ping in only succeeds with cool an hitters, who have some power of exe young players must be warned that, i most practised player to leave his gr dedly a losing game.

Supposing the batsman knows ho right foot back readily, then, a longadmits of various modes of play, bound to mention, though not to reco. a first-rate player should at least kno whether he will introduce it much his game is another question.

A leg-ball that can be played by sig times played by raising the left leg. 1 a hit of the old school,- of Sparkes a for instance. Fennex's pupil, Fuller 1 monly makes this hit. Some first-rate ju decourt among others-maintain it sh be made, but the Draw always used Mr. Taylor found it a useful variety; f he used it, Wenman used to stump him 1 inside leg stump. For some lengths it tainly the advantage of placing the ball i open part of the field.

Another way to play such balls is to

with the right foot, and thus gain

of hop, and play the

of the arm and wrist

is good, as making

makes it with all the ease and elegance of the Draw, of which I consider it one variety. Clarke says, that with a ball scarcely wide of your leg, he thinks it a good hit: I have, therefore, given a drawing of it in the last page. When done correctly, and in its proper place, it is made by an easy and elegant movement of the wrists, and looks as pretty as the Draw; but this kind of forward play, which takes an awkward ball at its rise and places it on the On-side, however useful to Sampson of Sheffield and the very few who introduce it in its proper place,—this is a hit which nascitur non fit, must come naturally, as a variety of forward play. To study it, makes a poking game, and spoils the play of hundreds. So, beware how you practise the poke.

"The best way to score from short-pitched legballs," writes a very good hitter, "is to make a sort of sweep with the left foot, almost balancing yourself by the toe of the said left foot, and resting chiefly on the right foot,—at the same time drawing yourself upright and retiring towards the wicket. This of course is all one movement. In this position you make the heel of your right the pivot on which you turn, and move your left (but in a greater circle), so that both preserve the same parallel as at starting, and come round together; and this I regard as the great secret of a batsman's movement in this hit. This gives you the power

of simply playing the ball down, if it rises much, and likewise of hitting hard if it keep within a foot of the ground. Both Sampson and Parr score very much in this style."

However, with fast bowling, there are almost as many mistakes as runs made by hitting at these short-pitched leg-balls. Pilch, in his later days, would hardly meddle with them.

Lastly, as to leg-balls, remember that almost any one can learn to hit clean up (square, especially); the art is to play them down. Also, leghitting alone is very easy; but, to be a good Offplayer, and an upright and straight player, and yet hit to leg freely, is very rare. fine leg-hitter who lost his leg-hit he learnt to play better to the off.

We know a entirely when

CHAP. VIII.

HINTS AGAINST SLOW BOWLING.

WHILE our ideas on Slow Bowling were yet in a state of solution, they were, all at once, precipitated and crystallised into natural order by the following remarks from a valued correspondent:

"I have said that Pilch was unequalled with the bat, and his great excellence is in timing the ball. No one ever mastered Lillywhite like Pilch; because, in his forward play, he was not very easily deceived by that wary individual's repeated change of pace. He plays forward with his eye on, not only the pitch, but on the ball itself, being faster or slower in his advance by a calm calculation of time-a point too little considered by some even of the best batsmen of the day. No man hits much harder than Pilch; and, be it observed, hard hitting is doubly hard, in all fair comparison, when combined with that steady posture which does not sacrifice the defence of the wicket for some one favourite cut or leg-hit. Compare Pilch with good general hitters, who, at