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Croquet

"From the Queen. An invitation for the Duchess to play croquet."

 

Introduction

Croquet was a popular lawn game in the 19th century England. It involves hitting plastic or wooden balls with a mallet through hoops embedded into the grass playing court (Wikipedia).  Croquet has the reputation of fostering rather vicious competition, since one of the important strategies of the game involves knocking other peoples balls away from the wickets, thus hindering them in their attempt to go through. 
In chapter 8 of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, we get to see Carroll’s even crazier version of croquet:

"Alice thought she had never seen such a curious croquet-ground in her life; it was all ridges and furrows; the balls were live hedgehogs, the mallets live flamingoes, and the soldiers had to double themselves up and to stand on their hands and feet, to make the arches."

Images

John Tenniel (1820-1914)
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by John Tenniel. London: Macmillan and Co, 1865.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/John_Tenniel

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