intercourse with Scotland, such clubs as have been founded are strong in numbers and play.
On the European continent the game can scarcely be said to be played on scientific principles. It has existed in France since the 17th century. When John Evelyn was in Paris in 1644 he saw it played in the gardens of the Luxembourg Palace. In the south of France it is rather popular with artisans, who, however, are content to pursue it on any flat surface and use round instead of biased bowls, the bowler, moreover, indulging in a preliminary run before delivering the bowl, after the fashion of a bowler in cricket. A rude variety of the game occurs in Italy, and, as we have seen, John Calvin played it in Geneva, where John Evelyn also noticed it in 1646. There is evidence of its vogue in Holland in the 17th century, for the painting by David Teniers (1610–1690), in the Scottish National Gallery at Edinburgh, is wrongly described as “Peasants playing at Skittles.” In this picture three men are represented as having played a bowl, while the fourth is in the act of delivering his bowl. The game is obviously bowls, the sole difference being that an upright peg, about 4 in. high, is employed instead of a jack,—recalling, in this respect, the old English form of the game already mentioned.
Serious efforts to organize the game were made in the last quarter of the 19th century, but this time the lead came from Australia. The Bowling Associations of Victoria and New South Wales were established in 1880, and it was not until 1892 that the Scottish Bowling Association was founded. Then in rapid succession came several independent bodies—the Midland Counties (1895), the London and Southern Counties (1896), the Imperial (1899), the English (1903) and the Irish and Welsh (1904). These institutions were concerned with the task of regularizing the game within the territories indicated by their titles, but it soon appeared that the multiplicity of associations was likely to prove a hindrance rather than a help, and with a view, therefore, to reducing the number of clashing jurisdictions and bringing about the establishment of a single legislative authority, the Imperial amalgamated with the English B.A. in 1905. The visits to the United Kingdom of properly organized teams of bowlers from Australia and New Zealand in 1901 and from Canada in 1904 demonstrated that the game had gained enormously in popularity. The former visit was commemorated by the institution of the Australia Cup, presented to the Imperial Bowling Association (and now the property of the English B.A.) by Mr Charles Wood, president of the Victorian Bowling Association. An accredited team of bowlers from the mother country visited Canada in 1906, and was accorded a royal welcome. Perhaps the most interesting proof that bowls is a true Volksspiel is to be found in the fact that it has become municipalized. In Edinburgh, Glasgow, and elsewhere in Scotland, and in London (through the county council), Newcastle and other English towns, the corporations have laid down greens in public parks and open spaces. In Scotland the public greens are self-supporting, from a charge, which includes the use of bowls, of one penny an hour for each player; in London the upkeep of the greens falls on the rates, but players must provide their own bowls.
There are two kinds of bowling green, the level and the crown. The crown has a fall which may amount to as much as 18 in. all round from the centre to the sides. This type of green is confined almost wholly to certain of the northern and midland counties of England, where it is popular for The game. single-handed, gate-money contests. But although the crown-green game is of a sporting character, it necessitates the use of bowls of narrow bias and affords but limited scope for the display of skill and science. It is the game on the perfectly level green that constitutes the historical game of bowls. Subject to the rule as to the shortest distance to which the jack must be thrown (25 yds.), there is no prescribed size for the lawn; but 42 yds. square forms an ideal green. The Queen’s Park and Titwood clubs in Glasgow have each three greens, and as they can quite comfortably play six rinks on each, it is not uncommon to see 144 players making their game simultaneously. An undersized lawn is really a poor pitch, because it involves playing from corner to corner instead of up and down—the orthodox direction. For the scientific construction of a green, the whole ground must be excavated to a depth of 18 in. or so, and thoroughly drained, and layers of different materials (gravel, cinders, moulds, silver-sand) laid down before the final covering of turf, 212 or 3 in. thick. Seaside turf is the best. It wears longest and keeps its “spring” to the last. Surrounding the green is a space called a ditch, which is nearly but not quite on a level with the green and slopes gently away from it, the side next the turf being lined with boarding, the ditch itself bottomed with wooden spars resting on the foundation. Beyond the ditch are banks generally laid with turf. A green is divided into spaces usually from 18 to 21 ft. in width, commonly styled “rinks”—a word which also designates each set of players—and these are numbered in sequence on a plate fixed in the bank at each end opposite the centre of the space. The end ditch within the limits of the space is, according to Scottish laws, regarded as part of the green, a regulation which prejudices the general acceptance of those laws. In match play each space is further marked off from its neighbour by thin string securely fastened flush with the turf.
Every player uses four lignum vitae bowls in single-handed games and (as a rule) in friendly games, but only two in matches. Every bowl must have a certain amount of bias, which was formerly obtained by loading one side with lead, but is now imparted by the turner making one side more convex than the other, the bulge showing the side of the bias. No bowl must have less than No. 3 bias—that is, it should draw about 6 ft. to a 30 yd. jack on a first-rate green: it follows that on an inferior green the bowler, though using the same bowl, would have to allow for a narrower draw. It is also a rule that the diameter of the bowl shall not be less than 412 in. nor more than 514 in., and that its weight must not exceed 312 ℔ The jack or kitty, as the white earthenware ball to which the bowler bowls is called, is round and 212 to 234 in. in diameter. On crown-greens it is customary to use a small biased wooden jack to give the bowler some clue to the run of the green. The bowler delivers his bowl with one foot on a mat or footer, made of india-rubber or cocoa-nut fibre, the size of which is also prescribed by rule as 24 by 16 in., though, with a view to protecting the green, Australasian clubs employ a much larger size, and require the bowler to keep both feet on the mat in the act of delivery.
In theory the game of bowls is very simple, the aim of the player being to roll his bowl so as to cause it to rest nearer to the jack than his opponent’s, or to protect a well-placed bowl, or to dislodge a better bowl than his own. But in practice there is every opportunity for skill. On all good greens the game is played in rinks of four a side, there being, however, on the part of many English clubs still an adherence to the old-fashioned method of two and three a side rinks. Ordinarily a match team consists of four rinks of four players each, or sixteen men in all. The four players in a rink are known as the leader, second player, third player and skip (or driver, captain or director), and their positions, at least in matches, are unchangeable. Great responsibility is thus thrown on the skip in the choice of his players, who are selected for well-defined reasons. The leader has to place the mat, to throw the jack, to count the game, and to call the result of each end or head to the skip who is at the other end of the green. He is picked for his skill in playing to the jack. It is, therefore, his business to “be up.” There is no excuse for short play on his part, and his bowls would be better off the green than obstructing the path of subsequent bowls. So he will endeavour to be “on the jack,” the ideal position being a bowl at rest immediately in front of or behind it. The skip plays last, and directs his men from the end that is being played to. The weakest player in the four is invariably played in the second place (the “soft second”). Most frequently he will be required either to protect a good bowl or to rectify a possible error of the leader. His official duty is to mark the game on the scoring card when the leader announces the result. He keeps a record of the play of both sides. The third player, who does any measuring that may be necessary to determine which bowl or bowls may be nearest the jack, holds almost as responsible
