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THE CRICKET FIELD.

CHAP. XI.


CHAPTER OF ACCIDENTS.—MISCELLANEOUS.


William Beldham saw as much of cricket as any other man in England, from the year 1780 to about 1820. Mr. E. H. Budd and Caldecourt are the best of chroniclers from the days of Beldham down to Oeorge Parr. Yet neither of these worthies could remember any injury at cricket, which would at all compare with those "moving accidents of flood and field" which have thinned the ranks of Nimrod, Hawker, or Isaac Walton. A fatal accident in any legitimate game of cricket is almost unknown. Mr. A. Haygarth, however, kindly informed me that the father of George III. died from the effects of a blow from a cricket ball His authority is Wraxall's Memoirs:—

"Frederick, Prince of Wales, son of George II., expired suddenly in 1751, at Leicester House, in the arms of Desnoyers, the celebrated dancing master. His end was caused by an internal abscess that had long been forming in consequence of a blow which he received in the side from a cricket ball while he was engaged in playing at