Cricket 1910

4 2 0 CRICKET A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. S e p t . 2 2 , 1910. THE REV. JOHN MITFORD ON CRICKET. John N>ren’s Young Cricketer's Tutor was first published in 1833, and was reviewed by the Rev. John Mitford in a couple of papers contributed to the Gentleman's Magazine the same year. These articles, which constitute a delightful contribution to the literature of the game, are now reproduced in their entirety for the first time. The Rev. John Mitford, who was des­ cended from the Mitfords of Mitford Castle, Northumberland, and related to John Free­ man Mitford, Lord Redesdale, and to the cricket-loving Mary Russell Mitford, the author of “ Our Village,” was born at Richmond, in Surrey, on August 13th, 1781, and educated at his native p'ace, Tonbridge, and Oriel College, Oxford. In 1809 he was ordained and in the following year became Vicar of Benhall, in Suffolk. His love of books, paintings (chiefly of the Italian school) and landscape gardening enabled Charles Lamb to say, “ Your description of Mr. Mitford’s place makes me long for a pippin, some caraways, and a cup of sack in his orchard, when the sweets of the night come in.” At Benhall he provided an as.' lum for William Fenm x in his old age, and the conversations he had with that famous player he committed to paper and in 1836 presented the manuscript to the Rev. James Pycroft, who based his magnum opus , The Cricket Field , on it. Mr.Mitford was a brilliant conversationalist, and fiom January, 1834, until December, 1850—the palmy days of the publication edited The Gentleman's Magazine. In addition to writ­ ing various small books, he edited the works of Gray, Cowper, Goldsmith, Milton, Parnell, Swift, Young, Prior, Butler, Falconer and Spenser. In his oldage, whilst afflicted with paralysis, he fell down in a London street and never recovered fiom the shock. He died at Benhall Vicarage on April 27th, 1859, and is buried at Stratford St. Andrew. In 1814 he had married Augusta, second daughter of Edward Boodle, of Brook Street, Grosvenor Square, who died on December 25th, 1886, in her ninety-third year. I. Some of the most celebrated writers of antiquity, whcse names are illustrious as moralists, philosophers and historians, have not disdained to stoop from the lofty eleva­ tion of Science to discourse on the games, the field sports, and the amusements of the people. Xenophon left the conversation of Socrates to give instructions, and those minute and plain, on the management of hounds, on the choice rf their names, or the treatment of the pack, and on the tactics of the chace. Arrian, the pupil of Epictetus, has also bestowed on us a Treatise on Hunt­ ing that may rival Mr. Beckford’s in accuracy and far exceed it in elegance. We have also a Greek volume on Hawking, another on the Rod and Line ; though we confess that of the piscatory achievements of the ancients we have no very high opinion—perhaps no very clear knowledge. We take it that it was a rude kind of operation, something in the way in which our sailors fish for whitings;—what could it have been?—Say, oh ! ye salmon-fishers of the Don and of the Dee—when the artificial Jly was not known ! Now, it is not only that life wants amuse­ ment just as much as it requires serious occupation; and, therefore, it is of im- poitance what kind of amusement should be pursued; but it is also interesting to trace the species of amusement into the habits and genius of the people. Thus, even an apparently trifling inquiry becomes dignified by the manner of treating it, and no unim­ portant part of Grecian history, of the rise of genius, and of the progress of arts and the education of youth is connected with the immortal honours of the Isthmian and Olympian Games. Some pursuits, like those of the field or of the river, seem common to the people of every country; others arise from the peculiar situation, or the habits and inclinations of the inhabitants. All the nations in Europe are in some sense sports­ men ; the cry of the hound, and the horn of the huntsman is heard from the Grampian Hills to the very granite steeps of Hremus. The hare is coursed alike on the downs of Swaffham and the arid plains of Ispahan ; and the Found of the fatal and unerring rifle breaks the repose equally of the woods of Lochabar and of the distant forests of Tiflis. On the other hand there are many pursuits and games which are confined within certain limits, and belong to a peculiar people. Tennis u?ed to be the favourite pastime of the French. Shooting at the wooden bird of the Swiss. Ballone is the magnificent and splendid diversion of the Italian nobles. Skating is the Dutch­ man’s pleasure. And thus Cricket is the pride and the privilege of the Englishman alone. Into this, his noble and favourite amusement, no other people ever pretended to penetrate : a Frenchman or a Geiman would not know which end of a bat they were to hold ; and so fine, so scientific, and so elaborate is the skill regarding it that only a small part of