gate-money could be charged. Even at Nottingham the matches were played on a piece of ground called the "Forest," around which the old race-course ran, and which was free to all spectators.
The M.C.C. occupied the same position then as now in the cricket world, the numbers of the members and ground staff being of course small as compared with the present time. Sussex and Kent were very strong, as I have said before, although Pilch had not yet become qualified for the county of his adoption, nor had "glorious Alfred Mynn" yet appeared on the scene. Felix first appeared at Lord's in this year, but it was some years before his name figured in the Kent Eleven. Kent's palmy days were still in the future. Only one man is found in the ranks of the hop county in 1828 who in after-years was a member of "the grand old Kent Eleven" of Mynn's time—namely, E. G. Wenman. I refrain from giving a description of this and other great cricketers in this place, preferring to do so when I come to write of the time of my own introduction into first-class cricket.
Matches were played until very late in the season at this time. Some we find recorded as having taken place after the middle of October! Betting on matches was very common, and for years after I first came out the newspapers often quoted the betting at different stages of the game. It is needless for me to go over old ground and say how rough
