Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 4.djvu/438

 474 NOTES AND QUERIES. [9*s.iv.dEc.9,>99. Little less interesting than those valuable notes is the question, What will be the next destination of the precious volumes of which they give so excellent an aperpu? America? Alas ! most likely. J. B. McGovern. St. Stephen's Rectory, C.-on-M., Manchester. Cricket between Female Teams.—Among the freaks of the cricket - field have been matches between female teams; and there would seem to have been some popularity attending these in the earlier days of the systematized game. An interesting one is suggested in the following advertisement which appeared in the General Advertiser of 4 July, 1747 :— " Mr. Richard Newland, of Slendon, Sussex, with two of his Brothers, and two others of the same Parish, having advertised that they would play a Match at Cricket in the Artillery-Ground on Mon- day next, against Five of any Parish in England, Mr. Smith takes this Method to inform all Gentle- men, Lovers of that Exercise, that Five of Dart- mouth in Kent, have made Stakes with him. and will play with the above Gentlemen at the Time and Place above mentioned for Twenty Pounds. The Match that has been so long depending between the Maids of Charlton and the Maids of Singleton, Sussex, will be play'd in the Artillery-Ground on Monday Se'nnight, the 13th Instant." With regard to this latter match, the fol- lowing further advertisement appeared in the same journal on 11 July:— " On Monday next will certainly be play'd in the Artillery Ground, London, the Match at Cricket so long expected between the Women of Charlton and Singleton, in Sussex, against the Women of Westdean and Chilgrove, in the same County.—It is to be hop'd, that the paying Sixpence for Admit- tance to this Match will not be taken amiss, the Charges thereof amounting to upwards of Four score Pound.—Tickets for the Rooms and Gallery fronting the Ground to be had of Mr. Smith." On the day of the match it was additionally advertised " The Wickets to be pitch'd at Two o'Clock"; but all the report that appeared the next day of what will be shown to have been a very rough game was this:— " Yesterday was play'd in the Artillery Ground the Match of'Cricket so long expected between the Women of Charlton and Singleton, in Sussex, against the Women of Westdean and Chilgrove, in the same County, where were present the greatest Number of Spectators of both Sexes ever seen at any publick Diversion." This was followed on the Wednesday by the obvious advertisement:— " On Monday last in playing the Women's Cricket Match the Company broke in, so that it was im- possible for the game to be play'd out ; and some of them being very much frightned, and others hurt, it could not be finish'd till this Morning, when at Nine o'Clock they will finish the same, hoping the "lompany will be so kind as to indulge thorn in not ^Coi walking within the Ring, which will not only be a great Pleasure to them, but a general Satisfaction to the Whole. All Gentlemen and Ladies that have paid to see this Match on Monday, shall have the Liberty of the Ground to see it hnish'd, without any other Charge. And in the Afternoon they will play a Second Match, in the same Place( several large Sums beiug depending between the W omen of the Hills of Sussex, in Orange Colour'd Ribbons, and those of the Dales, in Blue. The Wickets to be pitch'd by One o'Cloek, and to begin Play by Two." But the result was unreported. Alfred F. Robbins. The Captain Cuttle Motto for ' N. & Q.' —Mr. Francis says (ante, p. 363) that this was suggested by a lady, and was chosen in pre- ference to oue more formal, and, as I may say, more scholarly, by Mr. Peter Cunningham, whose suggestion Mr. Francis quotes. Mr. Thoms's choice was certainly most happy; and I am inclined to think that the great and immediate success of 'N. & Q.' may to a considerable extent be attributed to it. In November, 1849, Dickens had just completed, or about completed, the original green- covered numbers of ' Dombey and Son,' and the name and doings of Captain Cuttle were then in everybody's mouth. The famous motto—now wedded to " a hundred famous books "(with move to come)—appearing in the head and front of the first number of 'N. &Q.,' the paper thereby, as Cuttle himself might say, "caught on" almost as instantaneously as if Dickens's own name had been placed there ; and the intrinsic merits of the paper, due more especially to Mr. Thorns, have done the rest since, through fifty years. But the matter, it seems to me, may be gone further into. That Mr. Thorns was right hi selecting this motto, instead even of the ex- cellent one which Mr. Peter Cunningham suggested, we all know now. Mottoes of the latter kind are easily found, because they are so numerous; though it may be said that the late Mr. Cunningham certainly had an advantage over most men of his time in making such selections. Mr. Cunningham had done much of the sort of editing and writing in which Mr. Thorns was destined to excel, and in ' N. & Q.' to specialize. Indeed, next to Mr. Thorns, Mr. Cunningham would have been about the best man that could have been found in 1849 for both the initiat- ing and carrying to "a success" 'N. & Q.' itself. Matters standing thus, how came it that Mr. Thorns stepped aside—out of the ordinary course that scholars and students would have taken in choosing a motto, from the almost limitless resources of literature in all Ian-