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RECREATIONS 627
open imprisonment in St. Mary's church. No mercy was al->
lowed to ministers of religion or deacons who committed this
were sent down forthwith. 1
indiscretion; they
It was an unruly, rough game. Accidents were frequent and
sometimes fatal. It was played with an inflated pig's bladder
which was usually covered with leather, but might be bare and
filled with peas and beans; and this, it seems, could be pro'
pelled either by hand or foot. So Alexander Barclay (1475?-
1552) in the Fifth Eclogue:
Eche one contended! and hath a great delite
With foote and with hande the bladder for to smite.
In the sixteenth century it was rather a game for rustics than for
gentlemen and not held in high repute. Sir Thomas Elyot in
his book called The Governour written in 1 5 3 1 says 'Foote balle,
wherein is nothinge but beasdy furie and exstreme violence'.
This would hardly seem to be an understatement, for the
Register of Burials at North Moreton in Berkshire contains
under the year 1598 the following entry:
1598 John Gregoriethe son ofWilliam Gregoriewas buried the2Oth ofMai.
1598 Richard Gregorie was buried upon Ascension Day.
These two men were killed by ould Gunter. Gunter's sonnes and the
Gregories fell by the years at football. Old Gunter drew his dagger and broke
their heads and they died within a fortnight after.
The story ofthe tennis-balls sent by the Dauphin to Henry V,
made familiar by Shakespeare, rests on good contemporary
authority; the incident may probably be dated 27 February
1414. This, however, is not the earliest mention of the game.
It was very likely the game to which Chaucer alludes in Troilus
and Criseyde (c. 1374):
But canstow pleyen raket, to and fro,
Nede in, dokke out, now this, now that, PandereJ
It was, as we have seen, added to the list of prohibited games in
the statute of 1388. It seems to have come to England from
France where it was certainly known in the thirteenth century.
In the later middle ages and after it enjoyed a great popularity
in this country. Sir Thomas Elyot, who disapproved so
1 Strickland Gibson, Statute Axtiqua Uwversfotfis Oxomcttsis, pp. 431-2.