Kings of Cricket. By Richard Daft. (Arrowsmith, Bristol.)— Mr. Daft
writes about men, of whom he ha soon many since early in the fifties, and matches, quorum pars magna full He is a veteran player, considerably senior to any one who still appears on the field. He played first-class cricket for the first time in 1857. being then twenty-one years of age, and he played again for his county in 1891. His average for that year, taking all the matches in which he played, was fifty-one, not a bad achievement for a veteran who was then in his fifty-sixth year. Lillywhite, it is true, played till his death, and he was then sixty-three ; but the pace has become very quick, and Mr. W. G. Grace, who is about forty-five, seems to the younger generation to have attained an almost incredible age. Mr. Daft did not play with Fuller Pilch, who was the batting champion before George Parr came to the front, but he has seen every notable player for the last thirty-five years, and has much, always of a kindly sort, to say about them. Perhaps some of his personal details, as, e.g., about George Parr's inseparable hat-box, may be found a little wearisome, but on the whole this is a readable and not uninstruetive book.
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