Editing Croquet (section)

===Heyday and decline===
Croquet became highly popular as a social pastime in England during the 1860s. It was enthusiastically adopted and promoted by the [[Arthur Algernon Capell, 6th Earl of Essex|Earl of Essex]], who held lavish croquet parties at [[Cassiobury House]], his stately home in [[Watford]], [[Hertfordshire]], and the Earl even launched his own ''Cassiobury'' brand croquet set.<ref>{{cite web |title=History |url= http://www.watfordcroquet.org.uk/history.php |work=WatfordCroquet.org.uk |publisher=Watford Cassiobury Croquet Club |access-date=7 December 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Reid |first1=Mayne |title=Croquet, etc |date=1869 |page=46 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=bxVdAAAAcAAJ&q=Croquet%2C%20etc.&pg=PA46}}</ref> By 1867, Jaques had printed 65,000 copies of his ''Laws and Regulations'' of the game. It quickly spread to other [[English language|Anglophone]] countries, including [[Australia]], [[Canada]], [[New Zealand]], [[South Africa]], and the [[United States]]. No doubt one of the attractions was that the game could be played by both sexes; this also ensured a certain amount of adverse comment.

It is no coincidence that the game became popular at the same time as the cylinder [[lawn mower]], since croquet can only be played well on a lawn that is flat and finely-cut.

[[File:Män och kvinnor spelar krocket framför hus på Lidingö - Nordiska Museet - NMA.0040765.jpg|thumb|Croquet players in Sweden, early 20th century]]
By the late 1870s, however, croquet had been eclipsed by another fashionable game, [[tennis|lawn tennis]], and many of the newly created croquet clubs, including the All England Club at Wimbledon, converted some or all of their lawns into [[tennis court]]s. There was a revival in the 1890s, but going forward croquet was always a minority sport, with national individual participation amounting to a few thousand players. The [[All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club]] still has a croquet lawn, but has not hosted any significant tournaments. Its championship was won 38 times by [[Bernard Neal]]. The English headquarters for the game is now in [[Cheltenham]].

[[File:Eglington1.JPG|thumb|left|A game of croquet being played at [[Eglinton Country Park|Eglinton Castle]], North Ayrshire, in the early 1860s]]
The earliest known reference to croquet in Scotland is the booklet ''The Game of Croquet, its Laws and Regulations'', which was published in the mid-1860s for the proprietor of Eglinton Castle, the [[Earl of Eglinton]]. On the page facing the title page is a picture of Eglinton Castle with a game of "croquet" in full swing.<ref name="C">{{Cite book |chapter=Introduction |url=http://www.edinburghcroquetclub.com/intro.html |title=Edinburgh Croquet Club |access-date=4 April 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110710171159/http://www.edinburghcroquetclub.com/intro.html |archive-date=10 July 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

The croquet lawn existed on the northern terrace, between [[Eglinton Castle]] and the Lugton Water. The 13th Earl developed a variation on croquet named Captain Moreton's Eglinton Castle croquet, which had small bells on the eight hoops "to ring the changes", two pegs, a double hoop with a bell, and two tunnels for the ball to pass through. In 1865, the 'Rules of the Eglinton Castle and Cassiobury Croquet' was published by [[Edmund Routledge]]. Several incomplete sets of this form of croquet are known to exist, and one complete set is still used for demonstration games in the West of Scotland.<ref name="C"/>