Historical Miscellanea
(A miscellanea of early historical "Fives" quotations, facts and figures)
America
Fives in America circa 1780 - e-mail from David McKissack USA
“I am an amateur historian and re-enactor of the American Revolutionary War. Wartime accounts of rebel soldiers state that an American General named Thomas Sumpter, of South Carolina, excelled at the game of ‘Fives.’ “
Easter Monday 1802 - e-mail from Joe Mosier Archivist Chrysler Museum of Art.
This advertisement from the Norfolk (Virginia) Herald of April 10th 1802 is the first reference I have seen to the game of Fives being played in Federal-period of America. I thought you might also find it of interest.
Fives in the Early 1800's
In a book by Peter Tyson (University of Texas), he featured an article by one Mike Cass, ""Fives" played
in the early 1800's. He talks about fancy finishing schools which had such courts for English boys in Vermont and
Conneticut in the early 1800's.There is also mention Of Abe Lincoln playing Fives after receiving news of his
presidential nomination in Springfield Illinois on May 17th, 1860.
The term "Fives" and handball seemed to be interchangeable during these early days which may indicate a common
origin. Specifically Hazlitt refers to John Cavanagh playing Hand/Fives.
Abraham Lincoln
D H Donald in his latest biography records "While a Republican National
Convention (in Chigago), Lincoln went quietly about his business in Springfield. Up early on Friday, May 18th,
the day when nominations were to be made, he passed some time playing 'Fives' - a variety of handball - with some
other men in a vacant lot next to the Illinois State Journal Office...." After he got the news of his nomination
he spoke "to the ball players who broke off their game to congratulate him".
Fives Court in Maine, USA - Leo J. Dunn, III
A recent enquiry from the United States has established that there is a Fives Court at Center Lovell in Maine.
"The court is believed to be one of just a handful in this country. It is never used. The original property belonged to the head of Diamond Match corporation, which I assume is the same company that still exists today and makes match sticks. The head of the company built a corporate retreat that included the fives court, a two lane bowling alley, etc."
Sadly the court is Rugby rather than Eton!
England
Fives at Martock, Somerset – e.mail from John Reynolds
I've been passed a guide to the Church of All Saints at Martock. It seems that much of the church is "clearly of 13th century design", though there was apparently a 15th century rebuilding and 19th century additions. There is a history of the church at http://www.martockonline.co.uk/ but this includes none of the information which follows.
The paper guide includes a section called The Fives Place. This reads: The north porch is modern, 1860. Just beyond it is a somewhat mutilated buttress, it’s edges have been chamfered off and a closer examination will reveal at its angles alternating notches which have been filled up with cement. The coping stones of the set-offs have also been badly damaged.
Herby hangs a tale.
The lower stage of the tower with its side buttresses was the fives place, but the game became a nuisance, balls were often hit on to the roof of the aisle, and windows were sometimes broken. To recover the balls from the roof the buttress was used as a ladder. The notches cut in the angles were used as footholds and handholds. Unfortunately, a piece of the coping was knocked off and fell upon the head of a bystander. The attention of the vestry was called to the nuisance, and the churchwardens were requested to put a stop to the game. Accordingly, in 1758, there is an entry in the churchwardens' accounts:
For digging up the fives place .... 3s 6d. To the sexton for rooting up docks and nettles ... 3s 0d But the buttress needed attention. So they chamfered off the edges and stopped the footholds with cement. Part of this area is now occupied by the Crolla heating plant for the church, installed in 1993. Near the fives place on the north and south sides of the church will be seen several groups of small holes which were the tallies or scoring boards for the games.
"New" Court found at Combwich, Somerset - 2007 e-mail from David Nicklin
"We have just puchased the Combwich Anchor which has listed old wall.
We are told it is an old fives court"
Andy Pringle of the RFA advises that there is a photo of the court at Combwich on the Images of England website. Use the Quick Search on 'fives'and you will find similar courts and historical information, including a church in Herefordshire with a red line painted on the tower to act as a 'bar' for fives!
Fives Court at Box
J V Smith has written a history of Minchinhampton and Rodborough Commons for the National Trust "Where the Cow is King" and has included a
chapter on Sport on the Commons. He mentions a Fives Court at the Halfway House in Box between Nailsworth and
Minchinhampton referred to in a 1780 Act of Parliament, dealing with turnpiking of a new road between the last named
towns.
Fives in 1742 – e.mail from Dale Vargas
A newspaper advertisement in 1742 illustrates the different types of game played in a single court: "To all Gentlemen that like the exercise of Tennis, Fives or Billiards. There is a complete Tennis-Court, with a Tambour and everything that makes it as good a Tennis-Court as any in England at 1s. a Set single or 6d. a Set double; with Fives-playing in the Tennis-Court and Billiards at the same place. Its near the Bull and Gate Inn, Holborn... next door to Adlam's Coffee-House, opposite Little Turnstile. It's kept by Thomas Higginson, Who keeps a Fives Court at the bottom of St Martin's Street... Its for Fives-playing only either with Racquets, Boards or at Hand-Fives at 2d., 3d. or 4d. a Game"
Asylum Fives
Brislington House was the first purpose-built private asylum (1804-1806) Its proprietor, Dr Edward Long Fox (1762-1835), was a Quaker, and the structure and regime were almost certainly influenced by The Retreat. Brislington House reflected the layout of the site at The Retreat, while extending, developing and increasing the individual elements. Its patients were mostly wealthy, members of the gentry and nobility, but it took some paupers.
The building stood at the heart of the site, with an open and informal forecourt to the front and a block of rectangular airing courts to the rear, and views from the rear towards the distant Bath Hills. Its six separate ward pavilions, referred to by Fox as "houses", comprised three for males and three for females flanking a central block.
Beyond the airing courts a bowling green and fives-court were provided, and other "innocent amusements for exercise" were allowed, probably largely for the higher social classes of patients. In order to provide ample recreation and employment facilities, and because Fox did not want patients to be disturbed, or incommoded by neighbours complaining of disturbance, the asylum was sited in 80 acres (32 ha.) outside Bristol on an isolated tract of former common heathland.
