(Skittles) | Fun and games en plein air

(Skittles)

Rules and Instructions for Playing at Skittles. London: Printed for G. Kearsley, [14 July], 1786

Two printed broadsides (each approx. 470 x 311 mm). Each with engraved view of a skittle ground and players along with a diagram, one copy handcolored (costing 1s) and the other uncolored (costing 6d), text in 3 columns. Colored copy toned, small stain and tear in left margin, short tear touching 2 text lines at bottom repaired, minor dampstaining along fore-edge of uncolored copy.

The site of the skittle ground is feasibly "The Merlin Cave, a tavern standing in the fields near New River Head, close to the present Merlin's Place, [which] possessed extensive gardens and a skittle-ground, [and] which was frequented by Londoners, especially on Sundays" (W. & A. Wroth, The London Pleasure Gardens of the Eighteenth Century, pp. 54-55).