Lives in Cricket No 26 - HV Hesketh-Prichard

44 Back at home, Kate writes on 25 February 1901, to say that ‘I have received the stock of Tammer’s! 11 cwt!’ This was the book-length version of Tammer’s Duel , the story that had set them off. Arriving home at the end of June, he was busy with his book and talking to people at the museum. Parker tells a slightly bizarre story of Hex writing to J.M.Barrie describing a game of cricket he had with his mother. … Barrie was not very impressed that Hex had scored 51 against his mother’s bowling! Hex sent a description of the mylodon to Andrew Lang, the cricket enthusiast, folklorist and collector of fairy stories, who wanted it for a ‘silly story’. It was the end of June before he returned, and then in August 1901 he went off shooting with Johnnie Millais to the north-west of Scotland, intending to travel on to Orkney and perhaps Shetland. But he was recalled by a telegram from Pearson – Kate says ‘Pearson only wanted Hex to see some troops off or some trivial thing of that sort that anybody could have done.’ He was doing some work for the Express , but it was routine journalism and he was not very interested. They still at this time had a house in Horsham, though they had moved to London Road, finally selling the lease at the end of October. So, one way and another, there seems to have been no time at all for cricket in 1901. * * * * * * * The first thing that happened in 1902 was yet another summons from Pearson, who wanted Hex to go and look into the causes of ‘trouble’ in Ireland. Whether Hex was the most likely person to choose for something surreptitious was doubtful, since there were probably not too many 6 ft 4 in blonds in Ireland, but Kate came too and they took guns with them on the pretext of going shooting, which of course Hex would have done, given half a chance. They made for Londonderry where they were supposed to have a contact. At this point the Express helpfully sent him a telegram which gave the whole thing away. Later that night he was warned that the contents of the wire were public property and that if he stayed he would be in danger himself and also endanger his contact. So they moved on and he did some shooting in the Gweebarra estuary in Co Donegal and then on to Sligo and Achill Island, off the coast of Co Mayo. According to Kate, Hex was taken out by the king of Tory Island (where, remarkably, the hundred or so inhabitants still elect themselves a king) to St Brendan’s Isle in a curragh and stayed there a few days on his own. He was inspired by this to write a piece called St Brendan’s Desert of the Sea which would appear in the Spectator in June 1903. Shooting, here and there, was his main occupation until about the middle of April. It would appear that this episode marked the end of his acting as a roving correspondent for the Express . Perhaps Hex felt he might not be so lucky next time! In the spring of 1902 Kate took a house in Southsea, on the basis that it was handy for Hampshire matches. His first cricket this year was on 15 May when he played for the Allahakbarries against the Artists at Portsmouth and Patagonia