1
00:00:01,280 --> 00:00:04,040
Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production

2
00:00:04,120 --> 00:00:12,680
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hello, and welcome

3
00:00:12,720 --> 00:00:16,640
Speaker 1: to the podcast. I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. Tracy,

4
00:00:16,720 --> 00:00:19,760
Speaker 1: we recently had a listener mail that requested law games

5
00:00:19,800 --> 00:00:21,959
Speaker 1: as a topic. Yeah. I think we read that on

6
00:00:22,040 --> 00:00:24,400
Speaker 1: the air. Yeah, and then I couldn't get it out

7
00:00:24,400 --> 00:00:29,000
Speaker 1: of my head. Also, Atlanta is having a freakishly warm

8
00:00:29,040 --> 00:00:31,880
Speaker 1: winter so far. We had snow this past weekend, but

9
00:00:31,920 --> 00:00:34,239
Speaker 1: today it's in the sixties. Yeah. I was just very

10
00:00:34,440 --> 00:00:38,040
Speaker 1: there for a quick visit and was like, wow, it

11
00:00:38,159 --> 00:00:41,440
Speaker 1: is sticky springtime right now, even though it is at

12
00:00:41,479 --> 00:00:45,400
Speaker 1: that point January. It was January January. Now, see, it's

13
00:00:45,400 --> 00:00:48,440
Speaker 1: all blurred together. It is um. There are a lot

14
00:00:48,479 --> 00:00:50,960
Speaker 1: of confused plants trying to bloom at my house, and

15
00:00:51,360 --> 00:00:54,800
Speaker 1: my lawn is having a pretty significant identity crisis where

16
00:00:54,800 --> 00:00:57,440
Speaker 1: it is also trying to grow, and then the weeds

17
00:00:57,440 --> 00:00:59,560
Speaker 1: are coming in up. So it actually kind of does

18
00:00:59,600 --> 00:01:02,240
Speaker 1: seem a weird spring here, even though I know the

19
00:01:02,320 --> 00:01:04,800
Speaker 1: cold snap is coming anytime. But it does put me

20
00:01:04,840 --> 00:01:07,400
Speaker 1: in the mind of lawng games. I'm going to invent

21
00:01:07,400 --> 00:01:10,160
Speaker 1: a new sport called um like winter croquet, which is

22
00:01:10,160 --> 00:01:13,280
Speaker 1: what we're talking about today, because as I started looking

23
00:01:13,319 --> 00:01:15,720
Speaker 1: at long games, croque kind of took the lead in

24
00:01:15,840 --> 00:01:19,039
Speaker 1: terms of available information. UM. I still would love to

25
00:01:19,040 --> 00:01:21,360
Speaker 1: do a survey of other ones, but there was so

26
00:01:21,440 --> 00:01:24,120
Speaker 1: much interesting stuff about croquet that I wanted to talk

27
00:01:24,160 --> 00:01:26,440
Speaker 1: about it. Because while the origins of it are really

28
00:01:26,440 --> 00:01:28,600
Speaker 1: really cloudy, and we're going to talk about that, there

29
00:01:28,600 --> 00:01:31,360
Speaker 1: have been plenty of books written on the subject in

30
00:01:31,400 --> 00:01:33,360
Speaker 1: the last two hundred and fifty years, many of which

31
00:01:33,640 --> 00:01:36,520
Speaker 1: are very charming and sort of funny from the modern perspective.

32
00:01:37,040 --> 00:01:39,480
Speaker 1: So to start, let's cover just the basic rules of

33
00:01:39,520 --> 00:01:43,399
Speaker 1: croquet as it's played today. The regulation size for a

34
00:01:43,440 --> 00:01:46,440
Speaker 1: court is a hundred by fifty feet that's roughly thirty

35
00:01:46,440 --> 00:01:50,520
Speaker 1: by fifteen meters, although for casual play the dimensions can

36
00:01:50,560 --> 00:01:53,720
Speaker 1: be altered to suit the available space. I hang out

37
00:01:53,760 --> 00:01:57,440
Speaker 1: with a lot of casual but very dedicated croquet players,

38
00:01:57,560 --> 00:02:00,840
Speaker 1: and boy, oh boy, do we have some on standard

39
00:02:00,920 --> 00:02:05,600
Speaker 1: place sizes in my social circle. Uh. The space is

40
00:02:05,680 --> 00:02:09,000
Speaker 1: usually marked out with steaks or string, and wickets are

41
00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:11,560
Speaker 1: placed in the space to create a pointed figure eight

42
00:02:11,600 --> 00:02:14,280
Speaker 1: shape with a wicket at each point and at the

43
00:02:14,320 --> 00:02:16,280
Speaker 1: top and the bottom of this figure eight, there are

44
00:02:16,280 --> 00:02:18,760
Speaker 1: two croquet wickets placed close to one another, with a

45
00:02:18,840 --> 00:02:21,200
Speaker 1: steak at the very top and bottom of the arrangement.

46
00:02:21,600 --> 00:02:25,720
Speaker 1: This arrangement uses a total of nine wickets. The place

47
00:02:25,800 --> 00:02:28,359
Speaker 1: starts at the bottom of this figure eight, and every

48
00:02:28,400 --> 00:02:31,600
Speaker 1: ball needs to move through each wicket, first along the

49
00:02:31,720 --> 00:02:34,120
Speaker 1: right side of the diamond, up through the double wicket

50
00:02:34,160 --> 00:02:37,480
Speaker 1: at the top, hitting the steak that's there, and then

51
00:02:37,480 --> 00:02:39,320
Speaker 1: turning and moving back down the figure eight. On the

52
00:02:39,320 --> 00:02:42,840
Speaker 1: opposite side. Two teams compete, taking turns to move all

53
00:02:42,840 --> 00:02:45,919
Speaker 1: their croquet balls through this configuration by tapping the balls

54
00:02:46,040 --> 00:02:49,280
Speaker 1: with the ends of the mallets, not the sides. The

55
00:02:49,280 --> 00:02:51,959
Speaker 1: first team to successfully get all the croquet balls through

56
00:02:52,000 --> 00:02:54,760
Speaker 1: the course wins. And there are of course more rules

57
00:02:54,760 --> 00:02:57,480
Speaker 1: than that, and a lot of house rules if you

58
00:02:57,520 --> 00:03:01,920
Speaker 1: know a lot of casual croquet players, but the basic

59
00:03:02,120 --> 00:03:05,120
Speaker 1: layout is how That's how the game works today. However,

60
00:03:05,240 --> 00:03:09,080
Speaker 1: there is another variation. In the US. A version of

61
00:03:09,120 --> 00:03:13,239
Speaker 1: croquet exists using only six wickets. UH These are arranged

62
00:03:13,280 --> 00:03:16,600
Speaker 1: so that they formed two triangles that point toward the

63
00:03:16,600 --> 00:03:19,720
Speaker 1: center of the established court, and UH these can be

64
00:03:19,880 --> 00:03:22,600
Speaker 1: that court can be just fifty by forty feet. That's

65
00:03:22,680 --> 00:03:25,960
Speaker 1: roughly fifteen by twelve meters, so much smaller. Game Play

66
00:03:26,040 --> 00:03:28,799
Speaker 1: in the six wicket arrangement has the balls played in

67
00:03:28,880 --> 00:03:31,640
Speaker 1: kind of a spiral that starts at the outside edge

68
00:03:31,680 --> 00:03:34,160
Speaker 1: to work inward for the first six points of play,

69
00:03:34,200 --> 00:03:36,760
Speaker 1: and then it restarts from another point on the exterior

70
00:03:36,800 --> 00:03:39,800
Speaker 1: of the wickets and moves inward for the last seven points.

