Part 1

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[Frontispiece: Girl on a swing]

HEALTHFUL SPORTS FOR YOUNG LADIES; ILLUSTRATED BY ELEVEN ELEGANT ENGRAVINGS, FROM DRAWINGS BY J. DUGOURC, _Draughtsman to His Majesty the King of France_; Accompanied by Descriptions, TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF MADEMOISELLE ST. SERNIN, AND INTERSPERSED WITH _ORIGINAL POETRY AND ANECDOTES_.

LONDON: PRINTED FOR R. ACKERMANN, REPOSITORY OF ARTS, 101, STRAND. _BY W. CLOWES, NORTHUMBERLAND-COURT_.

PREFACE.

The most eminent physicians dwell particularly upon the necessity there is for young ladies, as they advance towards womanhood, to take active and regular exercise; and to avoid, as much as possible, all sedentary amusements. That love of variety, however, so natural to the human mind, and which is particularly observable in children, renders it a matter of some difficulty to diversify their sports, so as to discover a sufficient number of games that require exertion: we, however, flatter ourselves that this has been accomplished, in the little Work here presented to the reader in an English dress. They will find in it instructions for playing at a great number of games, of such a nature that they cannot fail of being conducive to their health; and which, while they afford an innocent relaxation from study, will be eminently useful in forming that easy and graceful carriage, which can only result from the free and active motion of the limbs, necessarily produced by frequently playing at these games.

The prose part of the work has been faithfully rendered into English from the French original; but the Proprietor is indebted to the author of the Tours of the original Dr. Syntax, who has enriched this little Repository of Youthful Sports, with some elegant verses, illustrative, in a moral point of view, of the games described.

HEALTHFUL SPORTS

FOR

_YOUNG LADIES_.

THE SWING.

Madame D’Hernilly was accustomed to pass, every year, several of the summer months in the country: a particular circumstance obliged her to go there sooner than usual, and her husband, who was one of the chief magistrates in the capital, was not able to accompany her. Her only companions were her two daughters, both young girls. There was very little society to be met with in that part of the country where Madame D’Hernilly’s castle was situated: the nearest town, which was at a distance of two or three leagues, was a small place, with but few genteel inhabitants; and, even were it otherwise, she would not have been tempted to mix with her neighbours. Solitude was her choice and her device, till the time of the vacation: at that period she expected to be joined by her husband and her only son. The visits she received in the mean time were confined to those of two ladies in the neighbourhood, and their daughters, and these were admitted only on condition that they brought with them no men, not even those of middle age.

Adela and Ernestina, the daughters of Madame D’Hernilly, found this lonely life very dull; in fact it suited ill with the vivacity of their age; and, in order to enliven it, they managed to prevail upon the two ladies, their neighbours, to leave behind them at the castle three young persons who accompanied them there on a visit. This addition to the family was delightful to Adela and Ernestina, for they were equally in want of employment and amusement. They had read over and over all the books they brought with them from Paris. As their masters had not accompanied them, they did not pursue their studies regularly, but only took occasionally a few lessons upon the piano-forte, and of singing, so that a great portion of their time was unemployed.

A moralist has said, with much reason, that the mind requires relaxation; and as it is necessary to seek employment, in order to preserve oneself from the evil habits which are the offspring of idleness, so it is equally requisite to relieve the fatigue of labour by recreation; a proper mixture of both keeps up the spirits, and preserves the health of the mind as well as that of the body. In mixing with society we lose the remembrance of past troubles, and even present ones weigh less heavily upon our spirits. The mind, in short, resembles a fruitful soil, like which it should sometimes be suffered to lie fallow; or rather it may be compared to a farmer with whom a landlord is obliged to act leniently, and to give him time for payment, for fear that by demanding his rent too strictly, the farmer’s resources should fail, and he should be ruined.

Our five young friends were not obliged to rack their brains to find amusement. In the beginning of the visit the youngest, named Adriana, taught the grown-up girls those dances which they had learned in their childish days, but had already forgotten; “_My fine Castle_,” “_We will not go again to the Wood_,” “_The Duke de Bourbon_,” _&c. &c._ These are things out of date, we must allow, but they will always be new for children, and our imitations of them are, after all, lifeless copies; they want the spirit of the originals――“_The Chevalier de la Marjolaine_,” “_The Tower_,” “_Take Care_,” “_Hands Round_,” amused even Madame D’Hernilly, who herself did not disdain sometimes to join in them.

