Two publications contain much of the documentation related to the historic tennis tournaments in Niagara-on-the-Lake : Spalding’s Annuals, and Wright & Ditson Annuals.  Here is a sample from the Spalding’s Annual of 1885 :

The game of tennis developed at an astonishing rate over its first 10 years, and the pace of development continued year over year.  But the attributes contributing to the rapid growth didn’t change, and they remain to this day.  Among those described in this article, and valued by players today : safe; active; strategic; for women as well as for men; outdoors; environmentally friendly; inexpensive …. and “one thing that makes it exceptional” : a reliance on sportsmanship and etiquette.

The game is one that ‘has come to stay’, as it fills a void which has existed a long while, and that is, the want of a game in which ladies and gentlemen can participate, while at the same time plenty of active and not too vigorous exercise can be afforded for both, and that, too, without any element of danger to mar the pleasure of its enjoyment.