71
00:03:40,080 --> 00:03:44,720
Speaker 1: In a book on crow case history, author Arthur Lily

72
00:03:44,880 --> 00:03:47,560
Speaker 1: opens with a story about a friend whose doctor told

73
00:03:47,640 --> 00:03:50,440
Speaker 1: him that the crazy work work work lifestyle of the

74
00:03:50,480 --> 00:03:53,480
Speaker 1: eighteen sixties was making people ill. We can have a

75
00:03:53,520 --> 00:03:56,280
Speaker 1: moment of a side to just laugh at how they

76
00:03:56,280 --> 00:04:01,680
Speaker 1: would be terrified at the workload of most people. Uh.

77
00:04:01,720 --> 00:04:04,720
Speaker 1: In this particular case, though, the explanation was that quote,

78
00:04:04,920 --> 00:04:08,880
Speaker 1: work keeps the mucous membrane of the brain in perpetual irritation.

79
00:04:09,400 --> 00:04:12,440
Speaker 1: I'm gonna use that excuse all the time. Uh. Fresh

80
00:04:12,440 --> 00:04:15,880
Speaker 1: air was the recommended treatment, and after unsuccessfully trying out

81
00:04:15,920 --> 00:04:19,960
Speaker 1: things like long walks, what really helped the patient, who

82
00:04:20,000 --> 00:04:23,480
Speaker 1: was a clergyman named Dunbar is It or Heath, was croquet.

83
00:04:24,200 --> 00:04:28,160
Speaker 1: Lily went on in his writing to proclaim quote croquet

84
00:04:28,440 --> 00:04:31,720
Speaker 1: according to many medical men, is the healthiest game in

85
00:04:31,800 --> 00:04:34,920
Speaker 1: the world, seeing that it furnishes the great desiteratum of

86
00:04:34,960 --> 00:04:39,080
Speaker 1: the overworked nineteenth century, the maximum of daily fresh air

87
00:04:39,160 --> 00:04:43,359
Speaker 1: and amusement with the minimum fatigue. He also points out

88
00:04:43,400 --> 00:04:45,720
Speaker 1: that the beauty of the game is its accessibility. It's

89
00:04:45,760 --> 00:04:49,560
Speaker 1: almost anyone to play. It can be intellectually simulating, as

90
00:04:49,640 --> 00:04:53,240
Speaker 1: the player has to strategize, but it's not actually taxing.

91
00:04:53,720 --> 00:04:57,080
Speaker 1: Thirty years prior to Arthur Lily, a man named Walter

92
00:04:57,279 --> 00:05:01,160
Speaker 1: Jones Whitmore similarly extolled the virtue and noted the appeal

93
00:05:01,240 --> 00:05:05,200
Speaker 1: of croquet in his eighteen sixty eight book Croquet Tactics,

94
00:05:05,200 --> 00:05:09,440
Speaker 1: writing quote considered simply as an outdoor amusement affording healthy

95
00:05:09,480 --> 00:05:12,760
Speaker 1: exercise and excitement to a number of people who only

96
00:05:12,800 --> 00:05:16,000
Speaker 1: got their exercise formerly in the dull round of a

97
00:05:16,160 --> 00:05:19,720
Speaker 1: constitutional walk. We are bound to confess that it has

98
00:05:19,760 --> 00:05:24,160
Speaker 1: conferred an immense boon to society, which boon society gratefully

99
00:05:24,240 --> 00:05:28,240
Speaker 1: acknowledges by its attachment. Then it is a game suited

100
00:05:28,279 --> 00:05:31,559
Speaker 1: to every age and both sexes. This was, of course,

101
00:05:31,600 --> 00:05:35,360
Speaker 1: a great element of success from the first. This same

102
00:05:35,360 --> 00:05:38,360
Speaker 1: writing also mentions that croquet has an edge over both

103
00:05:38,480 --> 00:05:42,280
Speaker 1: billiards and cricket because the financial barrier to entry is

104
00:05:42,320 --> 00:05:46,240
Speaker 1: pretty low by comparison. It's not a luxury sport, but

105
00:05:46,320 --> 00:05:49,520
Speaker 1: it's one during nice weather can be found almost anywhere.

106
00:05:49,800 --> 00:05:52,920
Speaker 1: I mean, as long as there's a spot of greenery

107
00:05:53,080 --> 00:05:56,680
Speaker 1: that's large enough. Yeah, you just need a little, little open,

108
00:05:56,800 --> 00:06:02,000
Speaker 1: fairly flat piece of law, and anybody can. Arthur Lily's

109
00:06:02,040 --> 00:06:05,520
Speaker 1: book also quotes the Reverend J. G. Woods explanation of

110
00:06:05,560 --> 00:06:08,200
Speaker 1: the name of this game in his work quote, the

111
00:06:08,240 --> 00:06:11,760
Speaker 1: word croquet is derived from a French word croquet to

112
00:06:11,920 --> 00:06:15,080
Speaker 1: crunch with the teeth. This word is used to describe

113
00:06:15,080 --> 00:06:18,440
Speaker 1: the sound caused by eating anything very hard and brittle.

114
00:06:19,120 --> 00:06:21,960
Speaker 1: The word is used to distinguish the game in consequence

115
00:06:22,000 --> 00:06:25,800
Speaker 1: of the crackling sound of the mallets against the ball. However,

116
00:06:26,120 --> 00:06:29,279
Speaker 1: though that quote is very charming, Lily Said dismisses this

117
00:06:29,560 --> 00:06:33,400
Speaker 1: entire explanation is complete nonsense and explains that the proto

118
00:06:33,440 --> 00:06:36,520
Speaker 1: mallets in the games that pre date croquet were themselves

119
00:06:36,560 --> 00:06:39,800
Speaker 1: called croquets, and that that derived from the old French

120
00:06:39,800 --> 00:06:44,520
Speaker 1: word croche, which translated to crooks. So the origins of

121
00:06:44,600 --> 00:06:47,880
Speaker 1: games are almost always a little bit murky because a

122
00:06:47,920 --> 00:06:50,800
Speaker 1: lot of these diversions start out pretty organically. They evolve

123
00:06:50,839 --> 00:06:54,960
Speaker 1: over time as people make up things to do. Historically,

124
00:06:55,000 --> 00:06:58,680
Speaker 1: people haven't just documented the moment when they came up

125
00:06:58,720 --> 00:07:01,200
Speaker 1: with a game for the most part. Yeah, it's not

