SKILL AS A CRICKETER. 17 



in Hants, for the hospitality of Tedworth was open to the 

 players and their friends ; while the fair sex had their share 

 of the day's amusement by the festivities being closed with 

 a dance. For the purposes of social enjoyment nothing can 

 exceed a good cricket-match in the grounds of an English 

 country gentleman, provided always the skies be auspicious. 

 The sport has far more variety and excitement, and far less 

 formality, than archery ; and if the ladies cannot have a 

 share in the actual game, they have their interest in the 

 contending sides, and there is always, or ought to be, an 

 abundance of spectators to make the time pass agreeably. 

 Another great advantage of cricket is, that the game can be 

 participated in by all ranks of society ; by which means a 

 healthy and kind feeling is kept up between the higher 

 classes and those beneath them ; the peer and the peasant, 

 by meeting together, learn to value and respect each other, 

 without any inconvenience arising from familiarity on either 

 side. This remark is applicable to fox-hunting, but in a 

 minor degree, in consequence of the more expensive and 

 therefore more exclusive character of the latter pursuit. 

 On leaving Oxford, Tom Smith became a member of the 

 Marylebone Club, and a regular attendant at Lord's.* 



In the appendix to this Memoir will be found some 



• The Marylebone cricket ground was opened in 1787, and called 

 Lord's, after Mr. Thomas Lord, the lessee. The first match played on 

 the "new ground," as it was termed, took place on the 21st, 22nd, and 

 23rd June in that year, between five of the White Conduit Club, with 

 six picked men, and eleven of All England. The game was won by the 

 latter. The club had originally met in White Conduit Fields, but 

 afterwards the cricket ground was on the present site of Dorset Square, 

 where the above match took place. It was transferred to its present 

 site in St. John's Wood about the year 1810. The late duke of Dorset 

 was one of the oldest supporters of the game, but had nothing to do 

 with Dorset Square. His grace had succeeded to his title when a boy 

 at Harrow, and is said to have always had a double thrashing when 

 punishment was awarded to him by his schoolfellows, — one for hia 

 oflFence, and the other because he was a duke. 



C 



