Cricket's Historians

Chapter 6 Some Sumptuous Volumes and County Histories The major contribution to the history of the game published in the decade or so prior to the First World War was Imperial Cricket . Edited by PelhamWarner, it was issued by The London &Counties Press Association Ltd of Covent Garden, W.C. in 1912. Lord Hawke’s Introduction has a jingoistic tone to it, that might well deter present day readers, but it would be a mistake to judge the book by its opening, which commences: ‘Imperial Cricket has a good genuine ring. The greatest game in the world is played wherever the Union Jack is unfurled, and it has had no small share in cementing the ties that bind together every part of the Empire.’ Ashley-Cooper begins the book proper with 48 pages on ‘Cricket and The Royal Family’. It is a typically thorough piece of Ashley-Cooper research. However after the death of Frederick Louis, apart from notes on the Prince Regent at Brighton, the Royal Family is decidedly peripheral to the main thrust of cricket history. The chapter which concentrates on the history of the game in general comes from the pen of Andrew Lang. Born in Selkirk in March 1844, Lang was educated at Edinburgh Academy, St Andrew’s and Balliol College, Oxford. Although not a notable cricketer himself, he had a deep interest in the game and strong family connections. His brother, T.W.Lang, gained a blue at Oxford and played occasionally for Gloucestershire in the 1870s. 84