Page:A "Bawl" for American Cricket.djvu/29

 that I have witnessed. The temptation really was very great,—too great by far for any poor man to be exposed to,—no richer than ten shillings a week, let alone harvest time. I never told you the way I first was brought to London. I was a lad of eighteen at this Hampshire village, and Lord Winchelsea had seen us play among ourselves, and watched the match with the Hambledon Club on Broad-halfpenny, when I scored forty-three against David Harris, and ever so many of the runs against David's bowling, and no one ever could manage David before. So, next year, in the month of March, I was down in the meadows, when a gentleman came across the field with Farmer Hilton, and thought I, all in a minute, now this is something about cricket. Well, at last it was settled, I was to play Hampshire against England, at London, in White Conduit-Fields ground, in the month of June. For three months I did nothing but think about that match. Tom Walker was to travel up from this country, and I agreed to go with him, and found myself at last, with a merry company of cricketers, all old men, whose names I had ever heard as foremost in the game—met together, drinking, card-playing, betting, and singing at the Green Man (that was the great cricketer's house), in OxforkOxford [sic] Street,—no man without his wine, I assure you, and such suppers as three guineas a game to lose, and five to win (that was then the pay for players) could never pay for long. To go to London by a wagon, earn five guineas three or four times told, and come back with half the money in your pocket to the plougplough [sic] again, was all very well talking. You know what young folks are, sir, when they get together: mischief brews stronger in large quantities: so many