18 Throughout tho months of Juno and July, when crickot was at its full, the > , vthrv \vr line, the grounds consequently in the best condition, and the 1 v nicn had a merry time of it until just at the end of August, when the m hon was making tho last preparations for its departure, a change in the weather gave to the ball a momentary ascendancy over the bat. Not that there was in loalilv any superiority of the batsman sufficient to warrant the •njured tones of those who agitate for enlargement of wickets and other ivforms iu i’aiour of the bowler immediately anything like a series of long scores is iceordcd. Mr. W. 0 . Grace during tho season out-Iicroded licrod. llis exploits indeed would alone have made it famous, but he has an unpleasant facility for overturning all ordinary calculations; and, as one swallow does not make a summer, the presence of one Triton among the minnows, or of one cricketer of exceptional merit, hardly forms an argu­ ment for reforms injurious to tho batsman. IS7G was emphatically Mr. W. G. Grace’s year, or, to use the old joke, tho year of Grace. What can be said or written in praise of such unequalled performances ? Wonder succeeded wonder, and it is doubt­ ful which to admire most, his extraordinary skill as a cricketer, or the grand physique which enabled him to endure such long and heavy innings as he undoiwent in succession. Fancy 100 not-out, with twenty-two in the held! and yet he did perform this extraordinary feat at Grimsby; and, a3 the score which is given in another part of Tins A nnual will prove, against howling certainly up to the averago standard. It is a matter for regret that on this occasion ho did not got five more runs, to surpass the longest core ever made by a batsman—the 101 not-out of Mr. E. J. S. Tylecoto in a School match at Clifton College in 1808. In point of merit, of course, ihere can be no comparison between the two achievements; but, still, cricketers generally -would havo been pleased to have seen Mr. Grace descend to history as the hero of the highest innings, rather than a bats­ man who, good and zealous cricketer as he is, and always has been, is not to he mentioned in the same breath with the champion player of the day. To vfr. Grace, too, 187b was indebted for further distinction, as remarkable for the highest score ever realised in a first-class match. Since 1820, when Mr. William Ward made his memorable innings of 278 for Marylebone against Norfolk nt Lord’s, his position has never been approached, and Lis name lias been quoted times innumerable as that of the largest scorer in the annals of cricket. Once, in 1870, Mr. Grace approached within 11 i uns for the South against the North at tho Oval, but it remained for 1870 to secure what has long been his great ambition. At Canterbury, on August 12tb, he obtained 341 for Marylebone against Kent, and within a week, at Cheltenham, he again out-did Mr. Ward with an intrinsically far ) viler innings of 318 not-out for Gloucestershire against Yorkshire,—the . try best scoie in point of merit that ho has ever played. At this period, ideed, his batting was perfectly extraordinary, as iu threo successive i inings ho made 344, 177, and 318 not-out, or 839 runs for three innings, .elusive of a not-out. His average for Gloucestershire was 80.10 for 12 mgs; in lirat-elass matches he scored 2,(322 runs in 42 completed innings, 1 n all during the season ho realised 3,908 runs for an average of G0.865. 1t^r*tuTia ^, -s on the past year, in so far as it affected the bounties and the Pnblie. Schools, render anything beyond an allusion to Lea© subjects from my pen superfluous, so that I shall merely glance at the general aspects of tho reason. First, then, for the amateurs. Messrs. Ottaway and I. i). Walkeiv (of