averted many a defeat. By-and-by I shall have occasion to describe their styles, and touch upon their brilliant performances.
The Gentlemen v. Players' matches were great victories for the former that year. The first was played at Lord's, and was won by the Gentlemen by an innings and 55 runs; the second at the Oval, which was won by an innings and 19 runs; and the third at Prince's, which was won by an innings and 54 runs. The results were entirely owing to the superiority of the Gentlemen in batting. Mr. Hornby played a grand innings of 104 in the match at Prince's, and in my three innings I scored 158, 163, and 70.
Four matches were played between the North and South; the South winning 2, losing 1, and 1 was drawn. Gloucestershire and Nottinghamshire divided honours in county cricket. The Gloucestershire eleven was composed entirely of amateurs; Nottinghamshire, of professionals only.
Individual scores of a hundred runs and over in an innings were made about 230 times; and the number to my credit was seven, all of them in first-class matches. At the end of the season I took a team out to Australia. It was the third which had gone there, and, while we found cricket generally much improved, there was little doubt that England was still considerably ahead of Australia in playing the game, though very little in enthusiasm over it. I had the pleasure of meeting three players then who afterwards created great reputations Messrs. H. F. Boyle, F. R. Spofforth and C. Bannerman. Of course, neither showed the form then which he displayed in later years.
The season of 1874 opened favourably: the weather was delightful, and continued so the greater part of it; and the consequence was, that the bat had again the best of
