have found the Duke of Wellington with cannon. The Chartist leader
made two eloquent speeches, and the chairman declared the meeting at an
end. The delegates' horses were whipped up so hurriedly that the
delegates fell to the bottom of the cart; three cabs drove up and took
charge of the bales of petitions, and the meeting was at an end. One
detail which the contemporary historian gives of the finish has a
fascinating echo half of Ainsworth, half of Dickens. "The horses became
restive and began to kick. Then was distinctly heard from many quarters
the peculiar cry of the young London thieves." What was it like? Can
anybody do it to-day?

The great crowds at Kennington to-day come to see better sights than
carts and banners. Surrey cricket has focussed itself at Kennington;
rather curiously, it has happened that Surrey plays cricket to-day on no
other ground. Kent and Sussex, two neighbours, play their county matches
on three grounds or four; Surrey, which has traditions at Mitcham and
Dorking, has shrunk back to Kennington only. And Kennington, long ago,
was nearly lost to cricket. A year after the Chartists had crowded over
the Common, the County Club was in debt for L70. The story of the paying
of the debt and the revival of the club has the real ring. The club met
and were in despair; they could not hope, with such a debt, to play
matches. The Bishop of Tasmania, in his entertaining little _History of
Kennington_, tells (in 1889) the story:--

"The meeting almost decided to break up the club; and I suppose, had
such a vote been carried, the Oval would have been at once built over
and some very happy memories of Kennington would never have existed at
all. It is to the present Lord Bessborough that we owe the continuance
of Cricket upon the Oval. He was Vice-President at the time, and
suggested that the L70 should be paid off by allowing six gentlemen to
become Life Members by paying down L12 apiece. A gentleman present next
said 'who would pay L12 to be a Life Member of a bankrupt Club?' 'I
will,' said Old Mr. Cressingham, one of the oldest members: and 'I
will,' said five others, of whom Mr. Ponsonby was one. Lord Bessborough,
in writing of this memorable meeting, adds--'Looking back to that
distant day I fear I have been a bad bargain to the Club by becoming a
Life Member for L12.'"

Nothing of the country and little of the past belongs to Kennington's
neighbours. Stockwell, which perhaps sees a hansom as often a