The origin of this game is unknown.
No man invented whist or chess, and croquet like them seems to have been evolved by some process of nature, as a crystal forms or a flower grows—perfect, in accordance with eternal laws.
There is in all these games a certain theory which furnishes interpretations for all cases that arise in actual play.
The rules are grouped about a central principle. The mimic battles have a unity, and are homogeneous in all their parts.
If the rules are indefinite or contradictory the game loses its distinctive character. If the rules are accurate and rigidly enforced, croquet is a game of the highest interest. I am informed by a scientific billiard player that though croquet is inferior to billiards in affording opportunities for delicate manipulation and manual dexterity, that it far excels that elegant game in the field it opens for the exercise of the higher qualities of combination and foresight.
Whist exercises the memory and the power of calculating probabilities; chess the imagination and the faculty of abstract reasoning; but croquet, though it taxes these mental qualities less, combines them with the delights of out-door exercise and social enjoyment, fresh air and friendship—two things which are of all others most effective in promoting happiness.
Those who have been in the habit of regarding croquet as a game for children may, perhaps, smile at my enthusiasm; but let them procure a perfect ground, balls and mallets, play half a dozen four-ball games in strict accordance with the rules, and when they can claim to have mastered the game, they will acknowledge themselves converts…
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