gamekeeper, under Madame Beckford, and retained it under her son, till it was given up, and then he was 70 years of age. Such was his activity and strength at that period of his life, that before he began his day's amusement, he regularly took his tour of 7 miles, frequently doing execution with his gun, and he followed the hounds on foot till three or four years before he died! Besides being a good skater, and figuring frequently on Petersfield pond, he was an excellent musician, performing both on the violin and violoncello, and was one of the choir of Petersfield church for 75 years, namely, from the time he was 14 years of age, till his death! He played on the tenor violin, and that too without the aid of spectacles, till the last year of his life. The Duke of Dorset once sent him as a present a fine violin, and Small returned the compliment with some fine bats, also paying the carriage. Once when returning in the evening from a party which he had been attending as a musician (which he often did when he was young) he was attacked by a bull. By playing however on his violin, the bull (so it was said) stopped, and thus his skill saved his life. He was father of John and Eli Small. John Small, sen., was born at Empshott, in Hampshire, April 19, 1737, but removed to Petersfield when about six years old, and resided there all his life. His equal as a cricketer has seldom been met with, and it is only to be regretted that no particulars of his early career, or any account of how he first came to excel so in the game, now remain. His tombstone, standing (in 1860) in Petersfield churchyard, bears the following inscription:—
Sacred to the memory of
JOHN SMALL,
Who died December 31, 1826,
Aged 89 years.
'Praises on tombs are trifles vainly spent,
A man's good name is his own monument.'