Hamilton Fives Club - e-mail from Canada
"We are Canadians living in Ottawa who bought a punch bowl several years ago in London. On it is inscribed : A present from the Fives Club at Hamilton to John Boyes Esq. their Secretary 1786.
Having finally looked up what Fives is, I'm wondering if there is still such a Club in Hamilton that is historically linked to the one there then.
Any information that you may have about the Hamilton Club would be very much appreciated."
John Byng - article received from John Denison
There are at least 3 references to fives in John Byng’s Rides Round Britain:
Tour into South Wales, 1787, Saturday Aug 4, at PYLE:
“I then walked around the fields and the churchyard, which is encircled by tall trees. The church windows (like all others) are guarded by shutters to prevent damage from the fives balls, as the church wall the general place for that sport”.
Tour to the North, 1792, Thursday May 31, at GONERBY:
“At three o’ clock I left Grantham, mount the hill to (Great) Gonerby, where appear’d something like a feast, which I love to see, or to hear the squeak of a fiddle; and always look about for a cricket match or fives playing: for little recreation have the poor, and but a short summer”.
Tour into North Wales, 1793, Friday July 26, at OSWESTRY:
“Here (at the church) the taste of fives-playing begins to show itself, with which men and boys batter the church walls. Oswestry is a pretty town….
Fives Courts at St Augustine's Priory, Canterbury
The Times, 19 October 1822
“CANTERBURY, Oct 17. – ST ETHELBERT’S TOWER. – Yesterday morning, the inhabitants of St Paul’s, Longport, and Lady Wootton’s Green, were thrown into consternation by a tremendous noise, nearly resembling the roar of cannon, and supposed by some to be an earthquake; most of them eagerly left their beds to ascertain the cause of alarm, which they soon discovered to be the sudden demolition of that fine monument of ancient architecture called St Ethelbert’s Tower, the most conspicuous ornament of those sublime ruins, St. Augustine’s Monastery. The south and west fronts, corroded by the hand of time, and probably materially injured by the late winds and rain, fell with a tremendous crash, overwhelming every thing that lay in its way. It is calculated that not less than 1,000 loads of materials have fallen in the Fives’ Court, the garden belonging to Mrs. Hills, and in the meadow belonging to the Kent and Canterbury Hospital, the inmates of which were exceedingly terrified. The remaining side is so much shaken, that it must be removed. Thus suddenly is destroyed one of the finest specimens of the architecture of the monastic age………..The adjoining chapel or chancel has long been used as a fives court, to which, and the adjacent bowling-green, the citizens resort to spend their summer evenings.”
Eton Trophy Cup - 2002 Website Sale
No reserve starting at one dollar - Website Sale in Australia.
We have for sale a very rare and collectable, English, Sterling Silver, Trophy Cup. Crafted by the notable silversmith George Angell, the cup is clearly hallmarked for London 1870. The piece stands 5 inches in height and tips the scales at 128 grams (4.5 ounces). With Greek Key pattern borders, the cup is finely engraved with an armorial and the words Floreat Etona and the date 1868. On the reverse the cup is inscribed ‘This cup is to be held for one year by the winner of the House Fives'.
'Erewhon' - A satirical novel of the Early 1870s by Samuel Butler.
Ewan Thompson from Oxford writes - As part of my degree I am currently reading Samuel Butler's 'Erewhon', a
satirical novel of the early 1870s where the narrator finds himself in a distant and hitherto unkown land (Erewhon).
He finds himself in captivity for a period and I came across this passage: "I was allowed to walk in the garden;
there was a high wall so that I managed to play a sort of hand fives, which prevented my feeling the bad effects of
my confinement, though it was stupid work playing alone." ('Erewhon' - Samuel Butler, 1872. Penguin, 1985 pp.87-88).
Samuel Butler (1835-1902) was a Salopian (presumably in the 1840s and early 50s) and then went to John's,
Cambridge.
Vanity Fair
In Thackaray's 'Vanity Fair', Rawdan Crawley lists the pastimes of a country gentleman - 'Boxing, rat hunting,
the fives court and four-hand driving was then in fashion....'
Literary reference to Fives in Dickens - e-mail from David Cooper
I thought you might be interested in this which was recently drawn to my attention by my daughter-in-law who was reading the Penguin edition of Nicholas Nickelby.
On the opening page of Chapter 1 Mr. Godfrey Nickelby and his wife are compared to "for as the adventurous pair of the Fives' Court will afterwards pass round a hat, and trust to the bounty of the lookers-on for the means of regaling themselves"
And in the notes to Chapter 1, the editor explains:
"Fives is a game of ball played in an enclosed courtyard. Two opponents, or two pairs of opponents, hit a small hard ball against their wall with their hands. Both the Fleet and the King's Bench debtors' prisons had courtyards where fives and the similar sport of rackets were played, and it was customary for the contestants to collect money from spectators after the game. Boxing fights were also occasionally staged in fives' courts (see Lois E. Chaney, 'The Fives' Court', Dickensian 81(1985), pp 86-7."
David writes "I don't quite understand the logic of the apostrophe after Fives, nor have I managed to get hold of the quoted reference, but you may wish to add this to your historical miscellenea on the web site. It may appeal to cash-strapped university players looking for new ways to pay off their debts."
A Bunch of Fives.
Georgette Heyer in "Arabella" mentions a boxing match taking place in a
Fives Court. "But then, as he confidentially informed Mr Scunthorpe, when they presently left Park Street
altogether, females took such foolish notions into their heads that it would have been ridiculous to have disclosed
to her that he had an equally ardent desire to see a bout of fisticuffs at the Fives Court, ...." Was this a common
event in Courts where Fives would also have been played? If so the bunch of fives must be a derivative?
Bat Fives Towards the end of the nineteenth century Uppingham had a bat Fives Court. Bat Fives was also played on two courts at Aldenham built in 1888 and demolished in 1920.
