Country Life
nil: FIRST TENNIS BALL.
Many quaint reminiscences, not without historical value, have appeared in The Times on the theme of the early days of lawn tennis ; but in them all I have seen scarcely a reference to one of the " onlie begetters" of this now international game. At the time of the invention of " sphairistike," one of the most famous names in court tennis (that "game of kings and king of games ") was John Heatheote. He was champion off and on over a period of a score of years or more, before yielding the palm to the now better known names, though not of greater players, of Grey and Lyttelton.. John Reatheote lived at Conington Castle some ten miles from Petcrboro', on the edge of the Huntingdon Fens, of which his father was an amateur historian and indeed illustrator.
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