the wickets were at the time of which I write. Indeed, when we bear in mind that the wickets in most cases were prepared with a view of benefiting the bowlers rather than the batsmen and that there were no boundaries, we need not be surprised at the comparatively small scores which were made. Tall hats were the correct thing to wear when participating in a great match, although I believe that velvet caps, knee-breeches, and silk stockings were still sported by some. I have an old book giving the score of one match between Leicester and Sheffield which has a footnote quoted from 'Bell's Life' as follows:
"It would be much better if H. Davis would appear in a cricketing dress instead of that of a sailor." Playing a match for a large sum of money was very common, and single-wicket matches for sums of £10, £20, or even £50 were of frequent occurrence. As far as cricket in some of our remote villages goes, the contrast between 1828 and 1898 is not particularly striking. There were rough wickets then, and they are rough enough in all conscience now in many small places. Seventy years has not been long enough to impress the rustic mind with the fact that in order to play cricket correctly we must first take the trouble to have at least a fairly decent pitch to play on. We had plenty of cross-hitting and slogging in country matches years ago, and so we shall continue to have as long as we have bumpy unplayable
