History of Real Tennis “To see Good Tennis! What divine joy Can fill our leisure, or our minds employ? Let other people play at other things; The King of Games is still the Game of Kings” from Parker’s Piece by J.K. Stephen Recently we were requested to digitise photographs for a client who's son had refurbished a Victorian Real Tennis Court. What followed was a fascinating history of Real Tennis. Real Tennis is still almost the same sport as the Royal Game that was played with such great enthusiasm at all the princely courts of Europe and by a large contingent of the urban elite between roughly 1500-1800. After 1800 the interest in the game dwindled on the continent, but it survived in Great Britain. After 1874, when the new game of lawn tennis swept the country, royal tennis became more fashionable again among the English aristocracy. By the year 1900 the popularity of lawn tennis was so great that it was universally called "tennis" and the old game ha...
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