The best game is that played between four players in partnership, as matters become more equalised as the play proceeds than in single games between two opponents, though where two players are fairly matched the single game allows of a greater exhibition of skill. Games frequently last a couple of hours and even longer in the four-handed game, and from an hour to an hour and a half in singles, and it is important that players should not feel “hung up” for time, for nothing is so calculated to put a player off than the feeling that he must hurry to catch a train. Good players proceed in a quiet determined fashion, well on the alert, but never in a hurry. On the other hand, too much calculation and deliberateness will often make a player fail to get through a hoop or roquet. You must sight your ball and get the direction, and then play boldly and with decision; hesitating play is fatal to good strokes. Brisk play is undoubtedly the thing both for the player and the others of the party, for if a game is dragged out it becomes tedious. I confess that I am by no means a good player, but an indifferent player can get a lot of enjoyment out of the game provided he gets players of about his own calibre to play with and against him. There is no doubt that to play well necessitates pretty constant practice, for without that one cannot be sure of either the direction and, what is of equal importance, the strength of his stroke. This latter is one of the great difficulties of the game, for upon hitting your ball the right distance depends your chance of a second stroke either by getting through a hoop or when you roquet. The distance a ball will travel will depend upon the nature of the lawn as well as upon the strength of your stroke. A good lawn well drained, of closely cropped turf in good condition and true, will play faster than where the grass is poor and dampish. Weeds, like plantains and daisies, will quite spoil a stroke if the ball happens to slide upon them, and obviously holes or bare places are still worse. An ordinary lawn can be improved by sifting over it sandy road scrapings, and hollows filled in in this way early in the year and well rolled will become turf later on as the grass will grow through the soil. A poor lawn can be helped by sowing on this top dressing some good lawn seed, which can be had at any good seedsman’s. Birds are partial to it, and it is necessary to either net the lawn or stretch across it black thread at intervals.