Mystery of the Glass Pewter – e-mail from Paul Taylor France
“We bought an old train station house in Burgundy France (active until 1953) and whilst dismantling an attached storage room I came across a small 5cm pewter with glass bottom. The inscription on the side says: L.L Cohen 2nd in Lower Boy House Fives Eton 1902, and on the underside are the words: Rowell Eton James Dixon and sons +95 and a small emblem of a flagged bugle. It was underneath some nailed down cardboard boxes I was clearing out at my home here in France. I thought it might have been connected with rowing and then entered it on to a search engine and found your informative website.”
Penny Hatfield, Eton College archivist responds:
"Lionel Leonard Cohen, only son of LLC of Richmond House, Newmarket and 27 Sussex Square, Hyde park, was here in John Dyer's house from summer 1901 to summer 1906. He was in the Tomline Select in 1906 and went on to New College, taking a 2nd Class in maths. Mods in 1907, a 1st in History in 1909 and a 1st in law in 1910. He was called to the Bar (Inner Temple) in 1913 and served in France during the war.
As you know, these pewter tankards with glass bottoms are common, especially for house competitions.
Rowell was the name of a jeweller in Eton (later acquired by the School Stores Association and renamed Merrick's) from whom presumably the cup was purchased. James Dixon must be the manufacturers."
Further e-mail from Paul:
Thank you for providing me with a small window into the life of the winner of the trophy. I wonder how it ended up here in between the joists of the ceiling, anyway it now sits proudly on view and thanks to you and your colleague it now has a story to tell. Kind regards from Paul Taylor.
Ancient Eton College Trophy - email from Jacqueline
"Hello from Jacq in NZ, I have been searching the net to try and find info about a trophy I have aquired recently. Firstly it is engraved to the "winner of Div. Fives." Is Div.Fives [presumably Division Fives] a termanology used in the game of Fives? [Until finding this site I knew nothing about the game of Fives]. The stamp on the underside indicates that the trophy was made in Eton and it is quite old. It is a lovely large tankard with a glass bottom.It is the type which has a lid operated by the thumb. It is away being repaired as it is rather dented on one side. The repairer will let me know whether it is silver, pewter or electroplated lead. The stamp underneath reads Rowell Eton. All in large fancy lettering: E.R.L.F-M winner of Div.Fives with F.F.V.Scrutton Eton 1908."
Eton College Archivist - a response from the Penny Hatfield
Div Fives is short for Division Fives. This was not a major school match but one of a number of matches got up between the boys in a particular year group or division. There is no account of it in the Eton College Chronicle.
The boys involved are Evelyn Robert Leopold Fraser-Mackenzie, who was here January 1906 to Easter 1911, and Furse Fairfax Vidal Scrutton, here September 1906 to summer 1912. Scrutton was a good oarsman, rowing in the Eton VIII 1911-1912, Captain of the Boats 1912 and winner of School Pulling and School Sculling that year, as well as being in the Field XI (the Field Game was a form of football unique to Eton) in 1911. During WWI he served in the Service Corps, the Engineers and on the staff in France. Fraser-Mackenzie went to Trinity College Cambridge and served s a Captain in the Royal Field Artillery in France, Egypt and Palestine, winning the DSO and MC as well as being mentioned in despatches. He seems to have made the army his career.
Works of James Joyce
Those who love both literature and hand/fives will enjoy the allusions to the game in the works of James Joyce.
In "Stephen Hero" the original draft of what was eventually titled "Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man" Stephen
is pulled away from a heated intellectual debate by his friends with the words "Nos ad manum ballum jocabinus" (Let's
go play handball). The realism of Joyce's novels is further revealed when Stephen loses the game and offers
the excuse that he "had not much practice". In a further debate on the policies of Czar Alexander, Stephen is offered
a handball as a peace offering "Pax super totum sanguinarium globum" (Peace over the whole bloody globe), In
"Ulysses", Leopold confides to Stephen that his dream house would have a fives court. What is important is that the
game is embedded in the works of an enduring literary giant and will be there for future generations.
Courts of the 'Landed Gentry'
Cliveden Estate. The Conservation Workshop dedicated "to the conservation of
statuary, masonry, wall paintings and the decorative arts" was once an Eton Fives
court, a tennis court, and a mortuary.
Glyndebourne. The 1920 Organ Room at Glyndebourne is one of England's
grandest sitting rooms. It now seems strange to recall that the Organ Room began
life as an Eton Fives court attached to the Glyndebourne Manor House.
Debenham House, Holland Park. 'For Sale'. "The gardens are made more interesting
by a classical Ricardo garden pavilion. Out to one side, down a flight of steps, is
something quite different: a dank open box with curious stonework projections. It
turns out to be an Eton Fives Court (you clout the ball with big mittens,
apparently)".
Roald Dahl
The British author Roald Dahl was captain of Fives at Repton. He describes the game of Eton Fives as "possibly
the fastest ball game on earth...the little ball ricochets around the court at such a speed you can hardly see it.
You need swift eye, strong wrists and a quick pair of hands..."
Field Marshall Montgomery
Did you know that Monty proposed to his wife in the Eton Fives Courts at Charterhouse School?
Times 2 dated 17 September 2001 states " Betty decided she must be forthright with her boyfriend. Monty
had offered to drive her to her son John's school, Charterhouse. On arrival Betty told the
boys to busy themselves, while she and Monty had a private conversation.
In later years Monty would often tell the story. His sense of humour was always tickled by life's
incongruities: and the fives courts of a boys' boarding school seemed to him an incongruous
place to propose."
George Mallory
Did you know that amongst the personal possessions found on the body of George Mallory, who died climbing Everest
on June 8th, 1924, there was an unpaid invoice from Gammage's for a pair of Fives gloves and balls?
Ludwig Wittgenstein - Philosopher (1889-1951)
An extract from Wittgenstein's penultimate notebooks
§ 116: I ought to have noted that I have no idea what tennis without a ball means. Tennis without a raquet is Eton
Fives, which we used to play at Colfe’s before the war. Intriguingly, my dictionary not only confirms my
old-fashioned spelling but tells me that the word comes from an Arabic one meaning the palm of the hand. My fives
court has been bombed but Eton’s has survived.
