Page:Cricket, by WG Grace.djvu/25

 century at least; as for the same individual exceeding it, no one dreamt of it. The same year saw the last match played on the Artillery Ground, Finsbury Square, the scene of many great and exciting contests for a considerable number of years.

The first recorded match of the White Conduit Club was played in 1785; and two years later the Marylebone Club was started. Farther on I have written more fully upon the rise and progress of the club, which has been looked upon as the authority upon all points of the game for more than a century. This much will suffice here: In 1779 a number of gentlemen among them Lord Winchelsea, Sir Horace Mann, Sir P. Burrell, Lord Strathaven, and others were in the habit of playing matches in the White Conduit Fields, and in the Artillery Ground, Finsbury. They formed the White Conduit Club the year after, and continued playing until some misunderstanding arose amongst the members. Thomas Lord, an attendant and enthusiastic player, was one of their bowlers, and he was instructed to look out for a ground, and promised support if he succeeded. By some writers Lord is given as a Scottish Jacobite; by others as a native of Yorkshire. It matters little to which country he belonged: he possessed the enterprising qualities which both Yorkshiremen and Scotchmen have the credit of; and in 1789 Lord's Cricket Ground, and the foundation of the M.C.C. on the site of Dorset Square, were accomplished facts. Here he remained for some years, until driven out by encroaching builders, when he and the club moved, about the year 1811, to another ground, where South Bank, Regent's Park, now stands. The cutting of the Regent's Canal compelled him to move a second time; and 1814 saw him and the M.C.C. established for good in St. John's Wood Road. The M.C.C. played matches in 1789, but there is no published record of their doings