1859.44

English Social Event Includes Base Ball as Well as Cricket

Salience	Noteworthy
Tags
Location	EnglandEngland
City/State/Country:	London, England
Modern Address
Game	Base BallBase Ball
Immediacy of Report	Contemporary
Age of Players
Holiday
Notables
Text	The activities at an August 1859 event of the Windsor and Eton Literary, Scientific and Mechanics Institute included a one-innings cricket match. In addition, "[a]rchery, trap and base ball, were included in the diversions on the firm-set land, as well as boat-racing open the pellucid flood."
Sources	G. W. J. Gyll, The History of the Parish of Wraysbury, Ankerwycke Priory, and Magna Charta Island (H. G. Bohn, London, 1862), page 55. Posted to 19CBB by Richard Hershberger, 3/18/2008.
Warning
Comment	Richard suggests that this is the last known published reference to home-grown "base ball" play in Britain. This area is about 20 miles west of London. The full list of diversions gives no indication that it was children who were to be diverted at this event, so adult play seems possible. Edit with form to add a comment
Query	Would it be helpful to understand what the membership and purposes of the Institute were? Is "trap and base ball" to be construed here as "trap ball," rather than Austen-style base-ball, in this part of Victorian England? Edit with form to add a query
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