What is "Jeu de Mail"?
Interesting correspondence has taken place on the above point in The Daily Express. Mr. J. Smith, of Wimbledon, first wrote:—"The other evening in Hampstead I watched a game of lawn billiards played. In the adjoining hostelry I noticed an old French print illustrating the game and bearing the title 'Jeu de Mail Flamand.' Can any of your readers explain the origin of the word 'mail'? Does it refer to the ring through which the ball is thrown or to the ring at the end of the cue by which players lift the ball? How should the word 'mail' be pronounced. Should it be 'ma-ee' or 'ma-eel'?"
To this Lieut.-Col. A. W. Foster replied from Brockhampton Court, Hereford:—"Mail, pronounced ma-ee, is a mallet used for hitting a ball; (2) a game in which the mallet is used; (3) the place where one plays it; (4) a public promenade where the game was played. Compare Pall Mall (old French pale mail), palla a ball, and mallens a mallet, an ancient game in which a round box ball was struck with a mallet through a ring elevated on a pole standing at either end of an alley, the person who could do so with the fewest strokes being the winner. The name was also given to the mallet itself, and to the alley, or walk, where the game was played. The game was formerly played in St. James's Park, and gave its name to the street called Pall Mall. Pele mele has probably the same origin, but has come to mean confusion or topsy turvydom, possibly owing to the rough and confused way in which the game used at times to be played."
From independent inquiries made by The Billiard Player it transpired that the game in this country is played in the garden of the Freemason's Hotel, at the bottom of Hampstead Heath.
The proprietor (Mr. Hill) kindly granted The Billiard Player permission to make a reproduction of the old engraving in his bar parlour, and this is presented on the opposite page, together with a picture indicating the pastime as it is played to-day.
Under the old engraving the following inscription is lithographed:— "Jeu de Mail Flamand.—Tableau du Cabinet de M. Boscrit haut de 8 pouces ¾ et large de 12 pouces ½. A Paris chez L. Surugue, Graveur du Roy, rue des Noyers, attenant le Magazin de papier vis-a-vis St. Yves.—A. P. D. R. 1750."
The translation of this is:— "Flemish game of Mail. Picture from the collection of Monsieur Boscrit, 8¾ inches high by 12½ inches wide.
Paris: L. Surugue, engraver to the King, Rue des Noyers, close to the paper shop, opposite St. Yves.— A. P. D. R. 1750.
Jeu de Mail Then and Now
[The object of the game is to throw the ball (which weighs 10lb.) towards or through the hoop after having picked it up with the ring at the end of the "cue," much as a ball is picked up with the racquet in tennis. The game has a certain affinity to billiards, but more, perhaps, to putting at golf.]
