192
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. vm. SEPT. 7, 1907.
Old Artillery Ground, for 50 Guineas a Side, between
the Gentlemen of London, and Dartford in the
County of Kent ; it lasted several Hours, and ended
in favour of the Former, the Betts thereupon
depending, it is said, amounted to between four and
five Hundred Pounds."
In Read's Weekly Journal of 12 June it was reported perhaps of the same match
"On Saturday last a great Cricket Match was play'd in the Artillery Ground, between the Gentle- men of London and Kent, Eleven of a Side, for fifty Guineas, which was won by the former by fifteen Notches."
The Daily Advertiser of exactly a week later had this other cricket paragraph :
"Yesterday Morning a great Cricket- Match for 200 Guineas a side was play'd in Lamb's-Conduit- Fields, between the Gentlemen of London and Enfield. ; and after a great deal of good Play on both sides, it was won by the former by fourteen Notches only " ;
while a similarly bald record was that in the latter journal of 29 June :
"On Saturday last a great Cricket-Match was played on Sudbury-Common for thirty Guineas a side, between eleven Gentlemen of Kent, belonging to Esquire Steed's Cricket - Club, and the like Number of Sudbury-Men, which was won by the latter by several Notches."
How strongly the gaming element was associated with cricket at that time may be judged from the wording of an announce- ment in The Daily Courant of 23 June :
"To-morrow a great Match at Cricket will be play'd on the Artillery Ground, betwixt the Game- sters of London and the Gamesters of Dartford in Kent, for a considerable Sum."
But now comes a record of considerably greater historical interest, for it is the earliest I have yet traced of a drawn game. This appeared in The Daily Journal of 25 Aug., 1731, in the following terms :
" The Great Cricket Match, between the Duke of Richmond and Mr. Chambers, 11 Men on each Side, for 200 Guineas, was begun to be play'd on Monday at two in the Afternoon, on Richmond-Green. By Agreement they were not to play after 7 o'Clock. The Duke's Hands came in first, and got 79 before they were out; and Mr. Chambers's got 119: Then the Duke's came in again for the last time, and got 72 more, and Mr. Chambers's coming in, wanted about 8 or 10 Notches, when the Hour agreed on being come, they were oblig'd to leave off, tho' beside the Hands then playing, they had 4 or 5 more to have come in : Thus it proved a drawn Battle. There were many Thousand Spectators, of whom a great Number were Persons or Distinction of both Sexes."
At this point I pause, but I desire in a subsequent contribution to deal with the more detailed series of newspaper cricket reports of seventy years later, which have an interest all their own for lovers of the game. ALFRED F. BOBBINS.
GEORGE I. : THE NIGHTINGALE
DEATH (10 S. vii. 409 ; viii. 57). The
traditional view of the nightingale's song is
supremely given in the familiar lyric by
Richard Barnefield. Here the poet finds
the forlorn bird, with " her breast up-till
a thorn," earnestly pouring forth her
melodious sorrow. Milton in his juvenile
sonnet apostrophizes the ineffable singer as
giving forth notes that portend success in
love ; and, when he comes to describe sober
pleasures in ' II Penseroso,' he appropriately
finds the same strains " most musical, most
melancholy." Against this Coleridge enters
a vigorous protest in ' The Nightingale : a
Conversation Poem,' characteristically ad-
vancing in the following passage a general
truth and a specific criticism :
A melancholy bird ? Oh ! idle thought !
In Nature there is nothing melancholy.
But some night-wandering man whose heart was
pierced
With the remembrance of a grievous wrong, Or slow distemper, or neglected love (And so, poor wretch, fill d all things with himself, And made all gentle sounds tell back the tale Of his own sorrow), he, and such as he, First named these notes a melancholy strain. Annotating this, the poet further illustrates his philosophic acuteness, and takes the opportunity of expressing his loyalty to his eminent poetical predecessor. " This passage in Milton," the note runs, " possesses an excellence far superior to that of mere description ; it is spoken in the character of the melancholy man, and has therefore a dramatic
Eropriety. The author makes this remark to rescue imself from the charge of having alluded with levity to a line in Milton, a charge than which none could be more painful to him, except perhaps that of having ridiculed his Bible."
In a letter to Christopher North, Words- worth refers to the " false notions " regard- ing the nightingale's song, and expresses his belief that Coleridge's poem, with its theory that " in Nature there is nothing melancholy," will in all likelihood " con- tribute greatly to rectify these " (' Prose Works,' ii. 211). In his own poem, ' Enter- prise,' he touches on the same point, and alludes to the nightingale as " the sweet Bird, misnamed the melancholy." It is hardly necessary to add that Keats, in his great ode ' To a Nightingale,' rises to exquisite rapture over the happiness mani- fested in the singing of the ' light-winged Dryad of the trees." THOMAS BAYNE.
The ' Electra ' of Sophocles refers to the nightingale as distracted with grief, and Lamenting Itys :
- \rvv alev "Irvv oXoffrvperai,
opvis drv^o/xeva, Aids ayyeAos.
