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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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real tennis
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(also called royal or court tennis) Game played with rackets, a ball and a net in an area imitating a courtyard, surrounded by sloping roofs. Perhaps originating in medieval monasteries, it became the sport of kings (tennis balls are the insultingly frivolous gift sent by the French to the young English king in *Henry V). The 16C was the heyday of the game, when a great house such as Hampton Court was likely to have its own tennis court. Lawn *tennis was an adaptation to a garden setting. The newcomer took on almost unaltered the older game's weirdly eccentric system of scoring, in which zero is 'love' and one is 'fifteen'.
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