Page:Out-door Games Cricket and Golf (1901).djvu/67

48 with anything like so picturesque a surrounding as cricket at Wilton or The Mote. Golf is no doubt a better game for the middle-aged and old and for busy men; the middle-aged and old are too short in the wind for cricket, the busy man has not the time. Mr. Balfour was undoubtedly right in this, but he prudently left out of the discussion the relative merits of the two games for youth and young men up to thirty years old, and on this ground I may be excused if I hold that cricket bears the palm.

Our games have to be considered from all points of view, and one of these is. Which has the best effect on character? Certain critics say that far too much time is given to games at our public schools and universities—a broad question which I do not propose to discuss at length here. I have, however, in the course of my life met with several men who hold this view, and I can with truth say that a great many ought not to be taken as fair judges of the question, for they have never played any game, except perhaps lawn tennis, in their lives. The contention of those who take the opposite view is that games have an important influence