Baiikruj^tcy in Arcadia. 195 



C. J. Thornton might have admired ; and the better the 

 bowling the harder he hit, to the great delight of a beery- 

 patriarch (the only beery man there), who kept on shout- 

 ing " Well be-ay-ved " (behaved), and who in his excite- 

 ment tried to clap his hands and missed them, and pitched 

 on his head off a form. One of the umpires, who was a 

 regular villager, would not give 'anyone "out "unless he 

 was bowled. In the evening I asked him : Q . " Were you 

 ever umpire before?" A. " JSToa," he answered. Q. "Did 

 you ever read the laws of cricket ? " ^. " Noa ; never lie'erd 

 on 'em." Q. "Then why did you stand umpire?" A. 

 " Because they offered I half-a-crown and a soopper, and I 

 never guv nobody out, and then I couldn't offend nobody." 

 This is literally true, and occurred on October 1, 1878. 



I cannot help my old-fashioned notions, and shall die as I 

 have lived in them ; as, though the simplicity of our home 

 amusement has practically died out, the love of that 

 simplicity exists amongst " many men now alive," as Lord 

 Macaulay would have said. I say to those who may outlive me, 

 please do)it let them burn me — that is treating a Christian 

 like a Hampshire bacon-pig — but I have no objection to 

 being stuffed and put in the British Museum as " the last 

 of the Fogeys." 



O— 2 



