Download Photo

Club-ball is a pastime clearly distinguished from cambuc or goff, in the edict above mentioned established by Edward III. The difference seems to have consisted in the one being played with a curved bat and the other with a straight one. The illustration , from a MS. in the Bodleian Library, dated 1344, exhibits a female figure in the action of throwing the ball to a man who elevates his bat to strike it.

Behind the woman at a little distance appear in the original delineation several other figures of both sexes, waiting attentively to catch or stop the ball when returned by the batsman: these figures have been damaged, and are very indistinct in many parts, for which reason I did not think it proper to insert them.

Author

The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England from the Earliest Period to the Present Time
By Joseph Strutt
Published 1845
Available from gutenberg.org

Posted on

Sunday 30 August 2020

Dimensions

900*417

Tags

Century:14th, Middle Ages

Albums

• Places / Europe / Britain

Visits

1369

Downloads

23