Page:The Cricket Field (1854).djvu/34

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10
THE CRICKET FIELD.

is punishable with three years' imprisonment; those who play at any of the said games are to be fined 10l., or lie in jail two years."

"This," says Barrington, "is the most severe law ever made in any country against gaming; and, some of those forbidden seem to have been manly exercises, particularly the "handyn and handoute," which I should suppose to be a kind of cricket, as the term hands is still (writing in 1740) retained in that game."

Thirdly, as to the double-wicket game, Dr. Jamieson, in his Dictionary, published in 1722, gives the following account of a game played in Angus and Lothian:—

"This is a game for three players at least, who are furnished with clubs. They cut out two holes, each about a foot in diameter and seven inches in depth, and twenty-six feet apart; one man guards each hole with his club; these clubs are called Dogs. A piece of wood, about four inches long and one inch in diameter, called a Cat, is pitched, by a third person, from one hole towards the player at the other, who is to prevent the cat from getting into the hole. If it pitches in the hole, the party who threw it takes his turn with the club. If the cat be struck, the club bearers change places, and each change of place counts one to the score, like club-ball."

The last observation shows that in the game of