126
00:07:01,240 --> 00:07:04,960
Speaker 1: like Cones of Denture or or any of of the

127
00:07:05,040 --> 00:07:07,720
Speaker 1: sort of gaming trend of today where people are like,

128
00:07:07,760 --> 00:07:09,080
Speaker 1: I'm going to come up with a game and it

129
00:07:09,200 --> 00:07:12,160
Speaker 1: is well documented. This is definitely more of a casual

130
00:07:12,200 --> 00:07:14,320
Speaker 1: we could hit that thing with that thing to make

131
00:07:14,360 --> 00:07:18,120
Speaker 1: some rules. Um. While there are variations in how the

132
00:07:18,160 --> 00:07:21,200
Speaker 1: game spread and how its rules were refined, it is

133
00:07:21,240 --> 00:07:25,360
Speaker 1: generally believed to have originated in Western France Brittany, specifically

134
00:07:25,760 --> 00:07:29,400
Speaker 1: as early as the thirteenth century. Players in this proto

135
00:07:29,480 --> 00:07:33,480
Speaker 1: croquet entertainment, according to the Croquet Foundation of America, quote,

136
00:07:33,720 --> 00:07:37,440
Speaker 1: used crudely fashioned mallets to whack wooden balls through hoops

137
00:07:37,480 --> 00:07:40,760
Speaker 1: made of willow branches. In the mid sixteen hundreds, the

138
00:07:40,840 --> 00:07:45,640
Speaker 1: English lexiconographer Thomas Blunt described the game this way quote

139
00:07:45,680 --> 00:07:48,840
Speaker 1: a game wherein a round bowl is with a mallet

140
00:07:48,960 --> 00:07:52,040
Speaker 1: struck through a high arch of iron standing at either

141
00:07:52,200 --> 00:07:55,160
Speaker 1: end of an alley, which he can do at the

142
00:07:55,200 --> 00:07:59,040
Speaker 1: fewest blows or at the number agreed on wins. The

143
00:07:59,080 --> 00:08:02,360
Speaker 1: game is here before used in the long Alley near St.

144
00:08:02,440 --> 00:08:09,680
Speaker 1: James's and vulgarly called pell Mell. On April second sixty one,

145
00:08:09,840 --> 00:08:13,520
Speaker 1: during the restoration reign of Charles the Second, Samuel Peeps

146
00:08:13,600 --> 00:08:16,400
Speaker 1: recorded an instance of watching the Duke of York play

147
00:08:16,440 --> 00:08:19,040
Speaker 1: a game that he calls pell Mell. He spells it

148
00:08:19,160 --> 00:08:22,160
Speaker 1: p e l e dash m e l e. The

149
00:08:22,240 --> 00:08:25,160
Speaker 1: king himself was said to love the game, and two

150
00:08:25,200 --> 00:08:28,160
Speaker 1: years later Peeps interviewed the man who looked after what

151
00:08:28,320 --> 00:08:31,280
Speaker 1: Peeps is by that time calling the pell Mill. That's

152
00:08:31,400 --> 00:08:33,720
Speaker 1: the yard used to play the game, and it's spelled

153
00:08:33,720 --> 00:08:36,120
Speaker 1: the way it sounds p e ll m e lll,

154
00:08:36,960 --> 00:08:39,600
Speaker 1: and the area that's used for playing was made up

155
00:08:39,640 --> 00:08:42,600
Speaker 1: of a mix of earth covered with powdered cockle shells.

156
00:08:43,160 --> 00:08:46,120
Speaker 1: And then the name Paul Mall is another variation of

157
00:08:46,160 --> 00:08:49,199
Speaker 1: the two that are already noted in Peeps's writing, and

158
00:08:49,320 --> 00:08:52,720
Speaker 1: there are others. It is possible that the mall in

159
00:08:52,760 --> 00:08:56,520
Speaker 1: this case is an anglicization of Maya, which is a

160
00:08:56,600 --> 00:08:59,200
Speaker 1: French word for mallet. We're going to talk a little

161
00:08:59,200 --> 00:09:01,960
Speaker 1: bit more about how Paul mall, pell Mell or pie

162
00:09:02,000 --> 00:09:04,760
Speaker 1: my was played. But first we're going to pause for

163
00:09:04,800 --> 00:09:15,640
Speaker 1: a quick sponsor break. So this game with many names,

164
00:09:15,640 --> 00:09:18,840
Speaker 1: but we'll go with pall Mall or pell Mell was

165
00:09:18,920 --> 00:09:22,400
Speaker 1: played in essentially a long alley. It is sometimes described

166
00:09:22,440 --> 00:09:26,840
Speaker 1: as being something between golf and modern croquet, and like croquet,

167
00:09:27,000 --> 00:09:30,440
Speaker 1: it included a ball, mallets with curved heads, and an

168
00:09:30,559 --> 00:09:33,560
Speaker 1: arch that players tried to get the ball through the arches.

169
00:09:34,160 --> 00:09:38,880
Speaker 1: In seventeen seventeen, a book titled Judy written by Monsieur Lothier,

170
00:09:39,080 --> 00:09:43,200
Speaker 1: offered instructive advice on playing technique. Quote, the body ought

171
00:09:43,240 --> 00:09:45,679
Speaker 1: not to be either too straight or too much curved,

172
00:09:45,760 --> 00:09:49,319
Speaker 1: but moderately incline, so that in striking it may be

173
00:09:49,440 --> 00:09:51,920
Speaker 1: supported by the strength of the loins while we turn

174
00:09:52,000 --> 00:09:54,880
Speaker 1: it gently back from the waist upwards, raising the head

175
00:09:54,880 --> 00:09:58,200
Speaker 1: without ever losing sight of the ball. So use your

176
00:09:58,240 --> 00:10:01,959
Speaker 1: core strength with this and not just your arms. Yeah.

177
00:10:02,080 --> 00:10:05,240
Speaker 1: Latier also shared a story of a unique ball that

178
00:10:05,360 --> 00:10:08,560
Speaker 1: was used for this game. So at this point pell

179
00:10:08,640 --> 00:10:11,800
Speaker 1: Mell balls were normally about six inches in diameter. They

180
00:10:11,800 --> 00:10:14,240
Speaker 1: are made from a substance called dudgeon, and that is

181
00:10:14,280 --> 00:10:17,000
Speaker 1: the root of the box tree, and that dudgeon was

182
00:10:17,040 --> 00:10:20,520
Speaker 1: then beaten carefully into this ball shape. Quote. There was

183
00:10:20,520 --> 00:10:23,280
Speaker 1: a ball of great renown, the history of which will

184
00:10:23,320 --> 00:10:26,400
Speaker 1: perhaps not be useless or disagreeable, and will show what

185
00:10:26,520 --> 00:10:29,080
Speaker 1: importance in the game of mall is a good ball.