The pleasure which they found in renewing their childish games gave to our young people the idea of taking advantage of a swing, which was already erected in the garden. Persons of a more advanced age, and distinguished by grave occupations, did not look upon it as any disgrace to take the exercise of swinging, during the months of August and September, when the castle was crowded with guests. The posts which supported the swing were a little decayed since the preceding year, but they were soon repaired. Madame D’Hernilly recommended prudence to the young people in partaking of this amusement, and, as an additional precaution, she took care to be present whenever they enjoyed it, and strictly ordered that no one should swing in her absence. They were prohibited standing upon the seat; neither were two persons allowed to get in at the same time; Ernestina, or Aglaé, or another of their friends, placed themselves by turns upon the seat, which was furnished with a soft cushion; and, while the one who took the exercise grasped the cords tightly with her two hands, two or three of her companions pulled the end of the cord, and thus made it go backward and forward.

Satiety would not have interrupted this amusement, but bad weather came on suddenly, and it was impossible for our young folks to frequent the garden. Thus thwarted in their favourite sport, they set their wits to work to find out some other agreeable pastime.

Adriana regretted the swing less than her play-fellows: a new doll, which had been sent her from Paris, was her faithful companion; and, shall I add, the others envied her happiness? They contrived, however, to participate in it, for, under the sly pretence of amusing little Adriana, they made much of her doll. They took pains to dress her, to curl her hair nicely, and to put on her cap to the best advantage. They made dresses for her, and even pretty little rose-coloured silk slippers. In short, the doll’s drawers were soon completely filled with a very handsome wardrobe.

They were just beginning to tire of the amusement, which making the doll’s clothes had at first afforded them, when one morning, Aglaé, one of the young visitors, happening to open a book by chance, read aloud, that it was by trying the effects of the reflection and the refraction of the light through the fragile partitions of soap bubbles, that the great Newton had discovered the properties of the prism, and decomposed the rays of the sun.

Madame D’Hernilly expressed her admiration of this phenomenon in natural philosophy; but she did not understand the subject sufficiently to give her little auditors much information upon it. “But pray,” cried Adriana giddily, “why should we not try to make some discoveries ourselves, by blowing soap bubbles, they are so pretty?” “Oh fie,” cried the elder girls, very consequentially; but one of them immediately added, “I remember to have read in La Fontaine, this excellent thought――‘Nothing is useless to people of sense.’”

“It is indeed a very just idea,” said Madame D’Hernilly, “and I think, my children, you will do well to take advantage of Adriana’s proposal.” The matter was then put to the vote, much in the same manner as they had learned from the newspapers, the national affairs are decided in the chamber of deputies. Ernestina, and one of the young visitors, ranged themselves on the left, to shew that they rejected a motion for playing at such a childish game; Adriana, and her companions, took the right side, and they were lucky enough to secure the support of the centre, of which Madame D’Hernilly was the only member; they had consequently a majority, and it was decided that they should play at blowing soap bubbles. “Who knows,” said Aglaé, smiling, “whether we shall not, like the illustrious Newton, make some new and great discovery.” This idea raised their impatience to begin, and luckily, the preparations for their experiment were soon made. A chambermaid brought some soap suds, rather thick in a china basin; Adriana chose among some little bits of straw, the one which suited best with her design, and slit the extremity in four parts, then dipped the end she had slit in the soap suds, and blew in the other extremity of the straw. Each blew in her turn, and formed bubbles which reflected all the brilliant colours of the rainbow, but which, unfortunately, were as transient as they were beautiful.

Madame D’Hernilly astonished the young people very much, by explaining to them the process by which enamellers formed the balls of the thermometer: it is done by blowing through a glass tube, the extremity of which is made red hot, and softened by the fire of a lamp. She added, that they had adopted this method also in glass manufactories, and that goblets, bottles, in a word, almost all the utensils which we use in glass and crystal, are blown in a similar manner.

Our little band now struggled with each other, to see who should form the largest bubble, and who should make it rise highest in the air: one of them waved her pocket-handkerchief to make it rise higher and higher, till the bubble burst, and the illusion was destroyed. Madame D’Hernilly, who recollected some verses on the subject of this amusement, took the opportunity of repeating them, and impressing their moral on the minds of her young audience.

BLOWING BUBBLES.

See how the cherub children play And force the bubbles on their way, Which, as in various course they sail, Borne by the zephyr’s gentle gale, Catch the tints which Phœbus gives While the aërial globule lives; But soon it bursts, and all is gone, The children mourn their pleasure done. Say, do we not too often see Mankind in this same sport agree; Who their intrinsic good forego, For the bright gleams of outward show.

