CHAP. V.
THE FIRST TWENTY YEARS OF THE PRESENT CENTURY.
Before this century was one year old, David Harris, Harry Walker, Purchase, Aylward, and Lumpy had left the stage, and John Small, instead of hitting bad balls whose stitches would not last a match, had learnt to make commodities so good that Clout's and Duke's were mere toyshop in comparison. Noah Mann was the Caldecourt, or umpire, of the day, and Harry Bentley also, when he did not play. Five years more saw nearly the last of Earl Winchelsea, Sir Horace Mann, Earl Damley, and Lord Yarmouth; still Surrey had a generous friend in Mr. Laurell, Hants in Mr. T. Smith, and Kent in the Honourables H. and J. Tufton. The Pavilion at Lord's, then and since 1787 on the site of Dorset Square, was attended by Lord Frederick Beauclerk, then a young man of four-and-twenty, the Honourables Colonel Bligh, Colonel Lennox, H. and J. Tufton, and A. Upton. Also, there were usually Messrs. R. Whitehead, G. Leycester, S. Vigne, and F. Ladbroke. These were the great promoters of the matches, and the first of the amateurs. Cricket was one of Lord Byron's favourite sports, and that in spite of his lame foot: witness the lines,—
"Together joined in cricket's manly toil,
Or shared the produce of the river's spoil."
Byron mentions in his letters that he played in the eleven of Harrow against Eton in 1805. The score is given in Lillywhite's Public-School Matches.
The excellent William Wilberforce was fond of cricket, and was laid up by a severe blow on the leg at Rothley while playing with his sons: he says the doctor told him a little more would have broken the bone.
Cricket, we have shown, was originally classed among the games of the lower orders; so we find the yeomen infinitely superior to the gentlemen even before cricket had become by any means so much of a profession as it is now. Tom Walker, Beldham, John Wells, Fennex, Hammond, Robinson, Lambert, Sparkes, H. Bentley, Bennett, Freemantle, were the best professionals of the day. For it was seven or eight years later that Mr. E. H. Budd, and his unequal rival, Mr. Brand, and his sporting friend, Osbaldeston, as also that fine player, E. Parry, Esq., severally appeared; and later still, that Mr. Ward, Howard, Beagley, Thumwood, Caldecourt, Slater, Flavel, Ashby, Searle, and Saunders, successively showed every resource of bias bowling to shorten the scores, and of fine hitting to lengthen them. By the end of these twenty years, all these distinguished players had taught a game in which the batting beat the bowling. "Cricket," said Mr. Ward, "unlike hunting, shooting, fishing, or even yachting, was a sport that lasted three days;" the wicket had been twice enlarged, once about 1814, and again in 1817; old Lord had tried his third, the present, ground; the Legs had taught the wisdom of playing rather for love than money; slow coaches had given way to fast, long whist to short; and ultimately Lambert, John Wells, Howard, and Powell, handed over the ball to Broadbridge and Lillywhite.
Such is the scene, the characters, and the performance. "Matches in those days were more numerously attended than now," said Mr. Ward: the old game was more attractive to spectators, because more busy, than the new. Tom Lord's flag was the well known telegraph that brought him in from three to four thousand sixpences at a match. John Groldham, the octogenarian inspector of Billingsgate, has seen the Duke of York and his adversary, the Honourable Colonel Lennox, in the same game, and had the honour of playing with both, and the Prince Regent, too, in the White Conduit Fields, on which spot Mr. Goldham built his present house. For the Prince was a great lover of the game, and caused the "Prince's Cricket Ground" to be formed at Brighton. The late Lord Barrymore, killed by the accidental discharge of a blunderbuss in his phaeton, was an enthusiastic cricketer. The Duke of Richmond, when Colonel Lennox, a nobleman whose life and spirits and genial generous nature made him beloved by all, exulted in this as in all athletic sports: the bite of a fox killed him. Then, as you drive through Russell Square, behold the statue of another patron, the noble-born and noble-minded Duke of Bedford; and in Dorset Square, the site of old Lord's Ground, you may muse and fancy you see, where now is some "modest mansion," the identical mark called the "Duke's strike," which long recorded a hit, 132 yards in the air, from the once famous bat of Alexander, late Duke of Hamilton. Great matches in those days, as in these, cost money. Six guineas if they won and four if they lost, was the player's fee; or, five and three if they lived in town. So, as every match cost some seventy pounds, over the fire-place at Lord's you would see a Subscription List for Surrey against England, or for England against Kent, as the case might be, and find notices of each interesting match' at Brookes's and other clubs.