186
00:10:29,559 --> 00:10:33,040
Speaker 1: A ball merchant of Provence brought a large bag of them,

187
00:10:33,080 --> 00:10:35,840
Speaker 1: two ice. The players, who were in great number in

188
00:10:35,880 --> 00:10:39,720
Speaker 1: this town, bought them all at thirty sous apiece, except

189
00:10:39,840 --> 00:10:42,640
Speaker 1: one only, which, not being so pretty as the others,

190
00:10:42,720 --> 00:10:46,800
Speaker 1: was rejected. A good player named Bernard came the last

191
00:10:47,000 --> 00:10:49,840
Speaker 1: and bought this waste ball, for which he would not

192
00:10:49,920 --> 00:10:54,320
Speaker 1: give but fifteen suit, waited seven ounces and two DRAMs,

193
00:10:54,360 --> 00:10:57,400
Speaker 1: and was of ugly wood, and half of it reddish.

194
00:10:57,679 --> 00:10:59,720
Speaker 1: He played it a long time, finished it, and it

195
00:11:00,000 --> 00:11:02,280
Speaker 1: aims so excellent that when he had a long stroke

196
00:11:02,360 --> 00:11:04,440
Speaker 1: to make, it never failed him at his kneed, and

197
00:11:04,520 --> 00:11:07,920
Speaker 1: led infallibly to his winning the match. This ball, which

198
00:11:07,960 --> 00:11:11,360
Speaker 1: became famous, became known as the Bernard, and it was

199
00:11:11,440 --> 00:11:15,000
Speaker 1: so coveted and renowned that its next owner refused numerous

200
00:11:15,040 --> 00:11:18,679
Speaker 1: offers to purchase it, including a proposed trade in which

201
00:11:18,720 --> 00:11:22,480
Speaker 1: the would be buyer offered thirty pistols. Clearly it's a

202
00:11:22,600 --> 00:11:26,800
Speaker 1: very valuable ball. It was however, occasionally loaned out to

203
00:11:26,880 --> 00:11:30,280
Speaker 1: famous players for matches, though so. In addition to this

204
00:11:30,400 --> 00:11:34,319
Speaker 1: primary version of pall Mall, the Lethier text also described

205
00:11:34,440 --> 00:11:38,280
Speaker 1: two other variations. The first of these was something called

206
00:11:38,480 --> 00:11:41,760
Speaker 1: chacom pal Mall, which was a lot like golf. It

207
00:11:41,800 --> 00:11:44,960
Speaker 1: was played in an open field with specified targets, usually

208
00:11:45,160 --> 00:11:49,040
Speaker 1: naturally occurring obstacles like trees and rocks, and instead of

209
00:11:49,120 --> 00:11:52,080
Speaker 1: mallets they used crooks. And then the third version was

210
00:11:52,080 --> 00:11:55,640
Speaker 1: played a lot like billiards. Other accounts of these games

211
00:11:55,679 --> 00:11:59,880
Speaker 1: suggests that they were completely different sports. In his eight

212
00:12:00,840 --> 00:12:04,080
Speaker 1: History of Croquet, Arthur Lily made the point that many sports,

213
00:12:04,120 --> 00:12:08,319
Speaker 1: in addition to pall Mall, including hockey and polo, had

214
00:12:08,360 --> 00:12:11,280
Speaker 1: some version in their history which was called chican or

215
00:12:11,320 --> 00:12:14,040
Speaker 1: you'll see it sometimes called chicane. Uh So they may

216
00:12:14,120 --> 00:12:18,479
Speaker 1: have all had some sort of commonality from which they branched, evolved,

217
00:12:18,559 --> 00:12:21,599
Speaker 1: and then in some cases combined with other games. It

218
00:12:21,720 --> 00:12:23,439
Speaker 1: makes the case that this may be in part due

219
00:12:23,480 --> 00:12:27,160
Speaker 1: to the changing seasons. In Brittany, where the rudimentary games started,

220
00:12:27,800 --> 00:12:29,920
Speaker 1: they would have played a version of the game that

221
00:12:30,000 --> 00:12:33,120
Speaker 1: evolved into hockey In the winter and one more like

222
00:12:33,240 --> 00:12:35,760
Speaker 1: golf in the spring, and as the summer got hot,

223
00:12:35,840 --> 00:12:38,840
Speaker 1: the movement was a lot more arduous. The limited range

224
00:12:38,960 --> 00:12:41,839
Speaker 1: version that was played within an alley or a court

225
00:12:41,880 --> 00:12:44,800
Speaker 1: would have become the standard. They also suggests that on

226
00:12:44,920 --> 00:12:48,360
Speaker 1: the most uncomfortable days, the players might have just simply

227
00:12:48,400 --> 00:12:54,439
Speaker 1: practiced their putting so hot I only want to put Paul.

228
00:12:54,480 --> 00:12:57,120
Speaker 1: All fell out of favor in England over time, but

229
00:12:57,160 --> 00:12:59,760
Speaker 1: as it declined there, it seems that some version of

230
00:12:59,800 --> 00:13:03,520
Speaker 1: it was introduced to Ireland. It's unclear exactly how this

231
00:13:03,640 --> 00:13:06,760
Speaker 1: sport migrated from France, but by the eighteen thirties it

232
00:13:06,840 --> 00:13:10,000
Speaker 1: was popular in the areas around Dublin and the rules

233
00:13:10,040 --> 00:13:13,640
Speaker 1: had started to become more uniform. In the early eighteen fifties,

234
00:13:13,760 --> 00:13:17,280
Speaker 1: the game as it had evolved in Ireland included the

235
00:13:17,320 --> 00:13:21,120
Speaker 1: basic rules that were developed there. They were exported to England,

236
00:13:21,160 --> 00:13:23,480
Speaker 1: where the modern version of the game was first played.

237
00:13:23,520 --> 00:13:27,199
Speaker 1: With the name Crookie Yeah. I am unclear on whether

238
00:13:27,280 --> 00:13:31,960
Speaker 1: that is just an Englishman writing a snooty phonetic of

239
00:13:32,040 --> 00:13:36,959
Speaker 1: how he thinks Irish people speak um. But because it's

240
00:13:37,000 --> 00:13:40,000
Speaker 1: literally c r o O K y um, I don't

241
00:13:40,000 --> 00:13:44,200
Speaker 1: know the first retail croque sets were also introduced during

242
00:13:44,200 --> 00:13:47,360
Speaker 1: this time, the eighteen fifties by Jean Jacques of London,

243
00:13:47,440 --> 00:13:51,400
Speaker 1: which still exists after some name shifting as Jacques of London.

244
00:13:51,920 --> 00:13:55,120
Speaker 1: Their croque set offerings on their website, which they still offer,

245
00:13:55,200 --> 00:13:59,400
Speaker 1: include copy that states that the company invented the sport

246
00:14:00,080 --> 00:14:04,000
Speaker 1: is a matter of some debate. Sure. Even early on

247
00:14:04,080 --> 00:14:07,800
Speaker 1: in Croquet's modern era popularity, the origin of the game

248
00:14:08,000 --> 00:14:11,439
Speaker 1: was still debated, and a letter penned by a doctor

249
00:14:11,480 --> 00:14:14,400
Speaker 1: prior in the late eighteen hundreds on this matter, he wrote,

250
00:14:14,480 --> 00:14:18,720
Speaker 1: quote who invented croquet? Or who improved a rustic game

251
00:14:18,800 --> 00:14:21,880
Speaker 1: into one fit for polite society is a question that

252
00:14:21,960 --> 00:14:25,240
Speaker 1: has often been asked and has never been answered. One

253
00:14:25,360 --> 00:14:28,800
Speaker 1: thing only is certain. It is from Ireland that it

254
00:14:28,840 --> 00:14:31,440
Speaker 1: came to England, and it was on the lawn of

255
00:14:31,520 --> 00:14:35,240
Speaker 1: the late Lord Lawnsdale that was first played in this country.

