3), in which St. Paul’s dome appears in the background.
Here they seem to be playing with the three stumps, early as the date
is. Again, in the fine picture, “painted for David Garrick” by Richard
Wilson, of “Cricket at Hampton Wick” (_vide_ p. 375), three stumps
are in use, and the bat has become much squared and straightened. Of
course the pictures obviously fall into two chief classes—one in which
“the play’s the thing”; the cricket is the object of the artist’s
representation; the other in which the cricket is only used as an
incidental feature in the foreground, to enliven a scene of which the
serious interest is in the background or surroundings. But the pictures
in which the cricket is the main, if not the only, interest are very
much more numerous. A quaintly suggestive picture enough is that
described in Sir S. Ponsonby-Fane’s catalogue as, “Situation of H.M.’s
Ships _Fury_ and _Hecla_ at Igloolie. Sailors playing Cricket on the
Ice.” In this, of course, there is no historical interest about the
cricket (_vide_ p. 392). The one-legged and one-armed cricketers make
a picture that is curious, though not very pleasant to contemplate;
and the same is to be said of the rather vulgar representation of the
ladies’ cricket match noticed above. The “Ticket to see a Cricket
Match” (_vide_ p. 40) shows a bat of the most inordinate, and probably
quite impossible, length; but we may easily suppose that the artist,
consciously or unwittingly, has exaggerated the weapon of his day.
Here too are two stumps only. We may notice the price of the ticket as
somewhat remarkably high, 2s. 6d.; but it was in the days when matches
were played for large sums of money, so perhaps all was in proportion
(length of bat excepted, be it understood). There is a picture of the
“celebrated Cricket Field near White Conduit House, 1787” (_vide_ p.
17), which is named a “Representation of the Noble Game of Cricket.”
It is a picture of some merit, and evidently careful execution, and
here too the players are seen with bats of a prodigious length; so it
may be that these huge weapons came into fashion for a while, only
to be abandoned again when their uselessness was proved, or perhaps
when the legislature began to make exact provision with regard to the
implements used. In this same picture of the “Noble Game of Cricket” a
man may be seen standing at deep square leg, who is apparently scoring
the “notches,” or “notching” the runs, on a piece of stick. This at
least appears to be his occupation, and it is interesting to observe
it at this comparatively late date, and at headquarters. In the match
between the sides led by Lord Winchilsea and Lord Darnley respectively,
it is seen that there are two tail-coated gentlemen sitting on a
bench, and probably scoring on paper, for it is hardly likely that
they can have been reporting for the press at that time. England did
not then demand the news of the fall of each wicket, as it does now.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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