ON THE GAME OF PALL .MALL. ^69 hockey, and gofi", which has been mentioned before, called in North Britain, golf/ Commenius, in the " Orbis sensuaHum," says that " boys use to play at striking a ball through a ring with a bandy {claca)."^ He gives a representation of the game, in which a ring appears raised on a short post or stake in the ground. Strutt observes that the ring is said to have been sometimes used in the game of Mall, and it appears in the old view of Whitehall before mentioned. He states also that a pastime resembling that shown by Commenius, existed in the North of England ; and it consisted in driving a ball through a ring in an alley formed for the purpose. The mallet used had a handle three feet or upwards in length, and the game seems to have been a rural modification of Pall Mali;-' It is to the kindness of Mr. George Vulliamy that I am indebted for the original malls and ball of which representa- tions accompany these notices ; they were found about January last in the old house in Pall Mall, No. 68, the residence of his father, the late Mr. Vulliamy, and for more than a century in the occupation of his family. They are, very probably, the only existing reliques of the obsolete game of Pall Mall in this country. Several malls were found carefully stored away, and a pair with one of the balls has been presented by Mr. G. Vulliamy to the British Museum.^ The former measure in length, including the mallet-head, 3 feet 10 inches, the handle being wound round with soft white leather for a space of about 14 inches. The head measures about 6-| inches by about 2 inches, its form is irregularly oval, and it is slightly curved, the flat ends also being cut obliquely, and strongly hooped with iron.^ There was ob- viously much skill exercised in the fashion and adjustment of this part, and no two examples are precisely similar. On one of them is stamped a name, probably the maker's — latovr, and a tower. The long handle is possibly of ash or oak, the head of chestnut C?). The ball, of root of box, measures 2 inches in diameter : the letter f is stamped upon it, reversed. " See Jaraieson's Scottish Dictionary, times termed " ]iailmail beetles," as ap- under Golf. Compare Brockett's account pears by a passage in Digby " on Bodiex," of Doddart, the hockey of the North. cited by Nares in his Glossary, under
- Commenius, c. Li6. Ludi Pueriles. Pail-Mall.
This curious little book was first produced - Richelet, r. Mail, states the length of about the middle of the X VI I th centiu'y. the handle as four or rive French feet. '•' Sports and Pastimes, p. }I2. The French foot was about 12» in. ' These long handled malls were some- English measure.