London Fact File (Metro June 16 1999)
In the Middle Ages monarchs were so keen to encourage military training
with bow and arrow that an Act of Parliament was passed in 1369, stating that every able-bodied person in London had
to practise archery in their leisure time and holidays. Popular sports of the day, such as handball, bowls and
football, were forbidden and anyone seen taking part in them faced imprisonment.
Fives & Heronians - e-mail from Derek Whitehead
"A bit of trivia. I was looking at cricket results and came accross a team called "Fives & Heronians" in the Shepherd Neame Essex ECB league. Why Fives?"
Ireland
Handball
Most handball in Ireland is now played with the rubber ball. This softball, as it is called, almost
died out during World War II due to the embargo on the import of rubber enforced by the Allies. The captain of a neutral Swedish ship,
carrying a cargo of rubber, had it impounded by the Royal Navy off the Irish coast. His explanation that the material was for condoms
in Sweden and handballs in Ireland was not believed. (Tom O'Connor - Irish Handball Council)
Kildaire Archeological Journal
Fives was played in Ireland in the 17th century. It describes the activities
of (Cosby) Dudley, gentleman and sportsman of County Ladis (Kine's County).... 'He was a fine tennis player, and fives
player, an extraordinary fine hurler and danced on the ropes as well as any rope dancer....'
Origin of Fives
It seems that as well as Fives originating in Ireland (!), the game of croquet may also be
of Irish origin. Fives was played in Stackellan House, a private school in County Meath in the 1840s and the present owner tells
us that croquet was played there even earlier. (Tom O'Connor - Irish Handball Council)
From "Handball History" by J J McElligott.
Handballers were highly regarded in Ireland in the last century. A cork newspaper reported in 1841..."Last week,
a man named Sweeney from Fermoy was appointed Schoolmaster. There were four other applicants for the post but as they did
not know how to strike a ball on the hop they were rejected."
Handball June 1994
Handball players are considered eccentric and take pride in this perception. Early this century the mental
institutions had handball courts built for their patients, as the sport was considered to have value in the treatment
of certain disorders of the mind. A proposal to make the game easier so as to attract greater participation met with the
following comments from one of the 'old guard'...
"Handball is not for the majority of the population...handballers are not normal...I have never met one
who was not at least two standard deviations beyond the norm on any valid psychological chart......
...To begin with the game is painful and unlike other sports it takes a relatively long time to develop
any significant level of competence - at least six months to a year before a player can perform the most basic
moves and strokes..."
Wales
Denbighshire Fives - received from David Davies (Old Uppinghamian)
I have known that fives was very common in North Wales (where I was born and brought up) in the 17th and 18th centuries, and as a boy I visited all the churches in a 15 mile radius of Ruthin, to search for lines painted on the church walls. I came across quite a few paint marks at the "right height" on various churches - to prove the theory. It was a hobby - like brass rubbing. I am a member of Denbighshire Historical Society and came across the following reference to fives in an article by Bryn Ellis in the Denbighshire Historical Transactions.
"We also present a wall lately erected on the highway leading from Ruthin School to a place called y Wern Fechan built there for the Diversion of playing fives now become a Common Nuisance there as great many of the Townsmen and Apprentices on Sundays play here and Swear and Curse at the Time of Divine Service and we humbly apprehend it ought to be taken down to prevent such mischief as is commonly done there." (1772) Reference Document QSD/SR/212
Fives in Caernarfon - e-mail from Katie Lench
"I have been researching the history of Caernarfon and discovered that Caernarfon Corporation leased out building plots at the beginning of the 19th century, partly on what had been a fives court."
Other Countries Worldwide
Courts in Shanghai 1850 & Peking 1900 - note from John Denison
"There was a fives court in Shanghai in the 1850s, and indeed a Fives Court Lane. My son has just published a book entitled 'Building Shanghai - The story of China's Gateway', and in his research into the history of the buildings of Shanghai he unearthed this piece of information (which he records in the book). Needless to say, the court(s) disappeared long ago.
There was also a fives court at the British Legation in Peking. In the opening paragraph of his book 'The siege of Peking' (published in 1959 and concerning the Boxer Rising of 1900), Peter Fleming records that a meal was being served at the Legation to celebrate the 81st - and last - birthday of Queen Victoria on 24 May 1900. "The meal was served in a small theatre which, like the adjacent fives court, provided solace and distraction in the long cold winter months".
From the Diary of Mrs B.G.Tours, written during the siege of the British Legation in Peking in July 1900 at the time of the Boxer Rising:
‘All the children are seedy and looking dreadfully white…..Daisy also got hit this evening, but not seriously. She was walking in the compound when a shell burst overhead, a piece striking her on the ankle-bone and causing a good deal of pain….The bullets positively rained upon the walls of our room, like heavy hailstones or a game of fives’.
Court in Jamaica e-mail from Martin Powell
One of our better read members has found a reference in the biography of Ian Fleming by Andrew Lissett to a Fives court built by an eccentric at his home in Jamaica. Do we have any knowledge of this court? May be it is a Rugby Fives court?
Eton Fives in New Zealand - e-mail from Jaqueline McGee November 2004
“I have been able to sit down with my friend Max and collect what information he can recall about Fives at his school in New Zealand. Max will be 65 in a couple of weeks. The school where he played was Timaru Technical college, which was then situated in Arthur street, Timaru, South Canterbury, which is in the South Island of New Zealand. Max believes that it is now a Polytech institute. This school was a college from form 3 upwards and Max left there in 1954.
It sounds as though it indeed was Eton Fives, not Rugby Fives. He had a look at the courts featured in the latest EFA Annual Report, including the Rugby court in Maine. The alcove was equivalent to the size shown in the report. He recalls the step up in the back. Although he is not certain, he seems to remember the ledges or abuttments inside the alcove which the children learned to use to advantage. It was not played as a school curriculum sport, but as a sport which the children would be rushing to play at every break possible. He said it was so popular that they would line up to get a turn, very often missing out.
