INTRODUCTION TO BUSINESS 27 



A quaint figure was Mr. Robert Sessions, of the New 

 Inn, Farnborough (now rather an old inn), who always 

 umpired for Sir John, and in the course of the game 

 would make comments, naturally favourable, on the 

 under-hand bowling of the father. It was he who, 

 when expostulated with for not calling an obvious wide 

 bowled by one of the next generation, replied in a stage 

 whisper, " Hush ! hush ! the young gen'lman don't 

 like it." 



Sir John was father of eight sons, who were all at 

 Eton and at no other school, and are still happily all 

 living. It may without exaggeration be said of them 

 that each has done something worthy of remembrance, 

 while the head of the family, the present Sir John, will 

 always be famous as one of the most useful men of his 

 generation. All the world knows him as a man of 

 science, a politician, a banker, and philanthropist ; but 

 it is now perhaps almost forgotten that though he left 

 Eton too young to secure a place in the eleven, he was 

 in his early days a keen and good cricketer, a left-handed 

 batsman, and a fast, left under-hand bowler. For some 

 time he assisted in the management of the West Kent 

 Club, and several of the scores are entered in his neat 

 handwriting. Long afterwards, when he had almost 

 entirely given up the game, he agreed to play one or two 

 matches for the Lords and Commons. In order to 

 prepare himself he used to get Wells, the Bromley 

 professional, to bowl to him for some weeks regularly in 

 the early morning before he went up to London to 

 business, the result being that he scored well against 

 Harrow and I Zingari. 



It was highly characteristic of him to take 

 this studious pains in order to do his best in 

 these two matches. Mr. Norman has a note 

 respecting Wells : " Joseph Wells, who kept the 

 china shop and was professional to the West 

 Kent Cricket Club, was father of H. G. Wells, 

 the successful novelist. He performed a remark- 

 able feat in the Kent v. Sussex match of June 

 26, 1862, bowling four wickets in four successive 

 balls." 



