The mall scene in the Bridgerton the books are a fan favorite. It features the Bridgerton siblings, along with the Sheffield sisters (Sharma sisters in the Netflix adaptation), playing a game in Aubrey Hall’s Bridgerton family home. But beyond the competition, it’s the moment Kate and Anthony realize each other isn’t as awful as they first thought, which kicks off their journey as frenemies. to lovers.

But what are the rules of the pall mall, and can you actually play it?

The history of Pall Mall

According to sports encyclopedia, pall mall was developed in France in the 1500s and 1600s, and inspired by the game of mail, a French form of floor billiards.

But the name “pall mall” has an etymology that relates to another Romance language. According to Jordan Almond, author of Dictionary of word origins“In the Italian ball game called palamaglio, players run around in seemingly reckless confusion. When this game was introduced in England, it was called “pall-mall” – from the Italian palla meaning ‘ball’ and majestic meaning ‘mallet.'”

According to historian Henry Benjamin Wheatley, the Pall Mall was probably brought to England from Scotland when James VI became king. He writes in Around Piccadilly and Pall Mall, “The Pall Mall was a popular game in the 16th and 17th centuries and few large cities had no mall, or prepared ground, where it could be played; but it has now been out of use for so long that no satisfactory account of the game can be found.”

How to play Pall Mall

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Pall mall was played down a long driveway, with an iron hoop on the ground at the end. The object was to get the boxwood (wooden) ball into the hoop with as few strokes as possible, by hitting the ball with a heavy wooden mallet.

by Thomas Blount Glossography (1656) described pall mall as “a game in which a round bowle is with a mallet struck through a high arch of iron (standing at each end of an alley) than he who can make fewer strokes, or at agreed number on , win. This game was hitherto used in the long alley near St. James and vulgarly called Pell-Mell.

Think of the game as a precursor to croquet. As Julia Quinn wrote on her website, “I don’t believe the rules were the same as they are today, but again, I never played croquet under the official rules.”

Pall Mall rules in Bridgerton

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Pall Shopping Center in Bridgerton is closer to modern croquet, where you hit the wooden ball with a mallet through a series of wickets. As expected in The viscount who loved me, this is how the Bridgerton siblings play the game:

1. Never use a regulation course
2. No honor and no honesty
3. Never play with an odd number
4. No collusion between competitors
5. No sportsmanship
6. No encouragement for your opponent
7. The order of play is oldest to youngest
8. Always follow his ball
9. The black mallet is the “mallet of death”
10. Instant win if you send Anthony’s ball into the lake

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