Not long before Max left school the then headmaster was expressing a desire to build more courts being that it was so popular, although he does not know whether this happened after he left. It was a serious social game among them as they had their own championships in amongst one another. Max said that not all of them had the fancy gear, he for example played with a tennis ball and no glove, whereas the more serious players had the proper Fives balls and gloves. Max also thinks that the Otago High School, also in South Canterbury had Fives courts, as one of his friends went to the school and he's sure the guy played Fives there. Max thinks that there would surely be pictures in the old school magazines of the champions standing beside the courts, although he said he no longer has one.
I hope this is of interest to you. I will do my best to try and investigate further and see what else I can find out.”
“I am an amateur historian and re-enactor of the American Revolutionary War. Wartime accounts of rebel soldiers state that an American General named Thomas Sumpter, of South Carolina, excelled at the game of ‘Fives.’ “
Easter Monday 1802 - e-mail from Joe Mosier Archivist Chrysler Museum of Art.
This advertisement from the Norfolk (Virginia) Herald of April 10th 1802 is the first reference I have seen to the game of Fives being played in Federal-period of America. I thought you might also find it of interest.
Fives in the Early 1800's
In a book by Peter Tyson (University of Texas), he featured an article by one Mike Cass, ""Fives" played in the early 1800's. He talks about fancy finishing schools which had such courts for English boys in Vermont and Conneticut in the early 1800's.There is also mention Of Abe Lincoln playing Fives after receiving news of his presidential nomination in Springfield Illinois on May 17th, 1860.
The term "Fives" and handball seemed to be interchangeable during these early days which may indicate a common origin. Specifically Hazlitt refers to John Cavanagh playing Hand/Fives.
Abraham Lincoln
D H Donald in his latest biography records "While a Republican National Convention (in Chigago), Lincoln went quietly about his business in Springfield. Up early on Friday, May 18th, the day when nominations were to be made, he passed some time playing 'Fives' - a variety of handball - with some other men in a vacant lot next to the Illinois State Journal Office...." After he got the news of his nomination he spoke "to the ball players who broke off their game to congratulate him".
Fives Court in Maine, USA - Leo J. Dunn, III
A recent enquiry from the United States has established that there is a Fives Court at Center Lovell in Maine.
"The court is believed to be one of just a handful in this country. It is never used. The original property belonged to the head of Diamond Match corporation, which I assume is the same company that still exists today and makes match sticks. The head of the company built a corporate retreat that included the fives court, a two lane bowling alley, etc." Sadly the court is Rugby rather than Eton!
I've been passed a guide to the Church of All Saints at Martock. It seems that much of the church is "clearly of 13th century design", though there was apparently a 15th century rebuilding and 19th century additions. There is a history of the church at http://www.martockonline.co.uk/ but this includes none of the information which follows.
The paper guide includes a section called The Fives Place. This reads: The north porch is modern, 1860. Just beyond it is a somewhat mutilated buttress, it’s edges have been chamfered off and a closer examination will reveal at its angles alternating notches which have been filled up with cement. The coping stones of the set-offs have also been badly damaged.
Herby hangs a tale.
The lower stage of the tower with its side buttresses was the fives place, but the game became a nuisance, balls were often hit on to the roof of the aisle, and windows were sometimes broken. To recover the balls from the roof the buttress was used as a ladder. The notches cut in the angles were used as footholds and handholds. Unfortunately, a piece of the coping was knocked off and fell upon the head of a bystander. The attention of the vestry was called to the nuisance, and the churchwardens were requested to put a stop to the game. Accordingly, in 1758, there is an entry in the churchwardens' accounts:
For digging up the fives place .... 3s 6d. To the sexton for rooting up docks and nettles ... 3s 0d But the buttress needed attention. So they chamfered off the edges and stopped the footholds with cement. Part of this area is now occupied by the Crolla heating plant for the church, installed in 1993. Near the fives place on the north and south sides of the church will be seen several groups of small holes which were the tallies or scoring boards for the games.
"New" Court found at Combwich, Somerset - 2007 e-mail from David Nicklin
"We have just puchased the Combwich Anchor which has listed old wall. We are told it is an old fives court"
Andy Pringle of the RFA advises that there is a photo of the court at Combwich on the Images of England website. Use the Quick Search on 'fives'and you will find similar courts and historical information, including a church in Herefordshire with a red line painted on the tower to act as a 'bar' for fives!
J V Smith has written a history of Minchinhampton and Rodborough Commons for the National Trust "Where the Cow is King" and has included a chapter on Sport on the Commons. He mentions a Fives Court at the Halfway House in Box between Nailsworth and Minchinhampton referred to in a 1780 Act of Parliament, dealing with turnpiking of a new road between the last named towns.
Fives in 1742 – e.mail from Dale Vargas
A newspaper advertisement in 1742 illustrates the different types of game played in a single court: "To all Gentlemen that like the exercise of Tennis, Fives or Billiards. There is a complete Tennis-Court, with a Tambour and everything that makes it as good a Tennis-Court as any in England at 1s. a Set single or 6d. a Set double; with Fives-playing in the Tennis-Court and Billiards at the same place. Its near the Bull and Gate Inn, Holborn... next door to Adlam's Coffee-House, opposite Little Turnstile. It's kept by Thomas Higginson, Who keeps a Fives Court at the bottom of St Martin's Street... Its for Fives-playing only either with Racquets, Boards or at Hand-Fives at 2d., 3d. or 4d. a Game"
Brislington House was the first purpose-built private asylum (1804-1806) Its proprietor, Dr Edward Long Fox (1762-1835), was a Quaker, and the structure and regime were almost certainly influenced by The Retreat. Brislington House reflected the layout of the site at The Retreat, while extending, developing and increasing the individual elements. Its patients were mostly wealthy, members of the gentry and nobility, but it took some paupers.
The building stood at the heart of the site, with an open and informal forecourt to the front and a block of rectangular airing courts to the rear, and views from the rear towards the distant Bath Hills. Its six separate ward pavilions, referred to by Fox as "houses", comprised three for males and three for females flanking a central block.
Beyond the airing courts a bowling green and fives-court were provided, and other "innocent amusements for exercise" were allowed, probably largely for the higher social classes of patients. In order to provide ample recreation and employment facilities, and because Fox did not want patients to be disturbed, or incommoded by neighbours complaining of disturbance, the asylum was sited in 80 acres (32 ha.) outside Bristol on an isolated tract of former common heathland.
