Page:Out-door Games Cricket and Golf (1901).djvu/47

28 that of his colleague as well." Beldham lived till the year 1862, and no man that ever lived could have seen such changes as he did. William Caffyn, in his very interesting book "71 Not Out," mentions how old Beldham walked seven miles to see a good match at Godalming in 1852. I should have liked very much to have had a talk with the old man: he had seen Lord Frederick Beauclerk, William Lambert, Fuller Pilch, and George Parr bat, and Lumpy and David Harris, William Lillywhite, Redgate, Hillyer, Clarke, and Jackson bowl. In fact Beldham saw every stage of development of the game, except overhand bowling and the modern billiard-table wicket. Caffyn describes him as walking in a beautiful clean white smock-frock, and such a sight would have aroused all the sentiment of one's nature.

If you go to Lord's you will see specimens of the primitive bats; they were thin in the handle, very heavy and thick in the blade, and entirely adapted to a driving as opposed to a wrist style of play. It is a curious fact that among impending changes there are many who advocate a reversion more or less to this shape of blade