310 THE COUNTRY CLERGYMAN. 



we must withdraw from this fascinating subject. 

 Sir Humphrey Davy was never more devoted to 

 the rod than we to the bat ; we could fight all our 

 battles over again, but alas ! the heroes are in their 

 tombs. Sightless is that eagle eye of Beldam, 

 nerveless that iron arm of Walker, and powerless 

 that gigantic frame of Harris ! Fennex alone sur- 

 vires ! like that one single tree which the traveller 

 beholds among the ruins of Babylon, survivor sole of 

 all those pensile gardens of beauty, which the Assy- 

 rian monarch raised for the dalliance of his Median 

 spouse ; so, amid the mouldering monuments, and 

 half-forgotten graves of his fellows survives the 

 man, who at single-wicket, alone and unassisted, beat 

 on Mitcham Common, half a century since, the three 

 greatest cricketers of their day; who raised him- 

 self to such eminence by his skill, that he once 

 kept three hunters, and was the bosom friend of 

 Oldacre, the illustrious Huntsman of the Berkeley 

 Pack ; who lived with Lord Winchilsea, and the 

 Tuftons, and who remained unconquered, till 

 time, the general conqueror, told him to retreat, 

 and to make way for younger aspirants to renown.* 



* As a proof of the strength as well as self-denial of this vete- 

 ran, we mention, that at the age of seventy-five, he walked 

 ninety miles in three days, carrying an umbrella, bundle of 

 clothes, and three cricket-bats ; and spent in that time but three 

 shillings. How few men in their prime could perform such a 

 journey, in such a manner ? When he arrived at the end of his 

 journey, all he complained of was, that the bats had bruised his 



