94 The Pytchley Hunt^ Past and Present, [chap. m. 



tliey dropped to a little more than four, and kept up that 

 pace for the rest of the day, remaining all the time bare- 

 headed. At three p.m. each had killed ten brace^ and at 

 four the number was still even. A quarter of an hour 

 only now remained in which to decide the issue of the 

 match. About thirty-five miles had been walked^ mostly 

 through heavy wet turnips, and Colonel Anson was 

 beginning to fail in strength. At this juncture he killed 

 a bird^ which made him one ahead, but his walking power 

 had ceased, whilst his adversary was striding away as 

 fresh as ever. AYith a bird to the bad, and the time almost 

 up, Captain Ross consented that the match should be 

 considered a drawn one. The number of birds scored 

 was twenty- three brace and a half, but many more were 

 killed, the umpires (Mr. Osbaldeston being one) not 

 being able to decide to which party they belonged. So 

 fresh was Captain Ross at the close of the proceedings, 

 that he offered to walk any of the party then present 

 to London, for 500 guineas ! As a cricketer the 

 *^ Squire ^^ was a good useful man ; but here again he was 

 not in the same flight with such men as Lord Frederick 

 Beauclerk and Mr. Ward, and though he might have got 

 a place amongst the eleven gentlemen of his day, he would 

 not have figured, at any time, in the eleven of England. 

 In the records of the matches kept in the pavilion at 

 Lord's, good scores are often to be found attached to the 

 name of *^ George Osbaldeston,^' Esq., but his fast under- 

 hand bowliug seems to have been his strong point. In 

 the days when pads and gloves were only looming in the 

 future, and cricket-grounds were not the billiard-tables 

 they now are, the batsman might not be sure of a very 

 rosy time who found himself confronted with Brown of 