256
00:14:35,280 --> 00:14:37,720
Speaker 1: How long it had been practiced in Ireland, or in

257
00:14:37,840 --> 00:14:41,480
Speaker 1: what year his lordship introduced it, nobody knows. It may

258
00:14:41,480 --> 00:14:44,280
Speaker 1: be presumed that it did not occur to anyone in

259
00:14:44,320 --> 00:14:46,640
Speaker 1: its perfect form as we have it now, but was

260
00:14:46,720 --> 00:14:49,560
Speaker 1: built up, so to say, bit by bit, with hints

261
00:14:49,640 --> 00:14:53,400
Speaker 1: and contributions from many different people, which is exactly how

262
00:14:53,440 --> 00:14:57,400
Speaker 1: most things evolved in history. Uh. Prior's position though, was

263
00:14:57,480 --> 00:15:01,160
Speaker 1: that croquet did not evolve from Paul mall as that

264
00:15:01,200 --> 00:15:03,480
Speaker 1: game hadn't been played in so long that no one

265
00:15:03,520 --> 00:15:06,080
Speaker 1: probably even remembered it enough to revive it in any

266
00:15:06,080 --> 00:15:10,040
Speaker 1: sort of revised version. But one thing about croquet was

267
00:15:10,440 --> 00:15:14,080
Speaker 1: entirely clear to Prior. He wrote, quote, nothing but tobacco

268
00:15:14,120 --> 00:15:18,240
Speaker 1: smoking has ever spread as quickly. Croquet eventually made its

269
00:15:18,280 --> 00:15:20,720
Speaker 1: way to the US from Europe, and it quickly became

270
00:15:20,840 --> 00:15:24,280
Speaker 1: very popular here too, from the mid eight hundreds up

271
00:15:24,320 --> 00:15:27,760
Speaker 1: until the eighteen nineties. Its state side appeal group, but

272
00:15:27,800 --> 00:15:30,160
Speaker 1: in the last decade of the nineteenth century it was

273
00:15:30,280 --> 00:15:34,280
Speaker 1: lumped in with drinking and gambling due to its popularity

274
00:15:34,320 --> 00:15:38,600
Speaker 1: on Boston Common, where there's other entertainments were also popular.

275
00:15:39,360 --> 00:15:43,200
Speaker 1: After that, it's popularity declined for several decades. Yeah, I

276
00:15:43,240 --> 00:15:46,520
Speaker 1: had a little, uh, a little smear on its identity.

277
00:15:46,040 --> 00:15:48,800
Speaker 1: I'm saying, I'm I'm trying to think if I've ever

278
00:15:49,200 --> 00:15:52,880
Speaker 1: seen people playing croquet on Boston Common, And I'm like,

279
00:15:53,040 --> 00:15:57,440
Speaker 1: I don't think i've seen anyone, do Is it allowed? Right?

280
00:15:58,200 --> 00:16:01,960
Speaker 1: Because in the eighteen nineties they got too much trouble

281
00:16:02,000 --> 00:16:05,160
Speaker 1: with the croquet on Boston, right, they associated it with

282
00:16:05,320 --> 00:16:10,880
Speaker 1: vices that were not healthy. But beginning in the nineteen twenties,

283
00:16:11,040 --> 00:16:14,000
Speaker 1: croquet in the US once again became popular as it

284
00:16:14,040 --> 00:16:17,760
Speaker 1: was embraced by various celebrities at their gatherings and it

285
00:16:17,800 --> 00:16:20,920
Speaker 1: gained a fresh wave of cash at The United States

286
00:16:20,920 --> 00:16:24,920
Speaker 1: Croquet Association was founded in nineteen seventy seven, so it

287
00:16:24,960 --> 00:16:27,880
Speaker 1: took a little while by Jack Osborne, and he established

288
00:16:27,920 --> 00:16:30,960
Speaker 1: the rules for that six wicket kind of abbreviated style

289
00:16:31,000 --> 00:16:32,800
Speaker 1: of play that we mentioned at the top of the show.

290
00:16:33,560 --> 00:16:38,520
Speaker 1: That association still exists today. In seven, the American Croquet

291
00:16:38,520 --> 00:16:42,200
Speaker 1: Association was born to support gameplay with the international rules,

292
00:16:42,560 --> 00:16:45,480
Speaker 1: so with more wickets. Uh though the u s c

293
00:16:45,640 --> 00:16:49,240
Speaker 1: A now oversees most events that feature international rules gameplay,

294
00:16:49,560 --> 00:16:52,440
Speaker 1: and there's a pretty significant overlap in membership. That ven

295
00:16:52,440 --> 00:16:57,120
Speaker 1: diagram has a big middle section. Next, we're going to

296
00:16:57,200 --> 00:17:01,240
Speaker 1: discuss two interesting figures in croquet's history and one significant

297
00:17:01,320 --> 00:17:04,160
Speaker 1: organization that has shifted away from the sport of croquet

298
00:17:04,160 --> 00:17:07,440
Speaker 1: in favor of another game. We'll get to that after

299
00:17:07,640 --> 00:17:18,360
Speaker 1: a word from our sponsors. One of the most prominent

300
00:17:18,400 --> 00:17:21,720
Speaker 1: figures in croque's history is Walter Jones Whitmore, who we

301
00:17:21,800 --> 00:17:25,119
Speaker 1: mentioned earlier. Whitmore was born in eighteen thirty one and

302
00:17:25,160 --> 00:17:27,840
Speaker 1: became acquainted with croquet in eighteen sixty when he was

303
00:17:27,960 --> 00:17:30,520
Speaker 1: just a young man of twenty nine. He was working

304
00:17:30,560 --> 00:17:32,680
Speaker 1: at the time as a government clerk and he picked

305
00:17:32,760 --> 00:17:35,080
Speaker 1: up the game casually playing with the people in his

306
00:17:35,119 --> 00:17:39,240
Speaker 1: neighborhood of Morton in Marsh in Gloucestershire, England. At this point,

307
00:17:39,320 --> 00:17:42,120
Speaker 1: there wasn't a standardized set of rules for the game

308
00:17:42,200 --> 00:17:46,320
Speaker 1: beyond a very friendly version. Different companies were producing croquet

309
00:17:46,359 --> 00:17:49,400
Speaker 1: sets for recreational use, and every company had its own

310
00:17:49,520 --> 00:17:51,760
Speaker 1: version of the rules that was included with the set.

