Course:History 344 Nasty Families/Pastimes/Games

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The Compleat Gamester

The Compleat Gamester was a popular book written in the seventeenth century with the expressed purpose of helping players better understand the games of the time and hopefully win. [1] The Compleat Gamester was a book that all self-respecting gentleman or woman would own and cherish, as gambling was a fashionable and profitable pursuit, especially after the Restoration. [2]

The Compleat Gamester was first written in 1674 by Charles Cotton, an English poet. The book has had many subsequent editions. The Compleat Gamester gives insight into the games that were played during the seventeenth century by gentry including card-games like Whist and Cribbage, and board-games like Backgammon and Chess, as well as outdoor-games such as Bowling and Horsemanship. [3] It was essentially a guidebook for all sorts of Gentry games which would help those who understood the game well, but it could also be used as a resource in case of disputes. [4] The book also goes over ways that one would be able to trick and cheat opponents, as games could be a very lucrative way to gain additional income. [5] The Compleat Gamester goes over Gentry games, which were played by the Genteel and much different than the coarser games that the country folk and lower social orders played. The lower social orders would play games like wrestling and football, where harm could come to participants. [6]The Compleat Gamester has been published numerous times over the years in multiple additions with changes that reflect the changing times and fashions.


Paille-maille (Pall Mall)

Paille-maille is a popular seventeenth century game that is played on lawns in which players attempt to hit balls with wooden mallets through hoops.[7] Whoever hits the ball the least amounts of time while still getting the ball through all the hoops is the winner. It is an early precursor to the popular game croquet.

Paille-maille is thought to have been introduced to England from the Continent in the reign of Charles I, and is very much a sport for gentlemen, as it was non-violent and allowed for lots of time for socialising.[8] The game became increasingly widespread during the reign of Charles II, as the king and his courtiers would often be found partaking in the game.[9] Paille-maille was widely played at court, and became increasingly fashionable and popular amongst the upper classes of British society. During height of the popularity of this game, Saint James’s Park was renamed the Mall because of the popularity of the spot for playing the game.[10] The game was enjoyed by the upper-classes throughout the seventeenth century and was very much a game in which gentry families could become more widely known.


Real Tennis

Tennis is a game that is usually played between two opposing players (singles) or two opposing teams (doubles) in which players use a racket to strike a ball over the net into their opponents’ court.

Real Tennis is similar to what we play today, with a lot more complications as there were points awarded for hitting roofs and getting the ball through windows. [11] It was played on hard surfaces during the reign of Charles I and was very fashionable amongst the nobility. During the reign of James I, the Dukes of Albany and York (the later Charles I) had a tennis coach who was paid 20 pounds per year. [12] The game had long been practiced by the Stuart family, as James V of Scotland had a tennis court at Falkland Palace in 1539. [13] The equipment was relatively simple being rackets and balls being made of wool and feathers covered with wool. [14] It was often played on courtyards that were roofed in, which was an expense that only the wealthy could afford. [15] By 1623 there were private tennis courts and clubs popping up around England with courts being built at Oxford and Cambridge, and gentlemen embracing the sport. [16] It is even reported that Thomas Hobbes, an English political theorist, enjoyed tennis! [17] The game suffered greatly under the Puritans, but gained strength in court and society after the Restoration.

Lawn tennis, a type of tennis that is still played today, did not develop until the mid-nineteenth century.

  1. ↑ Elizabeth Burton, The Pageant of Stuart England (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1962), 228 found at http://www.archive.org/details/pageantofstuarte010933mbp
  2. ↑ Burton, 267
  3. ↑ http://medieval.stormthecastle.com/essays/the-compleat-gamester.htm
  4. ↑ Richard Seymour, The Compleat Gamester: In three parts. (1754): preface v. Found at http://books.google.ca/books?id=_UgJAAAAQAAJ&source=gbs_navlinks_s
  5. ↑ Compleat Gamester, table of content.
  6. ↑ Burton, 267
  7. ↑ Henry Benjamin Wheatley and Peter Cunningham. London, past and present: its history, associations, and traditions, Volume 3 (Google eBook), (London: J. Murray, 1891): 8.
  8. ↑ ibid
  9. ↑ Joseph Strutt, Sports and Pastimes of the People of England (Google eBook), 1810: 96.
  10. ↑ ibid.
  11. ↑ John Grasso, Historical Dictionary of Tennis (Scarecrow Press, 2011): definition “Court Tennis” 71
  12. ↑ Elizabeth Burton, The Pageant of Stuart England (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1962) found at http://www.archive.org/details/pageantofstuarte010933mbp
  13. ↑ Grasso, 72
  14. ↑ Burton, 298
  15. ↑ Burton, 298
  16. ↑ Burton, 300
  17. ↑ Burton, 300
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