“Many thanks, Mr. Seymour, many thanks for brushing up my recollection; but I am a little doubtful about the game at which Mæcenas played at Capua: I have, by-the-by, lately read[29] an account of a peculiar game of ball for which the city of Sierra is celebrated, and it is supposed to be that referred to by Horace--‘It is played in the foss, which has a very high wall, and it is not unlike a tennis-court; the ball is very large, and appears to be inflated with air; the arm is defended by a wooden guard or shield; at certain periods of the game, one of the players runs down a spring-board, and throwing the whole of his weight, momentum, and strength upon the ball, as it is thrown towards him, he strikes it to an astonishing distance.’ The second kind of ball,” continued the vicar, “was termed _trigonalis_, which is conjectured to have been nearly the same as our tennis-ball. It derived its name from the position of the three persons who played with it; they were placed in a triangle, and alternately caught and tossed the ball, and he who first let it fall to the ground was the loser. The third kind of ball was the _paganica_, as being much used in country villages. Some authors state it to have been constructed of leather and stuffed with feathers, while others conjecture it to have been a large kind of _follis_. The fourth was the _harpastum_; a small ball, so called because the gamesters endeavoured to snatch it from each other.” “It seems,” observed Louisa, “to be a sport better adapted to boys than girls.” “In that supposition you are quite mistaken,” replied the vicar; “on the contrary, the hand-ball would seem to have been originally a female sport, for Homer has restricted the pastime to the princess and young maidens of Corcyra; at least, he has not mentioned its ever having been practised by the men. ‘O’er the green mead, the sporting _virgins_ play, Their shining veils unbound; along the skies, Toss’d and re-toss’d, the ball incessant flies.’”[30] Mr. Seymour said that, as the vicar had satisfied them of the high antiquity of the ball, he hoped he would now afford them some information respecting its use in England. “The game of hand-ball,” said the vicar, “called by the French _palm-play_, because the exercise consisted originally in receiving the ball, and driving it back again with the _palm of the hand_, was formerly a favourite pastime among the youth of both sexes; and in many parts of the kingdom it was customary for them to play at this game during the Easter holidays for tansy cakes. In ancient times, the mayor and aldermen of Newcastle used to go in state at the feasts of Easter and Whitsuntide, to a little mall of the town, to witness this game. It was originally played with the naked hand; then with a glove, which in some instances was lined; afterwards, cords and catgut strings were bound upon the hand to make the ball rebound more forcibly.”