LAWN TENNIS PARTIES.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5515, 29 November 1878, Page 3

LAWN TENNIS PARTIES.

(From the Saturday Review.) It is a melancholy fact that English people are apt to bo intensely bored with themselves on summer afternoons. They cannot spend tho whole of every day iu killing something, even after the twelfth of August; and, when they are neither slaying, eating, nor sleeping, the fever attacks them with great virulence. A visit to the stables, kitchen-garden, and hothouses can scarcely carry them beyond half-past eleven ; tho model farm, whore there is one, will hardly servo to waste more than another couple of hours; and, ns it is an article in the creed of a country gentleman that it is a sin to be indoors rending a book when the weather is fine without, there remain, after luncheon on rainless afternoons, some four or five hours more to be accounted for before preparations are begun for the great event of the day. In tho country we are brought up to consider two occupations as comprising the whole duty of man. These are the destruction of life and playing at ball ; and when we are deprived of the former resource, we have no choice left but the other. On days that we aro neither hunting, shooting, nor fishing, the only question which presents itself is, which game of ball shall we play at ? Shall it be billiards, or cricket, or polo, or rackets, or lawn tennis ? You may build the most gorgeous palaces and lay out splendid pleasure grounds; you may have a superabundance of carriages and horses, and provide tho best of music, both by day and by night; you may offer your visitors the best of meats and drinks, gratify all their finer instincts and afford them unusual opportunities of mental culture; you may ovenhavfra Prime Minister, an archbishop, a monsignor, and a free-thinking contributor to a monthly magazine staying in your house, and yet your entertainments will give no pleasure whatever to tho average Englishman unless you give him something to kill or a game at ball. If you have the money, it is easy to get terraces and picturesque walks laid out over many acres of laud; but it is difficult to find guests whose powers of conversation are proportioned to the extent of your pleasure grounds ; and it is easier to provide good music for your friends than to imbue them with the capacity of enjoying it. Offer nine-tenths of them a game with a ball, however, and yon appeal to the innermost and tenderest feelings of their souls.

Just at the present time the most popular game of ball appears to be lawn tennis. As it is rather of the social aspects of this pastime than of the game itself that wo wish to treat, we shall not enter into its intrinsic merits. Most people seem t© be agreed that at-homes for lawn tennis bear very favorable comparison with'at-homes for croquet, and the latter can scarcely be said any longer to exist. We have keen recollections of the agonies of certain afternoons devoted to the last-mentioned game. In the first place, there was no means of escaping from being pressed into playing. No professions of incapacity were of the least avail. One was only required “ to make up the set,” To refuse to play was held to be an offence combining all the deadly sins, and to go away before a game was finished was considered a transgression which human language could not adequately express. This may or may not have been true : but the practical result of such a code was that, once arrived at a croquet party, the chance of being able to return home in time for dinner was reduced to a minimum. Either husband or wife, guest or child, would in most cases be deeply implicated in a game when the carriage came round to take one’s party home, and the etiquette of croquet required that that carriage should at once be taken back to the stable yard. This state of things led to the custom of giving nondescript meals at croquet parties, which were supposed to take the place of dinner. These consisted of cold collations at which the players could refresh themselves whenever their games happened to be finished. No doubt there was always plenty to be had at these mongrel banquets ; but, although it was comparatively easy to reconcile the mind to such eccentric festivities, the less spiritual parts of the human frame refused altogether to recognise them. Most people are probably aware that when, through travelling or some other cause, the night cannot be spent in bed, it is an immense refreshment to undress completely, put on one’s usual night attire, and lie even for half an hour between the sheets ; and, much on the same principle, It is far better to eat a conpl© of mutton chops as real dinner than to scramble through quantities of lobster salads, galantines, and mayonnaises at an irregular collation. Our souls are far less suspicious of imposition than our digestions, which, like dogs and children, are not easily deceived by specious appearances. The terrible repasts in question completely deranged the system, and during the croquet season one’s digestive organs never seemed to know what o’clock it was. Therefore one’s grosser instincts abhorred a croquet party, and, as they generally gain their point whenever they conceive a decided prejudice, croquet fell into disrepute. Fortunately, just about the period at which that game was dethroned, about a dozen people at one and the same time, without any previous communication, invented another, which was then called “sphairistike,” but which is now known as lawn tennis. At least, they all said they did, and the furious correspondence which ensued between the rival inventors sufficiently advertised the game, and it became the fashion in a surprisingly short time. Socially speaking, its great merits wore found to be that the games were short, and involved a considerable amount of physical exercise, so that mu£h enjoyment might bo derived from them even during the space of an ordinary morning call. It also proved to be admirably suited for garden parties, as from four ©‘clock till seven afforded ample time for as many games-as any reasonable person could possibly wish for ; indeed, three hours gave opportunities for several relays of visitors to play in turn at each court, and most people admitted that au occasional rest was rather welcome than otherwise. Lawn tennis parties, therefore, turned out to be entertainments to which you could come when you liked, and from which, still better, you could go away when you liked. The game also had the advantage of being an extremely pretty one, and even those who did not play were able to derive much pleasure from watching it. So much was this the case that even people who did not in the least understand its rules or objects were able to enjoy looking on at it, It was not surprising, therefore, that it soon became popular. If anything, its popularity advanced too rapidly to have much chance of permanence, and we fear that a game which is played at nearly every villa in England will soon be voted slow. Besides which, lawn tennis is neither wicked, expensive, nor unwholesome, and without one of these characteristics no amusement can long remain in favor in good society. Certainly it has lately become tho custom to have a mau at each court to pick up tho balls and stand by tho server with a basketful, which helps to render the amusement a little more costly, and the increasing fashion of laying down asphalt courts for use in tho winter also giyeq opportunities for outlay ; but for all that, it cannot be considered in itself expensive, and it is certainly neither wicked nor unwholesome. Nevertheless we think it may possibly hold its own, and although the present rage for it may soon begin to decline, it will probably be a favorite occupation for odd half-hours at country houses for many years to come. One ; of its groat advantages is that it is not a game that gratuitously provokes the temper. When a player misses a ball he may for tho moment feel angry with himself, but self-forgiveness is very easily obtained, It was far otherwise at croquet, for when we used to see our adversary help himself through all the hoops off our ball, and then croquet it to tho furthest end of the lawn, wo did not forgive him so readily. As a game for garden parties, lawn tennis has this advantage, that the exercise and excitement which it entails have a tendency to make people forget themselves, and at once become less stiff and shy. Self-recollection is a point on which tho memory of tho average Briton is singularly retentive, and he generally arrives at a garden' party armed to the teeth with nervous egotism ; an occupation, therefore, which divests him of this metaphorical coat' of mail ia a social benefit. If he plays for raoro than n quarter of au hour on a. hot afternoon, ho will find it expedient to substitute cricketing flannels for his ordinary attire, and to he thus disrobed seems to have a humanising effect upon tho conventional savage. As at croquet, so at lawn tennis, clergymen are great proficients. Where lawn tennis is, there will tho curates bo gathered together. We have never yet had the privilege of seeing tho “ dear Dissenting brother” handle r racket, but wo have known Roman Catholic priests who could give points to the curate. The war paint of the clergy when prepared for this

