MR. VICKER^TAN S ACTIVITY 



595 



they have) destroyed all the activity I formerly possessed, though with but 

 limited opportunities of cultivating it, and that I may perhaps look back 

 in after years upon a trifling incident like the present with interest, when 

 the actors are all older, if haply in existence, has induced me to record such 

 "nonsense" (as many would term it), and in a yet more nonsensical style 

 (as the same critics would declare). But there is little chance of any eyes 

 caring to peruse such trifles except my own or those of a few who might 

 forgive the nonsense* for the sake of the scribbler, that I have ventured 

 to give it a place in these notes. The same weakness induces me to record 

 that, equally to my surprise last summer, after a cricket match, I beat 

 these same competitors, with the addition of Wm. Moss, in a flat race 

 of loo yards. 





Park Wood, Doddinghurst 



* There cannot be much nonsense about so graphic and accurate a description even of an 

 event as simple as the one described. Anyone taking the trouble to read it can picture the 

 whole scene as clearly as if he had been an onlooker on that merry morning. — Ed. 



