William III. was so unfortunately charmed with the place that he did his utmost to ruin it altogether by the exercise of his barbarous Dutch taste. However, he really did improve the gardens."" So it may be assumed he did it. Frank E. Cox has peopled the old green, in his picture, "Hampton Court in the olden Time," with Queen Anne players, very appropriately.

In the North of England the love for the game is old and deep-rooted, as is testified by the large number of greens in and about Newcastle-on-Tyne.

A booklet recently published at Newcastle contains the following:-" If seniores priores is to be followed out, the Newcastle Bowling Club should be placed at the head of most of the clubs in this island-bowling or otherwise as it is now in its third century." The date given of its foundation is 1657. Quoting Sykes in his Local Records, "a tavern was also built, with a balcony projecting from the front from whence the It was an ancient

spectators could behold the bowlers. custom for the Mayor, Aldermen, and Sheriff of Newcastle, accompanied by a great number of persons, to proceed every year, at the feasts of Easter and Whitsuntide, to this place, with the mace, sword, and cap of maintenance carried before them." Another ancient custom, still observed, is dining every Friday in the club-house. "For about two centuries, 'Beef and pies at 4 o'clock, 1/,' was the standing dish." Mr. Arron Watson, in the same little book, says that "Charles (King Charles I.) was an enthusiastic bowler, and there was a bowling-green in Newcastle at least as early as when he was brought here a prisoner by the Scots." This would make the first green

1 Barbara Clay Finch.

2

Hodge's Annual, 1892.

ten years older, or it could not have been on the first green "in this island” that Charles enjoyed his game, as he was a dead man in 1649. Mr. Watson also scouts the idea of the existence of "the genuine game of bowls" up to and inclusive of Henry VIII.'s reign, and 'suspects" it was it was "stone-throwing stone-throwing" that was meant, when bowling was alluded to by earlier writers. He then very ingeniously formulates a theory of his own as to the origin of the game of bowls. It reads like a goak. Based on a view of a picture by David Teniers in the National Gallery, the suggestion is, that two kinds of Dutch Cheese (Edam and Gouda) being serviceable both as playthings and comestibles, were the real, live, genuine bowls of our forefathers. "Thus (says Mr. Watson) let us imagine, did the Dutchman commence bowling, possibly using their bowls for lunch if by any chance or collision they fell to pieces. Ultimately they took to bowls of wood, but they have adhered to the shapes of the national cheese to this day. This theory of the origin of the game is at least feasible." Rip-van-Winkle's "thunder and lightning" theory is not in it, and it seems almost a pity that Mr. Watson's delightfully ingenuous hypothesis should be shadowed by facts; but as Burns says, "Facts are chiels that winna ding." Verb. sat sap.

Penrith and Brampton are both old greens, dating back to 1778 and 1764 respectively.

Though there may be doubts about the claim of the

1 Northumberland-bowls is a combination of skill and strength; a number of players, each with a bowl, striving to attain a given point in the fewest number of casts--half golf and half bowling.

2 The picture referred to by Mr. Watson is No. 951 in N.G. Catalogue, "A Game of Bowls," by David Teniers the elder (Flemish, 1582-1649), and rather antedates the Newcastle green.

Bath Lane Club, Newcastle, to priority among the clubs "in this island," it must be conceded that the Newcastle Corporation take the lead in open encouragement of the pastime. About 1879-80, recognising the necessity of providing healthy out-door amusement, they constructed six public bowling-greens in their public parks, for the benefit of a population largely composed of hard workers. On all hands, it is agreed their action has been amply justified by results, and to-day there are no more popularly supported institutions than the bowling-clubs of Newcastle; and also Gateshead which so promptly followed the lead.

Bowla from D.Wather

1837

AT

over

the border" into Scotland is not fixable, but it may safely be presumed that it was somewhere in the sixteenth century. One writer has "rushed in" and designated "Bowls as par excellence the national Scotch game." There is a proverb ending with "angels fear to tread," ("to disremember de fust part" is only common decency,) and to accept such a statement seriously would indicate credulity of a pronounced kind; though the game is now perhaps better known and more generally popular in Scotland than in any part of the world.

A history of Haddington mentions, among other institutions of that town, "a Bowling club established in 1709, which minutes of council confirm";1 but as Glasgow has a record of more than a hundred years prior to this reputed oldest green in Scotland, Glasgow, chronologically, takes the lead.

An extract from the Annals of the Kirk Session of Glasgow, 24th April, 1595, reads "The session

1 Mitchell's Manual.

directed the Drum to go through the Town, that there be no Bickering nor Plays on Sundays, either by old or young. Games, Golf, Alley, Bowls, &c., are Forbidden on Sunday, as also that no person go to Ruglen to see Plays on Sunday.":

Clelland states that about 1695 the Town Council of Glasgow disposed of a piece of ground, to one Mungo Cochrane, for a public bowling-green with certain privileges, which were afterwards abrogated. This early bowling-green was known as the Candle Riggs green; though it was not till 1724 that Candleriggs Street was projected and begun. The green extended from the old Herald Buildings, corner of Bell Street and Candleriggs, to a house which forms the entrance to the City-Hall, and extended back to Police-office Lane. So late as 1780 "there was a broad Stagnant Ditch, full of Tadpoles, along the front of the Bowlinggreen." About 1707, the ground, upon which Bell Street, Candleriggs, etc., is now formed, teeming with busy life, was "then cornfields few houses

From an old print, Sanderson.

Coach

built and these covered with thatch." conjured up in the mind's eye, of both

1 Glasghu Facies.

3 Glasghu Facies.

G

The scene

green and

2 Annals of Glasgow.