This amusement did not last longer than the morning, and at night our juvenile group were again at a loss for something to do. Adriana was once more the first to find out a new species of amusement. In hunting about, she, at length, discovered some cards, and immediately began, with great alacrity, to arrange files of soldiers and to build houses with the cards. The elder girls found a malicious pleasure in throwing down her houses, just as she had brought them to the last story; and in blowing upon her soldiers in order to make them fall, just before the file was properly arranged. As Adriana was good-tempered, she put up with their tricks quietly, though she meditated perhaps in her own mind some method of soon taking her revenge.

Madame D’Hernilly seized the occasion which the cards presented to her, to give the young people some account of the manner in which they were first introduced. Almost all historians agree in saying, that they imagine games with cards were first invented in the reign of Charles the Sixth of France, in order to procure that prince some amusement during his long illness. As a proof that this is the fact, they cite the register of the chamber of accounts, in which there is the following passage: “the sum of fifty-six _sous Parisis_, (which was a very considerable sum in those times), was paid to Jacquemin Gringonneur, a painter, for three packs of cards, adorned with gold and divers colours, and different devices.” This passage proves nothing more than that Gringonneur was a card-maker, but not the inventor of any game. In making further researches, we find that Charles the Fifth, predecessor of Charles the Sixth, had prohibited the playing at cards, and that they were already known in Spain towards the year 1330, under the name of _Naipes_.

All the European nations give to the four principal cards of each suit, the names of ace, king, queen, and knave, according to the denominations which correspond in each language; but the names of the four suits vary; hearts and spades are pretty nearly the only ones, the appellations of which are analogous in the different languages. The diamond is called _carreau_ in French, and _oros_, which means jewel, in Spanish. The club called in French _trèfle_, and in Spanish _bastos_, has, like the diamond, a corresponding signification in the Spanish and English languages, because the name in both signifies a stick. In Germany, it was formerly made like a cross, and it still retains the name of _kreuz_. These little hints may be found worthy of the attention of those persons who seek to discover the origin of cards.

The young ladies questioned Madame D’Hernilly about the rules of the different games at cards: but, upon this point, she did not think it right to satisfy their curiosity. “It must be owned,” she said, “that we find fewer examples among women than men, of an inordinary fondness for cards, but we cannot be too much upon our guard against the love of play: recollect, besides, the observation, unfortunately too just, which one of our poets makes upon the avidity with which people sometimes give themselves up to gaming:――‘We begin by being dupes, and end by being cheats.’”

“Long live our childish games!” cried Ernestina, “these at least do not occasion any remorse.”

THE SHUTTLECOCK AND THE SEE-SAW.

The weather cleared up, and the young people resumed their usual walks in the garden. The swing was out of order, and Madame D’Hernilly would not permit them to make use of it till it was repaired. The imagination of our juvenile group quickly suggested something to supply its place. A plank, placed across a very solid marble bracket, which they happened to find on the ground in the middle of the bower, was fastened to it by iron cramps, in order to render it more secure. The gardener, one of those ingenious fellows to whom we give the name of jack-of-all-trades, because he knew a little of every thing, and was besides a very decent mason, smith, and even blacksmith, seconded the impatience of the young ladies: the see-saw was soon ready, and Adriana and Aglaé were the first to spring upon it. They were both of them of the same height, and about the same weight, conditions quite necessary for the players at this game. Madame D’Hernilly watched that their alternate ascent and descent should be managed without any jerk, which might derange the machine, or, which was worse, make the young ladies, who were seated at each extremity, lose their balance.

I recollect at this moment some moral lines upon the game of see-saw; they are rather obsolete, and the versification is not distinguished for its elegance, but the lines contain a maxim well worth remembering, the force of which could not be heightened by the finest language:

Behold the play-game; those who rise Seem as they would reach the skies; But soon they find that they descend, And to the earth as quickly tend. Thus Fortune guides the rolling ball, While these ascend, the others fall.

There are some see-saws of a double construction, which are mounted upon a revolving pivot, four persons may balance themselves at the same time upon these machines, two and two; the one who descends touches the ground lightly, with his foot to the right or to the left; it results from this, that the persons who play move continually in rotation in one direction or another; this variety of motion is indispensable, for the head would become giddy if the players moved very long in the same direction.

When Adriana and Aglaé were tired of their new sport, two of the elder girls mounted the see-saw, and while they were enjoying this exercise, two others occupied themselves with a more common amusement; each of them, armed with a battledore, threw to one another a shuttlecock. This game is too well known to our young readers, for any description of it to be necessary.