311
00:17:52,440 --> 00:17:54,960
Speaker 1: Whitmore recognized that if the sport was going to be

312
00:17:55,000 --> 00:17:58,680
Speaker 1: taken seriously, there needed to be a clear, standardized rules

313
00:17:58,680 --> 00:18:01,960
Speaker 1: set for competitive play. So he wrote some Yeah, there

314
00:18:01,960 --> 00:18:04,880
Speaker 1: were rules that have been developed, but a lot of them.

315
00:18:05,080 --> 00:18:08,160
Speaker 1: There's a lot of house rules for everybody that played,

316
00:18:08,200 --> 00:18:11,000
Speaker 1: and as we said, different different companies that made sets

317
00:18:11,040 --> 00:18:14,040
Speaker 1: made their own shifts to the rules, and he thought, like,

318
00:18:14,160 --> 00:18:17,440
Speaker 1: this is a sport that could be like a pro sport.

319
00:18:17,640 --> 00:18:21,159
Speaker 1: But it's gonna need some more structure. Uh. These rules

320
00:18:21,160 --> 00:18:23,399
Speaker 1: that he came up with were published by a periodical

321
00:18:23,480 --> 00:18:25,560
Speaker 1: called The Field, and they came to be known as

322
00:18:25,600 --> 00:18:28,159
Speaker 1: the Field Rules, or you'll sometimes see them listed as

323
00:18:28,200 --> 00:18:31,679
Speaker 1: the Field Laws, and they did shift public thinking on

324
00:18:31,720 --> 00:18:33,960
Speaker 1: the sport to consider it as more than just a

325
00:18:33,960 --> 00:18:37,800
Speaker 1: backyard pastime. The same year that The Field Rules came out,

326
00:18:37,800 --> 00:18:41,320
Speaker 1: which was eighteen sixty six, Walter Jones Whitmore also published

327
00:18:41,320 --> 00:18:44,240
Speaker 1: a book which used a lot of the articles that

328
00:18:44,280 --> 00:18:46,879
Speaker 1: he had written to establish these these rules, and that

329
00:18:47,000 --> 00:18:50,520
Speaker 1: was called The Science of Croquet. In eighteen sixty seven,

330
00:18:50,520 --> 00:18:55,280
Speaker 1: with More established England's first croquet tournament, which he also won.

331
00:18:55,880 --> 00:19:00,040
Speaker 1: That championship status led to his book Croquet Tactics. He

332
00:19:00,119 --> 00:19:03,280
Speaker 1: explained to the introduction quote, the present volume is a

333
00:19:03,320 --> 00:19:06,960
Speaker 1: compilation of my articles which appeared in that journal The Field,

334
00:19:07,320 --> 00:19:11,480
Speaker 1: although considerably enlarged and with the addition of several points

335
00:19:11,480 --> 00:19:14,679
Speaker 1: which have since occurred to me. He next established the

336
00:19:14,720 --> 00:19:18,080
Speaker 1: All England Croquet Club, and after failing to secure a

337
00:19:18,080 --> 00:19:20,720
Speaker 1: permanent home for the A E c C, he next

338
00:19:20,760 --> 00:19:24,560
Speaker 1: founded a second All England Croquet Club, which became the

339
00:19:24,640 --> 00:19:28,199
Speaker 1: National Croquet Club. Both of these clubs worked together with

340
00:19:28,240 --> 00:19:32,240
Speaker 1: Whitmore's leadership to refine the sport rules further in subsequent years,

341
00:19:32,600 --> 00:19:34,680
Speaker 1: and then he died in eighteen seventy two at the

342
00:19:34,720 --> 00:19:37,679
Speaker 1: age of forty one. Women's involvement in the game of

343
00:19:37,720 --> 00:19:40,840
Speaker 1: croquet has been touted almost as long as the sport

344
00:19:40,840 --> 00:19:43,960
Speaker 1: has existed under that name. One of the selling points

345
00:19:43,960 --> 00:19:46,200
Speaker 1: of croquet, as we mentioned at the top of the episode,

346
00:19:46,520 --> 00:19:48,480
Speaker 1: is that it is something that many people can do

347
00:19:48,560 --> 00:19:53,320
Speaker 1: because it is not especially physically demanding. Caricaturist John Leech

348
00:19:53,480 --> 00:19:57,760
Speaker 1: made engravings in the eighteen sixties featuring ladies playing croquet

349
00:19:57,840 --> 00:20:02,520
Speaker 1: alongside gentleman. In his eighteen sixty two Etching a Croquet match,

350
00:20:02,640 --> 00:20:05,679
Speaker 1: a large group of people is playing, including several women.

351
00:20:06,119 --> 00:20:08,760
Speaker 1: As the women are leaning forward playing the game, their

352
00:20:08,880 --> 00:20:12,879
Speaker 1: large cage crinolines lift their dresses so they slightly exposed

353
00:20:12,880 --> 00:20:16,399
Speaker 1: the petticoats that are underneath. Leech's eighteen sixty five piece

354
00:20:16,440 --> 00:20:19,280
Speaker 1: titled A Nice Game for Two or More shows a

355
00:20:19,320 --> 00:20:22,080
Speaker 1: garden party with a woman preparing a shot as she

356
00:20:22,119 --> 00:20:25,119
Speaker 1: looks at one of her male opponents. The caption for

357
00:20:25,119 --> 00:20:28,440
Speaker 1: this image reads, fixing her eyes on his and placing

358
00:20:28,480 --> 00:20:31,240
Speaker 1: her pretty little foot on the ball. She said, Now

359
00:20:31,280 --> 00:20:34,560
Speaker 1: then I am going to croquet you and croquade. He

360
00:20:34,720 --> 00:20:39,720
Speaker 1: was completely Arthur Lily history. We've referenced several times, even

361
00:20:39,760 --> 00:20:42,960
Speaker 1: mentions and interpreting a poem about croquet that lists a

362
00:20:43,040 --> 00:20:45,760
Speaker 1: number of other sports. Quote, all these games are inferior

363
00:20:45,800 --> 00:20:50,040
Speaker 1: to croquet where they exclude ladies. And there was incidentally

364
00:20:50,080 --> 00:20:52,639
Speaker 1: a nickname for an adaptation of the game, which was

365
00:20:52,680 --> 00:20:55,720
Speaker 1: called crinoline croquet, but that didn't really have anything to

366
00:20:55,760 --> 00:20:58,520
Speaker 1: do with women, So I just want to like clarify

367
00:20:58,600 --> 00:21:00,800
Speaker 1: on that in case you come across it. This was

368
00:21:00,840 --> 00:21:04,360
Speaker 1: just the game played on a smaller scale with smaller implements.