"We are Canadians living in Ottawa who bought a punch bowl several years ago in London. On it is inscribed : A present from the Fives Club at Hamilton to John Boyes Esq. their Secretary 1786.
Having finally looked up what Fives is, I'm wondering if there is still such a Club in Hamilton that is historically linked to the one there then.
Any information that you may have about the Hamilton Club would be very much appreciated."
John Byng - article received from John Denison
There are at least 3 references to fives in John Byng’s Rides Round Britain:
Tour into South Wales, 1787, Saturday Aug 4, at PYLE: “I then walked around the fields and the churchyard, which is encircled by tall trees. The church windows (like all others) are guarded by shutters to prevent damage from the fives balls, as the church wall the general place for that sport”.
Tour to the North, 1792, Thursday May 31, at GONERBY: “At three o’ clock I left Grantham, mount the hill to (Great) Gonerby, where appear’d something like a feast, which I love to see, or to hear the squeak of a fiddle; and always look about for a cricket match or fives playing: for little recreation have the poor, and but a short summer”.
Tour into North Wales, 1793, Friday July 26, at OSWESTRY: “Here (at the church) the taste of fives-playing begins to show itself, with which men and boys batter the church walls. Oswestry is a pretty town….
Fives Courts at St Augustine's Priory, Canterbury
The Times, 19 October 1822
“CANTERBURY, Oct 17. – ST ETHELBERT’S TOWER. – Yesterday morning, the inhabitants of St Paul’s, Longport, and Lady Wootton’s Green, were thrown into consternation by a tremendous noise, nearly resembling the roar of cannon, and supposed by some to be an earthquake; most of them eagerly left their beds to ascertain the cause of alarm, which they soon discovered to be the sudden demolition of that fine monument of ancient architecture called St Ethelbert’s Tower, the most conspicuous ornament of those sublime ruins, St. Augustine’s Monastery. The south and west fronts, corroded by the hand of time, and probably materially injured by the late winds and rain, fell with a tremendous crash, overwhelming every thing that lay in its way. It is calculated that not less than 1,000 loads of materials have fallen in the Fives’ Court, the garden belonging to Mrs. Hills, and in the meadow belonging to the Kent and Canterbury Hospital, the inmates of which were exceedingly terrified. The remaining side is so much shaken, that it must be removed. Thus suddenly is destroyed one of the finest specimens of the architecture of the monastic age………..The adjoining chapel or chancel has long been used as a fives court, to which, and the adjacent bowling-green, the citizens resort to spend their summer evenings.”
No reserve starting at one dollar - Website Sale in Australia. We have for sale a very rare and collectable, English, Sterling Silver, Trophy Cup. Crafted by the notable silversmith George Angell, the cup is clearly hallmarked for London 1870. The piece stands 5 inches in height and tips the scales at 128 grams (4.5 ounces). With Greek Key pattern borders, the cup is finely engraved with an armorial and the words Floreat Etona and the date 1868. On the reverse the cup is inscribed ‘This cup is to be held for one year by the winner of the House Fives'.
'Erewhon' - A satirical novel of the Early 1870s by Samuel Butler.
Ewan Thompson from Oxford writes - As part of my degree I am currently reading Samuel Butler's 'Erewhon', a satirical novel of the early 1870s where the narrator finds himself in a distant and hitherto unkown land (Erewhon). He finds himself in captivity for a period and I came across this passage: "I was allowed to walk in the garden; there was a high wall so that I managed to play a sort of hand fives, which prevented my feeling the bad effects of my confinement, though it was stupid work playing alone." ('Erewhon' - Samuel Butler, 1872. Penguin, 1985 pp.87-88).
Samuel Butler (1835-1902) was a Salopian (presumably in the 1840s and early 50s) and then went to John's, Cambridge.
Vanity Fair
In Thackaray's 'Vanity Fair', Rawdan Crawley lists the pastimes of a country gentleman - 'Boxing, rat hunting, the fives court and four-hand driving was then in fashion....'
Literary reference to Fives in Dickens - e-mail from David Cooper
I thought you might be interested in this which was recently drawn to my attention by my daughter-in-law who was reading the Penguin edition of Nicholas Nickelby. On the opening page of Chapter 1 Mr. Godfrey Nickelby and his wife are compared to "for as the adventurous pair of the Fives' Court will afterwards pass round a hat, and trust to the bounty of the lookers-on for the means of regaling themselves"
And in the notes to Chapter 1, the editor explains:
"Fives is a game of ball played in an enclosed courtyard. Two opponents, or two pairs of opponents, hit a small hard ball against their wall with their hands. Both the Fleet and the King's Bench debtors' prisons had courtyards where fives and the similar sport of rackets were played, and it was customary for the contestants to collect money from spectators after the game. Boxing fights were also occasionally staged in fives' courts (see Lois E. Chaney, 'The Fives' Court', Dickensian 81(1985), pp 86-7."
David writes "I don't quite understand the logic of the apostrophe after Fives, nor have I managed to get hold of the quoted reference, but you may wish to add this to your historical miscellenea on the web site. It may appeal to cash-strapped university players looking for new ways to pay off their debts."
A Bunch of Fives.
Georgette Heyer in "Arabella" mentions a boxing match taking place in a Fives Court. "But then, as he confidentially informed Mr Scunthorpe, when they presently left Park Street altogether, females took such foolish notions into their heads that it would have been ridiculous to have disclosed to her that he had an equally ardent desire to see a bout of fisticuffs at the Fives Court, ...." Was this a common event in Courts where Fives would also have been played? If so the bunch of fives must be a derivative?
Bat Fives Towards the end of the nineteenth century Uppingham had a bat Fives Court. Bat Fives was also played on two courts at Aldenham built in 1888 and demolished in 1920.
