1836.5
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Yanks Burn British Runners . . . in Canton, China
| Salience | Noteworthy |
|---|---|
| Tags | |
| Location | |
| City/State/Country: | China |
| Modern Address | |
| Game | |
| Immediacy of Report | Contemporary |
| Age of Players | AdultAdult |
| Holiday | |
| Notables | |
| Text | John Murray Forbes wrote from Canton, China, to his wife on March 25, 1836, “I had bats and a ball made an we got up a sort of game; the next day some of the English found their way down to us and we have since had several games: the Balls and bats have improved.” “We have been very steady at our ball exercise. Is it not funny the idea of a parcel of men going out to play like schoolboys? [ . . .] The English have one trait in which they differ widely from us; they keep up their boyish games through life. [. . .] Cricket and Ball of all sorts is played in England by men of all ages.” [A runner could be] "pelted by the hard ball as he tried to run in, for it was then the fashion to throw at the runner, and if hit he was out for the inning." Forbes asked his wife to imagine him “throwing the ball at this man, running like mad to catch it, or, when my innings come, running the rounds jumping breast high to avoid being hit, or falling down to the ground for the same purpose.”
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| Sources | Sara Forbes Hughes, ed., Letters and Recollections of John Murray Forbes [Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1899] volume 1, page 86.
Submitted by John Bowman, 7/16/2004 and supplemented by Brian Turner, 7/23/2013. |
| Warning | |
| Comment | John Bowman adds: "Forbes was a Massachusetts man, and one supposes that when he played baseball at the Round Hill school in Northampton (see item #1823.6 above) , 'soaking' was then a routine aspect of the game." Edit with form to add a comment |
| Query | Can we clarify what the game was (cricket? round ball?) and whether Americans and English both played? How old was Forbes in 1836? Edit with form to add a query |
| Source Image | [[Image:|left|thumb]] |
| External Number | |
| Submitted by | John Bowman, Brian Turner |
| Submission Note | Emails of 7/16/2004 and 7/23/2013 |
| Has Supplemental Text |
1836.5 Yanks Burn British Runners . . . in Canton, China"
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