CROPSEY, JASPER FRANCIS (1823-1900), American landscape painter, was born at Rossville, Staten Island, New York, on the 18th of February 1823. After practising architecture for several years, he turned his attention to painting, studying in Italy from 1847 to 1850. In 1851 he was elected a member of the National Academy of Design. From 1857 to 1863 he had a studio in London, and after his return to America enjoyed a considerable vogue, particularly as a painter of vivid autumnal effects, along the lines of the Hudson River school. He was one of the original members of the American Water Color Society. He continued actively in this profession until within a few days of his death, at Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, on the 22nd of June 1900. He made the architectural designs for the stations of the elevated railways in New York City.
CROQUET (from Fr. _croc_, a crook, or crooked stick), a lawn game played with balls, mallets, hoops and two pegs. The game has been evolved, according to some writers, from the _paille-maille_ which was played in Languedoc at least as early as the 13th century. Under the name of _le jeu de la crosse_, or _la crosserie_, a similar game was at the same period immensely popular in Normandy, and especially at Avranches, but the object appears to have been to send the ball as far as possible by driving it with the mallet (see _Sports et jeux d'adresse_, 1904, p. 203). Pall Mall, a fashionable game in England in the time of the Stuarts, was played with a ball and a mallet, and with two hoops or a hoop and a peg, the game being won by the player who ran the hoop or hoops and touched the peg under certain conditions in the fewest strokes. Croquet certainly has some resemblance to _paille-maille_, played with more hoops and more balls. It is said that the game was brought to Ireland from the south of France, and was first played on Lord Lonsdale's lawn in 1852, under the auspices of the eldest daughter of Sir Edmund Macnaghten. It came to England in 1856, or perhaps a few years earlier, and soon became popular.
In 1868 the first all-comers' meeting was held at Moreton-in-the-Marsh. In the same year the All England Croquet Club was formed, the annual contest for the championship taking place on the grounds of this club at Wimbledon.[1] But after being for ten years or so the most popular game for the country house and garden party, croquet was in its turn practically ousted by lawn tennis, until, with improved implements and a more scientific form of play, it was revived about 1894-1895. In 1896-1897 was formed the United All England Croquet Association, on the initiative of Mr Walter H. Peel. Under the name of the Croquet Association, with more than 2000 members and nearly a hundred affiliated clubs (1909), this body is the recognized ruling authority on croquet in the British Islands. Its headquarters are at the Roehampton Club, where the championship and champion cup competitions are held each year.