The School of Recreation (1696 edition) eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 159 pages of information about The School of Recreation (1696 edition).

The School of Recreation (1696 edition) eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 159 pages of information about The School of Recreation (1696 edition).

Apoplex:  Gather the Herb Asterion, wash your Hawks meat with the Juice thereof when you feed him.

Wounds:  Take the Juice of English Tobacco, or Mouse-ears, after you have sticht it up with a little Lint, bathe the place.

Of BOWLING.

The first and greatest Cunning to be observed in Bowling, is the right chusing your Bowl, which must be suitable to the Grounds you design to run on, thus:  For close Alleys, your best choice is the Flat Bowl:  2.  For open Grounds of Advantage, the Round-byassed-bowl. 3.  For Green Swarths, that are plain and level, the Bowl that is Round as a Ball.

The next thing requires your Care is, the chusing out your Ground, and preventing the Windings, Hangings, and many turning Advantages of the same, whether it be in open wide places, as Bares & Bowling-greens, or in close Bowling-alleys.

Lastly, Have your Judgment about you to observe and distinguish the Risings, Fallings and Advantages of the Places where you Bowl:  Have your Wits about you to avoid being rookt of your Money:  And have your Understanding about you, to know your best Time and Opportunity for this Recreation; and finally a studious Care of your Words and Passions, and then Bowl away, and you may deserve, Well have you bowled indeed.

But methinks I cannot conclude here, without admiring how aptly a Bowling-green is by the Divine Quarles characterized, in the following Verses, thus,

Brave Pastime, Readers, to consume that day, Which without Pastime flies too swift away!  See how they labour, as if Day and Night Were both too short to serve their loose Delight?  See how their curved Bodies wreath, and skrue Such Antick Shapes as Proteus never knew:  One rapps an Oath, another deals a Curse, He never better bowl’d, this never worse; One rubs his itchless Elbow, shrugs and laughs, The t’other bends his Beetle-brows, and chafes; Sometimes they whoop, sometimes the Stygian cryes, Send their black Santo’s to the blushing Skies:  Thus mingling Humours in a mad Confusion They make bad premisses and worse Conclusion.

Thus much for Bowling.

Of TENNIS.

This Recreation is of the Same Date for its Antiquity of Invention with Bowling, and for the Violence of its Exercise to be preferred before it.  This Sport indeed is of so universal an Acceptance, that Majesty it self is pleased to design it its Recommendation, by tracking its laborious steps; and Princes and Lords admire it too for the most proper Recreation, to suit with Innocence, and true Nobility.  Here the Body is briskly exercised more than ordinary, and inured in Agility and Nimbleness; this renders the Limbs flexible and mettlesom, and adapts them for the most Vigorous Enterprize.

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
The School of Recreation (1696 edition) from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.