Mystery of the Glass Pewter – e-mail from Paul Taylor France
“We bought an old train station house in Burgundy France (active until 1953) and whilst dismantling an attached storage room I came across a small 5cm pewter with glass bottom. The inscription on the side says: L.L Cohen 2nd in Lower Boy House Fives Eton 1902, and on the underside are the words: Rowell Eton James Dixon and sons +95 and a small emblem of a flagged bugle. It was underneath some nailed down cardboard boxes I was clearing out at my home here in France. I thought it might have been connected with rowing and then entered it on to a search engine and found your informative website.”
Penny Hatfield, Eton College archivist responds:
"Lionel Leonard Cohen, only son of LLC of Richmond House, Newmarket and 27 Sussex Square, Hyde park, was here in John Dyer's house from summer 1901 to summer 1906. He was in the Tomline Select in 1906 and went on to New College, taking a 2nd Class in maths. Mods in 1907, a 1st in History in 1909 and a 1st in law in 1910. He was called to the Bar (Inner Temple) in 1913 and served in France during the war.
As you know, these pewter tankards with glass bottoms are common, especially for house competitions.
Rowell was the name of a jeweller in Eton (later acquired by the School Stores Association and renamed Merrick's) from whom presumably the cup was purchased. James Dixon must be the manufacturers."
Further e-mail from Paul:
Thank you for providing me with a small window into the life of the winner of the trophy. I wonder how it ended up here in between the joists of the ceiling, anyway it now sits proudly on view and thanks to you and your colleague it now has a story to tell. Kind regards from Paul Taylor.
"Hello from Jacq in NZ, I have been searching the net to try and find info about a trophy I have aquired recently. Firstly it is engraved to the "winner of Div. Fives." Is Div.Fives [presumably Division Fives] a termanology used in the game of Fives? [Until finding this site I knew nothing about the game of Fives]. The stamp on the underside indicates that the trophy was made in Eton and it is quite old. It is a lovely large tankard with a glass bottom.It is the type which has a lid operated by the thumb. It is away being repaired as it is rather dented on one side. The repairer will let me know whether it is silver, pewter or electroplated lead. The stamp underneath reads Rowell Eton. All in large fancy lettering: E.R.L.F-M winner of Div.Fives with F.F.V.Scrutton Eton 1908."
Eton College Archivist - a response from the Penny Hatfield
Div Fives is short for Division Fives. This was not a major school match but one of a number of matches got up between the boys in a particular year group or division. There is no account of it in the Eton College Chronicle.
The boys involved are Evelyn Robert Leopold Fraser-Mackenzie, who was here January 1906 to Easter 1911, and Furse Fairfax Vidal Scrutton, here September 1906 to summer 1912. Scrutton was a good oarsman, rowing in the Eton VIII 1911-1912, Captain of the Boats 1912 and winner of School Pulling and School Sculling that year, as well as being in the Field XI (the Field Game was a form of football unique to Eton) in 1911. During WWI he served in the Service Corps, the Engineers and on the staff in France. Fraser-Mackenzie went to Trinity College Cambridge and served s a Captain in the Royal Field Artillery in France, Egypt and Palestine, winning the DSO and MC as well as being mentioned in despatches. He seems to have made the army his career.
Works of James Joyce
Those who love both literature and hand/fives will enjoy the allusions to the game in the works of James Joyce. In "Stephen Hero" the original draft of what was eventually titled "Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man" Stephen is pulled away from a heated intellectual debate by his friends with the words "Nos ad manum ballum jocabinus" (Let's go play handball). The realism of Joyce's novels is further revealed when Stephen loses the game and offers the excuse that he "had not much practice". In a further debate on the policies of Czar Alexander, Stephen is offered a handball as a peace offering "Pax super totum sanguinarium globum" (Peace over the whole bloody globe), In "Ulysses", Leopold confides to Stephen that his dream house would have a fives court. What is important is that the game is embedded in the works of an enduring literary giant and will be there for future generations.
Courts of the 'Landed Gentry'
Cliveden Estate. The Conservation Workshop dedicated "to the conservation of
statuary, masonry, wall paintings and the decorative arts" was once an Eton Fives
court, a tennis court, and a mortuary.
Glyndebourne. The 1920 Organ Room at Glyndebourne is one of England's
grandest sitting rooms. It now seems strange to recall that the Organ Room began
life as an Eton Fives court attached to the Glyndebourne Manor House.
Debenham House, Holland Park. 'For Sale'. "The gardens are made more interesting
by a classical Ricardo garden pavilion. Out to one side, down a flight of steps, is
something quite different: a dank open box with curious stonework projections. It
turns out to be an Eton Fives Court (you clout the ball with big mittens,
apparently)".
Roald Dahl
The British author Roald Dahl was captain of Fives at Repton. He describes the game of Eton Fives as "possibly the fastest ball game on earth...the little ball ricochets around the court at such a speed you can hardly see it. You need swift eye, strong wrists and a quick pair of hands..."
Field Marshall Montgomery
Did you know that Monty proposed to his wife in the Eton Fives Courts at Charterhouse School? Times 2 dated 17 September 2001 states " Betty decided she must be forthright with her boyfriend. Monty had offered to drive her to her son John's school, Charterhouse. On arrival Betty told the boys to busy themselves, while she and Monty had a private conversation.
In later years Monty would often tell the story. His sense of humour was always tickled by life's incongruities: and the fives courts of a boys' boarding school seemed to him an incongruous place to propose."
George Mallory
Did you know that amongst the personal possessions found on the body of George Mallory, who died climbing Everest on June 8th, 1924, there was an unpaid invoice from Gammage's for a pair of Fives gloves and balls?
Ludwig Wittgenstein - Philosopher (1889-1951)
An extract from Wittgenstein's penultimate notebooks § 116: I ought to have noted that I have no idea what tennis without a ball means. Tennis without a raquet is Eton Fives, which we used to play at Colfe’s before the war. Intriguingly, my dictionary not only confirms my old-fashioned spelling but tells me that the word comes from an Arabic one meaning the palm of the hand. My fives court has been bombed but Eton’s has survived.
London Fact File (Metro June 16 1999)
In the Middle Ages monarchs were so keen to encourage military training with bow and arrow that an Act of Parliament was passed in 1369, stating that every able-bodied person in London had to practise archery in their leisure time and holidays. Popular sports of the day, such as handball, bowls and football, were forbidden and anyone seen taking part in them faced imprisonment.
