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!6 BALOON—BANDY-BALL |
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Baloon
A game played with an inflated ball of strong leather, the
ball being struck by the arm, which was defended by a bracer of wood.—Brand's Pop. Antiq., ii. 394-
(b) It is spelt "balloo" in Ben Jonson, iii. 216, and "baloome" in Randolph's Poems) 1643, p. 105. It is also mentioned in Middleton's Works, iv. 342, and by Donne.
" Tis ten a clock and past; all whom the mues,
Baloun, tennis, diet, or the stews
Had all the morning held."
—Donne's Poems, p. 133.
Toone (Etymological Diet) says it is a game rather for exercise than contention; it was well known and practised in England in the fourteenth century, and is mentioned as one of the sports of Prince Henry, son of James I., in 161 o. Strutt (Sports and Pastimes, p. 96) gives two illustrations of what he considers to be baloon ball play, from fourteenth century MSS.
Bandy-ball
A game played with sticks called " bandies," bent and round at one end, and a small wooden ball, which each party endeavours to drive to opposite fixed points. Northbrooke in 1577 mentions it as a favourite game in Devonshire (Halliwell's Diet, of Provincialisms). Strutt says the bat-stick was called a " bandy " on account of its being bent, and gives a drawing from a fourteenth century MS. book of prayers belonging to Mr. Francis Douce (Sports, p. 102). The bats in this drawing are nearly identical with modern golf-sticks, and "Golf" seems to be derived from this game. Peacock mentions it in his Glossary of Manley and Corringham Words. Forby has an interesting note in his Vocabulary of East Anglia, i. 14. He says, "The bandy was made of very tough wood, or shod with metal, or with the point of the horn or the hoof of some animal. The ball is a knob or gnarl from the trunk of a tree, carefully formed into a globular shape. The adverse parties strive to beat it with their bandies through one or other of the goals." |
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