common twenty years ago, under the denomination of gentlemen poachers. These fellows used to drive along the roads, with their loaded guns and pointers, and shoot, with the utmost coolness, with their certificate in their pocket, wherever they found a likely stubble or turnip field; the keeper could only warn them off, as many of them were qualified, and all asserted they were, and give them the trouble of pulling out their certificate; they would ask him the limits of the manor, which he was bound by law to show them, when they would wish him good morning, and quietly move on to the next manor, till in a similar way they were warned off that; but they might probably shoot an hour or two before the keeper arrived, and when he did the same form was repeated, and they moved on to the next. In this manner they would get a capital day's shooting, without the least risk, and probably bag fifteen brace of birds, and be warned off half as many manors. It is true if they were caught a second time on the same manor they were liable to an action at law; but with leave to shoot over the whole of Great Britain, which in fact the state of the law at that period amounted to, a man need not come twice upon the same spot. I recollect a fellow of this sort, who styled himself Captain J, and used to drive along at a great pace with a bit of blood in his gig, and a very smart young lady to hold the reins when he stopped to beat a field; but having once followed a covey on to a manor from which he had been discharged, the captain, not being encumbered with any other baggage than the smart young lady aforesaid, avoided an action by beating a timely retreat. Now, as this principle has been found to answer so well, why not carry it a little farther. What I would propose is this; 1st, that if any person who has received a regular written discharge shall be found trespassing on the same manor a second time on any pretence whatever, he shall be liable to be summoned before a magistrate, and on conviction fined any sum not less than five shillings nor more than one pound, as with the costs shall seem fit, and in default of payment be committed to the treadmill for any period not exceeding one month, and kept to hard labour. As the law now stands, you must bring an action against him, which will cost you twenty or thirty pounds, and if he is a labourer will do him little harm, as he will merely get whitewashed, and come out again; and if he be a yeoman of some little property, will probably ruin him, neither of which results are to be desired. But some one will say, it' you choose to swear he is in pursuit of game, you can already convict him, and that is surely enough; or if you swear he has done wilful damage, that will also convict him. I answer, very true with some magistrates he would be convicted if you swore he was in pursuit of game, and the circumstances at all bore you out; but others will not always

convict even if the man is seen to beat a field with a gun. And in the other case you must prove he had done some specific damage, either to the fences, or the corn, or something, or he would escape punishment. No person who has not been before as many different benches of magistrates as I, can have any idea of the difference of their practices. I once overheard some farmers in our village discussing my merits as compared with Jack S-- a neighbouring keeper, "Ah", said one, "Jack S-- is the keeper for me he catches more men alone than W- does with two helpers." "Yes, gentlemen," said I, who had entered the bar unperceived; "but if I had to take my men before the same bench that Jack S-- does, I would gladly give up my two watchers. I am obliged patiently to witness proceedings which Jack would give them two months for without further trouble." In fact, the bench of magistrates I go before at present, will strain the law to the utmost sooner than convict the most notorious poachers, from a mistaken idea of kindness.

My second proposition would be not to allow hares to be sold from March 1 to Sep. 1, under the same penalty as other game. My third, to make it a fine of not less than five pounds, for any person whatever to have a hare-snare, or gate-net, in his possession, except of course one which it might be necessary to produce as evidence before a bench of magistrates.

Rabbit snares no doubt are necessary, but they are as different from a hare snare as a double and a single gun; but even these should come under the same penalty if they had not a knot in the wire an inch and a half from the eye of the snare. The reason of which is this, a hare will never be caught in a rabbit snare (except in the breeding season) unless by the leg, when if there be a knot in the snare she can pull her leg out again, whilst the rabbit will be caught by the head, and held as tight as without the knot. I am firmly convinced that these three simple enactments would do more towards preserving hares than almost all the rest of the game laws, and perhaps busy as the House is at present, time might be found for passing these simple clauses, as well as attempting to force upon the Jews unsought-for privileges, which to a sincere decendant of Abraham could appear in no other light than a gratuitous insult.

F. W.

* I have had as many as twelve or fourteen dozen of rabbit snares set every night that was dark enough, for three months, round covers in which there were more bares than rabbits, and in that time have not caught a single hare, though the bearing pegs of half the snares would be knocked down by them in one night.

Review.

THE CRICKETER'S NEW GUIDE TO SCIENTIFIC BATTING, FOUNDED ON PLAIN RULES.

H. SLATTER, Oxford, 1835.

GREAT as is the interest that is felt in the game of cricket, by all who have made it their favourite recreation, I have hitherto been at a loss for an opportunity to enliven this interest through the medium of the columns of the New Sporting Magazine. Many have been turned to "the ripple of the murmuring rill," to the destruction of the speckled tribe, by imbibing the soul of Walton, (a strange metempsychosis,) from his animated pages; many a one has Nimrod made " mighty hunters before the Lord;" and so we dare presume that Lord's ground will ere long be more thickly peopled by new devotees to the game of cricket, the late converts of a "Treatise on Scientific Batting." Our game, the subject of this treatise, has of late years made good progress towards civilization,-witness its condition in Dr. Johnson's day, when its then state was fairly characterized by a game in which the contenders strike a ball with sticks." Such was its early state; one year ago we thought it at its zenith-that height, however, I am now convinced by a perusal of this treatise, it has to reach: and this conviction I will now endeavour to give the public, and with the information that few have as yet attained proficiency, I will tell them where to learn to attain it.

