‘The Cricketer’s Trip to Australia 1863 & 1864 by Edward Mills Grace’. Extensive two hundred and

‘The Cricketer’s Trip to Australia 1863 & 1864 by Edward Mills Grace’. Extensive two hundred and twenty four page manuscript handwritten on foolscap folio paper (8” wide x 13” tall) containing the completed work by Grace, covering the entire tour to Australia & New Zealand in 1863/1864. The handwritten manuscript is divided into ten quires [sections] of twenty four pages per section, each section bound at the spine with red thread. On some of the pages, the early sections in particular, Grace writes only on the right hand half of the page, although the reason for this is not know, I assume this was done to enable newspaper cuttings, relating to the tour, to be affixed to the left hand side, which has been done on some pages. The manuscript only fleetingly describes the voyage out and there is hardly any coverage of the return voyage to England, however Grace concentrates and records all cricketing aspects, the social life onboard ship, in Australia and in New Zealand, the history of the two nations and his impressions of the two countries in great detail. He begins with a ‘preface’ waxing lyrically about the warmth and welcome of the Australia people ‘Many of the following pages will tell of kind words and kind actions performed and spoken to the Eleven by their hosts and I would here give my explanation of their almost limitless hospitality. The Colonists are fond of Cricket. They have not many means of public amusement but of those which they have Cricket seems to be the most appreciated. At two or three of our matches there must have been about twenty thousand spectators. The claims of legislation, the ordinary affairs of life, the attractions of money making seemed for a little time to lose their hold upon the people of the different communities and cricket reigned supreme. But there was yet more in this than the mere love of cricket, manly pastime though it be, the people of Australia love the country of their fathers. Everything which keeps them united to Britain to Britain’s Queen and to British people everything which binds them in any way to those they have left behind is regarded with feelings of no ordinary pleasure and so, knowing that the cricketers had come straight from home and that they would soon go back to that home once more to tell what they had seen and heard, the Australian Trip has made one continuous ovation, no expressions were too vain, no entertainments too costly, to show the feelings which were cherished’...... ‘Bearded squatters from the far bush would ask how their schools and school fellows got on amid home life. Eton, Harrow, Winchester, Rugby boys, and men from Oxford and Cambridge would enquire with evident interest for their old chums, fags, and masters. Those who played at Lord’s and the Oval before I was born would ask for the old race (for those who now come to look on at the great matches) and speak of the time when Mynn and Pilch were in their sturdy youth, and round arm bowling was considered barbarous’...... ‘We were met in Melbourne by the greatest floods which ever devastated Victoria, in New Zealand by the highest wind and most extensive fire in Sydney, by the most continual rain and a collision at sea which threatened serious things’..... ‘I hope my little book will not fall still born from the press, but will be viewed in a favourable light and gather to itself some small position of public favour. For the cricketer I have attempted as good an account as I could give of the different matches, for the lovers of scenery, for the lovers of wild adventure, for the observer of the customs which obtain in new countries, for those who enquire as to the elements of Australia’s future greatness, for the philosopher, for the intending emigrant, for the bulk of English people who feel drawn to the distant land because many of their friends are there, for each and all I have attempted to do my best’. Grace then commences with a brief description of the voyage out to the Australia ‘We commenced out trip to our antipodean Cousins in one of the best ships afloat the Great Britain which has such an able commander in Captain Grey on Thursday the 16th of October 1863. A good many friends both from Liverpool, Manchester and other places came on board to wish us every success and good bye’.... Grace actually refers to the brief description of the voyage out ‘This very short account of our voyage to the Australian shores must suffice for my reader as a longer one would only tire him out and all sea voyages being so very much alike’. He then describes the welcome received in Melbourne ‘At the Spencer Street terminus we found perhaps fifteen hundred persons assembled to do us honour. Before we could get out fairly from the carriage a cheering impulse seized the people and, cheer after cheer, regular English shouts told us that we were welcome to the sunny land of Australia Felix. At the entrance we found a coach and six grey horses waiting to convey us to Marshall’s, our progress resembled more a triumph than the peaceful advent of twelve cricketers. We were the admired of all admirers well served to look with evident wonder and admiration at our showy turn out, small boys with tumbling propensities stood upon their heads or formed themselves into imaginary coach wheels as we dashed up the streets which were crowded. At Marshall’s there was the now inevitable crowd who woke the echoes of Swanston Street with their vigorous hurrahs, it being for a short time rendered impassable but as soon as we could get silence restored in the room and something like order was maintained’... Grace then relates in full the speeches given, both by Mr W.C. Biddle, Secretary of the Melbourne Cricket Club and by George Parr, Captain of the Eleven, talks of his first few days in Melbourne and his impressions of the city and the great floods ‘I was unable to practice with the Eleven, as a bad whitlow had made its appearance on my right hand which compelled me to refrain from using a bat and ball. I had only just recovered from one on my left hand, but there was no lack of excitement or interest. The new land, the busy city, the costumes, the buildings, the weather, all had their distinct attractions’..... ‘Strange and sorrowful rumours were at first whispered and then spoken openly. Cattle had been drowned, whole fields had been swept away, houses and gardens had disappeared. Men had been seen striving with the angry waters and had been heard to cry for help when no help could be afforded. Even in the streets of the city the torrent had gathered its victims. At some places the river had risen fifty feet above its level. Communication was retarded, almost destroyed, consternation was fast spreading ...’ ‘Thus our first introduction to Victoria was at a time of great distress’.... ‘We thus chanced to meet in Victoria the worst flood recorded in its history. Long years must pass away before the remembrance of the great floods of 1863 and 1864 grows dim on the minds of the people’. ‘The first thing which struck me was the width and uniformity of the streets in the city proper, these are all at right angles’ ...’The government offices in Melbourne are in more or less advanced stages of construction. The Treasury at the top of Collins Street is a model of simple elegance. The Post Office at the corner of Bourke and Elizabeth Streets is being built upon plans of surpassing merit both as to use and to ornament. The Houses of Parliament at the top of Bourke Street now rear their dark prison like front and frown gloomily upon the city, but are destined, when complete, to rival the fairest structures of older lands’... Grace then moves onto the cricket match between The Albert Club (Sydney) and Eleven of the Melbourne Club ‘ This description has been edited, please contact the auctioneer for full description.