rs_.

Among village institutions a cricket club was started soon after I
first came, and I was able to lend a meadow in which the members could
play. I held the sinecure office of President. The members met,
discussed ways and means, drew up regulations, and instituted fines
for various delinquencies. Swearing was expensive at threepence each
time, but there was no definition of what were to be considered "swear
words." Locally, a usual expletive is, "daazz it," or, "I'll be
daazzed," and it was not long before a member making use of this
euphemism was accused of swearing. He protested that it was not
recognized by philological authorities as coming under the category,
but he had to pay up.

A village cricket match was regarded more as a contest than a pastime;
each side feared the censure of his parish, if conquered, so nothing
had to be given away likely to prove an advantage to an opposing team.
I once saw a member snatch a bat belonging to his own club from one of
the other side who was about to appropriate it for his innings with,
"No you don't." How different is the feeling, and how ready to help, a
member of a really sporting team would have been in similar
circumstances! Referring to help or advice in cricket matters, a story
is told of the late Dr. W.G. Grace. The incident happened in an
adjoining county to Worcestershire. The great batsman, crossing
Clifton Down, came upon some boys at cricket. Three sticks represented
the wickets, arranged so wide apart that the ball could pass through
without disturbing them. Ever ready to help, Dr. Grace pointed out the
fault and readjusted the sticks; as he turned away he heard, "What
does 'e know about it, I wonder!"

This carries me to a parallel happening at Stratford-on-Avon. The late
Sir Henry Irving and a friend fell in with a native on the outskirts
of the town, and being anxious to test the local reputation of the
poet asked the man if he had heard of a person named Shakespeare. The
man assented and volunteered the information that he was a writer. Did
he "know what Shakespeare had written?" Their informant could not say,
but, a moment after they had parted, he called back that he believed
he had written "part of the Bible."

An ancient villager, who was secretary of our Club and always acted as
umpire, gave me "out," incorrectly, for accidentally touching the
wicket when the ball was "dead." I retired without contesting his
decision, as I had been taught. Nex