History.
the oldest British outdoor pastime, next to archery, still in vogue. It
has been traced certainly to the 13th, and conjecturally to the 12th
century. William Fitzstephen (d. about 1190), in his biography of Thomas
Becket, gives a graphic sketch of the London of his day and, writing of
the summer amusements of the young men, says that on holidays they were
"exercised in Leaping, Shooting. Wrestling, Casting of Stones [_in jactu
lapidum_], and Throwing of Javelins fitted with Loops for the Purpose,
which they strive to fling before the Mark; they also use Bucklers, like
fighting Men." It is commonly supposed that by _jactus lapidum_
Fitzstephen meant the game of bowls, but though it is possible that
round stones may sometimes have been employed in an early variety of the
game-and there is a record of iron bowls being used, though at a much
later date, on festive occasions at Nairn,--nevertheless the inference
seems unwarranted. The _jactus lapidum_ of which he speaks was probably
more akin to the modern "putting the weight," once even called "putting
the stone." It is beyond dispute, however, that the game, at any rate in
a rudimentary form, was played in the 13th century. A MS. of that period
in the royal library, Windsor (No. 20, E iv.), contains a drawing
representing two players aiming at a small cone instead of an
earthenware ball or jack. Another MS. of the same century has a
picture--crude, but spirited--which brings us into close touch with the
existing game. Three figures are introduced and a jack. The first
player's bowl has come to rest just in front of the jack; the second has
delivered his bowl and is following after it with one of those eccentric
contortions still not unusual on modern greens, the first player
meanwhile making a repressive gesture with his hand, as if to urge the
bowl to stop short of his own; the third player is depicted as in the
act of delivering his bowl. A 14th-century MS. _Book of Prayers_ in the
Francis Douce collection in the Bodleian library at Oxford contains a
drawing in which two persons are shown, but they bowl to no mark. Strutt
(_Sports and Pastimes_) suggests that the first player's bowl may have
been regarded by the second player as a species of jack; but in that
case it is not clear what was the first player's target. In these three
earliest illustrations of the pastime it is worth noting that each
player has one bowl only, and that the attitude in delivering it was as
various five or six hundred years ago as it is to-day. In the third he
stands almost upright; in the first he kneels; in the second he stoops,
halfway between the upright and the kneeling position.
As the game grew in popularity it came under the ban of king and
parliament, both fearing it might jeopardize the practice of archery,
then so important in battle; and statutes forbidding it and other sports
were enacted in the reigns of Edward III., Richard II. and other
monarchs. Even when, on the invention of gunpowder and firearms, the bow
had fallen into disuse as a weapon of war, the prohibition was
continued. The discredit attaching to bowling alleys, first established
in London in 1455, probably encouraged subsequent repressive
legislation, for many of the alleys were connected with taverns
frequented by the dissolute and gamesters. The word "bowls" occurs for
the first time in the statute of 1511 in which Henry VIII. confirmed
previous enactments against unlawful games. By a further act of
1541--which was not repealed until 1845--artificers, labourers,
apprentices, servants and the like were forbidden to play bowls at any
time save Christmas, and then only in their master's house and presence.
It was further enjoined that any one playing bowls outside of his own
garden or orchard was liable to a penalty of 6s. 8d., while those
possessed of lands of the yearly value of L100 might obtain licences to
play on their own private greens. But though the same statute absolutely
prohibited bowling alleys, Henry VIII. had them constructed for his own
pleasure at Whitehall Palace, and was wont to back himself when he
played. In Mary's reign (1555) the licences were withdrawn, the queen or
her advisers deeming the game an excuse for "unlawful assemblies,
conventicles, seditions and conspiracies." The scandals of the bowling
alleys grew rampant in Elizabethan London, and Stephen Gosson in his
_School of Abuse_ (1579) says, "Common bowling alleys are privy moths
that eat up the credit of many idle citizens; whose gains at home are
not able to weigh down their losses abroad; whose shops are so far from
maintaining their play, that their wives and children cry out for bread,
and go to bed supperless often in the year."
