Editing W. G. Grace (section)

===English cricket dishonoured===
On 9 October 1873, Grace was married to Agnes Nicholls Day (1853–1930), who was the daughter of his first cousin William Day. Two weeks later, they began their honeymoon by taking ship to Australia for [[English cricket team in Australia in 1873–74|Grace's 1873–74 tour]].{{sfn|Midwinter|1981|pp=39–40}} They returned from the tour in May 1874 with Agnes six months pregnant. Their eldest son [[W. G. Grace junior|William Gilbert junior]] (1874–1905) was born on 6 July.{{sfn|Midwinter|1981|p=54}} Grace had to catch up with his studies at Bristol Medical School, and he and his wife and son lived at Downend until February 1875 with his mother, brother Fred and sister Fanny.{{sfn|Midwinter|1981|p=51}}

The English team in Australia was called W. G. Grace's XI. On the morning of their departure from Southampton, Grace responded to well-wishers by saying that his team "had a duty to perform to maintain the honour of English cricket, and to uphold the high character of English cricketers".{{sfn|Rae|1998|p=149}} But both his and the team's performances fell well short of this goal. The tour was not a success and the only positive outcome was the fact of it having taken place, ten years after the previous one, as it "gave Australian cricket a much needed fillip".{{sfn|Rae|1998|p=188}} Most of the problems lay with Grace himself and his "overbearing personality", which quickly exhausted all personal goodwill towards him. There was also bad feeling within the team itself because Grace, who normally got on well with professional players, enforced the class divide throughout the tour.{{sfn|Rae|1998|pp=189–190}}