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themselves at last, They overdid it; they spoilt their own trade; and, as I told one of them, a knave and a fool makes a bad partnership: so you and yourself will never prosper. Well, surely there was robery enough; and not a few of the great players earned money to their own disgrace; but, if you'll believe me, there was not half the selling there was said to be. Yes I can guess, sir, much as you have been talking to all the old players over this good stuff (pointing to the brandy and water I had provided), no doubt you have heard that B———sold as bad as the rest. I'll tell the truth; one match up the country I did sell,—a match made by Mr. Osbaldestone at Nottingham. I had been sold out of a match just before, and lost 10l., and happening to hear it I joined two others of our eleven to sell, and get back my money. I won 10l. exactly, and of this roguery no one ever suspected me; but many was the time I have been blamed for selling when as innocent as a babe. In those days when so much money was on the matches, every man who lost his money would blame some one. Then if A missed acatch, or B made no runs,—and where's the player whose hand is always in?—the man was ealled a rogue directly. So when a man was doomed to lose his character, and bear all the smart, there was the more temptation to do like others, and after 'the kicks' to come in for 'the half-pence.' But I am an old man now, and heartily sorry I have been ever since, because, but for that Nottingham match, I could have said, with a clear conscience, to a gentleman like you, that all that was said was false, and I never sold a match in my life; but now I can't. But if I had fifty sons, I would never put one of them, for all the games in the world, in the way of the roguery