game is striking, if not harmonious. A pair of yellow shoes, black trousers, a grey flannel shirt, a white dog collar, and a black felt wideawake, form a combination of color which brings the heated clerical visage into prominent relief. Some bold pei-aons appear in white cricketing flannels, and very nice they look; better, indeed, than certain dignified rectors who play in loose grey coats of that peculiar flimsy and unpleasant material which is, we believe, manufactured expressly to combine ready evaporation with the due maintenance of ecclesiastical dignity. There is, at most rural rectories, a lawn suitable for this game, and wo have known parties invited to such houses for “ Evensong, tea, and lawn tennis.” At these scenes of edification, refreshment, and amusement, the rules of the game were rigidly carried out, and if a player accidentally sent a ball into the churchyard instead of his adversaries court, he never ventured on unseemly ejaculations. Lawn tennis parties are usually inexpensive entertainments, as the refreshments required need only be of the very lightest description. Judicious hostesses make frequent use of them, rather than dinner parties, as mediums of hospitality for bores and nobodies. Generally speaking, a lawn tennis party is less tedious than a country dinner party, so perhaps it as well to be a bore or a nobody. Like all other entertainments, much of their success depends upon judicious management. A common mistake is to have the tea, fruit, &0., laid upon a- long dining-room table. A far better plan is to arrange several small tables with fruit and light refreshments, in different places, and to have tea and coffee carried about. The solemn feelings conveyed to the mind by being led up to a table twenty feet long in order to take one solitary little cup of five o’clock tea are provocative of silence, and recall memories of funeral breakfasts. Ono great secret in the successful management of lawu tennis parties is to have plenty of garden seats, placed chiefly in pairs, each pair being out of ear-shot of the others. Garden chairs are better than heavy seats, which are supposed to hold four people, but which in reality only accommodate three with any comfort. However, place your chairs as you may, you will find that people will never sit where they are intended to sit; so it is as well to be prepared for this disappointment. Unluckily it not unfrequently happens that after the most judicious arrangements have been carried out, and when everything is in readiness, a determined downpour of rain comes to spoil everything. A party which would have had ample room in the gardens and pleasure grounds crowds sitting-rooms terribly, especially when they have not been arranged, as in the case of a ball, to accommodate large numbers. They are soon filled with a surging mass of damp visitors, whose feet are muddy, and whose tempers are put out of gear. Instead of being a well-arranged lawn tennis party, the entertainment degenerates into a scrambling tea. The guests wish they had stayed at home, a sentiment in which their host and hostess heartily concur. A more complete fiasco could scarcely be imagined, and the nets and courts arranged within sight of the windows add a bitter mockery to the wretched scene. However, such ill-luck does not always happen, and, taka them all in all, in good weather and bad, lawn tennis parties are not so objectionable as many of the entertainments which help to make life miserable.