This custom of advertising cricket matches is of very ancient date. For, in the "British Champion" of Sep. 8. 1743, a writer complains that though "noblemen, gentlemen, and clergymen may divert themselves as they think fit," and though he "cannot dispute their privilege to make butchers, cobblers, or tinkers their companions," he very much doubts "whether they have any right to invite thousands of people to be spectators of their agility." For, "it draws numbers of people from their employment to the ruin of their families. It is a most notorious breach of the laws—the advertisements most impudently reciting that great sums are laid." And, in the year following (1744), as we read in the "London Magazine," Kent beat all England in the Artillery Ground, in the presence of "their Royal Highnesses the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Cumberland, the Duke of Richmond, Admiral Vernon, and many other persons of distinction. How pleasing to reflect that those sunny holidays we enjoy at Lord's have been enjoyed by the people for more than a century past!
But what were the famous cricket Counties in these twenty years? The glory of Kent had for a while departed. Time was when Kent could challenge England man for man; but now, only with such odds as twenty-three to twelve! As to the wide extension of cricket, it advanced but slowly then compared with recent times. A small circle round London would still comprise all the finest players. It was not till 1820 that Norfolk, forgetting its three Elevens beaten by Lord Frederick, again played Marylebone; and, though three gentlemen were given and Fuller Pilch played—then a lad of seventeen years—Norfolk lost by 417 runs, including Mr. Ward's longest score on record,—278. "But he was missed," said Mr. Budd, "the easiest possible catch before he had scored thirty." Still it was a great achievement; and Mr. Morse preserves, as a relic, the identical ball, and the bat which hit that ball about, a trusty friend that served its owner fifty years! Kennington Oval, perhaps, was then all docks and thistles. Surrey still stood first of cricket counties, and Mr. Laurell—Robinson was his keeper; an awful man for poachers, 6 feet 1 inch, and 16 stone, and strong in proportion—most generous of supporters, was not slow to give orders on old Thomas Lord for golden guineas, when a Surrey man, by catch or innings, had elicited applause. Of the same high order were Sir J. Cope of Bramshill Park, and Mr. Barnett, the banker, promoter of the B. matches; the Hon. D. Kinnaird, and, last not least, Mr. W. Ward, who by purchase of a lease saved Lord's from building ground; an act of generosity in which he imitated the good old Duke of Dorset, who, said Mr. Budd, "gave the ground called the Vine, at Sevenoaks, by a deed of trust, for the use of cricketers for ever."
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, made a very strong field: the Kent men were sometimes regularly pounded by our fielding."
In 1805 we find a curious match: the "twelve best against twenty-three next best." Lord Frederick was the only amateur among the "best"; but Barton, one of the "next best" among the latter, scored 87; not out. Mr. Budd first appeared at Lord's in 1802 as a boy: he reappeared in 1808, and was at once among the longest scorers.
The Homerton Club also furnished an annual match: still all within the sound of Bow bells. "To forget Homerton," said Mr. Ward, "were to ignore Mr. Vigne, our wicket-keeper, but one of very moderate powers. Hammond was the best we ever had. Hammond played till his sixtieth year; but Browne and Osbaldeston put all wicket-keeping to the rout. Hammond's great success was in the days of slow bowling. John Wells and Howard were our two best fast bowlers, though Powell was very true. Osbaldeston beat his side with byes and slips—thirty-two byes in the B. match." Few men could hit him before wicket; whence the many single-wicket matches he played; but Mr. Ward put an end to his reign by finding out Browne of Brighton. Beagley said of Browne, as the players now say of Mr. Fellows, they had no objection to him when the ground was smooth.
The Homerton Club also boasted of Mr. Ladbroke, one of the great promoters of matches, as well as the late Mr. Aislabie, always fond of the game, but all his life "too big to play,"—the remark by Lord Frederick of Mr. Ward, which, being repeated, did no little to develop the latent powers of that most efficient player.
The Montpelier Club, also, with men given, annually played Marylebone.
Lord Frederick, in 1803, gave a little variety to the matches by leading against Marylebone ten men of Leicester and Nottingham, including the two Warsops. "T. Warsop," said Clarke, "was one of the best bowlers I ever knew." Clarke has also a high opinion of Lambert, from whom, he says, he learnt more of the game than from any other man.
Lambert's bowling was like Mr. Budd's, against which I have often played: a high underhand delivery, slow, but rising very high, very accurately pitched, and turning in from leg stump. "About the year 1818, Lambert and I," said Mr. Budd, "attained to a kind of round-armed delivery (described as Clarke's), by which we rose decidedly superior to all the batsmen of the day. Mr. Ward could not play it, but he headed a party against us, and our new bowling was ignored." Tom Walker and Lord Frederick were of the tediously slow school; Lambert and Budd were several degrees faster. Howard and John Wells were the fast underhand bowlers.
