THE VILLAGE CRICKET CLUB. 297 



field as the men ; indeed, I am not sure, but that 

 as regard catches, they were superior to most of 

 us, especially young Matthews, of the Tankard 

 Inn; and some of them had acquired a very pretty 

 knack as practice bowlers. This was a great assist- 

 ance to our regular forces, as they were always at 

 hand, and delighted in the sport, and saved us from 

 much useless fatigue. 



' It is impossible to draw out in the short compass 

 of this paper any thing like the characteristic traits 

 of our numerous members, or to describe their 

 various excellencies and defects. Some excelled 

 in one branch of the art and some in another ; some 

 delighted in skilful and shewy batting, others pre- 

 ferred bowling: one or two prided themselves on 

 their wicket-keeping, (the most difficult part of the 

 game, as it requires such exceeding quickness of 

 eye and hand, and in which young London the 

 hatter, excelled us all) and we had some first rate 

 FIELDS. Our president Jeremiah Henchman, was 

 an excellent fellow, though not a good performer. 

 He had been, we have heard, a quaker, but found 

 the brims of the society too broad for his liking ; 

 nothing of his former caste remained, except an 

 invincible repugnance in the muscles of his thumb 

 and fore-finger to approach his hat. He was a 

 tanner, and I believe, brewer by trade, and a very 

 friendly hospitable person he was ; the very 

 staff and support of the club. He made our 



