 Boards were carved into the cloister seats at the English cathedrals at Canterbury, Gloucester, Norwich, Salisbury and Westminster Abbey; the game was quite popular in England in the 13th century.These boards used holes, not lines, to represent the nine spaces on the board—hence the name "nine-holes"—and forming a diagonal row did not win the game.The name of the game may be related to Morris dances (and hence to Moorish).