Block:Prince of Wales Plays "bass-ball": September 19 1749
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| Data | A newspaper reported a game of "bass-ball" at Walton (most likely Walton-on-Thames), Surrey: "On Tuesday last his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, and Lord Middlesex, played at Bass-Ball, at Walton in Surry (sic); and notwithstanding the Weather was extreme (sic) bad, they continued playing several Hours." |
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| Sources | Whitehall Evening Post or London Intelligencer, Sept. 19-21, 1749, p. 3; also, The Remembrancer (London), Sept. 23, 1749, p. 3 |
| Block Notes | This is the earliest known mention of baseball in a newspaper, as well as the earliest reference to the game for which the original document has survived (the British Library holds the Whitehall Evening Post issue, and the Remembrancer issue exists in the collections of three or four libraries). Curiously, it was the second mention of baseball within a year's time to be associated with Frederick, Prince of Wales. His playing partner, Lord Middlesex (Charles Sackvile, the future second Duke of Dorset), was Master of the Horse in the prince's court, and the two were close personal friends and political allies. Lord Middlesex had a country home at Walton-on-Thames that was about 20 miles downriver from the prince's Cliveden estate. |
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