observed Mr. W. Ward, that Budd was the finest man that ever stepped on Lord's.' This I can easily believe. He was forty-five when first I saw him. He stood 5 feet 10 inches high, and weighed 12 stone nearly all his life; and beyond all other men I ever saw he was clean made, a fine frame, wide at hips as well as shoulders, with the cleanest ankles, and those tapering arms from muscular shoulders which mark (what Budd was also known to be) the quickest and most powerful of pugilistic hitters. There was also a vivida vis animi about him-a restless vivacity. You might see by his eye that he must make a fine shot. You may truly write,' says one who knew him as well as I did, that more natural quickness-a better hand and eye for field sports-you never saw in any man.'

Such was E. H. Budd, for twenty years a clerk in the War Office, near which place many a day a well-appointed drag might have been seen, loaded with some fine impatient fellows, determined not to leave behind the best of their eleven when bound for Woolwich Common or for Epsom Downs. No wonder that the name of our old friend and opponent in Lansdown, Purton, and Kingscote matches-matches in which his name was not only an admiration, but a terror, for, You's half out afore you goes in, some ' of you,' said old John Sparks-no wonder this name conjures up scenes of cricket in olden time.

As to the scene, the Lord's of Budd's early days is not the modern Lord's. Now, imagine a paled-in field, more like the Oval, though smaller, where now is Dorset Square. This was the original 'Lord's,' though not the first London cricket ground. The first London cricket ground was where now is Finsbury Square; the second was in White Conduit Fields, a servant of which club, Thomas Lord, made his first 'Lord's Ground' by Dorset Square. He afterwards had a second for about two years (1811-14) at South Bank, Regent's Park, from which he was driven by the course taken by the canal; and the present Lord's' is the third of that name, opened in 1814.

Budd boasted of having won the 207. offered, too confidently, by Lord to any one who hit out of his old ground. Budd, like Mr. Thornton, not only had great power of hitting, but was fond of exerting it. Lord Frederic said, 'Budd always wanted to win the 'game off one hit.' But not so. Budd hit less for the game than the gallery. He acknowledged this weakness, saying, 'I did so delight in making the ring stand wider and wider for my hard hitting.' Mr. Budd's bat weighed three pounds, and Mr. W. Ward played with a bat of four pounds; this, with underhand bowling, admitted of such drives as that of which Budd boasted a hit for 9 on Woolwich Common, with a good man after it. The light bat now in use is very ill-suited to slows, or to any kind of underhand bowling. You want more weight, especially at the point, than for a cutting game. Mr. Budd always played in the old costume-nankeen kneebreeches and with two pairs of silk stockings, the upper pair rolled down to protect the ankles. In my Oxford days (from 1833-36) pads and

gloves were almost unknown. One or two men only wore perhaps a padded finger-stall or guard for their ankle. Neither Mr. Herbert Jenner nor Wenman wore gloves when I saw them keep wicket against Redgate in 1836. But you would say, 'Budd 'did not encounter the hard bowling of the present day.' There were two of the hardest bowlers ever known. Budd played against Brown of Brighton, whom Mr. Ward brought forward to match Osbaldeston's bowling, which was too swift to be hit before bounds, and gave him an easy victory at single-wicket. I think Brown, who, like Mr. Curwan, bowled with a sling, if not with a jerk of the arm, was as swift a bowler as I have ever seen, though Budd said Mr. Marcon was quite as fast.

Then how did mortal legs stand it? No doubt some must have suffered; though this bowling, if fast, was less erratic and easier to avoid than Wisden's or Jackson's. Budd said he had sometimes been very painfully hit, and that in one single-wicket match in particular, for 50l. a side, with Mr. Brand, he purposely hit his own wicket down both innings-the first at 70, the second at 100 runs, because he had been too badly hit on the legs to risk letting the game last till the morrow. This was a strange match; Budd never was out, and Brand never scored! William Beldham was the foremost professional of Budd's day. He died about seven years since, ninety-six years of age. Beldham also, without either leggings or gloves, scored 72 against Brown, in the old days of rough grounds, when fifty-two years old. But during nearly the whole twenty years that Budd played, slows, veritable slows, were bowled at one end in almost every match, and be sure not bad slows either; for William Clarke told me that he learnt all he knew from Lambert, and that both Lambert of Surrey and Warsop of Nottingham came up to his idea of first-rate bowlers. Barker also said that in Clarke we only saw, after lying dormant for twenty-five years, a sample of what the old bowling had been when superseded by the overhand bowling. Budd's bowling was like Clarke's, delivered from the hip with a deal of curl and spin from the end of his fingers. It rose abruptly and very high. He once bowled me out with a ball hardly possible to play. It rose actually over my shoulder, and tipped the further side of the bails. His accuracy could not be surpassed. He did not bowl a ball in an innings that might not from its pitch have hit the wicket. If such was his bowling at fifty years of age-and Lord Frederic Beauclerk and Lillywhite both lost their spin before they lost their accuracy, the invariable effect of age upon bowlers-I can easily believe that Budd was a better bowler still when younger, though I do not believe he had ever the command and variety of Clarke. Batting and fielding were Budd's forte, though he had ceased to be a very hard hitter when I first saw him, and this I had observed to be commonly the case with older players; for hard hitters are usually those who go in for hard hitting, and for this hard hitting, when older, they feel less care or confidence. Budd said his average was 29 an innings in all the great matches.

