little personal success, and averaged only 12.50 in the series after four games. By then, MacLaren was in financial difficulties. As an amateur, his expenses were covered by the tour organisers but he received no money for playing. To support him financially, the Lancashire committee had given him £100 before the tour. By the latter stages of the tour, his money was running out; most of it was probably spent betting on horse races, and he sent Lancashire a request for further money. Just before the final Test, he received a £60 advance on his expenses for the upcoming English season. For the fifth Test, he dropped down from opening the batting, which he had done throughout the series, to batting at number five, and responded with his first Test century. Batting with greater caution than usual, he scored 120 before accidentally standing on his own wicket. England won the match to take the series 3–2, amid great public interest in England and Australia. MacLaren scored 240 runs at 26.67 in the Test series, finishing fourth in the English averages. He performed more effectively in the lesser matches, and following some final tour fixtures, he totalled 803 runs at 47.23 in all first-class games. On the six-week outward journey MacLaren met (Kathleen) Maud Power, an Australian socialite and the daughter of a horse racing official. They were married in 1898. World record holder MacLaren returned home via Japan, missing the start of the 1895 cricket season. In his absence, he was named as a "Young Batsman of the Year" in Wisden for his performances in 1894. After playing two games for Lancashire, MacLaren accepted the offer of a teaching job in a preparatory school in Harrow; although still Lancashire's captain, he missed several matches, to the disquiet of its supporters. The team's results were mixed in his absence, and he returned to play Somerset at Taunton. On the first day of the three-day game, MacLaren scored 289 not out in 330 minutes. On the second day, he took his score to 424 before he was dismissed, surpassing the previous highest individual innings in first-class cricket, W. G. Grace's score of 344, made in 1876. MacLaren batted for 470 minutes in total and hit 62 fours and a six. This remained the highest score in first-class cricket until 1923 when Bill Ponsford scored 429 in Australia, and was the largest first-class