From the Latinpellĕre mallʹeo (to strike with a mallet or bat; so called because it was where the ancientgame of pell-mall used to be played. Cotgrave says:—
“Pale malle is a game wherein a roundbox-ball is struck with a mallet through a high arch of iron. He that can do this most frequently wins.”
It was a fashionable game in the reign of Charles II., and the walkcalled the Mall was appropriated to it for the king and his court.