In fielding, he generally stood at middle wicket, and, as he was

famed for catching, running, and throwing accurately, we need say

no more.

As to running, both he and Lord Frederic ran many matches, and Budd claimed to be the faster of the two. He related that one evening in a coffee-house room, a gentleman from the country spoke of running, and said he had run 100 yards in 9 seconds, with a coat over his arm! As Budd suggested a little error in the watch, he was asked if he knew anything about running, and challenged to run for 25%. The next morning saw them both at Lord's, soon followed by a third, who proposed to hold the stakes. Yes,' thought Budd, but who is to hold you?' So he proposed to put the money on the stool, and the runner first in could help himself to it. The end of the matter was, that Budd won by nearly 10 yards; although 10 seconds was the least he could ever name for 100 yards.

Yet, proud as Budd was of his cricket, he always said boxing was what he could do best, an art he often practised with 'Gentleman Jackson; the same Jackson of whom Tom Moore wrote, 'Rooms ' in Bond Street, a line of carriages at his door, and 2,000l. a year-all show how Jackson's is the fashion.'

When the Allied Sovereigns visited England, Lord Elgin's marbles created so much interest, that it was proposed to compare the muscles and the attitudes with those of modern days, and Budd was one of those chosen to put on the gloves; and, not quite as Byron wrote in ridicule of the occasion

'And all the bruisers out of all St. Giles's,'

West, the President of the Royal Academy, came with Lord Elgin, and all admired the attitudes which a set-to between Budd and others naturally produced. As to Gentleman Jackson, the 'dear 'Jackson '-so addressed in some of Byron's letters--Budd said he could vouch for the fact that an M.P. received Jackson at dinner, under another name, much to the satisfaction of the lady who had reflected on her husband's pugilistic acquaintance, and yet mistook him for a gentleman.

During his later years Budd did a little farming, and bred and trained dogs. In this art he was first-rate. No one in the county was a better shot; and, from that congeniality of tastes which prevails among sportsmen, Budd was a most welcome, as he was always a most entertaining guest in the shooting season.

We have already alluded to Mr. Osbaldeston as one of the fastest of bowlers. He was only surpassed in speed by Brown, whom Mr. Ward brought forward on purpose to stop Mr. Osbaldeston's boasted single-wicket matches. No one talked long with Budd of old times without hearing no little of the achievements of the 'Squire,' and, above all, of a certain very remarkable match made with Lord Frederic Beauclerc.

His Lordship had made a p. p. match to play with Howard, a fast bowler, against Lambert and Osbaldeston. On the day appointed,' said Budd, 'I went to Lord Frederic and said that, as he knew • Osbaldeston was ill, of course he would put off the match." "No,

"no," said his Lordship; "play or pay are the terms agreed on, "" and I shall claim the stakes."

With this awkward reply I went back to my friend, expecting 'the stakes to be forfeited, instead of which Osbaldeston exclaimed, "Lambert shall play them both, and if he wins he shall have the ""stakes." Lord Frederic received this decision with very blank 'looks. "You can't mean it," said he. "Yes, my Lord, we do ""mean it; and, what is more, Lambert says you are anything but ""safe." The end of the matter was that Lambert did beat them both. He was a most dangerous man to encounter when thus upon his mettle. He always,' said Beldham, seemed to hit what no one else could.' A tall and very powerful man, he stood very forward, covering a space of ground before him, and kept swaying his bat with long reach in a way, said Budd, that really tried the nerves of a slow bowler. In this match first the M.C.C. found that a law was required to make wide balls score. For Wides had been too rare for legislation with the old bowling; but in this match Lambert purposely bowled wides, sometimes to the on and sometimes to the off, to put his Lordship out of temper, and, as often happens, out of good form and straight play too. One may imagine also the state of disgust and discouragement with which any two men must play when so unequally opposed to one, with a sick man sitting by in a chair, for so it was, looking on.

