" ["Our Pall Mall is, I
believe, derived from paille maille, a game somewhat analogous to
cricket, and imported from France in the reign of the second
Charles. It was formerly played in St. James's Park, and in the
exercise of the sport a small hammer or mallet was used to strike
the ball. I think it worth noting that the Malhe crest is a
mailed arm and hand, the latter grasping a mallet."--NOTES AND
QUERIES, 1st series, vol. iii. p. 351.]
In St. James's Park Samuel Pepys first saw the Duke of York
playing at "pelemele"; and likewise in 1662 witnessed with
astonishment people skate upon the ice there, skates having been
just introduced from Holland; on another occasion he enjoyed the
spectacle of Lords Castlehaven and Arran running down and killing
a stout buck for a wager before the king. And one sultry July
day, meeting an acquaintance here, the merry soul took him to the
farther end, where, seating himself under a tree in a corner, he
sung him some blithesome songs. It was likewise in St. James's
Park the Duke of York, meeting John Milton one day, asked him if
his blindness was not to be regarded as a just punishment from
heaven, due to his having written against the martyred king. "If
so, sir," replied the great poet and staunch republican, "what
must we think of his majesty's execution upon a scaffold?" To
which question his royal highness vouchsafed no reply.
It was a favourite custom of his majesty, who invariably rose
betimes, to saunter in the park whilst the day was young and pass
an hour or two in stroking the heads of his feathered favourites
in the aviary, feeding the fowls in the pond with biscuits, and
playing with the crowd of spaniels ever attending his walks.
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