it worth while to gather together with such patience and industry his facts about obscure villagers whose only claim on his notice was that they were adepts at hitting a ball or bowling one. How well, according to our modern standards, they played we shall never know; but we know that they played as well as they could, and, so doing, laid the foundations not only of sound cricket theory, but of sound cricket character. The game has always assayed very thoroughly, and only the fittest survive.
That cricket would ever reach the place that it holds to day among English Industries, and that it would be keeping feverishly busy so many editors and pens, telegraph wires and printing machines, is a result probably never dreamed of by any one mentioned in this book; nor is it too much esteemed by some who will read these pages. It was a little in the hope that such might find rest in the backward glance to the old leisurely days of cricket that I have compiled the work—probably, when all is said, quite as much for my own pleasure as any one else's.
