Page:The Cricket Field (1854).djvu/112

88 The good men of Surrey, in 1800, monopolised nearly all the play of England. Lord Frederick Beauclerk and Hammond were the only All England players who were not Surrey men.

Kent had then some civil contests—petty wars of single clans—bat no county match; and their great friend R. Whitehead, Esq., depended on the M. C. C. for his finest games: The game had become a profession: a science to the gentlemen, and an art or handicraft to the players; and Farnham found in London the best market for its cricket, as for its hops. The best Kent play was displayed at Rochester, and yet more at Woolwich; but chiefly among our officers, whose bats were bought in London, not at Sevenoaks. These games reflected none such honour to the county as when the Earls of Thanet and of Darnley brought their own tenantry to Lord's or Dartford Brent, armed with the native willow wood of Kent. So, the Honourables H. and A. Tufton were obliged to yield to the altered times, and play two-and-twenty men where their noble father, the Earl of Thanet, had won with his eleven. "Thirteen to twenty-three was the number we enjoyed," said Sparkes, "for with thirteen good men well placed, and the bowling good, we did not want their twenty-three. A third man. On, and a forward point, or kind of middle wicket, with slow bowling, or an extra slip with fast,