Now as to Belcher’s ball, Mr. Yardley says: ‘The ball in question was the most delicious half-volley on the legs, which Mr. Belcher did his utmost to hit out of Lord’s ground. Fortunately for Cambridge his deeds were not so good as his intentions, for he hit too hard at the ball, which he missed, and which, striking him on the left leg, cannoned on to his right leg, and from thence on to his wicket.’ On the point of Mr. Stewart’s ball Mr. Yardley writes: ‘This fourth and last ball was the only straight one of that celebrated over. It was an exceedingly long hop, scarcely pitching half-way, and coming along surprisingly slow off the pitch. Had it not been for that circumstance Mr. Stewart would probably have not lost his wicket as he did, for it was only at the very last moment that he neglected his captain’s instructions and removed his bat from the block-hole, thereby allowing the ball to strike his off stump about three-quarters of the way up.’ Mr Yardley also writes that the scene appears to him as vivid after a lapse of twenty years as it did then. Mr. Belcher writes: ‘I am _quite certain_ that I was bowled off my legs; the ball to the best of my recollection hit me just below the knee of the right leg and went into the wicket. At any rate I am quite clear as to my leg being hit, and my impression is that it was a very good-length ball, and not a half-volley. I don’t think I hit at it all. Of course at such a distance of time my recollections are somewhat vague, _but the one point I am quite sure of is that I was bowled off my leg_.’ With these extracts before them, the matter is now left to posterity. CHAPTER XII. GENTLEMEN AND PLAYERS. (BY THE HON. R. H. LYTTELTON.) At first sight it appears impossible that amateurs--men who play when they chance to find it convenient--should be able to hold their own against professional cricketers who make the game the business of their lives. Cricket, however, is the one game where the two classes contend more or less on an equality, unless football be also an exception. Many amateur cricketers are not bound to work for their daily bread, and they can consequently find time to play as much as a ‘professional,’ if the accepted slang in which the adjective is employed as a substantive be permissible. Such was the state of things a few years ago when the Walkers, the Graces, Mr. Buchanan, and others could always be depended on to take part in the annual matches against the Players.