3-034-543 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Croquet under difficulties, 1871.'...a company of young people...might find a more convenient piece of ground on terra firma than the margin of the much-murmuring and multitudinously smiling sea. The firm, dry, hard surface of the sand, a few hours after the ebb of the tide, may perhaps seem to present a smoother and cleaner expanse for the rolling ball, impelled by the mallet in a skilful hand, than the most delicately-shaven lawn in a private garden. The hoops or arches may here be stuck up more easily...But when the tide is coming in, as it is bound to come in, regardless of the appointed place and time of their social sport, it is probable that these young ladies and gentlemen, if they have their minds wholly engrossed in the mixed pastime of croquetting and coquetting, will be surprised at the sudden dash of the bold little waves at their feet...little do [the waves] care for the pleasure of Miss Lucy, or Cousin Betty, or the gallantry of Fred Pickleton, whose sister is timidly entreating him not to risk a drowning, or a foot-wetting, in his efforts to recover the ball. Let the game be adjourned, and let them take it up again on the turf of the downs, at the top of yonder cliff'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.