Page:Cricket, by WG Grace.djvu/9



CHAPTER I.

HISTORICAL.—1300 TO 1845.

CANNOT remember when I began to play cricket. Respect for the truth prevents me from saying I played the first year of my existence, but I have little hesitation in declaring that I handled bat and ball before the end of my second. My family was known as a cricketing family a quarter of a century before I was born. My brothers Henry, Alfred and E. M. were respectively 15, 8 and 7 years of age when I appeared, and though my mother did not lay claim to being considered a player, I am inclined to believe, judging by the light of later years, she knew how to play as well as any of them; she was certainly most enthusiastic, and ever ready with sound counsel and cheering words. And I know in her heart she hoped that I should be a credit to the family.

I have been told that I was an easy subject to teach; always willing to listen to words of wisdom, but rather casual in carrying them out, and looking as if I had a theory of my own about playing the game. Perhaps