curling and bowling, especially among the poorer classes of our countrymen, will do more to promote their comfort and welfare, and tend to their good conduct, than all the beer bills and Sunday-trading bills the legislature has ever passed."

Since his day many noblemen and gentlemen have followed suit, in fostering the game. A reference to page 90 of Appendix will show how much it is being dovetailed into social life, and also its advancement in position as a pastime. The rapid growth of the game in popularity may be noticed in the increase of clubs since 1870, when a list was published comprising 138 in Scotland. Mitchell says that in 1882 there were 364 clubs, with an aggregate of 30,000 members; and the statement was made at the opening of Burnbank Bowling Club Bazaar, 1892, that there were 34,000 or 35,000 bowlers in Scotland. A list of clubs will

be found on page 99 of Appendix.

CHAPTER V.

THE GAME ABROAD.

MONG out-door sports

no game takes a firmer hold and increases in popularity so rapidly as Bowling. In a marked degree is this so, among foreign peoples.

Though we have not yet reached the separation stage in Irish affairs, still, in mention of the game across the water, i.e., furth of Great Britain, Ireland must rank with those countries where Herkomer RA. the game is only parIt is remarkable too, that where do congregate,

tially indulged in. "merchants most there is found the bowler. Belfast has four clubs the Belfast, Belmont, Ulster, and the Corporation clubs-and in Dublin there is the Kenilworth. Annual contests with

Ayrshire and Glasgow clubs betoken a growing interest in the game among the brethren in the Green Isle; and International matches may not be very far distant.

We hear of four clubs in Toronto; also clubs in Hamilton, Montreal, London, and Quebec, Canada,, where they are nearly all combination bowling and curling clubs; Boston, Philadelphia, and New York, U.S.A., have their clubs; even far-away Calcutta and Kurachee have their golf and bowling clubs. The Japs have also taken to it, and every year the export of Glasgow-made bowls is increasing to South Africa, etc., etc.

With our colonial brethren in Australia, its rapid growth in popularity is phenomenal; and while Scottish bowlers can now boast an association (to wit The Scottish Bowling Association), the Australians have had the benefit of such control since 1880, when the Victorian and New South Wales Bowling Associations were established, comprising many clubs. Their rules of the game are much the same as ours, but some interesting variations may be noted. For instance, rule 6, V.B.A., says, "The jack shall be round and made of wood, not less than 34 nor more than 31⁄2 inches in diameter, and shall be not less than 15 nor more than 17 ounces in weight, and shall be white in colour"; while the N.S.W.B.A. enacts that "the size of the jack shall not be less than two inches, nor more than two and a half inches in diameter."1 To us rule 20, N.S.W.B.A., reads curiously, "The bowling season shall commence on the first day of October and end

In the English game, each single-handed player has a jack made of wood the same bias as his bowls; so that by observing the run of the jack, he is the better enabled to play his bowl.

on the last day of September." So the Antipodean bowler "goes it" all the year round. It is probably use and wont, but we have an idea that our climatic variations, which compel change in our amusements, are in this respect preferable.1

Is the day near, when say four crack rinks of bowlers will be sent out to play the best bowlers in the colonies? It is quite certain a deputation of colonial bowlers would be heartily welcomed and hospitably received here. Cricketers2 made a start in this direction more than thirty years ago; why not bowlers? Perhaps in the near future this idea may be taken up and carried to a successful issue.

LIGNUM VITÆ.

While foreign climes are in the mind a word or so about the wood from which bowls are made may be a fitting conclusion to this chapter. Mr. John Wilson, Leazes Park, Newcastle-on-Tyne, fancifully dubs Lignum Vitæ The Bowlers' Tree, and gives some interesting information. "Our best lignum vitæ wood," he writes, "is from the city of St. Domingo. It is imported in the round state and usually sold by weight. The plant that produces it is known to botanists and gardeners as the Guaiacum. There are three species, all of which bear blue flowers. The lignum vitæ of commerce is furnished by the Guriacum officinale, which was introduced into this country in 1694, where it is grown as a stove plant. The substance called 1 W. W. Mitchell instances a game he enjoyed at Christmas on Willowbank green. See song on page 82.

2 A team of cricketers under Geo. Parr visited America and Canada in 1859; and the first team went to Australia in 1862.—W. G. Grace.

gum guaiacum is obtained by bleeding the living tree and by boiling the chips and sawdust of the wood. The bark and capsules are also used in medicine as an aperient. According to Dr. Lindley's Vegetable Kingdom the foliage is very detersive, and is frequently used in the West Indies to scour and whiten floors, which it is said to do better than soap. The lignum vitæ of New Zealand is the wood of the Aki." The amount of wear and tear that lignum vitæ can stand, is the reason of its later application to mechanics where a hard springy resistance is desirable.

The tree in the West Indies grows to a height of from 40 to 50 feet and 14 to 18 ins. diam. It is a deeply rooted evergreen, and Mr. Wilson says in its native climate it is said to be very hardy and enabled to withstand the hurricanes, and retain its greenness in the driest weather.

Verb.

Rheumatic patients are said to be infallibly cured by a concoction of gum guaiacum taken internally. sat sap.