AT A PALACE

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 32, 7 February 1935, Page 21

AT A PALACE

ROYAL TENNIS COURT : »,

OLDEST IN THE. WORLD

The Royal tennis court in Hampton Couit Palace, which was reopened on December 15, alter, the installation of a heating system, is now mcompaiably the oldest and most famous balL-game plate in the world, says Mr. H. M. WalbrooK, writing in the "Observer." All English and British tennis-playing sovereigns fiom Henry VIII to Edward VII have played there. King George V heads the list of its present subscribing members; and the locker irf which his Majesty's grandfather the Prince Consort, kept his flannels and rackets-still .bears his name, in the dressing-room. Charles II used to ride .down on horseback from London to play at Hampton Court, before •he built his tennis • court ■at Whitehall, and although William 111 had given up the game before he came to be King of England, he "restored" the court to ' 'its present lines, • and his monogram

still shines In gold on the main wall above the net. From the "Dedans"

(or' spectators' gallery) Queen Elizabeth watched many a game, and no doubt Shakespeare gathered some of the knowledge of tennis which he shows in his plays as a spectator in the court's long corridor.

The amazing thing about the court is that it has been "in play" f rom j the year 1519 to today. There is no parallel to this record. The once famous Versailles tennis court was built a hundred years later, and has riow long been converted, into a museum. As ball-game scenes Lord's and the Oval are mere infants compared with this old court, and even the racecourse at Epsom, which justly prides itself on its antiquity, is a "modern" in comparison. • .-.- ---: UNIQUE FEATURE: The court is the model on which all the other tennis courts in England have been built, though it is a foot or two longer and broader than most of its young . rivals. It has one peculiarity in which it is unique—an oblong opening in each end wall, appar* ently formerly used by spectators. These openings are now so filled with thick glass that no one can see through them. Mr. Walbrook says:—"There is still a good deal of popular ignorance about the game. On an afternoon not long ago I visited the court to find the Dedans'arid corridor crowded with members of the London Society, for whose edification an exhibition game was being played between Mr. C. B. Gabriel (the present hon. secretary) and the court's professional. "Few of the spectators knew the game, and strokes which would have delighted conoisseurs. passed unrecognised. 'Surely..this isn't tennis,' exclaimed a lady, 'I have seen nothing like this at Wimbledon! It. is all very' curious. Why do they' call it tennis?' To. which, of course,; one could only, politely reply that the very charming game they play at Wimbledon is no more tennis that- draughts" is chess." ■