Property:Block Notes
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This is a property of type Text.
P
<p>Tersie or terzy is an elaborate tag game that was popular in Tyneside. There was no ball involved.</p> +
T
<p>That tut-ball was played side-by-side with rounders supports the theory that the former was a bat-less game, similar to English baseball.</p> +
E
<p>The Duke of Clarence was the eldest son of Albert, Prince of Wales and grandson of Queen Victoria and, as such, second in line to the British throne. He died of influenza at the age of 28 only six days before this poem was published. It is not clear why the author of the poem chose to use a baseball metaphor, and whether he intended it to refer to the English or American version of the game.</p> +
<p>The Latin roughly translates to: “many things grow again among the Americans that have already fallen to us.” This was an unusually early commentary from an English source that baseball originated in that country.</p> +
<p>The Ranelagh Club was formed in 1878 as a split-off from the Hurlingham Club, and by 1894 had become the largest polo club in the world. It is not clear what sort of baseball this horseback game was modeled upon, although the American version was still little known in Britain at that time.</p> +
<p>The author claimed this book was based upon his “personal experience” and that “although written in novel style” is “in the main . . .a relation of facts.” The game of “chevy” is a reference to “chevy chase,” a tag-like pastime that is related to prisoner's base.</p> +
<p>The author of this biography, Alexandra Leighton Orr, was a friend of the Browning family. It appears that the poet's sister, Sarianna, was Mrs. Orr's source for information about her father, and this lends some credibility to the baseball claim. The senior Browning would have passed his school years in the 1790's.</p> +
<p>The author's juxtaposition of the words "bass-ball" and "rounders" can be read two ways: he could have been indicating two separate games or providing alternate names for the same game. I tend to favor the former; indeed, baseball and rounders were two distinct games. The author's use of the singular "game" rather than "games" is stylistic, as shown by his use of the singular "song" in the sentence's ending phrase. The story appears to be set in Hampshire.</p> +
<p>The author's parenthetical insertion of the word “base-ball” demonstrates that he intended to indicate that “brace-ball” was the traditional spelling of the game in Sussex.</p> +
<p>The author's suggestion that baseball was played in 14th-century England is a fanciful one. Nonetheless, he must have had English baseball in mind. </p> +
"
<p>The book has a publication date of 1755, but a newspaper account indicates it was already in production by Christmas, 1754. It was reviewed in a literary journal in February, 1755. All this is to say that it predated the baseball entry in the Bray diary by a few months. Given the highly satirical nature of The Card, it is hard to know whether to take Kidgell's characterization of baseball literally.</p> +
E
<p>The book's publication date is not indicated, but its title was mentioned in an article on "gift books" that appeared in the London Standard newspaper dated Jan. 7, 1876, suggesting that it was likely in print prior to the end of 1875. It is unknown why the author chose to include two separate descriptions of baseball. The two are clearly the work of different writers, but agree on most particulars. They are the only two known descriptions of English baseball other than the German one published in 1796 by Gutsmuths. </p> +
<p>The boy's fearful response to striking a ball out of bounds possibly meant that the ball was deposited in a body of water or some other inaccessible location.</p> +
M
<p>The dating of this item is not straightforward. The story appeared in numerous publications, as well as in the second volume of Miss Mitford's series of village stories entitled Our Village. A manuscript of the story was submitted to publisher Ackermann for inclusion in the 1826 edition of his annual Forget Me Not anthologies of stories and poetry, which was published for sale in the autumn of 1825. Miss Mitford mistakenly dated the letter accompanying the ms., Jan. 26, 1826; she obviously wrote it a year earlier on Jan. 26, 1825. The story appears to have first been printed in the Forget Me Not, followed shortly by several literary journals and Our Village (see below).</p> +
E
<p>The earliest edition of the encyclopedia is dated 1840, yet the excerpt taken from it appeared in December, 1839, suggesting that the book was released earlier than its publishing date or that the newspaper received an advance copy. The name “pat-ball” is a generic term for games in which two players strike a ball back and forth between them, and later in the 19th century was applied derogatorily to lawn tennis by some racquets and court tennis players.</p> +
"
<p>The first edition of this book appeared in April, 1796 and the second edition appeared in October of the same year. Gutsmuths' source for the information about English baseball is not certain, although one very likely candidate is an English student, Samuel Glover, who was a student of his in Schnepfenthal between 1788 and 1791. A surviving letter from Gutsmuths to a friend of Glover's documents that the English student was a favorite of his and had a close relationship to the author's family. It may be that the game described by Gutsmuths was incipient rounders rather than English baseball in its pure form, as the latter is not known to have been played with a bat. Glover came from the west of England where rounders first appeared.</p> +
E
<p>The game “Ancient Sarah” appears to be a variant of the better-known Aunt Sally.</p> +
<p>The immediate impression one gets from reading this is that it is a reference to American-style baseball, given its direct nod to the 1889 tour. However, English baseball, especially among women, had a long history in Hampshire, so it is not altogether improbable that the author did not discern the difference between the two versions of the game.</p> +
B
<p>The inferences we must take from this are that ball-bias was played with a bat, and that the author was referring to American baseball. The inclusion of hockey makes little sense since it is not a safe haven game like the others.</p> +
E
<p>The late date and the London location might imply American baseball, but the fact the participants were children suggests the strong possibility they were playing the English game.</p> +