Block:English Baseball in Norfolk on June 19 1858
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| Data | “Base” was included among a list of “olden time” games in a Norwich, Norfolk, newspaper commentary that appears to belittle the current sports played by boys when compared to sports of old. The writer's precise meaning is a little obscure due to his use of the term “æsthenic.” He wrote: “A little go of sports had been got up by the little boys of the present day, in a meadow near the Ferry, which, as far as they went, showed a certain amount of agility and strength. Such play has been honoured by the fine name of 'æsthenic,' but is as far from the athletic sports of olden time as base, cricket, bandy, and camp, and the jumping, where broken shins, and sometimes broken heads and arms were got, and where determined energy of character, and vigorous activity of muscle, were brought into play unfettered, as the amusements of an age of hardihood can differ from an age of words. 'Æsthenics' were not then invented, but nature found the strength and the power, and boyhood the energy and the spirit, which has continued to maintain the glory of England in India, and in the Crimea, and on the broad blue ocean, under a less sounding title than æsthenic.” |
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| Sources | Norwich Mercury, June 19, 1858, p. 6 |
| Block Notes | There is a possibility that “base” in this instance could be prisoner's base, but that game had faded in popularity by the 1850s whereas baseball, by comparison, had become well established in East Anglia. I also note that the author referred to the game of camp-ball by the single word “camp.” The author's use of “æsthenic” is a bit confusing. It is not in the dictionary. The word “asthenic” means “weak” but it seems what the writer probably had in mind was the word “sthenic” which means “tending to produce vital energy.” |
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