England have as yet acquired a knowledge of it. In this Kent has always stood proudly pre-eminent ; Kent is emphatically the field cf the cricketer’s glory. Sussex, Hampshire and Surrey next follow in the list; and Middlesex owes its present fame to the establishment of the Marylebone Club within its boundaries. Of late years an extention in the practice of the game has taken place ; and while Yorkshire justly plumes herself on the extraordinary accomplishment of Marsdtn, the county of Norfolk hold aloft the hitherto unrivalled scien.ee and talents of Pilch . To those who are curious in investigating tbe origin of Sp< rts and Pastimes it will be doubtless a matter of some astonishment to hear that familiar as the word cricket is now to tfieir ears, it can be only traced back about one hundred aears. The wc rd first occurs in a fong of Turn Durfey’s, Of a noble race was Shenkin.” * “ Ilu r was the prettiest fellow A t football, or at cricket, A t hunting chace, or thim ble race, H ow featly hur could prick it.” The pame itself, however, under some name or other, is of very high antiquiiy. The late Mr. Bonstetten, of Geneva, we r<member, tiaced it into Iceland; it was certainly British. Its derivation is probably from the Saxon cppcc— a stick; and scientific and complicated and finished as it now is, it had its origin in the ancient amusement of club and ball; f a rude and simple game. We presume that, for more than half a centuiy from the time that its name became celebrated in Durfey’s song, cricket did not * See “ Pills to Purge M elancholy.” f See Strutt’s Sports and Pastimes , w here some cuts are given from old pictures, missals, &c. advance much in character as a dextrous or scientific game; but remained the common sport or pastime of the Cuddys and Hobbi- nols, the boors of the country wakes and fairs. It was somewhere between the years 1770 and 1780 that a great and decisive improve­ ment took place, and that cricket first began to assume that truly skilful and scientific character which it now possesses. The pretty and sequestered village of Hambledon, in Hants, was the nursery of the best players; the down of Broad Halfpenny the arena of their glory,—the Marathon en­ nobled by their victories, and sometimes enriched with their blood.* At that time the Duke of Dorset and Sir Horace Mann were the great patrons and promoters of the game. Great as many of them were, and deserving a more lasting fame than they have attained, the name of John Small shim s out in pre-eminent lustre. Him followed Brett , the tremendous bowler, and Barber and Hogsflesh , whose bowling was also admirable,—they had a high delivery and certain lengths ; and he must be a more than common batter who can stand long against such confounding perplexities. Tom Sueter had the eye of an eagle, and a giant’s paw; and when he rushed in to meet the ball, his stroke was certain, decisive, and destructive. Off went the ball, as if fired from a gun ; and woe to those opposed to him in the game ! But we must hasten on.—These great men (for great they truly were!) have long been where sound of ball, or sight of bat, or shout of applauding friends, will never reach them again. They lie side by side in the churchyard of Hambledon, and many a sigh have we breathed over their peaceful graves. We must pass over George Leer , called “ Little George,” but great in everything but stature; and “ Edward Aburrow,” who, nobody knows why—was always called “ Curry;” and Peter Stewart, for his spruceness called “ Buck.” We cannot say “ they had no poet, and they died ; ” for their names are consecrated in the following lines : Buck, Curry, and Hogsflesh, Barber and Brett, Whose swiftness in bow ling was ne’er equall'd yet, I had alm ost forgot (th ey deserve a large bum per) Little George the long stop, and Tom Sueter the stum per. Such were the chief heroes, the valour of whose arms sustained the fate of the modern Troy ; but opposed to them are the names of enemies arrayed in formidable phalanx! Come forth! thou pride of Surrey! thou prince of the ancient bowlers! thou man of iron nerve, and never-failing eye. Come forth, Tom Lumpy ! t come forth from the well-filled cellar, and well-stored larder, of thy first and greatest patron the Earl of Taukerville, — bring with thee thy com­ panions in fame, Shock White , and Frame , and Johnny Wood and Miller the game­ keeper, whosa eye was alike sure at a woodcock or a ball. Reader ! if thou hast any love or knowledge of this noble game,—if thou hast any delight in tra­ versing the ancient fields of glory, 01 * visiting the scenes of departed genius, or •The blood of a cricketer is seldom , how ever, shed from any part of his body bu t his fingers ; but the fingers of an old cricketer, so scarred, so bent, eo shattered, so indented, so contorted, so venerable ! are enough to bring tears of envy and em ulation from any eye ,—we are acquainted w ith such a pair of hands , “ if hands they m ay be called, that shape have none.” f His real nam e was Stevens,