194 Bankruptcy in Arcadia. 



the county eleven (?) is recruited from strangers imported 

 into Surrey ; and country elevens are not encouraged. 



Fishing has by no means escaped the sensation mania, 

 Pot-hunting for club-prizes, and the " testimonial mania." 

 the '^ keeping dark " a good stretch of water for the pur- 

 pose of " wiping your neighbour's eye," would not have 

 been approved by old Izaak Walton, who told his " Scholar " 

 all he knew, as they sat under the sycamore tree, and he 

 said his simple grace before their homely meal. Wliat 

 would I not have given to have been out with that good old 

 man, and have been his companion at an honest ale-house, 

 where the sheets smelt of lavender and there were plenty of 

 ballads on the walls ? 



When one does find a primitive village where old fashions 

 prevail it is necessary to keep the information very dark 

 for fear of invasion. I know two or three of such in tlie 

 heart of Surrey, at the foot of some of the hills, where eggs 

 and bacon and home-brewed ale are not unknown ; whei'e, 

 for the sum of one shilling, excellent tea and home-made 

 bread and butter can be obtained, in a brick-floored kitchen 

 with a chimney-corner ; and where samplers and ballads 

 yet hang on the walls, and where people are as simple as 

 they were in my boyhood ; where each of the umpires take 

 a bat in a match, and. where the smock-f rocked crowd sit 

 round. In many of such places as these, late in the season, 

 there is a wind-up match, in which all comers are welcome, 

 and there are generally some very good players on either 

 side, and some real " yokels ; " the winning or losing being 

 of no importance, as the object of the meeting is a day's 

 fun and a supper. I played in one of these matches, some 

 forty miles from London, last October. A gamekeeper 

 six feet high, without the remotest idea of science, 

 holding his bat at the end of the handle, threshed away 

 with wonderful success, in a style and manner which Mr. 



