Page:Out-door Games Cricket and Golf (1901).djvu/20

Rh The present volume will treat of cricket and golf, but I hope that both reminiscence and teaching will be conspicuous by their absence. As far as golf is concerned, the author's reminiscences only extend to thirteen years, as until 1886 he never saw a golf club, and as for teaching, he may be said to know nothing of the game. At cricket everything that he can say on the didactic side he has said elsewhere, and the public are weary of statistics, which, thanks to the energy of our press correspondents, are thrust upon them at every turn. What the author hopes to be able to do is, to talk of cricket and golf from the untechnical point of view, to try and show not only the charms of both games, but also the shortcomings and the principles which should guide those in authority on the matter of reform, and the proper spirit that should be shown in playing the games, and also to describe the conditions under which both games are played, and the points of interest of both.

Many people must have often wondered if the English world generally have ever asked themselves what has contributed most to the pleasures of mankind. Hunting is and must