'J'O sporting and Rural Records of the Cheveley Estate. 



Cheveley. following day there was no play. On the Thursday Eton won. 



The Captains. 



An interval of another day ensued (the intervening days were 

 devoted to cock fighting), and on the Saturday All England 

 won the rubber. Thus, the Earl of March gained the 

 ;^i50o for which the match was played ; but whether any- 

 one else on either side participated in the stakes is quite a 

 conjecture. 

 The Pitch. It is obvious the match could not be played in the town 



of Newmarket, as there was no suitable ground there for 

 the purpose. Technically Newmarket, in those days, although 

 notoriously " the little village " in Cambridgeshire, was a big 

 place, principally in consequence of the Royal Palace ; and, 

 although that structure was insignificant, and quite unworthy 

 of the dignity associated with a permanent royal residence, 

 it nevertheless enjoyed the prerogatives belonging to it : con- 

 sequently Newmarket comprehended a radius of five miles. 

 Within this " verge " of five* miles radiating and extending 

 from the Palace in the High-street (now the site of Mr. 

 Leopold de Rothschild's house), on every point of the com- 

 pass did Newmarket expand, and when the sovereign was 

 in residence the royal prerogative within this circuit of five 

 miles was absolute. In the absence of any contemporary 

 indication of the pitch where the match was actually played, 

 it may be possible it took place at Cheveley. We know 

 the Marquis of Granby (an Eton boy), who espoused Lady 

 Frances Seymour in the preceding autumn— by which alliance 

 the estate passed from the Dtjke of Somerset to the Duke of 

 Rutland's family — was in residence there at this time. The 

 Marquis, before he acquired renown as a soldier, was famous 

 as a sportsman, and he was the most likely resident to extend 

 facilities and hospitality to the competing elevens. But beyond 

 these deductions there are no available means of ascertaining 



* The extent of the verge varied. In some warrants five, seven, and twelve 

 miles are mentioned. 



