the square dies, thus connecting them with the square base.
In the Early English style, these spurs followed the conventional design of
the period, and about the same time the mouldings were deeply sunk and
occasionally cut downwards, so that they would have held water if used
externally. Later, the base becomes less bold in treatment, but much more
complex in its contours, and in the 15th century is given an unusual height
with two stages, the lower one constituting a kind of plinth, which is
sometimes known as the ground table, or the base course.

A BASE COURT (Fr. _basse cour_, _i.e._ the lower court), is the first open
space within the gates of a castle. It was used for exercising cavalry, and
keeping live stock during a siege. (See ENCEINTE).

THE BASE OF A WALL or GROUND TABLE, in architecture, is the mouldings round
a building just above ground; they mostly consist of similar members to
those above described and run round the buttresses. The flat band between
the plinth and upper mouldings is frequently panelled and carved with
shields, as in Henry VII. Chapel at Westminster.

BASE-BALL (so-called from the bases and ball used), the national summer
sport of the United States, popular also throughout Canada and in Japan.
Its origin is obscure. According to some authorities it is derived from the
old English game of rounders (_q.v._), several variations of which were
played in America during the colonial period; according to other
authorities, its resemblance to rounders is merely a coincidence, and it
had its origin in the United States, probably at Cooperstown, New York, in
1839, when it is said, Abner Doubleday (later a general in the U.S. army)
devised a scheme for playing it. About the beginning of the 19th century a
game generally known as "One Old Cat" became popular with schoolboys in the
North Atlantic states; this game was played by three boys, each fielding
and batting in turn, a run being scored by the batsman running to a single
base and back without being put out. Two Old Cat, Three Old Cat, and Four
Old Cat were modifications of this game, having respectively four, six, and
eight players. A development of this game bore the name of town-ball and
the Olympic Town-Ball Club of Philadelphia was organized in 1833. Matches
between organized base-ball clubs were first played in the neighbourhood of
New York, where the Washington Baseball Club was founded in 1843. The first
regular code of rules was drawn u