369
00:21:04,880 --> 00:21:07,800
Speaker 1: This version was apparently considered far less serious by more

370
00:21:07,840 --> 00:21:10,199
Speaker 1: devoted players of the game, but it was also the

371
00:21:10,240 --> 00:21:13,000
Speaker 1: reason that it's popularity spread so quickly, as it could

372
00:21:13,000 --> 00:21:17,200
Speaker 1: be played even on tiny backyard lawns. It was also where,

373
00:21:17,240 --> 00:21:21,760
Speaker 1: according to Lily's estimate of enthusiasts were playing. This is

374
00:21:21,840 --> 00:21:26,280
Speaker 1: again not the professional tournament version, but the more casual version,

375
00:21:26,320 --> 00:21:29,240
Speaker 1: and it's really that version that came across the Atlantic

376
00:21:29,280 --> 00:21:32,359
Speaker 1: and became popular in the US. But there's one woman

377
00:21:32,400 --> 00:21:35,399
Speaker 1: in particular who had a surprising rise to fame as

378
00:21:35,400 --> 00:21:38,439
Speaker 1: a croquet player. Her name was Lily Gower and she

379
00:21:38,520 --> 00:21:42,639
Speaker 1: was Welsh. At the age of twenty one, the relatively

380
00:21:42,720 --> 00:21:46,080
Speaker 1: inexperienced Gower entered a tournament in Budley, which is a

381
00:21:46,119 --> 00:21:49,719
Speaker 1: coastal town in East Devon, England. Yes, she had never

382
00:21:49,800 --> 00:21:52,640
Speaker 1: played in public before, and after a fairly boring run

383
00:21:52,680 --> 00:21:55,040
Speaker 1: of the beginning of the tournament, it ended up that

384
00:21:55,119 --> 00:21:58,160
Speaker 1: the newcomer Gower was up against Mr C. E. Willis,

385
00:21:58,160 --> 00:22:01,520
Speaker 1: a champion player, for the final. The finals were a

386
00:22:01,520 --> 00:22:05,240
Speaker 1: best of three situations. Lily had been categorized as having

387
00:22:05,280 --> 00:22:08,359
Speaker 1: beginner's luck by most people in attendance, but in the

388
00:22:08,400 --> 00:22:11,000
Speaker 1: first round of play against the veteran Willis, she beat

389
00:22:11,119 --> 00:22:13,920
Speaker 1: him and in the second game, which was heavily attended.

390
00:22:13,960 --> 00:22:16,960
Speaker 1: After Gower's success in the first game, Willis came back

391
00:22:17,000 --> 00:22:21,000
Speaker 1: and played incredibly well, beating the young woman easily. It

392
00:22:21,080 --> 00:22:24,040
Speaker 1: appeared that Lily's luck had run out, but in the

393
00:22:24,119 --> 00:22:27,800
Speaker 1: third game she trounced Willis, winning in just thirty five

394
00:22:27,840 --> 00:22:30,719
Speaker 1: minutes with a twenty six point lead. So while there

395
00:22:30,720 --> 00:22:32,919
Speaker 1: were still detractors that shocked all this up to just

396
00:22:33,040 --> 00:22:35,880
Speaker 1: good luck on her part, that was really the beginning

397
00:22:35,960 --> 00:22:39,040
Speaker 1: of a successful career in the sport for her. Lily

398
00:22:39,119 --> 00:22:42,480
Speaker 1: Gower went on so when a lot of championships. Yeah,

399
00:22:42,520 --> 00:22:44,840
Speaker 1: she also ended up married to another croquet player, which

400
00:22:44,880 --> 00:22:48,040
Speaker 1: I love. Uh. There is also another name in Croque's

401
00:22:48,080 --> 00:22:52,040
Speaker 1: history that I would bet is very familiar to most

402
00:22:52,080 --> 00:22:54,919
Speaker 1: of our listeners, which is Wimbledon. The sport that you

403
00:22:55,000 --> 00:22:57,360
Speaker 1: probably think of when you hear that name is tennis

404
00:22:57,560 --> 00:23:02,000
Speaker 1: with good reason, but Wimbledon was actually associated with croquet. First,

405
00:23:02,520 --> 00:23:06,080
Speaker 1: we're gonna jump back first to the Walter Jones Whitmore story.

406
00:23:06,280 --> 00:23:09,000
Speaker 1: He had, as we just mentioned, founded the All England

407
00:23:09,040 --> 00:23:12,399
Speaker 1: Croquet Club in eighteen sixty eight, four years before his death.

408
00:23:12,920 --> 00:23:15,440
Speaker 1: We mentioned that he had some difficulty finding a permanent

409
00:23:15,480 --> 00:23:18,480
Speaker 1: home for the club, and once that was finally secured,

410
00:23:18,720 --> 00:23:22,359
Speaker 1: it was near the Wimbledon train station. The station name

411
00:23:22,440 --> 00:23:26,720
Speaker 1: and the club became totally intertwined. In eighteen seventy five,

412
00:23:26,840 --> 00:23:29,040
Speaker 1: the club, in an effort to stay relevant and to

413
00:23:29,200 --> 00:23:33,040
Speaker 1: capitalize on another sport that was gaining in popularity, changed

414
00:23:33,080 --> 00:23:37,200
Speaker 1: its name to the All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club.

415
00:23:37,680 --> 00:23:41,360
Speaker 1: By eighteen eighty, croquet had vanished from the name as tennis,

416
00:23:41,640 --> 00:23:43,800
Speaker 1: which held a wider appeal because it was a little

417
00:23:43,800 --> 00:23:46,199
Speaker 1: bit more of a spectator sport, made use of the

418
00:23:46,200 --> 00:23:50,200
Speaker 1: club's lawns. It is no accident that two Wimbledon tennis

419
00:23:50,280 --> 00:23:53,879
Speaker 1: courts fit just about perfectly into one croquet court because

420
00:23:53,880 --> 00:23:56,720
Speaker 1: the space was converted from one to the other. But

421
00:23:56,960 --> 00:24:01,160
Speaker 1: Croquet and Wimbledon's divorce did not stick. Croque once again

422
00:24:01,200 --> 00:24:03,960
Speaker 1: became part of the All England Club in eighteen ninety nine,

423
00:24:04,080 --> 00:24:06,600
Speaker 1: although the order was reversed so that it became the

424
00:24:06,680 --> 00:24:10,960
Speaker 1: All England Lawn, Tennis and Croquet Club, although All England

425
00:24:11,040 --> 00:24:13,840
Speaker 1: Club is commonly used. When the club moved in, the

426
00:24:14,680 --> 00:24:17,359
Speaker 1: Croque did not move with it, although it stayed in

427
00:24:17,400 --> 00:24:20,440
Speaker 1: the official name. In the nineteen fifties, the club once

428
00:24:20,440 --> 00:24:23,320
Speaker 1: again picked up croquet, but it has remained a secondary

429
00:24:23,400 --> 00:24:26,920
Speaker 1: aspect of Wimbledon. The club had only one croquet court

430
00:24:27,000 --> 00:24:30,120
Speaker 1: until two thousand seven. That one was removed and then

431
00:24:30,160 --> 00:24:33,280
Speaker 1: three new ones were installed in two thousand eight. During

432
00:24:33,320 --> 00:24:37,080
Speaker 1: high tennis season, the croquet players have to play elsewhere. Uh.