Our author aims directly to the point-waves to a great extent the differences in physical qualifications, and boldly asserting that all advantages of hand and eye are of little account in comparison with judgment, he fairly assumes that there is, on these grounds, some room for improvement. To verify this, he appeals to the performances of youths in the public schools, comparing their proficiency with the known superiority of such men as Lord Frederick, though at an advantage. Hence he infers that it is a difference in science chiefly that constitutes the difference of scores. Such being the case, it is obvious that this right mode of play was attained by what is unintelligibly called experience, which means this-" by trying every way, and selecting the one that is right." Now all these experiments took a long time. The right mode of batting, as of other things, is not the one that appears least awkward at first; in fact, it is proportionably less easy as one has contracted worse habits of play. This, then, is the reason that there are so few proficients, that so much time is taken up in selecting a good style, or I should rather say in hitting the right one, for there is but one. So

that we must not wonder that men grow old before they have learned it. And what can be a more convincing argument, that batting may be reduced to rule, and that it does not depend entirely or even chiefly on physical qualifications, than the fact that old age with its experience, beats youth with its quickness of sight and activity of limb? So far the author thinks he has said enough to obtain a fair hearing. We wish, however, he had anticipated an objection that we have often heard advanced, namely, that, "We see each of the best batsmen with his own peculiar position and peculiar style, none should presume to fix any one by rule." We will state for him that this is not a fact. All the men who have the free use of the bat at all points, have a position substantially the same. This we say of all perfect batsmen, not of those who make fair scorces by some one favourite hit. "All,” we maintaîn, “ who hit her away according as she is pitched," as old Nyren says, stand with their weight on the right leg, use the left for a balance and for quickness of turn, as the treatise goes on to show.

Attitude, then, is the first point, and why should it not be so? Is it not the first thing in fencing? is there not one commanding position in boxing? one form of riding, of driving, of rowing? why not then in batting? for a good attitude means only this, "a position that gives the most perfect use of all your limbs." The lesson, therefore, very properly commences with position; but this is not taught all at once. The author was aware that if you would hit straight only, that a different and perhaps more safe position might be prescribed than when it was required to hit to every point. So the player is rightly instructed to form his position gradually, changing it to suit each new hit. Here I think our author has been guilty of an omission, for his faults are chiefly of this kind, and very few of commission. As he professes a theoretic discussion, he should have mentioned the natural laws on which all true hitting depends. Of these he might mention two; one that the angle of reflection is always equal to the angle of incidence, if at least the ground is even. Thus the player may easily forsee to what height the ball will rise from the ground before it has grounded at all, by observing the angle it made in its descent from the bowler's hand. If the ground is uneven, this law is not really violated, only it appears to be violated because the eye judges the angle from the general appearance of the ground, and not from the level of the one small spot, from contact with which the rebound is produced. The turf is rarely so smooth that these angles seem exactly equal, though at the same time when the rise is nearly as high as the batsman's shoulder, it is obvious that this must be caused by something else than by the delivery; and such, in the language of players, are termed “false balls."

The second law to which I allude, is that if one body in motion meets

another, the direction in which the lighter body will be impelled by the heavier, is determined by the angle at the point of contact. Thus if the bat be brought forward in a straight line to meet the ball moving in the same line, the ball will be struck directly to the bowler. It is on this principle, that more to the on or off, so will it be returned, and according as it is bowled, more to his right or left. Our author chooses such a position as gives perfect command of the centre stump. For this is obviously the only one that enables the player to hit any one given point. It is true that with experience a man acts acording to these laws, without knowing that they exist, yet a previous knowledge of the theory greatly facilitates the practice. To make amends, however, for this imperfection, he presents us with an admirable rule, which he terms his "drilling." I appeal to the experience of every player, whether he did not find his bat a very awkward thing at first, especially when he would use it perfectly upright. For surmounting this difficulty, we are taught an exercise with the bat, which may be in fact practised in a room, without any ball. Do not be afraid of ridicule, as if you were angling in a bucket, as Opie has beautifully sketched, it is at least as sensible as leaping in a riding school, and much more like the real thing. This exercise is as beneficiał to the frame as any in Captain Clias's Gymnastics; it consists in standing on one point of a line, say the seam of the carpet, and bringing the bat forward in the same line to the extent of one's reach, with the shoulder of the bat always more advanced than the point. I will be bold to state, on my own experiece, that a few hours spent in this exercise, will be sufficient to teach the right form of hitting, and to give free use of the bat. I would here remark the great benefit which might be derived by the cricketer from the various gymnastic exercises. The work in hand gives other hints of their utility, though I think it might with propriety have contained more on the same subject. Either men know not the way to improve their play, which argues in the generality great want of observation, or they are very indolent. When it is required to learn one of the finest hits, as, for instance, to hit an over-pitched ball wide of the leg-stump, the player finds that if he extends his left foot far enough forward to reach to the pitch of the ball, he is apt to lose his balance, and has not much power in his arms and wrists. Let each man, then, practise these positions by the ten minutes together, and he will: soon gain power of arm and perfect self-possession. It is fair, perhaps, to presume that these exercises will be more fully treated of, when our author fulfils his promise of writing on Fielding, and the other parts of the game. Should he not have so determined, this may perhaps serve as a hint. Next follow some excellent rules for discriminating between those balls that should be played forwards, and those which should be played back... Seeing the efficacy of this rule tried, I observed that the 2 B

NO. LXIII.-VOL. XI.