What did the gentlemen and ladies of the Regency Era do for fun? With the leisure time the gentry class enjoyed, pleasant pastimes were necessary–so without cable tv or streaming media, what did they do?

Games were a favorite pastime.  Card games are well documented, but outdoor games were enjoyed as well, among them, rounders, a predecessor of modern baseball.

(I’m one of those kids who was traumatized by small and not-so-small round flying objects. It is interesting how that could easily be a trauma shared by one or more of my characters. Oh gracious, that just sent the writer brain off on a tangent–how would Wrights respond to such situation. Gonna have to give that a little thought, could just be that a new scene in the next book is taking shape…. hmmm.)

In any case, the exact history of rounders is difficult to identify. Similar games developed in Ireland, Germany and Russia as far back as the 15^th century. Since it is a folk game, played by children and peasants, it was the sort of thing not taken very seriously. Thus, little about the earliest versions of the game was documented.

A Little Pretty Pock-Book from 1744, one of the first children’s books ever published, features an early printed references to the game called ‘Base-Ball’, a clear variant of rounders.

Many local versions of the game would have been played with different methods of scoring, game field layout and number of players. At the most basic level, the game of rounders revolves around hitting a fielding a small, hard, leather wrapped ball with a wooden bat. (Basically my worst childhood nightmare!) Players score points, known as rounders, by running around bases without being caught out.

The 4^th edition of The Boy’s Own Book (1829) describes the rules in more detail.

Rounder is still played today. Although the rules have evolved somewhat, it would still be recognizable to players of the 1700s and 1800s.

References

Rounders. Encyclopedia Britannica. April 22, 2021. Accessed June 3, 2021. https://www.britannica.com/sports/rounders

History of Rounders. Uber Games. Accessed June 3. 2021. http://www.ubergames.co.uk/rounders-history.html

A Little pretty pocket-book. : a facsimile with an introductory essay and bibliography. 8 December 2016. OCLC 296996

For more on Fun and Games in Jane Austen’s World click HERE