433
00:24:37,080 --> 00:24:40,120
Speaker 1: They usually I've heard it described they do like four

434
00:24:40,720 --> 00:24:45,280
Speaker 1: kind of open uh tournaments in the club each year

435
00:24:45,320 --> 00:24:48,359
Speaker 1: and four away and the away winds are scheduled when

436
00:24:48,760 --> 00:24:52,240
Speaker 1: tennis is in its season because those lawns that would

437
00:24:52,240 --> 00:24:54,679
Speaker 1: be used for croquet are used as practice areas for

438
00:24:54,720 --> 00:24:58,679
Speaker 1: the more prevalent sports. It's the very brief glimpse at

439
00:24:58,680 --> 00:25:02,960
Speaker 1: croque in history. We'll talk about the fact. Here's the thing.

440
00:25:03,000 --> 00:25:06,800
Speaker 1: I know that if you are in England, they do

441
00:25:06,920 --> 00:25:13,800
Speaker 1: the accent differently, so it's croquet rather than croquet. This

442
00:25:13,880 --> 00:25:21,000
Speaker 1: is like whether it's Marriott or Marriott right precisely. But yeah,

443
00:25:21,080 --> 00:25:25,400
Speaker 1: it's a fun little I'm thinking of spring already, so

444
00:25:25,480 --> 00:25:28,600
Speaker 1: it was a fun adventure to consider going outside and

445
00:25:28,640 --> 00:25:33,000
Speaker 1: playing on the lawn. Yeah. I um as as I

446
00:25:33,040 --> 00:25:36,240
Speaker 1: was reading through this outline, I read a really interesting

447
00:25:36,320 --> 00:25:39,239
Speaker 1: article about the spread of England or the spread of

448
00:25:39,359 --> 00:25:45,880
Speaker 1: croquet through uh like places that England or Britain had colonized.

449
00:25:46,480 --> 00:25:50,040
Speaker 1: Um and like it's introduction into Egypt and then Egypt

450
00:25:50,119 --> 00:25:55,320
Speaker 1: becoming like the dominant home of croquet players. Um. So

451
00:25:55,680 --> 00:25:59,880
Speaker 1: like that's a game that has had a whole trajectory

452
00:26:00,040 --> 00:26:04,040
Speaker 1: on its origins. Oh yes, yeah we I I stuck

453
00:26:04,040 --> 00:26:06,800
Speaker 1: to the very European kind of developmental rules because once

454
00:26:06,840 --> 00:26:09,639
Speaker 1: it passed out of there and exploded and became like

455
00:26:09,680 --> 00:26:12,679
Speaker 1: a worldwide sport. I definitely did not get into the

456
00:26:12,760 --> 00:26:16,000
Speaker 1: more competitive There are not very many, but there are

457
00:26:16,080 --> 00:26:19,400
Speaker 1: professional croquet players today that that is their full time thing.

458
00:26:20,160 --> 00:26:24,119
Speaker 1: Um is just one of the many evolutions of of

459
00:26:24,160 --> 00:26:26,960
Speaker 1: any sport that becomes popular. I think, Yeah, do you

460
00:26:26,960 --> 00:26:29,719
Speaker 1: have some listener mail for us? Also? I do. This

461
00:26:29,760 --> 00:26:32,360
Speaker 1: one is very exciting to me because I am selfish

462
00:26:32,880 --> 00:26:38,879
Speaker 1: from our listener Erica who writes, Hello, Holly and Tracy.

463
00:26:38,960 --> 00:26:41,960
Speaker 1: I'm grateful for your work, researching, writing and talking. I'm

464
00:26:42,000 --> 00:26:45,240
Speaker 1: a public school English teacher in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and

465
00:26:45,280 --> 00:26:48,000
Speaker 1: I've used your podcast about the Halifax explosion as a

466
00:26:48,000 --> 00:26:51,480
Speaker 1: mentor text. Thank you for being an educator, Erica. I

467
00:26:51,560 --> 00:26:54,040
Speaker 1: know that Holly appreciates fashion. So here is a unique

468
00:26:54,040 --> 00:26:57,040
Speaker 1: book related to clothing and costumes from three eras with

469
00:26:57,080 --> 00:26:59,880
Speaker 1: a taste of Nova Scotia and influence of Paris into

470
00:26:59,880 --> 00:27:04,119
Speaker 1: a way. She said, this beautiful book called Transit Latique,

471
00:27:04,160 --> 00:27:06,159
Speaker 1: and it is the art of fashion and costume design

472
00:27:06,240 --> 00:27:09,160
Speaker 1: in Paris and Halifax. There is a lot of really

473
00:27:09,200 --> 00:27:14,680
Speaker 1: fabulous art in here. There's a lot of poire action

474
00:27:14,800 --> 00:27:17,760
Speaker 1: going on. It's beautiful, beautiful, beautiful and it makes you

475
00:27:17,800 --> 00:27:22,760
Speaker 1: want to run home and make pretty outfits. So thank

476
00:27:22,800 --> 00:27:25,360
Speaker 1: you so much, Erica. It's absolutely gorgeous. I'm gonna pour

477
00:27:25,480 --> 00:27:27,320
Speaker 1: over it. Let me take it on my next trip

478
00:27:27,359 --> 00:27:29,520
Speaker 1: so I can just gok at it in flight. I

479
00:27:29,520 --> 00:27:31,679
Speaker 1: always love it when I get a little fashion books.

480
00:27:31,720 --> 00:27:34,800
Speaker 1: She also had some cute um. The postcard that she

481
00:27:34,800 --> 00:27:37,320
Speaker 1: said that she wrote the note on shows a ps on.

482
00:27:37,440 --> 00:27:39,280
Speaker 1: She said, on the front is a docks in, which

483
00:27:39,320 --> 00:27:41,160
Speaker 1: reminds me and my dog Duke. He is a mix

484
00:27:41,200 --> 00:27:43,840
Speaker 1: of docks and beagle and bloodhound, which to me sounds

485
00:27:43,880 --> 00:27:46,280
Speaker 1: like the cutest combo on the planet. So, Duke, I

486
00:27:46,320 --> 00:27:48,359
Speaker 1: hope you're having a great day. Uh. If you would

487
00:27:48,359 --> 00:27:50,160
Speaker 1: like to write to us, you can do so at

488
00:27:50,200 --> 00:27:53,119
Speaker 1: History Podcast at i heeart radio dot com. You can

489
00:27:53,160 --> 00:27:56,040
Speaker 1: also find us everywhere on social media as Missed in History,

490
00:27:56,400 --> 00:27:58,760
Speaker 1: and we encourage you to subscribe to the show. You

491
00:27:58,760 --> 00:28:00,639
Speaker 1: can do that on the I Heart Radio app, at

492
00:28:00,680 --> 00:28:03,080
Speaker 1: Apple podcast or wherever it is you'd like to listen.

493
00:28:08,280 --> 00:28:10,399
Speaker 1: Stuff you Missed in History Class is a production of

494
00:28:10,440 --> 00:28:13,480
Speaker 1: I Heart Radios. How Stuff Works. For more podcasts for

495
00:28:13,600 --> 00:28:16,760
Speaker 1: my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

496
00:28:16,920 --> 00:28:18,840
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,