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."'
A pleasant account of another of Mr. Osbaldeston's matches, in 1813, I take from Mr. Wheeler's pages:—
'His next performance was for £50 a side, against the two best players of Nottingham. Harry Bentley went down from Lord's to stand umpire, and, on the evening before the match, went to see the Nottingham men practise in the King's Meadow; but Tommy Brewster would not allow him, saying, " What we know in Nottingham we keep to ourselves." When the match came off, the Nottingham players were unable to get "The Squire" out, and, after scoring 84 runs, he gave up his bat. He then bowled them out, they only scoring 17 runs in their four innings. After the match was over, Bentley said to Brewster, "Well, Tommy, what you know at Nottingham you certainly do keep to yourselves, for I am sure we have seen nothing of it."'
The Squire's removal of his name from the list of members of the M.C.C. was done in a fit of anger at the result of a match—the defeated man performing
