BanTcru^tcy in Arcadia, 193 



life. Now this is an impertinent intrusion on my part, 

 for it has nothing to do with Arcadia, but I am reasoning 

 by analogy, on the charms of simple amusement amongst 

 simple people who play for pleasure. 



The real matter of fact is, that money now has got into 

 the hands of a few, and the world is going too fast, and 

 the confession of poverty is almost a crime. Luxury and 

 show have supplanted comfort and simple recreations. The 

 University boat race, and cricket match, and the Eton and 

 Harrow match, have become almost a nuisance owing to 

 sensational excitement, and the French are not far wrong 

 when they say '' we take om- pleasure sadly." 



Thanks to Lord Harris the old Kent eleven has been 

 restored ; but there is no doubt that until he revived its 

 glories, by searching the county through for players, the 

 previous downfall of Kent was attributable to all interest 

 almost in cricket having been centred in the Canterbury 

 week. Now other towns in England are having a cricket 

 week and all the Saturnalia, in imitation of Canterbury, 

 and they may depend upon it, it will do their home cricket 

 no good, as centralising a game for a short period spoils the 

 taste for home cricket. The effect of this is seen in the 

 county of Surrey. The Oval is doubtless one of the best 

 cricket theatres in England, and being within reach of most 

 of the old cricket centres, people make a day at the Oval, 

 and neglect theii^ village greens. Every youngster of 

 twenty years of age, who can bowl a decent ball, fancies 

 himself a player, and won't play without being paid ; the 

 young gentlemen aspii-e to the county eleven, or to a 

 travelling eleven of "Bounding Britons," or "Flvino- 

 Cherubims," or some such name, and all the money goes 

 out of the parish, instead of being spent in it ; and the 

 stay at-home fogeys button up their pockets and won't 

 subscribe to home clubs which produce no cricketers, and 



