fourteen. In Elaine's Rural Sports,
London, 1852, in an introduction to ball games in general, occurs this
passage: "There are few of us of either sex but have engaged in base-
ball since our majority." Whether in all these cases the same game was
meant matters not, and it is not established by the mere identity of
names. "Base," as meaning a place of safety, dates its origin from the
game of "prisoners' base" long before anything in the shape of base-ball
or rounders; so that any game of ball in which bases were a feature
would likely be known by that name. The fact that in the three instances
in which we find the name mentioned it is always a game for girls or
women, would justify the suspicion that it was not always the same game,
and that it in any way resembled our game is not to be imagined. Base-
ball in its mildest form is essentially a robust game, and it would
require an elastic imagination to conceive of little girls possessed of
physical powers such as its play demands.

Besides, if the English base-ball of 1748, 1798, and 1852 were the same
as our base-ball we would have been informed of that fact long ago, and
it would never have been necessary to attribute the origin of our game
to rounders. And when, in 1874, the American players were introducing
base-ball to Englishmen, the patriotic Britain would not have said, as
he then did, that our game was "only rounders with the rounder left
out," but he would at once have told us that base-ball itself was an old
English game.

But this latest theory is altogether untenable and only entitled to
consideration on account of the authority under which it is put forth.

In a little book called Jolly Games for Happy Homes, London, 1875,
dedicated to "wee little babies and grown-up ladies," there is described
a game called "base-ball." It is very similar in its essence to our game
and is probably a reflection of it. It is played by a number of girls in
a garden or field. Having chosen sides, the "leader" of the "out" side
tosses the ball to one of the "ins," who strikes it with her hand and
then scampers for the trees, posts, or other objects previously
designated as bases. Having recovered the ball, the "scouts," or those
on the "outs," give chase and try to hit the fleeing one at a time when
she is between bases. There must be some other means, not stated, for
putting out the side; the ability to throw a ball with accuracy is
vouchsafed to few girls, and if the cha