CHAP. III.] Gsbaldeston^ a Cricketer. 95 



Brigtiton at one end^ and the ^' Squire ^^ at tlie other. In 

 the Eton eleven^ however, of 1835, was a bowler whose 

 pace exceeded either of the above-named ^' rapid Jacks.^' 

 Neither Harrovian nor Wykehamist who played against 

 Eton in that year is likely to forget the Irish boy 

 *^ Whacky '^ Kirwan, whose bowling or rather jerking 

 created a perfect panic among his opponents. '^ Ducks ^' 

 were the order of the day, and on one poor crest-fallen 

 Harrow boy — Seeley by name — as he mounted the 

 pavilion steps, remarking to old Mr. Aislabie that he 

 ^' could not make that fellow Kirwan out,'^ received 

 the comforting reply : " No, sir, but he seems to have 

 no difficulty in making you out." Fast underhand 

 bowling was almost entirely superseded by the newly- 

 invented round-arm of 1825 or thereabouts — Lillywhite, 

 S. Broadbridge, and Bailey — three of the earliest 

 professors of the new style, being all slow bowlers. Slow 

 underhand bowling for a while went quite out of vogue, 

 any muff being supposed to be able to knock it about, 

 but at last a giant appeared in the form of '' William 

 Clerk '^ of Nottingham. So effective were his slows that 

 he was little less dreaded than the best of the round-arm 

 bowlers, the " Nonpareil " (Lillywhite) himself being at 

 times less difficult to play. The style of his performance 

 has been thus commemorated by some sympathetic and 

 admiring rhymester : — 



" When old Will Clerk was in the flesh, 



He used to trundle slows ; 

 Kound bowling then was rather fresh, — 



As every blockhead knows. 

 He didn't bowl to break 5'our leg. 



Nor yet to smash your jaw. 

 But dropped them dead on the middle peg. 



Like Southerton or Shaw," 



