Page:The Strand Magazine (Volume 4).djvu/44

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
PORTRAITS OF CELEBRITIES.
43

ARTHUR SHREWSBURY.

Born 1856.


A RTHUR SHREWSBURY was born at New Linton, near Nottingham, where his father was then engaged in business. Some of his first cricket was played with the Nottingham Meadow Willow Club, but his progress was so rapid that he was only sixteen when selected to play for the Colts against the County, in which he came out with the top score of 35, made against some of the best bowling in England, for which feat he received a prize bat. He first played for the County at nineteen, the age at which he is represented in the second of our portraits, and the year following represented the Players v. Gentlemen, and scored his first century (118) for his county, against Yorkshire. To speak in detail of his great achievements since that date would require many pages. It must here suffice to mention his enormous score of 224, not out, against Middlesex in 1885; his 267 against the county in 1887 (when he was of the age at which he is depicted in the third of our portraits), for which he was at the wickets 10 1/4 hours without giving a chance; and his unrivalled scoring against Australian elevens on many well-remembered fields. It is almost superfluous to add that in brilliancy of style Shrewsbury has very few equals, and no superior. He is in partnership with Alfred Shaw, as a cricket outfitter, at Nottingham.