Perhaps the cricket was slow from the point of view of the
follower of league football, but I do not feel that this is any
condemnation of it. An essay of Lamb's would be slow to a reader
of William le Queux's works, who wanted a new body in each
chapter. I shall not quarrel with anyone who holds that a day at
Lord's is a dull day; if he thinks so, let him take his amusement
elsewhere. But let him not quarrel with me, because I keep to my
opinion, as firmly now as before the war, that a day at Lord's is
a joyous day. If he will leave me the old Lord's, I will promise
not to brighten his football for him.
By the Sea
It is very pleasant in August to recline in Fleet Street, or
wherever stern business keeps one, and to think of the sea. I do
not envy the millions at Margate and Blackpool, at Salcombe and
Minehead, for I have persuaded myself that the sea is not what it
was in my day. Then the pools were always full of starfish;
crabs--really big crabs--stalked the deserted sands; and anemones
waved their feelers at you from every rock.
Poets have talked of the unchanging sea (and they may be right as
regards the actual water), but I fancy that the beach must be
deteriorating. In the last ten years I don't suppose I have seen
more than five starfishes, though I have walked often enough by
the margin of the waves --and not only to look for lost golf
balls.
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