Sir - Tony Augarde swung and missed in claiming, in his short piece on ITV's Northanger Abbey (Weekend, March 30), that "the only jarring modernisation by Andrew Davies that I noticed was his inserting 'and baseball' after 'cricket' in Jane Austen's statement that Catherine preferred cricket to dolls."
While Jane Austen does write on page one that Catherine "greatly preferred cricket...to dolls", she added two pages later that "it was not very wonderful that Catherine....should prefer cricket, baseball, riding....to books of information." 'Baseball' is an English game referred to several times in the 18th century (some believe it to be a regional name for rounders, some a separate game.) Andrew Davies no doubt left in the reference to 'baseball' to surprise the unwary viewer, and clearly he has succeeded in striking out this ex-lexicographer!
Chris Brickwood, Steventon
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