seem strange, but I believe that, leaving out Lords for the moment, the comparatively primitive methods of preparing wickets were sufficient. The Oval, Fenners, Brighton, Cowley Marsh at Oxford, Trent Bridge, were all grounds on which run-getting was sufficient, and the cricket was good. And yet some of the bowling was very fast, Jackson and Tarrant being as fast as Richardson and Mold, though their action was not so high.
Lords was different; the heavy soil and slope and something, I do not know what, brought into existence the Lords' shooter, the like of which has never been seen, and more shooters were bowled at Lords than on all the other grounds put together. To play a great innings at Lords up to 1870 was a thing to be proud of. Reginald Hankey's famous innings of 70 in 1857 in Gentlemen v. Players against Jackson, Willsher, Wisden and Caffyn was talked about for years, and C. G. Lyttelton always used to say that he felt as satisfied after an innings of 28 in Gentlemen v. Players at Lords against Jackson, Tarrant and Wootton as after almost any innings of his life.
It must be admitted that the probabilities are that against really high overhead fast bowling like Kortright, N. A. Knox, E. Jones and others, Lords would have been dangerous in the 'sixties, but there was not much complaint about any bowlers being dangerous except possibly in the case of Jackson. He andTarrant were asfast as any of the modern bowlers, but they bowled with arms not above the level of the shoulder. The great R. A. H. Mitchell at Lords was very likely the best player in England in the four years between 1862 and 1865. During this time Mitchell
