13 JULY 1944, Page 4

I have been reading the Idylls of the King for

their interest] revelation of Victorian manners. Tennyson belonged almost to

last generation before the development of organised games. Th social value of this development is demonstrated negatively by th crude knockabout amusements of the Knights of the Round Tab]

These rough bruisers fight and fight and fight (in Malory even mo aimlessly than in the Idylls) because they have nothing else to occu them. Golf, or even professional football, would have done wonde. for bored giants like Sir Lancelot, Sir Gdwain and Sir Tristram, a might well have kept the lesser fry from the last rebellion, whi

they seem to have undertaken mainly from ennui.