watch under an officer which patrols the sentries in a fortress, fortified town, camp or other military station, and hence of the beat or customary course of a policeman, a postman, or a tradesman, and of the full course at such a game as golf. Similarly there were old dances called “rounds,” in which the dancers stood in a circle or ring. They were popular in the 16th and 17th centuries. Later the name was also applied to country dances where the dancers stood in two lines. For the “round” in music see Canon. A complaint or remonstrance signed by a number of persons is commonly known as a “round robin”; properly such a document should have the signatures arranged in a circle, the idea being that thus the order in which the complainants signed should be unknown. In the 16th century “round robin” was a name of mockery given to the Eucharist.
ROUNDERS, an English ball game, probably dating from
the 18th -century, but not attaining to any popularity before
1800. It was the immediate ancestor of Baseball (q.v.). Up to
the year 1889 no special code of rules existed, but the game was
played on the green, the field being marked out in a regular
pentagon by five bases about 15 or 20 yds. apart, called respectively
home-base (at which the striker stood), 1st base, 2nd base,
3rd base, and 4th base. The feeder, or bowler, stood in the
middle of the pentagon and tossed the ball, which was softer
than a cricket ball, to the striker, who with a round club, often
a cricket stump, endeavoured to hit it as far out of the reach of
the fielders as possible, a run being scored when the striker
made the circuit of the bases without being put out. Almost
any number of players could form a side, and the batsman
would be retired when a batted ball was caught on the fly or
first bounce, or when he was struck by having the ball thrown
at him while running between bases. Rounders in its primitive
form was more of a romp than a regular game, but it experienced
a revival in Scotland and the north of England about the year
1889, when two governing bodies were formed, the National
Rounders Association of Liverpool and Vicinity and the Scottish
Rounders Association. These, with the later Gloucester
Rounders Association, drew up the rules now recognized.
A hard ball similar to that used in baseball was adopted, and the rule by which a runner could be put out by hitting him with a thrown ball abandoned, The bat must not exceed 31⁄2 in. in diameter nor 35 in. in length. The game is similar to baseball, but there are several important differences, the most radical being that the ball may be hit in any direction, as at cricket. The original pentagon has been discarded in favour of an elongated diamond, the home-base being at one end and 1st, 2nd and 3rd bases at the other oints, while the 4th base is situated on the line of 3rd base towards home and 17 yds. from the former, the sides of the diamond being 22 yds. in length. The bowler stands in a space marked off in the centre of the diamond and tosses the ball to the batsman, who must hit at every “good” ball, i.e. one that is straight over the home-base and between head and knee. Two bad balls score one for the batsman. If the latter hits the ball he must run to 1st base and then 2nd, and so on round to home again, resting at any base; but he may be put out if the batted ball be caught on the fly or first bounce or the backstop (wicket-keeper in cricket) catch a ball struck at but not hit, or the batsman be touched with a ball while running between bases. Ten players constitute a side and three innings a piece are played, every player batting once in each innings. Each base made counts one. The backstop is placed directly behind the batsman, and behind the backstop are placed 1st cover (right), longstop (middle), and 4th cover (left). The 1st, 2nd and 3rd basemen are stationed at the bases, while behind them in the field are placed the 2nd cover (right), centre cover and 3rd cover (left). The bases are designated by light wooden posts. An umpire presides over the game. A variation of rounders is Fieldball, invented in 1888, a combination of rounders and cricket, a wicket being placed in front of the backstop, and the four bases arranged in a circle 25 yds. distant from each other. The bat and ball are similar to those used in baseball. Another variation is called Baseball Rounders, which was invented in 1889 and is practically the same as baseball.
ROUNDHEAD, a term applied to the adherents of the parliamentary party in England during the great Civil War. Some of the Puritans, but by no means, all, wore the hair closely cropped round the head, and there was thus an obvious contrast between them and the men of fashion with their long ringlets. “Roundhead” appears to have been first used as a term of derision towards the end of 1641 when the debates in parliament on the Bishops Exclusion Bill were causing riots at Westminster. One authority says of the crowd which gathered there: “They had the hair of their heads very few of them longer than their ears, whereupon it came to pass that those who usually with their cries attended at Westminster were by a nickname called Roundheads.” John Rushworth (Historical Collections) is more precise. According to him the word was first used on the 27th of December 1641 by a disbanded officer named David Hide, who during a riot is reported to have drawn his sword and said he would “cut the throat of those round-headed dogs that bawled against bishops.” Clarendon (History of the Rebellion, iv, 121) remarks on the matter: “and from those contestations the two terms of ‘Roundhead’ and ‘Cavalier’ grew to be received in discourse, ... they who were looked upon as servants to the king being then called ‘Cavaliers,’ and the other of the rabble contemned and despised under the name of ‘Roundheads.’ ” Baxter ascribes the origin of the term to a remark made by Queen Henrietta Maria at the trial of Strafford; referring to Pym, she asked who the round headed man was. The name remained in use until after the revolution of 1688.
Roundhead was also used during the Civil War as the name of a weapon. This is described as having “ an head about a quarter of a yard long, a staffe of two yards long put into their head, twelve iron pikes round about, and one in the end to stop with.”
ROUNDSMAN SYSTEM (sometimes termed the billet, or ticket, or item system), in the English poor law, a plan by which the parish paid the occupiers of property to employ the applicants for relief at a rate of wages fixed by the parish. It depended not on the services, but on the wants of the applicants, the employer being repaid out of the poor rate all that he advanced in wages beyond a certain sum. According to this plan the parish in general made some agreement with a farmer to sell to him the labour of one or more paupers at a certain price, paying to the pauper out of the parish funds the difference between that price and the allowance which the scale, according to the price of bread and the number of his family, awarded to him. It received the local name of billet or ticket system from the ticket signed by the overseer which the pauper in general carried to the farmer as a warrant for his being employed, and afterwards took back to the overseer, signed by the farmer, as a proof that he had fulfilled the conditions of relief. In other cases the parish contracted with a person to have some work performed for him by the paupers at a given price, the parish paying the paupers. In many places the rounds man system was carried out by means of an auction, all the unemployed men being put up to sale periodically, sometimes monthly or weekly, at prices varying according to the time of year, the old and infirm selling for less than the able-bodied. The rounds man system disappeared on the reform of the poor law in 1834.
ROUND TABLE, THE, in the Arthurian Romance (q.v.), the
table round which, in order to avoid quarrels as to precedence,
King Arthur’s knights are seated, and so applied collectively
to the knights themselves as the title of a mythical order of
chivalry. The origin of the Round Table is obscure. Geoffrey
of Monmouth makes no mention of it, and the earliest record
is that of Wace, much expanded by his translator, Layamon,
who gives a picturesque detailed description of the fight for
precedence which took place at Arthur’s board on a certain
Yuletide day, and the slaughter which ensued. For this
slaughter Arthur took summary vengeance, slaying all the
kinsfolk of the man who started the fight, and cutting off the
noses of his women-folk. For the future avoidance of any
such scenes a cunning Workman of Cornwall offered to make
a table which should seat 1600 knights and more, and at which
all should be equal. Arthur accepted this offer, and the result
was the Round Table, peace and harmony. Wace does not
mention the number of knights.
These versions of the pseudo-chronicles practically ascribe the foundation to Arthur; the romances, however, differ. In these either Merlin made the table for Uther Pendragon,
