Welcome Austen in August Readers!

Austen Variations is joining The Book Rat for a month-long celebration of all things Austen!  Join me a looking at one of the less examined aspects of Austen’s life, how might she have had fun?

What did the gentlemen and ladies of the Regency Era do for fun? With the leisure time the gentry class enjoyed, pleasant pastimes were necessary–so without cable tv or streaming media, what did they do?

Often they played games.  Card games are well documented, but outdoor games were enjoyed as well, among them, Pall Mall, a game thought to be an ancestor to modern croquet.

Pall Mall

Pall Mall likely arrived in England around 1630 when John Bonnealle, a Frenchman, created a pall mall court on the south side of St. James’ square. In 1661, diarist Samuel Pepys mentioned going to St. James’s Park and watching the Duke of York Playing at Pelemele (Pall Mall)—apparently Pepys’s first exposure to the game. He described it as being played on a long, narrow court with iron hoops at either end.

A 1755 dictionary, written by Samuel Johnson, boasts a similar definition of “pall-mall.” So we believe the game continued to be played into the 18^th century.

Joseph Strutt’s 1810 book, The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England, described how people played pall-mall in Regency era England:

“Pale-maille is a game wherein a round box[wood] ball is struck with a mallet through a high arch of iron, which he that can do at the fewest blows, or at the number agreed upon, wins. It is to be observed, that there are two of these arches, that is one at either end of the alley.

The game of mall was a fashionable amusement in the reign of Charles the Second, and the walk in Saint James’s Park, now called the Mall, received its name from having been appropriated to the purpose of playing at mall, where Charles himself and his courtiers frequently exercised themselves in the practice of this pastime.”

The exact size of the mall used during the Regency remains uncertain. (I have to wonder why details like this were often left out of descriptions, but perhaps that’s my inner control freak acting out.) Some sources suggest players used long malls, much like golf. But some images suggest much smaller, garden sized malls, meaning that individuals (like the Bennets perhaps?) without grand estates could also partake in the pastime.

Did Jane Austen herself play the game? We don’t know for certain, but it is possible.

Strutt, Joseph.  The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England.  London: T. Bensley, Bolt Court, Fleet Street. 1810

For more Austen in August posts, don’t forget to visit The Book Rat