Besides the matches at Bourton, there is plenty of cricket at Cirencester, Northleach, and other centres in the Cotswolds.  The “hunt” matches are great institutions, even though hunting people as a rule do not care for cricket, and invariably drop a catch.  A good sportsman and excellent fellow has lately presented a cup to be competed for by the village clubs of this district.  This, no doubt, will give a great impetus to the game amongst all classes; our village club has already been revived in order to compete.  Our only fear with regard to the cup competition is that when you get two elevens on to a ground, and two umpires, none of whom know the rules (for cricket laws are the most “misunderstandable” things in creation), the final tie will degenerate into a free fight.

Be this as it may, anything that can make the greatest pastime of this country popular in the “merrie Cotswolds” is a step in the right direction.  It is pleasing to watch boys and men hard at work practising on summer evenings.  The rougher the ground the more they like it.  Scorning pads and gloves, they “go in” to bat, and make Herculean efforts to hit the ball.  And this, with fast bowling and the bumpy nature of the pitch, is a very difficult thing to do.  They play on, long after sunset,—­the darker it gets, and the more dangerous to life and limb the game becomes, the happier they are.  We are bound to admit that when we play with them, a good pitch is generally prepared.  It would be bad policy to endeavour to compete in the game they play, as we should merely expose ourselves to ridicule, and one’s reputation as the man who has been known “to play in the papers,” as they are accustomed to call big county matches, would very soon be entirely lost.

I was much amused a few years ago, on arriving home after playing for Somersetshire in some cricket matches, when Tom Peregrine made up to me with “a face like a benediction,” and asked if I was the gentleman who had been playing “in the papers.”

While on the subject of cricket, for some time past we have made experiments of all sorts of cricket grounds, and have come to the conclusion that the following is the best recipe to prepare a pitch on a dry and bumpy ground.  A week before your match get a wheelbarrow full of clay, and put it into a water-cart, or any receptacle for holding water.  Having mixed your clay with water, keep pouring the mixture on to your pitch, taking care that the stones and gravel which sink to the bottom do not fall out.  When you have emptied your water-cart, get some more clay and water, and continue pouring it on to the ground until you have covered a patch about twenty-two yards long and three yards wide, always remembering not to empty out the sediment at the bottom of the water-cart, for this will spoil all.  Then, setting to work with your roller, roll the clay and water into the ground.  Never mind if it picks up on to the roller:  a little more water will soon put that to rights.