something new - with the girls clad in white, and make their way to the green or the playing fields. Another custom, Whitsun Ales – not a type of beer despite its name – consisted of country fairs with sports and competitions. After the Civil War the Parliamentarians’ Puritan government banned such merrymaking but under Charles II – he was born on a Whit Monday – Whitsun Ales became a major event. Artists, too, made the most of it. Punch and Judy, thought to be a Whit Monday fair scene on a recreation ground in Carlisle, is one of LS Lowry’s most valuable paintings. And little girls from the parishes would be crowned May or Rose queens. Amidst such fun and frolics it is easy to imagine how cricket came to be played by young boys and their elders on Whit Monday after the religious duties had been observed on the previous day, when families would gather for special meals. The game had been associated with such holidays since time immemorial. There were many incidents of cricketers falling foul of 17th century laws for playing on Sundays. The Post Boy of 30 March 1700 advertised a match to take place on Clapham Common on Easter Monday and the diaries of a Sussex yeoman Thomas Marchant, who owned land at Hurstpierpoint, record cricket played in his parish during Whitsun week early in the 18th century. In 1744 Surrey met England at Moulsey Hurst on Whit Monday, Kent played All England at The Artillery Ground on Whit Monday 1751 and a year later teams from the Wealden villages of Withyham and Hartfield staged a match during Whit week for half a guinea a man, the announcement stating ‘Every one of the gamesters to be (at least) 60 years of age’. As the signposts of cricket’s development – Slindon, Hambledon, the MCC, law revisions and the third stump – passed, more references to games being played at holiday times appeared. Hambledon’s season, for example, began on the first Tuesday in May when the players came together for practice. More than 20,000 people saw a match at the Artillery Ground in Finsbury Square in which England defeated Hambledon by one wicket on Whit Wednesday and Thursday 1773. There was at least one special holiday occasion for the Small family when father and son, each named John, appeared for Hambledon against England (also styled Kent v Hampshire, each with a given man) at Sevenoaks on Whit Tuesday and Wednesday 1784. Soon the emphasis switched from Hambledon to London as the aristocracy which patronised the sport found the city more convenient than the rural settings. Appropriately Lord’s was the venue for the mainWhitsun fixtures of the late 18th century. On Monday 21 May 1787 Middlesex met the White Conduit Club at the new ground; ten days later in Whit week Middlesex defeated Essex. MCC arranged a series of Whit fixtures at Lord’s: Hornchurch in 1791, Brighton in 1792, Middlesex Thursday 1795 and Montpelier in 1798. Middlesex met Brighton in 1793 to complete the previous September’s match and also played Kent in 1796. An old Etonian, George Finch, Eighth Earl of Winchilsea, past player and president of Hambledon and a founding father of Lord’s and MCC, was the patron of a strong Surrey team which faced England at Lord’s during the 1794 Whitsuntide. He led a powerful side which included John Wells, Tom and Harry Walker, Robert ‘Long Bob’ Robinson and William (Silver Billy) Beldham, the finest batsman of the age. Beldham dominated the England bowlers with 72 and 102 not out. The left-handed Harry Walker surpassed this with an undefeated 115 in Surrey’s second innings which was given up in those pre-declaration days at Whitsun Frolics 10