Page:Cricket, by WG Grace.djvu/14

6 and fetching up parsons by express from different parts of England to play on Richmond Green."

Clubs were now springing up rapidly, the most important of them being in the counties of Kent, Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex and Middlesex. Matches were of frequent occurrence, and according to several accounts large sums of money were staked on the result, and not unfrequently lawsuits followed. It said well for the popularity of the game that it fought through that stage and reached its present pure and healthy position in the hearts of the English people.

The oldest recorded score is:—