Excerpt from Court Games
The origin of the various court games now finding public favor has been the subject of voluminous writings and of with discussion among people identified with them. Court Tennis is probably the oldest of them all. Chroniclers of the events of ages long past frequently mention games in which racquets and balls, naturally of a comparatively crude sort were used, and we have many accounts of contests played by old-time rulers and nobles of England, France and Spain. Kings Henry V., VI., and VIII., of England, and members of their courts found great enjoyment in a form of tennis, as also did Louis XI. and XII., Charles IX., Louis XIII. and Louis XIV., of France, and Phillip III., of Spain.
The antiquity of games in which balls were batted to and fro by either hands or other implements may be imagined when it is known that the Ancient Greeks and Romans were players of and indulged in pastimes of this general nature. The Lydians played ball games, about which Herodotus has told, and Homer docs not neglect to mention Xausicaa, daughter of Alcinous, King of Phxacia, and her merry maidens who were also devotees of sports of this nature. Prof. Flinders Petrie, the eminent archaeologist, brought to light in excavations near Cairo, crude balls of leather and wood which were used by the Egyptian four thousand years ago or more, and in one of the inscriptions in Pompeii there are references to Pilcrepi, or ball players, and Pliny's friend, Purrina, was a devoted patron of games of this sort in an effort to preserve his health.
In the Middle Ages a form of handball was in vogue in France and Italy, and the Spaniards also played one or two games very similar. These games were played out of doors. The existence of the racquet is noted in the fourteenth century, and won comparatively frequent reference after the year 600.
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