waistcoat or no waistcoat, he is generally bright and quick, and with practice makes a smart field. Perhaps the best village cricketers, taking them all round, are recruited from the ranks of carpenters, footmen, blacksmiths, and schoolmasters, rather than from the stables and the gardens, but in any case it’s more than half the battle to get them young. There must be disappointments, of course. Some of the most promising boys lose their interest in the game when they think they are men, and become loafers; some go out to work in other places, and the team knows them no more; but you are amply repaid if two or three of one generation at last find their strength, and after a year or more of painstaking duck-eggs suddenly blossom out into consistent scorers, to the no small astonishment of their friends and their own huge delight. Don’t think from this that we set too much store by good batting. On the contrary, all our matches (and other people’s too!) are won or lost by fielding, and I can never tell my men too often that it does not do to give your opponent two, or even three, lives, when he has made up his mind to take yours at the very first opportunity. Only, as at golf the good drive gives one the greatest pleasure, though the high approach may be the prettiest shot, and the deadly put wins the hole, so at cricket the greatest pleasure of the greatest number is to make lots of runs, though they may not be wanted, when a good catch in the deep field or a smart return may win the match. [Illustration: _From a Sketch by_ _Robert Seymour._ “_OUT, SO DON’T FATIGUE YOURSELF, I BEG, SIR!_”] [Illustration: _From a Water-Colour by_ _J. Hayllar._ _A CRICKETER._] I mentioned just now the ominous word “subscription.” The question of finance is one which must enter to a large extent into the prosperity of a village, or any other, club, and happy those who have enough cloth to cut to ensure their coats fitting! In our own case we generally seem to have succeeded in making both ends meet, though, as will be seen from the following typical years’ figures, times were not always prosperous:— 1867. Receipts £34 4 0 Expenses £34 0 6 1877. ” 18 1 0 ” 17 0 2 1887. ” 14 1 11 ” 12 7 6 1897. ” 31 5 2 ” 34 19 6 1902. ” 47 8 6 ” 38 11 5