Fives & Heronians - e-mail from Derek Whitehead
"A bit of trivia. I was looking at cricket results and came accross a team called "Fives & Heronians" in the Shepherd Neame Essex ECB league. Why Fives?"
Most handball in Ireland is now played with the rubber ball. This softball, as it is called, almost died out during World War II due to the embargo on the import of rubber enforced by the Allies. The captain of a neutral Swedish ship, carrying a cargo of rubber, had it impounded by the Royal Navy off the Irish coast. His explanation that the material was for condoms in Sweden and handballs in Ireland was not believed. (Tom O'Connor - Irish Handball Council)
Kildaire Archeological Journal
Fives was played in Ireland in the 17th century. It describes the activities of (Cosby) Dudley, gentleman and sportsman of County Ladis (Kine's County).... 'He was a fine tennis player, and fives player, an extraordinary fine hurler and danced on the ropes as well as any rope dancer....'
Origin of Fives
It seems that as well as Fives originating in Ireland (!), the game of croquet may also be of Irish origin. Fives was played in Stackellan House, a private school in County Meath in the 1840s and the present owner tells us that croquet was played there even earlier. (Tom O'Connor - Irish Handball Council)
From "Handball History" by J J McElligott.
Handballers were highly regarded in Ireland in the last century. A cork newspaper reported in 1841..."Last week, a man named Sweeney from Fermoy was appointed Schoolmaster. There were four other applicants for the post but as they did not know how to strike a ball on the hop they were rejected."
Handball players are considered eccentric and take pride in this perception. Early this century the mental institutions had handball courts built for their patients, as the sport was considered to have value in the treatment of certain disorders of the mind. A proposal to make the game easier so as to attract greater participation met with the following comments from one of the 'old guard'...
"Handball is not for the majority of the population...handballers are not normal...I have never met one who was not at least two standard deviations beyond the norm on any valid psychological chart......
...To begin with the game is painful and unlike other sports it takes a relatively long time to develop any significant level of competence - at least six months to a year before a player can perform the most basic moves and strokes..."
I have known that fives was very common in North Wales (where I was born and brought up) in the 17th and 18th centuries, and as a boy I visited all the churches in a 15 mile radius of Ruthin, to search for lines painted on the church walls. I came across quite a few paint marks at the "right height" on various churches - to prove the theory. It was a hobby - like brass rubbing. I am a member of Denbighshire Historical Society and came across the following reference to fives in an article by Bryn Ellis in the Denbighshire Historical Transactions.
"We also present a wall lately erected on the highway leading from Ruthin School to a place called y Wern Fechan built there for the Diversion of playing fives now become a Common Nuisance there as great many of the Townsmen and Apprentices on Sundays play here and Swear and Curse at the Time of Divine Service and we humbly apprehend it ought to be taken down to prevent such mischief as is commonly done there." (1772) Reference Document QSD/SR/212
"I have been researching the history of Caernarfon and discovered that Caernarfon Corporation leased out building plots at the beginning of the 19th century, partly on what had been a fives court."
"There was a fives court in Shanghai in the 1850s, and indeed a Fives Court Lane. My son has just published a book entitled 'Building Shanghai - The story of China's Gateway', and in his research into the history of the buildings of Shanghai he unearthed this piece of information (which he records in the book). Needless to say, the court(s) disappeared long ago.
There was also a fives court at the British Legation in Peking. In the opening paragraph of his book 'The siege of Peking' (published in 1959 and concerning the Boxer Rising of 1900), Peter Fleming records that a meal was being served at the Legation to celebrate the 81st - and last - birthday of Queen Victoria on 24 May 1900. "The meal was served in a small theatre which, like the adjacent fives court, provided solace and distraction in the long cold winter months".
From the Diary of Mrs B.G.Tours, written during the siege of the British Legation in Peking in July 1900 at the time of the Boxer Rising:
‘All the children are seedy and looking dreadfully white…..Daisy also got hit this evening, but not seriously. She was walking in the compound when a shell burst overhead, a piece striking her on the ankle-bone and causing a good deal of pain….The bullets positively rained upon the walls of our room, like heavy hailstones or a game of fives’.
One of our better read members has found a reference in the biography of Ian Fleming by Andrew Lissett to a Fives court built by an eccentric at his home in Jamaica. Do we have any knowledge of this court? May be it is a Rugby Fives court?
“I have been able to sit down with my friend Max and collect what information he can recall about Fives at his school in New Zealand. Max will be 65 in a couple of weeks. The school where he played was Timaru Technical college, which was then situated in Arthur street, Timaru, South Canterbury, which is in the South Island of New Zealand. Max believes that it is now a Polytech institute. This school was a college from form 3 upwards and Max left there in 1954.
It sounds as though it indeed was Eton Fives, not Rugby Fives. He had a look at the courts featured in the latest EFA Annual Report, including the Rugby court in Maine. The alcove was equivalent to the size shown in the report. He recalls the step up in the back. Although he is not certain, he seems to remember the ledges or abuttments inside the alcove which the children learned to use to advantage. It was not played as a school curriculum sport, but as a sport which the children would be rushing to play at every break possible. He said it was so popular that they would line up to get a turn, very often missing out.
Not long before Max left school the then headmaster was expressing a desire to build more courts being that it was so popular, although he does not know whether this happened after he left. It was a serious social game among them as they had their own championships in amongst one another. Max said that not all of them had the fancy gear, he for example played with a tennis ball and no glove, whereas the more serious players had the proper Fives balls and gloves. Max also thinks that the Otago High School, also in South Canterbury had Fives courts, as one of his friends went to the school and he's sure the guy played Fives there. Max thinks that there would surely be pictures in the old school magazines of the champions standing beside the courts, although he said he no longer has one.
I hope this is of interest to you. I will do my best to try and investigate further and see what else I can find out.”
Historical Gems by Mike Fenn
Constructed 22nd November 1999
Revised 15th January 2006
efa@etonfives.co.uk