CRICKET
| From a Painting by | R. James. |
TOSSING FOR INNINGS.
CRICKET
EDITED BY
HORACE G. HUTCHINSON
“DESIPERE IN LOCO”
LONDON: PUBLISHED AT THE OFFICESOF “COUNTRY LIFE,” TAVISTOCK STREET,COVENT GARDEN, W.C. & BY GEORGENEWNES, Ltd. SOUTHAMPTON STREET,STRAND, W.C.
MCMIII
PREFACE
Surely it is sheer neglect of opportunity offeredby an official position if, being an editor, one hasno prefatory word to say of the work that one isediting. It is said that that which is good requiresno praise, but it is a saying that is contradicted atevery turn—or else all that is advertised must be verybad. While it is our firm belief that the merits ofthe present book—The Country Life Cricket Book—aremany and various (it would be an insult to theable heads of the different departments into whichthe great subject is herein divided to think otherwise),we believe also that the book has one veryspecial and even unique merit. We believe, and arevery sure, that there has never before been given to[vi]the public any such collection of interesting oldprints illustrative of England’s national game asappear in the present volume. It is due to the kindgenerosity of the Marylebone Cricket Club, as wellas of divers private persons, that we are able to illustratethe book in this exceptional way; and we (thatis to say, all who are concerned in the production)beg to take the opportunity of giving most cordialthanks to those who have given this invaluable help,and so greatly assisted in making the book not onlyattractive, but also original in its attraction. In thefirst place, the prints form in some measure a picture-historyof the national game, from the early dayswhen men played with the wide low wicket and thetwo stumps, down through all the years that the batwas developing out of a curved hockey-stick into itspresent shape, and that the use of the bat at thesame time was altering from the manner of the manwith the scythe, meeting the balls called “daisy-cutters,”to the straightforward upright batting of theclassical examples. The classical examples perhapsare exhibited most ably in the pictures of Mr. G. F.Watts, which show us that the human form divinecan be studied in its athletic poses equally well (savefor the