last, but to many of us greatest of all, there is the portrait of Dr. W. G. Grace, from Mr. A. Stuart Wortley’s picture, which sums up a modern ideal of cricket that we have not yet found ourselves able to get past (_vide_ p. 228). There are other pictures, not a few, that we might select for notice, but already this ramble goes beyond due prefatory limits. There are the sketches in which the cricket is made to point or illustrate political satires. To do full justice to these, one would need to be well versed in the history (other than the cricketing history) of the period. But enough has been said. One could not let such a gallery of old masters go without an attempt to do the showman for them in some feeble way. They need neither help nor apology. They are good enough to win off their own bat. In our modern instances we have been no less lucky: with Mr. Warner to bat, Mr. Jephson to bowl, Mr. Jessop to field, and the rest of the good company, we do not know that any other choice could have made our eleven better than it is; but after all, that is for the public to say; it is from the pavilion, not the players, that the applause should come. CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE 1. SOME POINTS IN CRICKET HISTORY 1 2. EARLY DEVELOPMENTS OF THE CRICKETING ART 29 3. BATTING 48 4. BOWLING 79 5. FIELDING 117 6. COUNTY CRICKET 137 7. AMATEURS AND PROFESSIONALS 193 8. EARLIER AUSTRALIAN CRICKET 217 9. ENGLISH AND AUSTRALIAN CRICKET FROM 1894 TO 1902 251 10. UNIVERSITY CRICKET 296 11. COUNTRY-HOUSE CRICKET 342 12. VILLAGE CRICKET 361 13. FOREIGN CRICKET 381 14. CRICKET IN SOUTH AFRICA 396 15. CRICKET IN NEW ZEALAND 409 16. CRICKET GROUNDS 415 INDEX 443 [Illustration] LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Tossing for Innings _Frontispiece_ Cricket as played in the Artillery Ground, London, in 1743 _To face page_ 1 The Royal Academy Club in Marylebone Fields ” ” 2 A Match in Battersea Fields ” ” 3 An Exact Representation of the Game of Cricket ” ” 6 The Game of Cricket ” ” 16 The Cricket Field near White Conduit House ” ” 17