The word here rendered cricket is la crosse; and in Richelet's Dict, of Ant. 1680, are these words:
"Crosse, à Crosier, Bâton de bois courbé par le bout d'en haut, dont on se sert pour jouer ou pousser quelque balle."
"Crosseur qui pousse—'Cricketer.'"
Creag' and Cricket, therefore, being presumed identical, the cricketers of Warwick and of Gloucester may be reminded that they are playing the same game as was played by the dauntless enemy of Robert Bruce, afterwards the prisoner at Kennilworth, and eventually the victim of Mortimer's ruffians in the dark tragedy of Berkeley Castle.
To advert to a former observation that cricket was originally confined to the lower orders, Robert Southey notes, C. P. Book. iv. 201., that cricket was not deemed a game for gentlemen in the middle of the last century. Tracing this allusion to "The Connoisseur," No. 132. dated 1756, we are introduced to one Mr. Toby Bumper, whose vulgarities are, "drinking purl in the morning, eating black-puddings at Bartholomew Fair, boxing with Buckhorse," and also that "he is frequently engaged at the Artillery Ground with Faukner and Dingate at cricket, and is esteemed as good a bat as either of the Bennets." Dingate will be mentioned as an All-England player in our third chapter.
And here we must observe that at the very
