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Jeu de mail
Jeu de mail, in Anglo-Saxon literature called ‘pall mall’, was a one target game, played with a wooden club with a cylindrical wooden head and a spherical wooden ball.
The game was originally played in the South of France and it is said
that the
game came into France from Italy around the 15th century.The
essence of the game was to reach a target in the fewest number of
strokes. It was an individual game, not a team game. In the South of France the game
was played
‘à la chicane’, in the fosses, on the ramparts and on the sandy tracks
around
the towns. The game attracted the interest of kings and nobles, who
played the
game on specially laid out narrow playing alleys (boulevards) of up to
a
thousand meters in length in many French towns, soon followed by the
main towns
of Western Europe and of Britain. The ‘noble’ game ceased to be played
by the
end of the 18th century. The game à la chicane continued to be
played in the South of France until 1939, when the last mail player in
Montpellier stowed away his mail equipment in the attic of his house.
Publication |
Author |
Published in |
Jeu de mail à Orange  |
Geert & Sara Nijs |
2017 March |
Clubs for mail  |
Geert & Sara Nijs |
2015 August From 'Games for Kings & Commoners', Part III, chapter 'Clubs for hitting far and sure' |
Mail, a long and a short game |
Geert & Sara Nijs |
2015 August From 'Games for Kings & Commoners', Part III, chapter 'Long and short games' |
| From Munro bagging to Mail bagging A la recherche des anciens courts de jeu du mail | Geert & Sara Nijs | 2013 October |
Jeu de mail in Switzerland | Geert & Sara Nijs | 2013 From 'Games for Kings & Commoners', Part II, to be issued in 2014 (Les Editions Choulla et Clava) |
| La Bernarde : boule de mail pour s'assurer la victoire ? | 2012 La France pittoresque, N° 41 | |
Knocking wooden balls around |
Geert & Sara Nijs |
2011 September From 'Games for Kings & Commoners' chapter 'Knocking wooden balls around' |
The Royal and Ancient Game of Mail |
Geert & Sara Nijs |
2011 September From 'Games for Kings & Commoners' chapter 'Kings took to the links' |
Mail too frivolous for women? |
Geert & Sara Nijs |
2011 September From 'Games for Kings & Commoners', chapter 'Clearly unsuitable for women' |
| Le Noble Jeu de Mail de la ville de Montpellier |
Philippe Estang |
2009 February www.apgf.fr |
Jeu de Mail Part 2 |
Henri Jakubowicz |
2003 March Through The Green (Magazine of the British Golf Collectors Society) |
Jeu de Mail Part 1 |
Henri Jakubowicz |
2002 December Through The Green (Magazine of the British Golf Collectors Society) |
The Sister of Golf | Andrew Lang | 1909 Octobre Article in Blackwood’s Magazine Reprint in Golf Illustrated, Vol. 4, Number 4, January 1916 |
Histoire du jeu de mail et du billard |
L.E. Fournier |
1889 Histoire des jouets et des jeux d'enfant © Le Livre d'histoire-Lorisse Paris 2002 |
