The Cricket Statistician No 195

37 sharing a succession of homes, the last of these being his lodgings at 104 Sydney Place, in Bath, next door to teammate, Harty Haigh. Jane is rarely spoken of, but when she is, it is as his anonymous ‘servant’, but they were undoubtedly devoted to one another. Whether they were lovers (unlikely ever to marry, given the gulf in their social status) or theirs was a platonic relationship is something we are unlikely to unravel. That they loved each other dearly is evident from the facts. When Jane died in the early part of 1904, Ernest was plunged into a state of deep depression from which he would never recover. He began a slow retreat from the world until the point that, in the final two weeks of his life, he never left his lodgings. Witnesses would recall his mournful observations that he had lived ‘a wasted life’, and that he regretted the fact that he was no longer active. Shortly before his death, he is quoted as saying that: ‘This is a fine thing for an old sportsman to come to, and now nothing can do me any good.’ On the morning of 24 December 1904 he took his own life, unable to face a Christmas Day without the person who had been his rock. He had been brought his cocoa, as usual, at 8:15 am and had asked, unusually, for a bath to be run. Once he had dressed, he took receipt of his daily paper but declined his breakfast. Then he locked the door of his room and, placing a double-barrelled breech-loader in his mouth, blew his head off. Thus was ended, in less than a second, the most eventful episode in the life of Ernest John Plantagenet Cassan, a man who had been both blessed and cursed with sixty-nine years of indolence. Scores and Biographies: volume 22 Arthur Haygarth, published and edited by Roger Heavens, pp628, limited edition of 150 numbered copies signed by the editor, £125 plus postage from Roger Heavens at 125 Keddington Road, Louth, Lincolnshire LN11 0BL, roger.heavens@btinternet.com The latest in the continuation of Arthur Haygarth’s Scores and Biographies is the seventh compiled and edited by Roger Heavens, who with this edition has reached the 1885 season. It is some achievement to have taken Haygarth’s manuscripts, all of them written by hand, and brought them to book form in the way that he has, and cricket historians of the late Victorian era are in Roger’s debt. 1885 was not of course an Australian summer, but it was nonetheless a busy year (this volume records 698 matches), and many important matches were played that are not recorded in any of the principal sources ( Wisden, Cricket, Lillywhite etc.). This includes many county matches below first-class level. Thus on page 353 we find Lincolnshire playing Items for review should be sent to Richard Lawrence at 93 Seahill Road, Holywood, BT18 0DS. Tel 028 9042 4837, reviews@acscricket.com. Book Reviews Edited by Richard Lawrence