The Ladies' Guide to Cricket

CHTCKKT AT T,A 1 >TK 8 * HCHOOTiR, Wr shall devote our concluding chapter to an appeal to ladies mcra-llv, nnd girls at school especially, iti favour ol a practical application of the theoretical cricket which, it is hoped, they hnve acquired bv watching a few matches with the Guide in their hands. One of the chief advantages of cricket over lawn tennis—a capital game, which we do not for one moment wish to depreciate—is that, so many players may join in the Mistime at once, and all share in the amusement. Then again, besides cultivating quickness of eye and hand, ns well as netivitv of body and a graceful freedom in the use of the limbs, cricket tcaclies ladies to throw. Ladies hardly ever throw straight, though men, too, sometimes make bad shots, ns in the ollowing anecdote : Macaulay, in a Town and Gown Row. was once hit full in the face by a dead cat. The thrower, apologizing, exclaimed, “ 1 did not mean that for you, but for A' r Adeane.” “ I wish you had meant it for me, and hit Mr \deane,” was the reply. The carping critic of the hirsute sex is never tired of poking fun at the efforts of the belligerent i.mazon to hurl a stick or a stone without demolishing some innocent object at right angles to the mark, or even behind the air thrower's back. Any one who has remarked the stately indifference displayed by liens, cats, cows, &c., towards their tresses' attempts to throw, and contrasts therewith the alacrity and alarm excited among the domestic animals by the appearance of one missile-furnished small boy, must accord to the brute creation powers of perception, memory and reasoning hich many would deny them. We say brute creation ia ife-dly, for there is one domestic animal of the human race :> it popularly supposed to view loose crockery, candle- i ks, and joint-stools either with terror or as his own ex- <-■ -be property, * hen the question of Home Rule is under li? u?fcion. By such the writer, in encouraging lovely woman acquire accuracy and energy in the projectile art may bo - rutd a traitor to his sex. But not being a benedict, ho ,.j hew the reproach with equanimity. j .er argument in favour of cricket is that any fairly- • ■. >* will serve for the game, if played, as we shall M-m.jy describe. A perfect sward and elaborate apparatus ^ it, * )y indis|x i:fable to enjoy lawn tennis—but a few • r e«eua <‘Ou pli- of I joxcb or empty tins, set up for • itl the roughest of bats, and anything in the shape oi |j ill afford healthful exercise and keen enjoyment to - >t v b know how to use them sciontideally. Cricket, more* ejuplo*t uu< d>*reli>pf i iteilectuul as well as physical r*«*. in no game is the superiority of mind over matter hst, 'ih rt an to main things to think of, ami CHAPTER V. a l r?