London, and Stephen Gosson in his
_School of Abuse_ (1579) says, "Common bowling alleys are privy moths
that eat up the credit of many idle citizens; whose gains at home are
not able to weigh down their losses abroad; whose shops are so far from
maintaining their play, that their wives and children cry out for bread,
and go to bed supperless often in the year."

Biased bowls were introduced in the 16th century. "A little altering of
the one side," says Robert Recorde, the mathematician, in his _Castle of
Knowledge_ (1556), "maketh the bowl to run biasse waies." And
Shakespeare (_Richard II_., Act. III. Sc. 4) causes the queen to
remonstrate, in reply to her lady's suggestion of a game at bowls to
relieve her ennui, "'Twill make me think the world is full of rubs, and
that my fortune runs against the bias." This passage is interesting also
as showing that women were accustomed to play the game in those days. It
is pleasant to think that there is foundation for the familiar story of
Sir Francis Drake playing bowls on Plymouth Hoe as the Armada was
beating up Channel, and finishing his game before tackling the
Spaniards. Bowls, at that date, was looked upon as a legitimate
amusement for Sundays,--as, indeed, were many other sports. When John
Knox visited Calvin at Geneva one Sunday, it is said that he discovered
him engaged in a game; and John Aylmer (1521-1594), though bishop of
London, enjoyed a game of a Sunday afternoon, but used such language "as
justly exposed his character to reproach." The pastime found favour with
the Stuarts. In the _Book of Sports_ (1618), James I. recommended a
moderate indulgence to his son, Prince Henry, and Charles I. was an
enthusiastic bowler, unfortunately encouraging by example wagering and
playing for high stakes, habits that ultimately brought the green into
as general disrepute as the alley. It is recorded that the king
occasionally visited Richard Shute, a Turkey merchant who owned a
beautiful green at Barking Hall, and that after one bout his losses were
L1000. He was permitted to play his favourite game to beguile the tedium
of his captivity. The signboard of a wayside inn near Goring Heath in
Oxfordshire long bore a portrait of the king with couplets reciting how
his majesty "drank from the bowl, and bowl'd for what he drank." During
his stay at the Northamptonshire village of Holdenby or Holmby--where
Sir Thomas Herbert complains the green was not well kept--Charles
frequently ro