itself, and a cunning hand. I say feathers, for they are soft and visible, and far better than iron pins to pitch at. A good rook's wing-feather marks the goal, provides a stiff centre to measure from, and does not spoil a good throw. Sometimes an iron pin flings off the best quoit of the whole flight when it pitches upon it. Moreover, the feather, when cut down, is capable of being set up again, and serves as well as ever.

The two feathers ought to be twenty-one yards apart; this is a good distance to pitch. A string tied loosely round the quill serves to measure the nearness of the rival quoits. No quoit ought to be counted unless it sticks in

the ground; this affords a severe test of the accuracy of the aim. It is not usual, I know, under any circumstances, to reckon those quoits which turn up and rest finally on their backs; but even a flat quoit, which some players recognise, will sometimes pitch at a distance from the feather, and then hop or bowl close up to it, cutting out others which have been better directed. Unless you make a strict rule that none but stickers shall count, there will be more flukes made in this game than any other. I have many times seen a quoit which pitched three yards wide of the mark, and didn't stick, roll quietly in sideways, and lie down close to the feather. You know the wonderful gift of locomotion possessed by a shilling: you drop it on the floor and it bowls off on its own account, at no great pace, but with surprising perseverance. Just so, a badly-thrown quoit will occasionally travel up to the goal, and take its place among the winners.

But if you play "stickers" the disc may wander in with no worse mischief to the skilful player than arises from the chance of its getting in the way, and preventing a good quoit which would have stuck.

A quoit ought to enter the ground at an angle of forty-five degrees, and make a cut in

194

The Flight of the Quoit.

the clay or grass at right angles to the straight line between the two feathers. If well thrown it moves parallel to itself throughout its whole flight, the greatest height of its trajectory being about two-thirds of the distance from the end it is thrown from. In delivering it you must be careful not to let it go off out of your hand too flat, otherwise it will be a flopper," or barely stick. Its claim to be a sticker is decided by drawing back the lip of the cut it makes in the ground; if the quoit drops in the least, it is a "sticker."

A "flopper" is a demonstrative, deceptive pitch. The quoit often looks well as it is going, flies steadily, but comes down flat upon its face with a smack, and not the ghost of a "stick" in it. A "wabbler," on the contrary, often sticks; it is an unsteady quoit, and a most unpromising one in its flight, but very often pops down in the right place, half burying itself in the soil, and therefore all the less likely to be knocked out by another. But no good player can bear to see his quoits wabble.

You should not walk, much less run, up to the place from which you deliver your quoit: do it standing, quietly. The twist of the hand which gives the quoit its steady flight can be gained only by practice. The main thing in