of 27 inches by 8 in 1817." Though I find all up to that point in Nyren, I do not find the italicised words, but I have no doubt they present the fact quite accurately. They tell us nothing, however, as to the date at which the wicket was first narrowed.
Another curious piece of information Mr. Ward gives us, by the way. "Several years since—I do not recollect the precise date—a player named White, of Ryegate, brought a bat to a match which, being the width of the stumps, effectually defended his wicket from the bowler, and in consequence a law was passed limiting the future width of the bat to 4¼ inches. Another law also decreed that the ball should not weigh less than 5½ oz. or more than 5¾ oz." Nyren appends a note to this: "I have a perfect recollection of this occurrence, also that subsequently an iron frame, of the statute width, was constructed for, and kept by, the Hambledon Club, through which any bat of suspected dimensions was passed, and allowed or rejected accordingly." "Several years since," says Mr. Ward, or Nyren, writing, as I presume, about the year 1833, so that perhaps we may put this invention of the gauge about 1830, or a little earlier. I wonder who has this iron gauge now. Has it been sold up for old iron?
That is a third very practical problem that one would like answered.
And is it not curious to see how the rules were made and modified to meet the occasions as they arose. The misfortune of that
