Just Tassie Books

A history of real tennis (also known as royal tennis) in Australia, beginning with the establishment of Australia's first court on Davey Street, Hobart in 1874 by Samuel Smith Travers — the author's ancestor — who went on to write Australia's first treatise on the sport in 1875. Real tennis is the ancient predecessor of modern lawn tennis, played on an enclosed court with an irregular shape and rules that trace back to medieval France and Henry VIII's England.

One of the most unusual primary sources in Van Diemen's Land history — the first-hand account of William Gates, an American from New York who was transported to Hobart as a political prisoner in 1840. Gates was one of the "Canadian Patriots" — a group of Americans and Canadians who invaded Upper Canada in 1838 in sympathy with the Canadian Rebellions of 1837, supporting those seeking independence from British rule.