Page:The Hambledon Men (1907).djvu/93

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HAMBLEDON'S PUNCH
57

Frame was the other principal with Lumpy; a fast bowler, and an unusually stout man for a cricketer. I recollect very little of him, and nothing worthy of a formal record.

Besides him there was Shock White, another bowler on the England side; a good change, and a very decent hitter; but, take him altogether, I never thought very highly of his playing. He was a short, and rather stoutly made man.

John Wood made the fourth and the other changebowler. He was tall, stout, and bony, and a very good general player; not, however, an extraordinary one, when compared with those that have been heretofore mentioned.

There was high feasting held on Broad-Halfpenny during the solemnity of one of our grand matches. Oh! it was a heart-stirring sight to witness the multitude forming a complete and dense circle round that noble green. Half the county would be present, and all their hearts with us. Little Hambledon pitted against All England was a proud thought for the Hampshire men. Defeat was glory in such a struggle—Victory, indeed, made us only 'a little lower than angels'. How those fine brawn-faced fellows of farmers would drink to our success! And then, what stuff they had to drink!—Punch!—not your new Ponche à la Romaine, or Ponche à la Groseille, or your modern cat-lap milk punch—punch be-deviled; but good, unsophisticated John Bull stuff—stark!—that would stand on end—punch that would make a cat speak! Sixpence a bottle! We had not sixty millions of interest to pay in those days. The ale too!—not the modern horror under the same name, that drives as many men melancholy-mad as the hypocrites do;—not the beastliness of these days, that will make a fellow's inside like a shaking bog—