Lord Frederick was a very successful bowler, and inspired great confidence as a general: his bowling was at last beaten by men running into him. Sparkes mentioned another player who brought very slow bowling to perfection, and was beaten in the same way. Beldham thought Mr. Budd's bowling better than Lord Frederick's; Beagley said the same.
His Lordship is generally supposed to have been the best amateur of his day; so said Caldecourt; also Beagley, who observed his Lordship had the best head and was most valuable as a general. Otherwise, this is an assertion hard to reconcile with acknowledged facts; for, first, Mr. Budd made the best average, though usually placed against Lambert's bowling, and playing almost exclusively in the great matches. Mr. Budd was a much more powerful hitter. Lord Frederick said, "Budd always wanted to win the game off a single ball:" Beldham observed, "if Mr. Budd would not hit so eagerly, he would be the finest player in all England." When I knew him his hitting was quite safe play. Still Lord Frederick's was the prettier style of batting, and he had the character of being the most scientific player. But since Mr. Budd had the largest average in spite of his hitting, Beldham becomes a witness in his favour. Mr. Budd measured five feet ten inches, and weighed twelve stone, very clean made and powerful, with an eye singularly keen, and great natural quickness, being one of the fastest runners of his day. Secondly, Mr. Budd was the better fieldsman. He stood usually at middle wicket. I never saw safer hands at a catch; and I have seen him very quick at stumping out. But, Lord Frederick could not take every part of the field; but was always short slip, and not one of the very best. And, thirdly, Mr. Budd was the better bowler. Mr. Budd hit well from the wrist. At Woolwich he hit a volley to long field for nine, though Mr. Parry threw it in. He also hit out of Lord's old ground. "Lord had said he would forfeit twenty guineas if any one thus proved his ground too small: so we all crowded around Mr, Budd," said Beldham, "and told him what he might claim. 'Well then,' he said, 'I claim it, and give it among the players.' But Lord was shabby and would not pay." Mr. Budd is now (1854) in his sixty-ninth year: it is only lately that any country Eleven could well spare him.
Lambert was also good at every point. In batting, he was a bold forward player. He stood with left foot a yard in advance, swaying his bat and body as if to attain momentum, and reaching forward almost to where the ball must pitch.
Lambert's chief point was to take the ball at the pitch and drive it powerfully away, and, said Mr. Budd, "to a slow bowler his return was so quick and forcible, that his whole manner was really intimidating to a bowler. Every one remarked how completely Lambert seemed master of the ball. Usually the bowler appears to attack, and the batsman to defend; but Lambert seemed always on the attack, and the bowler at his mercy, and "hit," said Beldham, "what no one else could meddle with."
Lord Frederick was formed on Beldham's style. Mr. Budd's position at the wicket was much the same: the right foot placed as usual, but the left rather behind, and nearly a yard apart, so that instead of the upright bat and figure of Pilch; the bat was drawn across, and the figure hung away from the wicket. This was a mistake. Before the ball could be played Mr. Budd was too good a player not to be up, like Pilch, and play well over his off stump. Still Mr. Budd explained to me that this position of the left foot was just where one naturally shifts it to have room for a cut: so this strange attitude was supposed to favour their fine off hits. I say Off hit because the Cut did not properly belong to either of these players: Robinson and Saunders were the men to cut,—cutting balls clean away from the bails, though Robinson had a maimed hand, burnt when a child: the handle of his bat was grooved to fit his stunted fingers. Talking of his bat, the players once discovered by measurement it was beyond the statute width, and would not pass through the standard. So, unceremoniously, a knife was produced, and the bat reduced to its just, rather than its fair, proportions. "Well," said Robinson, "I'll pay you off for spoiling my bat:" and sure enough he did, hitting tremendously, and making one of his largest innings, which were often near a hundred runs.
In the first twenty years of this century, Hampshire, like Kent, had lost its renown, but only because Hambledon was now no more; nor did Surrey and Hampshire any longer count as one. To confirm our assertion that Farnham produced the players,—for in 1808, Surrey had played and beaten England three times in one season, and from 1820 to 1825 Godalming is mentioned as the most powerful antagonist; but whether called Godalming or Surrey, we must not forget that the locality is the same—we observe, that in 1821, M. C. C. plays "The Three Parishes," namely, Godalming, Farnham, and Hartley Row; which parishes, after rearing the finest contemporaries of Beldham, could then boast a later race of players in Flavel, Searle, Howard, Thumwood, Mathews.
