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Peg Duthie ([personal profile] pondhop) wrote2014-06-23 06:47 pm
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two tennis quotes

In the Perpetual Almanack of Folklore (compiled by Charles Kightly, Thames and Hudson, 1987), the entry for May 27, "Tennis now in season," includes this quote:


The Tennis Court, whereby I would have you to recreate your mind, and exercise your body sometimes: for besides pleasure it preserveth your health, in so far as it moveth every part of the body. Nevertheless I approve not those who are ever in the Tennis Court like Nackets, and heat themselves so much that they rather breed than expel sickness: nor yet commend I those, who rail at the Tennis-keeper's score, and that have banded away the greater part of their wealth in playing great and many sets. It is both a hurt and a shame for a nobleman to be so eager in that play.

- James Cleland, The Institution of a Young Noble Man, 1607


And in Venus & Serena: Serving from the Hip -- Ten Rules for Living, Loving, and Winning (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2005) -- written with Hilary Beard, a writer who played tennis as a child -- this appears on the dedication page:


For Charles A. Beard, who weeded the grass courts at Newport's tennis casino
yet, because he was Negro, was not allowed to play there;
and Peggy Lanton Beard, who taught me goodness, optimism, and courage.

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