ground. Roquet this ball and take off to the second hoop. Use the ball placed there to make that hoop ; then roquet it after running the hoop and send it to the hoop three to peg, going to the middle of the ground with the striker s ball. Take off to the third hoop, make it with the ball placed there to help, and then send it to the hoop oue to peg, going with the striker s ball to the one in the middle of the ground. Then rush it to hoop two to peg, and take off to the hoop three to peg, or failing a rush, roll or split it to two to peg, and the striker s ball to three to peg. Make that hoop, and split, roll, or rush the ball placed there to help to hoop second back, going to ball placed near
hoop two to peg.By julicious repetition of these or similar tactics there is no limit to the number of points that can be made. The practice should be continued until, on good ground, with 4-inch hoops and three balls to help, the break of fourteen points becomes a feat easy of accomplishment.
In order to become an adept at the game, judgment must be added to mere execution. Judgment cannot be taught in writing, further than by laying down certain principles of play. They are briefly as under:—
1. Keep the partner balls together, the adverse balls apart.
It is clear, from the remarks on the break, that at most one or two points can be made without a ball or balls to help ; hence going to the next hoop in order is very poor tactics, if we regard the advantages gained by helping partner by keeping near him, and by separating the adversaries, or at least giving partner the opportunity of separating them.
2. When out of the break, it is often a nice point whether to go to partner, or to finesse to the boundary, or to take a shot at the oppo nents. As a rule a long shot should not be attempted if failure would leave the ball in the adversary s game, where it may be brought into play to help him in his break. Also the question often arises whether to separate the adversaries at once or to con tinue the break. The answers to these questions must depend on the striker s estimate of his ability and of his adversary s ability, and on the state of the game.
The principal exception to playing to partner s ball is when the ball played with is a rover and the adversary is also a rover, and has a fair probability of making a roquet next time. For, under these circumstances, the opponent will take off to the two adverse balls and rush the rover up to the winning peg, and very probably peg it out.
3. Keep the last player in your game.
The object of this is to prevent the adversaries from combining at their next stroke. It compels the next player either to take an uncertain shot which may bring him into the game, or to finesse. The last player may be kept, either by sending him to partner during or at the end of the turn, or by putting him near partner s hoop and then going to partner.
The striker should, if the opportunity offers during his break, pick up the last player for the reasons already given.
When sending the next player away, choose such part of the ground to send him that if he takes a shot it brings him into partner s game.
4. Make the break with two or three balls to help, in preference to one.
The reason is obvious to those who have practised the break. skilful players endeavour to keep all the balls in the break ; but the safe plan for novices is to dismiss the next player and to make the break with two balls to help.
5. When in the break do not play uncertain strokes on the next player.
For any mistake made then gives the break to the adversary. It is, however, a matter of judgment how far risks may be run, varying with the amount of skill and nerve of the striker.
When partner s ball is a long way off, using the last player to help is just as dangerous as using the next player.
6. At the end of the break play partner s game.
This_is accomplished by leaving him the last player s ball to help and going to his hoop, or vice verscr*, or by leaving him a rush to his hoop and a ball at his next hoop but one, and in several other ways, which will be apparent to any thoughtful player.
See Walter Jones Whitmofe, Croquet Tactics, London, 1868 ; Arthur Lillie, The Book of Croquet, London, 1872 ; R. C. A. Prior, M.D., Croquet Notes, London, 1872; James Dunbar Heath, TJic Complete Croquet Player, London, 1874.
CROSS (Latin, crux; Greek, [ Greek text ]). In its simplest aspect, a figure produced by the intersection of two linns at right angles, the cross in its primary signification is understood to denote an instrument for inflicting capital punishment, or a gibbet formed of two pieces of wood fixed together cross-wise without any reference to their relative proportions. Metaphorically, the term cross implies death thus inflicted, and so it becomes synonymous with crucifixion, and is often used to denote any exceptionally severe pain or heavy trial. The manner in which Christ suffered has caused the cross, as the instrument for cruci fixion, either to be associated directly or indirectly with His death, or to be regarded as having a reference to that fundamental fact of Christian history. And the same fact may be assumed to be symbolized by the cross in every modification of form and variety of adornment in use. for whatsoever purpose, throughout Christendom.
The ancient practice of execution by hanging criminals on trees apparently led to the adoption of crosses con structed for a similar purpose. Hence, hanging from some part of a tree and the being fixed to a cross appear to have conveyed to the Romans the same import ; accordingly the expressions infelix arbor and injelix lignum, each of which may consistently be rendered " the accursed tree," alike denoted crucifixion (Cicero, Pro Rabir., 3 ; Seneca, Up., 101; Tertull., Ap. viii. 16).
The barbarous execution by crucifixion, of which traces are to be found from remote times among the nations of the East and North, was carried into effect in two forms (1) when the sufferer was left to perish bound to a tree or an upright stake, sometimes after being impaled ; and (2) when by nails driven through his hands and feet, his limbs also sometimes further secured by cords, the sufferer was fixed with outstretched arms to a cross having a horizon tal bar as well as a vertical stake. The terms employed in the Gospel narratives render it certain that Christ thus was crucified. According to Lipsius (De Cruce, i. 5-9) and Gretser (De Cruce Christi, vol. i. c. 1), a single upright stake was distinguished as crux simplex, while to the actual cross, formed of two pieces of wood, the name crux composita or compacta was applied. The crux composita, compound cross, or " cross " properly so called, appears under the following modifications of form :Crux immissa or capitata, formed as in this figure J ; crux commissa or ansata, thus formed, T ; and crux decussata, when the cruciform figure is set diagonally after the manner of the Roman letter X. It was upon a crux immissa that Christ is generally believed to have died. This cross is a " Latin cross," when the shaft below tho transverse bar is longer than that part which rises above the transverse bar, as
The gratuitous barbarity of scourging as a prelude to crucifixion, and of compelling the condemned sufferer to carry his cross, or one of the parts of it, to the place of execution, were but too strictly in keeping with the cruel character of the Romans. Crucifixion with the head downwards, of which Seneca speaks (Consolat. ad Marc., c. xx.), the mode in which St Peter is said to have chosen to suffer, was a refinement on the barbarity of the cross no less consistent with Roman cruelty.
(commemorated on the 3d of May), or the finding the actual cross on which Christ had suffered, by the Empress
Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great, rests on the