"About this time (July 23. 1821)," said Beldham, "we played the Coronation Match; 'M. C. C. against the Players of England.' We scored 278 and only six wickets down, when the game was given up. I was hurt and could not run my notches; still James Bland, and the other Legs, begged of me to take pains, for it was no sporting match, 'any odds and no takers;' and they wanted to shame the gentlemen against wasting their (the Legs') time in the same way another time."
But the day for Hampshire, as for Kent, was doomed to shine again. Fennex, Small, the Walkers, J. Wells, and Hammond, in time drop off from Surrey,—and about the same time (1815), Caldecourt, Holloway, Beagley, Thumwood, Shearman, Howard, Mr. Ward, and Mr. Knight, restore the balance of power for Hants, as afterwards, Broadbridge and Lillywhite for Sussex.
"In 1817, we went," said Mr. Budd, "with Osbaldeston to play twenty-two of Nottingham. In that match Clarke played. In common with others I lost my money, and was greatly disappointed at the termination. One paid player was accused of selling, and never employed after. The concourse of people was very great: these were the days of the Luddites (rioters), and the magistrates warned us, that unless we would stop our game at seven o'clock, they could not answer for keeping the peace. At seven o'clock we stopped; and, simultaneously, the thousands who lined the ground began to close in upon us. Lord Frederick lost nerve and was very much alarmed; but I said they didn't want to hurt us. No; they simply came to have a look at the eleven men who ventured to play two for one."—His Lordship broke his finger, and, batting with one hand, scored only eleven runs. Nine men, the largest number perhaps on record, Bentley marks as "caught by Budd."
Just before the establishment of Mr. Will's round-hand bowling, and as if to prepare the way, Ashby came forth with an unusual bias, but no great pace. Sparkes bowled in the same style; as also, Matthews and Mr. Jenner somewhat later. Still the batsmen were full as powerful as ever, reckoning Saunders, Searle, Beagley, Messrs. Ward, Kingscote, Knight. Suffolk became very strong with Pilch, the Messrs. Blake, and others, of the famous Bury Club; while Slater, Lillywhite, King, and the Broadbridges, raised the name of Midhurst and of Sussex.
Against such batsmen every variety of underhand delivery failed to maintain the balance of the game, till J. Broadbridge and Lillywhite, after many protests and discussions, succeeded in establishing what long was called "the Sussex bowling."
"About 1820," said Mr. Budd, "at our anniversary dinner (three-guinea tickets) at the Clarendon, Mr. Ward asked me if I had not said I would play any man in England at single wicket, without fieldsmen. An affirmative produced a match p. p. for fifty guineas. Oh the day appointed Mr. Brand proved my opponent. He was a fast bowler. I went in first, and, scoring seventy runs with some severe blows on the legs,—nankeen knees and silk stockings, and no pads in those days,—I consulted a friend and knocked down my own wicket, lest the match should last to the morrow, and I be unable to play. Mr. Brand was out without a run! I went in again and making the 70 up to 100, I once more knocked down my own wicket, and once more my opponent failed to score!!
The flag was flying—the signal of a great match—and a large concourse were assembled; and, considering Mr. Ward, a good judge, made the match, this is probably the most hollow victory on record.
But Osbaldeston's victory was far more satisfactory. Lord Frederick with Beldham made a p. p. match with Osbaldeston and Lambert. "On the day named," said Budd, "I went to Lord Frederick, representing my friend was too ill to stand, and asked him to put off the match. "No; play or pay," said his Lordship, quite inexorable. "Never mind," said Osbaldeston, "I won't forfeit: Lambert may beat them both; and, if he does, the fifty guineas shall be his."—I asked Lambert how he felt "Why," said he, "they are anything but safe."—His Lordship wouldn't hear of it. "Nonsense," he said, "you can't mean it." "Yes; play or pay, my Lord, we are in earnest, and shall claim the stakes!" and in fact Lambert did beat them both. For to play such a man as Lambert, when on his mettle, was rather discouraging; and "he did make desperate exertion," said Beldham: "once he rushed up after his ball, and Lord Frederick was caught so near the bat that he lost his temper, and said it was not fair play. Of course, all hearts were with Lambert."
"Osbaldeston's mother sat by in her carriage, and enjoyed the match; and then," said Beldham, "Lambert was called to the carriage and bore away a paper parcel: some said it was a gold watch,—some, bank notes. Trust Lambert to keep his own secrets. We were all curious, but no one ever knew:"—nor ever will know. In March, 1851, I addressed a letter to him at Reigate. Soon, a brief paragraph announced the death of "the once celebrated cricket player William Lambert."