Biased bowls were introduced in the 16th century. "A little altering of
the one side," says Robert Recorde, the mathematician, in his _Castle of
Knowledge_ (1556), "maketh the bowl to run biasse waies." And
Shakespeare (_Richard II_., Act. III. Sc. 4) causes the queen to
remonstrate, in reply to her lady's suggestion of a game at bowls to
relieve her ennui, "'Twill make me think the world is full of rubs, and
that my fortune runs against the bias." This passage is interesting also
as showing that women were accustomed to play the game in those days. It
is pleasant to think that there is foundation for the familiar story of
Sir Francis Drake playing bowls on Plymouth Hoe as the Armada was
beating up Channel, and finishing his game before tackling the
Spaniards. Bowls, at that date, was looked upon as a legitimate
amusement for Sundays,--as, indeed, were many other sports. When John
Knox visited Calvin at Geneva one Sunday, it is said that he discovered
him engaged in a game; and John Aylmer (1521-1594), though bishop of
London, enjoyed a game of a Sunday afternoon, but used such language "as
justly exposed his character to reproach." The pastime found favour with
the Stuarts. In the _Book of Sports_ (1618), James I. recommended a
moderate indulgence to his son, Prince Henry, and Charles I. was an
enthusiastic bowler, unfortunately encouraging by example wagering and
playing for high stakes, habits that ultimately brought the green into
as general disrepute as the alley. It is recorded that the king
occasionally visited Richard Shute, a Turkey merchant who owned a
beautiful green at Barking Hall, and that after one bout his losses were
L1000. He was permitted to play his favourite game to beguile the tedium
of his captivity. The signboard of a wayside inn near Goring Heath in
Oxfordshire long bore a portrait of the king with couplets reciting how
his majesty "drank from the bowl, and bowl'd for what he drank." During
his stay at the Northamptonshire village of Holdenby or Holmby--where
Sir Thomas Herbert complains the green was not well kept--Charles
frequently rode over to Lord Vaux's place at Harrowden, or to Lord
Spencer's at Althorp, for a game, and, according to one account, was
actually playing on the latter green when Cornet Joyce came to Holmby to
remove him to other quarters. During this period gambling had become a
mania. John Aubrey, the antiquary, chronicles that the sisters of Sir
John Suckling, the courtier-poet, once went to the bowling-green in
Piccadilly, crying, "for fear he should lose all their portions." If the
Puritans regarded bowls with no friendly eye, as Lord Macaulay asserts,
one can hardly wonder at it. But even the Puritans could not suppress
betting. So eminently respectable a person as John Evelyn thought no
harm in bowling for stakes, and once played at the Durdans, near Epsom,
for L10, winning match and money, as he triumphantly notes in his
_Diary_ for the 14th of August 1657. Samuel Pepys repeatedly mentions
finding great people "at bowles." But in time the excesses attending the
game rendered it unfashionable, and after the Revolution it became
practically a pothouse recreation, nearly all the greens, like the
alleys, having been constructed in the grounds and gardens attached to
taverns.
After a long interval salvation came from Scotland, somewhat
unexpectedly, because although, along with its winter analogue of
curling, bowls may now be considered, much more than golf, the Scottish
national game, it was not until well into the 19th century that the
pastime acquired popularity in that country. It had been known in
Scotland since the close of the 16th century (the Glasgow kirk session
fulminated an edict against Sunday bowls in 1595), but greens were few
and far between. There is record of a club in Haddington in 1709, of Tom
Bicket's green in Kilmarnock in 1740, of greens in Candleriggs and
Gallowgate, Glasgow, and of one in Lanark in 1750, of greens in the
grounds of Heriot's hospital, Edinburgh, prior to 1768, and of one in
Peebles in 1775. These are, of course, mere infants compared with the
Southampton Town Bowling Club, founded in 1299, which still uses the
green on which it has played for centuries and possesses the quaint
custom of describing its master, or president, as "sir," and are younger
even than the Newcastle-on-Tyne club established in 1657. But the
earlier clubs did nothing towards organizing the game. In 1848 and 1849,
however, when many clubs had come into existence in the west and south
of Scotland (the Willowbank, dating from 1816, is the oldest club in
Glasgow), meetings were held in Glasgow for the purpose of promoting a
national association. This was regarded, by many, as impracticable, but
a decision of final importance was reached when a consultative committee
was appointed to draft a uniform code of laws to govern the game. This
body delegated its functions to its secretary, W.W. Mitchell
(1803-1884), who prepared a code that was immediately adopted in
Scotland as the standard laws. It was in this sense that Scottish
bowlers saved the game. They were, besides, pioneers in laying down
level greens of superlative excellence. Not satisfied with seed-sown
grass or meadow turf, they experimented with seaside turf and found it
answer admirably. The 13th earl of Eglinton also set an example of
active interest which many magnates emulated. Himself a keen bowler, he
offered for competition, in 1854, a silver bowl and, in 1857, a gold
bowl and the Eglinton Cup, all to be played for annually. These trophies
excited healthy rivalry in Ayrshire and Lanarkshire, and the enthusiasm
as well as the skill with which the game was conducted in Scotland at
length proved contagious. Clubs in England began to consider the
question of legislation, and to improve their greens. Moreover, Scottish
emigrants introduced the game wherever they went, and colonists in
Australia and New Zealand established many clubs which, in the main,
adopted Mitchell's laws; while clubs were also started in Canada and in
the United States, in South Africa, India (Calcutta, Karachi), Japan
(Kobe, Yokohama, Kumamoto) and Hong-Kong. In Ireland the game took root
very gradually, but in Ulster, owing doubtless to constant 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.
The game.
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 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, 2-1/2 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 4-1/2 in. nor more than 5-1/4 in., and that its weight must
not exceed 3-1/2 lb. The jack or kitty, as the white earthenware ball to
which the bowler bowls is called, is round and 2-1/2 to 2-3/4 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
a position as the captain, whose place, in fact, he takes whenever the
skip is temporarily absent. The duties of the skip will already be
understood by inference. Before he leaves the jack to play, he must
observe the situation of the bowls of both sides. It may be that he has
to draw a shot with the utmost nicety to save the end, or even the
match, or to lay a cunningly contrived block, or to "fire"--that is, to
deliver his bowl almost dead straight at the object, with enough force
to kill the bias for the moment. The score having been counted, the
leader then places the mat, usually within a yard of the spot where the
jack lay at the conclusion of the head, and throws the jack in the
opposite direction for a fresh end. On small greens play, for obvious
reasons, generally takes place from each ditch. The players play in
couples--the first on both sides, then the second and so on. The leader
having played his first bowl, the opposing leader will play his first
and so on. As a rule, a match consists of 21 points, or 21 ends (or a
few more, by agreement).
[Illustration:
FIG. 1.--Drawing.
FIG. 2.--Guarding.