Block:Man Identifies Place He Played "bass-ball" in 1826 Novel

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Data	“Bass-ball” is mentioned in a four-volume novel concerning the comings, goings and doings of various high-born society types. In one scene a married couple, who have been having an argument while traveling in their coach, approach a stately house, the husband's boyhood home. The wife is sullen and grumpy, but her husband is excited because he has not been there in a long while: “'Is this the house?' said she, determined not to be pleased with any thing. 'Yes: look, Cary—there's where I have played trap-ball and bass-ball many a time.'”
Sources	Geraldine Murray, A Tale of Fashionable Life, Vol. III, by E.H.P., late Miss M'Leod, London, 1826, A.K. Newman, pp. 212-213
Block Notes	An amusing review of this book appeared in the Sept. 30, 1826 issue of "The London Literary Gazette; and Journal of Belles Lettres, Arts, Sciences, &c.": “We have heard of ladies changing their names, but never before met with a lady who had given up her name for initial letters as Miss M'Leod seems to have done. She dates her preface, however, from a place which sounds extremely matrimonial, viz. Fing-ring-ho Hall, Essex; and we dare hope that E.H.P is as happy as the late Miss M'Leod could wish her to be. So much for the author; and we have little more to say about the book. As drudging critics, we cannot be expected to know aught of Fashionable Life; and we can only guess that the Lords, Ladies, Honourable Mr.'s, Mistresses and Misses, Counts, Baronets and other great folks who figure in these pages, are drawn to the Life.”
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