and very apt to hit the ball before it reaches the level of the body, and this fault must be removed.
Let us now discuss the leg hit—most glorious of hits— where every muscle of the body may safely be exerted; for if you miss it the ball is not straight, so you cannot be bowled, and the harder the hit the less chance is there of being caught, at any rate in first-class matches in these days of boundaries. Bowling having become slow, or slow medium as the rule, and
_0084.jpg)
Fig. 8.—Old-fashioned sweep to leg. (Gunn.)
therefore far straighter and more accurate, there is not half so much leg hitting now as there used to be, and in the present day you hardly ever hear of a batsman known for his leg hitting as George Parr was formerly, as also Mr. R. A. H. Mitchell, and several others.
There are plenty of men who can hit to leg, but in these days they do not often get a chance, and it is a rare event nowadays to see any fieldsman standing at the old-fashioned position of long-leg. There is generally a field, stationed against the ropes to save four byes when a fast bowler is on, who can also stop leg snicks from going to the ropes; but, to carry the illustration farther, as in leg hitting there is no George Parr, so in fielding at long leg there is no Jack Smith of Cambridge. It is rapidly dying out. In a match which we ourselves saw at Sheffield in 1887, between Notts and Yorkshire, for a whole day and a half there was not one genuine leg smack except off lobs, and at
