fewer notches were got from Harris's bowling; and more players were caught out. Now and then a great batter, as Fennex, or Beldham, would beat Lumpy entirely; but Harris was always great, and always to be feared.
We must now draw our brief memoirs to a close. Unwillingly do we drop the pen. Very pleasant has our task been, delightful our recollections. Farewell, ye smiling fields of Hambledon and Windmill Hill! Farewell ye thymy pastures of our beloved Hampshire, and farewell ye spirits of the brave, who still hover over the fields of your inheritance. Great and illustrious eleven! fare ye well! in these fleeting pages at least, your names shall be enrolled. What would life be, deprived of the recollection of you? Troy has fallen, and Thebes is a ruin. The pride of Athens is decayed, and Rome is crumbling to the dust. The philosophy of Bacon is wearing out; and the victories of Marlborough have been overshadowed by fresher laurels. All is vanity but cricket; all is sinking in oblivion but you. Greatest of all elevens, fare ye well!
That the scientific display of Cricket we now see, was not made till about the time of these Great Men is clear for this reason; that we can trace to them most of the fine inventive parts of the science. Tom Walker laid down a bail-ball, in a style peculiarly his own, and that all have since attempted to follow. Beldham was the first person who cut the same kind of ball, and therefore made an improvement on the former plan; for he obtained some runs, while the former was merely content to stop the ball. That fine accomplished old cricketer Fennex has often (as we sat together in a winter evening over our gin and water, discoursing even till the morning star appeared, on our beloved science), I say he has often told us, that he was the first person who ever went in and laid down a ball before it had time to rise to the bail. And we have been much amused by his informing us of the astonishment and indignation of his father, who was a good old batsman, when he first beheld this innovation. 'Hey!