Mr. Ward told me that when Osbaldeston had found his match in Brown, a party who came as usual to chaff on Osbaldeston's side expecting an easy victory, soon turned round and found a sphere for their wit at his expense. This made him so angry, that he at once went to the pavilion and scratched his name off the list of members, and thus gave great offence.

'Some time after' said Budd, 'he returned to a better mind; and 'I ventured to ask Lord Frederic and Mr. Ward if Osbaldeston could 'not be re-admitted. They replied, that they were sorry to refuse me, ' after all the support I had for years given to the game, but the 'offence was too great, and my friend must abide by his own act and 'deed.'

Osbaldeston died in 1866, in his eightieth year. I used to see him a little before that time at Brighton, and, from his spare frame and short stature, could hardly have believed he was one of the fastest of bowlers. True, Mr. Curwan and Tarrant were lightweights too, but Osbaldeston was faster than either.

As a proof of Budd's strength, he related: While once at Good'wood, the Duke of Richmond said he should like to see me run; 'so, desirous of making a little sport for the Duke, I said, "I will ❝"run any man on the ground sixty yards to his hundred and carry any one you shall name." Immediately some one offered to take my bet, and the joke was that he named Hazelby as my 'jockey!' This gentleman many of my readers will remember, and if so will easily believe that even at that time he weighed eighteen stone. Budd won the race.

Budd was a genial and good-tempered man. Still, on one occasion,

he had to take his own part, rather against the law of the land.‘A great fellow was one day at Lord's, a city merchant, who, on some dispute about a bet, said, "It's a lie-and you are no gentleman!" Forthwith I knocked him down. Some said it served him right; 'but one, Mr. Barton, a lawyer, came up to me kindly, and said, Pray stop; he is a very rich fellow, and you will be ruined by an "action." Several friends of the other party interfered, and at 'last it was settled by my undertaking to provide a fish dinner and 'wine for the party at an adjoining hotel.

I sent to Billingsgate for a peck of periwinkles and a gallon of 'British wine from the Haymarket, and on the day named, after a game of cricket, a dinner of periwinkles only was served. Before the covers were removed, the guests wondered why a large pin C Iwas laid for each man at table. The injured individual was now more angry than ever; and as he said I had not fulfilled my con'tract, he would still bring his action; but, fortunately, I heard no 'more of it.' No one knew any better, but periwinkles are not fish. Men who speak so confidently of their friends' power to throw a cricket ball 100 yards both ways will be interested in hearing that the only bet I ever knew on this feat was lost.

'Captain Barclay,' said Budd, a few days before Christmas, ' about the year 1820, wrote to me to find a man to throw 100 yards 'both ways. Captain Barclay had wagered 100l. with Lord Ken'nedy that he would find a man to do it. The man I found threw 100 yards the day before the match; but the next day was severely 'cold, and the man was chilled, and could only throw 97 yards.'

On this occasion Budd had too little time to look for the right man, for among cricketers there was a comparatively small choice in those days. Old Clapshaw, the bat-maker, had before told me of this match. It was on him that Budd depended, and he had too little time to look out.

Though interested all my life in such feats, I never but on two occasions could find a witness to the ball being thrown 100 yards both ways-once when thrown by Arnold of Cambridge, and once by Mr. W. G. Grace. The oft-quoted throw of 125 yards by Mr. Fawcett of Brighton College was (if at all) thrown only one way in strong wind ; but the ground was never measured! Still, an eminent player of the same college, with two friends, threw one way and on a very still day, 102, 105, and 107 yards respectively at the same time. A gentleman of our Sussex eleven will back himself to throw 110 yards both ways, and I have good reason to believe he can do it.

But Budd's history and our scene at Lord's fifty years since would be incomplete without one sad story, which shall be told in Budd's own words:

'Among very many other chance acquaintances I found at cricket 'was one middle-aged gentleman, of quiet and rather abstracted 'manner, who usually spoke to me as interested in my play, riding 'round Lord's on a very beautiful white pony. The intimacy 'increased, of course entirely by advances on his part, till he invited