CROQUET
AS PLAYED BY
THE NEWPORT CROQUET CLUB
BY
ONE OF THE MEMBERS.
Sic Indus animo debet aliquando dari
Ad cogitandum melior ut redeat tibi.
Phœd., Lib. iii, Fab. 4.
NEW YORK:
SHELDON & COMPANY,
498 & 500 BROADWAY.
1865.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by
SHELDON & CO.,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District
of New York.
| Stereotyped by Smith & McDougal, 84 Beekman-st. | Printed by C.S. Westcott & Co., 79 John-st. |
PREFACE
The increasing popularity of Croquet,and the deficiencies of the existingmanuals of the game, have encouragedme to give this little book tothe public. The treatise of Captain MayneReid, to which the introduction of croquet inthis country is mainly due, is deficient insystem and arrangement, and affords no intelligibledetermination to many of the cases Ihave instanced in illustration of the rules ofthe game. The manuals published in thiscountry are still more faulty. The rules affordno solution to half of the ambiguous cases thatarise in ordinary play; and some are guilty ofthe strange error of allowing the "RoquetCroquet" to every ball—a liberty totally atvariance with the fundamental principles of thegame, and which in the hands of strong playerswould prolong the contest indefinitely, make[Pg iv]victory depend upon a single chance hit, andreduce the opportunities for generalship andcombination to a minimum. I have dwelt atsome length upon the "right of declining,"and the "theory of double points;" principleswhich, though hinted at by Captain Reid, areleft rather obscure in his book. Players willfind that this power of economizing privilegesadds greatly to the interest of the game, andrenders many a cunning plot and counter-plotnecessary.
The origin of this game is unknown. Noman invented whist or chess, and croquet likethem seems to have been evolved by some processof nature, as a crystal forms or a flowergrows—perfect, in accordance with eternal laws.There is in all these games a certain theorywhich furnishes interpretations for all casesthat arise in actual play. The rules are groupedabout a central principle. The mimic battleshave a unity, and are homogeneous in all theirparts. If the rules are indefinite or contradictorythe game loses its distinctive character.If the rules are accurate and rigidly enforced,croquet is a game of the highest interest. Iam informed by a scientific billiard player thatthough croquet is inferior to billiards in afford[Pg v]ingopportunities for delicate manipulation andmanual dexterity, that it far excels that elegantgame in the field it opens for the exerciseof the higher qualities of combination andforesight. Whist exercises the memory andthe power of calculating probabilities; chessthe imagina