Such of our little friends as are curious respecting the manners, customs, and amusements of distant countries, may like to know, that in China, and other countries of Asia, they play at shuttlecock with the foot. The Chinese shuttlecock, like ours, is decorated with feathers, but they place at the bottom a small bit of lead, or some pieces of copper money to render it heavier; they make use of the instep to push it, as is frequently done at the game of football. The following verses were written upon the play of shuttlecock by Pannard, and are thus translated:

Reason, whene’er your humour’s gay, You treat us just as children play, When with their battledores they force The shuttlecock in airy course. About you beat us as you please, Till tir’d, we wish the game to cease; And, when we fall upon the floor, You pick us up to play, as you have done before.

When all the young ladies were tired of the game of see-saw, and that Adriana had taken, or tried in vain to take, a sufficient number of butterflies, the whole party united and continued to play at shuttlecock. It is not impossible for four or five people to amuse themselves together, when they have a sufficient number of battledores, but it is better to do it by turns, or in the following manner. When a player fails to send back the shuttlecock which is sent to her, she should give up her place to another, and if the new player fails, she also should in her turn yield her place to a fresh competitor, and so on, till each enjoys the amusement in rotation. Such was the method pursued by our young players; but we do not know whether disputes might not sometimes have arisen from it, had not Madame D’Hernilly, as we before observed, always mixed in the sports of the children, and, by her presence, prevented squabbles.

The famous Christina, queen of Sweden, was very fond of the game of Shuttlecock. One day, during this queen’s stay in France, in the time of Louis XIV., she asked the learned Bochart, whom she had attracted to her court, to play with her. He did not need much entreaty, but immediately taking off his cloak, began a game with her Majesty. Some of his friends ridiculed his complaisance, but they were wrong; a refusal would have been at once pedantic and ill-bred.

Before we quit this subject, we must say a few words respecting _sognettes_, or, as we call them in English, battledores. They are, as every body knows, little hoops of wood bent in an oval, and the extremities, united to form a handle, are kept together by strips of white leather bound round them. The interior of the battledore is a netting made of catgut, which is stretched lightly.

Those learned people who found fault with Bochart for making use of the battledore, have written several grave dissertations, for the purpose of ascertaining whether the ancients were acquainted with this game; those who are of opinion they were, cite this verse of Ovid:

Reticuloque pilæ leves fundantur aperto.

This passage of the Latin poet evidently means a net-work, upon which not shuttlecocks, but light balls, were tossed backwards and forwards.

As to our young rattle-pates, they were not at all curious to learn whether the amusement was of ancient or modern invention; leaving that to be ascertained by graver heads, they entered with so much ardour into the spirit of the game, that time flew unperceived, till their amusement was at last interrupted by the castle bell announcing the dinner-hour.

On the following day, as there was not a sufficient number of battledores and shuttlecocks for every body, one of the young visitors, named Valeria, contrived a very ingenious means of supplying their place. She took a small hoop, which she had procured from a barrel of oysters, and bound it round with pink and white ribbon; five or six young persons, armed with sticks, stood in a group, one of them threw this hoop to a great height in the air, and each of them caught it and threw it up again in her turn. When any one failed, they were obliged to quit the game for a moment, or to give a forfeit. This is called the game of the “_flying ring_,” it resembles in many respects the play of the “_funnel_,” which we shall speak of by-and-by.

Sometimes, in order to heighten the pleasure of the game, the players added three little bells to the ring, and these bells striking while the ring turned in the air, served to announce its approach.

THE GAMES OF THREAD-MY-NEEDLE, AND THE WOLF.

Madame D’Hernilly’s birth-day was celebrated by her family without parade or ceremony: the offerings upon this occasion were those of the heart alone. The neighbouring farmers, and superior class of peasants, presented themselves at the castle, to offer their congratulations to Madame on the return of the day; their little girls, dressed in white, brought her flowers. Madame D’Hernilly received with pleasure the simple offerings of these worthy people, for whom she prepared pleasures suited to their taste. The court of the castle became the theatre of a _fête champêtre_, which not only lasted the whole day, but was prolonged during the evening, by the light of a number of small lamps. The villagers amused themselves with dancing, and at night they were regaled with a simple collation.

While the villagers were enjoying the dance, their children were diverting themselves in the gardens of the castle with the young ladies and their visitors. As the games which they commonly played would not suffice for the amusement of so many, Ernestina, who had a very ready invention, proposed to them a new game, which she assured them was quite original. We know that children, and particularly young persons who are just past childhood, play sometimes at a game called “_Who will laugh last?_” The mode of playing this game is very simple; they look each other full in the face, using at the same time every effort to preserve their gravity, and the first who smiles, even in the slightest degree, gives a forfeit, or else her companions impose a slight penance upon her.