"THE KING OF GAMES."

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19720, 20 August 1927, Page 4 (Supplement)

"THE KING OF GAMES."

Lawn tennis is a game that all young folk enjoy, and when summer comes, the courts will bo filled with eager players. The modem development of the game differs considerably from the form in which it was played in the days of its origin, and it will probably surprise many young players to learn of its antiquity. The Romans had a game of tennis, which they called Pila, but even before the Romans, for Calen, an old Greek nredical gentleman, had written of it to the effect that it was in his time a healthy exercise, and quite nice. Heroditus thinks it was first played by Lybians, in the reign o£ King Atvx, many years before Christ was born. It has called " The King of Games," and "The Game of Kings," the last named being applied because it was a favourite amusement with princes and nobles. Both in England and in Franco edicts were published forbidding the common people to play it. Lawn tennis has now been in existence about forty years, and has probably been a greater source of amusement than any other game of the kind ever invented.